Scary Halloween Stories

Since it’s Halloween I thought I might share three frightening stories of a different kind, two from South Africa where I live, and one which is as international as it gets.

I’ll get the international one out the way first.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has announced publicly that he’s gay. And no, that’s not the scary bit. Why anyone would be required to announce their sexual orientation is beyond me, because that’s nobody’s business but their own. Again, that’s not the scary bit either. The thing that frightens me is that a homophobic idiot in Russia by the name of Vitaly Milonov wants Cook to be prohibited from entering Russia because he believes “… It’s obvious he has the intention of imposing his ideas about families, not just of introducing new gadgets.”

Milonov, a politician, was apparently also instrumental in getting anti-gay laws promulgated in Russia last year. He also commented that “This is a political act aimed at popularising homosexuality.” Bullshit! As if that’s not bad enough, who knows what evil plans the more militant homophobes are hatching to harm such a high-profile personality?

Locally, two stories today that send shivers down my spine involve the ANC and Jacob Zuma, the President.

It has been reported that the ANC is broke, and cannot pay staff and outstanding debts. They have denied it off course, but the ANC leadership are glorious denial kings. While it has long been thought that the ANC is itself a broken organization, this additional setback, just adds fuel to the speculation fire. What are they going to do to right their financial woes? Considering their infamous track record involving corruption on a multitude of occasions, most notably the Arms Deal Scandal, I am pretty terrified right now, over how I and the beleaguered taxpayers of this country are going to foot the bill for the ANC’s financial woes.

Finally, the ad-hoc committee that was set up by the ANC-led Parliament to decide whether President Jacob Zuma should be held liable to pay for the costs of the upgrade to Nkandla his personal residence, to the tune of a quarter of a million Rands, has not surprisingly decided that he is off the hook. This committee comprised a majority of ANC members of Parliament with a smattering of opposition party members who walked out at the onset after disagreeing on the terms of reference among other issues, leaving the investigation and deliberations to only ANC members.

The whole thing was a farce meant to stymie further probing into the massive fraud that was perpetrated on the country, and the resultant whitewash was hardly unexpected. It was analagous to a murder suspect demanding and being allowed to pick a jury of his own friends and family.

If the ANC can do this and get away with (as seems likely), then it has really scary repercussions for the future of democracy in this country, and indeed, the future of the country itself.

When humans put their beliefs before their humanity

A few specific incidents recently, the general occurrence of which has been going on for a long time, has left me in no doubt that we humans value our ideological beliefs more than we value human life.

I take it for granted that everyone is capable of kindness, love, compassion and goodwill towards other human beings. But it plagues me that humans can and will without hesitation abandon all of this when certain of our beliefs are challenged.

And it seems to me the most culpable belief that humans will defend, with total disregard to cost and consequence, is religious in nature. And the greatest cost is life off course.

Boko Haram (figuratively meaning “Western education is sin”) is an Islamic terrorist organization which has been laying siege to Northeastern Nigeria since 2002, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 10 000 people (quite possibly much more). At the most basic level, they kill innocent people to further their insane religious ideology. Recently they kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls whom they still hold captive, although reports indicate some have been sold into slavery or as child brides.

The fate of these schoolgirls is still uncertain, while the politicians vacillate. Which off course is quite normal for politicians. Political chicanery easily has the same disastrous effect as religious ideology, and indeed, when the State and Organized Religion conspire together, it usually ends in tragedy.

Take Sudan for instance. It is one of a growing number of countries (especially in Africa and the Middle East) that have no qualms about persecuting and even killing its citizens, to satisfy (invariably misunderstood) religious edicts. In Uganda, you will face imprisonment or even death for being of the “wrong” sexual orientation. Wrong is decided through belief, inspired by archaic religious text.  In both countries the politicians have no problem agitating its citizens who harbor demented religious beliefs, into tormenting, even killing those who even vaguely seem at odds with said beliefs.

Only recently Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, a pregnant Sudanese women who has just given birth in prison, was sentenced to death (but not before receiving a 100 lashes as well) for apostasy. Her crime was to fall in love with a Christian man. It is an exercise in futility pointing out to these demented ideologues that a benevolent God would not take kindly to such an insane act of pettiness. They would probably stone you to death.

