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| [ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, [8], 9, 10 ] |
| Subject: the Crown | |
Author: Ian (Australia) | [ Next Thread |
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] Date Posted: 21:39:26 11/13/04 Sat In reply to: David Hicks 's message, "South Africa" on 21:03:39 11/13/04 Sat For the moment, we are restricting ourselves to countries of the Crown Commonwealth, in part because they have never been seriously at odds with each other, but also because it would be far simpler to merge countries that already have the same monarch. South Africa, while presenting many characteristics that would certainly welcome immediate inclusion, has at least this one major difference. It chose, at one point, to cease being part of the British family, so it would be a far more difficult step to choose to start being a part of it again. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| [> [> Subject: Choices | |
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Author: Ed Harris (London) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 23:54:58 11/13/04 Sat South Africa chose at some point to turn its back on links with the British world... this is quite true. And what is even more telling is that the choice was made by the Dutch, who could outnumber the British South Africans. The Dutch, in their turn, have now been outnumbered by African South Africans (if that makes sense), and they show no sign of wishing to re-enter the fold. True, Mandela's first act as president was to rejoin the Commonwealth, but he is of a different generation from the current lot. So, the largest and second largest ethnic groups in the Union of... sorry, in the Republic of South Africa are quite keen on a non-British republic. This leaves the third largest (British) and fourth largest (Indian) as pro-monarchy and pro-Britain, and frankly I wouldn't count on the Indians. I really think that we have 'lost' in that country. I know it's cynical and perhaps not politically correct, but the reason is quite simply that, alone amongst the dominions, in South Africa we never outnumbered non-British inhabitants. In Australia and Canada and New Zealand, no matter how anyone else felt, we could out-vote them. Not in RSA. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> Subject: I'm not sure that it's reasonable to lump all of the "African" South Africans into one "ethnic group" | |
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Author: Ian (Australia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 12:55:56 11/14/04 Sun Try telling a Zulu that he is of the same "ethnic group" as a Xhosa and you'll see how sharp his spear is. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> Subject: Quite so. | |
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Author: Ed Harris (London) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 17:12:39 11/14/04 Sun But the Apartheid years united the black South Africans by presenting them with a common enemy... or at least a common cause for resentment. And now the successor to the Afrikaaners is the Marxist ANC, and Marxists are not known for distinguishing between ancient cultural distinctions. How long black South Africans will continue to live harmoniously, Zulu, Xhosa, Bantu, Lemba, west African immigrants et al., remains to be seen. Although, frankly, I doubt that you'll see anything like the Hutu vs. Tutsi situation which exploded in Rwanda. And, more pertinently to this forum, I doubt that any of them, whatever their differences between themselves, would see a return to royal dominion status as a desirable move! Okay, so we treated the black South Africans better than the Boers did, but that is not saying much and they have a right to be sceptical as to just how liberal we are... especially as we agreed not to enfranchise more black people at the time of the Union, just to keep the Dutch on side and not cause ourselves political problems. Frankly, if I were a black South African, I would conclude that British good intentions do not always prevail over British pragmatism. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |