< Archives: 2008 June

South Africa Begins to Feel The Economic Crunch as Prices and Crime Rise

June 29th, 2008 - by: danny

South Africa Begins to Feel The Economic Crunch as Prices and Crime Rise

BLOGLET FOR WEDNESDAY JULY 2

Sorry to report, I can’t do much reporting. I have been editing on a film for Nelson Mandela all day, and seeing old friends at night. Last night I was invited to screen my latest, Boob Tube (see commentary on Mediachannel et.al) with a lively discussion afterwards about hypocrisy, sexual and otherwise here as there.

The big topics in the press have revolved around Robert Mugabe’s recent fraudulent election, claiming re-election as President even as every observer in the world considered the process flawed by fraud, violence, intimidation, not to mention the withdrawal at the last minute of his opponent. His “information” minister reportedly told western critics to “go hang.”

South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki supported the results ostensibly to continue his “mediation” efforts underway without much success since 2001. The African Union Summit called on Mugabe to form a coalition government of national unity. He walked out of the summit in a snit.

But just like in the United States, where the news media focuses outside, a more serious storm is moving in from the horizon. In Zimbabwe, there, in Iraq here (to some degree) and followed by unlimited reporting on every burp in the political posturing of a campaign that is barely underway. Meanwhile, the bigger threat from a collapsing economy is largely left for the back pages and poorly explained.

I have been writing about how the Subprime implosion has spread globally. Now I can see it up close. In Johannesburg yesterday, the main bus company DOUBLED the fares with no warning leading to mayhem in the morning rush. In, of all places, Gandhi Square where the biggest MetroBus Terminal is located, there was chaos as angry commuters vented ourage pulling other passengers from the buses in acts of mayhem and protest.

Meanwhile the Star, the big English language paper, began announcing price hikes everywhere including in the cost of their own newspaper. This situation is going to get much worse and we will be seeing riots here. The recent outbreak of xenophobia in South Africa with attacks on immigrants from other African countries was rooted to some degree in this deepening economic crisis. Not surprising crime is going up. Murders seem down but house robberies and hijackings are up as well as crimes against businesses. One tactic robbers use here to is to steak forklifts and make off with whole ATM machines. A recent commission found that local banks have been gouging consumers.

It seems like the security industry offers the most jobs to underskilled people.

Rising prices will lead to political uprisings. Mark my words. Meanwhile in the US, 600 Starbucks are being closed and car sales are plummeting .Retirement contributions are falling off, and all manufacturers are coping with higher prices.

Carolyn Baker is circulating these stories;

PETER SCHIFF: GLOOM AND DOOM? NAH, JUST FOR THE U.S.
U.S. AIRPORTS TO LOSE 10% OF DOMESTIC FLIGHTS


WILL THE U.S. INVADE CANADA FOR ITS OIL?

AS THE MIDDLE CLASS IS FORCED TO SAY “NO”

“Particularly in the US, the word ‘no’ is making itself felt amongst the formerly middle class. Through a combination of the housing bubble burst and rising oil prices these are the folks where the word ‘no’ was a minor inconvenience, which rarely popped up. Yes, you can have a mortgage with no money down. Yes, you can afford that new truck. Have that trip to the Bahamas because guess what…you’re worth it! Yes…yes, you can. Everything is growing. Everything is good…You can’t lose! Well, it would seem like we can, and as $150 a barrel oil looms in the short term, the ‘no’ word is on its way back. How will the public take it? What will they do?”

Thats all I have time to….No time to comment on several worrying developments–Bush allegedly “preparing the battlefield” —ie getting ready for war on Iran…Ovama’s embrace of Bushevik “Faith Based” initiatives. (Remember all candidates shift and posture according to what their polls and startegists tell them….He has to move right in the election…Remember too that JFK went to the right of Dick Nixon with his cold war rhetoric….This is, the game.

You won’t bet dissilusioned if you abandon your illusions.

Comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org

YES IT IS A JOKE.

I watched in disbelief. I laughed. I mused. Honest, I had nothing to do with this. Is this a message from the Mount? Is someone telling me something? Or is it just the ultimate put on? More like the latter.

Me running for President? I am running from Presidents.

I don’t think so. If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve…un, but then again, maybe I couldn’t do much worse. And if they raised the pay….??

Let me know what you think.

NEXT

Now on to the blog I wrote:

VICTORY? The British Government has taken George Washington Off Of Its Traitors in the Colonies list. The General was placed on the list in 1776

London Telegraph: “The US Senate has approved a bill to remove former South African president Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress from the US terror watch list.

