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POM. Looking from the time we first met each other which was in July of 1990 to November 1993 how far has South Africa come?
LB. Well let us talk about the policing aspect rather than the political aspect because I am sure you will be seeing various political figures because once the State President made his speech in February 1990 he changed the course of South African politics and, now I am going to come back to the policing aspect, since then we've gone through various changes internally in an attempt to keep up with the politics. Now some of this has been rather traumatic, a lot of members have resigned before their time because they didn't like the political change, others through stress brought on by years of hard work they have also thus taken early pension. And this is where we are now, still in the process of undergoing change.
POM. You have a police force that essentially was seen by the black community as their enemy. How do you change the mindset of the community and how do you change the mindset of the police?
LB. All right. Let us put it this way to you, as far as the police are concerned we are holding internal meetings continuously, holding seminars, workshops to attempt to get those policemen who are in a mindset to change their perspective. It has in some cases been fairly easy and in certain other cases it's been rather difficult for obvious reasons. If one looks at the age groups it varies. Some of the older people have changed far quicker than anticipated and you have some of the younger members that are resistant so it's difficult to pinpoint particular groups, that is so far as the policemen are concerned. As far as the community is concerned it is still an ongoing process but we are going towards a stage where there is going to be joint responsibility, in other words they are going to be responsible for some of our decisions as well and at the end of the day I think that will make it easier for them to accept us and hence this policing commission that I was talking about earlier because in an attempt to get around this mistrust of the police force what we've done in the Eastern Cape is last week on Monday we had a big meeting of all the main political role players and organisations in the Eastern Cape under the chairmanship of General Smith who is the Senior Deputy Commissioner and some very far reaching decisions were made then. One of them was the establishment of a Policing Commission. Now we're in the process, in fact at 10 o'clock this morning the Steering Committee has a second meeting and what we envisage is obtaining outside researchers to establish from the various communities how they wish to be policed, what their requirements are and one must bear in mind your various communities. So at the end of the day we hopefully will have a paper on how the various communities wish to be policed, the need and so forth. We will take it back to the communities and hopefully they will then accept this document and in so doing bring us directly into the community as far as policing is concerned which will I think open the door.
POM. It might be easier in the Eastern Cape, say, than in the PWV where at this point both Inkatha and the ANC point the finger of blame at the police, Inkatha saying that the police are aligned with the ANC and the ANC saying the police are aligned with Inkatha, with continuous calls by the ANC leadership for the withdrawal of the Internal Stability Units. So the situation there would seem to have deteriorated over the year in terms of trust or acceptability. Are there in the works anything that deals with that complex situation there?
LB. For a start I live in the Eastern Cape so we are looking at the Eastern Cape and the PWV area, Witwatersrand area must look after themselves. I just want to pass this comment though: whenever any organisation in history has had an internal problem they always try and pull a red herring, try and point to somebody else, so the police force is a convenient whipping boy in this particular case but be that as it may that is the Transvaal's problem. I'm looking at purely the Eastern Cape, I'm being selfish, at the Eastern Cape because I have to live here, we all have to live here, we have to find solutions for the Eastern Cape's problem especially in the form of 'federalism' which has been propagated.
POM. This is not a political question but we have talked to some people who were at the World Trade Centre last Tuesday when your Minister, Hernus Kriel, whom I have interviewed on a number of occasions had what amounted to a screaming match with Roelf Meyer and the Commissioner of Police ...
LB. It's not Commissioner, it's General.
POM. - over the acceptance of the proposal to have one national police force rather than a series of regional police forces. What do you think the objections to a national police force would be since it seems that in the case of South Africa it would be the logical thing to have, Regional Commissioners accountable to the Commissioner at the top and everybody belonging to the same organisation so that you wouldn't have situations developing like in KwaZulu, a KwaZulu Police loyal to a particular politician in the area rather than to the Commissioner of Police himself?
LB. Without going into too much of the argument between the General and the Minister of Police one has to look at the politics. It would seem that federation is the name of the game as far as South Africa is concerned. Even if it is not a pure federation it will be a type of federal state and the question has arisen quite often whether we should have one police force or whether with this federation in mind whether each area shouldn't have its own police force, but that is a pure political question and I don't know the reasoning behind the minister's arguments or the General's. I'm not a privy to either of the two gentlemen's thoughts on this issue but no doubt they will sort it out sooner or later.
POM. In terms of yourself which do you think is the better type of police force for South Africa?
LB. There are pros for both and there are cons for both. If you have a federal state like in America, let's go to the American type of state, and you have one police force it's difficult for each government to control it because they would be responsible to national and the same will happen here. If you have a true federal state everything else will then be controlled by a federal Prime Minister or whatever the political head will be called but suddenly you have a police force which is responsible in a sense to national level and no real responsibility to your regional. You may have a clash of interests there. So I'm open. As I said to you once before we are executors of the policy, we're not actually formulators of the policy so we will just have to fall in with whatever the politicians decide.
POM. You said that on the first occasion that we met.
LB. Correct. And I'm still of the same opinion.
POM. These are personal questions not political questions. We've been here since July and we're now living in the country, we've actually got a house and will be here through until next May at least and I've followed what's going on at the World Trade Centre or have been there day after day and yet when the final package was passed we have a great deal of difficulty knowing exactly what was passed and a personal question would be: what do you understand to have been agreed to at the World Trade Centre last week?
LB. We, ourselves, are still a little bit in the dark because we received a document as recently as Friday and it said, "This is a document", and about half an hour later we were told, "Hold back that's not the final document", so we're in between the devil and the deep blue sea as far as the document is concerned because the Policing Commission also needs to know what the document says and this is the reason why the meeting on Friday also couldn't come to any firm direction and I'm hoping this morning that the advocate from our Legal Services who undertook to obtain the latest and the correct document that he will have done this. So at 10 o'clock, hopefully, I will see the document for the first time. So at the present stage, as of now, we're not sure ourselves. But then we're at an interesting stage. Things are changing the whole time.
POM. If anyone had said to you three years ago when Mandela was released that South Africa would have reached this point in three years, in essence just five years away from black majority rule, would you have been surprised that the process has gone so quickly or do you think it has gone much slower than you expected?
LB. Well I'm very wary of a process that runs very quickly because then there tend to be hasty decisions which under normal circumstances you may have reacted otherwise, but I'm sure that, hopefully the politicians have thought some of these things through although it appears that they have not in the sense that one gets different political comments to that effect but only time will tell. They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I'm very glad that the whole system has changed, make no error, because we were on to a hiding for naught and now for the first time hopefully we can get out of that role.
POM. But are you surprised that things are where they are?
LB. I'm sort of surprised and not surprised. Hopeful that it's going to work, worried that it's not going to work because if it doesn't work nobody is going to come to our help, make no error. Nobody is going to the help of Yugoslavia so nobody's going to come to our help, we have to rely on our own devices no matter what the world says but we're stuck with the consequences.
POM. I suppose I'm asking the question in the context of - the question came up in our conversation three years ago, that is when you still saw the ANC/SACP very much as an enemy with the MK still trying to wage a military campaign to overthrow the state and to establish a one-party communist state. In that context do you still believe that or what has been the evolution in your thinking to lead you to a different conclusion?
LB. For a start our instructions then were different to what my instruction is now. That's first of all. Secondly, having gone through the process and seen how the process has developed, bearing in mind that my present position in the Eastern Cape since March has been one of the sort of chief police negotiators in the Eastern Cape, and having gone through that process and going through it the attitudes have changed. Attitudes have changed, instructions have changed, the MK I believe their role has changed, the ANC's policies have changed, they are far more amenable to change than they were in 1990. In 1990 if one goes back to some of their demands then and demands now there's quite a difference. They have come to realise the realities of the situation. It's easy to sit in exile and make promises. When you have to deliver it changes the context and I think a reality has come home to roost as well and a greater maturity. So, yes, there have been some great changes and in myself there have been changes as well and most of the members in accepting the changes that have taken place.
POM. Is that change in your heart or in your head?
LB. One has to be cautious, one has to be pragmatic about it. I've always been one for change anyway, so the change to me personally, I accept it most probably quicker than many of my colleagues, so is it in my heart or my head? It's in both. I may not like some of the changes which have come about or some of the proposed changes but you take it as a whole, you can't just say, "I like this, I take this", and ignore that.
POM. Again in that context, on a scale of one to ten given what you know about what was passed at the World Trade Centre ...
LB. Bearing in mind we're still slightly in the dark.
POM. Yes, but given what you know, how satisfied are you (I ask this of everybody on different scales to see how different people react), how satisfied are you say on a scale of one to ten with the interim arrangements that have emerged?
LB. Bearing in mind that I am always very optimistic I put my scale as high as eight. I would say seven, eight but preferably eight. Again, bearing in mind that I like being optimistic and I am optimistic. I hope I'm not over-optimistic.
POM. Again, on the whole issue of security one of the most difficult things to do would be to find a way of bringing the SADF and the MK and APLA or whatever into one coherent army. Do you think that would be a long and difficult task given the level of distrust and animosity that has existed between the MK and the SADF?
