Word: pogrund
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...security police have also gone so far as to raid Pogrund's home. On one occasion raiders barged in on him in the middle of his work on a doctoral study of black nationalist movements in South Africa and arrested him, charging him with possession of banned leftist newspapers--all more than twenty years old. Ten years ago, when he began to report on prisons, the government confiscated his visa, later restricted it, and it was only last year that he regained the normal traveling privileges that allowed him to accept The globe's invitation...
...more than arms' length from the South African crisis, Pogrund feels he has gathered an even sharper understanding of the widening and, he thinks, probably irreparable gash in the fabric of apartheid society...
...When Pogrund discusses the current turmoil, his emotions as a South Africa native and his insights as an obviously pragmatic, tough-minded journalist shift back and forth, showing on one hand pain and pessimism and on the other cold condemnation of the cynical pursuit of self-interest among parties on both sides. He sees those selfish pursuits in the Vorster government and among its economic partners abroad, and also among black leaders in the surrounding "front-line" countries who, he suspects, even if black majority rule arrives in Rhodesia, will continue to bend to South African clout...
...analyses in the U.S. press have suggested that Vorster agreed to put the economic screws to Smith's regime--threatening to cut off water and close down the country's only rail link to the ocean--because of weakened internal support in the face of rioting and strikes. Pogrund perceives that just the opposite is true. The new turmoil has strengthened Vorster's hand, he says, and this revived support among the frightened white minority freed Vorster to shove Smith...
...white Afrikaaners are heading for the hills; they don't want to hear about change and they've placed all their force in Vorster," Pogrund says. "And Vorster has not budged from his commitment to maintaining apartheid. He will increase repression if he must. He has said publicly he will brook no nonsense from blacks...