NationStates Jolt Archive


Thabo Mbeki: Comedian or Idiot?

Roach-Busters
09-03-2005, 20:54
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=198731

God, this guy should do stand-up comedy.
Roach-Busters
09-03-2005, 20:57
He's so dumb he makes Bush look smart! :D
Whispering Legs
09-03-2005, 20:58
In 1999, South African president Thabo Mbeki refused to distribute AZT to pregnant women and other South Africans suffering from AIDS. Mbeki - along with 26 of his 27-member cabinet - declared that the HIV virus did not cause AIDS.

The following year, Mbeki ordered the formation of an international AIDS advisory panel comprising thirty-three scientists, one-third of whom claimed that the standard HIV model of AIDS transmission was wrong. World-renowned virologists and rebel scientists were given equal time.

The panel was panned by news services around the world. Dr. Jerry Coovadia, a physician at the University of Natal, wrote an op-ed in South Africa's Sunday Independent entitled "Leave Science to the Scientists, Mr. President." Another op-ed in Newsday was more scathing still: "A person can be so open-minded," it said of Mbeki, "that his brains fall out!"

In August 2000, the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, forwarded an anonymous memo to various officials, addressed to all African health ministers, claiming that AIDS was intentionally spread among Africans by Western nations through smallpox vaccines. She also attached a chapter from William Cooper's book Behold a Pale Horse alleging involvement in the conspiracy by extraterrestrials and the Illuminati.
Whispering Legs
09-03-2005, 20:59
Yes, Europe, there are stupid leaders in other countries. And their names do not end in Bush.
Anarchic Conceptions
09-03-2005, 21:04
alleging involvement in the conspiracy by [...] the Illuminati.

Those buggers are like grains of sand at the beach, there's nowhere they don't get to.
Roach-Busters
09-03-2005, 21:04
Yes, Europe, there are stupid leaders in other countries. And their names do not end in Bush.

Agreed!
Whispering Legs
09-03-2005, 21:06
Well, he was democratically elected. I can't complain.
Fass
09-03-2005, 21:10
Yes, Europe, there are stupid leaders in other countries. And their names do not end in Bush.

But the similarities - the government furthering science and methods it likes, no matter how erroneous - are striking.

*caugh* abstinence *caugh* ban on stem cell research funding *caugh* anti-abortionists *caugh*
Whispering Legs
09-03-2005, 21:19
But the similarities - the government furthering science and methods it likes, no matter how erroneous - are striking.

*caugh* abstinence *caugh* ban on stem cell research funding *caugh* anti-abortionists *caugh*

Perhaps Mbeki is the South African word for Bush.
Fass
09-03-2005, 21:52
Perhaps Mbeki is the South African word for Bush.

In all the 11 official languages? That would be impressive.
Roach-Busters
09-03-2005, 22:21
Perhaps Mbeki is the South African word for Bush.

No, even if you subtracted Bush's I.Q. by 100, he'd still be a mental giant compared to Mbeki.
Roach-Busters
09-03-2005, 22:27
Poll added.
Ramissle
09-03-2005, 22:29
But the similarities - the government furthering science and methods it likes, no matter how erroneous - are striking.

*caugh* abstinence *caugh* ban on stem cell research funding *caugh* anti-abortionists *caugh*
*cough* Misspelled! *cough*
I'm really, really sorry, I just had to point that little thing out.

Wow, Mbeki is an idiot. And his health minister, wow.
Roach-Busters
09-03-2005, 22:30
*cough* Misspelled! *cough*
I'm really, really sorry, I just had to point that little thing out.

Wow, Mbeki is an idiot. And his health minister, wow.

I practically pissed my pants when I first read the article I linked to! :D
Roach-Busters
09-03-2005, 22:36
*cough* Misspelled! *cough*
I'm really, really sorry, I just had to point that little thing out.

Wow, Mbeki is an idiot. And his health minister, wow.

Ironically, Fass's English grammar is much better than that of most Americans, 99% of the time.
Lacadaemon II
09-03-2005, 22:46
Who cares what happens in Zimbabwe. There will be a great famine in southern africa soon, and that will take care of all the problems. In fact I forsee about 4/5 of the population dying.
Skaje
09-03-2005, 22:51
The way AIDS is being handled in Africa makes me piss angry. I don't even know where to start.
Mystic Mindinao
09-03-2005, 23:35
Mbeki denies that AIDS is even a disease. But that does not make him a total idiot. He has turned his party, the ANC, into an ever increasing majority. When it is so early in South African democracy, I think that they are at significant risk of becoming an elected autocracy, similar to Venezuela and Russia. They may not be as bad as the dictatorships they replaced, but they aren't exactly good places to live, either. The real pity, however, is that South Africa is the greatest hope for the continent.
Preebles
10-03-2005, 01:34
But the similarities - the government furthering science and methods it likes, no matter how erroneous - are striking.

*caugh* abstinence *caugh* ban on stem cell research funding *caugh* anti-abortionists *caugh*

And global warming...


But yes, I DO think Mbeki is an idiot, although he's probably smarter than Bush, just deluded. And he's a poncy wanker who smokes a pipe. My country deserves better.

There are people around here who seem awfully smug to point out every failure of the SA government...
Fass
10-03-2005, 01:37
*cough* Misspelled! *cough*
I'm really, really sorry, I just had to point that little thing out.

You post in one French thread and... :rolleyes:
Roach-Busters
10-03-2005, 01:38
ROFLMAO, who picked 'neither?'
Fass
10-03-2005, 01:42
ROFLMAO, who picked 'neither?'

It's a public poll.
Roach-Busters
10-03-2005, 01:42
Mbeki denies that AIDS is even a disease. But that does not make him a total idiot. He has turned his party, the ANC, into an ever increasing majority. When it is so early in South African democracy, I think that they are at significant risk of becoming an elected autocracy, similar to Venezuela and Russia. They may not be as bad as the dictatorships they replaced, but they aren't exactly good places to live, either. The real pity, however, is that South Africa is the greatest hope for the continent.

South Africa under apartheid may have been a dictatorship (a very evil one at that), but at least it had some semblance of law and order and was a First World country. South Africa now is a Third World dunghole, the rape capital of the world, and possibly the most dangerous place in the world outside of a war zone. And yet, Thabo the Dumbass insists that the crime rate and the economy are improving.
Roach-Busters
10-03-2005, 01:43
It's a public poll.

I know.
Preebles
10-03-2005, 01:46
South Africa under apartheid may have been a dictatorship (a very evil one at that), but at least it had some semblance of law and order and was a First World country. South Africa now is a Third World dunghole, the rape capital of the world, and possibly the most dangerous place in the world outside of a war zone. And yet, Thabo the Dumbass insists that the crime rate and the economy are improving.

Apartheid South Africa was only first world if you were WHITE. Us non-whites didn't have
ACCESS to any of the facilities.

And the economy IS actually improving at the moment, although I am sceptical about capitalist economics ability to impact on the lives of those really in need anyway.
Fass
10-03-2005, 01:46
I know.

No need for large fontyness, or superfluous rhetorical questions.
Roach-Busters
10-03-2005, 01:47
Apartheid South Africa was only first world if you were WHITE. Us non-whites didn't have
ACCESS to any of the facilities.

As I said, it was a very evil dictatorship. An economic powerhouse, but a very evil dictatorship nonetheless.
Roach-Busters
10-03-2005, 01:48
No need for large fontyness, or superfluous rhetorical questions.

You typed in really tiny letters, so I answered in very big ones.

Make sense? ;)
Neo-Anarchists
10-03-2005, 01:50
:eek:
Thabo Mbeki would make a good name for an alien Jedi.
Having said that...
Mbeki comes across as a parody of himself. I don't know how he manages it, but he does.
Amazing.
Fass
10-03-2005, 01:51
Make sense? ;)

I was trying to give the illusion of whispering. I suppose yelling at someone who whispers makes sense, but I'm too modest to reciprocate. :p
Ramissle
10-03-2005, 01:57
You post in one French thread and... :rolleyes:
Don't worry, I would have pointed that out no matter who posted it. What can I say, I'm the Grammar Police! (http://artpad.art.com/gallery/?id42le82khs)
EDIT: Thats weird, I put Fass in there and it came out as "Pa". Very strange.
Mystic Mindinao
10-03-2005, 01:59
South Africa under apartheid may have been a dictatorship (a very evil one at that), but at least it had some semblance of law and order and was a First World country. South Africa now is a Third World dunghole, the rape capital of the world, and possibly the most dangerous place in the world outside of a war zone. And yet, Thabo the Dumbass insists that the crime rate and the economy are improving.
Well, he is right with the economy. Since the end of apartheid, economic growth has exceeded population growth. Perhaps the biggest change, however, is that there is a wealth redistribution.
Fass
10-03-2005, 02:01
Don't worry, I would have pointed that out no matter who posted it. What can I say, I'm the Grammar Police! (http://artpad.art.com/gallery/?id42le82khs)

That was not a grammatical error. It was an orthographic one.

I am the vocabulary police, and your puny grammar powers have no effect on me! :p
Ramissle
10-03-2005, 02:03
That was not a grammatical error. It was an orthographic one.

I am the vocabulary police, and your puny grammar powers have no effect on me! :p
NOOO! They has found us out! Our powers is dwindled!
Neo-Anarchists
10-03-2005, 02:05
NOOO! They has found us out! Our powers is dwindled!
If you want to commit seppuku now, I'll let you borrow my icepick.
Ramissle
10-03-2005, 02:09
Wouldn't have it any other way.
http://artpad.art.com/gallery/?id436h8d2w
Yes, I have been to realultimatepower.com recently.