“Today the United States moved closer at last to removing the great shame of dishonoring this great leader by including him on our government’s terror watch list,” said Senator John Kerry.

The bill now heads to the White House, where it is expected to be signed by President George W. Bush in time for the anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner’s 90th birthday on July 18.”

SENATE ACTS TO REMOVE MANDELA FROM TERRORIST LIST
WATCHING THE CONCERT IN LONDON
THE DYING HONEY BEE DANGER

Lets keep our priorities straight.

Johannesburg, South Africa Sunday Morning: Inflation is sweeping the world – here in South Africa, its projected to go to 10%—the recession that everyone denied or said we are on the “verge” of, is getting deeper. One response from a top Australian Treasury official: save wombats. BBC reports:

Australia’s top treasury official is taking five weeks leave to look after endangered wombats.

Ken Henry, treasury secretary and animal conservationist, has warned that hairy-nosed wombats are “on death row”.

But opposition politicians – and even wombat lovers – question if now is the time to be thinking about wombats.

Inflation is at a 16-year high, interest rates are up and fuel prices are rising. Mr Henry will also miss a central bank meeting.

For the love of wombats

Mr Henry will be looking after 115 hairy-nosed wombats in an isolated spot in northern Queensland, with no mobile phone coverage and two-and-a-half hours on a rough track from the nearest town.

CREDIT CRISIS IN SOUTH AFRICA BLAMED ON SUBPRIME FALL OUT

Our crisis is being felt everywhere—its called a “contagion.”

The economic slide happened so quickly that South Africans were caught
off guard – despite warning signs from the US and UK.

South Africans drowning in debt were not prepared for rising interest
rates, high fuel prices and other economic factors.

This month the Reserve Bank increased the repo rate by 50 basis points
to 12 percent.

This raised the prime rate that banks charge their clients to 15,5
percent. For a bank customer with a R500 000 bond, it will mean an extra
R200 a month and on R1-million bond a further R400.

Garth de Klerk, CEO of international credit information provider Coface
South Africa, said the sub-prime issue was “conveniently ignored” during
the economic boom.

Sub-prime is lending money to high-risk consumers. Several banks in the
US and UK had to be bailed out after customers could not repay their
home loans.

“There was a false sense of security and consumers were overspending by
16 percent to 18 percent,” he said.

This was not the only reason for the current crisis, De Klerk said.

Financial institutions offering easy credit before the implementation of
the National Credit Act were also to blame, along with political
uncertainty.


AND, LEST YOU THINK IT’S OVER HERE: ANOTHER FORECAST OF WORST TO COME

CONCERT FOR MANDELA

On Fridat Night, I watched the 46664 concert for Nelson Mandela’s AIDS charities out of London, another superstar event very much like the one I covered three years ago in Capetown. Only Beyonce wasn’t there but Amy Winehouse was, not my first choice for the role of socially responsible artist playing militant cheerleader. Anyway, she was singing Jerry Dammar’s classic “Free Nelson Mandela,” the militant anthem he wrote for The Specials back in l984.

I was prepared to hate Amy but her version was fresh, and her voice magical and so on an artistic level, it was cool to see her dancing and prancing on stage, although she seemed other worldly and so vulnerable, therebut not there. At one point I thought she was about to flash us as she clung to the bottom of her tight black miniskirt while bouncing up and down.

The Independent in London noted: “Amy didn’t let us down. The only sign of her recent tussle with emphysema appeared a dramatically runny nose. To the delight of her fans she was back to something like top form as she ripped through “Rehab” and “Valerie”"

Mandela, at almost 90 seemed to be in conversation with someone in his box and not really watching at that point. The music may have been too loud for his hearing aid.

His own appearance introduced by Will Smith was electrifying but you could see him grimacing as he walked in what seems the last stage of his long walk to freedom on two canes while leaning on his wife Graca Machel to get to the microphone. He kept it short imploring the crowd to get involved in the fight against AIDS and poverty. “Its in your hands” was the motto. Reported the Guardian, he said, “Our work is for freedom for all.”

“Even as we celebrate, let us remind ourselves that our work is far from complete. Where there is poverty and sickness, including Aids, where human beings are being oppressed, there’s more work to be done. Our work is for freedom for all.” He told the crowd: “It is in your hands now.”

Madiba also said that this was his last visit to the Britain. A South African friend took one look at his condition and predicted this may be his last public appearance.

The Independent report continued:

“Among the estimated 46,000 at the event were Gordon Brown and Kate Middleton, Prince William’s girlfriend. Amy Winehouse defied her ill health by appearing on stage to applause just days after coming out of hospital.
But Victoria Beckham was booed when she sent a birthday wish via video link from Los Angeles. Bono and the Edge sang Stevie Wonders Birthday song – written to lobby for the ML King holiday —to Mandela saying his birthday should become a holiday.

Mandela also paid tribute to the efforts of artists to free him, “Many years ago there was a historic concert which called for our freedom. Your voices carried across the water and inspired us in our prison cells far away.”

Anne Lennox gave a moving speech about AIDS. The last time I was with her was on the dock at Robben Island, the prison island where Mandela spent 21 years. Along with Peter Gabriel, she has been deeply immersed in human rights work for years and very articulate about the issues.

This was the running order of the show;

1830 – Live show starts with a performance by Jivan Gasparyan 1833 – Will Smith introduces Razorlight 1847 – Into the Hoods 1853 – Sipho 1858 – Quincy Jones introduces Leona Lewis 1910 – Zucchero and Jivan 1917 – Susannah Owiyo and D’Gary 1920 – Lewis Hamilton introduces Sugababes 1934 – Will Smith performs 1937 – Annie Lennox speech then performance with Agape Choir 1949 – Emmanuel Jal 1955 – Jamelia performance 2005 – Vusi Mahlasela 2010 – Geri Halliwell introduces Johnny Clegg and Joan Baez 2021 – Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith introduce Nelson Mandela, then perform Happy Birthday with all artists 2026 – Nelson Mandela speech 2037 – Eddy Grant and Kurt Darren 2046 – June Sarpong introduces Simple Minds 2059 – Stephen Fry introduces Brian May and Andrea Corr 2105 – Amy Winehouse 2112 – June Sarpong introduces 9ice & Bebe Cool 2119 – June Sarpong introduces Josh Groban and Vusi 2132 – Amaral 2144 – Queen and Paul Rodgers 2202 – Jerry Dammers, Amy Winehouse and all artists perform Free Nelson Mandela.

What was new this year was the way people could text money and messages to him and the organizer by sending it to 46664. I am told that the concert, and a parallel auction, raised a lot of money for Nelson Mandela’s Children’s Foundation. “We did very well,” a board member told me. I now have a T Shirt from the event but wil have to lose some weight to wear it.

I still also a texting retard. I can’t seem to do it. You see what happens when you are over the hill?

BACK IN SOUTH AFRICA,

I wish the mood here was as celebratory. The revolution Mandela led has produced more of a “norma”l country with the only reminder of what was on Public Service Announcements appearing on SABC. The public broadcaster produced smartly and no doubt expensively by the network’s educational department,

Otherwise, the papers are filled with tales of corruption charges, threats against the Constitutional Court and the National Prosecuting Authority who are charging politicians with abuses, the cutacks at the Scorpions, an anti-corruption police unit, an internal war at the Pubic Broadcaster the SABC, many conflicts of interest, criticisms of President Mbeki for re-upping a police chief accused of consorting with criminals, and not speaking out against the breakdown of order in neighboring Zimbabwe. A youth and union leader has vowed to kill for Jacob Zuma, the new head of the African National Congress. This rhetorical excess has outraged many.

In South Africa, as in many countries, the power of the market system has overtaken the often spoken of “power of the people.” Poverty, AIDs, and other problems evident in the apartheid days are still evident and deepening.

Everywhere you turn, you meet people who want to leave or express disgust and disillusion. As someone who crusaded against apartheid, this is hard to hear but you have to probe deeper to account for it.

People everywhere are easily seduced by the trappings of power and corrupted by money. Revolutons often lose their spark and abandon their values. That’s an old and universal story. Here you have a reform to promote black economic advancement that has turned into a hustle and away to get rich for many, including old ANC veterans. The President’s own brother, an economist, has denounced the BEE program as the wrong road to economic advancement.

This is an issue I will get back to.

