Go figure! Women who support patriarchy

You’d think that women would be averse to supporting patriarchal attitudes, but it would seem that’s not the case when it comes to religion and politics. There’s probably a fairly unpalatable number of women all over the world who see no problem in rationalizing the acceptance of patriarchy when it conflicts with their religious, political and cultural beliefs.

And we have them right here in South Africa too. The ANC Women’s League (ANCWL), who for all intents and purposes function merely as the ANC’s cheerleaders, are adamant that the time is not right for a female leader of the party, and by extension, President of the country. Why?

Well according to the League leaders, it’s against processes, traditions and does not support continuity and healing of a visibly broken organization.

So that makes it alright to continue supporting a male leader who is without doubt one of the worst (in all possible areas) that South Africa has ever had the misfortune to have as a President. And believe me, this guy makes some of the apartheid era Presidents and Prime Ministers look positively angelic.

But does the ANC have the calibre of women in their ranks who could become a future President? According to Jen Thorpe writing in Thought Leader, the pickings are mighty slim, and if one looks at the track record of ANC women in key government positions, the picture is dismal indeed. There are however one or two who have done quite a good job at running their portfolios, but would they be up to running a country?

The only way to find out is to give them the opportunity. Hell, I sincerely doubt they could do a worse job than the sod who’s currently lauding it over his subjects… even if they tried.

But, it seems that they will have to wait until processes and traditions change, and the ANC heals itself. You know as well as I, that that is not going to happen until Jesus returns.

It therefore leaves women with just two more options if they want to see a female President. Either vote for the opposition Democratic Alliance or Agang, both parties having fairly strong women leaders.

And since female voters probably outnumber male, that is quite an appetizing prospect, one that South Africa sorely needs.

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.

Our Pathetic, Pissant President and his Party Pimps

No, that’s not the headlines you’ll be reading tomorrow if by some cruel twist of fate, Mitt Romney wins the US Presidential elections. No, even if that contemptible Republican weasel, wins, the American press and the people will accept him with open arms.

Strange yes, but that’s the Americans for ya.

I’m actually talking about Jacob Ged-like-you-know-his-name Zuma, the South African version of a George W Bush on ‘shrooms. I vouch that not even Georgie B on his worst day, could ever sink to the despicably deprived depths of Jacob Zuma. Just when you think he’s scraped the bottom of the barrel, he confounds everyone with masterful ease by scraping right through the bottom, to the foot of Satan’s long-drop.

This patriarchal parasite and his pompous henchmen stumble from one scandal to the next, while still holding the ignorant masses in awe of their dastardly deeds, with simple tools like the race card. And by carefully orchestrating the exhumation of apartheid and keeping it on a leash, these scoundrels have a handy hound to beat whenever they’re shown up for their incompetence, greed and lascivious behaviour.

But let’s not forget the President’s official spokes-stooge, Quarter-Pounder Maharaj. He reminds one of a dinosaur whenever he whines on behalf of the President.  He deserves to have a species named for him because of the pre-historic, mind-numbingly stupid, and suck-ass comments he makes. How about Stooge-O-Saurus-Rex?

But back to the President. In a short space of time he’s become the laughing-stock of the world. Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster, that decent people around the world still love this beautiful country in spite of this clown and his African Neutered Circus, an organization known in more honourable times as the African National Congress.

It is almost  certain that history will remember Zuma as the worst President that South Africa ever had, eclipsing even the vilest apartheid-era politicians.

Unbelievably, none of this seems to trouble our President. More honourable people would have crawled back under a rock, under these circumstances, but our President continues to rock the needle of the disdain-o-meter, off the charts.

Angie Motshekga: An awful example to women everywhere

I really meant to title this post “A women who should neither be seen nor heard.” But that would have been truly awful…

Let it be known that I would be proud to be called a feminist. I strongly support gender equality and care about gender issues. I truly feel for women who invariably have to work twice as hard, if not harder, to earn the respect that men get for doing little or nothing. It’s a shitty, lopsided world – where women have to prove themselves daily.

And it shouldn’t have to be like that.

But when a woman has been entrusted with a position of power, a position of national importance, and then proceeds to make light work of totally fucking things up, then I have to speak up yet again – in the interests of those directly affected and for good woman everywhere who make a success of their position against major odds. Such a woman is Angie Motshekga, the South African Minister for Basic Education.

Not only has Angie set education back many years in South Africa, she continues to blunder ahead with an arrogance that will put many men to shame. No doubt Angie has ample talents, but furthering the interests of education in post-apartheid South Africa, is most certainly not one of them. She seems to have the knack for stumbling from one crisis to another, the latest being her Ministry’s failure to ensure that more than 64 500 teaching positions are filled in one Province alone.

