Young Guns On A Learning Curve

Arsenal’s young guns played exceptionally well last night in the Carling Cup quarter-final against a  Manchester City packed with international stars.

And yet they didn’t win. All it took was one break-away goal by City in the closing minutes, to seal victory.

Image via Wikipedia

The young gunners were full of spirit and played with real passion, out-classing their more illustrious, mega-expensive opponents for most of the game. But the lesson they need to still learn is that fine, even exceptional performance does not win games – goals win games.

And taking your chances when opportunity presents itself is something this talented bunch of youngsters needs to get to grips with. That little bit of extra effort that does not materialize at the end of a superb passing movement, kills the sequence and frustrates the fans. Also, to be honed is the skill of making that split-second decision when to lay the ball off, or go for the shot.

But these skills and the extra effort will come; let’s hope sooner rather than later.

For now, it just gives me great pleasure to watch the making of greatness. Go Gunners!

Black Tuesday + 1

As the public venting of anger over the passing of the Protection Of Information Bill [POIB] by the majority ANC-led Parliament spills over into Day 2, it’s become necessary to spit out some of the bitterness that’s clogged up in our mouths.

And so I pondered the curious case of former poster boy for the ANC, one Julius Malema, freshly expelled from the party for certain indiscretions, and now plotting his vengeance from the sidelines. This bozo who enjoyed telling the world he would die and kill for the President, now finds himself at odds with his former idol, and is screaming blue murder.

He refuses to vacate the position of leader of the ANC Youth League that he’s been fired from, and still goes around acting like he’s in charge. And the ANC bigwigs seem powerless to do anything about it.

© 2011 Zapiro (All rights reserved)
Printed with permission from www.zapiro.com
For more Zapiro cartoons visit www.zapiro.com

Which left me wondering how these same morons intend to silence an entire nation with the POIB, while they are so easily held to ransom by one of their own fallen comrades. Herein lies the secret to defying or defeating this insidious piece of legislation, after all legal and peaceful means fails. I think you all know what I’m getting at, and it does not involve marching like idiots to the Union Buildings.

Incidently, Malema may not have an ANC membership card anymore, but he still has that ace up his sleeve – the race card.

We will not be silenced

Despite the large-scale opposition to the Protection Of Information Bill [POIB] from all the opposition parties, civil society, the media and other interest groups, the ANC majority in the National Assembly steam-rolled it through the first stage anyway.

The ANC has, during its tenure done many loathsome things that demonstrated it’s utter disdain for the people of this country, but I don’t think anything said “fuck you” quite like this event.

The jackasses who voted for this abhorrent piece of legislation have very short memories about the involvement of their predecessors [albeit more honourable persons] from the ANC, in the fight for justice and freedom against the previous apartheid government. Even in the shadow of world events, especially in North Africa where ordinary people have ousted the tyrants that have dared to go too far in toying with their aspirations…

Perhaps all tyrants need to learn the hard way, fall the hard way; the ANC are no exceptions.

But all is not lost. The Bill still needs to be ratified by another House of Parliament. And if they should also piss on the protestations of the people, there is the Constitutional Court.

Let’s hope it does not have to go beyond there, because we will not be silenced.

Apartheid Resurrected

Apartheid is dead! Long live apartheid!

 

 

Sounds corny, right? But if you’re living in South Africa in these turbulent times, that

prospect is very real, very terrifying. Who could have imagined apartheid being resurrected by the very people who took it down less than twenty years ago.

It took less than two decades for the liberators to figure out that apartheid was perhaps not so bad after all. It could in fact be quite useful if:

1. Almost every member of your political organization has his or her hands in the nation’s cooky jar and you needed to make sure when caught, that they’re free from prosecution
2. Those same members have a pathological tendency to be arrogant, and habitually, if hysterically, shoot themselves in the foot when caught out
3. You need to silence the press who have this rather annoying habit of exposing the rampant corruption, laziness, incompetence, arrogance, nepotism, and sheer stupidity of the members of your political organization on a daily, even hourly basis
4. You need to satiate your unbelievable greed and love of bling, by either raiding the treasury or setting up elaborate kick-back schemes that are designed to enrich friends, family, sycophants and possible back-stabbers
5. You have a repressed hatred of White people who you still blame for the original apartheid
6. You want to rule until Jesus returns

That’s half a dozen reasons I can think of, off the top of my head.

