🚀 go-pugleaf

On Oct 16, 11:54 am, r...@cl.cam.ac.uk (Robin Fairbairns) wrote:
>  therm...@india.com writes:
> >Here I catch another "Michelle Dondi" or "Valery Plame" a yank bastard
> >sabotaging thread behind a FAKE Italian identity. Folks, get it clear
> >that
> >this bastard is INSULTING THE WHOLE ITALIAN NATION.
>
> *PLONK*
>
> michele, my wife hadn't encountered "aria fritta" (not often used in
> the italian she knows best, from singing), and lol at it as a concept.
> --
> Robin Fairbairns, Cambridge

Because you pretend to be from Cambridge University, I shall reply to
you
in poetic and literary english from the Jane Austin Era. There shall
be no
vulgar language, only facts.

---------- Cecil Rhodes helped my Jewish Maximes - the weapons of mass
murder -----------

Africa. The Dark Continent of the early explorers became the stage for
the
final act in the story of Queen Victoria's Empire. In the footsteps of
missionaries like David Livingstone, the powers of Europe conducted a
brutal race for colonies, a race that would become known as the
Scramble
for Africa.

In Britain this last burst of expansion was inspired by two men whose
stories would bring the British people to a climax of imperialist
fervour.

The first, General Charles Gordon, sent on a diplomatic mission to a
poor
Arab country, he launched a personal crusade to free an oppressed
people.
His defiant stand would draw his queen and her empire into a holy war
and
lead them on a romantic but violent quest to impose a new world order.

The second, Cecil John Rhodes, started out as a simple cotton farmer,
and
he became the greatest empire builder of his generation.
To fund his dreams of conquest he embarked on a ruthless pursuit of
diamonds, gold and power, that made him the most formidable, and the
most
hated, man in Africa.

Gladstone's fall from power had repercussions throughout the Empire,
particularly in Southern Africa. The absence of his moral influence
cleared
the way for a man who would lead Victoria's Empire down a far more
perilous
path. Cecil John Rhodes had arrived in South Africa at the age of 17,
to
work on his brother's cotton farm.

There was nothing to distinguish Rhodes from thousands of other
British
emigrants who left the mother country to seek their fortune in the
British
colonies. But this young clergyman's son would devote most of his life
to
expanding British rule, and making himself the most dangerous man in
Queen
Victoria's Empire.

At first his ambitions were limited to being a successful farmer. He
got
along well with his African workers, shared their food and hospitality
and
respected their values.

Rhodes had an intuitive feeling for the people of Africa.
He was fascinated in African society.
He would spend whole nights in Kraals, he wanted to understand how
they
operate.
He was quick to learn Zulu so he could communicate directly.
He also understood the value that Africans placed on a person's trust.
And he was much mocked by the other cotton farmers because he used to
pay
his labour in advance.
And that was seen by the people who worked for him as a sign of trust
and
of course it built up their loyalty.

But Rhodes was soon lured away from farming. His arrival in Africa had
coincided with a fateful discovery 500 miles away on remote farmstead
known
as Colesburg Kopje.

A Dutch settler noticed his neighbour's children playing "klip-klip"
or
"five stones". His eye was caught by a stone that shone with a
particular
brightness, and he went to take a closer look.

Rhodes dropped everything packed his bags and joined the diamond rush.
The
farm at Colesburg Kopje soon became the boom town of Kimberley.

But in 1872 just a few days after his 19th birthday, Rhodes suffered a
heart attack.
His doctor's told him the attack was "mild" but Rhodes knew that from
then
on he was engaged in a race with Death.

He chose a curious form of convalescence. An epic trek across the
African
veldt. Some believe that during this journey Rhodes developed his
great
love and his great plan for Africa.

A lot of commentators have said that those nine months that Rhodes
spent
touring Africa by ox wagon going right up into Boer territory had an
incredible effect on him. Rhodes would be continually hearing stories
about
the African interior from wandering hunters.

I believe that it was on that journey that he formed his first nascent
ideas of an Africa that was there ready to be reached, ready to be
taken.

His health restored Rhodes returned to the diamond fields. Most of the
diggers thought the diamond mine was exhausted and wanted to sell
their
claims. Rhodes took a gamble and bought them. His hunch was right.
Beneath
the first seam of diamonds was another, even richer. Rhodes put all
the
claims under the control of one company, De Beers.

Within ten years it would own 90 per cent of the world's diamond
production.
Rhodes would use his wealth to finance his dreams.

RHODES: "Money is power and what can one accomplish without power?"

Rhodes dreamed of creating a vast British colony across the length of
Africa. To achieve this he planned to build a railroad from Cape Town
to
Cairo.
But first he needed to win political support in South Africa.

He was elected to the Cape Parliament where he courted the Africaaner
Bond.
The Bond was the party of the Dutch farmers or Boers who were
consolidating
their own power by taking it from the native African's
We're talking at a stage when black people in the Cape voted provided
they
fulfilled certain property requirements, They sat on juries where they
sat
in judgement over white people.
This was abhorrent to the Afrikaana Bund.
And what Rhodes did was to form a very, very close alliance with them.
Comm in

Rhodes, who had once prided himself on his own lack of prejudice, made
a
speech in the new Cape Parliament.

RHODES:
Does this House think that it is right that men in a state of pure
barbarism should have the vote? Treat the natives as a subject people.
Be
the lords over them. The native is to be treated as a child and denied
the
franchise."

Following Rhodes' speech, the law was changed. The vote in southern
Africa
was removed from all but a handful of of native African's

Rhodes throughout his career was continually shifting the pieces on
the
board. Consider the diamond mines, if you go back to the beginning of
their
history, black people owned claims.

They were competitors with whites.

What Rhodes' requirements were was to have a permanent, reliable black
labour force.
Who would be kept within compounds, unable to leave at all, inspected
every
time they came out of the mines.
And the need for a controlled labour force drove Rhodes towards racist
policies.
If you try to make any political sense out of Rhodes' career it makes
absolutely no sense at all.
But if you look at it in economic terms it makes perfect sense.
The alliances that he was making was for profit and for business and
there's no argument about it.

The next step in Rhodes masterplan was to expand British territory
northward into those regions David Livingstone had explored years
before.

But across his route lay the empire of the Matabele, "the people of
the
long shields", one of the most formidable warrior nations in Africa.

Their king, Lobengula, known as the "eater of men" maintained a reign
of
terror from his capital at Bulawayo - "the place of slaughter".

Gold had been discovered on his land and several European adventurers
were
after it. But Rhodes was after more than gold. He wanted Lobengula's
country.

The story of Rhodes and Lobengula is fascinating and it is foul.
The two men never met yet they had an extraordinarily strong
relationship
through intermediaries.

Rhodes sent three of his agents to meet Lobengula - and in a bid to
impress
the Matabele king he included among them the brother-in-law of the
great
David Livingstone - John Moffat.
But Lobengula was in no hurry to see them, and the men were forced to
stay
in an enclosure where the king kept his goats.

There was a long, long wait for Rhodes' emissaries.
Rudd particularly writes back about the appalling conditions, the mud,
the
flies, the stench.
The impatience that they had there. They were kept waiting literally
for
months while Lobengula made up his mind.

And finally after all this waiting Lobengulea signified that he was
willing
to have a grand Indaba to discuss whether they would grant a
concession to
Rhodes' consortium.

John Moffatt presented Lobengula with a document that would grant
Rhodes
extraordinary powers.

"The complete and exclusive charge over all metals and minerals
situated in
my Kingdom, Principalities and Dominions, together with full power to
do
all the things that they may deem necessary to win and procure the
same ...
'

He eventually signed a document on the understanding that he was
simply
granting prospecting rights to Rhodes' company for his men to dig ten
holes
in his territory. And what Lobengula had signed he had virtually
signed
away his country.

Armed with that document Rhodes was able to go to London seeking a
Royal
charter which would be Britain's endorsement of his rights to that
territory.

Rhodes was now famous.
He was widely admired for his immense wealth and achievement - but
many
distrusted him as a man who would let nothing, not even the British
government, stand in the way of his ambition.

The Queen was curious about her over-mighty subject. She invited
Rhodes to
stay at Windsor Castle
In 1890 when he eventually met Queen Victoria he charmed her.
There's a wonderful moment where it's said that she said to him, is it
true
Mr Rhodes that you're a woman hater, to which he replied how can I
possibly
hate a sex to which your Majesty belongs.

Rhodes won the queen's approval - and a Royal charter authorising him
to
exploit King Lobengula's concession. It gave him legal rights to
recruit a
company police force and build forts throughout the region. - The
powers of
an Independent state.

But Rhodes still needed to break the power of Lobengula. To achieve
this he
called on his closest friend
Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, a gambler, an adventurer, and a ruthless
opportunist.

His chance came when Lobengula launched an attack on a weaker tribe,
in a
dispute over cattle.
Jameson sent a message to Rhodes:

"We have the excuse for a row over murdered women and children, and
the
getting of Matabeleland would give us a tremendous lift in shares ...
"

Jameson recruited a force of 1400 white mercenaries. Each man was
promised
6,000 acres of Lobengula's land and 15 claims to prospect for gold.

When Rhodes and Jameson between them decided that the time was right
to
take Matabele Land the key ingredient, the key weapon for them was the
Maxim gun, machine gun.

Now this was a weapon that fired 60 bullets a second.

This had never, never been used in battle before.

And it is extraordinary that a company, a corporation should possess
the
most top secret weapon as it were that the British army possessed but
Rhodes had Maxim guns.

The Matabele were armed mainly with spears and clubs. The result was
devastating ... .

Rhodes' Maxim guns just cut through the advancing Matabele again and
again
and again, it was like scything grass.

They didn't stand a chance.
The losses were enormous, 3,000 on one day. It was slaughter.

Lobengula fled Bulawayo with his wives.
A few days later his abandoned ox-cart was found with the king's body
lying
nearby. According to one of his followers, the great king of the
Matabele
had poisoned himself.

John Moffatt who had persuaded Lobengula to sign the mining
concession, was
stricken by remorse.

MOFFAT:
"The King was a gentleman in his way, and was foully sinned against"

In November 1893, Dr. Jameson hoisted the company flag over Bulawayo,
Rhodes now had personal control over a vast territory that was to be
called
Rhodesia.
A few days later, he made his triumphant entry into Lobengula's former
capital and congratulated his troops on their destruction of what he
called
" a ruthless barbarism."
John Moffatt, now had a complete change of heart,

 MOFFATT:
"The great Rhodes is prancing around ... Everyone here is bowing down
and
worshipping him as the wisest of men. The popular tide is with him ...
I
suppose there will be a crash someday ... and men will suddenly
recollect
that there is still such a thing as justice even to niggers."

Rhodes's reward was to be elected the Prime Minister of Cape Colony.
He bought a house on the slopes of Table Mountain overlooking the two
oceans, the Indian and the Atlantic.
Here he surrounded himself with his male friends and enlightened them
with
his religious and racial theories.

RHODES:
"Whites have clearly come out top ... in the struggle for
existence ...
Within the white race, the English-speaking man has proved himself to
be
the most likely instrument of the Divine Plan to spread Justice,
Liberty
and Peace over the widest possible area of the planet. Therefore I
shall
devote the rest of my life to God's purpose and help him to make the
world
English."

Rhodes was master of all he surveyed,
But he wanted more. His quest for power would soon plunge Victoria's
empire
into its darkest hour.

In 1886 gold was discovered in the Transvaal, a state established by
some
of the Boers, to escape British rule.

Rhodes feared the Transvaal Boers, enriched by revenues from the
goldmines,
would become an obstacle to his plans. If they joined forces with
German
colonists in the west, they would block his route to the north.

To avoid this, Rhodes formed an alliance with disgruntled miners in
the
gold town of Johannesburg - and planned an uprising to overthrow the
Boers.