At first glance, South Africa is a first-world country. It’s when you take a deeper look at the country today, some 20 years since the peaceful handover of power from the hands of the rigid apartheid government to “the people” (read: the black majority), that you begin to wonder.

South Africa's now-creaking electrical power grid, the failed gold mines, the crumbling roads and the generally degenerating communications, transport and social welfare infrastructure are alarming. Yet the country's foreign policy could be described in the same way.

According to Howard Sackstein, writing in Politcsweb.com, “[South Africa has] watched [its] close friends and allies in the Middle East tumble from power in the Arab Spring.” South Africa supported (and in some cases still supports) the kleptocratic dictators of Swaziland, Sudan and Zimbabwe in Africa; in Burma (now Myanmar), and Iran, Saudi Arabia and China (to name just a few). Muamar Ghaddafi of Libya was a darling of South African politics. The government of South Africa still maintains a crashing silence on the murderous civil war in Syria.

Meanwhile, Pretoria has embraced the Palestinian Hamas and Fatah terrorist organizations in Gaza and the West Bank, and has feted their representatives on visits to...More >>

You ain't seen nothing yet, claims MI-5's spy chief. Naturally, radicalized terrorists are not going to stay over there. These people are going to bring their wars with them:

"Some will return to the U.K. and pose a threat here," Evans said. "This is a new and worrying development and could get worse as events unfold. So we will have to manage the short-term risks if there is to be a long-term reward from the Arab Spring."

Yeah, we knew that. But the spin that's coming out of the usual dark corners is pathetic.

Disturbingly (but not unpredictably), RussiaToday brings in "Middle East Peace Activist" Franklin Lamb (a regular on the network) to explain the situation -- presumably to confuse viewers who weren't paying attention into thinking that this was actually the head of MI-5. Why else would a "respectable" media organization bring in a blatantly partisan useful idiot like this dud to try to explain an intelligence assessment? They introduce him as an "Activist" -- when as a news organization, you would think they would want to talk to Director General Security Service M15 Jonathan Evans directly, or a British...More >>

After belatedly coming to the realization that the United Nations mission was pointless; actually, worse than pointless, since Syrian citizens were under the impression that the world was at least trying to do something to help them.

There is no help coming.

There is no redemption.More >>

Disgusting savagery. Listen for the sound of Western feminists and liberal progressives protesting this atrocity. Hear crickets.

Earlier in the week, an Associated Press reporter witnessed around 200 men assault a woman who eventually fainted before men trying to help could reach her.

Friday's march was called to demand an end to sexual assaults. Around 50 women participated, surrounded by a larger group of male supporters who joined to hands to form a protective ring around them. The protesters carried posters saying, "The people want to cut the hand of the sexual harasser," and chanted, "The Egyptian girl says it loudly, harassment is barbaric."

After the marchers entered a crowded corner of the square, a group of men waded into the women, heckling them and groping them. The male supporters tried to fend them off, and it turned into a melee involving a mob of hundreds.

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