Sudan

[Officer Dibble]

What about all this Darfur bollocks, eh? The BBC have been hyping it up recently, with the (unspoken) undercurrent that we should 'do something' about it. But I say t' fuck with 'em. I mean the last time we intervened to stop a crap regime terrorising and murdering it's own people poncy middleclass handwringers were up in arms about it - in fact they?re still going on about it now.

So, I reckon the best thing in this instance will be to mind our own business and leave the odious, incompetent, corrupt regime to get on with it. After all, we wouldn?t want to be labelled imperialists, now, would we?

Officer Dibbs

[Pervert]

What's happening in Darfur is no different than what happened in the former Yugoslavia---ethnic cleansing or, to give it its less PC term, genocide. The African population are being driven out by the Arab-related regime. It's a variation on what Mugabe was and is doing in Zimbabwe to white farmers. Or is it only something we should take action on when the oppressed people are white?

A casual disregard for human life is seen as symptomatic of the Chav culture you have such hatred for, yet you seem to have similar thinking. Time for you to get kitted out in Burberry, Ossifer, and spend all your money on bling-bling.

[Officer Dibble]

You seem to have misinterpreted what I was rather mischievously getting at - that the hand wringing middles classes have shunted themselves into a tight spot over Darfour. They wouldn?t have much problem with us 'taking action' in this instance. But they can't really say that now that they have just caused such a fuss about us dealing with the Sadam regime (where the oppressed people were certainly not "white"). So for me it's all rather jolly observing their middleclass discomfiture.

See, that's the advantage of having no pretensions, or allegiances to nutty dogmatic political doctrines - you don't hold yourself hostage to fortune, or charges of hypocrisy, and can do the necessary when commonsense dictates.

Regarding Chavs: If there's one positive thing you can say about them, it's that they don't hold any pretentious political views. The middle classes hold the franchise on that.



Officer Dibble

[Pervert]

Sorry for misreading, Dibbers.

[Deuce Bigolo]

Another case of Genocide arises....Nomads vs Farmers....ethnic cleansing has been going for centuries and isn't likely to let up anytime soon with or without the Wests intervention

I agree it should be left to the UN toothless tiger to resolve in their usual all talk & no action style otherwise we might as well invade all Countries that violate Human Rights and set up a Big brother Dictatorship starting at the top of the atrocity pile with China in Tibet

cheers
B...OZ

[Officer Dibble]

I took that position just to be provocative and illustrate the inconsistencies and hypocrisy you alluded to. However, looking at it objectively, there is virtually no advantage (nothing to be gained) by us intervening in that theatre. The place is semi desert and all the folks live in mud hunts. There would be no political or strategic advantage for us were it to go well - unlike Iraq, with it's central position in the Muslim world, it's educated elite, and it's awesome oil deposits.

I've always been extremely keen to kick Mugabe into touch and have said so on a number of occasions. Now, Zimbabwe, with 'the right government', could be the jewel in the crown of Africa (as it used to be). So, it's worth the risk.

Officer Dibble

[chatterji]

Much as I don't want to get involved in responding to your boring agent provocateur poses, you really should know your facts before you go spouting off. It would make your stances a tad more fun.

Can't be arsed to go into your take on Sudan, but I have to take issue with your hilarious 'jewel in the crown' quip about pre-independence Zimbabwe. Mugabe is insane, but his regime is no more vicious or repressive than Smith's. It's a kleptocracy in exactly the same way. The few stealing from the many.

I visited Rhodesia as a teenager in the 1970s. My uncle emigrated out there and paid for us to come and see him. It was the only foreign trip I had as a kid, and it made a massive impression. It was particularly memorable when I watched a black woman beaten to a pulp, by white police with riot batons, in central Salisbury, because she'd been accused of shoplifting. Her eye fell out onto the pavement. I puked my guts up. So did my mum. My, how we laughed. Still, Salisbury had nothing on the farms. We spent time in a farming area, with some friends of my uncle's. My dad was so shocked by the way the farmers in the region treated their workers, and the conditions their employees lived in, that he cut our trip short. My dad was right wing, working class, but he knew slavery when he saw it.

Ah yes, Orificer Drivel, Rhodesia really was a diamond in Africa's tiara.

[Officer Dibble]

I take your point chatterji. But what makes you think I wasn't aware of the kind of stuff you mention? Do I give the impression of having rose tinted specs stapled on? Do you think I condone the barbaric treatment of the black woman in your anecdote? Do I have to qualify everything I say?

I'm fully aware of history and the ways of the world. But stepping back now and looking at the Zimbabwe issue objectively it seems quite clear to me that the country under Ian Smith was far more ordered and prosperous than under Mugabe, and hence the lesser of two evils. Would you disagree with that? And if you agree that Mugabe is corrupt and insane, why pray do you take exception to us putting the boot in him and his regime? Shouldn?t you be cheering us on? Please elaborate.


Officer Dibble

[Lizard]

"My dad was so shocked by the way the farmers in the region treated their workers, and the conditions their employees lived in, that he cut our trip short."

It,s called reaping what you sow I believe, this country likes to think it has the monopoly on human rights, and how to treat people, we are British, we know best, well! it all coming to bite us in the arse now isn,t it?.
I,m begining to think Mart had the right idea, when he took the flight to NZ.