Foreign aid is not a permanent solution to economic deprivation.
Nor are hypocrisy, deceit, violence, and "disinformation," President Botha--or any combination of them.
Political and economic systems and governments are maintained by the respect they give human beings and the respect they receive in return.
In relation to these "principles" and what was said to Babb about the 1986 South Africa attacks on Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana and the continuing equivalents by your regime to this present time--stories about Angola notwithstanding--might i ask you if you've considered that if your regime, by continuing pressure and military aggression against the Front-Line States and other African countries, keeps them destabilized and economically unsuccessful--you don't really only continue to make more and more developmental aid for them necessary...making it clearer and clearer how poor is your regime's understanding of good economic "principles" and practices?
In other words, aren't you really beating yourselves by causing them so much trouble?
I'd like to hear your views on these "concerns," President Botha.
As i indicate in the enclosed copy of a draft of the "AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION" for my forthcoming book about my "International Diplomatic Work...on a direct basis," i'll include any written response by you to this submission in the book.
For the purpose of this book--"accuracy and content" over "expediency"--i'd also like to be sure of precisely what was said by Desmond Tutu, his Johannesburg Diocese staff, and me during our March-April, 1986 telephone conversations. Given their "situations"--and i'm just now beginning Donald Woods' second book, "Asking For Trouble", and realize it's possible that their memories may fail to recall, with certainty, every detail i stated at $2.75 per minute out of my pocket, or their responses, because of what happened to people who helped Donald Woods--i wondered if you'd be willing to provide me with the tape transcripts of my discussions with them. If you do, i'll see they're included in the book as provided for me by you, with full credit to you for this. The really important point in those discussions, as i recall them now, was the pivotal one when i mentioned the fact about the peace movement before the 19th century American civil war that is to be included with the foreword to the book i learned of it from in my book if the copyright owner will give me permission to do so. Until i brought it up and actually said i was calling because "we" want to help end the killing of "all innocent South Africans," the interference on the telephone line was so bad--compounding already poor audio quality because they were calls between Canada and South Africa--we almost gave up before i could explain this. Yet after i mentioned this, the audio quality improved so much i thought i was calling just across this city.
If you want this point made, President Botha, i'll include what i said in my book if you'll send me a tape of it or a transcript.*
Supposing that Washington and/or Ottawa (or the Vatican or United Nations) may choose to let me include at least excerpts from the 1978 reports in the book, i believe it would be more clearly understood, by evaluating both in relation to one another, what was "our" original goal in starting "Constructive Engagement" and/or the "Negotiating Concept"...over 9 years ago, President Botha.
I honestly hope you'll agree that the truth is vitally important to understanding of how to resolve these issues of continuing international "concern." President Botha.
And with the same sense of purpose, i enclosed another copy of my May 10, 1986 statement to the Globe and Mail's editor-in-chief because it does note Nelson Mandela's views on Communism and Communists in "The African National Congress" in his own words--which is what is relevant here.
The Botha regime did not send me either a tape of my March-April, 1986 telephone discussions with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his Archdiocese staff or a transcript of them.
Get your own Free Home Page