As a white South African male, I think that if those are the sorts of articles that you’re relying on for a true idea of what goes on in this country, then you may be over-estimating it.
Disagree, since the sources used for articles like the lined one seem reliable.
If anything I in think in general Western reports let alone regular Western ideas about life in South Africa are likely to be underestimating white South African suffering. In addition I would argue there are gains in signalling games for well off white South Africans to downplay the suffering of their group.
I do agree South Africa in general has been rather lucky but there is potential for major problems because white South Africans are a market dominant minority.
We have a clear example of what could have and still some day might happen in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.
Disagree, since the sources used for articles like the lined one seem reliable.
I didn’t say that anything in the linked article was directly false—merely that the evidence is biased, having been picked out by one group, and therefore that it gives an overall false impression.
Consider, for example, from the article on farm murders:
in 2001 61% of farm attack victims were White, yet White people make up only 9,2% of the population.
I’m willing to believe that both of those statistics are correct, individually, but put together like that they present an incorrect impression. To obtain a correct impression, one needs to find the answer to this question: in 2001, what percentage of South African farmers were white?
Due to the aftereffects of Apartheid, I can say with extremely high probability that it’s higher than the 9.2% figure quoted; indeed, it would not surprise me to learn that it was more than 70% (which completely changes the significance of that first figure). Unfortunately, in a few minutes’ googling, I was unable to find any source for the figure in question (census data is supposed to be available, but not necessarily in an easily searched format).
As for BEE, it is (as I understand the original idea) an attempt to redress the “market dominant minority” problem without widespread suffering; yes, there is a certain amount of economic discrimination against me, but it’s not an impossible barrier to overcome. And it does continually reduce the potential for the major problems that you describe. (What it has become is in some cases different to what was intended—sometimes because of the greed of a few, the new “black elite” who have got rather rich by exploiting any loopholes they could find—sometimes because of poorly drafted legislation—but there are enough voices in parliament calling for the original idea to keep pulling it back on course). I suppose it could be seen as a sort of ‘social safety valve’, giving the less-dominant majority a way to achieve part of the market without pulling the whole market down and rebuilding it from scratch.
And I should add that there are people (I know of several) who would take every word of those articles and mutter darkly that “you don’t know the half of it”. I personally don’t always agree with them, but they are there (and may be suffering psychologically in ways that I hadn’t fully considered until now).
So, I’m not saying that there is no suffering. I’m just saying that I think that it might be over-presented in some places.
We have a clear example of what could have and still some day might happen in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.
Yes, and Zimbabwe is very much in the public eye here. Enough people are looking at it, and comparing it to the current situation, that any attempt to start moving down that same path will be highlighted mercilessly, and shied away from (no-one wants to end up in Mugabe’s position, at least not as far as I can imagine). I’m not saying that we can’t end up in similar straits (though I consider it unlikely), but at the very least we’ll get there by a substantially different path.
Disagree, since the sources used for articles like the lined one seem reliable.
If anything I in think in general Western reports let alone regular Western ideas about life in South Africa are likely to be underestimating white South African suffering. In addition I would argue there are gains in signalling games for well off white South Africans to downplay the suffering of their group.
I do agree South Africa in general has been rather lucky but there is potential for major problems because white South Africans are a market dominant minority.
We have a clear example of what could have and still some day might happen in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.
I didn’t say that anything in the linked article was directly false—merely that the evidence is biased, having been picked out by one group, and therefore that it gives an overall false impression.
Consider, for example, from the article on farm murders:
I’m willing to believe that both of those statistics are correct, individually, but put together like that they present an incorrect impression. To obtain a correct impression, one needs to find the answer to this question: in 2001, what percentage of South African farmers were white?
Due to the aftereffects of Apartheid, I can say with extremely high probability that it’s higher than the 9.2% figure quoted; indeed, it would not surprise me to learn that it was more than 70% (which completely changes the significance of that first figure). Unfortunately, in a few minutes’ googling, I was unable to find any source for the figure in question (census data is supposed to be available, but not necessarily in an easily searched format).
As for BEE, it is (as I understand the original idea) an attempt to redress the “market dominant minority” problem without widespread suffering; yes, there is a certain amount of economic discrimination against me, but it’s not an impossible barrier to overcome. And it does continually reduce the potential for the major problems that you describe. (What it has become is in some cases different to what was intended—sometimes because of the greed of a few, the new “black elite” who have got rather rich by exploiting any loopholes they could find—sometimes because of poorly drafted legislation—but there are enough voices in parliament calling for the original idea to keep pulling it back on course). I suppose it could be seen as a sort of ‘social safety valve’, giving the less-dominant majority a way to achieve part of the market without pulling the whole market down and rebuilding it from scratch.
And I should add that there are people (I know of several) who would take every word of those articles and mutter darkly that “you don’t know the half of it”. I personally don’t always agree with them, but they are there (and may be suffering psychologically in ways that I hadn’t fully considered until now).
So, I’m not saying that there is no suffering. I’m just saying that I think that it might be over-presented in some places.
Yes, and Zimbabwe is very much in the public eye here. Enough people are looking at it, and comparing it to the current situation, that any attempt to start moving down that same path will be highlighted mercilessly, and shied away from (no-one wants to end up in Mugabe’s position, at least not as far as I can imagine). I’m not saying that we can’t end up in similar straits (though I consider it unlikely), but at the very least we’ll get there by a substantially different path.