UK Girl Guides Drop The Big Guy

Now here’s some progressive news.

Britain’s Girl Guides, a sister organization to Baden-Powell’s Boy Scouts, has finally dropped God from their pledge. Which means that godless girls can now feel more comfortable if they’re already members, but also clears the way for others to join more freely.

Another change to the pledge that reflects the changing times is the altering of “to serve my queen and my country” to “serve the queen and my community.” Pity they didn’t drop the old goat altogether, though. Who needs royalty in the modern era?

The pledge which originated around 1910, and altered slightly in 1994, went something like this:

I Promise that I will do my best;
To love my God,
To serve my Queen and my Country,
To help other people
And
To keep the Guide Law.

And will now read probably something like this:

I Promise that I will do my best;
To be true to myself and develop my beliefs,
To serve the queen and my community,
To help other people
And
To keep the Guide Law.

You go girls! Now that just leaves the Boy Scouts to sort out their oath. Always backward, the boys…

Have a heart?

You’ve probably seen this image or something similar, on any number of social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter on a regular basis. It is usually accompanied by an appeal to “like” or “share” or “pray” for the person/s pictured.

And it will invariably contain an exhortation such as “This will only be ignored by those who don’t have a heart,” or something to that effect.

DON’T heed the call. It is absolute bullshit!

Sometimes the appeal will state that for every “share” or “like,” some big corporation like Microsoft will donate a $1 or more towards medical care or otherwise for the hapless individual/s.

That’s even more bogus. DON’T believe it!

The particular image I chose above had attracted 1,085,499 “likes” and 85,128 “shares” at the time of posting. It had also garnered 78,254 comments, most of them sympathetic. There were those who expressed skepticism and some who were malicious, although for the life of me, I fail to understand why they even bothered wasting their time on this nonsense.

The reality is that no amount of “shares” or “likes” is going to do anything for the victim/s portrayed in the image. Neither is Microsoft or any other big corporation going to donate one red cent for any medical care or anything else. And you can pray until you’re red in the face, but it won’t change a thing either. All you achieve is to perpetuate irrational nonsense and fill the web with junk.

Some of the claims about the particular disease the individual/s in the image is/are suffering from can be corroborated via resources such as Snopes.com. In many cases, the alleged disease, causing the pitiful image is not mentioned at all, nor is the individual’s name given, so it is not always easy to validate. Those who originate the post, rely on the image to mess with your emotions.

Off course, they may be a few genuine cases of victims afflicted with life threatening illnesses posted on social media, but it is almost impossible to sift out among the cacophony of junk proliferating out there.

For those who are wondering, I do have a heart, but it’s quite preoccupied with pumping blood to my brain and body. That leaves no time for it to think or feel.

Sanctuary lost

Religion is a pretty tenuous thing at best to seek sanctuary in, but most people seem to find comfort there, and as much as I speak out against this aberration, I realise that it is going to take a long long time to totally rid the world of its hold, if ever. So imagine how despondent it must feel to those seeking sanctuary in its bosom, to be discriminated against on the basis of their gender.

Far be it for me to claim to know how women feel about being discriminated against, but at least I can relate, having endured victimization under apartheid in South Africa. So I do know that it must feel rotten.

Just about every religion I’ve come across, has discriminated against women, some more so than others. All on the basis of interpretation of obscure and archaic religious texts, written in a time when men had not much more knowledge than garden snails. And let’s be clear about it; it’s men (99.99% of the time) who are the perpetrators of this discrimination.

It’s shocking and disheartening to learn on a daily basis how religiously inspired men around the world, treat women with contempt, even going so far as to maim, mutilate and kill them, because of some insignificant act committed, which is deemed to be in violation of a religious doctrine.

Just the other day, I read with utter dismay how the number of women imprisoned in Afghanistan in the last 18 months has risen by 50%, to 600. Their offenses which range from running away from abusive husbands, family and forced marriages, to being the victims of sexual abuse, are regarded as “moral crimes.” What kind of mindset can turn the victim of sexual assault into a moral criminal?

Afghanistan is a shit hole, but this kind of thing happens in many other countries which are considered advanced, even civilized by modern standards. A proposed Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) law in Afghanistan is being blocked by religiously inspired lawmakers who argue that some sections are un-Islamic. That is incomprehensible and utterly devoid of sane or rational thinking.

In the Middle and Far East, women are subject to other forms of discrimination such as limitations on basic freedoms like free movement, enforcement of dress codes, and being prevented from driving vehicles. We are told by self-appointed moralists that these basic rights infringe on certain religious tenets. It’s however by no means any different in the highly advanced West where lesbians face the threat of violence, and discrimination against termination of pregnancy, or Africa where female genital mutilation is still enforced.

No amount of cuss words can describe how utterly deprived these beliefs are.The common denominator is religion, and patriarchal men who hide behind it, spreading their hatred… and fear of women.

If this is the treatment meted out to god-fearing women, I can only shudder in disgust at what non-believing women have to go through.

Opportunity lost…

And so there I was. In the boss’s office…

Having the most honest face to face conversation with the boss man. I’d walked in intending to make my case for leaving the company. An hour and half later, the boss man had instead made his case to retain me seem more convincing than mine – reassuring me that I was an invaluable asset and irreplaceable.

A further hour later I had helped him develop a new report – that’s bound to make my life miserable in the weeks to come.

What the hell happened?

Now I’ll have to do it all over again.

Family

Spending the long weekend with close family made me realise how much I miss being around them.

I used to think that working and living hundreds of miles away from family was a good thing. Observing other families over the years bickering, fighting and trying their damnedest to wreak havoc on one another’s lives, I thought I was lucky to be isolated from my own. It’s strange how we tend to colour our own lives an unflattering shade by observing others.

However, my infrequent visits over the years did bring me closer to my own family and created very close bonds with them. So in a way it was perhaps a good thing.

I’ve been pretty lucky to have a great bunch of friends – friends who have been my family away from family. And for this, I’ll be eternally grateful.

But now I realise that I miss my family too much and feel the need to be around them more permanently. Perhaps its got something to do with the fact that I’m getting older. Or maybe its got something to do with losing too many family members over the years through death, without getting the opportunity to spend much time with them.

Either way, I feel the time is right to drop everything and go back home…

Living Strategically: 50 Lessons Chess Teaches You About Life

Reblogged from Ideas Out There:

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1. In chess, every move has a purpose. Life obviously cannot be lived with this much unceasing calculation, nor should we want to live it that way, but there are times when we must align our actions with a predetermined strategy, instead of bumbling through it.

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2. Play for the advantage. If you already have it, maintain it. If you don't have it, seize it.

Read more… 958 more words

Since being on the high school chess team, I haven't played much over the years. What a pity! However, I did not ever think about chess quite like this blogger, so thought I'd reblog this here...

Just an aimless post

Human Rights Day!

Thursday. I hate public holidays in the middle of the week.

I’ll bet the politicians love it though. They’re all at Sharpeville – on their high horses, electioneering. The massacre by police of 69 protesters outside a police station here, back in 1960, during the dark days of apartheid, has become just another useful bandwagon to climb onto – after getting off their high horses off course.

I despise politicians!

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What shall I do? Facebook! Same ol’, same ol’… YouTube? Yes! Google claims that more than one billion people a month are visiting their video site, so let’s put in an appearance.

Saw this trailer for a remake of Evil Dead. The original film was released in 1983. Just had to go look it up. Found the original film online and watched all 126 minutes of it. Gawd, it was awful. Another hour and a half of my life wasted…

Looks like the special effects alone will carry this one though.

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What to do! What to do!

Post a pointless blog. Yeah! That’s it.

Please save me Friday…

International Woman’s Day 2013

Ladies…

May the future shine brighter for you all.

One Billion Rising South Africa

I attended the Rising at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, one of many held around the country. It was an emotionally charged evening of poetry, song and dance.

The poetry mostly spoke of personal experiences, and was very moving. It’s so sad and horrifying, this scourge of rape and gender violence. I’m left deeply mortified at how helpless woman, mostly, must feel at this onslaught.

Just a few pictures which don’t tell the real story…

May the rising continue until patriarchal attitudes are deemed a crime against humanity.

In response to a critic of V-Day

I read with dismay the article V-Day stands for… vapidity by Marelise van der Merwe in Daily Maverick, which dismisses the One Billion Rising campaign on 14 February 2013 as a mere “step, step twirl.”

On 14 February, “One Billion Rising” will take place – also known as the main project of the V-Day initiative. It’s a celebrity-endorsed attempt to get a billion activists worldwide to take part in a choreographed dance to end rape. The trouble is, it’s got bugger-all to do with rape at all. And it’s unlikely to achieve anything, either.

It’s a rather unfortunate, low snipe at both the event organizers and the potential participants. I happen to know some of the local event organizers and I can confirm with conviction that they’re not just looking for an opportunity to sway their hips for a few hours, in a bid to move “beyond armchair activism.” I happen to know that they’re actively involved in various initiatives to address violence against woman, gender equality and the patriarchal culture that dominates society.

It’s not just about protesting against rape as Marelise alleges. It is so much more. And it’s a much more civilized way to express outrage, than forming mobs and burning and looting, as is the norm with many protests around the world.

It’s no mean feat getting one billion people around the world to rise up and protest against oppression and violence in a coordinated effort. And to accuse these people of being vacuous and misguided is pretty shallow. Surely Marelise doesn’t think these people are stupidly expecting their protest to magically end the scourge of rape?

This campaign is meant to raise awareness which will hopefully go a long way to encourage greater participation in some of the good material suggestions Marelise herself mentions in her article. Because… silence is an act of complicity.