MUGABE

Just like Mbeki’s style and motives in South Africa are confusing to many, Mugabe’s often brutal maneuvers in Zimbabwe seem obvious. There seems to be a universal disgust with the man that is well deserved but there is also a background to these tensions that most of our media misses, argues William Bowles at WilliamBowles.info:

“Zimbabwe, like its neighbor, South Africa, has (or at least had) a highly mechanized agricultural economy geared for export, with over 80% of the most productive land owned by a handful of white farmers. But here the parallel ends, for unlike South Africa, Zimbabwe’s rural population are largely peasant, subsistence farmers and importantly Zanu-PF’s power base. The divide between urban and rural could not be starker with the majority of the MDC’s supporters members of Zimbabwe’s small, urban working class.

And this is what it’s all about – land and the political power that goes with those who control it. Unfortunately, since independence, Zanu-PF has done little to actually deal with this issue failing, until recently to return the land to its rightful owners and then making a right mess of it because it did it for all the wrong reasons.

Ever since independence was gained in 1980, Zimbabwe has been a one-party state with Mugabe long proclaiming an allegedly socialist, anti-Western message without a single bleat of protest from the UK, even knighting the guy (just this week withdrawn by the ‘Queen’). So what changed? Why has Mugabe become the man the West loves to hate?

Basically, it’s sheer convenience together with a deeply ingrained racism that has propelled Mugabe into the media meat grinder and for no other purpose than to rationalize its own illegal actions of intervention and mass murder in the name of human rights and democracy.

We saw the same demonization of Myanmar (or Burma as the West chooses to continue calling it) even as major Western oil cartels continue to suck oil from the ground.

The pattern is plain for all to see: keep diverting attention away from the actions of the pirates by making a big song and dance about other countries’ when the reality is that the West doesn’t give a damn about the people of Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Venezuela, Cuba, or any country that fits the profile – allegedly anti-democratic, trashing human rights, this is after all, the current propaganda line of the West, a case of do as I say but don’t do as I do.”

BACK IN DURBAN

I hopped over the Durban for the weekend in time to catch the last shows of Fashion Week. The slogan: “Born on the Sidewalk. Refined on the Catwalk.” I visted with my old friend Patrick Bond, the brilliant academic and activist at the Bluffs, a particularly attractive Ocean-side beach.

At the airport, when I arrived, there was a man with a more life threatening mission. He was greeting scientists arriving for a Honey Bee Summit. Read on:

Honey bee crisis could lead to higher food prices - Yahoo! News

Other News of Interest:

I don’t recall if I mentioned that I have a long piece in LA CITY BEAT about the risks of a credit card meltdown. San Diego’s City Beat will now pick it up.

I am already getting letters on it:

Alex writes, “I read your article recently and thought I’d send you this little tidbit. I’m a “deadbeat” cardholder meaning that I have paid my Visa in full every month since I got it in 1988.

I’ve looked at my B of A Visa card statement lately and I’ve noticed something disturbing. I received my most recent statement on June 16th and the payment due date is June 29th, a Sunday which means I have to pay it by Friday June 27th (I was told this by my bank but this is not stated anywhere on the statement) So that means I have 9 (NINE!!) business days to make my payment or suffer late fees and interest.

I think this is wrong and deceptive and is deliberately trying to make the consumer suffer fees and interest! I’ve complained to my branch but they say call the 800 number and complain, but that does nothing as all I get is a computer or someone who has no real power to change things. WHAT CAN I DO???

I feel like the card company is trying to screw me and complaining is like trying to order the waves at the beach to stop crashing.

very frustrated.

This situation is getting worse:

Is the credit card bubble next to go

Credit scores hit by card limits – Yahoo! News

GOOD NEWS? CHINA CUTS BACK ON EXECUTIONS

BEIJING (AP) – China says judges are overturning a significant percentage of all death sentences as part of steps to ensure it is applied only to those who truly deserve it. What it still isn’t saying is how many people are put to death each year. China is believed to execute more people annually than any other country, but the true figure remains a state secret for reasons that remain obscure.

“We can only guess that the authorities are embarrassed by the huge number of people being executed,” Mark Allison, a Hong Kong-based researcher for human rights group Amnesty International, said Friday in a telephone interview.

Advocacy groups’ own estimates vary widely – from several hundred to several thousand executions in China last year. Allison said China won’t be able to consolidate reforms or build real transparency and trust until it begins releasing the figure – something that would be far easier to do than actually abolishing the death penalty.

The Supreme People’s Court rejected 15 percent of all death sentences reviewed in the first half of this year, the official China Daily newspaper said Friday. That’s the same percentage as it rejected last year after recovering the right of final review from lower courts at the start of 2007.