This act alone while being extremely detrimental to the educational needs of South Africa’s children, should be declared as criminal. How her gross incompetence is allowed to continue in a country having what we are assured is a democracy, is beyond comprehension.

Angie Motshekga also serves as the leader of the ANC Women’s League, an organization whose relevance in a modern society is rather dubious, when for most intents and purposes, they seem to serve only as the cheering section for the glut of incompetent men in the ANC government. A recent report in the Sunday Independent suggests that this wing of the ANC, much like the ANC Youth League, is in some disarray. Another report in the Daily Maverick suggests that the ANC Women’s League under Angie are “slavishly loyal to the ANC at the expense of women’s rights.”

Angie’s recent call for action against patriarchy was rather hollow considering her die-hard support for President Jacob Zuma, who’s undoubtedly an icon of this reprehensible social malaise in South Africa. The recent furore over the Spear painting highlighted this fact most convincingly.

In short, Angie is a pathetic example to good women everywhere. One hopes that she is removed from the spotlight before she does more damage to both our education system and the plight of women.

The evil that men do…

“The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.” So said Mark Antony in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

Now if the religious texts are to be believed, one can conclude that Abraham the founder of the three major monotheistic religions was responsible for the proliferation of Patriarchy, that evil virus found in the minds of men who are mostly religious or traditional or both.

Off course, Patriarchy could well have evolved in the minds of the progenitors of Abraham, but the religious texts of these religions, if they are to be believed, don’t allude to such. However for the sake of this narrative, let’s stretch credulity as is often required with such tales, and accept Abraham to be the father of Patriarchy, even if the religious texts don’t acknowledge it as an evil mind virus.

Please bear with me for the long-winded introduction to the thing that is bothering my mind – a mind that has hopefully suppressed for eternity, the evil of patriarchy.

The depravity and megalomania of the clergy is well-known all over the world by those whose minds are fortunately not held captive by these despicable scoundrels; but those squatting down in Saudi Arabia right now with their gullible followers are the focus of my ire. You see, the Saudi clerics have convinced the pathetic men of Saudi Arabia that women should not be allowed to drive cars. Off course this is not all that women in Saudi Arabia are forbidden from doing, but this is one of the more ridiculous prohibitions dreamed up by men with seriously sick minds.

Manal Al-Sharif, one such women unfortunate enough to be living among these patriarchal pricks, was recently arrested for the “crime” of driving her own car. Thankfully human-rights groups have exposed the real criminals here – patriarchal men whose minds are stuck in the stone ages. Imagine if these idiots are allowed to continue practising their bigoted religiously inspired norms? How long before they have women arrested for thinking for themselves.

The video below is a tribute to Manal Al-Sharif for defying the ludicrous thinking [if one can call it that] of the men [if one can call them that] of Saudi Arabia.

Fortunately, such behaviour is not common here in South Africa. I live in a small town dominated by Islamic men, but their wives are seemingly allowed to drive cars; very expensive ones too. Depending on your point of view, the clerics here are either very lax or the patriarchal mind virus is not so dominant in this part of the world. Either way, it’s good news for both the women in South Africa, and the future of the human race.

And so it shall come to pass; there shall be no more bad-hair days in Iran

You might be forgiven for thinking that the banning of “decadent Western hairstyles” for men in Iran, is some sort of piss-poor, belated April Fools’ joke. You might be wrong, for it is true.

Yes, Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (no kidding; that kind of bullshit Ministry really does exist) has declared that only certain types of haircuts will be permitted in this holy cloud-cuckoo land in future; after the Modesty and Veil Festival to be exact (yep, no kidding either – that is indeed a festival held in Iran)

This is the type of patriarchal degeneracy that results when depraved clerics, wallowing in the past, are allowed to interpret dubious religious texts and make decrees that infringe on the human rights and dignity of ordinary people. And when politicians latch onto the mad ramblings of these religious nut-jobs, and appropriate it for their own devious ends, you have the makings of a tyranny.

Why they didn’t go the whole hog and declare that Iranian men should just wear hot-and-sticky pergolas over their entire heads, is not clear at this stage; but one can safely assume that that horror is in the pipeline, for when men become too uppity for their god-fearing boots.

I seriously think that we should all be very concerned that a country with religious and political freaks such as these, are claiming the right to develop nuclear weaponry. I’m not comfortable thinking about those grubby fingers which page through archaic religious nonsense, being held nervously over the little red buttons that make things go ka-boom.