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Nice Citizenship And Freedom photos

A few nice Citizenship and Freedom images I found:

Mississauga Santa Claus Parade , November 30, 2008 / Habitat For Humanity
Citizenship and Freedom
Image by bill barber
I’m still officially down for a bit, but I posted these for my extended families and friends. I don’t really expect comments since I won’t be commenting on yours for a bit.

From my set entitled "Mississauga Santa Claus Parade 2008"
farm4.static.flickr.com/3245/3075199413_9773a5e13b_s.jpg
In my collection "Places"
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/collections/7215760074…
In my photostream
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/

Taken from Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_for_Humanity
Habitat For Humanity International (HFHI) (generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or simply Habitat) is an international, ecumenical Christian, non-governmental, non-profit organization devoted to building "simple, decent, and affordable" housing. Homes are built using volunteer labor and are sold at no profit. In locations outside the United States, Habitat for Humanity charges interest to protect against inflation. This policy has been in place since 1986.

The organization was founded in 1976 in Americus, Ga., by Millard and Linda Fuller, whose vision grew out of their experiences at Koinonia Farm. The international operational headquarters are located in Americus, with the administrative headquarters located in Atlanta, Ga. Staff members at all locations serve to support and promote the activities of local, independent Habitat for Humanity groups, which initiate and manage construction, mortgages and homeowner selection worldwide.

In 1996, U.S. President Bill Clinton awarded Fuller the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, calling Habitat for Humanity “…the most successful continuous community service project in the history of the United States.”[1] By 2004 Habitat had built 50,000 houses in the U.S. and over 175,100 around the world, with Habitat groups working in over 100 countries. Although headquartered in the United States, two thirds of Habitat construction takes place in other countries. In 2005 Habitat built its 200,000th house, bringing the number of people sheltered in Habitat houses worldwide to one million. On November 13-14, Habitat for Humanity will build its 3000,000th house in Collier County, FL.[2]

On 4 August 2005, Habitat announced the selection of a new Chief Executive Officer for the organization, former president of stores of Musicland and executive pastor of the Edina, Minnesota Christ Presbyterian Church, Jonathan Reckford.[3]

In the fall of 2007, alternative rock bands Switchfoot and Relient K went on the Appetite For Construction Tour, partnering with Habitat while raising awareness for the organization and donating a dollar per ticket sold. The tour was highly successful, raising over 0,000 for donation to the cause. [4]

According to the official website,

Homeowner families are chosen according to their need; their ability to repay the no-profit, affordable mortgage; and their willingness to work in partnership with Habitat. Habitat for Humanity does not discriminate according to race, religion or ethnic group.

Independent, local affiliates of Habitat for Humanity International are allowed to interpret these guidelines as is deemed most appropriate for the location of the affiliate.

Homeowners are usually expected to put approximately 500 hours of "sweat equity" into their own or other project homes, although this amount may vary by location, the number of wage-earning adults in each family, and the recipients health issues.

Mortgage payments from homeowners are deposited into a locally-administered "Fund for Humanity," the proceeds of which go toward future construction. In an effort to discourage predatory lenders from targeting Habitat homeowner families, mortgage agreements allow the Habitat for Humanity affiliate the right of first refusal. Should a homeowner family decide to sell their home during the period of their mortgage, the affiliate may buy it back at a price at least equal to the equity that the homeowner has paid into the mortgage.[5]

Habitat homeowners in the United States pay no interest on their no-profit mortgages. Habitat for Humanity organizations outside the United States adjust the no-profit loans to compensate for the inflation rate in their area, with the goal that "the repayments from one house should ideally build another house of the same design."[6]

Habitat builds simple houses with locally appropriate materials. This could mean concrete block homes in Third World nations or poured concrete-walled homes in hurricane-prone regions of the United States. Chapters of Habitat in more developed countries are strongly encouraged to donate ten percent of the money they raise for local housing to the national group for the purpose of building Third World homes. For instance, Habitat New Zealand’s tithe helps to support an equal number of housing outcomes abroad, predominantly in the Pacific region.

Habitat relies on volunteer labor in order to construct simple and affordable homes for its partner families, as well as to build community and civil society in the areas in which it works. Most volunteers are unskilled prior to first working with Habitat, although some professional or retired tradesmen or contractors may donate their services. Many churches and other houses of worship (synagogues, temples, mosques etc.) sponsor houses and provide a large amount of the volunteers from their congregations. Some corporations and businesses who value good corporate citizenship provide financial support to the projects and/or donate materials for use in construction. Many politicians and celebrities have volunteered with Habitat, reflecting its profile as a highly regarded non-profit.

Habitat for Humanity International develops special programs to support local Habitat organizations. These programs are designed to engage specific groups for annual projects or on an ongoing basis.

Habitat has initiated a special program to help restore housing to the areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The effort is focused on getting the local affiliates in these areas back on their feet and prepared to build for their communities. It has also become a catalyst for other organizations, corporations and the government to provide help and support in rebuilding these areas, and has received considerable national media attention.

The program pre-builds housing components in nearby less-affected locations such as Jackson, Mississippi, allowing much of the construction to be accomplished while basic infrastructure is being restored. Pre-constructed components can then be shipped to the affected areas and built at a faster rate. Within two months of the time of the disaster, construction had begun on houses in the Louisiana cities of Covington and Slidell, near New Orleans.

Operation Home Delivery is Habitat for Humanity International’s hurricane rebuilding program, Harry Connick Jr., and Branford Marsalis are honorary chairs, and one of the many projects along the Gulf Coast, is the Musicians’ Village at New Orleans Habitat for Humanity.[7]

Habitat for Humanity runs a year-round alternative break program known as Collegiate Challenge for student groups age 16 and up.[8] Although summer, fall, and winter break trips are available, most participants go during their spring break. Collegiate Challenge volunteers travel to affiliates throughout the United States and participate in week-long building activities at their host’s work sites. More than 14,500 volunteers took part in Collegiate Challenge in 2008, making it one of the world’s largest alternative break programs. Since its inception in 1989, more than 150,000 students have participated in Collegiate Challenge.

As suggested by the name, Habitat for Humanity International places a strong emphasis on building outside the United States. Its international character dates back even before its formal inception, as founder Millard Fuller received considerable inspiration while on a three-year trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire) during which he and his family sought to apply Koinonia principles outside the limits of the small Georgia farm.

Volunteers today can build with Habitat affiliates throughout the world on Global Village Trips.[9] After having gone through training, trip leaders organize travel plans with the support of the Americus-headquartered Global Village Department, first formally established in 1988. Participants from all over are then able to register for trips to their destination of choice. Teams generally number between eight and fifteen, with trips usually last between nine to fourteen days.

When people of different faiths and cultures come together to build a house, individuals learn from and find new respect for one another. Coming together for the common goal of building a house with a neighbor in need has proven to be a successful way for bringing healing to divided communities and creating a sense of cross cultural unity.

There are many projects that go hand in hand with the house building projects that allow these homes to supply their own electricity through the use of solar. US companies such as Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) have partnered with Habitat for Humanity to provide complete solar grids for a few homes.[10] There are also other solar projects, mostly in the US, like one in San Francisco,[11] as well as normal citizens that are trying to make a difference by raising funds to get more of these solar homes built.[12]

During Home Builders Blitz 2008, more than 1,000 building industry professionals in 110 Habitat for Humanity affiliates built 263 new homes across the United States. This was the second national Home Builders Blitz program, which was begun on the local level in 2002 in Raleigh, N.C. Since then, the professional homebuilders industry has supported Habitat by building more than 800 homes.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter became involved with Habitat for Humanity in 1984 and has since become its most high-profile proponent. He has been involved in fund-raising and publicity as well as actual homebuilding, taking part in the annual Jimmy Carter Work Project "blitz build".[13]

In 2008 Habitat for Humanity celebrated the 25th annual building project with the Carters and renamed it to include Mrs. Carter. The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project focused on supporting the Gulf Coast community seeking to rebuild after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Despite periodic downpours, volunteers got most of the work done during one week in June to finish building and fixing 60 houses and frame 48 more.[14]

Originating in 1991 with a Charlotte, North Carolina home built entirely by a crew of female volunteers, Habitat’s Women Build program encourages women to make a difference by building homes and communities. Women Build projects provide an environment in which women can feel comfortable learning construction skills they might not otherwise have the opportunity to learn. Globally, more than 1,200 homes have been completed by Women Build volunteers. [15]

Habitat ReStores are retail outlets that re-sell new and used building and household materials donated by large companies, job sites, and individuals. For some Habitat affiliates, like Habitat for Humanity Toronto, the ReStores generate sufficient revenue to cover all administrative costs. This means that every dollar donated to the organization goes directly to home building, and not to pay for overhead such as administrative costs.[16]

The video for rock band Bon Jovi’s song "Who Says You Can’t Go Home" features Habitat for Humanity volunteers as well as the band building homes as part of Habitat for Humanity in Philadelphia, close to Bon Jovi’s native New Jersey. It reflects Jon Bon Jovi’s dedication to the organization and highlights the importance of community unity, faith, and involvement.

The Habitat Bike Challenge began in 1995 as a product of Yale University’s Antony Brydon’s desire to spend a summer biking across the United States while raising money for Habitat. Along the way from coast to coast, riders raise money by explaining Habitat’s mission and even building along with Habitat affiliates in the towns they stop. Riders must raise a certain amount before the trip and spend nearly three months of their summer spreading the word about Habitat and getting communities involved. Bike and Build grew out of the Habitat Bike Challenge in 2002. Over five seasons, Bike & Build has contributed ,144,231 to housing groups to fund projects planned and executed by young adults; this includes 1,327 donated from the summer of 2007.[2]

Although Habitat for Humanity enjoys high name recognition and regard as a non-profit, it has also been the subject of criticism. An article in the Weekly Standard [17] magazine questioned the cost-effectiveness of Habitat building projects. It is difficult to estimate effectiveness, as total volunteer hours on-site and aggregated homeowner financial data are not available.

However, Habitat houses in the United States are more affordable for low-income families than commercially built houses because volunteers help build the homes, which are sold at no profit. [18] In many countries, purchasing a Habitat house costs even less per month than renting substandard housing.[19]

Families are required to show an ability to pay for their home in addition to the need for housing. With these requirements, homeless and low income families may fail to qualify for a Habitat home. Most American Habitat affiliates perform credit checks and criminal record checks on applicants before partnering with them for the construction of a home. Some critics therefore allege that Habitat misrepresents the nature of its work by partnering with families that might be considered nearly "middle-income."[20] To address this, many Habitat affiliates in the United States partner only with families that fall below the government-set "poverty line" for their area. The current poverty rate is measured according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services Poverty Guidelines.[21]

The credit and income requirements help assure that Habitat applicants are able to maintain their houses. Foreclosures on Habitat houses have been very low: 2%, according to official figures. The homeowners’ monthly mortgage payments are used to build more Habitat homes.[22]

Habitat’s founder, Millard Fuller, and his wife were dismissed by the Habitat board of directors on January 31, 2005, citing “a pattern of ongoing public comments and communications by the Fullers that have been divisive and disruptive to the organization’s work”[23] after Fuller was accused of "suggestive comments and inappropriate touching" toward a female employee during a ride to the Atlanta airport in 2003. Some Fuller supporters claim that the firing was due to a change in corporate culture.[24]

Before Fuller’s termination, attempts were made by former President Jimmy Carter to broker an agreement that would allow Fuller to retire with his ,000 salary intact; when Fuller was found to have violated the non-disclosure portion of this agreement, he was subsequently fired.

In response to his dismissal from the project he founded, Fuller has established The Fuller Center for Housing.

In January 2008 a dispute arose between the parent organization and an unspecified number of local Habitat for Humanity affiliate organizations over the terms of their cooperation agreement. These local affiliates contended that the agreement gave the international organization too much power over the assets and operations of the local chapters. One of the affiliates, Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio, reached an agreement with HFHI in July 2008 to “continue working together in their efforts to make affordable housing possible.”[25]

Ulster Covenant mural
Citizenship and Freedom
Image by kyz
The Ulster Covenant… half a million Ulster people can’t be wrong!

Pictured: Edward Carson, the first person to sign the Covenant.

BEING CONVINCED in our consciences that Home Rule would be disastrous to the material well-being of Ulster as well as of the whole of Ireland, subversive of our civil and religious freedom, destructive of our citizenship, and perilous to the unity of the Empire, we, whose names are underwritten, men of Ulster, loyal subjects of His Gracious Majesty King George V, humbly relying on the God whom our fathers in days of stress and trial confidently trusted, do hereby pledge ourselves in solemn Covenant, throughout this our time of threatened calamity, to stand by one another in defending, for ourselves and our children, our cherished position of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom, and in using all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parliament in Ireland. And in the event of such a Parliament being forced upon us, we further solemnly and mutually pledge ourselves to refuse to recognize its authority. In sure confidence that God will defend the right, we hereto subscribe our names. And further, we individually declare that we have not already signed this Covenant.

Statue of Liberty Celebration_02
Citizenship and Freedom
Image by West Point Public Affairs
Lady Liberty came to America 125 years ago and millions followed in search of the freedom she came to represent. The West Point Band and Cadet Glee Club helped celebrate the anniversary of the Statue of Liberty dedication on Oct. 28, joining hundreds of invited guests in the festivities.
Among the day’s highlights, 125 recent immigrants from 46 countries swore the oath of American citizenship. Following the performances by the West Point Band and Cadet Glee Club, actress Sigourney Weaver recited the poem, “The New Colossus” written by Emma Lazarus. Webcams perched on the statue’s torch captured the countdown as its lights switched on. The celebration capped off with a fireworks display. Photo by Mike Strasser, West Point Public Affairs

Q&A: Should illegal aliens in the USA be offered citizenship to fight in the war with the Terrorists?

Question by chwcs: Should illegal aliens in the USA be offered citizenship to fight in the war with the Terrorists?
Do you feel it would stop all of the illegal alliens in our country from being exploited. I feel that if they want to become americans they should have to help defend our country. I also believe that it would lower our cost to maintain them and give them back their dignity. That by fighting they become americian. Our founding fathers fought so that we could be free and become Indenpendent. All of us had come from different countries (with the execption of the americian native indians) I feel that if they want our rights then they should have to defend those rights.I feel that it would be the lesser of the two evils, ( sweat shops, abuse, rape, salvery)
Illegal alliens should not have our rights if they can not fight for freedom as our founding fathers. Yet as it stands now they march through our cities demanding those rights. Let them earn them. WHAT DO YOU THINK.