LETTER: A WILLIAM SMART BELIEVES I AM NOT THAT SMART

., I thought the History Channel used a logo with THC? Speaking of which, what a great acronym. It’s said we have to remember history or we’ll never learn or grow, but it seems to me that memory is fallible. It’s true, we don’t know everything, so anything you do know is subject to change when you learn something else. More important is that we form understandings which, that isn’t’ based on knowing anything. Maybe History isn’t as importnat as data mining today, when it comees to small minded caca raoches spinning the public. The less said the better, I guess. You haven’t learned that yet, have you Danny?

I guess not. I have learned be appreciative of all the kind Happy Birthday greetings I received here on the southern tip of Africa, Thanks to readers and old friends who took a second out to write. At a time when the work I am doing seems harder and harder, its meaningful for me to know that what I am doing connects with some of you and that you are willing to say so.

Thank you.

I also want to publicly thank Bill Moyers for sending a supportive note, book and tapes to my dad who at 90 is one of his leading fans in Boston. What a mensch. For my dad, it was like hearing from one of his Gods. Smile.

Your comments welcome. Writing as I can.

Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org

FOR ANY DISSECTOR READERS IN JOHANNESBURG, YOU ARE INVITED:

TUESDAY JULY 1
DARKIEMENTARY FILIM NITE
@ THE HOUSE OF NSAKO
PRESENTS
THE AFRICAN PREMIERE OF
BOOB TUBE
A NEW DISSECTION BY DA NEWS DISSECTOR
DAT MEAN DA BIG MAN: DANNY SCHECHTER
followed by an IMBIZO DISKASHIN featuring da filimaker n frenz

BOOB TUBE
dir by Danny Schechter

ABOUT THE FILIM:
Before reality TV, before Girls Gone Wild, before the idea of young ladies baring their breasts for the camera became vogue, Ugly George roamed the streets of New York and persuaded young women to undress for his camera. How did he get away with it? Why would any woman in her right mind cooperate? Could he possibly have had sex with 4000 women as he claims? Boob Tube documents two stories: first about a one-man crusading machine against hypocrisy on television, second about society’s deep rooted obsession with naked women.

ABOUT THE FILIMMAKER:
DANNY SCHECHTER IS IN TOWN!!! NUFF SAID!!!

ABOUT DARKIEMENTARY FILIM NITES:
Mahala Media is producing this screening series every Tuesday night at the House of Nsako, screening local and international truths and fikshans through an AfriKan lenz. Equipment graciously provided by the 3 Continents Film Festival.

ABOUT THE HOUSE OF NSAKO: 101 High Street, Brixton, JHB
The House of NsAkO is a Museum and Institute of African POpular KAlture — MIAPOKA! Music, Art, Film, Food, Fashion, Literature & Dance all come together to create Jozi’s most unique, inspiring venue that ACCURATELY reflects the contemporary South African experience. Dinner and drinks are served at the venue. NsAkO was recently featured in the City Press and Mail and Guardian. More info at www.nsako.co.za.

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REPORTING FROM SOUTH AFRICA: HERE TO HONOR MANDELA AGAIN

June 26th, 2008 - by: danny

REPORTING FROM SOUTH AFRICA: HERE TO HONOR MANDELA AGAIN

Dissecting from Johannesburg South Africa

I am on my way to Johannesburg to work on a project honoring Nelson Mandela for his 90th Birthday this July. But Mandela isn’t there. He’s in London for a superstar concert which will be happening on June 27th, my own birthday. It’s part of a series of events using 46664, his old prison number, to raise money for AIDS victims and his foundation. I covered the first one some years back in Cape Town.

So far, there’s been more press on whether Amy Winehouse will be well enough to perform at this event than on the honoree, the man they call Madiba – his clan name in the Tembu tribe – or the issue.

As for the concert, and concerts like it, I have been there and done that, as they say, perhaps when it mattered more. The concert I was engaged with most took place in London in l990, just after Mandela’s release from his 27 year prison ordeal.

In all, I have made five films with and about Nelson Mandela. It was one of the great privileges of my life. (Sorry I would rather do films aboiut Mandela than Monica.) I had produced a TV special for PBS on his release, and also the first hour-long live US TV interview with him from Lusaka Zambia where he was reuniting with his comrades in the African National Congress. Phil Donahue did the interview live via satellite from Los Angeles. I felt like I had an up front seat to history. And I guess, I did, and maybe still do.

In those years, I was producing South Africa Now, a weekly TV series that was much about what TV news here covers and omits as about apartheid. I was also connected to the army of rock stars active on the issue. I worked closely with Little Steven and Arthur Baker and the 54 stars that took part in the Sun City Project, and who who sang on the Sun City anti-apartheid album in 1985-86. Steven’s song called for a boycott of an entertainment complex in what was then considered a “homeland,” but it was really promoting sanctions, a policy that was later imposed and helped force the downfall of apartheid.

Sun City became a global hit, but no major record company at first had the balls to release it on the assumption that the public didn’t care or wouldn’t buy it. (It finally came out on the Manhattan label, known for its jazz releases.) At first, our still segregated broadcasting system, black radio wouldn’t play it because it was “too white” and white radio turned it down because it was “too black.” It was only after MTV began playing Jonathan Demme’s Sun City music video that music radio realized the song’s importance. The fact that it was launched by the United Nations meant nothing to our entertainment commissars.

Back then, the culture police, as now, prefers to depoliticize culture. So when Fox Television broadcast an earlier Nelson Mandela Birthday concert from Wembley Stadium it was branded generically as a “Freedom concert” and artists were instructed not to mention Mandela’s name or call for his freedom. Some artists, like Whoopi Goldberg, did it anyway but Fox wanted sold the event as sheer entertainment with no reference to the issue it was commenting on. The leader who South African law mandated was not to be quoted in the press was now also excluded on television in the “free world.”

Musicians were far more outspoken than newscasters. In that year, the song “FREE NELSON MANDELA” was a big hit in London. But, later, with Mandela free, and hailed everywhere and by every media outlet as a liberator, it was now ok to praise him even though he was still considered a terrorist in South Africa and other countries. He is still on our Homeland “security” Terrorist Watch List, all these years later, and Congressmen are working to get him removed. (Whenever I hear “homeland security,” I think of the apatheid homelands and the repressive policies that ruled then.)

Imagine! Mandela still considered a terrorist in the United States of Paranoia!

At any rate, back in 1990. now that he was free, a big celebration was being organized by concert producer Tony Hollingsworth. The concert was going to be shown worldwide by BBC (but, not, natch, by our networks) and some of the world’s top musicians donated their time and talent. The show sold out in hours – 90,000 tickets! Everyone was psyched but there was a problem that turned into a big fear.

At first it was just whispered about.

The event had been announced but Mandela himself had not confirmed. He had not yet agreed to come. And there was confusion about who was speaking for him or even with him. The ANC had become part of a larger Mandela Reception Committee to build support for his release from prison. Apparently, there was a power struggle underway as their often is among the activists vying to play a key role and have special access to a man of power.

Many wanted his blessing as if he was their Pope. Their power was the power of a courtesan in the Castle, deciding who could see the King. Frankly, some resented an independent non-political professional show producer, maybe because he was white, maybe because he was not reporting to them. Many were talking out of all sides of their mouths. One spokesman said one thing; another contradicted him. You might say trust had broken down. Where one expected clarity, there was confusion.

And that ‘s when I got the call from Tony who I knew and respected

“You have been with Mandela,” he told me. “You know all the players. As an American, who doesn’t have a political agenda, perhaps you get to him and get him to confirm otherwise, we will lose millions of pounds and our credibility. How can we celebrate his release without him? He’s the star people want to see.”

What a messy situation, but if I accepted, I was putting myself in the middle of possible faction fights with no guarantee of success. I wanted to help…..but I knew I had no real leverage except a good rap and good intentions.

I was flattered to be asked but there was a problem. Make that many problems.

Mandela was globe-trotting, heading to Sweden to reunite with Oliver Tambo, his former law partner and the real head of the ANC through the long years of exile. Tambo had had a stroke and was in Stockholm convalescing. Sweden has been the ANC’s biggest backer outside of Socialist bloc and Mandela had a duty to go there and thank them.

A rock concert was hardly uppermost in his mind, and some of his aides though that was trivial when he had so much to do to get negotiations started in an environment that was increasingly uncertain and violent in South Africa. His race for the Presidency there was still four years off.

They were non-committal.

Tony was getting desperate.

“Go to Sweden and see what you can do,” he told me.

Go to Sweden? Me? You have to be kidding.

Soon, I was off to, where else, Sweden, somehow working my way on to the plane carrying Mandela. In the same way that Africa was hot and Sweden cold, I alternated between currents of anticipation and impending failure. Would anyone be open to my feeble entreaties amidst all the chaos and consternation?

When we landed at Arlanda airport, he was welcomed by dozens of South African exiles who live there joyfully singing freedom songs and doing the toi-toi dance. This was a moment they waited years for. There were smatterings of Swedish and Zulu.

“Viva” was the shout de jure.

Mandela was quickly surrounded with new layers of security. I couldn’t get close. As soon as he was on the ground, he was whisked away to see Tambo. I was stuck on a bus with the rest of the entourage.

I was the only one there talking about Wembley. It wasn’t high on anyone’s agenda. But I keep hyping it even as I had fears that it would be seen as anti-climatic after the clamor about the big release, and then his reunion in Sweden.

I had been covering the tour. Now I was an emissary from the music gods. For many, this was only rock and roll. Or was it? I always thought it was or could be more. Much more.

Music had always been part of my life. I spent a decade news dissecting at the “rock of Boston,” WBCN. I did profiles of my rock heroes, Dylan, Tina, Bruce et. al., when I was with ABC’s 20/20.

I believe in the power of popular culture to do what journalism seems to be failing to do – inform and inspire.

Sun City had been a big success as a political awareness project. (These days I am working on another musical initiative with my pal Polar Levine/Polarity 1 – remakes of the song “Home Sweet Home” to call attention to the foreclosure crisis. Check out our temporary website in progress. Polar did much of the great music for my In Debt We Trust film. )

Since many ANC leaders had spent years in London after fleeing South Africa in the bad old days, they knew how great it could be if Mandela was seen worldwide being cheered by a packed stadium. They kept telling me the event would be considered.

That was not reassuring to Tony who was quietly freaking out. He wanted a yes, not a maybe.

Frankly, I didn’t know if I was making any headway. I was hardly an insider in his entourage, or anyone with influence, but I persisted. He was then the biggest celebrity in the world, so the names of all the big stars who would show paled in comparison. They were underwhelmed.

In the end, perhaps in small part because of my whining and lobbying, Mandela agreed. He came to the show in the packed venue with his then wife Winnie Mandela. The place exploded with the sense that history had arrived. They were cheered and cheered as they held up their fists to the crowd. The decibel level was deafening.

The show was amazing, dynamic and exciting —just to use a few clichés–but the spectacle of a political rally posing as a rock concert was even more exhilarating. Finally, popular culture was aligned with the values of a freedom struggle in an unmistakeable way! This was the fruition of all the years of protests and songs and sacrifices.

Mandela was free—and there we were in his presence!

What more could you ask for? I was with all the big rock stars behind the scenes. They were like children, reverting to being mere fans as they lined up to meet him and bask in his aura.

Our South Africa Now program did behind the scenes interviews and showed clips on our program, the only real coverage in our free press.. Once again, most of American TV ignored it and remained out of step with the world.

So happy Birthday Madiba and, I guess to me too. I am proud to have done my bit as an unlikely intermediary, and pleased that South Africa’s internationally know producer Anant Singh just brought me back to Johannesburg or Jozie as its now called where we first met in 1994. I was heading back to help with his latest tribute to Madiba. The country has announced they will be marking his 90th for the next year.

But, true to form, Anant was not waiting to welcome me to his “beloved country.”

He had jetted off to London. He had scored tix to THE show, now in Hyde Park.

I am sure he will tell me about it. Already there have been reports that the man who won his freedom through protest was going to be protested – by campaigners demanding that he speak out against Mugabe’s oppressive rule in Zimbabwe. (I actually traveled to Zimbabwe with Mandela and met Mugabe, but that’s another story.)

Another sign of the times. One of the featured acts at this concert is the Children of Agape, a choir of orphans who lost their parents to HIV and Aids. That is an issue Mandela has spoken out on many times.

Nelson Mandela has moved on from the past to the present to the future. He is still campaigning for human rights, speaking out most recently against the Burmese junta and perhaps soon, as some in the ANC are now doing, against Mugabe. He is challenging us to care about Aids, and the condition of the world’s children.

He has gone from insurgent to inmate to icon to inspiration. What a journey to learn from and that means recognizing its contradictions and failures as well as its successes.

The sun is rising over Africa again after a cold night here in Egoli, the city of Gold. I have been here many times and never thought I would be back. And yet here I am again, back with old friends and passions that stay alive in my memory and work.

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WHITE HOUSE TO VETO FORECLOSURE VICTIMS: SORRY, IT WAS YOUR FAULT!

June 23rd, 2008 - by: danny

WHITE HOUSE TO VETO FORECLOSURE VICTIMS: SORRY, IT WAS YOUR FAULT!

“We are what we make of what we are made of.” JP Sartre

“We are toast without action on warming,” NASA Scientist

TAKE THAT OBAMA

AP:WASHINGTON – The Bush administration is considering setting up a diplomatic outpost in Iran in what would mark a dramatic official U.S. return to the country nearly 30 years after the American embassy was overrun and the two nations severed relations.

WILL THERE BE ACTION ON FORECLOSURES?
HOME EQUITY BEING SLASHED
CONGRESS BENDS OVER ON WAR AGAIN

As readers know, I have been obsessed with financial crisis because it will affect everyone including what the next president can or can’t do, and what will happen to our country. The war contributes to it, of course, how can activists Obama loving Democrats stand by and do so little about MILLIONS of families losing their homes. If we lived during the days of slavery, I am sure some of us would be moved by the spirit of John Brown to break up slave auctions.

How about breaking up those housing auctions taking place in every city where homes are sold-off to vulture investors looking for bargains. You have seen the pictures. These are homes that were foreclosed upon in large part because of subprime loans. This practice may be acceptable legally, but is it acceptably morally? Do property rights trump human rights? Does anyone care about their neighbors?

Here’s the latest: Foreclosure aid bill facing veto threat

WASHINGTON:”The Senate signaled overwhelming support for a foreclosure rescue bill despite a presidential veto threat and concerns that it could benefit the very lenders responsible for the expanding national crisis.

Republican opponents of the bill sought to return the bill to the Banking Committee to clarify whether Countrywide Financial Services, or any other lender, was gaining a benefit from the bill in a not-too-subtle partisan attack on the Democratic architect of the bill.

“There have been very serious concerns raised about actions taken by Countrywide and we need to know what they stand to gain from this bill,” Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said in a statement. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., called for a motion to send the bill back to committee, but it was rejected 70 to 11. Two earlier votes on amendments that would have gutted the legislation were rejected by veto-proof margins.

Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., have come under intense scrutiny since a magazine reported last week that they received special treatment from Countrywide on personal loans.

Dodd and Conrad were among a handful of powerbrokers that Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo reportedly offered lower-rate loans as well as waiving fees and points when they refinanced mortgages.

Dodd said he received no special treatment that he knew of….a

DID BANKS WRITE LAWS?

And yet critics see the not so invisible hand of big banks in the writing of the laws:

“We call it the ‘Bank of America bill on steroids.’” A House staffer told me that, demanding anonymity, but speaking on behalf of aides to GOP members of the House Financial Services Committee.

He was talking about the bill whose Senate version has been brought to the floor this week by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CN, and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL. Dodd-Shelby would let mortgage lenders off the hook for bad loans, shifting the burden ultimately to taxpayers. Dodd has received approximately $70,000 in campaign
contributions from Bank of America in the last year-and-a-half.

Some journalists and Republican lawmakers are asking if Countrywide bought a bailout bill with its VIP loans to Dodd, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

of America.

COMMENTS: THIS IS NOT A PARTISAN PROBLEM’

This goes way beyond “sensitivity”. It hits at the heart of the entire regulatory mechanism. If the elected officials we put in charge of the henhouse turn out to be the foxes, then the burdensome and costly bureaucracies we build to regulate these industries are useless.

The Times is right in one respect: the Senate Ethics Committee isn’t likely to take any significant action against Conrad or Dodd, the latter of whom has the more egregious fault in this case. Neither will Dodd’s constituents in Connecticut. Conrad may be lucky that he won’t stand for re-election for another four years, because he would almost certainly lose if he had to run this year in North Dakota after this scandal. And as long as no consequences
result from this kind of slimy double-dealing, it will continue to occur.

Lawmaker says had no Countrywide “sweetheart deal”

LENDERS SLASHING HOME EQUITY
ANOTHER HIT ON HOMEOWNERS

Lenders limit or freeze home equity credit. Some banks are starting to restrict or freeze access to emergency cash.

What’s particularly exasperating is that lenders aren’t even bothering to appraise properties on site or consider borrowers’ credit history. They’re taking action based solely on the steep decline in home values across the region, a slide that rivals any in the country.

“I don’t think it’s right,” said Louis Moroff, 81, who lives west of Boca Raton. “It’s damaging to the economy, and I really believe it’s irresponsible.”

Please see my commentary on these issues on Mediachannel.org and other sites.

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