But here’s the events that are unfolding right now in South Africa which lends credence to the need to revive apartheid:

1. The Protection of Information Bill [POIB] introduced by this organization is to be put to the vote before Parliament tomorrow, 21 November. Its passing in the National Assembly is assured because this organization makes up the majority in government. This Bill seeks to muzzle the press and the citizens of this country by ensuring that government’s sordid activities can be blanketed in a shroud of secrecy. This Bill seeks to kill free speech.
2. The Presidential spokesperson has just laid criminal charges against a major newspaper and two of its reporters for having the temerity to expose some of his dodgy dealings in the arms scandal that occurred some years ago. If anything raises alarm bells about POIB, this one act will make your ears ring.
3. The so-called youth wing [ANCYL] of this organization, a morose bunch of unemployable, arrogant, disrespectful misfits, seem hell-bent on turning the country into an economic dung-heap by demanding that businesses that keep the economy going, be nationalised and handed over to them to be sucked dry and land be expropriated Zimbabwe style to realise the revolutionary’s dream of being a landowner. These same morons idolize the fallen dictator Gaddafi, very publicly.
4. Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, a stalwart of the anti-apartheid movement speaks out strongly against the direction being adopted by this organization: “The corrupt practices and nepotism that they [politicians] allow themselves is exposed if we have freedom of expression. When we all voted together, which was a great moment in my life, [we thought] everything would be alright. That was a childish idea.”
5. Meanwhile, the President of this organization and the country, has very little to say about these matters, but seems to be pre-occupied building an extravagant Hitler-style bunker on his estate.

Yes folks, apartheid is once again all the rage in South Africa.

RvP, Arsenal’s MVP

Arsenal are on the up!

Image by Ronnie Macdonald via Flickr

Five wins in a row in the Premier League; it didn’t appear that such a run of form was possible after the disastrous start to the season, just three months ago.

However Wenger and the new captain Robin van Persie, turned things around. And boy do I feel like an ass for doubting Wenger’s ability to lead Arsenal into the future, with the departures of Fabregas and Nasri.

Fabregas in particular was thought to be Arsenal’s most valuable player. But with his mind set on a move to Barcelona, he had become a liability to the team, and was in fact a negative influence which probably contributed to some of the embarrassing losses they suffered.

Perhaps van Persie’s true talent was never really appreciated while Fabregas was around, but his true value has finally come to the fore. Not only is he scoring freely [currently the Premiership’s leading scorer], he has probably been instrumental in inspiring Arsenal’s turnaround.

But will he renew his contract and elect to stay at Arsenal? If anybody can convince him to stay, it has to be Wenger…

The Heathen’s Guide to World Religions: A Secular History of the “One True Faiths” by William Hopper

Right off the bat, this book is not a scholarly work on comparative religion; not by a long shot. It was never meant to be such. If you’re looking for a serious [and quite frankly, tedious] history of the world’s major religions, look elsewhere.

The light-hearted, often highly hilarious approach to the heavy subject matter earns this book my recommendation. Even the sub-title is ingenious.

As I mentioned earlier, the book is pretty hilarious, especially the treatment of Judaism and Christianity. Be warned though, that some of the humour will offend, maybe not the atheists [who no doubt will find a great deal to enthuse over], but those who still harbour delusions about religion, and off course the mother grundies.

I was a tad disappointed though that Hopper did not give Islam in particular, a good what-for, but tended to approach it with a good deal of circumspection. To be fair to him though, he did declare upfront that he did not have the budget for personal protection that author Salman Rushdie has at his disposal. And to be fairer still, perhaps this declaration in itself tells us all we need to know about the religion of Islam.

I also felt that he rushed through the history of Hinduism and Buddhism, but again, to be honest, I really did not want to read too deeply about the 330 million gods of Hinduism and the non-religious status of Buddhism.

Overall though, the book presents enough information to satisfy both the casual reader and those curious about the other major religions, enough crude humour for the atheist, and a lot to think about for the religious.

My favorite passages from the book:

In the beginning, we humans lived in the wild and ate whatever was slower or stupider than we were. At this time, we invented a thing called a “god.” The god was made from the mightiest elements mankind could see: fire, thunder, lightning… all the big scary stuff we didn’t understand but knew was powerful.

Abraham did indeed have seven sons. At least that’s what his wife Sarah, told him. The fact that he was way too old to be fathering children at the time didn’t seem to hinder him. I figure he was either naive as hell about his wife’s activities or he had something in his diet that the Ovaltine people would love to get their hands on.

The thing is, the Ark’s not lost. Never has been. About the only people who ever thought it lost were those that only looked to the Bible for information, ignoring the fact that there’s a whole planet full of books out there that also recorded history.

The idea of kosher foods had existed before this, but Jabna was where the Rabbis set it in stone and made for damned sure that every generation of Jews from then to now were subjected to boiled dough and potato pancakes. (it’s amazing what people will eat when you tell them it’ll get them into Heaven.)

History shows quite clearly that wealth sustains a people a hell of a lot better than a god does. The Intifida.

So, for those Christian readers who have not yet thrown this book into the garbage, here we go: the Gospel According to Will. The absolutely non-authoritative, non-inspired account of the life of JC. (Gospel, by the way, is Greek for “good news.” The original gospels were the “good news” given by the disciples to the Christians in places like Rome, Carthage, etc. My gospel is good news too. It’s just not good news for the Christians.)

And the power of Yahweh did go into her and did make her pregnant outside of wedlock. Her fiancée at the time did see this and did think “She did screw around on me, the stupid little trollop.” But then an angel of God did come to him, saying “Joseph, don’t worry about it. It was God who made her pregnant.” And Joseph accepted this, thinking “Oh great, I get to marry this women and for the rest of our lives I have to live with the fact that her first lover was Yahweh. Even if I do really well in bed and I think she’s really enjoying it, she’s going to be screaming “Oh God, Oh God! and I’ll never know if it’s me of Him that she’s yelling about.”

Martin Luther was born in 1483. He graduated from Erfurt University in 1505 with both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree. He had no major, and his education ran the gamut of courses: math, philosophy, languages, that sort of thing. He was raised, like the rest of Europe at the time, as a good Catholic. This meant he never saw the Bible.

Now, as near as we can figure, these original Indus Valley folks were an easy-going lot that farmed and honored all things. They weren’t war-like, and had no ideas of conquest or domination. Instead, they lived quiet lives that genuinely reflected a willingness to get along and care for the people and land around them. Naturally then, they were slaughtered mercilessly and wiped off the face of the Earth.

Here we get around to the Bhagavad Gita. It’s a really long, drawn out poetic epic that I highly recommend you never read. The plot sucks and frankly so do the characters, Krishna included.

The Dali Lama was born in Tibet. And China. And Korea. Before that he was born in India and, some think, Atlantis. The guy gets around.

In the end, despite the books flaws, I enjoyed it so much so that I’m going to get Hopper’s other book in this series “The Heathen’s Guide to Christmas,” just in time for the silly season.

How about a Remembrance Day for the victims of collateral damage?

Perhaps I’m the only person who thinks it highly pretentious when the world goes gaga over remembering the soldiers who perished in the various wars, civil, political and religious. And perhaps these people would be justified in labelling me an insensitive ingrate.

But hold your horses!

There’s the ubiquitous Remembrance Day, and then there’s the variations on a theme:

Armistice Day, Day of National Mourning, Poppy Day, Memorial Day, Anzac Day, Veterans Day, etc. But apart from Yom HaShoah which remembers the Jews who died in the Holocaust, I can’t seem to find any other day that significantly commemorates the lives lost by the innocent victims of warmongering, the so-called collateral damage.

Why should just the pawns of warmonger’s be remembered? Are their lives any more special than the lives of the innocent townsfolk who get caught in the cross-fire.

You’re probably wondering why I’m venting over this particular bee in my bonnet?

On Saturday, I was accused by a privileged prat from the first-world country, of being disrespectful towards fallen soldiers who supposedly “gave me my freedoms,” when  I tried to point out in my own inimitable style that soldiers fall to protect the interests of politicians and clerics. At the same time I was thinking how facetious it is for first world countries to always imagine that they have the soldiers who give their lives for the freedoms of their fellow citizens, while those from supposedly bad-ass countries, who have had their asses kicked and also perished, do not.

Every time a soldier falls, he does it not for his country, a grandiose cause or his religion, as he is led to believe; he falls for the dogmatic beliefs of his political, religious, cultural or clan masters. No man or women will pick up a gun of his own accord and decide to kill someone of an opposing belief system, unless he’s a pathological killer or just plain insane. It takes leaders of the political and religious persuasions to plant the seeds of hatred and fear in the minds of soldiers to convince them to risk the “fall.”

So, far from being insensitive or disrespectful, I would be just plain immoral to honour fallen soldiers without attempting to rationalise why they fell in the first instance, and then not make an effort to expose and address those causes.

Remembrance Day should honour not only the soldiers who have fallen, but those who perished for no reason whatsoever in the idiotic fight over dogmatic beliefs sown by the political and religious villains of the world.

Autumn in the United States: Photos by National Geographic

I love Autumn, but not as much as Winter.

However, Autumn offers a visual feast for photographers; a cornucopia of colours and sensations.

Japanese Maple from National Geographic

View more stunning Autumn photographs from National Geographic using the link below:

Photo Gallery – Autumn in the United States

The awful reality that must be faced should a God exist

I know a women who believes that her God has been testing her, for most of her life. She also believes that despite everything she goes through, her faith is still strong and true.

She has a son who is in his mid-twenties now, but has been mentally challenged since shortly after birth. The women believes that the condition of her son is one of the biggest tests her God has set for her.

Perhaps you think that I’m insensitive by writing about this? The truth is I feel sad for her son, but I have mixed feelings of pity and loathing for her.

Here we encounter the first horrific reality of a world with a god in it: the women is apparently eminent enough to warrant a God making another human being become the guinea pig in a test of her faith. The obvious conclusion is that this god does not value all human life equally. The obvious question is, by what criteria?

If anyone knows the answer to that question, I’m sure people everywhere who are afflicted by one form or other of physical or mental disability, are waiting to hear it. Yes, I’m talking about God’s pawns, or the world’s human guinea pigs.

Image via Wikipedia

But let us continue. The women lives a reasonably good life, but not everything goes the way she would like. She’s self-employed, has a roof over her head, a decent enough husband, reasonably good food to eat, takes the odd holiday away. By most standards, she’s in a better position than the majority of the world’s population.

However, she has shitty relatives who are constantly fighting each other, business is mostly not that good, she has to skip paying some bills from month to month, she’s frequently sick (her husband too), close friends and family members have died from or are slowly succumbing to cancer, and she just can’t seem to win that Lottery. Worse, her immediate neighbor has just got that new 57 inch flat screen TV and imported Italian tiles in the kitchen, and the idiot across the road drives a super hot top-of-the-range Mercedes, while her husband makes do with that lousy Mazda that forever breaks down.

At these times she complains to anyone that will listen that her god is testing her, but she is confident that she has the strength to abide, and will be rewarded some day.

What she has failed to contemplate is the fact that somewhere in Africa, there is a child who has not eaten for days, using the hot sun and twinkling stars for his roof. This child is not thinking about TV’s and tiles, not even about that unmarked shallow grave that is his destiny. This child is even unaware he is the object of a cruel game in which a God has gone beyond testing, to torturing.

This my friends is the astounding reality of a world with a God in it.

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B

Going through my music collection yesterday, I came across this song by the Andrews Sisters. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B was a major hit from the World War Two period, and was first recorded in 1941.

It may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but for me this is real music; they sure don’t make ’em like they used to.

Since I heard it again yesterday after some time, it sort of stuck in my mind on REPEAT. I just had to see if there was a video I could find, that would give me some sort of indication of the era it was sung in.

YouTube obliged.

However the search first brought up a link of an up-tempo version done by the Puppini Sisters in 2006:

I quite like this one; the sexy red numbers they are wearing sure beats the drab grey army outfits worn by the Andrews Sisters in the Abbot and Costello film, Buck Privates, that follows: