205 lines
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205 lines
10 KiB
Standard ML
A:\TEXT\SUNCITY.TXT (Dec-85) 7-bit ASCII text/80 columns/200 lines
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Reprinted, edited, and distributed for public reading by the anti-apartheid
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people at VANC0 (Sunnyvale, Ca.) Re-edited for telecom by Karen A./Dec-85
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"Apartheid? I thought they broke up..."-- Ron S. van Zuylen (16-Nov-85/20:15)
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SSSSSS LLL LLL AAA AAA VVVVVV EEE RRRRRRR YYY YYY
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SSS LLL LLL AAAA AAA VVV EEE RRR YY YY Copyright (C) 1985
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SSSSS LLL LLL AAAAAAAA VVV EEE RRR YYY K.L.H.V. Inc. --
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SSS LLL LLL AAA AAAA VVV EEE RRR YYY All rights reserved
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SSSSSS LLLLL AAA AAA VVVVVV EEE RRR YYY
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=============================================================================
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SOME FACTS ABOUT APARTHEID
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EDUCATION
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Education is free and compulsory for white children. For black children, it
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is not compulsory and there is a special education tax. All public education is
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racially segregated with racially differentiated curricula. Per Capita
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Expenditure (1983): Whites - $692; Africans - $96
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HEALTH
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Health services are extensive and advanced for whites. (The first heart
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transplant was performed in South Africa.) The infant mortality rate for whites
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is 13 per 1,000 live births; for rural Africans it is 240 per 1,000. Between 30
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and 50 percent of African children die before the age of five.
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EMPLOYMENT
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Average monthly industrial wages: Whites - $701; Africans - $186
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ECONOMY
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South Africa is the world's leading producer of gold and gem diamonds. It is
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a major producer of strategic minerals and ores like uranium.
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=============================================================================
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In August, 1985, President Ronald Reagan compared the South African system of
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apartheid with earlier "racial segregation" policies in the United States. He
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suggested that apartheid, like legislated segregation in our country, had been
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"eliminated."
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A short while later, the President publicly apologized for his misleading and
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inaccurate remarks. When even the President of the United States finds it
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difficult to comprehend the reality of South Africa, how can the rest of us hope
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to understand it?
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The story of apartheid in South Africa is the story of a white minority that
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runs a government opposed to the legitimate needs of a majority of black people.
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Blacks, who out-number the whites almost five to one are asking for justice and
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the end of that country's racially organized political and economic system.
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They are demanding the abolition of apartheid, not its reform.
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The strategy of apartheid is to divide and conquer - to keep Africans divided
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along tribal lines and then to seperate them from other, more privileged racial
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groups. 23 million Africans make up 74% of the population; 2.6 million people
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of mixed-descent, called "coloureds," make up 8.5%, nearly a million people of
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Asian descent, primarily Indians, make up 2.5%, and the 4.7 million whites make
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up 14.5%. Not all South African whites support apartheid.
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317 LAWS
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Africans are forbidden to vote, buy or sell land in most areas, or choose
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where to live and work. They are deprived by law of any control over their
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lives. There are 317 laws to enforce the subjugation of Africans. These laws
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permit the jailing of the government's opponents and allow the police to operate
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with impunity. But when you look at only the racial aspects of South African
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apartheid - as shocking as they are - you only get part of the story.
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The reason? Apartheid is not only a system of racial domination - it's also a
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system of economic exploitation. Apartheid is no more - or less - than a system
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of modern slavery. Blacks are used as cheap labor to dig out the gold,
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diamonds, and strategic minerals that have made white South Africans rich. This
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low-cost, dependable, and controlled labor system has also made South Africa a
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very attractive investment to foreign corporations and banks. United States
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corporations, banks and individuals alone have more than fifteen billion dollars
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invested in South African apartheid.
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HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS
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All Africans have been forced to register with the government and to carry
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photo passbooks filled with an individual's work history and tax status. The
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government decides where they can live and work. 87 percent of the land is for
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whites only. The remaining 13 percent - the most barren and least usable land
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in the country, is allocated for African people. Many live in township - huge,
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impoverished ghettoes surrounded by military patrols like Soweto outside
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Johannesburg - and are allowed to commute to work in the cities but not to live
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there.
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If you are black in South Africa, and you are caught somewhere you are not
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authorized to be, or if your pass is not in order, you are jailed. Such actions
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by the police are commonplace. In fact, every `two-and-a- half minutes`, a
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black South African is arrested for a crime that, by definition, a white South
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African can never commit. Even if the pass system is modified, apartheid
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controls are unlikely to lapse.
