Quote of the week
[T]he moral point of the matter is never reached by calling what happened by the name of ‘genocide’ or by counting the many millions of victims: extermination of whole peoples had happened before in antiquity, as well as in modern colonization. It is reached only when we realize this happened within the frame of a legal order and that the cornerstone of this ‘new law’ consisted of the command ‘Thou shall kill,’ not thy enemy but innocent people who were not even potentially dangerous, and not for any reason of necessity but, on the contrary, even against all military and other utilitarian calculations. … And these deeds were not committed by outlaws, monsters, or raving sadists, but by the most respected members of respectable society.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on The Banality of Evil
As for President Zuma, I doubt he has “dealt” with Malema the way the papers have been suggesting. We will see. Durban exposed his weaknesses rather than strengths. Speaking in code to an organisation you supposedly run doesn’t sound like leadership to me and nothing he says is going to happen ever seems to happen. Remember those “street committees” ANC branches were going to form after Polokwane to protect us all? The one thing Zuma cannot live with is certainty. The moment he supports a policy position he opens himself up to attack from factions who don’t. It’s why he announced yesterday he was going to head an investigation into everything in the economy — it means there’s to be no certainty about anything except the fact that he doesn’t have a position on anything. It’ll always be “under investigation”. – Peter Bruce in Business Day
