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
Mazzotti confesses
According to Jacques Pauw‚ Mazzotti said in an affidavit to SARS on May 6 2014 that, while discussing Carnilinx’s tax bill‚ reportedly worth about R600m‚ he was a “duly authorised representative of Carnilinx”. Mazzotti described in the affidavit how SARS’ officials were bribed and spoke of fraud‚ money laundering‚ tobacco smuggling and tax evasion. “I accept‚ and so does Carnilinx and all its directors‚ that this was unlawful and morally wrong … The cash received was utilised to pay the people referred to and the balance was retained by the three of us in equal proportions. I point out‚ however‚ that a substantial amount of this money was used by the three of us as company expenses‚ engaging in expensive dinners‚ entertaining business people‚ politicians and other people‚” read the affidavit.
