Tags
9/11, 9/11 Twin Towers, Africa, Air Crash Investigations, Air Disasters, C Squadron, Church of England, Cooking, Deafening Silence, defining moments, Fighting Spirit, Ground to Air Missile Attacks, Mugabe, Nkomo, redemption, Revenge, Reverend Dean da Costa, RH825, RH827 Rhodesian SAS, Rhodesia, Rhodesia Airways, Robert Mugabe, Roman Catholics, September 11 attacks, Special Forces, Spiders, Terrorism, Turmoil, UK Government, United Nations, US Congress, US Senate, Viscount, Viscount Down, Zimbabwe, ZIPRA
There are many who deride Social Media as useless. But I for one have found it wonderful. You see I grew up in a place called Rhodesia…then Zimbabwe-Rhodesia…then just Zimbabwe. Now known as the basket-case of A-FREAK-A – run by a brutal idiot puppet for the Chinese – aka Robert Mugabe.
Much is said of the Jewish Diaspora…and I have great sympathy with them. Yet make no mistake – when it comes to a cultural genocide one of the greatest such accomplishments has been by Socialism – and the actual genocide I speak of on this occasion has been that of “Rhodesia”…it’s like the latter-day ‘None Dare Whisper It’s Name…’ for fear of some Numpty suggesting we were all Colonial Upper Class White Supremacists with cut crystal accents and a family seat in the Home Counties of England. Such rot! Or that we were all Harbingers of Hatred for our black brethren…you name it I have faced it all – and faced it DOWN til the idiot lies whimpering in the corner, licking their wounds.
None of this is true; our army was made up of quite a few “white” volunteers AND a majority of National Service conscripts; all men aged from 16-60 had to do National Service – which totaled some 30% of the armed forces – the other 70% of OUR defense forces was black – and they were ALL were volunteers!
On social media – mostly, is where you will find an extraordinary group of diverse people from a land few, if not from Africa, could find on a map…
You can no longer GO there – you’d need a time machine; the place I grew up was a paradise – ironic that it was also a ‘war zone’; and we all know the political winners of the war write the history…or do they?
Through facebook and other means I have reconnected with many of my fellow “Rhodies”.
Some aren’t worth a hill of beans – some seek to make more of their service to the land than they did – and some, quietly, have been starting the ‘Big Wheel Spinning…’ enter one amazing man called Keith Nell; author of Viscount Down.
Some would say quietly unassuming – some who’ve shared a meal will say an epic cook – his children taunt him for his lack of hair now – I tease him about the spider in his bath – due to his recounting of a story about this HUGE spider that had me laughing for weeks!
You see Mr Nell is not just an author…a loving husband and father to a brood of six; nor is he just a septuagenarian living out his last days in comfort in Africa. Keith is a quietly dynamic legend. He wrote a book called Viscount Down (see his website viscountdown.com) he tells the TRUE story of an SAS Operator (Yes…he is that man. Never mind about him – it’s the story that matters!) who tracked down and delivered justice to those who brought down 2 Air Rhodesia passenger airliners full of innocent men, women and children; and on one sad occasion those Communist-backed terrorists brutally murdered some of the survivors…shot and bayoneted them to death!
How we HOWLED with righteous indignation when we learned that!
Well, remember the worldwide furore over 9/11?
For us…nothing! The Deafening Silence…no condemnation from ANY Government leaders, nor from the Church of England or Rome; nor Rabbis, or Imams; Not a breath of it from the United Nations; No Amnesty International
campaigns…
Have a look at the sermon delivered by our own Very Reverend Dean da Costa…http://christianaction-org-za.win07.glodns.net/newsletter_uca/uca-artic_deafeningsilence.htm for which, the Anglican church sacked him! Yes that’s amazing isn’t it…
THE DEAFENING SILENCE –
Transcript of taped broadcast
“Clergymen” I am frequently told, “should keep out of politics. I thoroughly agree. For this reason, I will not allow politics to be preached in this Cathedral. Clergy have to be reconcilers. That is no easy job. A Minister of religion who has well known political views, and allows them to come to the fore, cannot reconcile, but will alienate others and fail in the chief part of his ministry. For this reasons I personally am surprised at there being two clergymen in the Executive Council. It is my sincere prayer that they can act as Christ’s ambassadors of reconciliation. My own ministry began in Ghana, where Kwame Nkrumah preached: ‘Seek ye first the political kingdom, and all these things will be added to you.’ We know what became of him. We are not to preach a political kingdom, but the kingdom of God.
Clergy are usually in the middle, shot at from both sides. It is not an enviable role. Yet times come when it is necessary to speak out, and in direct and forthright terms, like trumpets with unmistakable notes. I believe that this is one such time.
Nobody who holds sacred the dignity of human life can be anything but sickened at the events attending the crash of the Viscount ‘Hunyani’. Survivors have the greatest call on the sympathy and assistance of every other human being. The horror of the crash was bad enough but that this should have been compounded by murder of the most savage and treacherous sort leaves us stunned with disbelief and brings revulsion in the minds of anyone deserving the name ‘Human’. This bestiality, worse than anything in recent history stinks in the nostrils of heaven.
But are we deafened with the voice of protest from nations which call themselves ‘civilised’? We are not! Like men, in the story of the Good Samaritan, they ‘pass by on the other side’. One listens for loud condemnation by Dr. David Owen, himself a medical doctor, trained to extend mercy and help to all in need. One listens and the silence is deafening.
One listens for loud condemnation by the President of the United States, himself a man from the Bible Baptist belt and again the silence is deafening.
One listens for loud condemnation by the Pope, by the Chief Rabbi, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, by all who love the name of God. Again the silence is deafening.
I do not believe in white supremacy. I do not believe in black supremacy either. I do not believe that anyone is better than another, until he has proved himself to be so. I believe that those who govern or who seek to govern must prove themselves worthy of the trust that will be placed in them. One looks for real leadership: one finds little in the Western world; how much less in Africa!
Who is to be blamed for this ghastly episode? Like Pontius Pilate, the world may ask ‘What is truth’? What is to be believed? That depends on what your prejudices will allow you to believe, for then no evidence will convince you otherwise.
So who is to be blamed? First, those who fired the guns. Who were they? Youths and men who, as likely as not, were until recently in Church Schools. This is the first terrible fact. Men who went over to the other side and in a few months were so indoctrinated that all they had previously learned was obliterated. How could this happen if they had been given a truly Christian education?
Secondly, it is common knowledge that in large parts of the world violence is paraded on T.V. and Cinema Screens as entertainment. Films about war, murder, violence, rape, devil possession, and the like are ‘good box office’. Peak viewing time is set aside for murderers from Belfast, Palestine, Europe, Africa and the rest, to speak before an audience of tens of millions. Thugs are given full treatment, as if deserving of respect. Not so their victims’ relations.
Who else is to be blamed? I am sure that the United Nations and their Church equivalent, the W.C.C. both bear blame in this. Each parades a pseudo morality which, like all half truths, is more dangerous than the lie direct. From the safety and comfort of New York and Geneva, high moral attitudes can safely be struck. For us in the sweat, the blood, the suffering, it is somewhat different.
Who else? The Churches? Oh yes, I fear so! For too long, too many people have been allowed to call themselves ‘believers’ when they have been nothing of the kind. Those who believe must act. If you believe the car is going to crash, you attempt to get out. If you believe the house is on fire. you try to get help and move things quickly. If you believe a child has drunk poison, you rush him to the doctor. Belief must bring about action. If you believe in God you must do something about it! Yet churches, even in our own dangerous times are more than half empty all the time. We are surrounded by respectable heathens who equate belief in God with the Western way of life.
In many war areas, Africans are told to ‘burn their Bibles’. If this call was made to us, what sort of Bibles would be handed in? Would they be dog eared from constant use; well thumbed and marked? Or would they be pristine in their virgin loveliness in the same box in which they were first received?
There are tons of millions of all races who call themselves believers who never enter any house of prayer and praise. Many are folk who scream loudest against Communism, yet do not themselves help to defeat these Satanic forces, by means of prayer, and praise, and religious witness. For make no mistake, if our witness were as it ought to be, men would flock to join our ranks. As it is, we are by passed by the world as if irrelevant.
Is anyone else to be blamed for this ghastly episode near Kariba? I think so. Politicians throughout the world have made opportunistic speeches from time to time. These add to the heap of blameworthiness for a speech can cause wounds which may take years to heal. The ghastliness of this ill fated Flight from Kariba will be burned upon our memories for years to come. For others, far from our borders it is an intellectual matter, not one which affects them deeply. Here is the tragedy! The especial danger of Marxism is its teaching that human life is cheap, expendable, of less importance than the well being of the State.
But there are men who call themselves Christians who have the same contempt for other human beings, and who treat them as being ‘expendable’. Had we who claim to love God shown more real love and understanding in the past, more patience, more trust of others, the Churches would not be vilified as they are today.
I have nothing but sympathy with those who are here today, and whose grief we share. I have nothing but revulsion for the less than human act of murder which has so horrified us all. I have nothing but amazement at the silence of so many of the political leaders of the world. I have nothing but sadness that our Churches have failed so badly to practise what we preach. May God forgive us all and may He bring all those who died so suddenly and unprepared, into the light of his glorious Presence,
AMEN.
Earlier this year a man called Richard Oldridge drafted something called an Early Day Motion – a tool for the 650 UK Members of Parliament to sign…In the end – 6 – yes, less than 1%…did so! http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/1029
“This House notes that 12 February 2013 will mark the 34th anniversary of the shooting down of Air Rhodesia Viscount Flight RH827 (the Umniati) by members of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) in the former Rhodesia resulting in the death of all on board; further notes that this was the second such shooting down of civilian airliners by ZIPRA and followed the shooting down of Air Rhodesia Flight RH825 (the Hunyani) by the same means on 3 September 1978; further notes that the 107 victims comprised civilian men, women and children, some of whom survived the crash of the Hunyani and were subsequently murdered on the ground by bayoneting and shooting; further notes that the victims included citizens from Switzerland, Scotland, Belgium, New Zealand, the UK and South Africa; recalls that the failure to officially condemn these atrocities, as articulated in the sermon by the late Very Reverend John da Costa known as The Deafening Silence, was an act of moral cowardice and deplores such failure; and commends the work done by Keith Nell and his Viscount Down Team to ensure that these atrocities are not forgotten and their ongoing efforts to alleviate suffering amongst the pensioner community of Zimbabwe.”
How do you feel about that? I know how I feel…howling mad; wild as fire. Bloody ice-cold angry!
Now many of us have many stories to tell – but I utterly commend Keith Nell for telling this one. And I suggest you all read it…it’s one hell of a story! And it is a TRUE telling – backed up by FACTS.
Not resting on his laurels, and with the proceeds of book sales and donations…he and his team finally made a lasting memorial to the all-civilian-passengers of Air Rhodesia Flights RH 825 and RH 827 downed by Sam-7 surface to air missiles.
For details on how to buy Viscount Down see viscountdown.com or amazon has a kindle edition for all you e-readers
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/End_the_Deafening_Silence_on_the_Viscount_Massacres_in_Rhodesia/
http://http://www.viscountdown.com/viscount-memorial/
http://http://www.viscountdown.com/
braindamagedblonde 