Douglas Schorr

5 July 2025 … Northern Jiangsu’s Transformation

Once as dysfunctional as some of South Africa’s Cape townships, Northern Jiangsu has become one of China’s most desirable places to live—four distinct seasons, safe, seamless transport links, small-city amenities, and incomes on par with the national average.

According to YouTuber Mr Hunzi, his informant was born into a county of filth and poverty. Thirty years ago, local leaders launched a campaign-style reform with mobilization intensity rivalling the Cultural Revolution. The goal was to crush entrenched organized crime.

It began with the arrest of the former police chief and county mayor, followed by everyone linked to the gangs. Public trials were held in the stadium; ringleaders were executed on the spot and accomplices sent to labour camps. Due process was sidelined, but for the community, chains melted into medals worn with pride. They viewed it as a surgical strike against homegrown corruption and abuse—ruthless but effective.

Next came a drive for “encouraged” donations. Civil servants had little choice but to give, and public shaming brought in funds for roads, schools, hospitals, and business incentives. Over two decades, infrastructure boomed, jobs multiplied, and Northern Jiangsu sparkles.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXey0uK_FEw)

4 July 2025 … Khayelitsha’s Hospital

The sprawling shackland wasn’t meant to be. It was born from ANC vote-grabbing before the 1994 election. Bussed in to sway the count, then left to rot in the sand dunes. No busses back, no homes, just survival.

 2012: Khayelitsha’s District Hospital opens, a state-of-the-art lifeline meant to tackle HIV/AIDS, TB, and diabetes. Instead, it’s a war zone. A 2014 study shows its emergency unit, handling 120–200 patients daily, drowns in stabbings and gunshot wounds, drunk and drugged young men. The Western Cape Safety Dashboard (2021–2022) pegged 44% of emergency injuries to violence. Some weekends, it’s closer to 70%.

Isn’t there enough to do with community health—saving kids from TB and moms from HIV? Why are gangsters clogging beds meant for the sick? It’s theft.

Imagine a good citizen telling the taxman or a bank’s home-loan division, “Sorry, I spent your money partying.” Would they get a pass?

3 July 2025 … The Western Cape and Gangland Neighbourhoods

When DA MP Ian Cameron announced his patrol with the army in in one of the Cape troubled zones, he exemplified our modern approach to community breakdown: treating symptoms while ignoring causes.

The fundamental issue isn’t lack of policing but the erosion of mutual obligation. Too many families fear enforcing boundaries, while communities increasingly detach from their collective responsibilities. Government intervention merely signals: “Your failure to maintain order is acceptable; we’ll compensate indefinitely.”

The only sustainable solution requires painful honesty: communities must either control their homegrown criminal elements or face the withdrawal of services that are already deteriorating. Schools, clinics, and municipal services are already compromised in these areas—staff attendance is irregular, facilities run-down, and workers frequently threatened.

When government withdraws, it merely formalizes what community dysfunction has already caused. This represents the ultimate consequence of broken obligations on both sides: a government that failed to create economic opportunities and institutions incapable of proper service delivery, and communities that failed to demand accountability from both their own members and their elected officials.

This is mutual theft at its most devastating—stealing generations of potential through collective abandonment of responsibility.