Monday 13 December 2010

The Foot-in-Mouth President & Cabinet


"I don't want one like this one. She may fail to pass through the
 door, breaking furniture with her heavy weight
 and even break the vehicle's shock absorbers." 


That's Ian Khama, President of Botswana, commenting on one of his cabinet ministers when describing the kind of wife he'd like.
And I thought Ian Khama was a bore, turns out he's got quite a sense of humour. The image of a woman so heavy she can break a car's shock absorbers had me in stitches for a minute, but what's even funnier is that it's said by an almost 60 year old man 'bout to tip into the grave in a minute. Good luck with waiting on that Beauty Queen to come around,
I hope she can tell a joke or two about you, Sir.


This selection of quotes from a story on All Africa published today includes some real gems from members of Khama's Cabinet:
Speaking at the country’s largest diamond mine, President Khama accused the Bushmen of living a ‘life of backwardness’ ‘a primitive life of deprivation co-existing alongside wild animals’, and ‘a primeval life of a bye [sic] gone era of hardship and indignity’....

...Last month, speaking to the BBC, Botswana’s minister of environment, wildlife and tourism said he didn’t believe ‘you would want to see your own kind living in the dark ages in the middle of nowhere as a choice, when you know that the world has moved forward and has become so technological’. The vice-president has also been quoted as questioning why the Bushmen must ‘continue to commune with the flora and fauna’ when they could ‘enjoy the better things in life, like driving Cadillacs’.
(source: All Africa)
Well that's the Khoi-San told inn'it? I mean, why live in the bush, for centuries relatively unpoisoned by the evils of modernity, when there are Cadillacs to be enjoyed and the better things in life to be attained, courtesy of Khama's government, of course? I'm sure the natural ecosystem would be happy to get on without the 'primitive' Bushmen who could do with a bit of civilizing, eh? 
And to the poor, urban-dwellers of Botswana, you have been cheated by 'life'. As you are 'modern people' there is no reason why you should not have the best of what life has to offer so I encourage you to go in your numbers, go and line up at the Minister of Environment's office and demand your Cadillacs because that's what 'life' has to offer. Never you mind that Botswana has as many Cadillacs as I can count on my hands and toes or that BMWs, Toyotas and Mercedes Benzs are what you'd most likely see being driven by those who enjoy the finer things in life, while you poor folk have to fight with the government to get basic unimportant stuff like electricity, health and affordable education. 
 It's not that this rather hip Minister has watched one too many Snoop and Fiddy videos or that he forgets what  his ministerial duties towards the environment actually entail, he's just telling it like it is, homies. So, good people of Botswana, go and demand your Cadillac. It is a modern citizen's birthright!
#getrichordietrying.

No comments: