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07/17/2007: "From Victims to Victimizers"

on June 6 last year, six men stormed a Somali grocery store where Abdi and his elder brother Mohammed worked. One shot Mohammed in the forehead, killing him. When Abdi ran, another shot him in the spinal chord, paralyzing him from the chest down. Abdi says the killers wanted him to know why. They told him he was stealing South African land, taking South African money. They called him "kuwara" — n****r. "But they were black," says Abdi. "They were African, like me."

As the richest nation in a blighted continent, South Africa is a magnet for immigrants. And, as in Western Europe and the U.S., the more foreigners arrive, the greater the hostility to their presence. South Africans commonly blame Zimbabweans who fled their country's implosion — there are between 1 and 2 million here — for a recent surge in crime. Nigerians escaping violence and corruption are viewed as a nation of drug dealers. They, and Congolese, Angolans, Rwandans and Burundians, have been among the victims of deadly bias attacks in recent years. Black poverty in South Africa may be fueling resentment against immigrants: Unemployment levels run close to 30%, and at more than 50% for people aged 15-24, according to a 2006 survey. With so few jobs to go around, outsiders seeking opportunities find little welcome in disadvantaged communities.

[ What a mess! Multiculturalism isn't about race, but ethnicity, and so even black groups won't get along. Send the Somalis back home! ]

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1641268,00.html