tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70411194516876047732024-03-19T09:28:46.225+02:00Look! I Think & Write Stuff!When 140characters proves too constricting...Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-54430454836694327802015-08-16T09:12:00.000+02:002015-08-20T15:09:53.052+02:00A ‘Politically Correct Fascist’ Responds To Mondli Makhanya’s BIC ColumnGenerally, I treat columns like Mondli Makahanya’s “<a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Has-SA-broken-its-funny-bone-20150816" target="_blank">Has SA Broken Its Funny Bone</a>,” in today’s City Press (16 August 2015) with as much respect as I treat a News24 comments section.<br />
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What person chooses to engage with outdated, tone-deaf howlings? But chalking it up to having seen this on the front page of a national newspaper at 5am buying painkillers; I stumbled, bought the paper, and turned to that exact page.
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Responding to the outrage to the Bic “Look Like A Girl/Act Like A Lady/Think Like A Man/Work Like A Boss” advert, Makhanya showed himself to be nothing more than yet another old man sorely out of touch and confused by current times and cultural norms.<br />
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As he explains, the debacle - or BicGATE as the internet has dubbed it - was fueled by “politcally correct fascists” who “while the rest of us are getting on with life, they are busy looking for opportunities to kill the joy.”<br />
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I could spend the rest of this blog explaining the myriad ways in which Makhanya’s wails of woe are wrong. But that would be a waste of my time. Firstly, and as always, Google is full and free, ready to educate him. But beyond that, in the column by Grethe Koen, printed just above his, there’s a very good explanation why this campaign was so wrong.<br />
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As one of these “politically correct fascists” I did however find his opinion that the inferiority of this ad rested solely on its bastardisation of the movie “Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man” curious. One should note that “Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man,” was pilloried for its misogynistic messaging. This, of course, is to say nothing of the fact that “Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man,” was based off an equally pilloried book by Steve Harvey.<br />
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Facts Makhanya seems to know naught about.<br />
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Having read Makhanya’s columns and newspapers for decades now, I’m pretty certain that he believes there are ideas and notions that are beyond the pale. I believe he understands that even the response “it was a joke” doesn’t make those ideas and notions defensible. Despite no proof to back this up, Makhanya seems to read what BIC meant with the ad as a joke. I, and the many other “politcally correct facsists” who took to social media to express their objections to this advertisement didn’t. But whether it was meant as a joke or a serious (but ill-thought out) opinion by BIC is beside the point.<br />
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Makhanya writes that stereotypes “are the staple of jokes that we tell about and to each other.” He says, “they have been here since time immemorial and no social gathering is complete without them.”<br />
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Before writing this, Makhanya opens his column with paragraphs of stereotypes.<br />
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I can’t speak for his social circle, but when me and my friends meet, we’re able to joke and laugh without referencing, money-grubbing Jews, duplicitous Xhosas, violent Zulus, Golf GTI loving and cunning Indians, or stupid and alcoholic Coloureds, to reel back some of his examples.<br />
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My friends and I don’t rely on these stereotypes to entertain ourselves. In fact, I’d say neither do “mentally healthy societies;” the very societies Makhanya believes are imperiled by “politcally correct facsists” such as me and my friends.<br />
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To be fair, it’s not Makhanya’s fault that he thinks ads that say women must be like men or look like girls to be successful are acceptable. That is down to society. That’s what him and the thousands of other South Africans who agree with him have been taught.<br />
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But, from gay people being unnatural to women being unfit for the workforce, history is littered with countless stereotypes that society at one time saw as normal, but it today rejects.<br />
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Where Makhanya failed is not realising that what he has always thought of as normal and acceptable may not be so. Because he failed to stop and interrogate his views, while listening to the complaints of others, Makhanya turned himself into a tone-deaf howling parody of a News24 comments section. Makhanya’s lack of introspection made him into just yet another old man sorely out of touch and confused by current times and cultural norms.<br />
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Instead of worrying that all this politically correct fascism will turn us into a “dull and dour people,” as he writes, I’d caution Makhanya to look at whether, just perhaps, maybe he’s the one who is dull and dour.
Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-72081335753990527272013-07-04T21:10:00.002+02:002013-07-04T21:10:44.148+02:00Y’know what’s totes LOLworthy? Blackface! -- Cape Town Fish Market<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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You know what is funny; someone feeling that they need to explain how air quotes work. You know what isn’t; blackface.</div>
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But I get ahead of myself.</div>
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Yesterday on Twitter I came across an ad from Cape Town Fish Market, a local chain of restaurants, selling the freshness of its fish. </div>
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The ad is described as follows on YouTube.<br />
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<i>The Cape Town Fish Market is on a big drive to educate people about how fresh its fish is compared to that of some of its competitors, which is actually frozen. Because when the Cape Town Fish Market says fresh, it means fresh from the sea, not "fresh" from the freezer. We created this tongue-firmly-in-cheek TV ad to help people tell the difference between fresh and "fresh".</i></blockquote>
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Seems like a fairly harmless, right? Well, if there’s one thing you can depend on, it’s South Africans being able to take entirely innocuous ideas and make them offensive, which, isn’t at all surprising.<o:p></o:p><br />
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In a series of vignettes the white actor in the ad plays a variety of characters. In a two second, “Wait, WHAT? Did they really go there, do that, and show that” moment, one of those vignettes of an “African Dictator,” as Cape Town Fish Market describes it. </div>
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While the agency which developed the ad, Lowe Cape Town, would probably disagree, I don’t think slathering a white man in greasepaint to have him play a corrupt black man is is funny. </div>
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In fact, I think it’s pretty unfunny. </div>
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To be exact, I think it’s pretty fucking offensive.</div>
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Now I could detail why it is, but I’m not interested in that. Also, if you need that explained to you I don’t really have time for you and I prescribe a daily dosage of Google, Wikipedia, and history lessons.</div>
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People far smarter and more experienced in SA’s marketing industry than me have time and again explained how the lack of diversity in our ad industry leads to these kind of horribly offensive and stereotypical ads. I don’t know anything about Lowe Cape Town or Cape Town Fish Market’s marketing department but I’d guess that it was some replaying of that situation which led to this ad being greenlit.</div>
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When I, and at least three other accounts including the City Press’ brilliant Charl Blignaut, tweeted about this ad I wasn’t expecting any kind of response.</div>
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Know what doesn't get any fresher, Cape Town Fish Market? Blackface! <a href="http://t.co/wfYRzufBNQ">http://t.co/wfYRzufBNQ</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/sa_poptart">@sa_poptart</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/digitalafrican">@digitalafrican</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/AfricasaCountry">@AfricasaCountry</a><br />
— Mvelase (@MvelaseP) <a href="https://twitter.com/MvelaseP/statuses/352471611087138817">July 3, 2013</a></blockquote>
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But Cape Town Fish Market saw fit to reach out to me.</div>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/MvelaseP">@MvelaseP</a> Do you mind sending your contact details to alize@ctfm.co.za?<br />
— CapeTownFishMarket (@ctfmsa) <a href="https://twitter.com/ctfmsa/statuses/352710922260852736">July 4, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Curious, I mailed them and received the following response from Cape Town Fish Market’s Marketing Department.</div>
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<i>Dear Mvelase</i><br />
<i>Thank you so much for getting back to us!</i><br />
<i>We at Cape Town Fish Market would like to clarify the rationale behind our latest “Fresh” advertising campaign</i></blockquote>
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<i>There is considerable ambiguity in South Africa as to the precise meaning of fresh fish, so we wanted to make it clear that we believe that you cannot call something fresh if it’s been frozen beforehand</i></blockquote>
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<i>We wanted to educate customers about this in a fun and entertaining way by using the inverted commas device. This is a universal communication tool to indicate that what is being said is a distortion of the actual truth. It is left to the viewer’s imagination to determine what the distortion actually is.</i></blockquote>
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<i>We deliberately decided that our spokesman in the advert would play multiple characters – including an African dictator, a German doctor, an English plastic surgeon, a street walker and a nerd. This was done in order to amplify the humour and to make it obvious that we are parodying each scene.</i></blockquote>
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<i>We would like to apologize to anyone who may be offended by any of the characters portrayed in the advert and would like to make it clear that it is humour, rather than prejudice, that is intended.</i></blockquote>
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When in these contexts I read or hear something like that pearl of a closing line “...it is humour, rather than prejudice, that is intended,” I want to scream. Literally scream “YOUR HUMOUR IS PREJUDICE!” But because I’m getting really tired of harping on and on about this same subject I now normally just ignore these moments and add the speaker to my ever-growing list of “Idiots I’ve Met.”</div>
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Though I really ought to know better by now, in this situation I was shocked that having being made aware (by a number of people judging by the number of people who received the exact same tweet as me) that their ad was offensive, this major corporate, that probably like all corporates wants my, other black people, and other sensible minded people’s money thought a statement defending blackface was an awesome idea. </div>
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Apartheid fell more than two decades ago. We’ve been a democratic nation for almost two decades, but that email from Cape Town Fish Market was an unnecessary reality slap in the face that truly, <i>yinde lendlela.</i> </div>
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Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-46459513770856957442013-02-10T20:16:00.001+02:002013-02-10T21:17:07.485+02:00I promote the rape of my grandmother, my mother, my sisters, and my one-day daughter<br />
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I hold <a href="http://londonfeministnetwork.org.uk/home/patriarchy" target="_blank">attitudes </a>which promote the rape of my grandmother, my mother, my sisters, and my one-day daughter.</div>
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Every time whenever I hear of a rape, I think: “I wonder what time it was,” I tell somebody it’s okay to rape my grandmother if she’s out late at night. </div>
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Every time whenever I hear of a rape, I think: “I wonder where she was,” I tell somebody it was okay to rape my mother if she’s in the wrong place.</div>
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Every time whenever I hear of a rape, I think:” I wonder who she was with,” I tell somebody it’s okay to rape my sister if she’s with you.</div>
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Every time whenever I hear of a rape, I think, “I wonder what she was wearing,” I tell somebody it’s okay to rape my one-day daughter because she was wearing the wrong outfit.</div>
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I love my grandmother, my mother, my sister, and I will love my daughter. I don’t want them to be raped. </div>
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The facts don’t care about my love.<br />
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My grandmother, my mother, my sisters, and my one day daughter live in a country where their being raped is not just possible, but likely. </div>
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They live in a country where <a href="http://www.citypress.co.za/columnists/real-men-do-rape/" target="_blank">real men</a> rape because they feel they have a right to women’s bodies.</div>
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They live in a country where one of the most respected and progressive minds can not only imply that <a href="http://www.citypress.co.za/columnists/editors-note-words-fail-us/" target="_blank">a woman’s rape is her family’s fault</a>, but also <a href="https://twitter.com/ferialhaffajee/status/300601130264694785" target="_blank">defend </a>that implication when called out on it.</div>
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They live in a country which teaches its boys that they are deserving of anything they want, and its girls that it’s their responsibility that boys do not take from them what they don’t want to give.</div>
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They live in a country which I was raised to think that way; a way which promotes their rape.</div>
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They live in a country which killed <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Im-tired-and-sore-Anenes-last-words-20130208" target="_blank">Anene Booysens</a>. </div>
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I’m scared for my grandmother, my mother, my sisters, and my one-day daughter.</div>
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I’m scared for my country.</div>
Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-92174264848643942332011-11-23T11:30:00.001+02:002011-11-23T12:06:39.360+02:00Nando's pisses me off<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqXmdwbteOVI9OzzGiYBPyqinkE5goAvyg_VhU5fFlfGUif31CHkxnMErLe0h5fozeeDm7JTT7eOFcPNC7JP5QNK3ezk8ZPQOkKB38zgxZcemvuN2QzC10IV9X13hZ6tGwHlqmomWvfdF/s1600/shot_1321959269929.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqXmdwbteOVI9OzzGiYBPyqinkE5goAvyg_VhU5fFlfGUif31CHkxnMErLe0h5fozeeDm7JTT7eOFcPNC7JP5QNK3ezk8ZPQOkKB38zgxZcemvuN2QzC10IV9X13hZ6tGwHlqmomWvfdF/s200/shot_1321959269929.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zackie Achmat lowering the flags outside Parliament </td></tr>
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Amidst all the secrecy bill excitement and despair (mainly despair), an "enterprising" group of ad execs sat down and thought, "Now how can our brand, Nando's, gain some traction" off of this?".<br />
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I may be a lefty-liberal with a deep and enduring love of socialism, but my strong pragmatic streak leaves me actually being a supporter of capitalism. So that, in and of itself, would not bother me.<br />
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Sitting at my (current) day-job, Memeburn, I saw the outcome of that meeting of brand execs, Nandos' latest viral ad campaign. As we do, at Memeburn, I started writing a news article about it's release, generally about 300 words top. When I saw I'd reached 500 words and the terms "cheaps, crass and opportunistic" had been used to describe it, I realised there <i>may </i>be a slight issue.<br />
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Here's the article, me "flaming" Nando's, as a Twitter friend put it.<br />
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"<a href="http://memeburn.com/2011/11/nandos-unleashes-anti-secrecy-bill-blacktuesday-campaign/" target="_blank">Nando's unleashes anti-secrecy bill #BlackTuesday campaign</a>"<br />
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<i>Image taken by yours truly at the Right2Know protest outside parliament, the day the bill took its<a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Its-not-over-Zille-warns-on-info-bill-20111122" target="_blank"> first step to becoming law after being approved by parliament</a>.</i>Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-90987479834735986752011-09-01T17:57:00.000+02:002011-09-01T17:57:09.840+02:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"></span><br />
I wrote a post for the Mail & Guardian's ThoughtLeader blog.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaqDUvgpS1sOUcGlqsupeYB7tAyNA9fwL5IFfDCkcBhOBrXFKiyPMmLy2hGWYpR5ZysnQsSEmZHcD2tWTPMNd-eNkxK6StzUldQsXgZVJCvBQ1T1F25icADeHThHkmFXUjTXRL5cozVfxA/s1600/slutwalk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaqDUvgpS1sOUcGlqsupeYB7tAyNA9fwL5IFfDCkcBhOBrXFKiyPMmLy2hGWYpR5ZysnQsSEmZHcD2tWTPMNd-eNkxK6StzUldQsXgZVJCvBQ1T1F25icADeHThHkmFXUjTXRL5cozVfxA/s200/slutwalk.jpg" width="115" /></a></div>
When Canadian police officer Michael Sanguinetti said “don’t dress like a slut”, he’d made a huge mistake. In fact he’d touched that rock the women who’d made their way up to the Union Buildings in 1956 had warned against.<br />
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Sanguinetti’s words, uttered a few months ago when giving university students safety tips, found me waking up this past Saturday morning to take part in the Cape Town leg of a global movement known as “Slutwalk”, a hot potato of a name I’ll soon get to.<br />
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The aims of Slutwalk are … this is where the issues arise.<br />
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Click <a href="http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/readerblog/2011/08/22/an-afternoon-stroll-with-your-neighbourhood-sluts/">here</a> to read the rest.<br />
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Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-14742634646829286682011-03-31T19:00:00.012+02:002011-03-31T19:33:34.241+02:00DA2.0: The DA I Wished For<a href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5095/5534359414_fe8ce13263.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 354px; height: 500px;" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5095/5534359414_fe8ce13263.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><span lang="EN-ZA">25 June 1955, the Kliptown Conference was convened, from which the cornerstone of our constitution, The Freedom Charter, was debated and promulgated. Fast-forward some 56yrs, and it looks like yet again Kliptown will take another page in South Africa’s history books as the DA ostensibly launched their election manifesto for this year’s municipal elections. However, what happened there was far more than that. </span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">Last Saturday, the DA unveiled itself as an entirely new party. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">It was most certainly no longer the party of the much maligned 1999 “Fight Back,” campaign or the 2009 “Stop Zuma” drive; a party which had to rebut robust attacks from the ANC and press of being a “white,” and “negative,” party; essentially, a purely opposition party. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">In it’s place what took the stage was a party clearly seeking to not be merely<span style=""> </span>relegated to the seats of the opposition, a party hungry to win, and win as much as they can. To quote their slogan a party which “delivers for all.” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">As impressed as I was, since Saturday I’ve been trying to understand the DA’s electoral strategy of focusing on service delivery with regards to capturing that undeniably integral black vote. For the black middle class, so-called Black Diamonds, it was obvious. The DA fairly believes that by highlighting what they have done in Cape Town – brought some sense and order to the city – they will capture that vote. However, I didn’t understand how they thought that would lead them to electoral success as the black middle class is not the majority of black South Africans, it is the black working class, and they, more than black South Africans as a whole, are the key to any meaningful electoral gain.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">After countless hours listening to their speeches and analysis of the speeches; reading their documents, and analysis of those documents, following the DA twitterati on Twitter, it’s ironic then that all it took was for their 30sec ad spot, with a sweet Gogo telling how the DA has delivered for her, to make sense to me. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">With that ad, what I saw was that the DA, could also gain success using this service delivery angle. The open toilet saga of course did nothing to dispel the prevailing image of the DA as a party concerned with dealing primarily with the concerns of their electorate, the suburbs. The truth is the DA has, and does also focus on delivering service and bettering the life of South Africa’s poor.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">Everyone knows the phrase, “all politics is local,” and taken to it’s most extreme this can mean “am I fed? am I clothed? Do I have a roof over my head?” If the DA can prove that they can and deliver all these things, it wouldn’t be insane to believe the angry, dissatisfied at service delivery failure voter would turn to the DA.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">Many times I’ve written it and said it; service delivery protests are a sign that our democracy is failing and not because of the ANC’s failure to deliver, but because the opposition – and by opposition I mean DA – does not speak to the needs of the average voter – and by average voter I mean black working class voter. Clearly though, with this campaign, they’re clearly trying to do that, and for that I applaud them.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style=""> </span>But of course, there’s a ‘but.’</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">I’ve voted twice, ID in 2006 & COPE in 2009. Though at the time when asked, I would sidestep the question, I’ve never for a moment even considered voting for the DA. To put it bluntly, I believed that the DA was a party that sought to cater to the minority and had no interest in my interests, and with their actions to me reaffirming that, nothing they said would dissuade me of that.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">It was only last month I wrote to a friend on Twitter, Zama, as we discussed the DA</span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"> </span><span style="" lang="EN-GB">saying, “that the DA has failed to speak to my aspirations is a failure on their part, not mine.” As we lamented how “disappointed” we were in the ANC, Zama summed up how I felt when she said she’d rather not vote, than vote for the DA. She again perfectly captured how I felt when she said, “Ultimately a voter is a customer paying through their taxes…We choose a product that speaks to our needs.” I can’t speak for Zama, but personally looking over those tweets after Saturday, I didn’t feel that they applied to this new DA. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">It then of course stands to reason to wonder; if as a “disappointed” supporter of the ANC’s agenda, faced with a DA that is no longer “a party purely for the minority” could I, or would I vote for them? </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">No.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">It’s not because I believe the DA is a “white party,” which since Saturday more than ever it clearly is not. However, the reason I still wouldn’t vote for the DA is because when everything is boiled down I fundamentally disagree with their core policies.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Yes, I want good governance, and am as angry as any other South African when every two seconds I hear of yet another example of ANC wastefulness, corruption & cronyism. However, I also don’t feel that the DA, with it’s emphasis on potholes, rubbish collection and the like speaks to my aspirations. To be fair, these being local elections, potholes, rubbish collection and the sorts are the issues that are being dealt with.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">However, the DA has given us <i style="">“The Cape Town Story.”</i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">In the grandiose manner of all political manifestos, it states, (the story) began on the 1<sup>st</sup> of March 2006, a day “future generations will recognise” as being a “watershed” for South Africa,<span style=""> </span>as it was “</span><span lang="EN-ZA">the first time since 1994, citizens removed an incumbent political party through the ballot box.” Moreover, in this document is found the essence of the DA: “The Open Opportunity Society for All.” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">This vision, or philosophical orientation as the DA refers to is based on the idea that South Africans are “free and equal in rights,” that “each has the opportunity to go as far as their talents will take them,” a ours is a society “in which every South African has the space to be whatever they wish to be.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">That, I disagree with fundamentally. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">It’d be easy to say that this philosophical orientation directly opposes what Lindiwe Mazibuko who <a href="http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2011-03-13-black-consciousness-the-debate-starts">said</a>, “</span><span style="" lang="EN-GB">we live in a decidedly unequal society,” but giving the DA allowance for electioneering grandstanding it is clear Mazibuko was espousing the DA’s view. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Even though the “philosophical orientation” of the DA does have the bluster of electioneering I’d argue that it speaks directly to their average existing voters whom I find do believe that to be the South African reality, however that is another matter for another day. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">In essence, I believe the DA does recognise that South Africa is not an equal society but as Mazibuko said “we differ from the ANC on the method of addressing these imbalances.” </span><span lang="EN-ZA">Gareth Van Onselen, national head of the DA’s 2011 election communication, said as much to me in a discussion I had with him on Twitter. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">However, as Van Onselen put it – to use a term <i style="">The Cape Town Story</i>, prefers when referring to ANC government but one Van Onselen didn’t – the current “regime’s” policy of democratic representivity is racist, not because it’s bigoted, but because it is “legislated discrimination.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Van Onselen was also kind enough to provide me with a document on the DA’s policy on transformation and it reinforced what I believed. Though there may be questions and doubts I have about the policy itself, they do have one, and do recognise inequality is a problem in South Africa. <span style=""></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">In my, and the opinion of others far smarter and more well read than I am, the structural inequalities in South Africa as a result of Apartheid are South Africa’s most pressing concern. As Prof. Sampie Terreblanche in his seminal, <i style="">“A History of Inequality In South Africa,”</i> concluded; real redress in South Africa has not occurred in South Africa nor will it with our current economic system; a system that came about from our negotiated settlement, the elite compromise, Professor Terreblanche terms it, a compromise that ceded political power to the black majority but left real economic power in the hands of white South Africa.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">I agree with Prof. Terreblanche and believe our post-1994 economic system makes real redress impossible, both the DA and ANC recognise we need it. However, they have very different policies on how to get there. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">Beyond that though, I question just how serious of an issue the DA sees it as.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">If the Cape Town Story is to be seen as “</span><span style="" lang="EN-GB">a template for a truly free South Africa,” as its subtitle says, why is there no section on transformation? </span><span lang="EN-ZA">W</span><span style="" lang="EN-GB">hy is it the only time that transformation is</span><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><span lang="EN-ZA">mentioned is in a quote from Helen Zille’s Budget Speech of 2008, where she disparaged transformation and then reframed it to mean providing, “</span><span style="" lang="EN-GB">excellent basic services to all?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">Just as I cannot like another lamb to the slaughter vote for the ANC even though I know they are in no way truly committed to dealing with cronyism, the root cause of why their policies do not work, I also cannot vote for the DA, a party which does not recognise the need for transformation to be South Africa’s primary concern. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA">It may feel like it, but it wasn’t too long ago when Moeletsi Mbeki said South Africa’s Tunisia Day would come in 2020. In a <a href="http://mvelasep.blogspot.com/2011/02/tunisia-crystal-ball-for-south-africa.html">blog</a> I wrote on that topic, in support of that, argued that South Africa could face a Tunisia Day if people do not feel that they have a credible opposition to vote for, a not so subtle swipe at the DA.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">Electorally, as a strategy, I feel that the DA is on the right track. They are reaching out beyond the dappled sunshine leafy enclaves of South Africa’s suburbs into the townships of South Africa and that can only be good for democracy. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">I wish I could say that I tweeted this, but there were two tweets, both sent as the DA2.0, the DA that I believe to be the DA I’d always been dreaming of was launched. One was from Gus Silber who wrote:<br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcoT4J1bVrWHWYuYZLHJbfDPKGmXSb1RwhLmXZMF_rEoCOWULGthXGaT_fS4_p3BJJxntX9-_26ya3VvRl-8RQosOkzy646uxoC89uo3oMv92G6DO0Tq7RwosAbD3NFc4NIyjm91mRXpFB/s1600/gussilber.bmp"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 340px; height: 170px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcoT4J1bVrWHWYuYZLHJbfDPKGmXSb1RwhLmXZMF_rEoCOWULGthXGaT_fS4_p3BJJxntX9-_26ya3VvRl-8RQosOkzy646uxoC89uo3oMv92G6DO0Tq7RwosAbD3NFc4NIyjm91mRXpFB/s320/gussilber.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590294777062628658" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtPRcB20kvn-RmfyT7nfkUvyIeOaSC5fNFKRTHCsGNFJdhUCa1rKQbaUqHn0Nh5co832pWC3lweGCR5kofCb0XEiL3R29JKkIge8BpYhBelAlLEkaIkPQ_SdDBsqhSDeLH6JaPraB4tWsp/s1600/liAMLYNCH.bmp"></a><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">Though Sipho Hlongwane fairly questioned the DA’s use of struggle language, saying they “<a href="http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2011-03-28-the-da-and-struggle-language-mix-like-oil-and-water">mixed like oil and water</a>,” the launch as a whole recast the DA as a whole new party.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">The second tweet was one at the time I felt, though funny, was somewhat cynical. In reply to my asking if it was just me who felt that the launch was the DA turning a corner, Liam Lynch said:</span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BsW32YMCSTiCCtxB_Fhr0WnHlnCYz6Ze2EdwoWZBTUfLtUmW7pe3GYTTsCu-JnFGA8CE6729snA9UUe7BQK9p16ZMK-PoJU2D8vnwRRvv9ZFZugHK-GghkfemJJMJI2JRyIbhyphenhyphen3QfbOG/s1600/liAMLYNCH.bmp"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 347px; height: 131px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BsW32YMCSTiCCtxB_Fhr0WnHlnCYz6Ze2EdwoWZBTUfLtUmW7pe3GYTTsCu-JnFGA8CE6729snA9UUe7BQK9p16ZMK-PoJU2D8vnwRRvv9ZFZugHK-GghkfemJJMJI2JRyIbhyphenhyphen3QfbOG/s320/liAMLYNCH.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590294693064042594" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtPRcB20kvn-RmfyT7nfkUvyIeOaSC5fNFKRTHCsGNFJdhUCa1rKQbaUqHn0Nh5co832pWC3lweGCR5kofCb0XEiL3R29JKkIge8BpYhBelAlLEkaIkPQ_SdDBsqhSDeLH6JaPraB4tWsp/s1600/liAMLYNCH.bmp"></a><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">It’s sad to say, but that to me does sum up DA 2.0. It looks all shiny and new, but underneath that veneer, it’s the same old party that it always was.</span></p>Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-3435034859255509082011-03-22T18:05:00.007+02:002011-03-22T18:30:06.225+02:00The War On Libya & The Responsibility To Protect<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Ltxdq50uZ8CHhyB7EA4Yooz7Z1c-XG3WPD9USaf1ZVCp67DeM7UfOyqNeqP2o0iGb8rzFnFC5UG3rfm6JayRtvCS44Zn6XB6GXcalXsrfabymq3egt18Qj70BjDw4UgIkOkRr6pg_KaV/s1600/5543621984_c091265a58_o.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Ltxdq50uZ8CHhyB7EA4Yooz7Z1c-XG3WPD9USaf1ZVCp67DeM7UfOyqNeqP2o0iGb8rzFnFC5UG3rfm6JayRtvCS44Zn6XB6GXcalXsrfabymq3egt18Qj70BjDw4UgIkOkRr6pg_KaV/s320/5543621984_c091265a58_o.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586938769350705282" border="0" /></a><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">The moment you realise that you’re agreeing with those who’ve angered you to a point where spittle forms at the corners of your mouth as you’ve disparaged them as ‘c</span><span lang="EN-ZA">r</span><span lang="EN-ZA">azy,’ and ‘imbeciles,’ is disquieting to say the least.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">As the war drums started ringing their ominous tattoo in the corridors of the</span><span lang="EN-ZA"> United Nations last </span><span lang="EN-ZA">week, it was with a great sense of confusion I watched as everyone I always agree with commentators, friends & Twitterati alike, cheered for a No-Fly Zone to be instituted over Libya. To put it plainly, as the Left started sounding like the Neo-Con war-mongering right. And when those I most vehemently disagree with started to express the opinion I held, that military intervention in Libya is a bad idea, well then I was truly disturbed.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">Of course, it didn’t take much scratching beneath the surface to see that any agreement I had with the likes of the ANCYL was nothin</span><span lang="EN-ZA">g but superficial, I do not believe that the “</span><span style="" lang="EN-GB">imposition of a No-Fly-Zone in Libya is meant to impose the West's takeover of Libya, because of its Oil endowments.” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">In fact, to say – which I must admit I did a lot of on Twitter thanks to the brutality of 140characters – that I am against the military incursion in Libya, is misrepresentation of my opinion. Anyone who cast my lot with those who felt that foreign intervention in any form was wrong could hardly be blamed after the number of times I tweeted opinions similar to th</span><span style="" lang="EN-GB">at. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">In fact, for those holding that opinion, there is centuries of precedent. Since the advent of the nation-state, a states sovereignty being supreme has been a central notion in international relations, with the United Nations even entrenching that notion in their charter. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Of course all are entitled to their opinions, and as such I’d say, if not outright immoral, that position is at least amoral. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Again, that’s not a new idea. In 1948, two years later, recognising this, the United Nations espoused the first condition under which a state’s sovereignty could be impinged upon with it’s <a href="http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/cppcg/cppcg.html">Genocide</a> Convention.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Of course, what Gaddafi has done and continues to do despite his second declaration of a ceasefire in Libya is not genocide. Despite this, the vicious & brutal repression of a people seeking freedom from under the thumb of a dictator with a suspect handle of his mental faculties is near on just as odious. However, I still have my objections, or to be more precise, concerns.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">My concerns with the Libya intervention are entirely </span><span style="" lang="EN-GB">on a point of principle; namely that military interventions on the grounds of humanitarian intervention though a principle fully and properly developed, is not applied equally. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">In 2000, the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) was founded and in 2001 released a <a href="http://www.iciss-ciise.gc.ca/pdf/Commission-Report.pdf">report</a> with the paradigm-shifting notion that the issue of humanitarian intervention should not be framed as a question of a ‘right to intervene,’ but rather as a ‘responsibility to protect.’ </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The UN took notice</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJH_p9KMIzZdiFk55piT4PaoEa8xB1ew8_E01teqTE_5chfvJZ6P41-wgT_Q2-xMGdARri5ESJmyK2i9PRY-L1iAT5bCRTH04c-wROpBuNhl6yS7gwISdVXj9npGdbkan1fFzd5w1pY5bK/s1600/obama.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 281px; height: 188px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJH_p9KMIzZdiFk55piT4PaoEa8xB1ew8_E01teqTE_5chfvJZ6P41-wgT_Q2-xMGdARri5ESJmyK2i9PRY-L1iAT5bCRTH04c-wROpBuNhl6yS7gwISdVXj9npGdbkan1fFzd5w1pY5bK/s320/obama.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586941078473390306" border="0" /></a><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> of ICISS’s report with an outcomes document which stated nations had a responsibility to protect their nations from “genocide, war crimes, ethic cleansing and wars against humanity” and by failing to do so made it the responsibility of the international community to do so. This report was ratified by all member states of the UN. However, the point where the problem became apparent was that this ratification was not legally binding. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">In <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2011/mar/21/politics-live-blog?mobile-redirect=false">yesterday’s debate</a> on Libya before the House of Commons, David Cameron called the decision of the international community to intervene in Libya a “breakthrough” and set a “precedent” in that it was the first time the UN had intervened in a nation based on the responsibility to protect. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">If only this were true. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">When asked if the international community is not intervening in Yemen, why should they in Libya, Cameron replied that “just because you cannot take action everywhere that does not mean you should not act where you can,” going so far as to quote Sadie Smith when she characterised that as the “why should I tidy my bedroom when the world’s such a mess theory of foreign policy.” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Cameron is right, failure to act in Yemen – and it is a failure – does not preclude action in Libya. However, his reply ignored the elephant in the room. It’s not so much a question of if they can intervene in Yemen – or Cote d’Ivoire and Bahrain for that matter – but a matter of do they want to? For as long as the ICISS’s report is not legally binding, guiding the United Nations where and when they have a responsibility to protect, the ‘why,’ question will continue to dog this and any other action the United Nations decides to take based on a responsibility to protect. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">I may not agree that “war is a continuation of diplomacy,” but I am not anti-war. At times war has it’s place and is needed, and as Niall Ferguson wrote, “Make no mistake. Whatever the wording of the United Nations Security Council resolution, the United States (and the other allies) is at war with the Libyan government.” Though I agree that this is a necessary and just war, I am amongst the many who have been trying to answer the ‘why’ question, not at all believing that it’s out of an altruistic wish to protect the citizens of Libya. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">If we believe that Human Rights are universal to all people, regardless of borders, we cannot deny that the international community has a responsibility to protect in certain instances and this is one. I wish I could fully support the action in Libya, to be frank, Gaddafi is an evil madman and I desperately want to. However, the only way all questions regarding what the ‘true motives’ behind this and other humanitarian interventions will be ended is if the application of a responsibility to protect is uniform, and that will only happen once the ICISS recommendations are made legally binding.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">__________</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">For an in depth look at Humanitarian Intervention, ICISS and it’s report I recommend this Council of Foreign Relations paper:<a href="http://www.cfr.org/human-rights/dilemma-humanitarian-intervention/p16524"> <span style="font-style: italic;">“The Dilemma of Humanitarian Intervention.”</span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The images for this post are of the USS Stout, launching a Tomahawk Missile from the Mediterranean on the 19<sup>th</sup> of March and Obama receiving a secure briefing on the situation in Libya in Rio De Janeiro on the </span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" lang="EN-GB">20<sup>th</sup>.</span><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><sup></sup> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> They're taken from AFRICOM’s <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/africom/with/5547056518/">flickr photostream</a> which I'd also reccomend. </span></p> <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span>Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-24998640256488203322011-02-24T10:19:00.006+02:002011-09-30T15:04:31.041+02:00Tunisia: The Crystal Ball for South Africa?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi77NSHb2POvDVRYawnwAtIkuRfDoo9H0NPsxfh6EJ51Kh9KHwk00N3FhDxDJlseZsMafNl7b8604ZjCqFn3J0N8ouIOhswTwdabpnkI_iWD5URBV3EWSsUigEb9t9GgMxh_Us1yY95E7di/s1600/south-africa-protest-2009-10-13-12-10-29.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577171597043011394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi77NSHb2POvDVRYawnwAtIkuRfDoo9H0NPsxfh6EJ51Kh9KHwk00N3FhDxDJlseZsMafNl7b8604ZjCqFn3J0N8ouIOhswTwdabpnkI_iWD5URBV3EWSsUigEb9t9GgMxh_Us1yY95E7di/s200/south-africa-protest-2009-10-13-12-10-29.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 136px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
An article arguing what a government is doing is wrong, and stating what it should be doing is in no way groundbreaking. However, this <a href="http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=133902">one</a>, by the other Mbeki, Moeletsi, brought the wrath of the ANC down upon him. To paraphrase a favourite line, he touched the ANC on its studio when he wrote, “I can predict when SA’s "Tunisia Day" will arrive.”<br />
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However, even that idea, that South Africa will one day face a Tunisia or Egypt style uprising, is only a glib update of that classic rejoinder: "South Africa will be Zimbabwe." To quote the ANCYL on Mbeki & his article in their reaction, I’d merely dismissed such comparisons as a “prophecy of doom,” “very pessimistic,” & “consistently negative.” Whilst those descriptions I used to ascribe to those who made these arguments, with Moeletsi I can’t.<br />
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Be it, the state largely being able to foster a fair level of economic growth but unemployment remaining an endemic problem, or there being <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1102/20/fzgps.01.html">‘youth bulges’</a> in all three cases, there are far too many parallels between the situations in Tunisia, Egypt & South Africa to dismiss the comparisons. However, the one similarity South Africans would most probably recognise more than any of the others, is how both in Tunisia & Egypt you had a symbiotic and at times corrupt relationship between business and government which also excluded the population at large.<br />
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It goes without saying that the <a href="http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=134436">ANC was not happy </a>with Mbeki’s article, and the <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/anc-yl-media/msg/cac80baabebe8bc9?pli=1">Youth League</a> even less so.<br />
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Whilst Sipho Hlongwane , in <a href="http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2011-02-20-our-burning-man-revolution-will-be-in-the-ballot-box">his column on this topic</a>, found the ANCYL’s reply to be besides the point, I can’t agree, if anything I found it to be an amplification of the ANC’s statement. Amazingly (after the usual bluster and ad hominem attacks) the ANCYL was able to create fair defence to Mbeki’s argument which was:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
The Tunisia-like protests will not happen in South Africa, because the ANC government has made profound progress in placing institutions, structures and virtues of democracy, which allow the people of South Africa to freely and fairly choose public representatives after every five years. Besides entrenched democracy in South Africa, the ANC government is at the forefront of the attack in the battle against poverty, unemployment and starvation. </blockquote>
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One cannot deny “the ANC government has made profound progress in placing institutions, structures and virtues of democracy,” & that it, “is at the forefront of the attack in the battle against poverty, unemployment and starvation.”<br />
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However, there is one point, which I’d say, were it true, would be the most important fact against any argument that there’re correlations between South Africa, Tunisia: “entrenched democracy in South Africa”.<br />
<br />
Though the ANCYL's argument in reply to Mbeki was fair, it wasn’t correct, as that point, "entrenched democracy in South Africa" was incorrect.<br />
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If one takes that when the ANCYL say “entrenched democracy,” they mean democracy is accepted within our nation, you’re looking at the concept of a “consolidated democracy;” a concept used essentially to gauge the quality of a democracy.<br />
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I used to believe that South Africa was well on the road to being a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_consolidation">consolidated democracy</a>. Amongst fulfilling the other factors, I thought for SA, democracy was “the only game in town,” a necessary factor of a consolidated democracy. I believed we were only missing the final factor, "a peaceful transfer of power from one party to <img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577171699021813858" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjitA9omFzrPcyBatHa6JJU95-8PCcW2OETA4Po1aA6vVq4FPaltR4KLAGW5S39wTE6G3sxf4BFzD4HkYhyVc7BOjfXGr5-X8U-pkV2s9K0DiePX8_rkJvpJ0c0yUHUwc-04Z1dMP9FTKhd/s200/tunisia.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 148px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 200px;" />another after electoral defeat," however I don’t think that any longer.<br />
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In South Africa, a basic tenet of a consolidated democracy, that democracy be the "only game in town," is not satisfied.<br />
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When looking at the violent nature of the ongoing service delivery protests or strikes public sector or otherwise, how can we believe that people feel and accept that their grievances are best articulated through democratic channels.<br />
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As such, if the ANC and the ANCYL, or Hlongwane for that matter, feel that our being a democracy inoculates us from Tunisa-style revolts then there is a problem. Being a democracy – which we are – is not enough to spare us a Tunisia situation at some point in South Africa’s future.<br />
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When looking for a point when South Africans would – and it will happen – decide they’re no longer happy with the ANC, I’d always thought of a date far off into the future. Mbeki makes a case for 2020, but the question of when it happens is irrelevant; what we have to ask is "when it happens will it be through the ballot or violently?".<br />
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Nevertheless, to use Moeletsi Mbeki’s 2020 argument, should the day come “that the ANC government will have to cut back on social grants, which it uses to placate the black poor,”; I can’t agree with Sipho’s reply that “our burning man revolution will be at the ballot box,” for Sipho is incorrect in finding proof from the peaceful transition from ANC to DA government in the Western Cape that South Africa has proven itself to be able to handle transfers of power.<br />
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In the 2020 scenario, it’d be the nation as a whole where a transfer of power would have to occur & what we have seen in places like Khutsong or Thembisa, is that South Africans cannot be depended upon to express their dissatisfaction on the ballot.<br />
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More so, as history has shown, movements are catching. If the self-immolation of one man, Mohamed Bouazizi, can spark the fire that topples a regime, how can we then deny that an instance of violent protest, in the simmering anger of the 2020 scenario, it wouldn’t spread across the country, as happened in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/world/africa/07protests.html?pagewanted=all">2009</a>?<br />
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If America, 235 years old, to this day still strives for a “More Perfect Union,” how can we, only 16yrs old or 26 years old in 2020, feel that we are safe?<br />
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The quest of entrenching democracy & democratic ideals within us as a nation is clearly not done. We all – government, opposition parties, civil society, the population as a whole – still have a lot to do in this regard or one day we won’t be watching a popular uprising in some distant land on Al-Jazeera, we’ll be witnessing it in the streets & public squares of our own country.</div>
Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-85549507533927246652011-02-01T11:28:00.003+02:002011-02-01T11:34:26.117+02:00The ‘Bling’ Of South Africa<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV4dMyUQIbzkza1YJZmIlXje8gBJmdtBlFlnGpowVNTGWithXsvnTErce10RvDw6qvAEs4L3HON_-4NhUQfYxtvQae4pwq1r1VHddjbKL0xyLWLDNbWLiW9h9awtfgRBndlyZ_7PnXxca4/s1600/kenny_sushi_1648555b.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 199px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV4dMyUQIbzkza1YJZmIlXje8gBJmdtBlFlnGpowVNTGWithXsvnTErce10RvDw6qvAEs4L3HON_-4NhUQfYxtvQae4pwq1r1VHddjbKL0xyLWLDNbWLiW9h9awtfgRBndlyZ_7PnXxca4/s320/kenny_sushi_1648555b.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568651635658621858" /></a><br />This was a blog I wrote at the time of Khanyi Mbau’s interview with Debora Patta, but never posted. With this debate, again, coming to the fore after the publication of this picture on the front page of <span style="font-style:italic;">The Times</span> yesterday, I figured now is as good a time as ever to post it. <br /><br />__________________________________________________<br /><br /><br />I can’t think of a single interview of Khanyi Mbau’s that doesn’t immediately spark off a slew of controversy and her recent turn with Debora Patta on 3rd Degree was no different. There more quotes there to achieve exactly what it was the indefatigable Ms Mbau wanted; to get her those headlines - for those who missed it, “blue cheese on a croissant,” is the 21st South African answer to Marie Antoinette’s cake. <br /><br />Whilst of course, the interview was interesting in and of itself just because Khanyi Mbau, as much as it pains me to admit it, is fascinating as a character, if not so much as a person, there was a far deeper undertone to the interview. As 3rd Degree framed it, the programme was a look at the ‘bling lifestyle,’ of some of the South African elite. Though this is nothing new to the gossip pages, it burst into the wider public psyche after the Kenny Kunene’s equally famous and infamous 40th birthday party, particularly after Zwelinzima Vavi’s scathing attack on it and Kenny’s just as scathing open letter to Vavi.<br /><br />From this a vociferous, yet important debate on where we, as a culture are going, and who we are erupted. To many, as shown by Vavi and his many supporters, Kenny, Khanyi and their ilk are a living, breathing, blinging representations of the pervesion of the South African democracy. Even I’m so tempted to say, that any sensible person would agree, amongst which I would number myself. However, I can’t.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Who Are We</span><br />The government oft repeats, these are foreign and alien notions to South Africa and yes; a South Africa where a small minority live a life of wealth and overt opulence, whilst the far larger majority lived a life of squalid poverty is not the status quo our constitution sought to engender. <br /> <br />However, the very system we chose to live by, the very system our constitution enshrines is a system in which the Khanyi’s and the Kenny’s flourish. However it may manifest, be it the football players and their WAGs of Europe or the starlets and rappers of Hollywood, where there is liberal democracy, our constitutional system, the ugliness of conspicuous consumption rears its head.<br /><br />For me the irony of the whole issue was best illustrated on Twitter whilst the show was airing and the majority of South African Twitter users were watching and tweeting about the show, an American asked me what the big fuss in South Africa was about. <br /><br />After I explained to him, his answer said it all, “Welcome to the United States.” <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Is It Because They’re Black?</span><br />Thankfully, as the first salvo in this debate was shot off by a black man we can somewhat dodge the South African version of Alice’s rabbit hole, the race debate and though I hate to mention it, I would be remiss not to. <br /><br />Why now, why when Kenny Kunene, a black man, is the one who is splurging his wealth about does the outcry arise? For years, both pre and post Apartheid, through the columns of Gwen Gill we were privy to the conspicuous consumption, often thinly veiled as charity functions, of white South Africans. One may do it ‘for charity,’ and the other may just do it, but be it Edith Venter or Khanyi Mbau, it’s all inconspicuously or not, conspicuous consumption.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Where Are The Parents?</span><br />Often these days where the Oprah’s and Dr Phil’s of this world explain our issues of why we are the way we are, we forget one simple thing, personal responsibility. Therefore, when Kenny, Khanyi and their supporters say, “Where are the parents, it’s not for us to be role models,” they are correct, but only to a degree.<br /><br />The power is of the media and popular culture is pervasive, this we all know. Thus regardless how well a parent may raise their child, unless they raise their child locked in away from anyone and everything, not all aspects of who that child becomes is up to them. It takes a village to raise a child; sadly with the power the media holds in 21st century living, try as we may, we can’t choose who the villagers are.<br /><br />When I was in university, I got heavily involved in a mentoring programme giving extra Maths and English classes to underprivileged kids. One day, talking to one of my kids, he pointed to my Puma backpack, my iPod and the clothes I was wearing. To me, these items didn’t mean anything, to Kenny Kunene even less, but to him, at 9yrs old, they represented an ideal of what he wanted to achieve, where to be one day in life.<br /><br />In South Africa, where poverty is something that we face daily; be it saying goodbye to your maid at the end of the day knowing that she has a long trek to make back home, whilst you sip on your chilled chardonnay, or passing spare change to the beggar out in the hot sun whilst fiddling with the air-conditioning of your car, we all ‘spit in the face of the poor,’ as Vavi said of Kenny’s birthday. Granted, it’s at varying degrees, but just by living your average middle class lifestyle, it’s what we do. Perhaps the plain reason why Kenny Kunene, Khanyi Mbau and the others of the ‘bling culture,’ offend and anger us so is because what they do is a reflection of who we are, a grossly magnified reflection of course, but a reflection nonetheless.Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-45164223430703508612011-01-28T10:57:00.002+02:002011-01-28T11:01:14.340+02:00Teko Modise: Your Friendly Neighbourhood DandyThat I know Teko Modise is a soccer player, given my feelings about that particular sport, is amazing, to put it mildly. Of course, the reason that I know who he is really has nothing to do with soccer, and more with the fact that when drunk during the World Cup, BFF3’s boyfriend would repeat his name ad nauseum. That I found this amusing says a lot about my state of inebriation during the World Cup too, but I’m pretty certain the whole country was like that. <br /><br />But to be honest, if you’d placed a bunch of South African soccer player in front of me and told me to pick out Teko Modise, I’d have probably picked out him.<br /><br /><a href="http://images.sundaytimes.co.za/5/26/0000052652.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 390px; height: 414px;" src="http://images.sundaytimes.co.za/5/26/0000052652.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Okay I know that’s Kaizer Motaung Jr, but look at him, how could I not know who he is & why would I not pick him? My eyes are in working order are they not?<br /><br />Either way, in more of the unprecedented, when I picked up my copy of The Times this morning, I immediately flipped it over to the Sports section. How could I not after the little picture of Teko they showed on the front page in THIS! <br /><br /><a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/multimedia/dynamic/01628/743595_655745_1628347b.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 200px;" src="http://www.timeslive.co.za/multimedia/dynamic/01628/743595_655745_1628347b.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />That outfit – and be not mistaken, it’s an outfit – defies belief. He looks like a Sandile Ndlovu osuka kwiilali zaseQoboqobo (from the villages of Qoboqobo) on his way to his matric dance, having picked out the best of the clothes Malume Thandekile got when he worked the mines of eGoli. <br />Having said that though, I this outfit is resplendent! Not that I’d wear it though. It breaks a basic rule of style – never wear more than one print – but by the name of her gloriousness Madonna it breaks it well. <br /><br />Suffice to say, I’ll never forget who Teko Modise is or what he looks like.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.snaparazzi.co.za/index.php?option=com_joomgallery&func=watermark&catid=263&id=4137&Itemid=53"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 366px; height: 550px;" src="http://www.snaparazzi.co.za/index.php?option=com_joomgallery&func=watermark&catid=263&id=4137&Itemid=53" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Though maybe Kenny would say, “BEYOTCH JACKED MY STEEZE!”Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-44696901128402058182011-01-26T19:46:00.002+02:002011-01-26T22:41:00.681+02:00Joel Osteen Is A BigotJoel Osteen is a very friendly looking, nice fellow. Hell I’m sure more than a few people would even say he’s good-looking, unlike him.<br /><br /> <a href="http://theislamicstandard.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/evil-pope.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 290px;" src="http://theislamicstandard.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/evil-pope.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Joel Osteen looks like the kind of guy you could sit and enjoy a buddy-buddy dinner with, perhaps even crack a beer with, unlike this guy.<br /> <br /><a href="http://damngoodcup.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/FredPhelps-vi.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 338px;" src="http://damngoodcup.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/FredPhelps-vi.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />But fact is, Joel Osteen is no different from either of them. Joel Osteen may smile, and sit their with Joel Osteen’s pretty little blonde wife and say, Joel Osteen doesn’t “bash” homosexuals, that Joel Osteen’s “not there to judge.” <br /><br />You know, “love the sinner, hate the sin.” <br /><br />That crap.<br /><br />I’m not picking on Joel Osteen for no reason. Joel Osteen sells Joel Osteen as someone different, someone nicer, someone more tolerant and many people – some of whom are people I know – have bought this bull. That more than anything is why Joel Osteen has pissed me off so much right now, because when you cut through the bollocks that Joel Osteen has been peddling in that affable Southern drawl, he’s no different from the rest of them.<br /><br />And you want to know another reason why Joel Osteen has pissed me right off? Joel Osteen has made me write this. <br /><br />Whereas so many other interviewers would’ve let Joel Osteen off and moved on to the next question after he mouthed off peaceable sounding platitudes, Piers Morgan didn’t. He actually did his job and forced an answer from him. And for that I have to say, well done Piers Morgan.<br /><br />You can watch the clip of Piers Morgan interviewing Joel Osteen & Mrs Joel Osteen on YouTube or watch the interview on CNN at 10pm tomorrow. In the interim, I’ll be hunched over a toilet-bowl hurling my dinner after paying Piers Morgan a compliment.<br /><br /><a href="http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/passtheremote/Piers-Morgan.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 300px;" src="http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/passtheremote/Piers-Morgan.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-64099300908401261152011-01-14T15:01:00.006+02:002011-01-14T15:11:22.072+02:00When ‘It’s Only A Joke’ Doesn’t Cut It<span lang="EN-ZA">Like most black South</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVQ1JnxhF9sU4Rn1zs014qGaRxOggXgGj76-KKcsu43hJ8BEkGuxCjdpU3W0kCgS_c3ufPiXKTxcRcJKQ6Zn6_QOhUmLrKbOnWHo1bXQUM1fpaRgiXcm4o9ghp0I5XVrb71psDR-x47owT/s1600/GoneMammy1.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 261px; height: 145px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVQ1JnxhF9sU4Rn1zs014qGaRxOggXgGj76-KKcsu43hJ8BEkGuxCjdpU3W0kCgS_c3ufPiXKTxcRcJKQ6Zn6_QOhUmLrKbOnWHo1bXQUM1fpaRgiXcm4o9ghp0I5XVrb71psDR-x47owT/s320/GoneMammy1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562027029976298930" border="0" /></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> Africans, what I know of advertising, is based primarily on Generations, through the goings on at New Horizons. Luckily for me though, I know a few people in advertising and know th</span><span lang="EN-ZA">at though they have a shocking lack of scruples, what with their using their intelligence and talen</span><span lang="EN-ZA">t to sell superfluous stuff to people, they’re not murderous & fornicating idiots in bad clothes. Well, come to think of it, the bad clothes still apply. Nevertheless, I’ve come to recognise that people in the ad game, more often than not, are incredibly funny and intelligent and that intelligence and humour comes across in razor sharp wit. </span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">After four hard years of drinking and partying I finally got to walk across the stage of UCT’s Jameson Hall and get doffed on the head by a man in a funny dress, something I could’ve easily achieved for far cheaper on</span><span lang="EN-ZA"> any given night in Cape Town’s Pink Strip, but either way it allows me to be vaguely intellectual about things I see, so let me have my say. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">However, at the same time, being someone who at times has had to explain down somebody climbing onto th</span><span lang="EN-ZA">eir high horse of moral indignation at a perceived slight because of a jo</span><span lang="EN-ZA">ke, I find myself in a strang</span><span lang="EN-ZA">e position. In writing this, I open myself to the very derisive glares and sneers that I myself give wh</span><span lang="EN-ZA">en I say, “it’s just a joke,” to those who just “don’t get it.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-style: italic;">1st For Woman</span>’s ad campaigns have always had their tongues firmly placed in cheek, essentially you could sum them up to a slogan learnt by all girls in primary school, which is hardly ever truly disproven, ‘boys are stupid.’ However, there new ads, advertising a new service, a helpline for customers aren’t in that vein, and in and of themselves aren’t offensive. Having said that though, there was certainly still something about two of these ads that got to me. I went back and forth on how to describe how I felt; offended was far too strong a word, so I finally settled on, ‘uncomfortable,’ a description that fittingly I’m uncomfortable with, as it’s neither here nor there really.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">In these ads, there are talki</span><span lang="EN-ZA">ng heads and the talking heads are black actors with a particular accent, the accent which the majority of black South Africans speak in, from maids to political leaders. I hate to delve into the world of ‘deconstructing & decoding,’ but that’s exactly where I’m headed. Failing to see any other place where the humour in the advertisements </span><span lang="EN-ZA">lay, it would seem that the ‘humour’ in the adverts lay in the accents. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">This is nothing ne</span><span lang="EN-ZA">w really, after providing us cellphone tools that we just could never live without such as the X-Ray Kit, for a m</span><span lang="EN-ZA">ere R50* companies like 35050 also gave us the, ‘Madaaaam! MADAAAM! Yoouur fooone is riiiinging,’ ringtone, just to name one example amongst many, for which the ‘humour’ was the accent.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">In and of themselves, beyond their banal quality, there’s nothing offensive in these attempts at humour. However, the subtext, that there’s something funny about the accent of black South Africans trying their utmost to wrap their tongues around a foreign language. An accent that is in no way in indicator of how educated or intelligent (two things which are not related) someone is, is where I have to say – and here I go again – I’m uncomfortable. </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQCgeF2bz-blwaKK9QuQBmwGExVwdfFDIUg9kWtfL3pyo4Caxw41vVU7EnNKxJDgShUvAG3winDYvDvCa9Ts4HNuonQHRPKPEkES88WGV1K0ZkfeQl7XXukdRQji92Yf1Pgvn16IyElllB/s1600/blackface.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 202px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQCgeF2bz-blwaKK9QuQBmwGExVwdfFDIUg9kWtfL3pyo4Caxw41vVU7EnNKxJDgShUvAG3winDYvDvCa9Ts4HNuonQHRPKPEkES88WGV1K0ZkfeQl7XXukdRQji92Yf1Pgvn16IyElllB/s320/blackface.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562027910762141218" border="0" /></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">What this particular br</span><span lang="EN-ZA">and of humour seem</span><span lang="EN-ZA">s to do is to carry on a rich and long tr</span><span lang="EN-ZA">a</span><span lang="EN-ZA">dition in Western entertainment. From the use of blackfac</span><span lang="EN-ZA">e i</span><span lang="EN-ZA">n ear</span><span lang="EN-ZA">ly 20<sup>th</sup> century entertainment, to Prissy & Mammy, in ‘G</span><span lang="EN-ZA">one With The Wind,’ right through to these ads, there is a single thick vein that connects them a</span><span lang="EN-ZA">ll, though obviously as the years have passed it’s far more subtle. Today, instead of the overt caricature being in front of us to laugh at, the caricature is now hidden behind a flimsy façade, and represented through the accent. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">One of course would not be incorrect to point out that it’s not just black South Africans which are pilloried in this way, Afrikaners, Cape Coloureds, Durban Indians and just about any</span><span lang="EN-ZA"> other group also come in for their </span><span lang="EN-ZA">share of roasting. The very concerns and reservations that I have regarding the use black people as figures of humour could and have been expressed by any of these groups.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">I deliberately opened this blog with a race-based joke, or attempted joke even. I have no issue with jokes about race, in fact having laughed at jokes about paedophilia, rape and a multitude of other ‘taboo’ topics, I’m the last person to take umbrage at a joke about race. However, if a joke is going to go down that route, it’d better be damned good, and these ads are nothing of the sort. They resort to a cheap tactic knowing that out there, the Anneline Botes’ and Steve Hofmeyrs and will be able to have a good cackle, all because “it’s just a joke.” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">As I said at the outset, advertising people are not stupid, and they wouldn’t use this kind of ‘humour’ if they knew that it would turn-off the majority of their prospective customers. The ugly fact is this, it’s not only the Anneline Botes’ and Steve Hofmeyrs who laugh at these ads, it’s you’re everyday South African, be they ‘African’ or not who does and therein lies the real problem. Our laughter shows an ugly attitude within us. An attitude that feels that if your English, even if it’s not your first language, is somehow ‘less than,’ then you yourself are less than and are fair game for a cheap laugh.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">Of course I may be wrong, it may ‘just be a joke,’ and I’m ‘overthinking it.’ But hey, I was doffed on the head by that dude in the funny dress, and one of the few things that did sink in during those four years is that, to put it simply, sometimes, despite whatever may be on the surface, things are not as they seem. Frankly though, you don’t need a piece of paper from a guy in a funny dress and hat to know that. I may be wrong, but I don’t think so.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA">*And a subscription charge of R5000 every other minute.</span></p>Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-90750659158444025882010-12-31T15:12:00.002+02:002010-12-31T15:24:56.829+02:00I'm Not A Bitch, I Just Don't Like You<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfL-ghXXttJ7nR-fTgIAb9ViT_G_xw6HtNIJH7Jyg7tCLOkIdMYms18pxrWQ-Hov10D2vYdq68E0qr1Hnh4uHNMS5JOvqJhMdjfAJrSBuJHG0WJs7Wi8M_KRVum_y28U7hkBcS4jfaG8vS/s1600/queen-bitch.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 253px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfL-ghXXttJ7nR-fTgIAb9ViT_G_xw6HtNIJH7Jyg7tCLOkIdMYms18pxrWQ-Hov10D2vYdq68E0qr1Hnh4uHNMS5JOvqJhMdjfAJrSBuJHG0WJs7Wi8M_KRVum_y28U7hkBcS4jfaG8vS/s320/queen-bitch.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5556836601120325378" border="0" /></a><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">A while back, a friend’s birthday party turned into an impromptu reunion as many old friends from varsity found ourselves congregated. As these things go, we got to reminiscing about the good old days, before that quasi-adulthood, being a student, came to an end.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">As we spoke, I’d be playing it down to say, I was taken aback when I realised the image that some - meaning all - of my friends had of me was vastly different to how I perceived myself.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">Personally, I’ve seen myself as a mildly funny but generally nice guy, however to my friends that’s not who I am. As one magnanimously put it, I’m “mean,” or as another stated bluntly, “a bitch.” I would’ve pouted and flounced about as only a real man can had they not started reminding me of moments where perhaps some credence was lent to their point. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">Of the many so-called facts my so-called friends listed about me to support their lie, the most damnable was that I hate fat people. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">Whilst it’s true, many people do hate fat people and I have at times had my less than diplomatic moments on the topic, I don’t get why anybody would hate somebody for being fat. That’s ridiculous, stupid and frankly; prejudicial. Furthermore, if I’m to be accused of this, let’s be specific. It’s the morbidly obese rather than the fat I take umbrage to. And more so, what really irks me how (some) try to fob off their personal responsibility in the matter, arguing that obesity is a disease or some such claptrap. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">For despite what Empress Oprah the Magnificent may say; that’s rubbish. A disease, obesity is not. People who suffer from real diseases have for the most part not done anything to deserve them. Obesity, however, is a problem that can be easily handled; eat less or exercise more, or even better yet, do both, and before you say, “but I have a thyroid problem,” know that I hear, “unluckily you have to eat even less or exercise even more.” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">I once saw a woman who despite the pleas of the flight attendant refused to sit in her seat because as she shouted, “you make them too small!”<span style=""> </span>In my opinion, that flight attendant should’ve taken JetBlue flight attendant, Steven Slater’s, master-class on how to deal with passengers, thus I have no pity when the grossly obese are forced to pay for an extra seat. Despite what the NAAFA (the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, yes it’s real and obviously it’s American) says, it’s not discrimination when airlines do this, it’s to ensure the comfort and yes, the safety even, of all passengers.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">I will admit, in my fervour for this topic, I may have sometimes crossed the line with some slightly off colour jokes and comments, But for what reason do we have and cherish the freedom of speech if not to insult and make cheap jokes at the expense of others?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">But before we get on our respective high horses, let’s for a moment consider what it is that’s so horrible here? Is it perhaps that some people are offended? </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">Fact is, just about anything and particularly any joke is certain to offend somebody, however, I’d rather live in a society where I have that freedom rather than the politically correct, but lobotomised horror the PC Brigade is leading us to. The comedian Steve Hughes sums it up best when he says; “When did sticks and stones stop being relevant? Isn’t that what you teach children for God’s sakes? You’re offended? You’re an adult! Grow up! Deal with it!”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">On yet another moment, where I essentially was being taken to task, I came to realise that perhaps the issue is the irreverence shown? </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">As I was told, “within every joke is a bit of truth.” This isn’t a charge I deny. Regardless how flippant whatever I say is, there is an element of what I believe to it. In the case of fat jokes; I’m not comfortable with obesity, I don’t like it, but ultimately I’m joking and nothing more. To that, he replied, “words have power.” Seeing that we were playing a game of parrying clichés, I replied in kind, “life’s too short to always be serious.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">But back to my friend – and I do regard him as one -<span style=""> </span>When he called me a bitch, though he didn’t say it maliciously, it remained stuck in my mind, keeping me tossing and turning through the night as I wondered about his comment. After much thought though, I know I’m not.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">Yes, some things are too serious to be funny… But only until that line is said that makes them funny. I may not like something or even you… But I most certainly am not a bitch. </span></p>Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-36025626251647163092010-12-01T10:52:00.006+02:002010-12-01T11:03:18.826+02:00Boys Will Be Boys<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNJdh5s64LF07aPCQ7-A0xmrQg7s89H50FxPnr3v9QSoZhJBClEx_vXzC_pM-XuLfweGgMy4QKoBunjoX7IoJYuZn46KD-bNB3bvsTNSF3gdGqK7_51i02qHkIcuxfKMuKj6fQOLmG00Ay/s1600/brad_pitt2400.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 236px; height: 236px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNJdh5s64LF07aPCQ7-A0xmrQg7s89H50FxPnr3v9QSoZhJBClEx_vXzC_pM-XuLfweGgMy4QKoBunjoX7IoJYuZn46KD-bNB3bvsTNSF3gdGqK7_51i02qHkIcuxfKMuKj6fQOLmG00Ay/s320/brad_pitt2400.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545636131976967714" border="0" /></a><br />No serious person would ever deny this, being gay can be difficult. Be it dealing with homophobia or trying to live at 100% fabulous, it is a complicated life.<br /><br />Despite what the name belies, ‘gaydar,’ that innate ability of gays to ferret each other out from the crowd is no science. It essentially is what all people do, look for those signals that maybe, just maybe, that other person could be interested; and as with any signals, they can be crossed. For the single gay guy out on the town, searching for a beau, or beaux, those signals have just become intricately more convoluted.<br /><br />Last month, a UK study found, amongst high school and university students, the prevalence of heterosexual males kissing each other had skyrocketed with 95% of respondents saying they had done so. A mixed signal to be sure. At first thought, that lone gay may want to believe those kinds of European shenanigans are not on in Africa, not even in that African slice of Europa, Cape Town.<br /><br />However, as has been proved by the number of women who are famous for no other reason other than being able to don bikinis, or ‘glamour models,’ as they’re known in the land of our former colonial master, what begins there, sooner, rather than later makes its way down here.<br /><br />To the disquiet of the gay on the prowl, this trend continues. The study also found that it is not only the chaste fraternal kiss being exchanged between straight males. The full on snog, probably best demonstrated by a furtive Jacob Zuma meeting up with Sonono Khoza in a dark corner of the Nkandla homestead, or “sustained” kiss as the study termed it, is also on the rise, with 37% of respondents indicating they had engaged in this activity.<br /><br />This may seem to be something of a surprise, with our homosexual friend jumping to the default position of, “Well that is a load of rubbish! They must be gay as the day is long!” Yet, he should consider the following. Whilst for the gay man, this is a new and worrying development, for lesbians this is old news. Ever since Britney ever so (in)famously locked lips with Madonna, the straight girl kiss has been a thing of norm. As the great vocal digital manipulation artist, Katy Perry, in her magnum opus, I Kissed A Girl, croons, “I got so brave, drink in hand, lost my discretion,” and, “I kissed a girl just to try it, I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it.”<br /><br />Unlike the cougar, this is not one of those fads, which seems to inhabit Hollywood alone. On any night of the week, in the favoured haunts of our future-leaders, the student nightclubs of Claremont in Cape Town or Melville in Johannesburg, to give just two examples, this can be witnessed. As such, that girl and her girl-friend standing on a table, locking lips will soon have to vie for attention with that boy and his boet, doing the very same thing.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjH2slCWeVY5Y8Cztf57QLc6vynl8lL4pyjWYMkMw3wcPONkzEoZqBztpFQqmGwgeUQTpZ-IZzSx_W8n-zAGuGjAJXp4Z3z5JnOLtfMrks0ARcAGShXgAuSVjSZzeQF1hMr5TBCulHhckb/s1600/or_8288909d12486977831674.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 231px; height: 307px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjH2slCWeVY5Y8Cztf57QLc6vynl8lL4pyjWYMkMw3wcPONkzEoZqBztpFQqmGwgeUQTpZ-IZzSx_W8n-zAGuGjAJXp4Z3z5JnOLtfMrks0ARcAGShXgAuSVjSZzeQF1hMr5TBCulHhckb/s320/or_8288909d12486977831674.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545636302041587378" border="0" /></a>Though those concerned about the moral compass of our society may worry that this is a sure sign that the gay agenda to indoctrinate the gay lifestyle within our children is succeeding, take heed of this fact. Those in their never-ending quest to be cool, are just partaking in what is nothing more than a fad. Safely ensconced in the South African strongholds of moral rectitude, where men are men and women know their place, where good traditional family values still reign, you will never have to witness this. Just as in the UK, such examples of moral depravity will be found in those dens on liberal iniquity, universities, or anywhere the wayward youth are to found injecting their new-fangled drugs into their eyeballs and partaking in sins of the flesh.<br /><br />However, for those, with a slightly more sensible mindset, would be interested to note that, though a fad, study researcher, <a href="http://www.livescience.com/culture/same-sex-kissing-common-among-straight-uk-male-students-101027.html">Eric Anderson, stated</a> that this development, be it the chaste kiss or the sustained kiss, indicates that, “these men have lost their homophobia (and that) they're no longer afraid to be thought gay by their behaviours.”<br /><br />In as much that no serious person would deny that being gay is difficult, no serious person would complain about the changes in attitudes this study indicates. Even then, one cannot help but think about that lone gay. Faced with those team-mates from the rugby team in a ‘sustained kiss,’ his mind fills with that warm rush of excitement, only to be tempered with the cold reality of confusion as he thinks, ‘maybe they are just two friends, just having fun and nothing more.’<br /><br />With boys being boys, his life just became a whole lot more difficult.Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-88223606647359065552010-10-29T13:45:00.003+02:002010-10-29T13:51:28.053+02:00Put Your Back Into It...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcHgs8XWDK47kcwihNiCX-yS5AnfvGUPWLq1haK1Jc8ogZfh-bxiDohhb1CJVow-R0Bqq6An4kLyCPlPss02u77gAjCP8lukygYJe540CvDRV_yZefehZpudOP03pxWl1dSm9SHtDdduzy/s1600/Hyde_Hugs_Study_Large.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 234px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcHgs8XWDK47kcwihNiCX-yS5AnfvGUPWLq1haK1Jc8ogZfh-bxiDohhb1CJVow-R0Bqq6An4kLyCPlPss02u77gAjCP8lukygYJe540CvDRV_yZefehZpudOP03pxWl1dSm9SHtDdduzy/s320/Hyde_Hugs_Study_Large.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533434207754974530" /></a><br />I do not know why or when this happened, but to me, it seems that in the last decade or so, the etiquette of hugging has changed a lot. Perhaps it is my discomfort with hugging that has changed my memories but I near on certain things were not this way. Far as I remember, coming to a point where you hugged someone was a marker that your friendship had graduated to a new level and at such a point, where you have developed something of a relationship with someone, I have absolutely no issue with hugs. However, to me, it seems that nowadays, hugging is part of the normal social discourse and is expected from the outset. At times, it almost seems if you do not hug, you are to be looked at with an element of distrust, for you must be some sort of misanthrope destined to be the next Oklahoma bomber. <br /><br />Being someone who hangs out with a fair number of ‘liberal types,’ an old friend of mine used to sneer, I run into more than my fair share of huggers. When engulfed in a warm embrace from someone whom you would have been more than happy to have given a mere handshake a lot of thoughts can run through your mind, sometimes, particularly when hugged by the creative, artistic type, the thought comes straight from my nose to my brain. But more often than not, the thought is one of, how did I end up in this situation, how is it that this person I don’t know, is holding me, clutching me, overpowering me with themselves?<br /><br />As such, whilst there is not much I’m certain on when it comes to that great question, ‘who am I,’ this much I am certain of; despite all indications to the otherwise, I am a reserved person. <a href="http://mvelasep.blogspot.com/2010/04/for-one-thing-this-fortunate-gay-man.html">BFF1 and BFF2</a> would attest to this, having had to poke, prod and prick until I revealed the most basic of details about myself. Thanks to them, and a few years of life experience, despite it being who I am, I have somewhat learnt how to navigate life without entirely coming off as an utter social dilettante. Living in an Oprah-fied world, where talking about feelings, expressing yourself, and finding “Eat, Pray, Love,” to be the greatest film of all time, and a book you swear to one day read, it is not easy being someone such as myself, someone who enjoys other people, but not too much of them. <br /><br />Fighting off the last remnants of a hangover, lying on a bed, <a href="http://mvelasep.blogspot.com/2010/04/for-one-thing-this-fortunate-gay-man.html">BFF3</a> next to me, when this guy walked in, I was certain I was to be spared a hug. Yes, I may have been fully dressed, yes, he may have known BFF3, but the facts remained; He was a stranger, I was in a bed, and failing that, BFF3 next to me would certainly act as a buffer in ensuring no hug was deployed my way. As he said his goodbyes, all of 20mins after I had met him, he threw hugs his hugs around the room, then came to BFF3 and hugged her, I breathed a sigh of relief, safe in the knowledge that there was no way that he would even try with me. <br /><br />As he practically climbed over BFF3, lay atop of me and enveloped me with his arms saying, ‘put your back into it,’ much of what’s written here ran through my mind, was this what life was to be like forever? Even with the barrier of another human being, the awkward position of being on a bed, was a handshake, a goodbye wave not okay, was the hug still to be forced upon me, was it too much ask just to be left alone?Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-77849442056640178812010-10-11T20:21:00.003+02:002010-10-11T20:39:33.286+02:00The Golden Age Of Mandela: Is It Over<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhohcXcQokPvvr3owvf7drx6QFAiQxtxSqHM8u6_3REwFMgfRfBtV1kKrvWXfsZLptiaFpwzHo9MIvPudR-R6sVcT1O7J3a7cW6AzzkL51mzntTNqC5eRR4ST9zMXAgS33gyfss7AB9SC5H/s1600/mandela.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhohcXcQokPvvr3owvf7drx6QFAiQxtxSqHM8u6_3REwFMgfRfBtV1kKrvWXfsZLptiaFpwzHo9MIvPudR-R6sVcT1O7J3a7cW6AzzkL51mzntTNqC5eRR4ST9zMXAgS33gyfss7AB9SC5H/s320/mandela.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526859948693706514" /></a><br />“Madiba is like the biblical Moses, who took the children of Israel from the land of bondage, to the Promised Land, the land of milk & honey.” This quote from ANC spokesperson, Jackson Mthembu heralded the beginning Nelson Mandela’s birthday celebrations which can sometimes seem to stretch a good couple of months. It would seem there is an argument to be made that Jackson Mthembu missed his calling as that piece of prose is almost second to none. Only almost, as I would not discount the ANCYL’s Nyiko Floyd Shivambu, (he of the infamous Helen Zille’s sleeping around comments) being able to one up even those dizzying height of hyperbole.<br /><br />I may joke, but as of late, I have noticed that there is a shift in South Africa to no longer look at Mandela in the golden hue in which he is presented. This is a debate and a critique that I welcome. The majority of comments I have read & heard on this debate have been fair & evenhanded; highlighting that South Africa’s freedom was not won by Mandela single-handedly. As Winnie Mandela is alleged to have said to the London Evening Standard, “There were many, others, hundreds who languished in prison and died. Many unsung and unknown heroes of the struggle, and their were others in the leadership too…” Other critiques have centred on his legacy purely as a politician, questioning his policy decisions, RDP, HIV/AIDS Macro-Economic policy etc. These discussions are both fair and necessary.<br /><br />However, there is also a disquieting minority which whether intentional or not, strike as flippantly dismissive of Mandela’s legacy, merely scoffing, showing an attitude of, ‘Mandela, yeah whatever.’ With flights of fancy such as that of Jackson Mthembu it is east to be derisive. However, that does not change that it is also lazy and to be frank; stupid. The basis of these comments seems to be that there is no substance to the image of Mandela that we have. This notion leave me both angry and confused.<br /><br />From the moment he was dubbed the ‘black pimpernel,’ Mandela became a figure shrouded in a sense of mystery. Upon his release, the mystery to a degree ended, another era in the image of Mandela came to be, the era of Mandela, ‘the living legend.’ One cannot deny that the image the world has of Mandela has transcended who he is, however, that does not mean there is no substance to the image we have of him. His name is now uttered with those of Ghandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. Mandela during his incarceration was used by the ANC as a call around which all South Africans and people around the world against the Apartheid regime could rally. Used is perhaps too strong of a term as Mandela himself was quite willing for this, to happen.<br /><br />Mandela is quoted as saying: “That was one of the things that worried me – to be raised to the position of a semi-god – because then you are no longer a human being. I wanted to be known as Mandela, a man with weaknesses, some of which are fundamental, and a man who is committed, but, nevertheless, sometimes fails to live up to expectations.” Despite these misgivings, Mandela allowed himself to become what South Africa needed. Someone that no other politician or figure in South Africa could play. Mandela is a figure around which South Africans of all races and creeds could look up to and admire. Mandela was more than a hero for black South Africans; he was a hero for ALL South Africans. Mandela has allowed us to transcend the multitudes of ways we choose to separate ourselves from each other, has shown us a way forward to forgiving each other of our past wrongs or as one tweet put it, “Zuma may have fathered half the nation, but #NelsonMandelaRocks because he’s the one who raised us.Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-22036705229346991632010-09-08T15:42:00.004+02:002010-09-08T15:52:40.525+02:00Barack Obama On Iraq: The Next George Bush?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5UpHtSXCSv1nW7ECB2UeYai2GRkf6NiasHybbqDp2y0rCLYOHslUryrj7L274rCvpn9i1cUdVrJQfbrkpDPsM1l84av5NwXt4IfhCLee8FCZEVcgTabT9103LTrUYRnL3YmX5rp2W0B_V/s1600/061510Obama_gulf_800.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 301px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5UpHtSXCSv1nW7ECB2UeYai2GRkf6NiasHybbqDp2y0rCLYOHslUryrj7L274rCvpn9i1cUdVrJQfbrkpDPsM1l84av5NwXt4IfhCLee8FCZEVcgTabT9103LTrUYRnL3YmX5rp2W0B_V/s320/061510Obama_gulf_800.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514539277551553026" border="0" /></a>
<br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5COwner%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB; mso-fareast-language:EN-GB;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Part of then presidential hopeful, Senator Barack Obama’s, platform was a steadfast promise to bring the troops home and pull out of Iraq. Though I was a supporter, I believed that the US had no choice but to remain in Iraq for a far longer term than what Senator Obama was selling to voters. But I was in on the secret. In all my infinite wisdom and jaded world weariness, I knew what Senator Obama’s true plan was. I knew that the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region> war would never truly end. Yes, the war would ‘e</span><span lang="EN-GB">nd,’ but with a long-term presence of American troops left in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region> to ‘advise, assist & support Iraqi troops.’
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">In much the same way, Sarah Palin made the call on President Obama’s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y02iZcTjHo">‘hopey changey stuff,’</a> I made the call on Senator Obama’s electoral strategy on Iraq; rather than a bait & switch, it was a bait and hook. Show them what they want and give it to them, but with a till then unseen hook</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Again, like Sarah Palin; I couldn’t have been more wrong.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Seven years, five months & twelve days after George W. Bush sat in the Oval Office and announced the start of America’s invasion </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC_7IzZtejto8iXCXR2vPlKjtgLynQP3byBRBRyxbWmwrt_1NqX414T3hkKA_aqTY7ihwz1JtSF2Kj3wo8e_6-ptQFleE3VmkuobT_hO0gU5xoFVuOQjnn0GPfC34FLVnsLfPI1BPVFDLR/s1600/Bushoval.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 276px; height: 199px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC_7IzZtejto8iXCXR2vPlKjtgLynQP3byBRBRyxbWmwrt_1NqX414T3hkKA_aqTY7ihwz1JtSF2Kj3wo8e_6-ptQFleE3VmkuobT_hO0gU5xoFVuOQjnn0GPfC34FLVnsLfPI1BPVFDLR/s320/Bushoval.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514539420780656722" border="0" /></a><span lang="EN-GB">of Iraq, Barack Obama sat in that very same office to announce the end of US combat operations in Iraq and reiterate the US’ agreement with Iraq to have a full troop pull-out by 2011. Perhaps remembering the ignom</span><span lang="EN-GB">iny that followed George Bush’s turn as a fighter pilot when he announced an end to ‘major combat operations,’ and stated the Iraq mission accomplished, the tone of Barack Obama’s address was far more sombre and presidential and far less John Wayne in the mould of Tom Cruise. Though Obama was being forthright in his campaign, however one has to wonder was this decision to pull-out is a decision many years too early, whether it is a decision that will one day come back to haunt Obama and but most importantly America.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The fact is, whilst there may be a largely irrelevant debate over whether this truly marks an ‘end’ to the US’ war in Iraq, or will that milestone only be truly reached in 2011 when all US troops have pulled out of Iraq, legally, and for all intents and purpose this US’ involvement in this war was finished, as promised, by Barack Obama when he made that address. As it ought to be, come 2012, <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region> will most probably not be an issue for Obama. However, undoubtedly part of Obama’s legacy, something that any <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> president holds dear and will <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/11/politics/main1038653.shtml">fiercely defend</a>, is this decision to end the Iraq War. Question is, though right now to America, this is one of the best things Obama has done, 5yrs, 10yrs down the line, will this be looked back on as one of the worst?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans support a troop pull-out, unlike Obama, <a href="http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/polls-much-skepticism-about-iraq/?src=twt&twt=nytimespolitics">polling</a> also shows that Americans, neither believe that Iraqi security forces or the Iraqi government will be able to maintain the peace or successfully handle the political situation respectively. Having always had American troops to be the proverbial ‘security blanket,’ we can’t be certain just how the Iraqi troops will fare in handling Iraqi security. However, when it comes to the politics, the signs don’t bode well. Despite successfully holding elections earlier this year, <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>, six months later, is still yet to form a government. Even more worrying is that much of the infighting between Iraqi politicians in forming their government is the very thing Barack Obama stated in his Oval Office address the Iraqi people have rejected; sectarianism, perhaps the greatest danger to Iraq’s future, which thus in turn presents a danger to America’s future as well.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Should the opinion of Americans be vindicated and the very tenuous peace, or rather, what passes for peace in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region> fails to hold, what then? There of course, is the possibility that what America already sees as the ‘<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8544896.stm">maligning influence,’</a> of Iran in Iraq may increase. In comparison to the worst case, and not at all far-fetched scenario, that outcome, would most probably be seen as a victorious. What most analysts fear, and some believe may occur, is that Iraq could become a failed state, particularly a failed state on the order of Somalia and Pakistan; a state where Al-Qa’ida has been able to gain a foothold and from there launch its operations. Even though the focus is on ‘home-grown terrorists,’ as George Santayana wrote, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Yes, Al-Qa’ida in Pakistan is focused on Pakistan & Al-Qa’ida is Somalia is focused on Somalia, but on the 10<sup>th</sup> of September 2001, general thought on Al-Q’aida in Afghanistan was that it to, was just focused on Afghanistan. The next day we all saw the danger they can pose regardless where they’re based.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The history books are littered with cases of the leaders who took decisive actions against the advice and warnings of many only to be proven to have miscalculated greatly, quite fitting, the most recent example is of course George W. Bush, who seven years, five months & eleven days ago to Obama’s address, decisively invaded Iraq. The arguments against a pullout in Iraq are far less widespread and in the face of the losses the US has faced in Iraq this is understandably so, nevertheless the arguments do exist. Despite the belief of those who support those arguments there is no way of knowing what will happen in an Iraq without the US, and we will have to wait and see if Barack Obama will come to rue sitting in the Oval Office to make an announcement on Iraq in as much as George Bush surely must.</span></p> Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-14602957527253797552010-09-08T15:34:00.005+02:002010-09-08T17:15:52.681+02:00The Unity of The World Cup Is Gone & We’re The Better For It<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM8n5nMTYhLZyP-f2xkIFImIHOyj8nTHtGKCQgrKwflrycvzq127Bb2eg-5UXoB5bRrIoedBBzrCE7TRR38sefzB-A80VrcAe0iO63tEq8BlviKob1NSoH9RgCaTIqfOLRUh4klrmOtaMj/s1600/31950_438444472183_522407183_6177552_4602319_n.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 302px; height: 227px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM8n5nMTYhLZyP-f2xkIFImIHOyj8nTHtGKCQgrKwflrycvzq127Bb2eg-5UXoB5bRrIoedBBzrCE7TRR38sefzB-A80VrcAe0iO63tEq8BlviKob1NSoH9RgCaTIqfOLRUh4klrmOtaMj/s320/31950_438444472183_522407183_6177552_4602319_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514536910142947170" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Though I somewhat remember them, I was too young to truly appreciate how momentous our first democratic elections were in 1994, or how South Africa united behind the Springboks during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. For me, never had I seen South Africans be as one as they were during the Football World-Cup. At twelve noon on the 9th of June, South Africa ground to a halt and the world was introduced to the now ubiquitous sound of the 2010 Football World Cup, the vuvuzela. Though World Cup euphoria had been gripping the nation for a while prior to that moment, for me, it was only in that moment that I realised just how big of a deal the World Cup was going to be. The World Cup of course was all about the football, however, but for South Africans, the most memorable aspect of it was the sense of unity we felt. As Jackie Janse Van Rensburg, commented on a previous blog post, “to me, it was never about the game per se, I love the vibe, the unity, the pride, the positivity we have been experiencing.”<br /><br />The evening of Bafana-Bafana’s encounter against Uruguay, a <a href="http://twitter.com/GracelleGerber/status/16324839870">tweet</a> disapproving of a comment made by CNN anchor, Hala Gorani, on air, made it’s way onto my timeline on Twitter, it said, <blockquote>“Hala Gorani (#CNN) just reported that the sense of unity in SA ‘won’t last.’ WTH?!”</blockquote> Despite my initial response to the World Cup, by then, as everyone else was, I was fully ‘feeling it,’ and commented on that tweet with a single word, “disappointed.” I was more than a little surprised to get a <a href="http://twitter.com/HalaGorani/status/16325934715">response</a> from Hala Gorani who elucidated on her statement saying, <blockquote>“Wrong. I said the World Cup excitement that unifies a country (as it did in France) naturally dissipates after the event is over.”</blockquote> Basking in the glow of a World Cup successfully going off without a hitch; surrounded by the honking of vuvuzela’s; high on pre-match euphoria at that moment, forgetting all my pre-World Cup scepticism I admit, I immediately discarded the comment as nothing more than Western pessimism. Looking at what has been going on recently in South Africa, I could not have been more unfair and wrong, Hala Gorani was right, that spirit has dissipated.<br /><br />When I first started writing this blog, I fully intended to lament this as a sad regression. Nevertheless, three weeks after starting it, I could not finish it. I wish I could chalk this up to ‘writers block,’ but I cannot, the reason I could not write it, was that I did not think this was a bad thing. In all the excitement over the World Cup, the enjoyment of the spirit of for the first time ever seeing what South African’s can accomplish when united as one nation, I forgot something that I’d always believed in; nationalism is anything but positive. Like many governments, the Apartheid regime used ‘nationalism,’ as a justification for many of its crimes, therefore that in democratic South Africa we have always shied away from that moniker is hardly surprising.<br /><br />Patriotism, national pride, a spirit of ubuntu, call it what you will, it is nationalism. The very thing that those in power throughout history and the world over have used to corral their people from the most ridiculous of actions, to the most heinous of crimes. This is not at all an original thought on my part; wherever nationalism raised its ugly head, there have been those far more erudite than myself who have made this argument. Albert Einstein for example said, “Nationalism is an infantile disease… it is the measles of mankind,” or even more succinctly, William Blum who wrote, “If love is blind, patriotism has lost all five senses.”<br /><br />Many would say that the national pride that we experienced in South Africa is different, that we spearheaded it, not following any directive. To have pride in yourself, or something that you can ascribe to being part of is natural to people, that’s why we’re proud of ourselves, our families, of our cultural groupings, that’s why we move to being proud of ourselves as a nation, even with no real push from governments. However, that in itself is the very insidious nature of nationalism. It does not necessarily have to start as something that those in charge have created, but they invariably turn back and draw on it for their own purposes.<br /><br />This may seem far-fetched but it is happening. As it became clear that a strike was inevitable, the government not only began to portray workers as ill-informed on their offer, and thus irresponsible in their threat to strike, but also as unpatriotic, or for instance, in the arrest of Mzilikazi wa Afrika, the calls from the ANCYL for him to be charged with high treason. Before we all comfortably sit back and say, but nobody took either of those instances seriously, angered at Mzilikazi wa Afrika’s ‘counter-revolutionary’ articles, consider the crowd, who forced him to have to exit from the rear of the courthouse when released on bail. They may be easily dismissed; after all, they are just rabid ANC supporters with no true understanding of our constitutional values but then how many people, how many of us, when the strike started immediately commented on how this was destroying the great national spirit we had built up during the World Cup? The two examples may seem utterly antipodean, but how can that be when they are both linked by calls to the ‘greater good of national unity.’<br /><br />Yes, the national pride that we had was a heady joy. For someone like myself, for whom South Africa had always been a nation of people constantly at each others throats, and I imagine even for those who remember the 1994 elections, or Francois Pienaar lifting the Rugby World Cup trophy with Nelson Mandela by his side, it was amazing to see us all standing together for one common cause. Be that as it may, that has passed, and though it’s more than natural for us to feel despondent to see ourselves returning to the way we were, I’d rather things be this way. I wish I could see it another way, write it away in a lovely fashion, but the fact is, without that spirit of national unity we are an ugly nation. We have seen ourselves at our worst in the last couple of weeks with the Press debates, and the strike. Nevertheless, amidst all that ugliness, we have seen ourselves at our best; not waving a flag, blowing on a vuvuzela or proudly singing Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, but rather mopping the floors in a deserted hospital. I would hope that this was not because of national pride, or patriotism, but because of something far more simple, something not innate in South Africans only, but innate in humanity as a whole I would like to think; because it was the right thing to do.Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-9600917449303553182010-08-20T20:09:00.003+02:002010-08-20T20:14:44.479+02:00ANC and COSATU: The Greatest Dangers To Worker’s Rights<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxZ855VQSb9OZ4_AIV6WR8XSyzjmogG6-v36iwMTgbGxP0Q3u6eLR31NkgcEcuFxUuVjHXfS3LHMGgZ7Nop1HOjJyYKApjefc96TGjE6l84i4t3P-zM0-AoMLF9fEClh1cpy7DefTbIE7v/s1600/images.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxZ855VQSb9OZ4_AIV6WR8XSyzjmogG6-v36iwMTgbGxP0Q3u6eLR31NkgcEcuFxUuVjHXfS3LHMGgZ7Nop1HOjJyYKApjefc96TGjE6l84i4t3P-zM0-AoMLF9fEClh1cpy7DefTbIE7v/s320/images.