Pieter

A tale of irony

Revisado: 05-28-24

This book is brilliant!
Having grown up in South Africa during this period on a farm close to the Rhodesian border, most South African schools were stocked with kids from Rhodesia, mostly English speaking, making them a somewhat exotic tribe to us Afrikaners. I recall many friendships and from a kids perspective, acceptance in our communities towards people from Rhodesia. One specific family, named English, had three beautiful sisters, welcomed at any social. Peter's impressions and interactions with Afrikaners living in Rhodesia, except for a brief romance, seems to have been mostly negative, perhaps because we were the 'racists in the South' who held Ian Smith in high regard.
Liberal Rhodesians like Peter, frowned at their own countrymen's backwardness for supporting Smith. And like the English for 300 years, looked down even more on the Afrikaners from the South, and yet, these Boere, as a nation, faced with the same dilemma, avoided a war in transitioning to democracy.

Had Rhodesians stood together (ruled out all the spies in the Rhodesian forces) and not allowed the English to do their negotiations for them, (and had South Africa's John Vorster not been such a weasel) the war could have been short and decisive with an outcome for Zimbabwe that would not have caused the diaspora of its people, the destruction of its currency, the death of thousands in the war and 10ths of thousands of Matabele after the war.

The irony to the liberal mind should be, that liberal Rhodesia found a solution that worked far worse than conservative South Africa.

Peter rightly lament the outcome, but does not concede that perhaps the mining foreman, or his Police colleague Moffatt may have seen a clearer picture of reality than himself. Was not the outcome of black rule in Zimbabwe everything they predicted?
Is not the outcome of black rule in South Africa everything conservatives in SA predicted?

White South Africans voted for a Non-racial society as envisioned by Mandela, what we got is, so far, 167 laws discriminating against whites, and still liberals look down their noses at those who knew what was coming.

Peter grew up with the Shona, spoke their language and witnessed them murdering thousands of Matabele. Had this book been written 5 years later, whites being chased out of Zimbabwe would have been a chapter on its own, and yet, when black people do the most atrocious things we pretend they did not all fight for the "freedom" from white oppression so they can experience the freedom of getting killed by their own government.
"Every country has the government it deserves" - Joseph de Maistre... except when the government is black, then every ill is the fault of England - Mugabe, or the legacy of apartheid - Ramaphosa...

When will the world realise that action and reaction don't care if you are white or black? When you have a dumb idea, people will suffer. Conversely, when people suffer, look back at the ideas that got you so far, you will find a lot of wokeness and liberalism but you will never find the woke and the liberal acknowledging their folly.

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my 6th time to Listen this Book....

Revisado: 01-03-23

This was probably my 6th time to listen to this book. And I am probably going to listen another 6 times, at least.... So inspiring.

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Please find a proper Narrator.

Revisado: 09-20-22

I purchased and somewhat enjoyed many of Godawa's books, which both qualify me for reviewing them and limits the validity of my criticisms. If I did not like them, I would not have bought them. But that’s not the whole story.
I think every churched Christian should listen to some of his work, because his perspective is quite fresh and not seemingly dominated by Reformed or Pentecostal theology. This is a compliment to the author and a recommendation of his work, not an endorsement of his views. Weather he is right or wrong - especially with regards to the end times - I don’t know. His confidence may even be a distraction as prophesies do not appear to me as being a history of the future. Either way, he may well be right.
His views and depiction of the Nephilim and the Biblical characters are entertaining and fictional, requiring an achievable measure of suspended disbelieve to make the fiction work. The epilogues of his books are most useful and may well be the best part of it. It was a disappointment to me, when I purchased and listened to “When Giants were upon the earth” or “When Watchers ruled the Nations” don’t recall which, I may be both, to realized it’s a collection or epilogues from his other books. Of course it remains excellent, but why do I have to pay again? It should say in the details: You are buying the same stuff twice.
The reason I stopped listening to his books relate to the narration. I normally listen with earphones, often while riding motorcycle, but then some demented demon would scream into my ear. Godawa does not have the voice to sound like a god, so he compensates with volume, producing a screaming match that utterly fails to sound manly, godly or even devilish. It’s just noise and he does not have the curtesy to view the audio files on an editor…. he would have noticed the volume is a rollercoaster with such abrupt spikes such as when some Satan scream into one’s ears.
Mr Godawa should do two things: Get a proper narrator and review the volume, so one can listen without keeping one hand on the volume button.