LB. No there shouldn't be. There will always be problems because of different perspectives, there will always be problems but there shouldn't really be such a great heartache because at the end of the day we are supposed to execute the policy and if the policy of the government is A we have to follow that, if you can't live with it you take yourself out of it. So that is the policy of the new government, the people just have to accept it. This is what normally happens in any democracy.
POM. So what you're saying is that you serve the government of the day no matter who heads that government?
LB. I serve the government of the day no matter who it is. Correct. This is what I said to you originally, we're the executor of the policy not the formulator of the policy.
POM. In the same context, personal reaction, what in the package of arrangements that emerged most surprised you and what do you find most difficult to live with?
LB. If one looks at the land distribution, now this is going into politics now, there was a hiccup there and I'm not quite sure what the final outcome was. If one goes and you start giving back land that was taken away from people years ago, yes giving back the land to people from whence it was taken away, then you're going to cause further problems. I don't know whether this has happened in other places in the world, I'm not sure. If one goes across to America, if the Red Indians claim large areas of New York what's going to happen? One has this claim in Australia, one has this claim in New Zealand with the Maoris and the Aborigines in Australia claiming land, it causes severe problems. How that is going to be addressed one doesn't now. So that is one aspect of it that I'm a bit cagey of, how they are going to sort that one out because at the end of the day promises were made and it's collection time now and how that is going to be dealt with I don't know.
POM. The PAC only want to go back as far as 1652!
LB. I saw that on TV the other night, that was quite interesting because if that is the case then I think all the whites had better get out of America as well because the same holds true there. I'm deliberately saying it, you being American and the whites had better get out of a lot of places in the world or then the present settlers if one wants to get away from the white connotation, the Australians and the New Zealanders. It's going to be a rather hairy world isn't it?
POM. Do you think what happened at the World Trade Centre with the passage of the interim constitution, the putting in place of the mechanisms of the TEC, elections next April 27th, do you see this as a real milestone in South Africa's history?
LB. Yes, yes, 100% yes because you're removing one system where the majority of the population had virtually no say and you're giving them joint responsibility even if it's for an interim period. They also deliver now, the whites or the Nationalist Party if you want to put it that way, if you want to come down to the party, are only one of the role players and I think there are 22 parties sitting at the World Trade Centre so there is going to be input from other parties as well. This is what makes it so exciting, it's not just the one vehicle along the road.
POM. What do you think has accounted for the rise in the right wing? A year or 18 months ago after the referendum the right looked as though it was demolished, it was discredited, demoralised and de Klerk was riding the peak of popularity and 18 months later we have a situation where the right has made a very dramatic come-back and the National Party is fragmented, losing support almost on a daily basis. The last polls showed that it had slipped from 25% of the vote to about 11% or 12%. What dynamics do you think were at play that has left such a situation?
LB. Insecurity, I think one can sum it up, insecurity brought about by the political change, the claims, the fear of being ruled by a black government, the inability of the people at the World Trade Centre to accommodate the claims of the right wing to their own homeland to be ruled by their own, because elsewhere in the world there seems to be a movement to being ruled by your own whereas in this country everybody is being forced into the same pot so to speak. I think that is one of the causes for the right wing to rise up and become so strong and then the realisation that if this doesn't work nobody is going to come to our aid. Forget about the world saying that Britain or the Americans or whoever, the French, the Germans are going to come and help us sort it out later, forget it, it won't work. It certainly hasn't worked in Yugoslavia and I don't think it's going to work here. So we are stuck with the consequences, good or bad, and the right wing see it in the bad context and they are playing on the fears and they are using that as a basis for which to recruit more people to their cause.
POM. Do you take their continuing threats to mobilise an army of sorts and resort to an armed campaign if necessary, in fact plunge the country into civil war, seriously?
LB. Well they have the capabilities of causing great disruption because one must bear in mind that the right wing, the whites are the people who have been trained militarily. They are in key positions throughout industries, that type of thing, so they have the ability to bring the country to a standstill, yes. So one mustn't under-estimate their ability.
POM. De Klerk did. I made a comparison with the IRA, the IRA has about 50 active operatives and about 500 people who are a support group but they can plant bombs and tie down 30 000 troops. What form of action do you think the right wing is most likely to take if it goes that route?
LB. If it goes that route one must expect a military type of action very similar to the IRA because there have been several explosions in this country where AWB members or the right wing members have been involved, there have been several sabotage cases and then just sabotage of industry, machinery, that type of thing. But that's very short sighted should that start happening, that's very short sighted because then we're all in for a hiding to naught.
POM. I think Yugoslavia shows that rationality doesn't work.
LB. No, no, rationality doesn't work and I'm afraid that with the right wing it doesn't work either and I'm very wary of the right wing, make no error. You've got to be very wary and I have a big fear that a future government will try and use the right wing as a red herring to try and swing policies as far as the police force is concerned and taking us a step back from where we are now. This is one of the fears that I have in this sense that the right wing will be a danger, yes, and a future government will have to look at the right wing. The normal law as it stands now won't be sufficient to deal with the right wing should the need arise so we could have a position where we would have to go back again to detention without trial and things like that to address the problem and that's going to place us back again where we were. I'm trying to stay out of it.
POM. I've asked that very question of many people, could you see a situation where on the 27th April a new government of power sharing or a government of national unity comes into being and the first thing they do will be to declare a state of national emergency in terms of the constitution?
LB. That's very possible. Anything is possible but then we're back to where we were.
POM. What is the Constand Viljoen factor in this? Many people have said to us that he gave the right a respectability they didn't have before, that he was an admired soldier and still has a base of support within the security forces.
LB. I'm wondering whether I should reply to that one.
POM. I'm only publishing in 1998.
LB. No, my personal opinion is that I don't like the man. I don't like the man I don't like his politics. Everybody says he's a big hero. I don't see him as a big hero. After all the big fighting in Angola, where is Angola now? After all the fighting in South West, where is South West now? The Russians lost Afghanistan because of a limited war, a restricted war, economically they couldn't afford it. The Americans in Vietnam had a problem also financially a restricted war, and we are fighting a restricted war. The politicians were dictating the pace in the war and the minute you do that you lose the war. So at the end of the day ...
POM. Well if you had an assignment now to do an evaluation of the strength and the weaknesses of the right wing and where their points of vulnerability are and where their points of opportunity are, what would be the main features of your evaluation?
LB. Vulnerability? They are surrounded in total so they are very vulnerable. They can't expect much help from the world. They are vulnerable. What was the second?
POM. The second would be their points of opportunity.
LB. Their opportunity? Well I think their options are very restricted in the South African context. Again they have got no outside support so their opportunities are very little, they will have to make do with what they've got internally. Support, if things go wrong at the World Trade Centre when the new government takes over their support base will definitely grow and that's a worrying factor because at some stage one ceases the verbal and you go across to the physical and it's at that stage that you cross a very thin line.
POM. In that evaluation, leaving aside your personal feelings about Viljoen, would you put him as a plus on their side or a neutral or a minority?
LB. My personal opinion, and I must stress this my very personal opinion, I think he's very negative but very minus to their side because the right wing - you know I have a joke: if you put three right wingers together you have five political parties and seven church groups. They are not noted for their cohesion because they keep on breaking off into little groups. If one looks at the whole context of the right wing parties one would have thought at this stage they would have formed one big party but within that group there are factions and there are factions so as far as cohesion is concerned, no.
POM. So you don't see him as somebody who can control it?
LB. Well they thought he would and he thought he could control it and the charge at the World Trade Centre indicated that he couldn't because that's where the proof of the pudding was in the eating. He thought he could control it and it clearly showed that he couldn't control it, which is what the right wing is, virtually uncontrollable disciplinary-wise.
POM. How about the AWB? There has been this tendency to see Eugene Terre'Blanche more as a buffoon rather than as a politician.
LB. Don't underestimate Eugene Terre'Blanche. Don't underestimate him. His ability as an orator, his ability to get people moved emotionally and then your emotions run away with your head and that's the problem of Eugene Terre'Blanche. He speaks very convincingly. I listened to him a little while ago here at UPE, at the university, and he speaks very convincingly but the minute you sit back and you think of what he's saying you realise it's hollow there's nothing to it.
POM. I remember one of the best known liberals in this country saying that he did not know anybody who spoke Afrikaans or could use Afrikaans better than Eugene Terre'Blanche, that he was like a lyrical poet when he used the language.
LB. Oh yes, he has the ability of being an excellent orator.
POM. Looking at the other side of the right, at Buthelezi, who has sat out of the whole process.
LB. I see you put him in the right, I don't put him in the right myself but carry on, because what has happened is that Buthelezi is still using the same politics and the same policies that he used in 1976, 1977, 1978 and into the eighties but what has happened is that the government has moved from the right of Buthelezi, over Buthelezi into the left. There's been a vast change in government policy so in that sense Buthelezi is right wing, but only in that context. But he's certainly not right wing. I wouldn't place him near the category of the AWB or that type of group.
POM. How would you evaluate his capacity to disrupt, is it more talk than action?
LB. If you accept the history of the Zulu and the consequences of going to war with the Zulu then he has a capacity to really upset the applecart so to speak.
