The serious , the satirical & the somewhere inbetween !
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Zumalicious
Following the run up to the South African Elections 2009 , was a lot like watching reality television. There was the boisterous, the bitchy and the plain fucking stupid. It went from false promises (which are pre-election standard issue) to down right dirty American smear campaigns. From the hilarious fake ANC posters to Zuma calling the Afrikaners the only "true white South Africans" (rhymes with moron). Then there is Julius Malema, the anti-democracy (like anti-Christ), who is so daft, that he has interpreted the constitutional right to freedom of expression as a right to freedom of stupidity – need I say more?-
Yet there are reasons to be hopeful. Why you ask? Well because, history has shown that it is NOT actually, the president that runs the country and because South Africa does have a lot to offer as it runs faster to catch up with the “first world” ( another blog altogether – don’t even get me started).
In terms of democracy South Africa’s is young and it will take much more than 15 years to erase 300 years of racism and oppression. South Africa’s history is full of memories of those strong enough to take forward the struggle for justice no matter how heavy the odds. In all fairness at this point in our countries young democracy more underprivileged people have access to medical and water facilities than ever before .
And you have to admit Zuma has something even Obama doesn’t…. his own sound track !
Monday, April 20, 2009
Bloody Bear's Picnic
"If you go down to the woods today you're in for a big suprise..."
( I found this image on google & I just could'nt resist the twisted bear)
( I found this image on google & I just could'nt resist the twisted bear)
Friday, April 17, 2009
HUMPING AROUND - doing it dolly style!
A particularly good hump day can see you through the rest of the week and by Doomsday morning (Monday) you survive by anticipating yet another hump day. Wednesday, the middle of the week, implying that you have to get "over the hump" before you can anticipate the weekend. The term was not originally intended to carry a second, more pervy meaning! That being said, true to form, hump day has lived up to its reputation albeit not its intended reference but the more risque version... well almost anyway!
The emiratis have taken hump day to another level and perhaps added a new hump to the tale: Last wednesday, injaz, the one-humped cloned camel was born of a surrogate mother who carried for 378 days! And you humans complain about nine months! Shame on you humpers!!! Injaz means achievement and what an achievement it is to clone one that will win in the races, provide the ever-in-demand camel milk (cos apparently it has viagra-like effects) and of course, meat when cooked to perfection also tastes as yummy shwarma-style (how injaz's other whole ended up!)
In the folk rhyme, "Wednesday's child is full of woe" .. wonder if injaz will be woeful?
Somehow these humpy mammals seem to cause quite a stir every now and again.... last year a particularly horny, humpy, camel decided to get his groove on with his Australian owner and ummm humped her to death!
Gives new meaning to the Arab proverb: "death rides a fast camel"!
So what do all of you get up to on hump day???? You've all been tagged!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Soulmate...
Had you turned around as you walked away,
you would have seen the corpses of my unfulfilled dreams
salute you.
If you had stopped for a moment,
If you had stopped for a moment,
you would have heard the mournful broken song
of the promises your naked body made to mine
on those nights we lay in each others arms
Had you listened
Had you listened
you would have heard the hammer strike the earth
as I was sentenced to wandering the earth
incomplete
from the moment of your fateful revelation.
If you had stopped for a second,
If you had stopped for a second,
you would have felt the moisture drain from the air
as the now arid river of my hopes, waved you goodbye.
Had you sniffed the air as you walked away,
Had you sniffed the air as you walked away,
you would have smelt the burning of my hearts flesh as it welded shut.
If only you had turned back
If only you had turned back
just for an instant,
you would have seen…
ME
Saturday, April 11, 2009
(Source: www.agustingarza.com)
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Saving Grace...
I need you, she whispered into the night, times are difficult and I need you.
An emotional Gaza, is a massacre nonetheless. Will you save me? She asked him the question over and over again. She needed to know that he was there and even if he couldn’t save her would he lay down his weapons and offer her comfort and support?
He couldn’t, actually he wouldn’t… he had his own demons to vanquish.
What is it with us humans? Always hoping someone will rush out of the darkness and save us? I blame the movies, they gave us a distorted perception of how life happens! (nothing can find resolution in 2 hours, while you eat popcorn and slurp on a cold beverage). In reality the only person that would or could save us is ourselves.
Even with this knowledge, as the dawn broke, she looked out over the sand dunes and searched the horizon. Was that a Bedouin warrior on an Arabian horse she saw in the distance or just a mirage her mind had created from hope?
An emotional Gaza, is a massacre nonetheless. Will you save me? She asked him the question over and over again. She needed to know that he was there and even if he couldn’t save her would he lay down his weapons and offer her comfort and support?
He couldn’t, actually he wouldn’t… he had his own demons to vanquish.
What is it with us humans? Always hoping someone will rush out of the darkness and save us? I blame the movies, they gave us a distorted perception of how life happens! (nothing can find resolution in 2 hours, while you eat popcorn and slurp on a cold beverage). In reality the only person that would or could save us is ourselves.
Even with this knowledge, as the dawn broke, she looked out over the sand dunes and searched the horizon. Was that a Bedouin warrior on an Arabian horse she saw in the distance or just a mirage her mind had created from hope?
Monday, April 6, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
War Games
Finally last year the UN Security Council voted unanimously classifying rape as a weapon of war (they’re a real bunch of rocket scientists out there in New York). The great tragedy is that it has taken the UN more than 50 years to recognise this brutal atrocity as a war crime and condemn it!
What remains to be seen is whether or not the resolution will act as a deterrent to war criminals. I'm not optimistic. There rarely are repercussions for the accused and war tribunals just don't cut it as justice in my books.
I remember how absolutely torn I had felt during the Bosnian war. Thousands of Bosnian women were raped and impregnated in specially designed rape camps! Soldiers got to live out their most sick fantasies in the line of duty. It was a war tactic exclusively targeting an ethnicity by ensuring an entire generation of reminders would be born. The ultimate living memorial of how your enemy ‘had’ you.
Their ethnic cleansing went far beyond mass murders, it included forced impregnation and imprisonment until abortion was no longer an option.... forced maternity... forced "motherhood" of ethnically altered offspring was the more polished war tactic. The war may have ended over a decade ago but today, in 2009, a generation of young men and women coming of age, are still traumatised by the stigma of being the unwanted products of mass rape. Ostracised by their communities, burdened by the hatred of their mothers, or grown up as orphans, they now try to piece together lives with a semblance or normality.
The Rwandan genocide is perhaps the most atrocious and inhumane slaughter of our time. Propaganda was circulated amongst the Hutus describing the Tutsi women as thinking themselves more superior to Hutu men. Rape was no ordinary sexual crime in Rwanda. The savagery extended to the use of machetes and other objects to mutilate women's sexual organs. Their breasts were cut off, and their unborn foetuses speared. The minutes of the trial of Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, the National Minister of Family and Women's Affairs reveal how women can be as monstrous as men during war. In reading the transcript of her tribunal, you realise that the image of a nurturer, a mother, and care-giver is not what every woman is! Perhaps the Idi "Amina" of Rwanda. She was sent to her hometown to quell a revolt against the genocide. As the women were rounded up for slaughter, she commanded the militia to rape the women before killing them. She also used rape to reward the soldiers for their killings, goading them on. Tutsi women were taken as sex slaves, and some survivors have described how primitive instruments and banana tree stamens were used to violate them. 70% of survivors contracted HIV.
The strategic use of rape during combat took on a new dimension during the war on Iraq. The pillaging American army denies the authorisation of the use of rape and sexual violence as a combat strategy but the victims of Abu Ghraib bear testimony to the atrocities committed against men and women. The war criminals identified sexual violence as the most degrading and humiliating tactic that could be adopted. Sexual torture and victimisation was strategically employed as a means to shame and dishonour the young Iraqi men and women. The systemic torture bears witness that the Abu Ghraib stories were not isolated and were not just fleeting moments of insanity of the officers, but rather points to the carefully mapped out plans of penetrating deep into the psyche of the Iraqis, Arabs, and Muslims and mechanically meting out punishments that would further degrade and humiliate them. Women victims who have been ostracised by their communities have turned to prostitution and begging as a means of survival. Others have willingly sacrificed themselves, or given up the fight to continue existing.
Women in war are victims three-fold. First as rape victims, sometimes even in front of their families, secondly they are ostracised from their communities for being dishonoured and lastly they are forced to bear and rear the unwanted products of being tortured, that bear witness to the tragedy long after it has been erased from most people's minds.
Rape has been a war strategy for centuries and because it is an act of power and humiliation, it is unlikely that mere UN resolutions will erase it from history or from our future.
What remains to be seen is whether or not the resolution will act as a deterrent to war criminals. I'm not optimistic. There rarely are repercussions for the accused and war tribunals just don't cut it as justice in my books.
I remember how absolutely torn I had felt during the Bosnian war. Thousands of Bosnian women were raped and impregnated in specially designed rape camps! Soldiers got to live out their most sick fantasies in the line of duty. It was a war tactic exclusively targeting an ethnicity by ensuring an entire generation of reminders would be born. The ultimate living memorial of how your enemy ‘had’ you.
Their ethnic cleansing went far beyond mass murders, it included forced impregnation and imprisonment until abortion was no longer an option.... forced maternity... forced "motherhood" of ethnically altered offspring was the more polished war tactic. The war may have ended over a decade ago but today, in 2009, a generation of young men and women coming of age, are still traumatised by the stigma of being the unwanted products of mass rape. Ostracised by their communities, burdened by the hatred of their mothers, or grown up as orphans, they now try to piece together lives with a semblance or normality.
The Rwandan genocide is perhaps the most atrocious and inhumane slaughter of our time. Propaganda was circulated amongst the Hutus describing the Tutsi women as thinking themselves more superior to Hutu men. Rape was no ordinary sexual crime in Rwanda. The savagery extended to the use of machetes and other objects to mutilate women's sexual organs. Their breasts were cut off, and their unborn foetuses speared. The minutes of the trial of Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, the National Minister of Family and Women's Affairs reveal how women can be as monstrous as men during war. In reading the transcript of her tribunal, you realise that the image of a nurturer, a mother, and care-giver is not what every woman is! Perhaps the Idi "Amina" of Rwanda. She was sent to her hometown to quell a revolt against the genocide. As the women were rounded up for slaughter, she commanded the militia to rape the women before killing them. She also used rape to reward the soldiers for their killings, goading them on. Tutsi women were taken as sex slaves, and some survivors have described how primitive instruments and banana tree stamens were used to violate them. 70% of survivors contracted HIV.
The strategic use of rape during combat took on a new dimension during the war on Iraq. The pillaging American army denies the authorisation of the use of rape and sexual violence as a combat strategy but the victims of Abu Ghraib bear testimony to the atrocities committed against men and women. The war criminals identified sexual violence as the most degrading and humiliating tactic that could be adopted. Sexual torture and victimisation was strategically employed as a means to shame and dishonour the young Iraqi men and women. The systemic torture bears witness that the Abu Ghraib stories were not isolated and were not just fleeting moments of insanity of the officers, but rather points to the carefully mapped out plans of penetrating deep into the psyche of the Iraqis, Arabs, and Muslims and mechanically meting out punishments that would further degrade and humiliate them. Women victims who have been ostracised by their communities have turned to prostitution and begging as a means of survival. Others have willingly sacrificed themselves, or given up the fight to continue existing.
Women in war are victims three-fold. First as rape victims, sometimes even in front of their families, secondly they are ostracised from their communities for being dishonoured and lastly they are forced to bear and rear the unwanted products of being tortured, that bear witness to the tragedy long after it has been erased from most people's minds.
Rape has been a war strategy for centuries and because it is an act of power and humiliation, it is unlikely that mere UN resolutions will erase it from history or from our future.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Anguish
May your thoughts be your tormentor,
May your memory be your misery.
May your memory be your misery.
Painting by: Archan Nair
(Source: www.redbubble.com/.../art/1225185-1)
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