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In response to world-wide pressure, the South African government recently
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indicated an intent to relax certain restrictions imposed by apartheid. Black
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leaders have denounced these "reforms," saying "they polish our chains but won't
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remove them." For example, talk of giving people "citizenship" without giving
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them power over their lives is meaningless.
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Millions of South African blacks have been forced to live in ten isolated
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"homelands" or `bantustans`. The South African government wants to regard these
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"homelands" as independent countries, and has already declared four of them to
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be so. But no other nation on earth recognizes their legitmacy.
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Many of the Africans now living in these homelands have been moved there
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forcibly from the land they have lived on for generations. Eighty percent of
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the families in the bantustans live at or under starvation levels. One of every
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four children dies at birth.
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Each year, millions of male Africans leave the bantustans to work on contract
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as low-paid migrant workers in the mines and industry. The women and children,
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who are not allowed to go along, barely survive. The old, ill and infirm do not
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survive at all. Families are seperated year after year by this system; they are
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together at most for short visits at the end of each contract.
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SUN CITY
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One such artificial country created by the South African government is called
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Bophuthatswane. Its showplace is Sun City, an internationally famous, Las
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Vegas-like casino resort complex. Sun City caters to white South Africans and a
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few wealthy blacks who travel from urban centers to indulge in gambling and
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other forms of recreation such as concerts.
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Audiences are not officially segregated in Sun City, but few blacks can afford
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the high cost of the tickets. To maintain the appearance of integration, hotel
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owners have admitted giving blacks free tickets. Foreign performers and
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athletes reap rich rewards for appearances at the luxury complex. Many of these
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stars argue that they are not playing in the land of apartheid but to mixed
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audiences in a separate nation.
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The United Nations has called for a cultural and sports boycott of all South
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Africa including Sun City; that boycott is monitored by the Special Committee
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Against Apartheid. Those who detest apartheid and have chosen to honor the U.N.
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call know that Sun City was built to get around the boycott, as a way to win
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back international favor and break South Africa's isolation. The $90 million
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resort is an oasis for the rich and privileged in the middle of the vast rural
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slum of surrounding Bopthuthatswana.
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Sun City is a symbol of apartheid. It tries to camouflage the reality of
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South Africa and does more damage than good to the people of South Africa. Sun
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City is controlled by political and economic interests that are part and parcel
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of apartheid.
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Not all performers have succumbed to the large sums they are offered to
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perform at Sun City. A growing list of sarts have refused lucrative contracts,
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including Stevie Wonder, Toney Bennett, Ben Vereen, Gladys Knight and the Pips,
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Roberta Flack, the Kool (Newport) Jazz Festival, and the Harlem Globetrotters.
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Tennis player John McEnroe has twice refused million- dollar offers to play
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there. As protests mount against those who do go to Sun City, the ranks of
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those who choose conscience over dollars will also grow.
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--September 25, 1985
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=============================================================================
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WHAT YOU CAN DO:
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* You can inform yourself and your friends about South Africa.
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* You can urge your elected representative to take a strong stand against
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apartheid.
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* You can donate money to help meet the needs of those struggling in South
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Africa, those forced into exile, and those organizing against apartheid.
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* You can send a tax-deducatible contribution to The Africa Fund, whose
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address is available at the end of this text.
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* With your donation, ask for a list of publications and a roster of the many
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organizations fighting against apartheid that need your help.
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* You can buy the album, single, or video of Artists United Against
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Apartheid's SUN CITY, whose royalties will be donated to The Africa Fund.
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* One more thing: If you're asked, don't play Sun City, no matter how much
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you want that money.
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=============================================================================
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The Africa Fund is a charitable trust established by the American Committee on
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Africa in 1966 to aid Africans struggling for freedom and independence. The
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fund is a registered nongovernment organization with the United Nations. The
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income will benefit political prisoners and their families in South Africa, the
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educational and cultural needs of South African exiles, and educational work of
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anti-apartheid groups in the U.S.
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Contributions to further these projects may be sent to:
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- THE AFRICA FUND
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- 198 Broadway
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- New York, N.Y. 10038
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- (212) 962-1210
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(This text is to be distributed as much as possible. The truth about
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Sun City and South Africa needs to be told. In other words, upload (wow,
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computer talk!) it everywhere. Thanks for reading.)-- K.A. (Dec-85)
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