Foreign Investors: Beware of South Africa & Namibia by Jan Lamprecht

As a resident of S.Africa, I thought it would be apt, in our current climate to warn foreign investors of the potential dangers of investing here currently.

The first danger in investing in South Africa, is to beware of buying property. Since 1994, we have had something of a property boom here. Property prices are at an all time high. Many people in Europe buy holiday homes or other property here. These investments are relatively safe – although probably somewhat overpriced.

But the real danger lies in purchasing large tracts of land like farms. Recently a commission, set up by the minister of land affairs, recommended putting a temporary ban on the foreign purchase of: Farms, Golf Courses and nature reserves. This, no doubt is because of “Land Reform” and the seizing of land to “right past wrongs” which is going on here.

Foreign investors must not think that “Land Reform” only applies to local whites. Even in Zimbabwe, we have seen land being taken away which was owned by foreigners. In fact, foreign-owned farms are among the very first they look at to see if they can be confiscated. They are especially interested in farms which “are not being used”. There are few of those.

There have been some foreign investors who lost in a big way. I know a wealthy German industrialist who owned a large nature conservancy in Zimbabwe. The Government went after it.

A recent conference took place in South Africa. It was “decided” at this conference that the Government would not abandon the “Willing Buyer, Willing Seller” principle of Land Reform. This caused much consternation and panic in South African farming circles. This is nothing more than a reflection of what occurred in Zimbabwe.

In Zimbabwe, Land Reform started in the 1980’s. At first it was all amicable. It was based on the willing buyer, willing seller principle. But as the years went by, it cost the government more money than they could afford. So then they started paying the farmers less. They started out by not paying for the farm house, and later not paying for the barns. Eventually they only pay for the land. And even then, they only pay for it at Government dictated prices.

South Africa and Namibia are both following the same process. It is financially impossible for these Governments to actually pay for all the Land Reform at market-related prices. And now they are starting to cut corners.

In South Africa and Namibia we have seen the first farmers who have been forced off their farms – legally.

In South Africa there are 7,000 land claims which they want to settle in the next 3 years. Some land claims cover land owned by multiple people. South Africa’s agricultural output is now falling by 5% per annum due to the effects of land reform.

Here are two links to stories and photos on my website which show what can go wrong even with “properly run” land reform such as in South Africa:

A photo story containing 42 photos showing what happened to one farm.

And a photo story showing what happened to a farm worth R100 million at the time of handover:

These destroyed farms are the result of “organised” land reform in South Africa. But worse lies ahead.

This is one of only two maps I have which were compiled by the Transvaal Agricultural Union back in 1998 showing how much land is being claimed in S.Africa. The entire process has become highly secretive and these maps may not reflect the full extent of the claims since boxes full of "mislaid" land claims were discovered in 2005! What we do know is that the Northern Cape & Free State have less Land Claims than other provinces. KwaZuluNatal however has more Land Claims than its entire surface area! 1 million hectares more is being claimed there than its entire surface area.

The Map is of Mpumalanga Province. The Land Claims are marked in Pink. The Yellow areas are major towns & cities. The red lines are the main roads.

For those people who want to buy holiday homes and smaller properties let me say this: The prices are pretty reasonable by international standards. However, according to local standards the prices are very high. It is however unlikely that prices will drop a lot. The demographics of Africa are such that property prices tend to keep going up no matter what.

But potential investors should beware of Capital Gains taxes. There has been a lot of talk about implementing such wealth taxes on people who own more than one property.

So if you are thinking of investing in South Africa, tread carefully, and don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

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Original Investigative Journalism from the
Columnist Guild News Bureau

BATR websites attacked by Cliff Jones, Bureau Editor

Portions of the parent web site which hosts this news bureau have been "cracked." Whether related in any way with previous reported death threats received by site owner "SARTRE" (James Hall) is being investigated.

"Hacking" is perfectly legal. It involves only accessing and viewing content on another's computer remotely. The law has held that it's no matter that particular private content was never intended to be publicly accessible, it's fair game for anyone to access and view if they are able, even if extraordinary measures had to be taken to gain access. Security is entirely the responsibility of the owner of the content.

But "Cracking" is a crime. It means one has "touched" the owner's computer code and altered it against the owner's will, which amounts to damage to the property represented by the code. Usually in such instances, further damages to owners arise, from lost revenue to denial of the services they normally provide, by this disruption or outright destruction of web site functionalities.

A hacker does not alter a single digit of anyone's content they've accessed. A cracker does, that's the only difference.

Certain of the Breaking All The Rules web sites were cracked somewhere in the vicinity of 10:50 PM EST Wednesday. Intended content was replaced with a banner linking to this forum: http://www.g00ns-forum.net/ Portions of this forum were also visible on the BATR sites.

The attack left information stating that an entity calling itself "Noob" was responsible for the attack. "Noob" does not appear in listings of membership at the above web forum. One having "admin" in an email address at the above forum has been contacted for comment.

BATR's hosting and web mastering personnel have been asked to provide investigators certain information which may be useful in determining both the cause and origin of the attack. Investigators say it would be very difficult to determine which actual human being launched the attack, though the vicinity of the hardware used should be ascertainable, depending on content of the web hosting service's logs.

Two separate "g00ns" sites mentioned by malicious code left in the wake of the attack are apparently hosted in Argentina and California, though it is doubtful these are responsible for the attack.

Meanwhile, "SARTRE" rightly wonders if this is even remotely related to recent telephonic death threat he'd received.


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Original Investigative Journalism from the
Columnist Guild News Bureau

AOL, Yahoo! to charge fees for some email by Cliff Jones, Bureau Editor

February 22, 2006

AOL and Yahoo! will begin charging a fee for the delivery of some bulk email in the next 30-60 days. The announced launch of Goodmail System's "CertifiedMail" is stated be part of ongoing efforts to reduce "spam" and identity theft by email through a process called "phishing."

Goodmail will charge a fraction of a cent for each mail sent through their system. The company informed the New York Times their system is intended only for certifying the validity of bulk mailings, and is not intended to lead to eventual charges for all email.

It is hoped legitimate mass-mailers will utilize the system to bypass labyrinthine filters presently used to screen emails for spam and phishing. By paying the fee, emails will skip such scrutiny, which oftentimes strips content out of emails, delivers them late or not at all, and can cause mail to be shunted to customer's "junk" folders upon receipt.

The new program will provide a verification "trust symbol" accompanying the email, verifying it as non-malicious.

AOL intended the program would replace it's successful "Enhanced Whitelist," which monitors mass-mail sender's activities and compares them with any complaints which may have been lodged against them, basically an honor system. There is no fee associated with the Enhanced Whitelist.

But in the wake of resistance from mass-mailers and the public, AOL has since reversed it's decision and announced the Whitelist will continue alongside the new CertifiedMail. Still, AOL views CertifiedMail as the way of the future, citing numerous flaws with the Whitelist a clever spammer could easily work around.

But some people are not so sure of the stated intent of this move. Citing AOL's own pronouncements recently that it has already reduced spam received by it's customers by 75 percent, Steve Elliott, President of Grassfire.org, believes there's more to it than spam.

"This “fee” is really a private-sector “tax” on groups like Grassfire that, I believe, will open the door for more fees, taxes and regulations on email. It could very well mark the beginning of the end of the free Internet," says Elliott in a recent Grassfire press release.

Elliott observes that AOL and Yahoo! presently serve approximately 50% of all email in America, and fears smaller providers will quickly jump on board to avail themselves of a newfound "gold mine."

He also imagines organizations such as his will be maneuvered into paying fees for email or face virtual extinction. Indeed, according to Elliott his organization has seen an alarming increase in it's mail being blocked by AOL and Yahoo! just in the last 30 days. He sees CertifiedMail as the establishment of different "classes" of email; pay and his recent difficulties would no doubt disappear.

He even sees potential "federalizing" of email or perhaps the Internet itself on the horizon. Suggesting how a "scandal" could emerge, he posits "Suddenly, we will have a free-speech crisis and Congress will come to our “rescue” and federalize email."

Bolstering Mr. Elliott's general view is recent talk of a "two tier Internet," where the bigger you are, the more Internet resources you get.

Mr. Elliot sees CertifiedMail as intended to stifle free speech and innovation on the internet, adding ominously that if his vision is correct, "...the email lifeline of our economy will begin to have the efficiency of the US postal system."

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Original Investigative Journalism from the
Columnist Guild News Bureau

Economists fill void in M3 reporting by Cliff Jones, Bureau Editor

Economists everywhere are speculating in the void left by the Federal Reserve board ceasing it's M3 money supply reports. In a written response to senator Jim Bunning, Fed board chairman Ben Bernanke seemed to liken the move to turning the lights out when leaving a room.

"My understanding is that the Federal Reserve decided to discontinue publication of the monetary aggregate M3 because the costs of collecting and processing the underlying data were judged to exceed the benefits. The Federal Reserve will not withhold the M3 data from the public; rather, it will no longer collect and assemble that information. The Federal Reserve will continue to collect data for and publish the monetary aggregates M1 and M2 and their components."

One debate concerns whether M3 will even be missed. Arguably, M3 is a flawed and irrelevant subset of larger aggregates anyway. Also, Mr. Bernanke clearly states M3 will not be hidden, just no longer reported by the fed. Government has outsourced such reporting to private institutions before, if M3 is relevant to anyone they can calculate it for themselves.

Countering this is the Federal Reserve is a private corporation, and none has the will or wherewithal to duplicate the massive paper trail it has abandoned, allegedly as a cost-saving measure. To these it is ludicrous not to know M3, and see it's elimination as an attempt to hide something, as suggested by Robert McHugh.

But whether M3 is outdated or that this is a cover up is academic. All sides seem to agree that the Federal Reserve will be forced to expand M3 exponentially in coming months.

This speculation in America and Europe is associating this move to talk of pending war with Iran. Iran plans to shift to Euros for oil on March 20, which author Lindsey Williams claims will strip near 30% of the "value" of the dollar overnight.

These economists fear a Weimar Germany style "hyperinflation" in America, regardless of the reason for the demise of M3. Also discussed is war as the only way out of such a mess.

Sean Corrigan of the Ludwig Von Mises Institute feels what's being hidden are potentials not being discussed in the mainstream he calls "homegrown exigencies;" pension busts, consumers hitting the end of the rope and various market bubbles. He concludes "a heliborne rescue mission" of monetizing government debt is in store.

This, Mr. McHugh compellingly argues, is the present task of the "Working Group" aka "plunge protection team." The fed is on this team, and Mr. McHugh and Europeans such as "Europe 2020" seem to think the fed is banking on other parts of the team to scatter all the cards to the winds of war.

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Original Investigative Journalism from the
Columnist Guild News Bureau

Fair and Balanced?: Death Threats Hit Prominent Political Columnists by Todd Brendan Fahey

James Hall publishes as "SARTRE" throughout the Web. Perhaps the most prolific right-wing columnist on the 'net, he keeps to himself in private life. Long a retired political activist, Hall is no longer a believer in organized politics--though very much still a believer in and spokesman for Jeffersonian anti-federalist, limited government ideology.

And so he was surprised to answer his unlisted phone number on January 30th, to the question that was asked three times in succession: "Is this SARTRE?" (His response each time: "Who is calling?"). Finally, the caller shouted, "We know who you are!", followed by a death threat that he has divulged only to the New York state police department in his area, which he alerted immediately.

Says Hall, "No one calls for Sartre on my home phone number."

The *64 function on his phone brought back a Toronto, Canada phone number (416-785-4574) owned by Dr. Laurence B. Shiff, 327 Cortleigh Boulevard, Toronto, Ontario MSN 1R2 CA. Friends assisted Hall in some Google sleuthing, and which reveals Dr. Shiff an officer of the Kaspu Corporation. When relaying the events to longtime SARTRE publisher Jeff Rense, Rense said: "That's the same number I've been getting threats from, and two of my other writers."

The morning of Hall's telephone death threat, he had published an incendiary piece titled ("Hamas, Israel and the United States"), which went 'net-wide and which, later in the week, resulted in his being dropped from New Media Alliance--ostensibly, a start-up conservative news bureau. The article calls for a complete severing of the "USrael alliance," as a danger to American citizens and an affront to the Constitution.

Two weeks before the threat received by James Hall, fellow Rense.com writer Kurt Nimmo closed down his blog entirely, citing an inability to reconcile death threats received, his publishing life and the safety of his family ("Zionist Death Threats: Nimmo Closes Down Blog").

Writes Nimmo:

"The primary reason I have decided to stop posting the blog has to do with threats. I have received many of them, including death threats. Usually, I am able to brush aside threats, since most are not of a serious nature, but lately I have received several that are not to be taken lightly, especially considering the fact somebody has taken the liberty to post my address and telephone number (information easily attained from the domain registry) in various places on the internet. First and foremost, I have a responsibility to my family and posting political commentary obviously comes in a distant second."

On February 2, Rense.com writer Jim Mortellaro received calls from the same Toronto, Canada phone number: "Beginning three days ago, two more so-called 'men' began their tirade on this writer. Like the first person, they informed me that I was a Rense supporter and that makes me an anti-Semite. Me. Of all people, with a Jewish side to our family in which 2.15% survived the camps. That would be two out of 93 human beings. You picked the wrong person, guys. ...I now have his name and address. The man lives in Toronto. He is the son of a (I won't go there, not to worry), he is a member of a very wealthy family there, with interest in (major interest) in a very large corporation." ("Zionist Threats and Harrassment Continue")

Mortellaro received the call on his cell phone, which, as he writes: "is extremely hard to obtain. You must have the *authority* to do so and that authority must be high up the food chain. So, whomever called, did so from a "restricted telephone number" and had *access* to cellphone numbers and their owners. A 'restricted' telephone number, being different from a 'restricted call,' makes the case for a governmental, institutional or large and powerful company as having made the call."

Messrs. Hall, Rense, Nimmo and Mortellaro are now coordinating efforts--with state police, FBI and Canadian authorities--for to bring about a Federal investigation. Each writer has been critical in their writings of US/Israeli entanglements; each has received death threats from the same phone source--which has now been identified. All manner of "special interest groups" have been protected from harrassment and seen perpetrators punished. That this group is comprised of prominent writers who hold what are undoubtedly unpopular beliefs, in the eyes of mainstream media and probably within Washington D.C., will prove a test case for the law being "fair and balanced."