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Quote by Steven Magee

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Steven Magee

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“It was not easy for the Americans to convince Western Europe of the alleged merits of consumerism and a mass consumer society. In many Western European countries - but especially in France - people regarded American mass consumer culture with suspicion and as an expression of the vulgar materialist culture that had developed in the US. They could not, however, dispute the fact that the US had experienced such astonishing economic growth since 1870 that its citizens were able to maintain much higher living standards than those of Europe.”

Political EconomySouth African AuthorSampie TerreblancheLost In Transformation
Book:Lost in Transformation: South Africa's Search for a New Future Since 1986
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“In spite of the close relationship between wealth and poverty in all neoliberal capitalist countries, the rich are usually not prepared to acknowledge that they are rich because the majority is poor. The rich usually live in denial about the casual relationship between wealth and poverty. They don't like to be the flipside of the poor. The rich are always very self-assured, very complacent and very arrogant about their wealth. They are always of the opinion that what belongs to them does so because of their merit, inventiveness, and perseverance, and that nobody - but nobody - has the right to take it from them.”

Political EconomySouth African AuthorSampie TerreblancheLost In Transfromation
Book:Lost in Transformation: South Africa's Search for a New Future Since 1986
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“I suspect that the NDP is actually a carefully crafted ideological propaganda document. This version of ideological propaganda could be called the 'ideology of targetism'. The aim of this ideological propaganda is to lull the general public, and especially the impoverished majority, into contentment until 2030”

Political EconomySouth African AuthorSampie Terreblanche
Book:Lost in Transformation: South Africa's Search for a New Future Since 1986
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“...White traders came to the Transkei, hot on the heels of the missionaries, to provide all the new needs that the missionaries demanded and to satisfy the new tastes that had been introduced... They were a hardy breed of men and women, these traders, isolated, lonely, and hard working. In order to survive in this sea of black people, they had to learn how to live with people. Very few of them slept with revolvers under their pillows or locked their doors. They knew they were safe among their neighbours. They had learnt who was who in the areas where they lived, ingratiated themselves with the most influential families, and kept friends with the majority of the people. They learnt the language of the people and made sure their children learnt it too. Some of them born in these parts knew Xhosa before they knew English. When Britain began replacing the civil service personnel in South Africa with locally born whites, most of their recruits came from this class of whites, who knew the Native and spoke his language. Recruits for missionary work too came from this class. Those of them who went on to universities became experts in the areas pertaining to Africans- Anthropology, African languages, Native Administration and Native Law. But though living among Africans, like all white SouthAfricans they never forgot that they were white.”

South African AuthorSouth African HistoryPhyllis NtantalaA Life S MosaicSouth African WriterPhyllis Ntantal Jordan
Book:A Life's Mosaic: The Autobiography of Phyllis Ntantala
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“Only those who have had to leave home know the unspeakable pain involved. No words can describe it. Much as the situation was ugly in South Africa, and still ugly today, South Africa is my home. I love it. No place in the world is like that country to me. For all its ugliness, it is my home, the place where my roots are, and I love it. This is what is so painful. Even now it is still my hope that I'll go back to live there. It is the only place where my soul can find rest and peace.”

ExileSouth African AuthorPhyllis NtantalaPhyllis Ntantala Jordan
Book:A Life's Mosaic: The Autobiography of Phyllis Ntantala
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“I left because the ground in which I could operate was shrinking, getting smaller and smaller. I felt it was better to carry on the struggle outside, rather than risk going to jail to rot there doing nothing. This I have done. But the struggle for liberation cannot be carried on outside the country; it is inside the country. That is where the battle is and where it will be won. When Fikile Bam came out of Robben Island after ten years, in his first letter to me he wrote: 'Mama, we have decided to remain in the country. The struggle is here and not outside.' This was in response to my efforts trying to get him out of the country. Fikile was right,”

South African AuthorPhyllis NtantalaPhyllis Ntantala JordanA Life S MosaicSouth African WriterSouth African Book
Book:A Life's Mosaic: The Autobiography of Phyllis Ntantala
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