For Fuck's Sake - WHY!?!?!? (annoyed)

[Bernard]

And ... CUT.

[Nick Ink]

Brilliant - did you do that on purpose?

[clare]

She's clever, our Bernard!

I've had a headache for 2 days. I'm over it. Actually, it's a virus I think - like having the flu, but with no coughing or congestion, just a headache, achy body and really fucking tired. Make it stop now, please.

[elpollodiablo]

How's the gum working, then?  Is it a similar feeling to having a smoke, physiologically?

It's like chewing pepper gum

[davy]

gross.

[bethany_m]

She's clever, our Bernard!

I've had a headache for 2 days. I'm over it. Actually, it's a virus I think - like having the flu, but with no coughing or congestion, just a headache, achy body and really fucking tired. Make it stop now, please.

clare! I have this exact thing! Also, I have a fever.

[Good Intentions]

There's a fan page for The Old South Africa on Facebook, with 12 000+ fans (including not a few friends of mine). Of the 22 pictures on the page, there isn't a black face between them. The comments on them are people being nostalgic about the times you could go to the beach and still see white, when there weren't 'oil slicks' (black people standing shoulder to shoulder) bobbing up and down on the water.

Lord God in Heaven, please, wipe this earth clean with your righteous fire.

[elpollodiablo]

Jesus fuck

[Good Intentions]

Stuff like this makes me despair in ways I don't know how to describe.

[elpollodiablo]

The fact that any white South Africans are at all nationalistic or feel that they have any right to anything just blows my goddamn mind. It shouldn't, but it does.

[Good Intentions]

I would post some of the stuff people say on there, but it's all in Afrikaans. Because that is what the old South Africa was, right, a clean, orderly, prosperous nation of Afrikaans people, and nothing else.

These are my people. Do you know what that feels like? Probably you do: there is no monopoly on idiocy, after all. Nonetheless, running into this has ruined my day.

[Maaik]

I know how you feel.  I remember encountering a racist prick at a party not too long ago just spouting his bullshit like it was gospel.  Some people were laughing, my insides were going into knots.  I didn't say anything--I didn't know those people very well, I just made sure we left as quickly as possible.

I honestly wanted to rip the man's testicles from his body and punch him in the face.

There's a whole culture of this around here.  I don't encounter it very often, but when I do--I dunno--I know I'm not black, but I'm pretty obviously not white either.  Being around it fills me with a similar rage at humanity.

[Good Intentions]

The fact that any white South Africans are at all nationalistic or feel that they have any right to anything just blows my goddamn mind. It shouldn't, but it does.

Oh, there were perks to it. That's what the place was, of course, a system set up to be a playground for white people. And not just the Afrikaners, of course: it was just one exotic resort amongst many for the English, and avertised itself as a wonderful destination for other hard-working, well-educated white folk (but only the white folk -- Israel was a long-standing friend of the Old South Africa as well, by the by, and probably the place the old SA's charms were broadcast the widest and would seem the most familiar).

But even in the little bubbles, sustained on the back of black miners and protected by military force against its own citizens, there were many, many signs that all wasn't going well (get me drunk in person some time and I'll tell you about many of them). Not that you'd hear any of that on this page, no sirree.

But what would I know? I'm just a kafferboetie (or nigger lover).

[Good Intentions]

Of course, part of what is going wrong in these nostalgic remembrances of the past is that it makes it out to be that the great tragedy of the new South Africa is the effect it has had on the lifestyles of the affluent whites.

[Good Intentions]

A collection of footage from the four years the state had declared a state of emergency.

[coldforge]

Yes, the grand old tradition of military and police personnel whipping and clubbing kids in shirts and glasses will never die, let us pray

[ellaguru]

These are my people. Do you know what that feels like? Probably you do: there is no monopoly on idiocy, after all. Nonetheless, running into this has ruined my day.

Well, up in Canada we pretty much skipped out on the slavery thing, and we wiped our aboriginal population out badly enough that they aren't going to be coming back at us any time soon, so I think our conscience is clear.

[Andrew_TSKS]

A collection of footage from the four years the state had declared a state of emergency.

Hey, I just learned something new. On the 3rd Bass song "The Gas Face" (released 1989), they say at one point "P.W. Botha gets the gas face." I never knew who they were referring to until I watched this video.

[clare]

These are my people. Do you know what that feels like? Probably you do: there is no monopoly on idiocy, after all. Nonetheless, running into this has ruined my day.

Well, up in Canada we pretty much skipped out on the slavery thing, and we wiped our aboriginal population out badly enough that they aren't going to be coming back at us any time soon, so I think our conscience is clear.

Hello. Yes. All of this. I'm not clicking any of those links. I've talked about the blatant racism in my country before. I don't like it.


Also

She's clever, our Bernard!

I've had a headache for 2 days. I'm over it. Actually, it's a virus I think - like having the flu, but with no coughing or congestion, just a headache, achy body and really fucking tired. Make it stop now, please.

clare! I have this exact thing! Also, I have a fever.

I had a little tiny fever (a bit shivery one night) but it didn't last long, and the whole thing is pretty much finished, though I have a slight residual headache/eye ache - you know where it hurts to move your eyes. I hope yours passes quickly for you!

[davy]

Sleeping until 1:00 in the afternoon doesn't leave room for shit else.

[donblood]

Besides relaxing and being free of responsibility, right on

[clare]

4 hours sleep is not enough.

[diesel_powered]

So fucking bored. I guess that means it's time to start drinking?

[C of heartbreak]

There are a bunch of four-eyes on NPR discussing zombies. I've decided that the prospect of a people-who-are-into-zombies attack is far more terrifying than that of an actual zombie attack.

[davy]

Yeah, it's had a rather long lifespan, this silly zombie trend.