Hasta siempre Sr Roussos

This week commences on a sad note. The music world has lost another legend. Demis Roussos passed on at the age of 68 today.

Artemios “Demis” Ventouris Roussos was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1946, but settled in Greece. He had limited success collaborating with Aphrodite’s Child and Vangelis, but became an acclaimed international solo artist in the 70’s.

I will, like many people remember him fondly for such hits as My Friend The Wind and Forever and Ever, but he has sold over 60 millions albums around the world.

Adios Demis, thank you for the music.

Melograno in blossom

The pomegranate tree in the garden is starting to bloom. It’s actually been sprouting little buds for a few weeks already, but I keep forgetting to take a photograph. Finally got it last week.

Pomegranate just sounds so weird for the name of a fruit; I think I much prefer the Italian name melograno which rolls more sweetly of the tongue. The name derives from medieval Latin – pōmum which is “apple” and grānātum or “seeded”.

The pomegranate is thought to have originated in the region between Egypt and The Himalayas. It is now grown in most parts of the world. Kandahar in Afghanistan which has latterly become infamous for the death and destruction wreaked by the Taliban, is famous for its high quality pomegranate crop (also infamous for the opium poppy).

Pomegranate seeds have a variety of uses, but I’ve used them occasionally to make my Tequila shots more pleasant ala Jamie Oliver style.

Cheers.

Sick puppies

Clashes Around Muslim Brotherhood’s Main Headquarters in Cairo (Photo credit: Jonathan Rashad)

I was truly horrified when I read a report today that members of the Muslim Brotherhood were setting puppies alight and using them as gas bombs, during the current protests against the ousting of Egyptian President Morsi. These reports were carried by a number of online news sources, even reasonably reputable one’s.

Not surprisingly, there was an instant outcry from many gullible people who accepted the story without giving it a second thought it seems.

My suspicions about the veracity of these reports were immediately raised because this act is no ordinary thing. It takes a special kind of monster to do something so heinous. After a bit of checking, and when the story disappeared from the source where I had originally read it, I came to the conclusion that there was some mischief afoot.

My skepticism was confirmed by The Guardian’s Egypt correspondent Patrick Kingsley, and reported here in the Huffington Post:

I think it’s really, really unlikely that Muslim Brotherhood protesters could have turned puppies into firebombs during clashes in Tahrir Square. Aside from a couple of brief instances, Brotherhood demonstrators have not been able to enter the square all summer. Most importantly, the logistics of this seem barely feasible. Gathering 20 puppies, transporting them to a protest, dousing them in petrol, and then throwing them at soldiers while being teargassed strikes me as not just impractical, but nigh-on impossible.

Why would anyone spread such vicious lies? I hold no brief for the Muslim Brotherhood, or any Brotherhood for that matter. They’re all mostly crass ideologues. But there’s absolutely no need to slander a person or organization by spreading false rumours or blatant lies about them, especially when they do such a great job of discrediting themselves.

Whoever spread this hoax are really sick puppies.

The year of dressing dangerously

Over the years there were probably many isolated incidences around the world where a person’s dress, appearance and style of living attracted unwanted attention from a few loons, mostly from one type of religious persuasion or the other. But in 2013, these incidences started making the news.

In January, the same religious extremists who had earlier banned women from wearing jeans and tight trousers, inspired the mayor of Aceh, Indonesia, to propose a ban on women straddling bicycles and motorcycles when riding pillion. Then in February a Saudi cleric raged about forcing babies and young woman to wear burkas, which he claimed would prevent rape.

In March Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood opposed a UN Declaration on Woman’s Rights saying that granting them any basic rights would destroy society. They  proposed among other more absurd things that woman should not be allowed to travel freely, work, use contraception and control the household finances.

Earlier this month Hamas, the ultra-conservative government of Gaza passed an education bill mandating separate classrooms for boys and girls. This week in another act of pure madness Hamas lap-dogs who pass for Policemen were reported pulling young men off the streets, loading them into jeeps, insulting them and then cutting off or shaving their long or gel-styled spiky hair.

Now lest you think I’m singling out a particular religion by exposing this insanity, let me assure you that I’m not. If an adherent of [place your religion or political organization of choice here] compels me to dress or behave in a certain way, or inhibits me from exercising certain basic human rights, because it infringes some stupid law from their archaic religious texts, then I’m most certainly going to tell them to kiss my ass.

It’s not so much the religion that concerns me, as the jackasses that try to impose their understanding of it.

No religionist (or political organization) will ever prescribe to me how to dress, what to eat, how to live or what to believe.

*****

This just in…

Seems the madness has spread to Uganda too. Simon Lokodo an ex-Catholic priest, a misogynist and homophobe who is now masquerading as the Ethics Minister [fancy that?] is proposing legislation that will govern what women wear in public, including on television.

This same government-appointed keeper of the public’s morals was at the forefront of persecution and discriminatory laws against Uganda’s homosexual community not so long ago.

The Brotherhood of Misogynists

The use of religion and culture to violate women’s rights is a vile and cowardly pursuit, but is distressingly prevalent throughout the world.

The U.N. Commission on the Status of Woman which has been lobbying since 1946 for the advancement of women, is at the moment pushing for acceptance of the declaration on woman’s rights. However Egypt, Iran and Russia together with the Vatican (no surprises there!) are “threatening to derail the women’s rights declaration by objecting to language on sexual, reproductive and gay rights.” Egypt in opposition, has unashamedly proposed an amendment which will allow men to once again hide behind religious and cultural values.

In a disturbing parallel move, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood posted a statement on its website which claims that the declaration will among other things, destroy society by allowing women to travel freely, work, use contraception and control the household finances. That kind of thinking would be hysterical if it was not so shockingly infantile and backward. Even more worrying is that according to the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies, this is a position favoured by many Arab governments.

You will no doubt laugh hysterically, but these are the ten objections to the declaration contained in the statement on the Muslim Brotherhood’s website, that they believe will lead to decadence:

1. Granting girls full sexual freedom, as well as the freedom to decide their own gender and the gender of their partners (ie, choose to have normal or homo- sexual relationships), while raising the age of marriage.
2. Providing contraceptives for adolescent girls and training them to use those, while legalizing abortion to get rid of unwanted pregnancies, in the name of sexual and reproductive rights.
3. Granting equal rights to adulterous wives and illegitimate sons resulting from adulterous relationships.
4. Granting equal rights to homosexuals, and providing protection and respect for prostitutes.
5. Giving wives full rights to file legal complaints against husbands accusing them of rape or sexual harassment, obliging competent authorities to deal husbands punishments similar to those prescribed for raping or sexually harassing a stranger.
6. Equal inheritance (between men and women).
7. Replacing guardianship with partnership, and full sharing of roles within the family between men and women such as: spending, child care and home chores.
8. Full equality in marriage legislation such as: allowing Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men, and abolition of polygamy, dowry, men taking charge of family spending, etc.
9. Removing the authority of divorce from husbands and placing it in the hands of judges, and sharing all property after divorce.
10. Cancelling the need for a husband’s consent in matters like: travel, work, or use of contraception.

This retarded mentality roughly translates into “Woe be unto men if we can’t have multiple wives, but heaven help us if we allow them to travel freely, use contraception, file for divorce, accuse us of rape, decide how to spend money… and fuck other women.”

Why are these men so afraid of women?

Mothers Day – A history

Tomorrow, the 13th of May will usher in the celebration of Mothers Day in many countries around the world. But how many of us know the history behind this cherished day?

The YouTube video further below provides a latter-day history of the origins of Mothers Day as conceptualized by the American Julia Ward Howe. However the celebration of motherhood has a long history rooted in antiquity.

Early man worshipped Goddesses and deities as symbols of motherhood. The ancient Egyptians worshipped Isis who they regarded as the Mother of the Pharaohs. The early Romans worshipped the Phrygian goddess Cybele, who derived from the Greek goddess Rhea, Mother of the Greek deity Zeus. Other societies honoured Gaia the Earth Goddess.

Early Christians honoured the Church by referring to it as Mother Church. Later, Europeans celebrated Mothering Day during Lent. Mothers Day as we know it, started with Julia Ward Howe around 1870. This video provides a brief history of her and many other magnificent women since. [Follow this link for more history]

I cannot be with my mother this year; she’s many miles away, but my thoughts will be with her as always. I hope you enjoyed that little blast from the past. Now, please have a happy Mothers Day, hopefully close to your mother.

Two things…

Spare a thought for the 46 Zimbabweans who were arrested by Robert Mugabe’s Gestapo-like police force recently for attending a lecture discussing the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Some of those arrested were allegedly also tortured.

We all know quite well that Mugabe is hell-bent on retaining power, but resorting to manufacturing absurd charges of treason against this group who have been identified as labour and social activists, confirms that he’s one paranoid son-of-a-bitch as well. Their lawyers are asking quite reasonably, why the rest of the population have not been arrested as well for watching the revolts against the two North African dictators. One can only conclude that Mugabe needs to make an example of this unfortunate bunch, so that nobody else considers rising up against his tyrannical rule.

South Africans need to be aware that if our own government push into legislation their recently proposed draconian censorship laws, this sort of thing might become a reality even here.

∞

I watched a video hosted on AlJazeera’s website of dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s desperate and threatening speech broadcast on Libyan television earlier this week, where he makes reference to the fact that he was not a leader, but a revolutionary.

Interspersed with pleas for cessation of the hostility against his regime and the usual revolutionary rhetoric, he issued threats to maim and burn his own people. This rant sounded quite familiar to me, having come across that same technique on numerous occasions in e-mails, pamphlets, flyers and billboard posts by the lunatics who make up the Christian fundamentalist lobby.

Meanwhile, South Africans need to take note of how a certain obstreperous Youth organization affiliated to the government, conceitedly also refer to themselves as revolutionaries at every occasion. More disconcerting however, is that they style themselves not after honourable revolutionaries such as Benjamin Franklin, but after despots like Gaddafi.

Why I'm going to vote again after 16 years

courtesy Wikipedia

The first time I voted in an election, was back in 1994, generally regarded as South Africa’s first truly democratic elections. That was also the last time I voted.

It was a euphoric moment and my expectations were high; maybe too high. Soon thereafter I came to really know the vile creature known commonly as a politician. The ANC who were voted into power by a substantial margin, wasted no time in mutating into that which they had fought against, that which we who were disenfranchised, had all grown to despise.

I watched in despair and anger over the years as the politicians lied, cheated, deceived, stole, cajoled, pledged, broke their promises and then lied, cheated, deceived, stole, cajoled and pledged some more. Poor Democracy! He was getting it up the rear in equal measure to Lady Justice who was constantly being raped. As the politicians cheered this sodomy and rape of our constitutional and justice systems respectively, their proselytes and beneficiaries licked their lips in glee, while the majority of the people wrapped themselves tighter in ignorance, or just did not give a shit.

I decided to abstain from voting; abstain from endorsing this sick process.

However, recent events around the continent where despots were being hounded out of office, and the current demonstrations in Egypt, against a resolute scumbag in office, have compelled me to review my decision. I have decided to look at the voting process philosophically, rather than with anger. Instead of viewing my vote as FOR a political party, I now view it as AGAINST a particular party; the incumbent ruling party which has been the source of my disdain.

I now realise that it is imperative to send a loud and clear message to these cretins that we’ve had enough. We may not be able to dislodge them entirely, but at least we could weaken them somewhat.

I now realise that this is much better than the alternative – rioting and demonstrating in the streets of South Africa 10 years from now, to force them out.

The despot circus endorses a new ring-leader

While the people of Egypt were fighting for their freedom, while the people of South Sudan voted overwhelmingly in favor of freedom from tyranny, while a democratically elected leader tried desperately to get the incumbent scoundrel to step down and hand over power, while an already deposed dictator fled from the wrath of the people he abused, and while fresh rebellion elsewhere was in the air, the established despots and wanna-be tyrants of Africa who make up the African Union (AU), voted in a new chairman.

And not surprisingly they endorsed a veteran with 30 years of ignominious rule adorning his résumé. All hail  Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the pride of Equatorial Guinea, proud ally of the oil-obsessed USA, and now ring-leader of Africa’s despot circus.

Forgive me for thinking that the evolution of man started, and then stopped abruptly in Africa too.

It’s full-time at the FIFA Confederations Cup: USA vs Egypt

Some journalist I’m turning out to be. While posting my half-time report (which lasted well into the second half of the game), I missed two additional goals scored by the USA. So much for predicting that Egypt would equalize.

The final score here at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, USA vs Egypt is three goals to nil. While I was typing the previous line, I’ve just been handed two Game Statistics printouts by one of the many Volunteers who man the Media Centre; one for this match and one for the other match that was played concurrently at the Loftus Stadium in Pretoria between Italy and Brazil, which Brazil also won by three goals to nothing.

These statistics printouts contain a dizzying array of information on various aspects of the matches played. There are statistics on everything from Shots on Goal to Ball Possession to the Fouls Committed by each player to Match Time each player spent on the pitch. I’m not sure who would want such information, but a big up to FIFA for collating and making such information available to journalists. This certainly makes their jobs that much easier.

I could quote a whole string of statistics on the match from these reports, but I’m not going to bore you any further. There was a clear winner, and for that team’s fans, that’s all that matters.