fallout over zapiro cartoon

it seems that there are a lot of bloggers that are upset about that aforementioned political cartoon.

now, while it breaches the bounds of good taste, metaphorically it is not incorrect. but, like noticing that someone has farted at an upscale dinner party, people are getting bent out of shape about it.

i do wonder sometimes about some of these people who are taking exception to the cartoon -- are they saying similar things when they're at home? just as there is a direct relationship between education and/or income with computer/internet access from home in this country, there is a parabolic relationship between education and support for the ANC. it's parabolic because most of the poor, for lack of a better phrase [and this sounds *really* tasteless, but...], they don't know any better. this is because the government has such a hold on the media, although it pretends not to, that it's the anc's message that gets to the poor and not anyone else's. plus, there the fact that the anc is the party of liberation for apartheid.

[of course the anc didn't do THAT by themselves either, but it's really doubtful that this part of the message has trickled down that far either. most people who have never left south africa don't even know the extent that the sanctions and boycotts of south african goods had on the end of apartheid, even the rich ones. so to think that the poor would be privy to such information, given the very real digital divide here, is a bit of a stretch. ]

it's a parabolic relationship because the high end of society has to at least pay lip service to the anc [even if they live in very reliably non-anc parliament constituencies] if they want to keep sucking from the government teat in the form of preferred contracts and the like.

as more people become educated, support for the anc will erode. this, by the way, is the real cause of the economic meltdown in zimbabwe, not the "seizure of white farms" [which is by far the better media-friendly story].

i wonder if that will happen here -- the cynic in me says that this is a major reason that service delivery, especially in education, is such crap in the eastern cape: should the people become educated, they could see how badly the anc and its crony hangers-on are ripping off the place.

oh well. on verra

zuma, again.

so, the anc and the alliance partners are upset at jonathan shapiro.

most south africans don't know who that is by name, but he makes political cartoons under the moniker "zapiro", which a lot of people do.

while he's loudly cheered the good things about this place, he has also loudly mocked what's wrong with this place.

yesterday's photo is a loud mockery of what's wrong with this place.

but before the photo, the backstory:

the heir apparent to the presidency of south africa, jacob zuma, has beaten a rape charge, but is awaiting trial on corruption charges [some of which have his financial advisor currently sitting in "jail". i say "jail" instead of jail because he is in a hospital due to severe high blood pressure and not actually in jail.]

zuma consistently says that he wants a speedy trial, which is his right, but has been throwing all kinds of roadblocks into what, exactly, can be used as evidence in his trial. this is also his right, but it goes against the whole "wanting a speedy trial" bit. in addition, the clock is ticking. if he can hold on without having gone to trial until april, it's very likely that he will do a chirac -- that is, have legislation passed against holding a trial against a currently serving president.

hm.

in addition, there are calls now that there be a political solution to this problem. um, hello, it's a criminal case, why should there be a political solution? "because it was politically motivated," his supporters say. um, and? even if it were, let them go to court. plain and simple.

with all this is mind, here is the cartoon over which the ANC is fuming:





i'll admit, when i saw this in the paper yesterday, i was like "wow. someone's going to get angry over that." which is exactly what happened.

the shower on top of zuma's head is there because during the rape trial -- zuma had unprotected sex with a woman who he knew to be hiv-positive -- he said that after the sex he "took a shower to wash off the aids". [we won't even begin to go into THAT lapse of judgment, but i do think he should cough up with a blood test. i mean, he's got 17 kids by 8 different women, he needs to be seriously checked out.]