The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
– UK gives £19million aid to South Africa – its president spends £17.5million on his palace (Daily Mail, Nov 24, 2012):
It is a nation racked by poverty, where 13?million people survive on less than £1 a day, and two million have no access to a toilet.
Yet as his people struggle in squalor, South African president Jacob Zuma has sparked outrage by spending £17.5?million to upgrade his rural family home.
– South Africa Shows Europe How Anti-Austerity Protests Are Done (ZeroHedge, Oct 8, 2012):
While we have grown ‘used’ to hearing of protests in several European peripheral nations, South Africa has turned the anti-austerity protest amplifier to 11 in recent days. From the Lonmin massacre and subsequent wage increase to the truck-drivers’ strike and Amplats firing of 12,000 workers , Reuters is reporting that South Africa’s local government worker’s union has now said it will join a nationwide strike amid the labor unrest in the mining sector. Demanding ‘market-related salaries’ this strike would bring the South African economy to its knees – at a time of rising deficit concerns. Critically, this has dramatic repercussions. Since firing people is no longer an option as “Those who are dismissed will make sure that there will be no operations operating and that will cause a massacre just like at Marikana,” some companies will be forced out of business (reducing supply) or suffer significant margin compression on cost increases leaving commodity producers struggling – which will inevitably mean prices for end-users will rise (slowing end-user demand or crushing their margins). It seems the South African labor unions found the M.A.D. card.
Via Reuters South Africa:
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s local government workers’ union said on Monday it would launch a strike over pay in the next few days, the first sign of a wave of labour unrest in Africa’s biggest economy spreading from the mines into the public sector.
Since August, close to 100,000 workers, including 75,000 in the mining sector, have downed tools in often illegal and violent protests that look likely to hit growth this year and undermine the government’s efforts to cut its budget deficit.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has promised to reduce the deficit from the 4.6 percent of GDP forecast for this financial year. Any public sector wage increase would make that more difficult.
Read moreSouth Africa Shows Europe How Anti-Austerity Protests Are Done
– 39% Of South African Gold Production Is Now Offline (ZeroHedge, Sep 26, 2012):
Over a month ago, when discussing the implications of the South African miner strike that will not end until all local mining companies’ income statements are crippled after succumbing to wage hike demands, we said “Expect more South African mines to shutter, as gold production in the world’s third largest gold producer grinds to a halt, and the local workers grasp they had the leverage all along. Should the South African example spread to other countries, then expect the price of gold to soar regardless of how much printing the central planners engage in the coming weeks and month.” Today, we find out just what the final tally is , as this too prediction is proven correct: “Strikes at South African gold mines have shut about 39 percent of capacity, including at AngloGold (AGG) Ashanti Ltd. and Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI), as unofficial walkouts spread across the country in demand of above-inflation pay increases.” And boom: “AngloGold, the world’s third-largest gold producer, today said all of its South African mines have been halted. Gold Fields Ltd. also lost a metric ton, or about 32,000 ounces, of production after strikes at its KDC and Beatrix operations.” That’s ok, Bernanke will just print more gold.Nobody could have foreseen the complete collapse in South African mining production.
Read more39% Of South African Gold Production Is Now Offline
YouTube Added: 17.09.2012
If Nostradamus were alive today, he’d have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente.
– New York PostWhen CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente.
– CNN Headline NewsThere’s not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he’s talking about.
– CNBCThose who take their predictions seriously … consider the Trends Research Institute.
– The Wall Street JournalA network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties.
– The Economist
– Platinum Soars As Spreading South African Miner Strike Cripples World’s Biggest Platinum Firm (ZeroHedge, Sep 12, 2012):
Ten days ago, when describing the latest casualty of the ongoing South African miner revolution, we said: “Expect more South African mines to shutter, as gold production in the world’s third largest gold producer grinds to a halt, and the local workers grasp they had the leverage all along. Should the South African example spread to other countries, then expect the price of gold to soar regardless of how much printing the central planners engage in the coming weeks and month.” Fast forward to today: “Labour unrest sweeping across South Africa’s mining sector hit top world platinum producer Anglo American Platinum on Wednesday, with striking miners blockading roads leading to shafts belonging to the mining giant, police said. The platinum price jumped as much as 1.5 percent to $1,624.74 an ounce, its highest since mid-April amid fears of more disruption to supplies of the precious metal used in jewellery and vehicle catalytic converters.” The good news: the complete mining shut down has not spread to other countries. Yet. The bad news: as expected, one after another South African mine is going offline. Why is this an issue? Because Chinese demands is soaring, even as the world is about to lose its third largest producer of gold. Not even the CME hiking gold margins to infinity will do much to prevent what will inevitably be a surge in precious metal prices. Factor in what is likely to be more easing by Bernanke tomorrow, and it may be time to eye the all time nominal high of just over $1,900 gold hit a year ago.
From Reuters:
South Africa is home to 80 percent of known reserves. The platinum price has jumped more than 17 percent since police shot dead 34 protesters at the Marikana mine of world No. 3 platinum producer Lonmin on Aug. 16, the bloodiest security incident since the end of apartheid in 1994.
– South African Miners “Playing Dangerous Game” As Tensions Rise Again (ZeroHedge, Sep 11, 2012):
While it appears the mainstream media has forgotten about the ongoing drama in South Africa, the tensions are rising rather dramatically around the Marikana mines (owned by LonMin mining). As Al Jazeera reports, thousands of miners (along with wives and supporters) have defied an extended deadline (brokered by the government) and decide to remain on strike. The following clip provides some rather concerning color on what is occurring as Julius Malema, the expelled ANC leader, has already been charged with inciting violence – and is “playing a rather dangerous game.” He is calling for a national strike as he addresses the people: “they have been stealing this gold from you. Now it is your turn, you want your piece of the gold.” The tough reality is that as extraction costs rise (energy/depth) and now miners’ costs rise, then the end-product’s cost must rise, or – as Melema suggests – supply goes offline. Must see clip.
– SAfrica labor unrest spreads, 41,200 miners strike (AP, Sep 10, 2012):
MARIKANA, South Africa (AP) — Labor unrest spread in South Africa on Monday with a wildcat strike by 15,000 workers stopping operations at a gold mine while few workers reported for duty in the fourth week of a stoppage at the world’s third largest platinum mine.Gold Fields International said its strike started Sunday night and that senior managers were at the scene Monday trying to find out what is wanted by miners at the west section of its KDC mine. The east section of the mine was operating normally.
At a second platinum mine, Implats, 15,000-plus workers are demanding a 10 percent pay rise although they are continuing to work, spokesman Johan Theron said.
Lonmin PLC platinum mine said just 6 percent of its 28,000 workers turned up Monday morning at its mine in Marikana, west of Johannesburg. Mine drivers drove around looking for workers to pick up, but the buses returned to the mine empty.
Read moreSouth Africa: 41,200 Miners On Strike, Labor Unrest Spreads
– First Platinum, Now Gold: As South African Miners Strike Spreads, Thousands Of Ounces Remain In The Ground (ZeroHedge, Sep 2, 2012):
Two weeks ago we showed dramatic footage as striking miners at Lonmin’s Marikana South Africa platinum mine were fired upon by local the local cops, killing dozens of protesters in the process. Aside from the implications of what happens when the establishment loses control and desperate workers revolt with complete disregard for their own safety, the strike has crippled the world’s third largest platinum maker, and has cut daily production of the precious metal by 2,500 ounces. Since then the Lonmin situation has remained critical, with just 6% of the South African company’s workers turning up for work last week. In the meantime, the strike bug has gone airborne, and has now impacted Gold Fields, the world’s fourth largest gold mine. From the FT: “Some 12,000 workers at a gold mine operated by Gold Fields have gone on strike, in the latest industrial strife to hit South Africa’s mining industry. Sven Lunsche, a spokesman for Gold Fields, said the wild-cat strike was not directly related to the crisis at the Marikana platinum complex, where 44 people have been killed in violence after rock drill operators downed their tools to demand higher wages on August 10. But he acknowledged that “the atmosphere in the mining industry is very volatile at the moment and this may have had an indirect impact on the situation”. The bottom line: “The strike was costing the company 1,660 gold ounces of production a day, Mr Lunsche said.” In other words in addition to the fear of a resumption in money printing by central bankers, the gold price will now have to deal with the added fear that supply disruptions just may hamper China’s stealthy hording attempts to become the world’s biggest holder of physical gold, or at least at sub $2000/oz prices.Furthermore, it appears that where the striking miners of Lonmin and Gold Fields have boldly gone, many more local unionized workers are set to go as well, in the process shuttering the biggest industry in the Southern African nation:
Before:
– South Africa: Police Kills More Than 30 Striking Miners
– South African Marikana miners charged with murder (BBC News, Aug 30, 2012):
Workers arrested at South Africa’s Marikana mine have been charged in court with the murder of 34 of their colleagues shot by police.
The 270 workers would be tried under the “common purpose” doctrine because they were in the crowd which confronted police on 16 August, an official said.
Police opened fire, killing 34 miners and sparking a national outcry.
The decision to charge the workers was “madness”, said former ruling ANC party youth leader Julius Malema.
“The policemen who killed those people are not in custody, not even one of them. This is madness,” said Mr Malema, who was expelled from the ANC (African National Congress) earlier this year following a series of disagreements with President Jacob Zuma.
“The whole world saw the policemen kill those people,” Mr Malema said, adding that he would ask defence lawyers to make an urgent application at the high court.
The killing of the 34 was the most deadly police action since South Africa became a democracy in 1994.
Read moreAND NOW … South Africa: MINERS Charged With Murder Of 34 Of Their Colleagues Shot By POLICE
– Mine “bloodbath” shocks post-apartheid South Africa (Reuters, Aug 17, 2012):
The killing by police of more than 30 striking platinum miners in the bloodiest security operation since the end of white rule cut to the quick of South Africa’s psyche on Friday, with people and the media questioning its post-apartheid soul.
Newspaper headlines screamed “Bloodbath”, “Killing Field” and “Mine Slaughter”, with graphic photographs of heavily armed white and black police officers walking casually past the bloodied corpses of black men lying crumpled in the dust.
Read moreSouth Africa: Police Kills More Than 30 Striking Miners
– 11 International Agreements That Are Nails In The Coffin Of The Petrodollar (The Economic Collapse, July 18, 2012):
Is the petrodollar dead? Well, not yet, but the nails are being hammered into the coffin even as you read this. For decades, most of the nations of the world have used the U.S. dollar to buy oil and to trade with each other. In essence, the U.S. dollar has been acting as a true global currency. Virtually every country on the face of the earth has needed big piles of U.S. dollars for international trade. This has ensured a huge demand for U.S. dollars and U.S. government debt. This demand for dollars has kept prices and interest rates low, and it has given the U.S. government an incredible amount of power and leverage around the globe. Right now, U.S. dollars make up more than 60 percent of all foreign currency reserves in the world. But times are changing. Over the past couple of years there has been a whole bunch of international agreements that have made the U.S. dollar less important in international trade. The mainstream media in the United States has been strangely quiet about all of these agreements, but the truth is that they are setting the stage for a fundamental shift in the way that trade is conducted around the globe. When the petrodollar dies, it is going to have an absolutely devastating impact on the U.S. economy. Sadly, most Americans are totally clueless regarding what is about to happen to the dollar.
– US and South Africa strike a deal to unlock $1.5bn of Libyan assets (Independent, August 26, 2011):
The United States and South Africa struck a deal last night to allow the release of $1.5bn in frozen Libyan funds, giving the Transitional National Council (TNC) a financial boost as it looks to post-Gaddafi rule.
Diplomats said the agreement would enable the funds to be released without a UN Security Council vote on a US draft resolution submitted to the council on Wednesday in response to South Africa blocking a US request to disburse the money.
South Africa had remained steadfast in opposing the move until last night, and agreed to the deal on the condition that there be no mention of the TNC, which the African Union (AU) has not recognised, in the official request for the release of the funds.
Read moreUS And South Africa Strike A Deal To Unlock (To Steal) $1.5 Billion Of Libyan Assets
– Jacob Zuma snubs Michelle Obama during First Lady’s South Africa visit (Telegraph, ?Jun 21, 2011):
Mr Zuma was out of the country for the first day of Mrs Obama’s second solo trip abroad on Tuesday and although he returned on Monday night, aides said he was “not available” to meet her.
Instead, he arranged for Corrective Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to greet her on her arrival in Pretoria on Monday night, and one of his three wives, Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, to meet her briefly on Tuesday.
Mrs Obama, her daughters Sasha and Malia and her mother Marian Robinson, were also granted a rare audience with 92-year-old former president Nelson Mandela at his Johannesburg home.
The Vaal dam overflows near Johannesburg earlier this month. Seven of South Africa’s nine provinces have been affected by flooding. Photograph: Jon Hrusa/EPA
Flooding in South Africa has killed more than 100 people, forced at least 8,400 from their homes and prompted the government to declare 33 disaster areas.
With unusually heavy rainfall forecast until March, the UN has warned that almost every country in southern Africa is on alert for potentially disastrous flooding.
The government said that 88 deaths in the rising toll were in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province. The costs of damage to the infrastructure in the seven of the country’s nine provinces affected is estimated at 160bn rand (£14bn).
Read moreSouth Africa Flood Death Toll Rises As Government Declares 33 Disaster Zones
Particularly at risk is the central business district which is built over the central basin and is home to some of Africa?s biggest firms Photo: ALAMY
The water is currently around 600 metres below the city’s surface but is rising at a rate of between 0.4 and 0.9 metres per day, meaning it could overflow onto the streets in just under a year and a half.
Because it would take 13 months to build a pumping station to clear the water, a legacy of 120 years of mining around Johannesburg, the state has just four months to find the millions of pounds needed to fund it.
It is currently locked in negotiations with multinational mining firms who have profited from the area’s rich natural resources over who should pay and how much.
Announcing a task force of experts set up to deal with the issue yesterday, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said she was hoping that the potential dividends from tapping a new water supply for human consumption and use in industry would entice investors.
Acidic water is created when abandoned mine shafts and tunnels fill up with ground water which oxidises with heavy metals and the sulphide mineral iron pyrite, known as “fool’s gold” because of its yellowish hue.
Without effective drainage, it pours out into waterways, polluting crops and poisoning those living nearby.
According to water activist Mariette Liefferink, from the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, the water is the same acidity of lemon juice or vinegar and poses an “enormous threat” to the city and its inhabitants.
Particularly at risk is the central business district which is built over the central basin and is home to some of Africa’s biggest firms. According to Miss Liefferink, the buildings they are housed would be damaged as the mine water corrodes steel and concrete.
She added that some of the city’s poorer residents are already living on top of mine dumps filled with carcinogenic metals which, if they react with the rising mine water, will pollute the entire water system.
Read moreSouth Africa: Rising Tide of Acid Mine Water to Contaminate Johannesburg
– Israel ‘offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons‘ (Telegraph):
Shimon Peres, the Israeli president and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, was facing deep embarrassment yesterday after it emerged that he allegedly offered to sell Apartheid South Africa nuclear weapons.
The secret military agreement signed by Shimon Peres, now president of Israel, and P W Botha of South Africa. Photograph: Guardian
Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state’s possession of nuclear weapons.
The “top secret” minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa’s defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel’s defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them “in three sizes”. The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that “the very existence of this agreement” was to remain secret.
The documents, uncovered by an American academic, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, in research for a book on the close relationship between the two countries, provide evidence that Israel has nuclear weapons despite its policy of “ambiguity” in neither confirming nor denying their existence.
The Israeli authorities tried to stop South Africa’s post-apartheid government declassifying the documents at Polakow-Suransky’s request and the revelations will be an embarrassment, particularly as this week’s nuclear non-proliferation talks in New York focus on the Middle East.
