Topics

16

Readers Corner - Books / the beauty myth

« on: May 06, 2009, 11:01:50 AM »

*walks into the shooting gallery, stands in front of the target and poses *


it’s a book by a woman called naomi wolf.

just an interesting investigation of the situation regarding the children of the prior struggles for the liberation and self determination of women. it’s intelligent and thought provoking, bridging the use of slightly academic theorems into a real world, everyday context. its accessible reading. she interrogates how far women have come in terms of themselves and their positioning in society, both as subjects and objects. it questions the extent of our self awareness within the ever quietly shifting paradigms of the conscious and unconscious agreements we make in relation to our choices. it explores the issue of the gains women have made in the public space over the years, as juxtaposed with some of the new challenges we face, it highlights these.

like much else it may be dismissed as being feminist when i think that to do so is to be grossly negligent. at a very basic level i think that if we look at the world as it is, with women not only being the greater majority and actually forming the backbone of societies everywhere, perhaps its more important than we think. its what some of us already intrinsically know and experience but most of us don’t engage with. and it is a conversation missing amongst women themselves. one that shouldnt be exclusive to halls of learning or corridors of so called power.   

she decribes this current system of functioning as ‘checkmating power at every level in individual womens lives...undermining, slowly, imperceptibly, without our being aware of the real forces of erosion...'

its pertinent in so far as i think its important for us to be consistently re-evaluating our understanding of our role in society. to be able to contextualise ourselves, in terms of what we believe in and why. and as the inheritors of the rich legacy of being given better chances to make the best possible contributions to our society, we need to be clear on where there is still work to be done. we need to be questioning whether we, today, are making the best of use of that. are we simply perfecting what is already or in our own way, using our voices to shed some new light.

like any good book, it challenges thought in a manner which is simultaneously uncomfortable as it is empowering.


its not always cool but umzabalazo continues broers.

and difference is a beautiful thing.   

17

Politics / a cat amongst the pigeons

« on: February 23, 2009, 11:19:42 PM »

i just thought this was interesting, just in light of the fact that these are rarely the kinds of opinions we are exposed to. just some of the other ideas out there. its from the mail and guardian by khadija bradlow.



So our president-on-waiting Jacob Zuma "likes women …" And ditto for that tall, dark and mysterious gentleman currently warming his seat, President Kgalema Motlanthe.

Hurrah!

So there, I've said it. It's high time someone spoke up on behalf of these beleaguered gentlemen, whose predilection for the fleshy delights of the fairer sex is seeing them being lambasted and lampooned in the press not only here but across the world.

Zuma has come in for a particular hammering, owing to his tendency not just to luuuuv the ladies but to collect them. And so the pundits and feminists are in a frenzy. Who will be the first lady? Who will pay for her outfits? What about Aids?

And then, of course, the old anti-polygamy treatises will be brought out of retirement and rehashed -- you know, polygamy is against "morality", blah blah blah.

As many of these selfsame pundits and "feminists" will know -- particularly those whose husbands keep mistresses on the side -- pulling the morality card is the refuge of the scoundrel. A last resort where other arguments haven't held water. Just whose morality are we speaking of here? A white Anglo-Saxon ideal that praises über alles that great ideal to aspire to: the nuclear family (oh joy!)?

There is something more than slightly patronising in the a**umption that alternative lifestyle choices are contra bonos mores(contrary to good morals).

Not to mention how slighted I feel as a woman at the suggestion that "having" women is a vice, right up there with a crack problem and syphilis.

If "having women" in any way had an impact on or impaired the ability of the man in question to perform his (non-coitus-related) duties, it's time someone produced the proof.

Some of the world's greatest athletes are known womanisers, not to mention some of the sweetest-sounding musicians. One shudders to think how many mistresses fuelled the pa**ions that spawned some of the greatest novels of all time …

Everyone knew JFK had a harem, his lovely wife notwithstanding. Did anyone suggest he was unfit to be president of the United States? Hardly. In fact, he remains lauded in history as one of the country's finest.

So, one wonders, can someone, as they say, "look like a joller"?

You know, a twinkle in the eye, carnation in the button-hole, as in the days of yore. JFK certainly looked the part. So does Zuma, what with that gregarious laugh, that generous midriff and the natty suits.

Not sure people would figure the lanky and bespectacled Motlanthe for a lady's man, though. He looks too serious.

As for me, I'm all for being led by a "lady lova".

In the case of our man, Zuma, a man who not only keeps a harem, but won't go to sleep without satisfying them. As he testified in his rape trial, he couldn't just leave the lady hanging … "And I said to myself that I knew as we grew up in the Zulu culture that you didn't just leave a woman in that situation …"

Not to mention that with all those fetching Zulu matrons to satisfy he'll have no time to invade other countries, start wars or crash the economy. There is something to be said about the time on George W Bush's hands. Maybe if Laura had kept him busier he wouldn't have wreaked so much havoc on the world.

The image of Zuma as the playa, the Daddy Mack, of course plays into unfortunate stereotypes about "The African Leader". And splaying those voluminous thighs on the front page of the Sunday Times hasn't helped much.

But hey, he ain't no Jean-Bédel Boka**a. Or a Mobutu Sese Seko. Or even a Bush …

Despite the a**egais and skins, it seems our man's a lover, not a fighter …

18

Hip Hop Events / ZULA BAR: 20TH FEB 2009

« on: February 18, 2009, 07:33:56 PM »

soooo anywaaay...im opening for ej von lyrik this friday.

i suppose im learning its a bit self defeatist to not actually let people know haha.

19

Politics / 'LET THEM EAT CAKE'

« on: February 07, 2009, 01:58:12 PM »

you know i was just thinking about the issue of food.

that sometimes when we break things down, if only we could take it there. the basics.

the issue of food. i mean im sure we've grown (or been left no choice but to) somewhat accustomed to the changes that have had to be made in terms of our pockets. just in relation to what is happening the world over, in terms of the financial sector. we are no different, not special. we arent and wont go unscathed, obviously. the world being the size of a peanut and all.

but when we delve into our particular circumstances and just take a look. something bothers me. is bothering me. this issue of food not just being left to an explanation of simple economic 'market related' factors. i think its disgusting how under wraps, all things considered, the saga with the big brands colluding to match fix food pricing was kept. i think its absolutely shocking. and unnacceptable. a slight discussion in the corridors of power, murmurings amongst those in the know. this should have been put on the public platform in a big way. these guys should have been hung out to dry in a very big way. lets play fair. this business of being selective in what we deem in public interest. media should have made such an issue of this case. disseminated and simplified it in ways that could reach even those people who dont read the specialist papers.

this is precisely the kind of information the ordinary south african should have been made more privy too. because where the government isnt entirely to blame, the people must know who is. they must know. we know how to nail other quarters and not other. these guys got away with fines. bread is like 9 bucks. and they who can afford it, got away with fines. the processes and findings of this case should have been shared more openly and made more simpler for people to hook in and understand. i feel like there's this problematic gap between the people who own the means of understanding, of information, just talking to themselves. there is a need in this country of people being informed, of the things that actually matter, that affect them. from all angles. when you dont know, you will a**ume all sorts of things. people are hungry. and when people are hungry sooner or later it becomes everyones problem. food is a national issue. its one of those. they dont know whats going on and so they blame government when evidently white collar crime is rampant across the board in this country. this matter was dealt with quite carefully and quietly and that concerns me. it wasnt in our faces. these are double standards. 

yes, people need to take the intiative, but the reality of where we are is that, the majority of the people in this country have no access. and obviously then most times means of reasoning become limited. whilst in the choices made in media spaces available to them, the people who can, dont. 

bread is 9 bucks. bread. 

20

Hip Hop Events / AFRICA IN CONCERT

« on: January 30, 2009, 12:16:30 AM »

its looking a little hectic for the revellers, its quite the friday then. heres another one:

FRIDAY 30TH JAN

BUSI MHLONGO + MADALA KUNENE + MADOSINI + WOMEN UNITE + BHEKI NDLOVU
MARCOS AFRICAN PLACE (cnr buitengracht and strand street)
19H00
R120

tickets available at computicket.

21

General Discussion / THE DOMINATRIX

« on: January 14, 2009, 11:17:48 PM »

was watching janet or ms jackson if youre nasty, on some tour. an old one.

yho. then she chose some dude. called him up on stage. for a whole routine. the art of seduction.

well you know how janet do. she tied a brother up. his hands on the chair. and proceeded to torture him silly. silly. dude tryna raise his hands. going on bout how unfair it all was. it was an absolute uproar. shaking his head. looking to the heavens. half not believing his luck, half not accepting his fate. 'i looove you. i looove YOU. no, no, YOU dont understand. i looove you.' he had to be called to order. all being told to sshhhh. and then she danced for him. all blindfolds, ropes and poles. then she was joined by other dancers. and he is just like 'i love all of you. i love all of you'. the poor guy, he looked like his spirit would just take leave of him. it was stupendous. i was killing myself. it was a charm. amusing.

no lettin nobody tell you nuthin. get your groove back ladies. GET. YOUR. GROOVE. BACK.

its yours.

22

Readers Corner - Books / PAJU BOOK CITY

« on: December 07, 2008, 12:43:46 PM »

- through the looking gla**: the wonders of the world -

in a land somewhere far away, where the sun always rises. there is a people, and they had a dream. and they called it bookcity.


just thought i should share something amazing. you know how you want to but just never do. but its just one of those things. where vision meets commitment, and the parts of the whole count for more. there is a place, a city, designed, created and built sorely for the cultivation, appreciation and legacy of books. its just outside seoul, in south korea.

its the largest publising industry zone in the world. they would describe it as 'an industrial city related specifically to books. it is intended as a place devoted to planning, producing and distributing books by well-intentioned publishers.' its a whole city where life is built around books. its a think tank zone for the honouring of cultural heritage through the protection and nurturing of reading and writing - ensuring that the stories are told, read and kept. they did it. and it is an area like any other then, with whatever you could need, stores, schools, families, life -there are people who call it home. so a**uredly safe you can walk alone at 2 in the morning.

and what amazes is the attention to detail. so well thought out, so well executed, so uncompromised in the delivery of the vision. achieved. from the architecture to the fact that there are no tvs in the hotel rooms, just a selection of the literature of the place. books.

developments continue still.

'A HUGE AND BEAUTIFUL BOOK CALLED BOOKCITY'


they didnt have any pics on the site www.pajubookcity.org but this is just two buildings like, and everything looks like this. very very modern but simple too. this is the feel. there is a strong design theme running through the entire place:





amazing, the possibilities of life.

23

General Discussion / the religion of pa** it on...

« on: December 07, 2008, 12:14:41 PM »

it existed once. much like it. but i dont know where it is. and im lazy. so there is a rebirth then.

and so as other believers file in their pews. it can be a sundays of life moment. like come to church. the religion of pa** it on.


...hope is the ability to hear the music of the future, but faith is having the courage to dance to it today...

24

Politics / A POETRY OF LIVING

« on: December 04, 2008, 01:51:42 PM »

In conversation with ourselves

It’s a 16 days for everyday for many things. And there really ought to be no more victims. But they are, and its never ending. And so it is a 16 days for every day. For every single day.

Wearied by the marks of time. I have questions.

It’s the worn tale of many. But it doesn’t make it any better or any more acceptable. A friend of mine who has been in a steady relationship for just on two years, the kind of relationship where the couple in question are as much lovers, as they are friends. The time was theirs, doing most things together. Growing together. A healthy relationship by all accounts. Then they got pregnant and he gives her either or’s. She will have an abortion or he might walk away from the relationship. From her. And as such he now tries to walks away then. He doesn’t try for the staying bit, he tries for the walking away. The decision as simple as that. As that black or white. He alone now determines the bottom lines.

And I have questions.

Why is it that this still remains so easy and so prevalent amongst peers. Im not talking a situation of people in their early twenties here. With issues of youth, and money, and lives to map out. Im talking young professionals, educated and somewhat privileged – in the sense that the tools of building a life a little more in their possession, than a vast majority whose path is more arduous. Where the practicalities are not the biggest issue in question, just the strength.

Why is it that men a**ume they have more to lose than the person who must carry and deliver this new life. Why is their fear of more value when a woman’s seems so eternally bound to selflessness regardless. Yes, he is scared, but so is she. Yes, relationships don’t always make it through, and it is also an age when you don’t have to get married. But men are still not trying, just that. So we can stop having women who weren’t blessed with immaculate conceptions having to go through the ever so painful experience of 9 months of carrying alone. Sad people giving birth to sad people. Where is the responsibility in having sex with someone and being party to them being on contraceptives and then when luck runs out so do you. Where are we going, what are we building when we have forgotten not only responsibility but compa**ion, honour and a relative shame. What is this business of men demanding abortions of women who they claim to love, when the decisions taken with regards to a sexual life together, are taken together. So he says get an abortion or we doesn’t stand a chance and she says but if I do this, at a stage in my life where I cannot justify why I have to let this baby go, I will hate you. And with one swoop he kills them anyway. There goes the trust then, even if winds blow a certain change of heart, who you remain as, is someone who didn’t want his child. And who she is now, is a woman who must go home and not only tell of an arrival, but that the father may not come for the journey. And even though hope knows no boundaries, she is not the first and she certainly won’t be the last.
Its messed up at that place where he even thinks he possesses the luxury to simply walk away. Are there not enough of us who come from single homes, are we not too many already. Are we not familiar with this pain. How quickly 'we' gets forgotten. How lucky for him. We chained to our wombs. And our wombs chained to our hearts. You work this, you don’t run away, you work it. It WILL change you and you WILL grow. Life is about growth, you cannot avoid it, to run is to stunt your development and you will always traipse through yours only half you and haunted. Life experiences are about building the internal muscle to deal. It is what makes the difference.

And this begs a serious mention for fathers who are being men, who show us something else. Its not easy, and its no norm but you are out there. You are the future and you change today. You stand tall amongst men.

It also brings up the selfishness and anti progressive behaviour of limited women who abuse some of the mechanisms in place to satisfy their own ends. In the same way men differ, so too do women, and the tragedy here is that some of the casualties are the women who are actually worthy, those are our soldiers who are falling down, cut down by the ways of abandonment. For then there are women who lie about some of these things when they could be better people themselves. And they muddy the experiences of others. And then you’ll catch people being silent, their tongues caught because now these challenges always stand so up for debate because we let ourselves down. It’s a reality of intricacies like women who also use abortion as a means of contraception, in a time when sex without protection is a little more than about babies, like you will die. Disrespecting themselves so bad that they disrespect life itself. In as much as it is a call for the men of our time to see and grow, it is too a call for women to take the risk of respecting themselves and other women too. There are experiences that provide a common thread, but it is a most a frail thread. For when the facts state that there are more women than men in life, we need to be asking ourselves some questions on the relationship we have with ourselves. Our understanding of where we stand in relation to our bodies, our loves, our lives, the men we are raising and to other women. We as young women need to start asking ourselves some questions. Do we, to begin with, believe in some of things we have other people getting up and addressing. It’s not showing. We do not know how to support other people and anothers misfortune is always just anothers gain. The change is not going to come from only upward movements, greater titles, more acquisitions, the garnering of an endless stream of props. The perimeters that govern the rules of engagement are not defined by that, its in behaviour where you will meet yourself. 

We are so comfortable in making separations between how we conduct ourselves in our own small spaces and what’s going on outside there. The greater picture is reflected in each and everyone of us and our decisions and choices, in who we are every day. We are a people who cannot be accountable in our own lives, and then we grow and we are shapers of destinies and nation builders, when we stand a people who cannot take accountability in our own lives right now. And then we wonder why things are the way they are. We cannot see where it begins. That woman pressing fraudulent charges is a thought to be upstanding member of society; the guy speaking on our behalf, he sleeps around and puts his wife at risk of contracting a virus. No different from us, just people who are more in years, but who once stood where we are, faced with the same choices we face. Choices they just couldn’t be bothered to have made differently. Why? Because its uncool, because taking responsibility is boring. Too much trouble is it. We rarely pay attention to the things that actually do matter in life, it’s everything else but those things. And then we want to be indignant, surprised, when we leave much to be desired as well. We are those people right now. And right now already we can barely take responsibility. Right now.

Sieze the day. Don’t take things too seriously. Live for the moment. But then as life will have it, im not quite sure why we seem to not know this by now, as life will have it – the moment will turn on you. And then what.

We are unprepared to be the people we need to be to confront and rise above these things that tear us apart, that colour the texture of our society. We ourselves remain ill equipped to be the people we are looking out into reality searching for. And so we question everybody else but our own selves. Some of the challenges of our time don’t just ask us to engage, they ask us to change the way we engage. We are being asked to change how we live. Never mind the guy who wont. What about you, why can’t YOU be that person. There is no perfect moment, there is no signal for readiness. There is you and every day making the same choices just a little differently. Its not about grand gestures and big moments, it’s about how you relate to and treat the people already in your life, the people you meet - those you do and dont know. It begins with your immediate world. Who you are is not a moment in the future, its held right there in how you treat your girlfriend, your mother, your sister, your boyfriend, your flatmate, the person who helps out in your home, the person across the counter, your friends. Evene the people you think you have nothing to gain from. You have the power of choice over decisions and actions there. It doesn’t take anybody in particular, no one is more special, more capable – there are only those who bother to try. Empowerment comes from within and change is about learning how, and having the courage, to swim upstream.

We share words when the state of the world asks us to question ourselves, to bring it home. It’s not enough to simply attack how we think. Its just not enough anymore, the truth of all we have been equipped with only comes into being with what we do. In precisely those actions we think have nothing to do with anything. They do.

Be a better you.


I may have been preaching but I’m just saying. This is what’s happening. This is us. And It makes it a 16 days for every day.

For every day.

25

Hip Hop Events / V-FEST?

« on: November 24, 2008, 03:59:26 PM »

apparently this has been postponed hey...

26

Readers Corner - Books / triumph OVER adversity

« on: November 23, 2008, 11:56:24 AM »

these are just four tales of four heroines in a world of many, many, many.

their stories, in their words. its some building stuff.


an autobiography - a**ata shakur
queens to the world: the story of black panther activist and woman in exile

desert flower - waris dirie
somalia to the world: circumsised at five, fled an arranged marriage at 12, then became a pirelli girl in her teens and a UN amba**ador.

ugly -constance briscoe
uk to the world: with cruel words from the beginning, it is the story of a loveless childhood

stolen lives: twenty years in a desert jail - malika oufkir
morocco to the world: for the sins of the father. a mother and her children who grew up captives. and lived to tell the tale


the human spirit.

27

Hip Hop Events / TRIBUTE FOR MAMA MIRIAM MAKEBA

« on: November 21, 2008, 04:08:18 PM »

- NO Pa** BUT 6 Pa**PORTS -


a tribute featuring BUSI MHLONGO/MALIKA NDLOVU/ERNESTINE DEANE/NOMFUSI GOTYANA/TINA SCHOUW/NHOZA SITSHOLWANA

sunday 23 november 2008
the africa centre
44 long street
19h30

28

Hip Hop Events / THE EARTH MOTHERS

« on: November 19, 2008, 12:48:05 PM »

SIMPHIWE DANA AND BUSI MHLONGO

30 NOVEMBER 2008
SUMMER CONCERTS SERIES
KIRSTENBOSCH GARDENS

cape town, with this place so often being another country altogether like - its special this. pack your picnic baskets. take your sisters. mothers. the little ones. grannies and cousins. celebrate life.

hello december. 

29

Readers Corner - Books / ALICE WALKER says...

« on: November 17, 2008, 11:40:54 PM »

Dear Brother Obama,

You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history. But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear. And yet, this observation is not intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed, because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about.

I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate. One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.

I would further advise you not to take on other people's enemies. Most damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise. It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this we understand, completely. However, as my mother used to say, quoting a Bible with which I often fought, "hate the sin, but love the sinner." There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people's spirit. This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women, children. We see where this leads, where it has led.

A good model of how to "work with the enemy" internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies. And your smile, with which we watch you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that, kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of us, lighting our way, and brightening the world.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

In Peace and Joy,
Alice Walker

30

The Office / the request line

« on: November 16, 2008, 12:44:08 AM »

please can we have a books forum space.


...thought was made word was made deed...