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How to inflate a 20 minute interview to 16 hours.

Revisado: 07-29-22

This book can be distilled in one sentence: "No Matter how stupidly Americans govern their country, their success is assured, no matter how the rest of the world strive, it is doomed". If this was true, would it be worth saying?
If you read "Rational optimist" or "Accidental Superpower" you may be a pessimist hoping to be refuted. Be happy, you are refuted. But reading more books by Zeihan, steepen the curve of diminishing returns.
The title promise future trends but starts like all fairy tales with, a long long time ago... Its a regurgitation of his previous books, sufficiently plausible to avoid argument, but do we have to go back 3 000 years to explain present demographics? For 60% of the book?
Peter is quite informative and entertaining on YouTube. He certainly has interesting views predicting highly plausible outcomes. But buying another book by him had only one redeeming feature: I could return it.
If you plan to be in a coma for 16 hours, you may benefit from listening to this futuristic historical fiction. Or you can avoid the coma and see him on YouTube. He is quite good. But in the book, even the narration is a hybrid. He make statements sound like questions, such as university students do. We can forgive them for being clueless, but Peter is not. Better to get a narrator who is not in love with himself.

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Destopian, boring, endless - non liable for return

Revisado: 06-07-22

It took forever to get to the exiting part. The book ended before the exiting part. The characters are unremarkable, the story plausible but uninspiring. You will be so happy when its over. Worst of all, its not possible to return this title.

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Droefgeestig

Revisado: 01-16-22

Ek sal begin deur te sê die taalgebruik is merkwaardig, van die uitdrukings grens aan humor en die beskrywing van passie is eerste klas, soos die voorlesing. Ook die idiome soos die klank van 'n perdeskoen wat los raak... briljant! Gekruide taal is vollop, maar tog van pas, as 'n mens jouself nou nie te ernstig opneem nie.

Maar dan kom die storie. Ek het gehoop op moedigheid, vasbyt, geloof, vergifnis tussen die klein vreugdes en die groot verdriet. Maar hier is geen blydskap of 'n flikker van hoop uit hierdie klaaglied nie, en dis nog heel sonder die oorlog! 'n Veldbrand of droogte kon ewenwel die mense "toets" en hul "offers" aanvaar, asof die oorlog God se idee was? Die boek gaan nie oor die Oorlog nie.

In 'n konsentrasie-kamp sou dalk één karakter die evangelie verstaan of verlossing verkondig aan die dosyne wat daagliks die poorte betree...jy dink dit kom later... wyl jy kou aan jou polse oor die verdrietige stryd, maar niks. In dié storie, kry die lafaard die plaas EN die meisie. Die skoonheid word verkrag, die dapper held gee oor aan sy laaste vyand.

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Excellent storyline. Gripping.

Revisado: 01-10-22

Easy to follow. Well narrated. can't wait to listen to the next book in line.

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A great book I will not read again.

Revisado: 08-22-18

I suspect you may be right, simply because I have yet to go back and check every dot and tittle myself. But removing the "wrong idea" without leaving even a semblance of the right idea, was not very helpful to me. Admittedly, early Christians struggled a lot and had much tribulations, but the count of souls living today serving God and expecting his prophesies to have something to teach us also about our life, in a time when there are more Christians alive than all who came before the present era, leaves more vacuum than trust or purpose or expectation.
Of course, history will run with or without our approval. I hope Brian is right: No great tribulation ahead? No Antichrist? Just “Peace and security”, perhaps destruction will not come upon us like labor pains on a pregnant woman.

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I wish I had read this when I was a child

Revisado: 08-22-18

And again when I was all grown up. Its a book every young man should read.

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Yet another new way to view the world.

Revisado: 08-22-18

Though I have purchased so far all Brian's books, the last few I struggled to finish. When we have to dig so deep to discover what the Bible does not really mean, its a bit like salt that's lost its saltiness. Weather he is right or wrong I do not know, but his writings about the apocalypse sound like this book. You really mean to say "creation does not really mean creation"? That brining order to chaos is the real meaning of creation...?
I hope I miss understood, but do not expect the excitement and freshness of the Chronicles of the Nephilim. This book requires argument from authority. Godawa's authority, which is quite enormous. But when I read the Bible without the confusion and apparent contradictions of the "ancient near eastern context" at least I can believe my own eyes.

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