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
First, Mr Vavi is speaking the truth — corruption is real. Anyone denying it is living in a fool’s paradise. We are producing more scandals than our soccer team can score goals. Second, Mr Vavi is articulating thoughts and fears of the dejected electorate. Our partisan and docile Parliament cannot be trusted to defend democracy. One can’t help but think that P arliament’s duty is to protect the executive. In the absence of strong opposition parties, the likes of Mr Vavi are our prophets and voices of sanity. It is absurd for elected officials to live in opulence whilst the masses are trapped in poverty. Democracy cannot benefit the few and exclude the rest. – Dr Lucas Ntyintyane in a letter in Business Day