Dr. Sena, PhD

Best answer:

Answer by Michael S
yes

What do you think? Answer below!

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Request removal of their US citizenship? What is it called and can it be done?

Question by Romantic Rob: Request removal of their US citizenship? What is it called and can it be done?
With the health care (lack of it). Illegals getting food stamps an help from the gov’t but a regular citizen can’t get much help because they made to much money last year while self employed. This is a great miscarriage of justice. Among other issues why be a US citizen? Freedom? huh, there are more freedoms in other places in the world than here. 16 year military veteran.

Best answer:

Answer by David
You can renounce your citizenship … Once you have another citizenship to replace it
Then you have to leave the US …

Give your answer to this question below!

New US Citizenship Test, 2011 (Part 2 of 3)

Note: Some of the content in this video may change due to elections and appointments. As of June 2011, all information in this publication is current. Quick Civics Lessons Learn About the United States: The Constitution Says: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America” www.uscis.gov

US Citizenship and Immigration | Ciudadania Americana e Inmigracion

US Citizenship and Immigration | Ciudadania Americana e Inmigracion
Immigration is a hot market. Benefit from 100% unique content based on personal events. This is not legal advice. | La Inmigracion es un mercado muy cotizado. Aproveche el unico contenido 100% basado en eventos personales. Esto no es un consejo legal.
US Citizenship and Immigration | Ciudadania Americana e Inmigracion

is it legal for an american to move to cuba and still have the freedom to leave?

Question by kechonome: is it legal for an american to move to cuba and still have the freedom to leave?
lets say an american moves to cuba and gets citizenship. eventualy after some years he misses america and wants to move back. can he? also i heard that cuba is friendly with canada. is it different for canadians in cuba than americans?

Best answer:

Answer by lowbrasskicksass
i don’t believe so. but i could be wrong. and yes it is different for canadians in cuba.

What do you think? Answer below!

Why do blacks usually support the democrat party?

Question by paul: Why do blacks usually support the democrat party?
Anyone who looks at history can plainly see it has been the dems who have apposed equality.

After the civil war blacks were freed and given 40 acres and a mule as reparations for slavery but after Lincoln was assassinated President Andrew Johnson a democrat reversed the order and returned the lands to their white owners.

It was the republicans who passed the civil rights acts of 1866 and 1875 granting blacks protection from the Black Codes and prohibiting racial discrimination in public accommodations and amended the constitution 13th 14th and 15th amendments giving blacks freedom citizenship and the right to vote. It was the democrats who started the KKK then repealed the civil rights acts and replaced them with segregation and Jim Crow laws.

Black History Month was originally “Negro History Week” began in 1926 under Republican President Calvin Coolidge

The republican party was the Party of most blacks prior to the 1960’s, including Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Booker T. Washington, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

President Dwight Eisenhower(Republican) sent U.S. troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools, established the Civil Rights Commission in 1958, and appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court which resulted in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ending school segregation.

Republican Party, by the greatest percentage, passed the1957 Civil Rights Act and the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960’s.

President Richard Nixon who instituted the first Affirmative Action program in 1969 with the Philadelphia Plan that established goals and timetables.

The campaign for a federal holiday in King’s honor began soon after his assassination. President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed in 1986.

President George W. Bush who supported the U.S. Supreme Court’s University of Michigan Affirmative Action decision, and spent over $ 200 billion to fight AIDS in Africa and on programs to help black Americans prosper. $ 200 billion is triple what Clinton administration offered and Bush has promised to double that amount again by 2010.

Democratic Party fought to keep blacks in slavery and was the Party that established the Ku Klux Klan.

Democratic Party from 1870 to 1930 used fraud, whippings, lynching, murder, intimidation, and mutilation to get the black vote, and passed the Black Codes and Jim Crow laws which legalized racial discrimination and denied blacks their rights as citizens

Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Democratic President Harry Truman who rejected anti-lynching laws and efforts to establish a permanent Civil Rights Commission.

Democratic President John F. Kennedy who voted against the 1957 Civil Rights law as a Senator, then opposed the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. after becoming president, and later had the FBI (supervised by his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy) investigate Dr. King on suspicion of being a communist.

Democratic Senator Al Gore Sr. voted against the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960’s.

Democrat is the party of Senator Robert Byrd who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, Senator Fritz Hollings who hoisted the Confederate flag over the state capitol in South Carolina when he was the governor, and Senator Ted Kennedy who insulted black judicial nominees by calling them “Neanderthals” while blocking their appointments.

Democratic President Bill Clinton refused to comply with a court order to have shipping companies develop an Affirmative Action Plan.

