Affirmative action FTW

[luzribeiro]

Here's a terrible case for your review:

http://news.iafrica.com/sa/943006.html

"The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has released a statement saying affirmative action kills babies. In the statement, it says race-based policies are being used as a veil to conceal corruption and incompetence and many vulnerable communities are paying a deadly

Comments

[yes_justice]

"There is no doubt that the officials responsible for these deaths were appointed, at least in part, on grounds of race-based affirmative action and that a direct causal link therefore exists between the policy and the deaths."

Whites under apartheid never made engineering mistakes or had issues with contaminated water? Even after reading the article, I need a clearer line drawn between AA and bad water/dead babies. I'm thinking that the closer this is examined, the link to apartheid itself is strong than to the AA reaction to it.

But two decades have passed now, and apartheid can no longer serve as the sole excuse for our problems

There isn't a hard time line. Two decades is just one generation. Didn't it take way longer than that to create the problem? May take longer to fix it. Addressing the institutional and cultural issues may take longer than they took to create.

The fact is, consistently putting people into job positions which they cannot manage, puts pressure on the person themselves, and causes damage and even

[luzribeiro]

Two decades is just one generation, and yet at least traces of improvement are to be expected, in case the effort is in the right direction. When there's no improvement but instead deterioration, then things must have been done the wrong way, no? I'm OK with a problem taking longer to fix, the real problem is that there's no signs that work is being done towards fixing it. And people all around the country have started realizing this, and are growing increasingly angry because of that

[yes_justice]

at least traces of improvement are to be expected

(Consider what happened to the Native Americans in my country, some plants don't grow back.)

I'm sure you can find an good anecdote to counter your dead babies bad water one? Also, when white engineers kill babies by failing to clean the water, what is blamed?

Not the strike was due to incompetence, the police response was full of incompetence, and that cost human lives.

Was the police force AA populated? Would non-AA force behave differently? Forgive me, it was before I was born in a different country, I am ignorant.

Do the AA for education and training, and then hire accordingly. Its so much easier to see the micro effects of Affirmative Action while ignore the macro effects of Apartheid.

Whatever they say, AA does remain racially based, and, given the fact that it's being misused to exploit millions of people of a particular ethnic group, it *is* racist.By definition, its fighting fire with fire

[luzribeiro]

I don't need anecdotes. All I need is statistics, economic data, election results, and current polls about the public's perception of their government.

Post-Mandela South Africa Is a Nation on Edge
http://www.thetelescopenews.com/index.php/africa/3451-post-mandela-south-africa-is-a-nation-on-edge.html
"Recent elections exposed a weakening ANC, with an embattled president and an economy no longer pre-eminent on the continent."

South Africa still a chronically racially divided nation, finds survey
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/06/south-africa-racially-divided-survey
"Reconciliation barometer poll finds 43% rarely or never speak to someone from another race, denting rainbow nation ideal"South Africa to Vote for Zuma Even if They Don’t Like Him

[yes_justice]

I have stuff in the meat world to deal with this morning. Talk to you in a while.

[yes_justice]

I don't need anecdotes. All I need is statistics, economic data, election results, and current polls about the public's perception of their government.

Okay, thanks. There is more overview in those articles to digest. Will take me time.

The first one:

"The once hopeful post-colonialist story of South Africa is now battered by crime, poverty and HIV/AIDS, forcing an uncomfortable re-examination. It makes it sound like the starting point was more utopian than it was, ya know

[luzribeiro]

Of course there's always more factors than just one, and more is going on than mere AA. I never said otherwise. The culture of nepotism, cronyism and corruption runs deep in this society as well as other societies. And AA has only helped enhance that process rather than counter it. That's the whole point. AA is neither the root cause nor the panacea, but unless it's reviewed and modified, it'll only be helping the situation deteriorate more.

The ANC's alternative is ANC itself. A different ANC, the ANC of Mandela rather than Zuma, an ANC that truly provides opportunities for the people, rather than fortifying its political position by means of economic and social control, AA being one among those means.

[yes_justice]

Good thing people like nairiporter above are doing their best in that respect.

PS: Yes, more like her please!