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The dystopian underworld of South Africa’s illegal gold mines

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21–30 of 137 posts

Re: The dystopian underworld of South Africa’s illegal gold mines

#21

Was a well written article. Pretty amazing contrast in the way various people are forced to live. While obviously not great for black people during apartheid South Africa's government really fell apart afterwards. Hiv infection rates rose from 3% to 18% of the adult population. Top 10 in the world for murder rates. 30% unemployment rate. Rolling blackouts. Afrikaans Paramilitary groups. Massive organized criminal org…

Do you think South Africans would be better off today if there had been no attempt to apolish apartheid? Genuine question, not a gotcha.

Re: The dystopian underworld of South Africa’s illegal gold mines

#22
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying it's actually good to abuse people because it makes the gene pool stronger in some abstract way?

No I am just wondering why is this largely ignored

Because thinking of human evolution leads to all sorts of horrifying thoughts and those kind of timescales can be ignored given the rapidly approaching spectre of AGI or even just human genetic engineering.

Re: The dystopian underworld of South Africa’s illegal gold mines

#23

Was a well written article. Pretty amazing contrast in the way various people are forced to live. While obviously not great for black people during apartheid South Africa's government really fell apart afterwards. Hiv infection rates rose from 3% to 18% of the adult population. Top 10 in the world for murder rates. 30% unemployment rate. Rolling blackouts. Afrikaans Paramilitary groups. Massive organized criminal org…

I've always wondered why there's no black-majority country that's prosperous...it's always the same story of corruption, incompetence, and/or infighting.

Now, before anyone brings out the pitchforks, I'm a black African residing in Nigeria...I'm just saying that we really have to do better than this.

Re: The dystopian underworld of South Africa’s illegal gold mines

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true. The only thing we can do to stop criminal gold miners is to segregate our society by race.

If we don't continue apartheid, where will we get billionaires to buy social media companies and run them into the ground as a political stunt?

Are you saying that Musk somehow inherited $44 billion from his still-living father's stake in an Emerald mine said father bought for under a $100k?

Re: The dystopian underworld of South Africa’s illegal gold mines

#25
post #13

I sometimes wonder what the future of human rights is considering a scenario from 10 generations from now. The survived miners will probably have children. The children who are not fit (neither physically nor mentally) will die working in mines. The mentally fit children will migrate to US. The physically fit children will have more children that are physically fit. What will happen then? Why are we ignoring the futu…

There are and have been more enlightened places on earth where rules are in place that limit the abuse of strength, but rule by strength & violence has been the norm for all of human history.

Note that even in more enlightened places, the ultimate tool for enforcement and coercion is still strength, and the state has a monopoly on the use of this.

Re: The dystopian underworld of South Africa’s illegal gold mines

#26

Was a well written article. Pretty amazing contrast in the way various people are forced to live. While obviously not great for black people during apartheid South Africa's government really fell apart afterwards. Hiv infection rates rose from 3% to 18% of the adult population. Top 10 in the world for murder rates. 30% unemployment rate. Rolling blackouts. Afrikaans Paramilitary groups. Massive organized criminal org…

Do you think South Africans would be better off today if there had been no attempt to apolish apartheid? Genuine question, not a gotcha.

Authoritarian governments are similar to economic bubbles (balloons). They push out everything better and then leave a mess when they collapse.

Pretty much everything on GPs list was a problem during apartheid era as well, or caused by it.

Re: The dystopian underworld of South Africa’s illegal gold mines

#27

Was a well written article. Pretty amazing contrast in the way various people are forced to live. While obviously not great for black people during apartheid South Africa's government really fell apart afterwards. Hiv infection rates rose from 3% to 18% of the adult population. Top 10 in the world for murder rates. 30% unemployment rate. Rolling blackouts. Afrikaans Paramilitary groups. Massive organized criminal org…

I've always wondered why there's no black-majority country that's prosperous...it's always the same story of corruption, incompetence, and/or infighting. Now, before anyone brings out the pitchforks, I'm a black African residing in Nigeria...I'm just saying that we really have to do better than this.

[flagged]

Re: The dystopian underworld of South Africa’s illegal gold mines

#28

Was a well written article. Pretty amazing contrast in the way various people are forced to live. While obviously not great for black people during apartheid South Africa's government really fell apart afterwards. Hiv infection rates rose from 3% to 18% of the adult population. Top 10 in the world for murder rates. 30% unemployment rate. Rolling blackouts. Afrikaans Paramilitary groups. Massive organized criminal org…

Do you think South Africans would be better off today if there had been no attempt to apolish apartheid? Genuine question, not a gotcha.

White South Africans definitely. Black South Africans I don't know. Some of them could be better off financially but it's a heck of a thing to be treated as if you are a lesser being because of the color of your skin. I guess the answer is yes in regards to the economy, health (maybe, not sure sure on this) , government corruption and a couple other things but no on just the simple act of being treated like a human. Apartheid had to go but just throwing power into the mob was not a good way to do it. I don't have an answer as far as what would have been a better solution.

I left South Africa as a young teen during the collapse of Apartheid. We had a black maid / nanny who lived on our property in housing my parents provided for years. She did a lot of the work raising us as my parents were always at work. She had a daughter a couple years older than me. Years later my mom wrote her a letter to see how she was doing. She was completely destitute begging for money. Her daughter has multiple kids and was hiv positive. Really rough.

I really don't know what the right approach would have been. It's easy to be an armchair quarterback.

Re: The dystopian underworld of South Africa’s illegal gold mines

#29

Was a well written article. Pretty amazing contrast in the way various people are forced to live. While obviously not great for black people during apartheid South Africa's government really fell apart afterwards. Hiv infection rates rose from 3% to 18% of the adult population. Top 10 in the world for murder rates. 30% unemployment rate. Rolling blackouts. Afrikaans Paramilitary groups. Massive organized criminal org…

Really odd to draw the line at before apartheid and after. Jacob Zuma's reign was really a clear sign of corruption hitting an extremely high level & he did things like say I took a shower after so I wouldn't get AIDs.

My layman understanding is that the ANC's dominance of politics enabled extreme corruption to take place. It does look like they've finally started to lose hold

Re: The dystopian underworld of South Africa’s illegal gold mines

#30
post #13

I sometimes wonder what the future of human rights is considering a scenario from 10 generations from now. The survived miners will probably have children. The children who are not fit (neither physically nor mentally) will die working in mines. The mentally fit children will migrate to US. The physically fit children will have more children that are physically fit. What will happen then? Why are we ignoring the futu…

> Why are we ignoring the future of our species and human rights on a larger scale of time?

Because we like money.

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