Read moreIsrael offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons
Red Ants beat residents of Alexandra Township with crowbars
WAVING iron bars and pickaxes, the Red Ants, a rented mob of thugs in bright red overalls and crimson helmets, used the half-light of dawn for cover as they marched into the slum. Stamping out the first cooking fires of the day with heavy boots, they spread out in a long line. Then they attacked.
Bleary immigrant women dropped plastic water containers and ran in panic towards their corrugated iron homes. “Grab the children,” they screamed.
By sunrise their shacks on the outskirts of Johannesburg had been razed. They were forced to watch as their few possessions were burnt.
The Red Ants, described as state-sponsored mercenaries by their critics, have become a growing force in the past few months as South African cities have begun a campaign of “beautification” before the World Cup begins in June. This means clearing away unsightly immigrant squatter camps.
This month, more than 100 Zimbabweans were beaten and evicted by Red Ants from a derelict building on the main road to Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg, one of the football tournament’s main venues.
It followed a series of Red Ant evictions ordered by the provincial department of public transport along main roads within a mile of the stadium, which will host five matches. Hundreds more Zimbabweans were forcibly evicted from properties in central Johannesburg.
Read more2010 FIFA World Cup: Slum clearance, South Africa-style
– Exposed: the great GM crops myth (The Independent):
“Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.”
More info at the end of the following article.
South African farmers suffered millions of dollars in lost income when 82,000 hectares of genetically-manipulated corn (maize) failed to produce hardly any seeds. The plants look lush and healthy from the outside. Monsanto has offered compensation.
Monsanto blames the failure of the three varieties of corn planted on these farms, in three South African provinces,on alleged ‘underfertilisation processes in the laboratory”. Some 280 of the 1,000 farmers who planted the three varieties of Monsanto corn this year, have reported extensive seedless corn problems.
Urgent investigation demanded However environmental activitist Marian Mayet, director of the Africa-centre for biosecurity in Johannesburg, demands an urgent government investigation and an immediate ban on all GM-foods, blaming the crop failure on Monsanto’s genetically-manipulated technology.
Willem Pelser, journalist of the Afrikaans Sunday paper Rapport, writes from Nelspruit that Monsanto has immediately offered the farmers compensation in three provinces – North West, Free State and Mpumalanga. The damage-estimates are being undertaken right now by the local farmers’ cooperative, Grain-SA. Monsanto claims that ‘less than 25%’ of three different corn varieties were ‘insufficiently fertilised in the laboratory’.
80% crop failure
However Mayet says Monsanto was grossly understating the problem.According to her own information, some farms have suffered up to 80% crop failures. The centre is strongly opposed to GM-food and biologically-manipulated technology in general.
‘Monsanto says they just made a mistake in the laboratory, however we say that biotechnology is a failure. You cannot make a ‘mistake’ with three different varieties of corn.’
Read moreMonsanto: GM-Corn Harvest of 82,000 Hectares in South Africa Fails
“Global food Catastrophe”
“The world is heading for a drop in agricultural production of 20 to 40 percent, depending on the severity and length of the current global droughts. Food producing nations are imposing food export restrictions. Food prices will soar, and, in poor countries with food deficits, millions will starve.”
This article is a must-read.
After reading about the droughts in two major agricultural countries, China and Argentina, I decided to research the extent other food producing nations were also experiencing droughts. This project ended up taking a lot longer than I thought. 2009 looks to be a humanitarian disaster around much of the world
To understand the depth of the food Catastrophe that faces the world this year, consider the graphic below depicting countries by USD value of their agricultural output, as of 2006.
Now, consider the same graphic with the countries experiencing droughts highlighted.
The countries that make up two thirds of the world’s agricultural output are experiencing drought conditions. Whether you watch a video of the drought in China, Australia, Africa, South America, or the US, the scene will be the same: misery, ruined crop, and dying cattle.
China
The drought in Northern China, the worst in 50 years, is worsening, and summer harvest is now threatened. The area of affected crops has expanded to 161 million mu (was 141 million last week), and 4.37 million people and 2.1 million livestock are facing drinking water shortage. The scarcity of rain in some parts of the north and central provinces is the worst in recorded history.
More than £100m was secretly paid by the arms company BAE to sell warplanes to South Africa, according to allegations in a detailed police dossier seen by the Guardian yesterday.
The leaked evidence from South African police and the British Serious Fraud Office quotes a BAE agent recommending “financially incentivising” politicians.
In the arms deal, the new ANC government in South Africa agreed to spend a controversial £1.6bn buying fleets of Hawk and Gripen warplanes.
Critics said the country, beset by unemployment and HIV/Aids, could not afford it. The Hawks, rejected by the military, cost twice as much as Italian equivalents.
But the then South African defence minister Joe Modise and a key official, Chippy Shaik, insisted on the purchase.
Read moreBAE accused of £100m secret payments to seal South Africa arms deal
This article is a must read.
Related video:
Nutricide – Criminalizing Natural Health, Vitamins, and Herbs (Dr. Rima Laibow, M.D.)
__________________________________________________________________________
By: Dr. Gregory Damato, Ph.D.
(NaturalNews) Codeath (sorry, I meant Codex) Alimentarius, latin for Food Code, is a very misunderstood organization that most people (including nearly all U.S. congressmen) have never heard of, never mind understand the true reality of this extremely powerful trade organization. From the official Codex website (www.codexalimentarius.net) the altruistic purpose of this commission is in “protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations”. Codex is a joint venture regulated by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO).
Read moreCodex Alimentarius: Population Control Under the Guise of Consumer Protection
A friend who had been in military intelligence many years ago told me that he heard the following on the news yesterday:
According to the IEC (Independent Electoral Commission), 1 million voters “disappeared” from the voters rolls in the period 2004-2006.
Then he saw a news item about new statistics released from Stats SA. (NB: Stats SA is also not shy to hide and downplay figures to some degree – so their figures tend to be very conservative). According to Stats SA 40,000 people between the ages 25-49 die in South Africa per month, MOSTLY FROM HIV/AIDS AND RELATED DISEASES.
So, a quick calculation shows that that means close to 480,000 people die each year in South Africa from AIDS related diseases.
Read moreSouth Africa: 500,000 people die of HIV/AIDS each year now…
Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) — Rand Refinery Ltd., the world’s largest gold refinery, ran out of South African Krugerrands after an “unusually large” order from a buyer in Switzerland.
The order was for 5,000 ounces and it will take until Sept. 3 for inventories to be replenished, said Johan Botha, a spokesman for Rand Refinery in Germiston, east of Johannesburg. He declined to identify the buyer.
Coins and bars of precious metals are attracting investors as a haven against a sliding dollar and conflict between Russia and its neighbor Georgia. The U.S. Mint suspended sales of one- ounce “American Eagle” gold coins, Johnson Matthey Plc stopped taking orders for 100-ounce silver bars at its Salt Lake City refinery and Heraeus Holding GmbH has a delivery waiting list of as long as two weeks for orders of gold bars in Europe.
“A lot of people are worried about the dollar, they’re worried about inflation and now we have geopolitical risk with what’s happening in Russia,” said Mark O’Byrne, managing director of brokerage Gold and Silver Investments Ltd. in Dublin. O’Byrne said his company’s sales are up fourfold this year, heading for a record since its founding in 2003.
Read moreWorld’s Largest Gold Refiner Runs Out of Krugerrands
Questions are arising over how long the Tamiflu retro-viral drugs being stockpiled by the New Zealand government — and many other countries — will remain an effective weapon against the next flu pandemic.
Tamiflu-resistant forms of the “ordinary” seasonal influenza are rapidly spreading and the drug may be ineffective in fighting the dominant flu strain in South Africa this winter.
World Health Organisation (WHO) data shows tests on 107 people in South Africa with the H1N1 strain — one of the three most common flu viruses in humans — found all had a mutant bug resistant to Tamiflu, the WHO said in a statement. Only one of the patients was taking Tamiflu at the time of sampling.
