"Firstly, respect all cultures. Now look at those nasty British Imperialists!"
Zuma claims "no one has the authority of judging cultures," but his attitudes are internally inconsistent because all the while he's condemning the British for having some residue of imperial culture, one belief of which was its own superiority. Furthermore, the whole idea that nobody can judge cultures is ridiculous. In fact, everyone can. If a culture's practices are barbaric, unjust, cruel or inimical to the advancement of knowledge or personal happiness, how is it that we cannot judge it? What about the antebellum culture that was founded on enslavement of the black race? What about the culture of inequality of women which has led to such barbarisms and injustices as women burned on the funeral pyres of their husbands, punished for the "crime" of being raped, and mutilated in their genitals? Any attempt to say these practices are somehow not "cultural" is just a "no true Scotsman" line of argument.
I agree. I don't like the PC line that "you can't judge that, it's part of their tradition!" I can and will judge it. I judge everything that everyone does, including myself. There are plenty of barbaric acts in various western countries that are "culturally based", and I judge them with the same eye that I use to judge Zuma. Saying that I'm only allowed to judge people of my own culture is just as racist as judging people exclusively based on their culture. The PCers of the world are simply blind to their own, passive racism.
Do you know what I see when I look at Zuma? He's is a barbarian. That's just the fact of the matter. It's not the multiple wives that bothers me (whatever, I couldn't care less. That's no different in my mind than having multiple non-married sexual partners in your life. *shrug*), it's the fact that he's a publicly acknowledged serial rapist that infuriates me. And they elected him *president*? Riiiight. Now *that* is a way to garner my respect, South Africa:P. Mind you, when you look at who he was running against, he may actually have been the lesser of two evils, heh. That's sad.
about burning women on the funeral pyres of their husbands - the practice is called Sati. it is an abominable practice, however there have been circumstances where this has been condoned and even venerated - for example the sacrifice of the women of Chittorgarh in the face of an invading Mogul army and certain rape and indignity - the Moguls won the war but when they entered the fort they found only the charred remains of Maharani Padmini and the ladies of the court( this is referred to as Jauhar), there have been cases of women performing Sati voluntarily as they have do not want to survive their husbands for whatever reasons.
obviously people in the UK are not culturally evolved enough to understand this spirit of sacrifice or this strength of character - hence the prejudice.
Zuma is absolutely right about the British - so is the Daily Mail about him - he is a vile bafoon