Take a look at these photos from the Serra Pelada Gold Mine. This was sent to me by a friend in Brazil. Look at this mass of humanity working the mine.

In Africa, in Colonial times, blacks were cheap labour. Even then, they never worked like this.

What you see below would never have happened in Africa, even under Apartheid. The world outcry would have been phenomenal. And even now, with 40% unemployment it will NEVER HAPPEN.

I do think though that this is excellent. It shows people willing to work. They have no equipment so they “become” the equipment. When people are willing to WORK there is hope for them. So I think there is hope for these people. In Zimbabwe, under Mugabe’s collapse blacks are starting to work their own private gold mines quietly. So perhaps Mugabe is bringing this concept to Africa thanks to his rubbish economics?

In S.Africa… this would *NEVER* NEVER NEVER happen. Our trade unions want a 40 hour working week instead of 45 hours. Black S.Africans really don’t know the meaning of hard work. Honestly. They strike me as a generally lazy bunch. Blacks elsewhere in Africa work harder than black S.Africans. (Heck, one black guy in my office actually sleeps at his desk during office hours… we all know it and even the bosses know it and they leave him!)

But, there is a downside in Africa. Because the Trade Unions have stirred so much trouble over the years and bitched and moaned about everything… but in the end, they’ve slit their own throats. Guess what… quietly… they’re being AUTOMATED out of their jobs. Machines have quietly replaced them. That’s why they will probably NEVER solve the black unemployment problems in this country.

The only comparable thing we ever had here in S.Africa was the Kimberly hole – but that was created in the early days of colonialism. Back then, they probably did work almost like this, and in those days, S.Africa went from mud huts to civilisation in a very short space of time.

You can slice it however you like it, but there is no substitute for hard work. If you want a better life, you must work and fight for it. There are no free meals in life for anything.

Take a look at these amazing photos from Brazil.

Serra Pelada Golden Mine
Serra Pelada is located in the Amazon Basin, at Para State in northern Brazil. It was explored intensively by prospectors in the 80’s and now is flooded by groundwater waiting to be mined by means of industrial mining.

For more info on the mine: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serra_Pelada/p>