POM. Do you think he would draw the Zulu king into it and make it Zulu nationalism?
LB. If one looks at his speeches and the context in which he says it, he's playing on Zulu nationalism and Zulu nationalism must not be underestimated at any stage. Be very wary of Zulu nationalism.
POM. Again, if you had to sit down and write a profile of Buthelezi and what motivates him and what he wants, what kind of analysis of the man would you come up with?
LB. Well he's indicated that he wants federalism and the federalism that he proposes differs from what was worked out, the limited federalism that was worked out at the World Trade Centre. He doesn't want to be ruled by anyone else and, again, if one goes into the world one sees own groupings want to be ruled by their own people so one mustn't underestimate this nationalism as far as he is concerned. I think that's about it.
POM. How about the man? I've interviewed him on four occasions and on four occasions he's been an entirely different person, a different personality but comes across as somebody with a towering ego, always sensitive, he must use the word 'insult' every other sentence. What I am trying to get at is does he have, from what you know and have read and have listened to, does he have the kind of personality that can be rationally brought into the process or are there psychological factors at work within him that can't allow him to step down? He's got to be one of the big three.
LB. He's got a big ego, yes, but then so has almost every other black leader in South Africa and Africa. One must see it in that context. Very sensitive to any perceived or real insults so in that context one has to look at him. I am sure that he can be brought in and I am hopeful that he will be brought in because we should not leave any section of this country out because then you're actually setting the base for destruction of what you're trying to build and it should be a unified country not each split off on his own, have a UDI type of thing. Whether it's possible, it should be possible because in actual fact I think the government and the ANC are far closer to him and his group than they are to the rest of his grouping of the Freedom Alliance. I keep on wanting to say COSAG. I keep on using the wrong word. I think he's the odd man out in the Freedom Alliance but that's a straight political issue again.
POM. But would you think that he has, given the resources of KwaZulu, the fact that if the South African government would have cut off all financial aid to Ulundi, do you think he would have the capacity to declare a UDI?
LB. Look at it this way. If one looks at industry, because the basis of any government is taxation because at the present stage the central government is funding him to the tune of X amount of rands per year in his budget but then if he pulls a UDI, for argument's sake, all the income, personal income, all the tax from business would go into KwaZulu. Do you understand what I'm saying? So funding he would have. I'm not sure how he'd work that out but that's a very difficult question to answer because you'd have to go into the basis of that.
POM. So when he talks of civil war?
LB. No, no, he doesn't talk of civil war. This is a misconception. He doesn't talk of civil war, he doesn't say he wants civil war. He just says, "You are forcing us into the position of a civil war."
POM. When he said, at least I took it out of the media, that the possibilities of a civil war were fifty/fifty, do you think that's an accurate determination or an exaggeration?
LB. Whether its fifty/fifty I'm not sure but there is a good chance of a civil war because if you look at what's going on at the present stage in the Transvaal and Natal that is a civil war, black on black violence, that is a civil war. It's low intensity.
POM. But here you have three years after we first talked a level of violence on the East Rand that is higher than it's ever been and a level of violence in Natal that at least sustains the same level as the level was. Do you think that violence has to be brought under control before you can have free and fair elections or do you think the elections must take place, period? That the consequences of not having them would be far greater than the consequences?
LB. Now, again, this is my personal opinion. We will have an election next year even if we have to walk knee deep in blood. An election we will have next year. And I think we should have an election next year so that we can have finality because all you're going to do is drag something out. So my personal view is we should have an election, yes, and get it over with. It's ideal to have no violence or to bring the situation under control so that there would be no violence prior to the election but that's ideal, that's being very idealistic bearing in mind that we are in Africa and we have to be judged in the context of Africa and I can't see the violence being brought under control no matter what our attempts are prior to the election.
POM. One woman in particular in Thokoza who is a very prominent IFP activist said one evening to us that it made no difference what government would emerge, that the violence had become so endemic to the community that it had a life of its own and a momentum of its own and wouldn't cease after a new government was elected.
LB. I beg to differ slightly. It will take long but it will come down because there are many factors influencing the violence. It's not just politics. Politics was one of the reasons, economics is another one, that type of thing. So if the economy starts getting into gear people's attention will be taken away from the violence because then they will have jobs, they won't have to fight for scarce resources, housing, schooling, jobs, that type of thing. That element will be taken out. So the sooner the economy gets going the better it's going to be for all of us. Don't expect the violence to stop on the 28th April. In reality it won't work like that, it'll still go on for quite a while. When I say a while, two or three years most probably. This is how I would see it. I can be wrong. That again depends on the economy, if the economy improves then you're going to bring that period down. If the economy doesn't improve then you're going to be in for a rough ride.
POM. Turning to something else, what impact did the assassination of Chris Hani have on the whole political process? Did it change the dynamics of the process?
LB. It certainly caused a hiccup in the whole system, that's no lie, because I think a lot of agreements would have been reached earlier but certain attitudes were taken, certain positions were taken by people as a result of the consequences, the unrest that flowed out of that hardened certain people's attitudes and certainly it led to a problem for all of us.
POM. One thing that has been noticeably different for us this year is one that white attitudes seem to have hardened a lot.
LB. This is what I'm talking about. Not just as a result of that but all along, of everything.
POM. Essentially they think the government has been conceding too much.
LB. Too much, yes.
POM. And the other thing is that up until this year we have always gone into townships, interviewed the people we wanted to interview and come out and now we're seeing that we are the only white people around whereas three years ago you would see quite a number of white people in places like Alexandra or wherever. That's all changed now and the people we wanted to visit warned us not to come in, not just for our sake but for their sake too.
LB. Hardening of attitudes amongst the blacks over certain issues as well, politically they don't want to be seen - you see this is what's going to make the politics so difficult, the normal Westminster type of politics is not understood and the fact that you may differ from the people in the area in which you live and be tolerated that you may differ. That type of context they don't understand. So it could be that you could be coming into their group or into their area to either recruit or influence or talk about so that will cause a problem.
POM. How are things in the Eastern Cape?
LB. Violence in the Eastern Cape is very low key. We had a funeral of a PAC national leadership, son of a national leader, over the weekend and the discipline among the PAC guys was excellent. There's no unrest that came out as a result of the funeral so there's very little unrest. But the potential, the tension is just underneath the surface. It can spill over into violence so easily, at the flick of a hat.
POM. Now would support for the PAC be much larger here than it is elsewhere?
LB. It's difficult to gauge the support of the PAC, very difficult. They have their students' movement, PASO, at various schools and it's very difficult to pinpoint and say they have 5% or 10% or 20% or 30% support in any area. Only the election will bring that out.
POM. I've just got three more questions. Many people have said to us that the country is virtually on the point of ungovernability in the sense that no-one is ruling, that in the townships the ANC has lost control over many of its own structures, that Buthelezi even if he wanted to can't haul in his warlords and that there are still elements in the police that the government just can't get their hands on and stop their actions. How would you see this situation?
LB. Let's look at it this way. I think this is normal in any changing phase as we are now because nobody wants to make a firm decision on anything. If the government makes very firm decisions as far as policing is concerned you're going to have an outcry from all the other parties. Buthelezi for political reasons can't make a decision to rein in his warlords, the ANC can't try and regain control over some of their own people because they will lose in the election on the 27th. They have got to be perceived that they are going along. So they've got to be careful they don't distance themselves from their voters on the ground. So it's very difficult in this situation in the period where you are about to change governments to get any firm decision. So to say that the country is ungovernable, no I don't say it's ungovernable. It's governed but it's very difficult to govern at the present stage. Hopefully with the advent of the TEC we will start getting a firmer control back again because once the TEC starts then there's joint responsibility, etc., etc. and it's not the government to be seen taking decisions by themselves, it's a whole group of people. So you could give credibility back to the decision making process and certainly with TEC being only a couple of days, a week or two away, you won't get the government making any firm decisions now, which is normal for a government in this set up.
POM. What is the greatest obstacle to be faced by an incoming government?
LB. The greatest obstacle? Intolerance. Intolerance. Great intolerance all the way through, white black. Intolerance and economy, mustn't forget the economy.
POM. I am always struck that the number of deaths by political violence account for just a minuscule number of the deaths in the country as a whole, what do you think makes the country as a whole so violence prone, that either Johannesburg or Cape Town is the murder capital of the world?
LB. Well it's intolerance, the politics, the economy, crime, it's all come together at this stage. Fighting for votes, etc., etc. so there's a wide background to this. There's no specific thing. Up on the Rand because of the concentration of the people there you will have a greater intensity of violence there than elsewhere.
POM. OK, I'll let you run.
LB. There's some more stuff here which you must have a look at. This goes hand in hand with that, I'll pin these two together. This goes together. Having come from Inkatha, the ANC wouldn't even talk to me but there we managed to swing it the other way round.
POM. They wouldn't even talk to you?
LB. Oh they wouldn't talk to me but it's strange when Mandela comes to visit here I'm asked to look after him every time whereas years ago I was keeping the ANC away from Buthelezi. So it's quite a jump from one side to the other but again I emphasize, I execute the policy I don't formulate the policy and that is my job I'll do to the death and that applies to most of the police force. We are trying. There are some who don't see it that way but hopefully it will come right. And that's a Code of Conduct that I just drew up as well, not I drew up but the guys drew up. This is one of the official reports.
POM. Thank you once again.


Donald's Safari Breakfast is a great character dining experience the whole family will enjoy! Although characters are subject to change the typical characters you will find at this breakfast include Donald, Daisy, Goofy & Mickey. Yes you do need a ticket to the park to get in for the breakfast as your park pass gets you entry into the park.


The Turkish online payments provider PayU has seen growth in each of the 16 markets it operates in, with growth ranging from 40 to 80%. Turkey, Russia, India and Colombia were its top 4 growth markets. PayU has attributed the growth to the rise of affordable smartphones, increased understanding of ecommerce and a growing middle class in its target markets. It has said it intends to continue its monumental growth rate by tackling fraud on its platform, improving the user experience and promoting ecommerce education in its target markets. PayU is used by 10 million buyers and 160,000 merchants across 16 countries and supports 250 different payment methods.


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SSCS & tinyML Webinar for Young Excellence - The Intersection of SSCS and AI -- A Tale of Two Journeys - Vivienne Sze & Boris Murmann
This webinar is co-sponsored by SSCS & TinyML.
Register: https://ieee.webex.com/ieee/onstage/g.php?MTID=e9d980b4fa7f10e3f72e98dcdf2ddedc2
ABSTRACT - Today's technology landscape is dominated by the inescapable excitement of applications and possibilities enabled by artificial intelligence (AI). The timing could not be riper given the availability of big data, sufficient computing capability, and new machine learning techniques. How can aspiring students and professionals both young and seasoned in the field of solid-state circuits get into the action? In this webinar, we will hear two distinguished professors in cutting-edge AI research -- Vivienne Sze of MIT and Boris Murmann of Stanford -- offer their personal stories, insights, and perspectives of how they see circuits applied to the AI realm. They will provide their views of what AI is and isn't, address the types of AI problems they seek to solve and the angle they apply to leverage their established design expertise. Profs. Sze and Murmann will also offer their projections on future research opportunities and advice on how one can prepare to intersect them.
BIOGRAPHY OF SPEAKERS - Vivienne Sze is an associate professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and leads the Research Lab of Electronics' Energy-Efficient Multimedia Systems research group. Her group works on computing systems that enable energy-efficient machine learning, computer vision, and video compression/processing for a wide range of applications, including autonomous navigation, digital health, and the internet of things. She is widely recognized for her leading work in these areas and has received multiple awards, including the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and DARPA Young Faculty Award, the Edgerton Faculty Award, faculty awards from Google, Facebook, and Qualcomm, the Symposium on VLSI Circuits Best Student Paper Award, the IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference Outstanding Invited Paper Award, and the IEEE Micro Top Picks Award. As a member of the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding, she received the Primetime Engineering Emmy Award for the development of the High Efficiency Video Coding video compression standard. Sze earned a BS from the University of Toronto, and an MS and PhD from MIT.
Boris Murmann is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He joined Stanford in 2004 after completing his PhD degree in electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley in 2003. From 1994 to 1997, he was with Neutron Microelectronics, Germany, where he developed low-power and smart-power ASICs in automotive CMOS technology. Since 2004, he has worked as a consultant with numerous Silicon Valley companies. Dr. Murmann's research interests are in mixed-signal integrated circuit design, with special emphasis on sensor interfaces, data converters and custom circuits for embedded machine learning. In 2008, he was a co-recipient of the Best Student Paper Award at the VLSI Circuits Symposium and a recipient of the Best Invited Paper Award at the IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC). He received the Agilent Early Career Professor Award in 2009 and the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award in 2012. He has served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, an AdCom member and Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society, as well as the Data Converter Subcommittee Chair and the Technical Program Chair of the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). He is the founding faculty co-director of the Stanford SystemX Alliance and the faculty director of Stanford's System Prototyping Facility (SPF). He is a Fellow of the IEEE.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Let's play Game Awards bingo
Posted 2 months ago by Noelle Warner
Play along on the stream!
The Game Awards is simultaneously the most anticipated and dreaded night of the year in games. It's awkward, cringe-worthy, and the titles that are widely considered the best of the year don't usually get credit where it's due. Despite the annoyances, though, it's still a night we all come together to watch, whether it's for the new trailers and announcements, to see who actually won, or just to watch the trainwreck happen in slow motion. It can be either a miserable or somewhat enjoyable experience, and I choose the latter by making my own fun out of spite.
So, I brushed off my immaculate MS Paint skills and made a bingo card for this year's 2022 Game Awards, because let's be honest, it's gotten pretty predictable at this point. New trailers, mispronunciations, and Geoff's mention of Hideo Kojima are basically all givens, but I wanted to throw some wildcards in there too.
My predictions
For example, the coveted Game of the Year award is a toss-up this year, with titles like God of War, Elden Ring, and Horizon Forbidden West in the front running. I went ahead and predicted Elden Ring was going to make it out on top, because God of War and Horizon certainly had their time in the sun, but FromSoft's newest release dominated the conversation for weeks, if not months. Plus, I just think it's the best game that came out this year.
Another prediction I'm begging to come true is Immortality winning Best Narrative. I know that, again, the conversation in regard to this award centered around Elden Ring and God of War when nominees were announced, but from where I stand, Immortality was an interactive narrative that was beautifully, elegantly told, had interesting things to say about art and the people who make it, and was the first game I've played in years that I felt brought a whole new perspective to how we use this medium to tell stories. It's in a league of its own, and in my eyes, anything less than a win for Immortality is absolutely criminal.
The Game Awards can be a fun way to reflect on the games that came out this year and start conversations about them, but at the end of the day, the outcome isn't really the end-all-be-all to the players. It seems like our bizarre relationship to the event as we know it isn't going away any time soon (unless someone bests Keighley in hand to hand combat), but at least for now I can poke fun at it.
So feel free to use my bingo card, or maybe make one of your own! You can watch the livestream of the Game Awards on Thursday, December 8, with the preshow starting at 7:30p ET / 4:30p PT on all major streaming platforms.
Noelle Warner
After a few years of working in game development, Noelle joined the Destructoid team in 2021. She particularly loves interactive storytelling and cuddling with her cats!
Filed under... #Events#features#Geoff Keighley#The Game Awards#The Game Awards 2022


If hold on and hope for the best is your approach to MTB then boy are these a treat for you!
With camouflage being all the rage this year, I naturally adorned my Bird Aeris with a set and headed out to shred!
The first thing I noticed was just how darn comfy these grips are! They are sticky enough that you know your hands won't move but not so sticky that it feels like someone spilled Coca-Cola on your bars!
I almost felt guilty wearing gloves – and for many rides now I haven't bothered.
You get a huge amount of traction from these grips, your fingertips feel planted the palm of your hand is steadfast and your thumb and index finger feel cushioned.
After hours of testing/messing about in the Scottish mountains I felt almost no arm pump and – dare I say it – I even felt quicker! The Deathgrip really does give you a bit more confidence to stay off the brakes without feeling like you're losing control.
I love these grips and I'd happily recommend them to anyone with a bit of a hooligan style of riding. There's enough padding to get rid of some of the vibration from the trails, but not so much that it feels like you're using pillows on your bars.
Coming in 4 different colours, there should be something for everyone although you'd need to want black, camo, gum or tango but for £14.00 from Chain Reaction Cycles you can't go wrong!
I need some camo grips. Have some how managed to get a more addicted to this "colour" over the last year than a 10 year old boy!
i tend not to wear gloves in the summer. My olive coloured Superstar grips (on my army green NS hardtail) are great even with sweaty hands. Might try some of these Deathgrips on my Vitus as the factory fitted ones need to come off and can get slippery with some drizzle or sweat.
Especially if they are going make me go quicker!


Aesthetically Evolved Virtual Pets Tom Ray Zoology, University of Oklahoma ATR Human Information Processing Research Laboratories, Kyoto The Concept Aesthetic, emotional, and empathetic selection are applied to a derivative of Karl Sims' Evolved Virtual Creatures .
Aesthetic, emotional, and empathetic selection are applied to a derivative of Karl Sims'Evolved Virtual Creatures.
The resulting Creatures can be beautiful or strange, and provoke strong reactions in human observers.
It may be possible to evolve virtual pets to which humans can form strong emotional bonds.
Ray, T. S. 2000. Aesthetically Evolved Virtual Pets. In: "Artificial Life 7 Workshop Proceedings," Carlo C. Maley and Eilis Boudreau [eds.]. Proceedings of the Seventh Artificial Life Conference. Pp. 158-161.
Using Direct3D 10 -. peter-pike sloan microsoft corporation. outline. overview of new features in the pipeline discuss api changes, how things have evolved go over several examples in the sdk that exploit the api not a research talk!.


I don't know if I often see "Rocker skis" in ski magazines or homepages from 2010/2011?
What does Rocker skis actually mean? How is it different from previous skiing?
Malpractice:Because it is easy to stand up, some skiers may not be easy to operate.
Profit:The contact surface is small, and it can be floated and floated in new snow or bad snow.
The shape of the Camber is preserved in the center of the ski, and the Rocker shape design behind the board and the board (which takes into account the Lili of each pair) will form a ski that is very convenient to operate.
The Rocker ski ski has a raised structure as shown in the above figure, that is to say, the contact area with the snow surface is small but the pressure applied to the blade edge can have higher stability.
In addition, if you design such a structure, you can control it freely, and it is very suitable for beginners, senior citizens, and skiers who have blank skiing years.
The center of the Ski retains the shape of the Camber. Only the double-plate with the tip of the Rocker structure will be able to turn freely and without losing the speed of the taxi.
The Rocker-shaped ski double board is slightly tilted and has a small contact area with the snow surface, and the board edge can be turned.
It is also translated as a Rocker shape for the tip of the board. The entire design will not slow down and will continue to maintain the original speed. It is very suitable for skiers of medium and high standards.


The new 2019 MahJongg card is out. Let's Celebrate the New Year with the Three Rs of MahJongg. A review on how to interpret each hand will be followed by supervised play. Basic knowledge of MahJongg required. Come join in the fun.


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Rob Roper's Blog
My musings about songwriting, music and other things.
Tag Archives: The Onlys
My Music Career (Part 1) Tucson 1988-1994
November 2, 2020 autobiography, UncategorizedAutobiography, If..., Music, Rob Roper, Shoebomb, The Gin Blossums, The Onlys, The Sand Rubies, TucsonRob Roper
(This is the 7th chapter in my autobiographical series. It overlaps with, and supplements the previous chapter. This chapter was initially in the form of an email sent to my music fan email list on June 3, 2020. I have expanded on it for the blog. All the previous chapters in this series can be found on the column to the right. Go here to start at the beginning.)
Music Moves to the Forefront of my Life
While working at National Semiconductor in Tucson, I had become friends with Gary Roberts, another technician at work, and played casually with him. Gary was a much better musician that me at the time, and was playing some paid solo gigs in Tucson. Here's a photo of me playing with Gary at a birthday party I organized for myself at my apartment clubhouse in Tucson.
Towards the end of the years at National Semi, I got an idea for a song about the work environment while driving home from work. I wrote it as a parody of the old Muddy Waters blues tune, "Hootchie-Cootchie Man." When I got home I got out a pen and paper and wrote down as much as I could remember, and then added to it. It was my first song. The company Christmas party was coming up, and they were having a talent show contest. I rounded up Gary to play bass, and another guitar player/technician to play lead guitar. I sang and played harmonica, in my best Muddy Waters imitation. The song ridiculed the company management and got a huge applause. It drove home lesson I already knew from 60's rock music: the power of combining music with political organizing.
Early Attempts at Joining Bands
I remember auditioning for a New Wave cover band, and playing "I Ran" by A Flock of Seagulls. But they never called me back, and I realized I needed to get better as a guitar player if I wanted to be in a band, so I took some advanced guitar lessons. I learned songs by The Police and The Church. Up until then, I only knew how to play triad chords– major and minor chords, at the root position and as barre chords. But now I was learning what I was told were "modal" chords– chords that had other tones besides the root, third and fifth. I remember reading an interview with Andy Summers, guitarist for the Police, where he said his motto is to "avoid the 3rd at all costs." The 3rd is what determines if a chord is major or minor. If you leave it out, the tonality is ambiguous. Andy's chords would have the root, 5th, and maybe the major 2nd, suspended 4th, and minor 7th. I found out later that Andy had been playing jazz before he joined The Police; these were jazz chords. It opened up a whole new world for my guitar playing. It was the secret to learning how to play the music I loved.
I ran an ad for a band and met a young woman singer. We then recruited a drummer and bass player. I was very clear in my ad that I wanted the band to cover melancholy New Wave songs by bands such as 10,000 Maniacs, The Cure, etc. But after a couple months of practicing and learning the songs, the drummer and bass player said we should do happy dance songs. I packed up my guitar and amp and walked out.
I also joined a band during this time that played original songs– generally melancholy songs. I liked that. There were 3 songwriters in the band– the drummer, bass player (a married couple) and keyboard player. The bass player and keyboard player sang. I played rhythm guitar and there was another guy who played lead guitar. We played one outdoor gig on 4th Avenue in Tucson, and then the band broke up.
Tucson Bands in the Late 80's and Early 90's
Meanwhile I continued going to see local original bands in local Tucson venues. Some I especially liked were If…, The Onlys and the Sand Rubies. I remember seeing the Phoenix band The Gin Blossoms before they got signed.
I was searching. Trying to figure out what to do. How can I get into a band? A band that will play gigs at Club Congress and other places? I didn't care about making it "big." I just wanted to be in a band that played locally at the small clubs. Even that was proving hard to do, if not impossible. Why is it so hard? What do I have to do? How do I find people?
My Silly Search for a "Career"
I mentioned in the previous chapter (The Missing Years, Part 4), that I had quit National Semiconductor and taken a job at Burr Brown in Tucson, in 1990 or 1991. But after only working there a year, they were hit by layoffs, and being the new guy, I was laid off. The layoff package included free career counseling. I met with the counselor, and took various tests, such as the Briggs-Myers, and followed the exercises in the book, What Color is Your Parchute?
I had made the conscious decision to end my career as a radical political activist– a "professional revolutionary." What should my career be now? I didn't want it to be electronics, or anything technical. I had mainly become an electronics tech for the purposes of union organizing. I had no great passion for it; it was practical, that's all. It was paying the bills.
You walk through this world, but you can't find your song
Doing what you should, not what you want
–from the title song on my 2012 album, The Other Side of Nowhere
In hindsight, it's obvious that I had chosen a new career– music! In fact, I remember the counselor telling me at one point, "Seems to me that your career should be music." But I dismissed the idea; I saw no hope of making a living playing the kind of music I loved. I didn't know how the other bands did it. I didn't know any of the people in the bands, and I was too shy to go up them after a show and introduce myself; I didn't "network." To me they were stars, and I assumed they would never talk to a nobody like me. In hindsight, that was a mistake. Some of them might have had rock star pretensions, but I bet there were some who would have helped me. Maybe one of them would have served as a songwriting mentor, or helped me find people to start a band with.
It wouldn't be until 2007, at a class at the Rocky Mountain Song School, that it finally dawned on me– you need a plan. While you have a day job to pay the bills, you work hard at your music career, build a fan base, and then maybe eventually you can transition to doing music full-time. I wonder how much more I I could have accomplished, and how much further along I would be, if I had realized that in 1991 instead of 2007? If I hadn't been too shy to ask for help?
You just need a little help
but you're too shy to ask
You don't want to be a burden
You're afraid they wil laugh
–from my song, Apollo's Little Bastard, on my 2011 album, Misfit
A Fun Job
After going through the career counseling– and rejecting music as a career– I took another electronics technician job at a small company in Tucson in March, 1992. The company was called Lightning, Location and Protection (LLP). They made lightning detection systems. My plan was to work there for just a few months until I figured out what I wanted to do for a "career." I was also thinking about moving to another city, since the whole reason I had moved to Tucson was no longer relevant (see the previous chapter). But I ended up working there for 8 years. Unlike my previous jobs, this was a small company. Thanks to my previous year of work with the engineering department at Burr-Brown, I was now a pretty good electronics technician. My input was valued, and I was allowed to use my creativity on this job. There were 3 other technicians in our group, and we got along great and laughed a lot. My boss was David Firestine, a mandolin player who ran the Irish jam sessions in Tucson. Dave was the greatest boss I ever had, probably because he never wanted to be a boss in the first place. He kept the environment fun and loose. That's why I kept working there for so long; that's why I never decided on a "career;" I actually enjoyed my job.
Meanwhile I continued my efforts to get into a band. I also began composing music ideas on the guitar and recording them to cassette. I tried to write lyrics but struggled. I needed help with lyrics but didn't know where to turn. I didn't know any songwriters. I didn't know about any lyric-writing books. I didn't know about any "song schools."
Then, in 1994, my music career would take a big step forward when I met songwriter, singer and bass player Kurt Loken and we formed Faded Innocence. That will be the subject of the next chapter in this series.
Next: Faded Innocence
My main website is www.robroper.com
Sign up for my Email List
Send an email to rob@robroper.com to find out when and where I'm playing next, information on new recordings, and other news.
My Music Career (Part 9) Word December 18, 2020
My Music Career (Part 8) Total Flower Chaos December 17, 2020
My Music Career (Part 7) Scupanon and Dorian December 13, 2020
My Music Career (Part 6) The Other Side of Nowhere December 7, 2020
My Music Career (Part 5) Misfit November 26, 2020
David Lowery's blog, The Trichordist, about the music business.
Artist Rights Watch Just what it says.


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MainOpEdsMass immigration will terminate Europe as we know it
Mass immigration will terminate Europe as we know it
A country or entire continent cannot survive massive immigration if it has no culture, identity and/or religion of its own that it wants to preserve.
Giulio Meotti, 30/06/19 23:41 | updated: 12:30
giulio meott
צילום: עצמי
The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter and of "J'Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel" published by Mantua Books.. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary.
Before Europe there are only two roads to take on immigration.
Being "just", faciliting all the arrivals from Africa, in the name of humanitarian principles, letting every cultural, social, security, and societal issue be overwhelmed by Emotion, Angela Merkel's motto "wir schaffen das," or that of being virtuous, putting the nation ahead of humanity, stopping immigration in the name of the principle of reason, which always presupposes a bit of "cruelty".
Tertium non datur. No third road.
Mass immigration has already undermined the unity and solidarity of Western societies. I am in favour of the second road. The European Union will never be saved unless it protects its external borders. But the new Europeanism à la carte, which by now is the surrogate for progressivism, has not understood that yet. In 1989, Michel Rocard, the Socialist Prime Minister of France, said: "Europe and France cannot welcome all those who are driven by poverty". The alternative, to take up the title of a book by Rocard, will be the "Suicide de l'Occident", already abundantly in place.
Europe as we know it will never survive at the end of the first road. It will become Eurabia or Eurafrica. But the question is another one: are the Europeans still able to take the second road? I doubt it. To understand the impact of mass immigration you have to first get its consequences over culture, religion, internal cohesion, identity.
But you first need a culture, a religion and an identity to get the point. And Europe, as the Dutch politician Frits Bolkestein wrote in the Wall Street Journal in 2011, denies its identity: "How has it become so controversial for a Western leader to affirm a preference for his own culture? In short, how did Europe come to lose confidence in its own civilization? If Europe can retake pride in its own classical values, it and the world will be better off".
Read what the captain of the Sea Watch, the NGO boat now rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean in full view of Italian coasts, just said: "My life has been easy, I was able to attend 3 universities, at the age of 23 I graduated. I am white, German, born in a rich country and with the right passport. When I realized this, I felt the moral obligation to help those who did not have the same opportunities as me".
Exoticism, sense of guilt, white man's burden, third worldism, atonement to expiate richness ... We are part of the film set of the Western unhappy conscience. Europe's days are numbered.
Tags:Europe, migrants, migration, Muslim immigrants


Death and bereavement is always a time of grief and sadness. Often it is difficult to know which way to turn.
A church service at either St. Andrew's, Buckland Monachorum or Church of the Holy Spirit, Milton Combe. This includes hymns and a reading, with time given to remember the one who has died. This is set in the context of Jesus' teaching about finding peace with God through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.' John 11 vv.25-26.
Following the service there will either be burial in the cemetery opposite the school, or a visit to one of the two crematoria in Plymouth, at Efford or Weston Mill. At the crematorium there is a short service of committal.
Instead of physically attending the crematorium it is possible to pray a prayer of committal outside the church by the hearse before it leaves for Plymouth, – should this be preferred.
Alternatively the whole service can be held at the crematorium, and the local Vicar invited to conduct it.
The time has now been lengthened at the crematorium to 40 minutes. This provides scope for hymns, a remembrance of the deceased, a Scripture reading and short message, also the prayers and committal.
The service finishes with the curtains closing around the coffin, although they can be kept open if this is preferred.
There are two places for the burial of ashes in Buckland. The first is the cemetery, just inside the gates opposite the school. Enquiries are made to the Clerk to the Council (see full contact details below under 'Cemetery'), and may be channelled through the undertaker. There is a small Garden of Remembrance outside the south door of Buckland Church. This is looked after by the St. Andrew's Parochial Church Council. It is a tranquil garden, and ashes are buried in the central planted enclosure. There is a Book of Remembrance in the Drake Chapel, and names are recorded there. The service itself is a simple one. The ashes are poured into the earth, and the garden itself is attractively maintained.
'Eye has not seen, nor ear hear, nor can the heart of man conceive what God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed it to us by His Holy Spirit.' 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9.
Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.' John 6 v.69..
Lord Jesus Christ, who wept at the grave of Lazarus, draw near with your tender care and compassion to those whose loss is greatest at this time, because their lives were closest and their love was strongest.
In the midst of their deep sorrow please reveal yourself to them as the sympathetic Saviour of mankind. Bring comfort to them from your deep wells of grace, and your courage to face life again in the days to come, for your name's sake, Amen.


This week, Sara reminds us that Advent is not just about Jesus coming in the manger, what we refer to as the Incarnation, but also about Jesus coming again -- not in a judgmental way, but seeing it as our rescue moment where shalom finds its fullness. The worship journey for this week: "God is forming us into a people who see through the darkness into the light of the coming Kingdom." Sara shares two quotes from Fleming Rutledge: (1) "The disappointment, brokenness, suffering and pain that characterizes life in this present world is held in dynamic tension with the promise of future glory that is yet to come. In that Advent tension, the church lives its life." and (2) "Wherever people are willing to come out from the paralysis caused by fear and anger to active participation, there is the Advent spirit. Wherever there are voices in the darkness speaking out for light, there is the Advent hope. Wherever there are people willing to face danger for freedom, there is the Advent frontier. The work of God is located there." Luke 3:1-6; Philippians 1:3-11; Luke 1:68-79; Malachi 3:1-4.


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u-wanna-bet.com
Kyle Shanahan Leads the 5 Who Are Now Coaching for Their Jobs
Stephen Curry's Incredible Dominance Highlighted by 2 Absurd Stats, but They Still Aren't Enough to Make Him MVP Front-Runner
Published on 17 November 2021, 22:57 -06:00
Michael Butler
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The NFL saw one of the greatest coaching carousels in history this offseason, with five coaches landing head-coaching jobs. This started a new trend among teams seeking to hire from outside their conference and will likely continue for some time as long as league rules allow it.
Kyle Shanahan, the former head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, has received interest from multiple teams this offseason. The five who are now coaching for their jobs include Bill Belichick with New England Patriots, Jon Gruden with Oakland Raiders, Marvin Lewis with Cincinnati Bengals, Sean McVay with Los Angeles Rams and Mike McCarthy in Green Bay Packers.The "nfl coaching candidates" is a list of coaches who are now coaching for their jobs. The list includes Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Matt Nagy, Anthony Lynn, and Josh McDaniels.
As Thanksgiving approaches, we have a good notion of which football clubs are going to make the playoffs (hello, Tennessee Titans) and which are likely to concentrate on the 2022 NFL Draft. We apologise in advance to Lions supporters in Detroit.
After this season, some clubs, including the Lions, may decide to start again. We're left to wonder whether head coach Kyle Shanahan, who guided the 49ers to a Super Bowl trip less than two years ago, will be fired. If Urban Meyer retires or returns to college football, the Jacksonville Jaguars may need to have a backup plan in place.
We considered everything from club performance to external variables, such as anticipated front-office changes, when deciding which coaches are now on the hot seat. We didn't include coaches like Pete Carroll of Seattle and Mike Zimmer of Minnesota, who might resign due to age or health issues.
We also left out Rich Bisaccia, the temporary head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. This list included all of the NFL's 31 full-time head coaches. Based on the aforementioned criteria, we've assessed that the following five head coaches' chairs are hot as of November 16, 2021.
Vic Fangio, Denver Broncos, No. 5
Vic Fangio, the head coach of the Denver Broncos, is on track to miss the playoffs for the third year in a row | Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
If Fangio wants to see things from a positive perspective, the Broncos are 5-5 and still in contention. Unfortunately, despite beating the New York Giants, Meyer's Jaguars, and the New York Jets in the first three weeks of the season, the Broncos are now 2-5. That isn't exactly the current NFL's Murderer's Row.
For Fangio to maintain his job, he'll need a strong second half and a playoff spot for the first time. Otherwise, it'll be difficult for him to go three seasons without winning a game, much alone three years, without making the playoffs.
4. Houston Texans' David Culley
Culley is one of many first-year head coaches who might be fired before September 2022, and it's not completely his fault. The Texans are in desperate need of a makeover, starting with a resolution to the Deshaun Watson controversy — the legal implications of which are beyond the franchise's control — and a fresh start in the front office.
In terms of Culley, the Texans may choose a seasoned head coach with playoff experience, such as Doug Pederson of the Philadelphia Eagles or Jim Caldwell of the Detroit Lions, to lead them into the post-Wason era. Culley does not seem to be promised another season until Houston improves from 1-8 to, say, 4-13.
3. Detroit Lions' Dan Campbell
Why is Jared Goff still the Lions' starting quarterback, according to Dan Campbell?
He stated, "It's hard to suggest he shouldn't be the person right now." "Every time we try to toss it, our defenses give way." pic.twitter.com/SXVaJJbEub
November 15, 2021 — Brad Galli (@BradGalli)
Campbell is in the same boat as Culley. Both are first-year head coaches in charge of struggling organizations (although Campbell served as the Dolphins' interim head coach in 2015). At the very least, Culley and the Texans can brag about a win this season.
Detroit, on the other hand, is on track to become the first team in NFL history to go 0-16-1. It would be the first winless season with a tie since the 1970 merger of the AFL and the NFL. Hue Jackson managed to win 31 of his first 32 games as head coach of the Cleveland Browns in 2016-17. We don't think Campbell will be so fortunate if the Lions go winless for the second time since 2008.
2. Chicago Bears' Matt Nagy
Matt Nagy, the head coach of the Chicago Bears, is under fire | Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
After two playoff berths in his first three seasons, Nagy was already on the hot seat heading into the 2021 season. Something tells us that his 3-6 record and complete mishandling of the Bears' quarterback problem aren't going to rescue him in this predicament.
Even in the seven-team playoff era, the Bears need too many things to go their way to make the playoffs. Could Nagy be saved by a 9-8 season? Everything is conceivable, but we're not getting our hopes up. Now, if rookie quarterback Justin Fields continues to progress and impress in the last eight weeks of the season, Nagy may be given another year, but we're dubious.
Kyle Shanahan of the San Francisco 49ers is number one.
No game balls were given to 49ers players after the game… Why?
"We have to start expecting more games like that," Kyle Shanahan says.
Shanahan also said that if he had done game balls tonight, everyone would have received one photograph. twitter.com/I9OXc82OUN
— November 16, 2021, 95.7 The Game (@957thegame)
Shanahan aided his case by defeating Odell Beckham Jr. and the new-look Los Angeles Rams in Week 10, but it may not be enough. The 49ers are on track to miss the playoffs for the eighth time in eight years, despite yet another season marred by injuries.
Now, Shanahan's supporters might argue that the 49ers' presence in Super Bowl 54 should buy him another year. However, the team may wish to hire a new head coach, one who can properly nurture and employ No. 3 overall choice Trey Lance, and put an end to the Shanahan era.
Shanahan, on the other hand, has something going for him. If he's fired in the coming weeks, he has the greatest chance of all of the guys on this list to get another head coaching job in 2022.
On Facebook, follow Sportscasting. @sportscasting19 is our Twitter handle.
RELATED: With the help of a few of former 49ers players, Mac Jones just proved Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch are completely clueless.
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From Guns to Garages
"We come from different backgrounds and have diverse experiences. We didn't know each other before and the training we got will help us to build our future and participate in the peacebuilding efforts and reconstruction" said Berchmans Manirambona, a 24 year-old beneficiary of the Centre of Technical Teaching within the "Garage des Anges" in Ruyigi, a city located in the eastern Burundi, 170km distance from Bujumbura.
Burundi Local-Correspondent
The centre is one of the several initiatives of Maison Shalom that helps disadvantaged youth for diverse reasons to reintegrate socially and economically by giving theorical and practical training in mechanics and motorized technology.
Young people within this centre come from different categories but all share the same status: vulnerability. Some of them are returnees - like Berchimans Manirambona, who spent more than 10 years in Tanzania. Others are IDPs, like Alfred Sibomana, and some 25 other young people without any assistance. However the centre gives priority to former demobilized children, one of the most vulnerable groups in Burundi. Their well-being is important not only to the young people themselves, but also to wider society in Burundi, as groups of marginalized young people have already created insecurity throughout the country.
According to Dieudonné Muryame, in charge of this centre created in 2002, the main goal of the centre is to ensure the socio-economical reintegration of vulnerable young people through technical training in diverse manual skills. The nine-months training consists mostly in auto-mechanics but beneficiaries also learn other courses related to their reintegration in their communities like peace education, HIV and STD's prevention, family budget, management of associations.
Muryame explained that the centre is over-subscribed because of the huge demand from vulnerable young people who every year want be selected for the training. "We have an average of 200 candidates each year, but due to limited places, we have to keep only 25, giving priority to former demobilized children who are now struggling to reintegrate a normal life".
Nteranya Joseph, a 33-year-old demobilized former combatant remarked that it is nowadays becoming very hard to survive by practicing only agriculture and small commerce. He added that when a person is well-trained in any manual skills, especially in mechanics, there are many opportunities to earn between $5-10 per day.
As the current group of beneficiaries is ending its programme, young people at the centre have different plans for the future. More ambitious, Berchmans seems to not want to end his training here, "I would like very much to continue by a high-level training in Bujumbura as well as getting a driving license. At this time, I will be a real professional".
Valérie Niyonzima, the only female at the centre hopes that she will be able to get small jobs here and there in Ruyigi to help her brothers and sisters at home. A little bit shy, she also sent a message of encouragement to ladies and girls to build their self-confidence and dare to practice mechanics even though it is categorised as a male's job.
All those beneficiaries of the centre share the same consensus. They agree that a well-empowered and educated youth is unlikely to be manipulated by politicians. Bosco added that if you are doing and enjoying your job, you don't have time to listen to divisive messages of some bad-intentioned politicians.
In Ruyigi, the centre of technical centre is a well-known place where vehicles of government, NGOs and ordinary citizens are being repaired. The clients appreciate the competence of the staff which is made of former beneficiaries of the centre. The rest of graduated beneficiaries of the centre are working in different garages in Ruyigi and other cities and are all expresses their gratitude to "Maggie", Maggy Barankitse, the founder the centre as well as other many humanitarian and socio-economical initiatives in Ruyigi worldwide known as "Maison Shalom of Ruyigi" which have enabled the reintegration of thousands people in normal life.
Information on Burundi is provided by a local peacebuilding expert who reports on peacebuilding issues in Burundi.
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Pterodáctilo — Pterodáctilo No. 11 Launched!!!
On Friday the Ptero Team launched the "Lost Issue" of Pterodáctilo, this is the online literary, linguistic, and cultural journal for the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Texas at Austin. We held the launch party at Salvation Pizza. The new features of this issue are: the journal's new web design that will make navigating it on tablets and mobile devices easier, the Canon Fodder podcast, and the RSS feed that links the journal with old.pterodactilo.com/blog-rescate. For the moment the Issue No. 11 is up and running at new.pterodactilo.com but it will be transfered over to the original pterodactilo.com soon.
This issue has some great poetry and short stories, as well as several critical articles that show an exciting variety of what our colleagues around the world are working on. There is an article by Javier Álvarez about how violence in "La Comuna 13" is portrayed by the media in Colombia. Hannah Alpert-Abrams analyzes how Los pasos perdidos was received in translation in the US and what that implies about the expectations North American readers may have of Latin American narratives, and Gabriel Saldías discuss sci-fi and dystopia.
Take a few minutes to review the rest of the content (interviews and photographs) and let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.


Before her wider fame as the author of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott achieved recognition for her accounts of her work as a volunteer nurse in an army hospital. Written during the winter of 1862-63, her lively dispatches appeared in the newspaper Commonwealth, where they were eagerly read by soldiers' friends and families. Then, as now, these chronicles revealed the desperate realities of battlefield medicine as well as the tentative first steps of women in military service.Writing under a pseudonym, Alcott recounted the vicissitudes of her two-day journey from her home in Concord, Massachusetts, to Washington, D.C. A fiery baptism in the practice of nursing awaited her at Washington Hospital, were she arrived immediately after the slaughter of the Army of the Potomac at the battle of Fredericksburg. Alcott's rapidly paced prose graphically depicts the facts of hospital life, deftly balancing pathos with gentle humor. A vivid and truthful portrait of an often overlooked aspect of the Civil War, this book remains among the most illuminating reports of the era's medical practices as well as a moving testimonial to the war's human cost.


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Benevolent Brezhnev in Afghanistan
ROCHE, JOHN P.
Perspectives BENEVOLENT BREZHNEV IN AFGHANISTAN BY JOHN P ROCHE Leonid Brezhnev is a man who yields to no one in his respect for world opinion and the aspirations of the Afghan people....
...Pakistan is the ideal location for starting the "Jimmy Carter Trail" to carry arms and other useful materials to Afghan freedom fighters...
...Our policy has been in hock to that flim-flam too long...
...At last report, the Indians, who have first-class physicists but lousy engineers, were planning to have a bomb wallah deliver their warhead in an oxcart...
...To make sure the election would not be rigged by "external enemies" loyal to the treacherous Amin, several Soviet divisions handled the poll watching...
...The logic here has been that the Pakistanis are trying to build a nuclear bomb and this is a bad thing...
...As suspected, Amin tried to vote twice and was shot...
...Washington is notoriously a one-crisis town...
...External enemies" such as the U.S., Britain and West Germany made some noise about all this...
...The trick is not the physics, it is the engineering of delivery systems...
...If the Soviets can set up the equivalent of the Mongolian Peoples' Republic in Afghanistan, the location is ideal for moving on the whole Persian Gulf...
...A pretext could be manufactured by using the Lenin Mark I ploy: Leaders of the Tudeh Party, Moscow's Iranian creation, could pronounce themselves the legitimate government of their battered country and call on the USSR for support...
...Karmal, it seems, had invited the Russians in advance to save his government...
...Finally, it is obvious that Afghans want to shoot up their Soviet liberators, and we should do anything we can to help this patriotic front...
...With those in Iran out of business, and the Turks playing interminable games over Cyprus, our closest dependable stations are in Norway, a long way from Moscow's testing ground in Central Asia...
...Lenin Mark I, first used experimentally in 1919 in Poland, worked like a dream in Afghanistan...
...To take one seemingly trivial item, improvement of relations with Islamabad would enable us to reopen the monitoring stations we had in Pakistan for tracking Soviet activities...
...hence this foresighted anticipatory retaliation...
...When the news gets around that the United States is playing for keeps, it might even focus the minds of the Aya-lollahs in Iran...
...Further, we could reopen former air bases in Pakistan that would provide both a reconnaissance and strike capacity in the whole area—and back up the force 1 hope we will station in Oman to protect Hormuz Strait...
...The Pakistanis are in the same league and we have permitted our commitment to nonproliferation to overshadow the far more significant need for a U.S.Pakistan alliance...
...But it took a while before most of the accredited spokespersons for world opinion—the delegates at the United Nations—could work up their indignation...
...For several years now, it has been possible to go to the public library at Los Alamos and get a do-it-yourself H-bomb book...
...We could also negotiate base rights at Karachi for our Indian Ocean fleet...
...This means the United States must formulate a strong regional policy— and make it clear to Brezhnev that if he ignores the off-sides rules, there will be penalties...
...Despite the different backgrounds of the two crises, though, it would be a profound mistake to decouple them...
...One step in the right direction was Carter's decision to withdraw the salt II treaty from Senate consideration...
...Berbera in Somalia has been suggested, but it is too close to highly sophisticated Soviet weaponry in South Yemen...
...Moreover, what too few people seem to realize is that the fundamental problem with nuclear devices is not putting them together...
...However, on top of the continuing incarceration of our Teheran embassy staff, the President suddenly has to cope with Brezhnev's human rights safari in Afghanistan...
...President Carter must feel the cosmos is conspiring against him...
...Recognizing the fact that world opinion would no longer tolerate the monstrous behavior of Afghan despot Hafizullah Amin, President Brezhnev arranged for a splendid progressive Afghan, Babrak Karmal—who was temporarily residing in East Germany—to be unanimously elected President of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan...
...I agree, but the Indians already have one...
...Another important step in the right direction is the Administration's move to end our preposterous policy of shunning Pakistan...
Vol. 63 • January 1980 • No. 1


Op 19 januari was Florian met Jan Smit en Christoff te gast in een uitzending van MDR um 4. Hier de link.
Hi, welcome to the Florian Silbereisen Fansite. This is a Dutch fansite about the German singer Florian Silbereisen. I'm still working on this site, so please come back later for more!


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Stuart H. Smith
Oil Production Waste
The other side of the BP story in the Gulf
In BP Spill, Important Articles, Legal, Main, Ocean Life, Oil Spill Facts, Recovery, Spill Damages, Victim Claims
A lot of people are talking about a story that aired Sunday night on the popular CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes" about BP and the 2010 Gulf oil spill. In essence, the story was an opportunity for executives from the oil giant to repeat the same old whine that I've written about here recently — that they never expected so many billions of dollars in claims from residents and business owners who were harmed by the impact of their reckless 5-million gallon spill, and thus people are somehow taking advantage of the multi-billion-dollar profitable company. The only difference Sunday was that this time they got millions of viewers to pay attention.
Now here's another story, which also came out on Sunday, which gives a much more accurate picture. Here's an excerpt:
These days, he tends to travel to Grand Isle State Park and Elmer's Island. The oil no longer covers those places, as it once did, but despite what you may have heard about the cleanup being complete, fresh tarballs keep reappearing. Especially after storms, Henderson's liable to find them by the thousands.
"Every time I go down to these areas, I find lots of oil," Henderson told Salon. And it's not just the tarballs, either. As summer approaches, he describes, with horrified fascination, how liquid oil still buried in the marshy soil oozes up to the surface. Just last week, he came across a dead dolphin.
That's the story, of non-stop environmental degradation, that America still needs to hear — especially after three years or so of bombardment from BP's feel-good TV ad campaigns. It certainly places BP's non-stop complaining and moaning in a broader context. Here's some more of the Salon article:
When Jonathan Henderson's done taking photos of oil and tarballs, he sometimes scoops up the refuse and collects its in jars. Those on the coast are worried about the potential health risks posed to cleanup workers, not to mention the tourists walking barefoot on the beach who might not be aware, for example, that the tarballs have been found to contain the deadly Vibrio bacteria. Henderson, who sometimes sees children playing with the tar, recently sent some of his samples to a lab to be tested for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHS) — a cancer-causing byproduct of burning oil. He's still waiting on the results.
"If I had more resources, I would spend a lot more time finding impacts," Henderson said. "I would go into more remote areas," on Louisiana's coastline, the ones only accessible by boat, "and I would find oil, and send it to a lab, and prove that it was BP's. And I would go to areas that had been taken out of response, and find oil, and prove that it's still BP's oil impacting the area."
The claim that BP made on national TV Sunday night — that it's losing billions of dollars on the settlement it reached last year with residents and small businesses who were harmed by the spill — has been debunked and shot down by the courts again and again and again.
Never forget that the terms of this settlement are the ones that BP's own lawyers helped draw up and then publicly agreed to, even defending the fairness of the terms before a federal judge. The claims that the company are now being asked to pay are exactly the type of claims that were envisioned in the BP-packed settlement. And the reason that the dollar figures are so high is a simple one: BP's neligence caused massive environmental harm in the Gulf, and now it's paying the piper.
For a change of pace, I'm going to give the last word to a fellow New Orleans blogger who had the same reaction I did — and who posted some of the many photos of BP tar balls that have washed ashore on Florida's Gulf beaches in recent days. Wrote Tom Young of the Legal Examiner:
Last night, the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes ran a story on BP in which the company attempted to portray itself as a victim of the people of the Gulf of Mexico. Let these photos, from last Friday (4 years and 12 days since the Deepwater Horizon disaster), remind BP and its sympathizers that the company is no victim. It is indeed the villain and will remain so until full restitution is made for destroying our environment and economy.
Read more about the "60 Minutes" broadcast: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bp-cries-foul-in-massive-oil-spill-settlement/
Check out the Salon.com report about lingering environmental problems in the Gulf: http://www.salon.com/2014/05/04/the_truth_behind_the_spin_what_bp_doesnt_want_you_to_know_about_the_gulf_oil_spill/
Here's Tom Young of the Legal Examiner on the BP spill: http://neworleans.legalexaminer.com/toxic-substances/bp-60-minutes-the-real-state-of-the-gulf/
© Smith Stag, LLC 2014 – All Rights Reserved
"60 Minutes" BP BP Oil Spill BP Settlement Deepwater Horizon Gulf beaches tar balls
Kim lirette says:
After four years of this big mess BP made we are so far in debit it's not funny. After they keep saying gone make it right. I not scare to tell the world I'm in the hole so far can't get out. That BP Drill so deep for us fishermen to fall in to. Since BP DESTROYER kill our living with their poison they spray. Just wish our GOVS and PEOPLE in White opening there eyes to see what BP HAD DONE and still doing.
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The information contained on this web site is for informational purposes only and should be construed as legal advice. The content of this site may not reflect the most current legal developments and is not guaranteed to be correct, complete or up to date. This web site is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship between you and the group of independent law firms, or any individual lawyer or law firm, and you should not act or rely upon any information without seeking the advice of an attorney.
Please be aware that if you communicate with any law firm through this web site in connection with a matter on which we do not represent you, your communication may not be treated as privileged or confidential. If you communicate with us via email in connection with a matter on which we do represent you, please note that email is not secure and can be intercepted by third parties; therefore, you should avoid sending confidential or sensitive information unless adequately encrypted.
Unless otherwise specified, the attorneys listed on this web site are not certified by any state board of legal specialization.
© Stuart H Smith, LLC
Stuart H. Smith is an attorney based in New Orleans fighting major oil companies and other polluters.
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f-15sg
The Republic of Singapore Air Force detachment on American soil!
The Republic of Singapore Air Force detachment on American soil! May 17th, 2009 in Breaking News MINDEF - News - RSAF'S F-15SG Fighter Aircraft Arrive at Mountain Home Air Force Base (07 May 09). The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) detachment at Mountain Home Air Force Base (MHAFB) in...
ricklbert
air aircraft f-15sg force usa