WHAT A FARCE – AT 8:45 A.M. ET:  Rigidly following the old adage that laziness is the best policy, the mainstream media is reporting Libya with a minimal of digging and a maximum of boredom.  But London's Telegraph deserves a medal for pointing out the farce of the president of South Africa trying to broker a deal with Gaddafi.  This is important:

Three months after the Libyan uprising began, the rebels are too weak to press home the advantage afforded by NATO bombing and Muammar Gaddafi refuses to go. This stalemate continues to cause widespread suffering, though it could end sooner than we expected. The mass defection yesterday of senior military officers, previously loyal to Col Gaddafi, is an encouraging sign that his supporters are feeling the strain. But there is no proof yet that the man himself will give way.

Such an impasse calls for mediation, which arrived in Tripoli yesterday in the person of Jacob Zuma, the South African president. The problem is that he is a partial interlocutor, and the timing of his visit coincides with Nato talk of an endgame. The links between Col Gaddafi and Mr Zuma go back to the 1980s, when the Libyan leader supplied money and arms to the African National Congress (ANC) in its struggle against apartheid. Nelson Mandela repaid the favour by campaigning for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Libya after the Lockerbie bombing. The ANC supported the UN resolution in March authorising a no-fly zone but has since criticised the mission. To the rebels Mr Zuma cannot be an honest broker, and the African Union which he represents is viewed as suspect because of the mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa fighting for Col Gaddafi. The president should have learnt his lesson when his earlier attempt at mediation was rebuffed in April.

COMMENT:  One of the disgraces of the modern press is its coverage of South Africa.  The press championed, properly, the fight against apartheid in that country, but once apartheid ended it pulled the plug on the TV lights and either went home or started a long pattern of press cover-ups of the real South Africa.

Fact is, South Africa is a mess, and its long collusion with a gangster like Gaddafi is part of the mess.  South Africa is a cynical, crime-filled nation, with one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world.  Many people in the middle class and above must live behind gated walls.

At the same time, South Africa's foreign policy is a public embarrassment.  Several years ago a freedom-tracking organization in New York ranked the world's democracies in terms of the importance of human rights in their foreign policies.  South Africa ranked dead last.  But too many journalists are invested in South Africa as a symbol of resistance to racism to get the story right.  The issue is no longer apartheid.  The issue is what has happened in the years following the demise of apartheid.  Not many people seem interested.

Of course, the real story would reveal Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, the two best-known "rights" activists in South Africa, as somewhat less enthusastic about human decency than their images would have you believe.  Mandela is an America-hater.  Tutu is a vile anti-Israel activist.  Gaddafi never seemed to bother them.

May 31, 2011