so, i learned a new word (or concept) today: ultra violence
ultra violence is when extreme violence is so violent that it defies the word “extreme” and of course the extreme violence has to be normalised in that society.
i heard the concept first in reference to the death of tourism in alcapulco and cancun in mexico. a journalist literally failed to describe a mass murder scene and casually referred to the mass murder scene as another display of ultra violence. in the mass murder scene, multiple people (and children) were staged and shot in the head. their bodies were on display for a while, as an example.
we also have ultra violence in south africa. it has become so normalised that the murder of a woman farmer in rural albertinia does not even make much of any news. single murders simply are not newsworthy any longer. even mass execution murder for hire type murders (where the lives of 12 people are lost in minutes) does not even make it into the top 5 news stories.
the rules for random or murder for hire to make national news in south africa seems simple:
- at least 10 (but preferably 25 or 50 plus) people must be killed in one event
- it has to be a very slow news day
- the mass killing has to be ultra violent and it helps if anyone killed is a 1% or famous
then, making it into national news means nothing as nobody really cares. well, if you are a farmer, maybe the farming community would care (but as the minister of police are now arresting and targeting praying farmers, for ‘illegal gathering’ under apartheid laws, i guess farmers will stop caring soon also…) either way: taxi owners and politicians are screwed.
i guess in mexico life is also cheap, like south africa. in alcapulco and cancun businesses are extorted for ‘protection money’ by gangs and the main business used to be tourism but is now drugs. it serves the purpose of criminals when things spin out of control as they can grow their criminal enterprises, own more policemen and become more powerful.
tourism in alcapulco is dead. tourism in cancum is dying and all but dead.
in cape town people are shot at the cape town international airport, there are armed robberies of tourists and night club owners are extorted by criminal gangs. in mossel bay an attorney is shot execution style in front of his little kids and a woman farmer is strangled to death. in johannesburg it is ten times worse as nigerians own the drug trade and ultra violence is not a daily event, but an hourly one. in johannesburg the sound of gunfire is frequently heard.
so, i guess tourism in south africa will also start dying. i wonder where the money will come from as i am not aware of any opium poppy plantations and we do not generate $$$ from drug exports to the previously united states of america.
i guess it will be more of an african thing. everyone fighting over 1c and not a dollar in sight. stupid and ignorant people. so stupid and so very ignorant.
i wonder if south africa will also, like zimbabwe, start using the US dollar as a currency?
at this moment it looks very much like this is where south africa is headed. massive poverty and yet another failed african state.
anyway, ultra violence, ultra poverty, we will probably need to start adding “ultra” to everything. if we do not add ‘ultra’ society would simply stop even paying attention.
and; be careful when attending a meeting to pray at the side of a road or in public – the south african police are again using and applying the apartheid gathering laws to arrest citizens of south africa. so, you could be arrested like Pieter Wagner, an estate agent and a member of the Bela-Bela and Modimolle policing forum.