So why do most blacks vote democrat?
“You cannot go into a Dunkin’ Donuts or a 7-Eleven unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking”
Sen. Joseph Biden Jr.
“My state was a slave state. My state is a border state. My state has the eighth largest black population in the country. My state is anything [but] a Northeastern liberal state.”
Sen. Joseph Biden Jr
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African American [Barack Obama] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice looking guy.”
Sen. Joseph Biden Jr
“There’s less than 1% of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than 4% or 5% that is, are minorities. What is it in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you’re dealing with.”
Sen. Joseph Biden Jr.
“Mr Obama could win since he was a “light-skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect”, unless he wanted one.”
Harry Reid (D Nevada)
“I’m blacker than Barack Obama. I shine shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in the black community not far from where we lived.”
Rod Blagojevish (D Chicago, Illinois)
“Everybody likes to go to Geneva. I used to do it for the Law of the Sea conferences and you’d find these potentates from down in Africa, you know, rather than eating each other, they’d just come up and get a good square meal in Geneva.”
–Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D., S.C.)
“I did not lie awake at night worrying about the problems of Negroes.”
–Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy
“Because when you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation. And you know what I’m talking about.”
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
Mahatma Gandhi “ran a gas station down in Saint Louis.”
-Senator Hillary Clinton
(On Clare




http://www.black-and-right.com/
http://www.nbra.info/

Best answer:

Answer by scott
The passing of welfare legislation by LBJ.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

A PLEA TO JACOB ZUMA – Strip Zionist Richard Goldstone of his South African citizenship and residential status

Citizenship and Freedom
by h de c

A PLEA TO JACOB ZUMAStrip Zionist Richard Goldstone of his South African citizenship and residential status.

By Stanley Collymore

 

Dear Mr President,

This is a personal plea to you both in your capacity as President of the Republic of South Africa and as an unrelenting fighter against apartheid.

Let me first give you some detailed background information of myself before venturing into why I am writing this letter to you. I’m British and was from the outset a member and active supporter of the Anti-apartheid Movement in the UK. A student at the time it was a very uphill battle for those of us who pinned our colours firmly to the mast of highlighting, attacking and doing everything legal in our power that we could think of to bring about democratic change and the dismantling of Apartheid in your country.

A formidable task we had no illusions about what we were undertaking knowing full well the vast range of political, civic, diplomatic, economic and military forces that were reined against us and which were quite extensive, redoubtable and at time extremely brutal in the process; but we’d psychologically prepared ourselves for this and were even prepared to risk and sacrifice our lives for the cause we’d undertaken, knew was a right and just one, and were in it for the long haul.

In Britain many of our members were constantly harassed by the civic forces organized against us including those of the police who regularly beat us up with impunity causing some of us to be hospitalized, arrested our members on spurious whims of their but never charged us of anything, preferring instead to keep us locked up in police cells overnight, humiliate us while there and release us after 24 hours detention. Meanwhile, the media routinely ridiculed us, made us out at best to be losers but more frequently branded us as fifth columnists and enemies of the state; some of them even accused us as agents who were working for foreign powers, notably Russia. None of them ever bothered to interview us, listen to anything we had to say, find out what we really stood for or objectively deal with the subject of apartheid, preferring instead to deal with abstracts and stick to their well rehearsed and intractable script that South Africa was an ally of Britain and the west, Blacks were incapable of ever looking after themselves let alone capable of running a state; that it was the whites who made South Africa the prosperous country it was and furthermore whites, as in what was then Southern Rhodesia, were our kith and kin.

Margaret Thatcher set the tone when she publicly declared and I quote her words: “Those who believe that the African National Congress (ANC) will become the government of South Africa are living in cloud cuckoo land.” What she conveniently failed to tell the world was that she and her husband Dennis were making enormous profits from business ventures they had in South Africa, getting the kind of financial returns on these that they would never have been able to receive in any so-called western state including the United Kingdom, as with having a small white minority forcibly and illegally in charge of South Africa, no democracy or adult suffrage in the country, the black population forcibly fragmented, told where it could and could not live, forced to carry passes to travel about its own land, literally treated as itinerant migrants within its own country, routinely split up as families by the state that fostered family breakups to intentionally break down cohesion among black people, and additionally paid starvation wages, the resultant massive financial profits that were made off their labour, exploitation, repression and misery were, in such circumstances, ideally suited from a white perspective to guarantee a much greater distribution of South Africa’s wealth to its white minority population, regardless of their lack of skills what little contribution that they actually made to the country’s economy and prosperity as they were all guaranteed jobs and supervisory roles for life vis-à-vis  the Blacks who were the ones that did the work, and, of course, foreign carpetbaggers and exploiters of whom there were many such western participants like Maggie Thatcher and her husband.

Well aware that we would be on the receiving end of rightwing racist attacks both verbally and physically we had resolved from the start of our campaign to adopt the Gandhian approach of passive resistance combined with non-violence knowing full well that even though this approach wouldn’t be an effective deterrent to these thugs among the public or in any way stop the police attacks against us as well as those orchestrated in the media , we were none the less determined  that our campaign would be based on civilized and mature standards of behaviour and high moral principles; and that none of our detractors and abusers would ever get us to descend from these benchmarks, which we’d voluntarily set ourselves, into the foul sewers of racism, intolerance and injustice where they were most comfortably at home and in their element.

Yes, we were hurt at times; but the physical pain from the unprovoked beating we received at the hands of the police viciously breaking up our peaceful demonstrations apart there was also the psychological pain derived from the share callousness of these inhuman purveyors and supporters of apartheid. Steve Biko’s murder, widely and dishonestly reported in the British media, both print and electronic, as a self-inflicted accident when purportedly in a customary black tirade (why is it that Blacks always get into tirades but whites somehow never do?) he slipped on a bar of soap and conveniently fell through the window of a room where he was being housed several stories up in that building. Remarkably the British media never for a moment questioned the veracity of these so-called facts from the apartheid regime in South Africa any more than they deem it necessary to question the lies of the Zionist authorities in Israel nowadays. No one asked  what this building was or why Steve Biko was there in the first place.

The reality was that it served as the torture centre of BOSS: the Bureau of State Security – how appropriately crass a name that fitted well into the white, racist, master race mindset vis-à-vis these savage Blacks as the majority population of South Africa were widely regarded not only in South Africa itself but among many whites in the west. Similarly there was no condemnation in the British media when the interior minister in the apartheid regime publicly stated and I quote: “Steve Biko’s death leaves me cold.” In fact the British media celebrated effusively the murder of another black man who they effortlessly labelled as a terrorist. Thanks to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission the entire world now knows  the truth and the full facts surround this case but the British and western media have never apologized for their craven subservience to the apartheid regime in South Africa, the lies which they willingly published or their deliberate defamation of Steve Biko.

Fast forward to April 2011 and we see boy Hague, the current British Foreign Secretary, talking about the denial by Colonel Gaddafi of human rights in Libya and his fellow British and so-called EU foreign counterpart, Catherine Ashton, demanding that Iraq recognizes the human rights of the MKO a well-documented terrorist organisation even in the west but is now being conveniently employed to carry out terrorist attacks in Iran at the west’s behest – while both these persons quite expediently overlook worse atrocities in Bahrain and Yemen. And who among the anti-apartheid movement in the United Kingdom can forget William Hague then a member of the British Young Conservatives along with many more of his ilk at the time happily parading themselves in counter pro-apartheid and police unmolested demonstrations, on university campuses and at Conservative Party conferences proudly wearing T-shirts banner headlined with the slogans: “Hang Nelson Mandela” and bomb the ANC, and like their leader Maggie Thatcher and the US President Ronald Reagan readily and regularly vilifying Nelson Mandela as a terrorist and the ANC as a terrorists organization; a classic case of openly rewording the vile apartheid abusers while selectively and unwarrantedly punishing their hapless victims.

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South Africa has quite remarkably out of its trauma made great strides since Nelson Mandela was released and adult suffrage permitted to all South Africans; nevertheless there’s still much to do and a long way still to go, as the long nightmare years of apartheid and the ANC’s opposition to it that predates the Russian Revolution  has left its dark and debilitating  legacy and it will take time to undo all the harm that the critics of a democratically black led South Africa and those hankering after the good old days point to as black incompetence and inability to run a modern, progressive, democratic state; although their interpretation of the word progressive – namely white controlled and white dominated – differs vastly from my own and all those who opposed apartheid. Anyway, I have no time for such people who when it suited their purposes ridiculed the ANC for being older than the Russian revolution yet made no significant progress as a resistance movement because of the non-violent stance it had taken but when it was forced to take up arms as it ultimately did in the wake of the increased barbarism of the apartheid state and its western collaborators perversely condemned it as a terrorist organization.

The treatment of Winnie Mandela too showed how sick these people were and still are. Vilified relentlessly in the British and western media as everything from a serial adulteress to someone advocating neckklacing black traitors it’s amazing how these people could have managed to keep straight faces while indulging in their nefarious pursuits of theirs against Winnie. Treating this remarkable and dignified lady with the contempt they have in the wake of her well-documented mistreatment at the hands of the apartheid regime is mindboggling.  To call her a serial adulteress when genuine serial adulterers and adulteresses like Prince Charles, Camilla, Princess Anne, Mark Phillips her ex husband, other prominent members of the British Royal Family, Paddy Ashdown of Bosnia infamy, Nancy Reagan, Bill Clinton, 99.9% of senior and well-known BBC staff members and those in the British media generally, as well as countless others who didn’t or would they ever have had to put up with the travails that Winnie Mandela was subjected to: arbitrary house arrest;  not allowed to have more than one visitors at a time; her husband locked away for 27 years and her visits to see him very much at the personal whims of the authorities and could be terminated at any time without rhyme or reason; the list goes on, is utterly risible as it is wholly repugnant.

What are Prince Charles’ excuses for treating Diana the way he did; or those of Paddy Ashton re his wife; or any of Winnie’s detractors who’ve been regularly having it off with their respective lovers unknowingly behind the backs of their wives, husbands or partners? I wasn’t aware that their spouses or partners were locked up for 27 years in the circumstances that Nelson Mandela was and all the rest of it, and that these poor, devils compelled to live in utter privation as Winnie Mandela was had to find some ways to relieve their sexual boredom or psychological pain. In fact the contrary is very much the case; as all of those mentioned above live and continue to do so in complete opulence; are highly privileged members of society and hold down very high-powered hereditary, political or otherwise influential media positions. So I ask once again; what are their rational excuses for putting it about as they’ve done and some of them still carry on doing while hypocritically asserting that it was wrong for Winnie Mandela to similarly and more realistically relieve her sexual tensions placed in the intolerable situation that she was in; single-handedly at first keeping her husband’s name in the spotlight when others didn’t want to know, and not even sure if she would ever see him again when those criticizing her wanted her husband dead? What rank hypocrisy and utter stupidity. Aren’t these buffoons aware of the old maxim that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones?

On the issue of necklacing, what’s wrong with the sentiment Winnie Mandela expressed? Why is it perfectly okay for westerners to seek revenge for real or imagined wrongs they perceive have been done against them but wholly wrong for others to contemplate let alone do the same? Lord Haw Haw, real name William Joyce, the Irish/American, pro-German radio propagandist broadcasting out of Berlin during World War II was captured, arrested, subjected to a brief sham trial and summarily hanged by the British at the conclusion of the war on transparently trumped up charges of treason, which was illegal as one can only lawfully be charged with treason if he or she is or was a citizen of the country trying that person on treason charges, and Lord Haw Haw was never a British citizen. What the British did was to indulge themselves in pure spiteful revenge since this man was not a military combatant but was simply one of Goebel’s propagandists who was very effective at his job of undermining British armed forces morale, and now the British authorities were getting their own back at him for this, which after all this time gives me hope that one day soon we’ll see some country or countries do the same  with the plethora of British and particularly BBC reporters, those of the US, notably Fox News; CNN; NBC: and ABC and for good measure other western propagandists as well; and I hope the west daren’t complain having set a precedent with Lord Haw Haw.

So I wholeheartedly then and still do now endorse what the bold Winnie Mandela said at the time. These were black traitors who knew and could see the physical and mental effects of apartheid on the majority black, suppressed people of South Africa yet they were prepared to sell out their own people; and I don’t know of any country or people in the entire world who if they were ever put in similar circumstances to those that Winnie Mandela was barbarously subjected to and continuously so for more than three decades wouldn’t have wanted these traitors equally and brutally eliminated from the face of the earth.

A measure of the civilized nature of black South Africans was that when they eventually won their epic struggle for freedom in the face of everything that was thrown at them and the murderous and inhuman treatment they were subjected to on a daily basis: forced removals of longstanding black communities to make way for white settlements; bantustanization, the pass laws; job reservations with Blacks told what jobs they could and could not have and such work as they got always being of a menial nature; the immorality laws which banned mixed race marriages or transracial sexual relationships to protect the alleged virtue of white women that they more often than not were less concerned about protecting themselves, although these laws were never designed to prevent white male rape of black domestics and other black females; the Sharpeville and Soweto Massacres and the iconic image of that brave black student carrying in his arms the dead body of his classmate in the systematic gunning down of unarmed, peaceful black students demonstrating to have a decent education for themselves and other blacks and not forced to be taught in their own country with its own languages in the hybrid dialect of their oppressors, they didn’t resort to the kind of violent and cold-blooded vindictiveness characteristic of whites but instead set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to bring about reconciliation in their country. Can you seriously imagine the United States, Britain, France, Canada, Australia or any other white ruled country even in 2011 doing the same in similar circumstances?  Don’t hold your breath on that one else you might choke for lack of air. It simply won’t happen!

Which brings me to the nub of why I’m writing to you Mr President. Richard Goldstone was one of those comfortable, white judges who presided over the pernicious practices of apartheid; no matter what the revisionists of South African history might say, all of whom are like their fellow Nazis in post war Germany that suddenly and conveniently became afflicted with mass amnesia, pretending that they didn’t know what was going on right under their noses, and let’s face facts South Africa’s Jews are no different from the rest of them. Yes, some Jews inside South Africa did courageously fight against apartheid and paid the ultimate price for doing so; Ruth First was one such person murdered by BOSS in neighbouring Mozambique where she’d gone to help black refugees there. Her husband Jo Slovo was also relentlessly targeted and was nearly killed by the apartheid regime but thankfully survived to see a democratic South Africa emerge in his life time and was made a minister in the post apartheid government of South Africa. Sadly he has passed away of cancer but the entire nation of South Africa led by its black majority which considers all South Africans as equals gave him a hero’s farewell which he richly deserved and along with people like myself mourn his passing. Where was Zionist Richard Goldstein? To use a military term he was AWOL; and very much defending the apartheid status quo. Nothing has changed with this man.

But we remember all too well those like Percy Yutar who the Boers cynically used as a Jew to prosecute Nelson Mandela and the enthusiasm with which he carried out his task. The Boers and their British counterparts had no love for the Jews all of whom were essentially refugees or the descendants of refugees fleeing over 200 years of pogroms against them right across Europe and including Russia where it all started and up to World War II, but recognizing that as whites they were very much in the minority in South Africa and hadn’t been able to do what their kith and kin had managed to do in Australia against the hapless Aborigines, or in the United States and Canada against the Native Americans and consequently there would always be a black majority in South Africa – hence the gerrymandering process of Bantustans pretending that the Blacks in South Africa were one people but several nations, no such Bantustans for the different cultural and linguistic Europeans though that had found their way to South Africa – the Boers and their complicit British colonialists were quite keen to have as many white men, women and children emigrate there to boost their numbers and although deep in their hearts they would have preferred they weren’t Jews, at least these Jews were white, so they held their noses, swallowed hard and allowed them in.

Nevertheless the Jews in South Africa despite their ordeal in Europe at the hands of their fellow whites who were Christians still by and large empathized with them in a manner that they weren’t prepared to or would they ever have allowed themselves to with their host country’s majority and indigenous black population and even more ironical they self-servingly and avariciously supported apartheid, a move that quickly benefited them enormously financially, making South African Jews even in 2011 the richest Jews anywhere on earth; as many of them got involved in South Africa’s diamond industry and with their expertise in this field came to dominate that industry whose HQ after the fall of apartheid in South Africa they moved to Israel which tells its own racist story, as Israel has no diamond mines.

Like many of his white, Jewish South African compatriots several of whom moved to Israel after the collapse of apartheid Richard Goldstone is an ardent Zionist and no different from all the others that infest Palestine now largely renamed Israel. Goldstone’s own daughter and other close family members have moved from South Africa to Israel where they currently live and are Israeli citizens, and for the UN to have so crassly given him the task of investigating Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity by this racist, colonialist, imperialist, apartheid and Zionist entity which has been implanted against the wishes of the indigenous Palestinians in their midst would have been similar to asking well known Nazis to preside over the Nuremburg Trials. Richard Goldstone was a United States and UK backed plant with complicit support for this move rendered by the EU; so what he’s done and the inconceivable shenanigans which are going on in the US Congress to have the report that carries his name rescinded comes as no surprise to me. It was planned that way.

But that’s not my worry. What concerns me is that this racist, Zionist Jew is being widely reported as a South African judge even though his sympathies obviously lie elsewhere and accordingly that deeply offends me and other anti-apartheid activists as well tarnishes with its attendant great harm to the positive image of post apartheid South Africa, and for a diversity of obvious reasons, among it true friends. South Africa which has been charitable, humane, magnanimous and civilized in victory in a way that no white country is capable of must consequently act and act decisively by severing all links with its reprehensible past; and that means among other things stripping Richard Goldstone of his South African citizenship even though he values his Israeli one much more, and additionally rescinding his residential rights to live and work in South Africa, making it abundantly and unequivocally clear to the whole world why this is being done.

You and the South African parliament must also be courageous enough to insist and immediately legislate to this effect that the operations connected with South Africa’s diamond industry and the companies involved in these stay in South Africa and it won’t be business as usual; and if such companies don’t care to conform with the new regime then let them know in no uncertain terms that they’ll be summarily thrown out of the country. I don’t know and neither do you of a single major industry in the so-called developed world whose headquarters isn’t there. Would Mercedes Benz move its HQ to India; British Aerospace to Barbados, or Boeing or Airbus to South Africa? I don’t think so; besides there’s national legislation in all of these countries to prevent key industries relocating elsewhere or foreigners, particularly non-whites, from gaining control of key, strategic companies and services in these countries.

South Africa as indeed all other African countries must do the same and stop being the copious supplier of raw materials from cocoa to diamonds which are shipped abroad, turned into valuable commodities there that these African countries can produce but the west would then prohibit them entering their markets, yet have no scruples whatever of converting these commodities which they buy for a pittance from these African countries, including yours, and then adding insult to injury sell them back to you at exorbitant prices. This must stop immediately, and you must do what the west does with its own products; have your own productions done at home in Africa, create your own markets and determine your own price for your goods, not leave that too to places like Tel Aviv as is the case with your diamond industry or the stock markets of Europe and the USA as is the case with all African products. You are a sovereign independent country; please act that way!

Finally Sir, I’d like to see a full public recognition and state rehabilitation of Winnie Mandela and a statue erected to honour and show our collective gratitude to this extraordinary Lady, everything she’s stood for, represents, and has done to help free South Africa from the bondage of apartheid and servitude; and you Mr President are more than most ideally equipped to do this. Stop letting the west and whites determine who Blacks should venerate and who they shouldn’t. Amandla; and God bless South Africa!

Stanley Collymore is an Academic, Journalist and Writer.

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