Martin van Staden

Some exciting news!

Join the @RationalStand, @Martin_ASFL, @ASZulu and me at 12 to discuss the government's obsession with renaming everything, and how Poland used the lessons from communism's failures to overtake South Africa. youtube.com/live/HWkU3g6qN…

Irish economist and author David McWilliams ask which type of countries thrive. Its not those countries where command and control is central, he says. “It are those countries that are liberal, open, tolerant, messy and chaotic…” Embrace disruptors, and find a strategy.

The left picture is me at 7 yo when I was living in Iran under the Islamic regime. They forced me to wear a full hijab to attend school, if I didn’t, they wouldn’t let me enter. They made me wear it from a young age to avoid “provoking” men in society, claiming it was all because of Allah. They also forced me to be Muslim, read the Quran, and learn every rule and detail about it. The truth is, I never wanted any of it, even as a child. The real me is the picture on the right. They took my rights and my freedom and called it Islam. Now I’m in the USA. I wear whatever I want, do whatever I want, and I’m very grateful for this freedom. I now feel it’s my duty to raise awareness, share my story and experiences with the world, so people know what true Islam is and aren’t fooled by the image the media tries to show them.

"This tired analysis could easily have been lifted from a Marxist sociology textbook from the 1960s. The underlying sentiment was that employment is somehow exploitative and only beneficial to holders of capital." My latest column for @CommonSense_ZA discusses a bold solution to South Africa's unemployment problem.

Activist: "The water usage for beef is obscene. Thousands of litres per kilogram." Farmer: "That's rainfall." Activist: "What?" Farmer: "The figure includes all the rain that falls on the pasture. The cows drink from the stream. The rain falls whether there's a cow here or not." Activist: "It's still water consumption." Farmer: "Should I stop the rain falling on my field?" Activist: "Grow crops instead. More efficient." Farmer: "This is a 35-degree slope in the Welsh hills. Show me the crop." Activist: "Technology..." Farmer: "To make tractors climb mountains?" Activist: "There must be a solution." Farmer: "There is. It's called a cow." Activist: [checks phone]

@geordinhl Policy is determined by action. Action is determined by thought. Thought is determined by ideas. What ideas we believe in, whether they are coherent, and premised on a good morality, matters overridingly.

My response to @geordinhl 's dismissal of ideas and values-based politics, in Business Day. "Instead, the [DA] must go all in on the ideas that without exception have been shown to work worldwide: liberty, responsibility and subsidiarity." businessday.co.za/opinion/2026-0…

Today, the Islamic Republic hanged multiple Iranian civilians, some of whom were just teenagers. Amnesty International? Silent. The UN? Silent. Human Rights Council? Silent. The Red Cross? Silent.

Iran has supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine with its drone technology, supported China’s slave economy with its oil exports and unleashed brutal, indiscriminate violence against its own population. The rights of women, homosexuals and ethnic minorities have been suppressed while power and wealth have been concentrated in the hands of ideologues and professional sadists. ✍️ The Spectator Article | spectator.com/article/the-we…

@Africa4life13 @chrisw_co_za So you are in fact saying that holding the DA electorally accountable is off the table? DA votes may only go up, never down?

@Martin_ASFL @chrisw_co_za So your argument supports shooting yourself in the foot? Conservative voters (just like PA voters) are politically immature. They vote with emotions - not common sense.

This once again proves the importance of not splitting the opposition vote Ward 7 was an ANC ward. If the VF didn’t split the vote the DA would have had 1006, just enough to win the ward. Instead the PA ( ANC-lite) won instead.

If you don’t care about 95 million Iranians finally having a shot at basic freedoms don’t expect me to care about your pet social justice issue in an already democratic country

@Ofcom Your job is to either protect free expression, or close down. There's no other valid option if you are an organ of state.

We've fined 4chan £450,000 for not having age checks in place to prevent children seeing porn on its site. The Online Safety Act is concerned with protecting people in the UK. It doesn't require platforms to restrict what people in other countries see. 🔗ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/…

@SuperLazy6 Far more cops trying to squash a popular revolution against tyranny than a mere 200 should have been killed. They should have sided with the people, not the regime.

@Martin_ASFL Absolutely, it also has the right to defend themselves from a colour revolution. over 200 policeman were killed in the fake insurection. very similar to the ANC targeting of black policeman.

Guterres has a bunch of messages for the US, Israel, and the mullahs, but not one of them includes telling the mullahs to stop murdering their own people en masse. No. Stop the attacks and open the Strait. But continue killing protesters by all means! This is the face of "international law". 🚮🚮🚮

I don't wanna minimize civilian suffering in this war, but anyone can play this game. For every picture of a war victim, there's 47 years' worth of pics of suffering under this regime. If there's an alternative way to achieve freedom, I'm all ears. But until then, yes, behold this best chance at freedom.

@SuperLazy6 You want to blame Jews for Christians letting themselves be massacred across the Muslim world? Here's an idea - rather than criticising Israel, Christendom should hunt down the killers of Christians in the same way the IDF hunts down Hamas?

@Martin_ASFL Christians dont say it, in fact our history is full of Christian persecution. how many 'genocides have there been in modern history, but its antisemetic to name them.

The good thing about the Israeli spirit is that they're more than happy to accept Remi's challenge with vigour and, afterwards, have a look at the scoreboard. In 1945 the whole world said "Never Again", but only the Jews meant it.

On Saturday, a piece on the ongoing information war in South Africa between the government, AfriForum, and several other actors will be published. Much of it will focus on the question of disinformation, whether it is at play, and what that means for the future. Stay close @RationalStand

@SuperLazy6 Yes, the Iranian people have every right to defend themselves against the regime in Tehran.

@Martin_ASFL Nope, Iran has a right to defend itself, it specifically targets enemy ships int the straight and allow friendly nations to pass, perhaps you should seek the aggressors to stop or is up down, left is right, day is night?

@SuperLazy6 Christians are perfectly capable of saying we will never allow ourselves to be persecuted. The Jews mean it when they say it. We just pretend.

@Martin_ASFL bullshit, they went on to wipe out an innocent society giving them a break, it seems never again only means never again against jews, kill all the rest. how many Christians died in WW2?

@visegrad24 Grand Dragon? That's the guy with the pointy white hat on the right, right? They have Grand Wizards and Grand Dragons in the US as well? Same uniform, too.

The Qatari Grand Dragon al-Thani speaking at a press conference with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan: “This war must stop immediately. The aggression needs to stop. Everyone knows who the main beneficiary of this war is & dragging the whole region into this conflict is”

@dazzaecg You should spare your neighbours and not let the guy sit outside hooting for 10 minutes, please.

@Martin_ASFL We are not the same. LOL

I've never used a delivery service in my life where I didn't have to provide my cell number. What is it with delivery drivers who spend 10+ minutes sitting in front of a gate, hooting? What purpose does this serve? A single WhatsApp msg saves time and spares everyone annoyance.