Which was exactly the fate of Farzana Iqbal of Pakistan. Farzana whilst also pregnant, was stoned to death by members of her own family, including her own father for marrying the man she loved rather than the one her family had chosen for her. Honour killings are the direct result of ideological beliefs, most likely rooted in culture and religion. And that opens up another can of worms…

Culture and tradition can be as bad as religious beliefs, and quite often is. It is quite sad that in the modern scientific world, archaic cultural beliefs can still hold sway over abundant evidence to the contrary. In some societies, any or all activity that is at odds with cultural norm, can get you hurt or killed.

What will these purveyors of insane belief systems do if they eventually manage to wipe the rest of us off the face of the earth (not likely, but worth considering)? Will they then turn on each other? Will the purveyors of the surviving (insane) belief system then sit back and twiddle their thumbs, waiting for the rapture (or similar curious belief)?

Will the God that you believe in, accept them into heaven ( or similar curious belief)? Do you still think such a God is good?

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?

New Year already tainted by religious madness

We’re barely into the second week of 2013 and already people who are inspired by religion (men usually) are showing how utterly insane it all is.

A mayor from Aceh, Indonesia is proposing a ban on women straddling bicycles and motorcycles when riding pillion. The idiot from Lhokseumawe by the name of Suaidi Yahya believes that it will save [*cough] the virtue of women and prevent them from breaking Islamic Sharia law [*grrrrrr]. This asshole still thinks that woman are “delicate creatures,” and require protection from the men, religious one’s off course.

In 2009, the neanderthals from Aceh also banned woman from wearing jeans and tight trousers. What a bunch of silly tossers, defending archaic religious laws pulled out their ass by other silly tossers.

Staying on this silly side of the world, another religiously inspired cretin, a self-styled Indian guru from India caused an uproar when he made a statement partly blaming the young female student who was gang-raped, for the atrocious incident. The imbecilic guru who goes by the name of Bapu, believes that the drunken bastards who raped this woman, would not have gone through with it, if the woman had begged for mercy and pleaded with god [*Bapu’s personal flavour of god no doubt] for help.

If that is not the most patriarchal, misogynist, religiously vile claptrap I have ever heard, I don’t know what is. Bapu should be put on trial with rest of the male scum who perpetrated this vile act on the woman, who eventually succumbed to the horrendous wounds she received.

And while the murderous madness involving religious groups continues in Africa with the Malian Ansar Dine, the Nigerian Boko Haram, and al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab and Ansar al-Sharia of Somalia, there was a faint glimmer of hope from Cameroon, with the release of two men who spent a year in jail after being convicted of homosexuality. Apparently they were convicted on appalling evidence: they were seen wearing women’s clothes and make-up.

Yeah, only someone inspired by antiquated religious texts could condemn another human being for something so utterly trivial.

I wonder what these pious prats have in store for us for the rest of the year.

Defending the Indefensible

I got this from Pharyngula. I am just perversely fascinated watching a person trip up as they attempt to defend the indefensible…

 

Persecution or annoyance?

People are always saying that they feel persecuted. But in most cases, is it really persecution they’re feeling or just plain annoyance?

Just this morning I read a blog post by a young Ugandan women studying in South Africa who feels that Christians around the world are being persecuted…for being Christian. But is what she is describing, really persecution, or just plain annoyance at the proponents of presumably opposing religions claiming that their gods are superior, or that the Christian god is false? This is merely a case of disagreement over ideological principles, which may lead to isolated cases of physical violence and terror, but this is hardly evidence of a systematic campaign of persecution.

However, the persecution of alleged witches during the history of Christianity was real, and was as a result of misguided Christians demonstrating their perceived superiority.

Homosexuals on the other hand also claim to be persecuted. Are they really?

Yes, in the case of homosexuals, large-scale persecution is both visible and measurable. They are not just feeling annoyed at heterosexuals; there is tangible evidence for both physical and psychological torment being directed at them. They have every right to feel aggrieved at others who systematically torment them because of their choice of sexual orientation which is not an ideological principle.

Persecution is also evident where race is concerned. Generally people’s of the darker races have every right to feel victimized by lighter skinned people’s, but that does not mean that there are no cases where the opposite is also true. Racial discrimination most certainly constitutes an act of persecution because one does not choose which race to be born into.

So, the next time I hear someone of  Christian, or Muslim or any other religious persuasion complaining of being persecuted, please spare me the false anguish. Your annoyance at being called out by your opposition or even non-believers, is pitiful.