MIERLEEU: April 2012
Ek en Esther en Pierre en Thys en Kiem was saam in die Laerskool Newton.
Ek dink Esther en Kiem was al van sub. A af saam en ek het in sub. B bygekom en Pierre in st. 3 toe sy Ma ons juffrou was en ek kan nie mooi onthou of Thys in st. 4 of 5 by ons aangesluit het nie en ons almal het toe in 1967 in st. 6D by die Hoërskool Pearson beland.
Wyle Kiem, wat op 17 Junie 2004 die voortou geneem het, het hom al van kleins-af besig gehou met dinge wat nie heeltemal vanselfsprekend was nie, soos, trouens, 'n voorvader van hom, te wete Hans (Dons) de Lange.
Kiem het tóé al 'n besondere belangstelling in Siener van Rensburg en sy profesieë gehad en toe ons in Pearson was, het ons die Port Elizabethse stadsbiblioteek, agter die ou Klipvrou (Victoria), ontdek en baie ure in dié Ali Babasgrot geslyt.
Kiem het gepromoveer tot die Teosofie en karakters soos Madame Blavatsky en ek het met tanende belangstelling toegekyk, want my voete was te stewig in die klei van ons alledaagse, Calvinisties-Protestantse godsdiens geplant, waar daar nie plek was vir allerlei uitheemse goed nie.
In ons klas by Pearson was Rugby onteenseglik die onderskeidende faktor: seuns wat rugby gespeel het, was lid van die SHH (sê maar machos) en die ander was lid van die GRA (sê maar nerds).
Wyle Kiem was ongetwyfeld lid van die GRA en wyle Thys uitgesproke lid van die SHH en ek weet dat daar nie 'n besondere hegte band tussen hulle bestaan het nie, want synde die jonger broer van die eerste rugbyspankaptein, kon ek nie anders as om rugby te speel nie, weliswaar vir die vierde span en gevolglik was ek 'n soort oorgangsfiguur tussen die SHH en die GRA.
Ons moenie die lewe en die dood op sig aanvaar nie - daar bestaan baie meer ondergrondse en onsigbare verbindinge en netwerke as wat ons besef: só, byvoorbeeld, gaan wyle Thys se begrafnis op 2 Mei plaasvind, die dag waarop Kiem 58 sou word en hierdie groep het op 3 Mei 2009 begin.
Ek is seker dat Kiem, met al sy kennis en ondervinding van hul nuwe dimensie, Thys daar goed touwys sal maak en wanneer Thys hierdie woorde ongemerk oor ons skouer lees: wens ou Kiem gerus namens my geluk met sy verjaarsdag in die vorige dimensie...
Met liefde vir die vér familie
Author: Moneyweb |
Remgro’s Thys Visser dies
He also served as chairperson of Rainbow Chicken.
LISTEN: Grindrod sells R2bn stake to Remgro: Alan Olivier (Grindrod) & Thys Visser (Remgro)
JOHANNESBURG - Remgro's (JSE:REM) CEO Thys Visser (58) passed away in a motor accident. He served as chairperson of Rainbow Chicken (JSE:RBW) and as non-executive director of RMB Holdings (JSE:RMH) Limited. He was also a disciple of Warren Buffett and attended his annual AGM
He built Remgro into a FTSE/JSE Top 40 company with diverse interests across a number of market sectors, invested in both listed and unlisted companies.
Until 2008, Remgro's most valuable investment was in its 10.6% share in British American Tobacco (BAT). This interest, which made up more than 50% of its market capitalisation, was however unbundled in the massive restructuring of the Rupert-family's group of companies.
Approximately 65% of Remgro's portfolio is held in JSE-listed companies, including 31.4% of RMB Holdings, 31.5% of RMI Holdings, 3.9% of First Rand, 45.2% of Medi-Clinic, 33.3% of Distell, 73.3% of Rainbow Chicken and 4.4% of Impala Platinum. It also holds interests in unlisted companies such as Unilever South Africa, Kagiso Trust Investments, Tsb Sugar and Total South Africa.
Hordes soek hul heil in die hemele
tas tevergeefs 'n heelal af na lewe
terwyl die hele aarde ín en óm ons
in alle vorms van die lewe bewe!
Wie wil beweer dat ons nie weet
waar die wind vandaan kom
of waar hy heengaan nie
voer onteenseglik 'n monoloog
en dink waarskynlik die bos is stom.
Gistermiddag op my daagliks tog deur die kouters
hoor ek helder, luid gedra op Etunazstemme
die boodskap dringend dreun oor woud en veld
vér familie in die Suide het dit eers gemeld
Aangereik van stam tot stam
oor volle lengte van die Vasteland
het die vér familie van die Avondland
die sein van lange afstand geregistreer
en aan elk oor weer gegee wat waarlik luister
Op my terugweg vanaand
het die bome net gefluister...
as jy jou
in propria persona,reaksionêre digkunssó kan tik:PP 2012 - 1986kalendertji[e] tiktyd gaan verbybang is ek nieen ook nie eg bly-ek sug en ek lagons lag en verwag:vir jou wil ek hêvir hom- agteraf beskou -vir my huiwer ek om jou
kunsverse te aanskou
my lot is net
om dié spel
wat skuil agter jou gesigis dit ’n lag of is dit ’n sugis jy bangof is jy blywie stel belangwie wil jou vermywat wil jý vermyvertel
The Afghan endgame mirageAPRIL 1, 2012 - 1:09PMCarl BildtAbout the AuthorSTOCKHOLM – On a recent visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan, I could not fail to notice the increasingly frequent international calls for an “endgame” in Afghanistan. But an endgame for that country is a dangerous illusion: the game will not end, and neither will history. The only thing that could come to an end is the world’s attention and engagement in Afghanistan, which could well lead to catastrophic consequences.Much international focus is now on the year 2014, the target date for completion of the gradual transfer of responsibility for security from international forces to the Afghan government. This process is not without challenges, but there is no reason to believe that it could not be finalized more or less according to plan and the current timetable.My belief is that there is another, far more critical challenge facing Afghanistan in 2014: the election of a new president. In a system where so much power – open and hidden, constitutional and traditional – is centered around the president, the election could well turn into an all-out battle for the country’s future.The presidential election of 2009 – in which Hamid Karzai gained a second term – was a highly contentious affair, and neither the Afghan political system nor the international community came through it with flying colors. Together with the battle over the Taliban’s future role in the country, the struggle for power in 2014 could reanimate divisions that take the country back to the brink of a wider civil war, with the liberal technocrats of Kabul crushed between a resurgent Northern Alliance and a wider “Pashtun Pact.”Such a scenario would, of course, spell disaster for Afghanistan. But the implications would be far broader. We must not ignore the grave dangers that it would pose for Pakistan, where a new round of jihadist rhetoric and mobilization could be fatal to hopes of building a stable and more secure country. We should have learned the lesson of the 1980’s: ignorance is not bliss.What, then, is the proper policy for the international community?First, we must focus on what is most important – a transition to a post-Karzai system that is seen as reasonably legitimate by all parts of Afghanistan. This is primarily a question of making the elections as free and as fair as possible, and here the United Nations’ role will be critical. But it is also imperative to establish a wide national consensus on the rules of the game. Karzai can leave no better legacy than an orderly transition, and has no interest in seeing all that he has achieved go up in flames.Second, we must encourage a true regional dialogue that prevents Afghanistan from becoming a battleground for devastating proxy wars. Here, the key will be to bridge the gulf between Pakistan’s government and the forces of northern Afghanistan. Pakistan must do whatever is necessary to convince everyone that it will not play a hidden game with the Taliban – assuming, of course, that it has no such intention.It is equally important that Pakistan and India engage in an open dialogue that can establish trust and transparency in their respective policies concerning Afghanistan. Today, this dialogue hardly exists, and their mutual maneuvering, fueled by mistrust, could easily destabilize their weaker neighbor.Finally, for reasons of history, geography, and culture, Iran’s role in Afghanistan cannot and should not be ignored.There is no reason why the West’s strategic objectives concerning Afghanistan should change fundamentally in the coming years. The key now is to get our priorities right. Securing an orderly political transition and encouraging a deep and broad regional dialogue should now be at the top of the international agenda for Afghanistan. Not only are these objectives important in themselves; they are also central in creating the right framework for a settlement between the various Afghan parties and the Taliban.Some now argue that large-scale engagement in Afghanistan was a mistake. But, in the mirror of history, we can see that the greater mistake has been to abandon the country altogether.Afghanistan connects Central and South Asia, and a breakdown of order there would pose grave risks in both directions. Moreover, the world – not just the West, but Russia and China as well – would risk global proliferation of drugs, weapons, and terror.The task now is not to seek an illusory endgame. The book is not finished; we are merely entering a new chapter. What we must do now is create the framework for a more stable Afghanistan, and for sustained international engagement in a region that is crucial for global stability.
by Prof. John KozyGlobal Research, April 2, 2012
"steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world"George Washington, 1796Is American imperialism a Bilderberger plot? Are the American bankers, diplomats, and members of the Council on Foreign Relations all traitors, having turned America into merely an instrument to carry out their Bilderberger maniacal aims? Does America as a sovereign nation even exist anymore?
Consider the possibility that the Bilderbergers have already bought off the governments of Western Europe, North America, and the remnants of the British Empire that still cling to the Queen's skirts. If that be true, the only remaining obstacles to a Bilderberger success are the BRICS and the Moslem world. The WTO and promises of free trade and pie in the sky prosperity can be used to subvert the BRICS which leaves the Moslem countries as the last bulwark in defense of free, independent, and sovereign nations. When one realizes just how ironic that is, the realization of just how far the Bilderbergers have already come in advancing their agenda really strikes home.
Sometime during the First World War, the well-meaning but naïve American president, Woodrow Wilson, came up with the idea that every ethnic minority in Eastern Europe was entitled to its own nation, a nation for every ethnicity, and he persuaded the victorious powers to create such nations while writing the peace treaties that ended the war. It was a bad idea.Before the war, central and Eastern Europe was dominated by Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was comprised of more than a dozen ethnic groups. There were Germans (i.e., Austrians), Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Ukrainians, Serbs, Croats, Slavs, Romanians, and more.When the war ended, several treaties were imposed on the defeated nations, all of which had to give up territory to the victorious powers and a number of newly created nations (Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Czechoslovakia). Several nations were enlarged (Denmark, Russia, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Italy). The Ottoman Empire was dismembered. Turkey lost most of its land in Europe and Arabia was made into a mandate ruled by the British and French, Syria and Lebanon went to France and Iraq, Transjordan, and Palestine went to Britain. In the end, all of this up-carving was naught but a gigantic failure, the consequences of which we are still living with today.The bug in the broth was obvious. People migrate. In the fifty-one years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, peoples moved within it. All Poles did not stay in the area that became Poland; Serbs did not stay in Serbia; Croats did not stay in Croatia. When the empire was dismembered, peoples of all nationalities were everywhere. Putting them together again in homogenous groups was impossible. Additionally, some of those of German nationality ended up in France, Denmark, Poland, Czechoslovakia and who knows where else.Realpolitik in Europe in the early twentieth century was characterized by a plethora of treaties. Bismarckian balance of power relationships ruled the day. Nations lined up with each other to oppose other groups of nations to balance another group's power. The idea was that if the groups were equally strong peace was assured. How wrong they were.Even after the war these balance of power relationships continued. (In fact, they continue to this day.) So when Germany began to balk at the onerous conditions placed upon it by the Treaty of Paris, it wanted to retake the territory it had lost and reunite the German peoples scattered throughout Eastern Europe. The peace lasted a mere twenty-nine years! Germany easily took back the territory that had been ceded to France. The Austrians, being a Germanic people, willingly allowed Austria to be annexed. Then the Germans went for the Germans in the territory that had been ceded to Czechoslovakia. War was on the horizon because England and France objected to all of this German expansion, but they ultimately acquiesced, drawing a line on any German expansion into Poland by committing their countries to go to war with Germany if Poland were invaded. In essence, they wrote a treaty, believing that this treaty would work to balance their power with Germany's and thus prevent war. But it was a sham.Germany, knowing that neither England nor France were prepared to go to war, invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 after signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Russia (the USSR) to keep it from joining England and France. As a result, the English and French made some minor forays into Germany that were easily repulsed, and Germany easily overran Poland. After that, the English were driven from the continent and the French surrendered.Almost everyone knows this story, so why am I retelling it. Well the story is old news and not important, but no one has analyzed the role of the treaties involved in it.What effect did the English and French treaty to come to the aid of Poland have? It didn't prevent the war. Nor did it help Poland which was overrun at least twice and utterly destroyed. The English and French never liberated Poland. The treaty didn't extinguish Germany's desire to expand its territory, for shortly after France surrendered, Germans invaded Russia. What did this treaty do? It merely expanded the war.For the purposes of this paper, it doesn't matter that that expansion may have been a good thing in the long run. What is most important is the recognition that when the treaty was invoked, it diminished the sovereignties of both England and France.A nation is sovereign when it alone is responsible for its behavior. A sovereign nation can go to war or not. A sovereign nation makes its own decisions. But neither the British nor the French made the decision to go to war. The decision was made in Berlin. The German decision to invade Poland was also a decision to bring England and France into the war. After agreeing to come to Poland's aid, the British and French no longer had any say in the matter. It was all up to Germany.Germany and Italy were in a similar position. They had a mutual assistance treaty with Japan. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the attack brought Germany and Italy into a war with the United States, a war which neither Germany nor Italy wanted at the time. So the treaty with Japan reduced Italian and German sovereignties. The decision to bring them into war with the United States was not made in Berlin or Rome; it was made in Tokyo. That decision was completely up to the Japanese. The Germans and Italians had nothing to do with it.So the interesting question is, do all treaties reduce the sovereignties of the nations that enter into them? I am certain the answer is yes. Treaties which are entered into in hopes of preventing wars ultimately expand them and nations find themselves fighting wars they never conceived of because an insignificant member of a treaty can somehow start a war that then extends to all of the treaty's signatories.In fact, World War I started in exactly that way. The war which killed more than 15 million and wounded more than 20 million was started by the assassination on June 28, 1914 of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, by a Yugoslav nationalist. Because of it, Austria went to war with Serbia. Alliances formed over previous decades, brought the major powers into the war within weeks. How many of these nations would have gone to war over that assassination had the treaties not existed? No one will ever know!None of the nations except Austria had a hand in deciding to go to war. The decision for every nation involved, except perhaps the United States, was made in Vienna. By signing these treaties, each of these nations gave up their sovereignties. They were no longer masters of their own fates.Since the end of World War II, the United States has insanely fostered treaty making. There are NATO, SEATO, and only Washington knows what else. Any puny nation that is part of any of these treaties can draw not only the United States but all of the other signatories in to a colossal conflagration. Americans like to pretend that they control these treaty-groups. America refers to itself as a "first among equals." But that expression is an oxymoron. If there is a first, the rest are not equals, and if all are equal, there is no first! How would Americans react if something happened in Bangladesh that drew the United States into a worldwide war? Realpolitik is a receipe for disaster. Why have we not paid attention to the advice of George Washington?Two European immigrants to America, both Bilderbergers, who speak with heavy European accents and harbor Bismarckian complexes bear much responsibility for this situation, (Bismarck's balance of power policies brought peace to Germany for a mere 43 years) but they are not alone.However balance of power treaties are not the only culprits. Trade agreements are just as bad. Look at what the Maastricht Treaty which established the European Union has done to Greece and threatens to do to other European countries. Today's Quisling Greek government is now little more than a tool of Europe's more prosperous states. When Greece's former socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou proposed a popular referendum on the Greek sovereign debt bailout, the European Union scotched it. Now Greece no longer has the power to call an election that the Union objects to. Greece has even lost its democracy.But the effect of trade agreements is far more extensive than the EU.". . . big financial players have another potential weapon in their battle against safety and soundness. This one is more hidden from view and comes from, of all places, the World Trade Organization in Geneva.Back in the 1990s, when many in Washington — and virtually everyone on Wall Street — embraced the deregulation that helped lead to the recent crisis, a vast majority of W.T.O. nations made varying commitments to what's called the financial services agreement, which loosens rules governing banks and other such institutions.Many countries, for instance, said they would not restrict the number of financial services companies in their territories. Many also pledged not to cap the total value of assets or transactions conducted by such companies. These pledges also appear to raise trouble for any country that tries to ban risky financial instruments.According to the W.T.O., 125 of its 153 member countries have made varying degrees of commitments to the financial services agreement. Now, these pledges could easily be used to undermine new rules intended to make financial systems safer."So now, nations may not even have the power to regulate their financial institutions which, in fact, extends to their economies as a whole. The World Trade Organization rules all.So how did that happen? Well, people have been trying to create a world government for a long time. To do that, nation states must be rendered effete. Consider what David Rockefeller said at a Bilderberg meeting in 1991:"We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries."Well given what the "intellectual elite and world bankers" did to the global economy in 2008, do you really want them to rule all? World government, in order to work, requires that ethnic and religious distinctions be expunged. But ethnic characteristics are often physical and the French and the Russians, after their revolutions, tried and failed to extinguish their peoples' religious beliefs. So how do you believe a new one world government would react to ethnic and religious uprisings world-wide? Would the entire world begin to look like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and countless parts of Africa? Is such a world surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries"? More importantly, is American imperialism a Bilderberger plot? Are the American bankers, diplomats, and members of the Council on Foreign Relations all traitors, having turned America into merely an instrument to carry out their maniacal aims? Does America as a sovereign nation even exist anymore? Remember what Jefferson says about banks: "banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies."Consider the possibility that the Bilderbergers have already bought off the governments of Western Europe, North America, and the remnants of the British Empire that still cling to the Queen's skirts and are now using all of these nations as tools to bring about their goal of imposing a single bankers' government on its New World Order. If that be true, the only remaining obstacles to a Bilderberger success are the BRICS and the Moslem world. The WTO and promises of free trade and pie in the sky prosperity can be used to subvert the BRICS which leaves the Moslem countries as the last bulwark in defense of free, independent, and sovereign nations. When one realizes just how ironic that is, the realization of just how far the Bilderbergers have already come in advancing their agenda really strikes home.Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling is long dead, but his soul has multiplied and now inhabits the bodies of greedy merchants and maniacal diplomats and politicians the world over. For the most part, these people hold respected places in society. Shouldn't they be vilified instead? What has any Rockefeller or Bilderberger done for you or anyone you know?
John Kozy is a retired professor of philosophy and logic who writes on social, political, and economic issues. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he spent 20 years as a university professor and another 20 years working as a writer. He has published a textbook in formal logic commercially, in academic journals and a small number of commercial magazines, and has written a number of guest editorials for newspapers. His on-line pieces can be found on http://www.jkozy.com/ and he can be emailed from that site's homepage. Posted by