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507556915539922546" /></a><br />Come the announcement that the government and COSATU have entered into wage negotiations, South Africans knows we have entered into another one of our political circus seasons. COSATU leaders take a moment from their daily work of partaking in the various squabbles and factional battles of the ANC. Government and trade unions engage in their debate of who, if anyone should be barred from engaging from striking, on the basis that they are an ‘essential service.’ The comfortable middle-class, (ironically and hilariously often identified as ‘leftist’) dust off and trot out their usual complaints; complaints that, ‘the country is being held to ransom,’ that ‘striking is nothing more than blackmail,’ that in the face of South Africa’s soaring unemployment ‘these workers should be grateful they have a job and get back to work.’ Nevertheless, the one fear, that all share, is the 2007 Public Sector Strike, which was marked by damage to private and public property, intimidation and violence will be repeated. Regrettably this week saw that fear come to be a reality with such reports. As with the 2007 strike, as fully expected, the media has focused on these reports and COSATU has denounced the media for focusing on ‘sporadic but regrettable occurrences.’ Whether these occurrences are widespread or sporadic is of no consequence. The very fact that they occur cannot be tolerated, and that is very much what COSATU and by in large government as well seems to do with their strongly worded denouncements followed by, well, followed by nothing. <br /><br />The simple fact is this; the moment a striker commits violence, intimidates or in any way illegally impinges on the rights of another, they cease to be protected by the rights, which protect workers on industrial action and no longer are striking workers, but rather, are criminals. Furthermore, the actions of these criminals are ignominious for two primary reasons. Beyond their basic criminality, they present perhaps the greatest danger to the crucial right of workers to engage in industrial action. More so than any call The Right may make against these rights. <br /><br />With each successive wave of violence and intimidation at the hands of these so-called strikers, the public understandably gets even more disillusioned with unions and the strikes they embark upon. What the government (which has regularly reiterated their support for protecting this right) and COSATU have to realise is that their empty rhetoric of denunciation is just as, if not more so, harmful to the right to strike than the actions themselves. People have a right to expect health-care when going to a hospital that their kids will be safe when at school, that if they choose not to participate in a strike, they will be free of intimidation. <br /><br />However, having spoken to some striking workers, I have come to realise that these actions are not the acts of marauding hooligans, as the media often seems to depict them. There are reasons behind it. Firstly, the statements the government puts out which characterise their position as intractable does nothing more than add oil to an understandably angry fire. The initial tone of these messages, dismissive of the actions and that the government can handle the crises (though this has clearly been shown to be not true) further engenders anger. Even if the government had forgotten, recent events particularly service delivery protests and the ‘xenophobic violence’ reminds one of the South African populace’s propensity to violence. All a result of what political theorists refer to as, Political Socialisation. <br /><br />Despite all these various reasons explaining the violence of so-called strikers, the fact of the matter is, they are excuses. Near all criminals can provide a compelling reason as to why they committed the acts that they did but our legal system does not accept excuses. A broken law is a broken law, and whomever broke it must be swiftly dealt with. In <a href="http://thelifeanddeathchronicles.blogspot.com/2010/05/sticks-and-stones-may-break-my-bones.html">another blogpost</a> earlier this year, I mentioned how in Junior School we were taught on the correlation between rights and responsibilities. For many, in defending the rights of strikers, they have drawn on this thinking, characterising the violence and intimidation, as an ‘abuse’ of that right and it is easy to see where this idea stems from.<br /><br />However, I wholeheartedly disagree. To in any way equate the violence to the strikes, muddies the water on the right of workers to embark on industrial action. I’ll reiterate this point, the violence and intimidation are in no way equitable to the majority of striking workers, who are making use of their right peacefully. The aims behind the two acts may be the same, but one is a legal and constitutionally protected action, the other a nothing more than a mere criminal act. One only hopes that sooner, rather than later, the ANC government and COSATU will realise that by issuing an endless ream of empty statements, they are not protecting the cardinally important right to strike, but rather being its greatest danger.Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-7177990338867947112010-08-06T14:33:00.005+02:002010-08-06T14:49:54.244+02:00Barack Obama: Homophobe in Chief…<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-VSnE58-c_htJGZo_JQaKOTwFdzaQl8Jx6oZ0htyajwFB1c5a4dG_JmYgymcD6Cm_9_rK8iaQg5lRUVwoTsYaWi7eLIhm-niDPpcbOeFbjjTPcq5pJvFLDC6plJgu7TRUJX_2q1r0CmET/s1600/OBAMA_WHITEX390.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 234px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-VSnE58-c_htJGZo_JQaKOTwFdzaQl8Jx6oZ0htyajwFB1c5a4dG_JmYgymcD6Cm_9_rK8iaQg5lRUVwoTsYaWi7eLIhm-niDPpcbOeFbjjTPcq5pJvFLDC6plJgu7TRUJX_2q1r0CmET/s320/OBAMA_WHITEX390.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5502277944857109538" border="0" /></a>
<br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5COwner%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB; mso-fareast-language:EN-GB;} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">Judge Vaughn Walker, in handing down his ruling on California’s gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, marked the 4<sup>th</sup> of August 2010 as yet another historic day in the long battle for the recognition and protection of equal rights in the US. Whether they praised or decried the decision, across America <a href="http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/08/04/Prop_8_Ruling_The_Reactions/">reactions poured in recognising the historic nature of this ruling</a>. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, in her reaction recognised the two basic rights Propostion 8 violated, and referred to it as, “a stain upon the California constitution.” California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, himself an opponent of Proposition 8, closed his statement saying, “Today’s decision is by no means California’s first milestone, nor our last, on America’s road to equality and freedom for all people.” From President Obama, the silence was deafening. The only reaction was the following statement from a spokesperson, “The President has spoken out in opposition to Proposition 8 because it is divisive and discriminatory. He will continue to promote equality for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transsexual) Americans.”
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">The reaction from ‘LGBT Americans,’ to that can be characterised overall being a resigned sigh. Murmurs of confusion and discontent on his LGBT credentials have tailed President Obama for a while now. Most of those murmurs, which are now escalating to outright denouncements, have been heard in primary from the LGBT media, but even now, the mainstream media is noticing this spreading zeitgeist.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">As former Massachusetts State Senator, Jarrett Barrios, President of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) questioning whether to accept an invitation to the White House’s first ever event commemorating the Stonewall Riots, the political coming out of the LGBT community put it: “The problem is that I haven’t been as excited as I’d like to be about President Obama. I’d been excited by Candidate Obama. His campaign invited people like me and my husband Doug…into has aspirational vision of America the possible.” In running for office, Barack Obama promised many things, some attainable, some not, but most, falling into a murky grey in-between area. As candidate Obama, his LGBT positions were progressive and sympathetic to the cause, but once President Obama, there has been a marked lack of action on many of these promises.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">A sad reality is that in American politics, LGBT issues tend to fall into that murky grey area though there is one that isn’t; ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,’ (DADT), the US military’s gay-ban. Whilst Obama using presidential powers may not be able to repeal DADT, as the repeal of this policy slowly makes its way through Congress Obama does have the power to stop its implementation, and has he? The answer to that question is a sad, expected and disappointing, no. With 80% of Americans being in favour of a repeal of DADT, scores of mainstream Republicans have also come out in favour of its repeal. This leaves Obama, who in public iterates support for such a move, and has the power to at the least to stop its implementation with the single signing of an executive order, having done nothing to support this policy. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">As his time in office passes, the true image of Obama’s views on LGBT issues, despite his stated policies is starting to emerge, and the image, in light of his actions, and inactions, is a disquieting one. However, perhaps even more disquieting is the opinion, that, no, Obama is not putting forth a homophobic agenda, but rather is playing politics with basic civil rights.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">In 1996, he is known to have been in favour of gay marriage. However, the higher his political aspirations have been, the further he has shifted from this unpopular position. In 2004, he then was quoted as saying he didn’t support gay marriage, and favoured civil unions, but only for strategic purposes (to advance the cause for equal rights). Though couched in politically correct language, the message is basic and as ugly as it always has been; separate but equal. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">But the drift didn’t stop there. By the time he ran for office, he was stating that personally, he believed that marriage ‘is between a man & a woman,’ and that it is a ‘religious’ matter and a ‘state’ issue. Today, we are now in an even more perplexing position. By Sunday, Obama’s administration has to indicate whether it plans to appeal a decision to appeal a <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jZVhxGXCMRA-mJB4JYXiICP3a6jQD9GRRQEG0">ruling that found an element of yet another odious piece of homophobic legislation, the Defence of Marriages Act (DOMA) unconstitutional</a>. Disappointingly, the signs are that they will, despite, yet again, Obama’s official policy being that DOMA should be repealed.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">In a memorable, though nonetheless contrived piece of dialogue, from <i style="">The Interpreter</i>, Nicole Kidman’s character opines to Sean Penn’s that she is ‘disappointed,’ in the politician the movie revolves around. He replies; “Disappointed is a lover’s word.” He’s right, ‘disappointed’ is a lover’s word. That ‘disappointed’ is a word that is often used in describing Barack Obama by the left of American politics and specifically the LGBT community is telling. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">Whilst to call him ‘homophobe in chief,’ may be too early a call to make, and one to harsh to be ever made, the facts are as follows. Obama presented himself as someone who could be relied on to advance the LGBT cause, that his election to the Presidency and the passing of Proposition 8 came on the same night, lessened the blow of Proposition 8. However, nearing two years into his Presidency, it is time that some serious focus is placed on this image. He says the right things, but it’s time to recognise the reality; his inactions and most damning, his actions speak volumes. Perhaps it is time for the LGBT Americans to take that disappointment and channel it into a politician who will champion the LGBT cause with real action, not just one who does so with soaring, inspiring, yet ultimately and disappointingly, empty rhetoric.</span></p> Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-40676837218647844962010-07-07T13:43:00.003+02:002010-10-11T20:09:03.145+02:00Gay Pride: Is There Really A Point Anymore?In his <a href="http://thedailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2010-07-07-coming-out-against-strategic-essentialism">Daily Maverick Opinionista column</a>, Simon Williamson asks the question that every June (LGBT Pride Month) is asked in the LGBT community & media, ‘has the time for Pride celebrations perhaps passed?’ The thrust of the argument in general is that we are now in a ‘post gay era,’ an era where one’s sexual orientation is of no importance, where ‘strategic essentialism,’ to deliberately and with purpose, separate oneself from society is no longer necessary. I must admit, this is an argument I could easily see myself agreeing with.<br /><br />As Simon points out, one could argue that perhaps some prejudices and discriminatory ideas around homosexuals continue as a result of the gay community separating itself from society. That is a not an easy proposition to accept as the aim of strategic essentialism is to forward the primary gay cause, acceptance. However, no matter how difficult, it is one that must be accepted as a distinct possibility. Despite the allure of that argument, I would have to disagree and argue that; the world over, and South Africa in particular; there is still a place for strategic essentialism.<br /><br />The fight for rights by minorities or any other oppressed group is never truly complete. If the undergraduate analysis can be excused, power relations in society can be said to be static, and if at all fluid, are painstakingly slow to change. A case in point is the struggle for women’s rights. Though things have undeniably advanced a century after the first wave of feminism (the fight for women’s political rights), equally undeniable is that power relations between men and women are still skewed to the former. Essentially, there is still much work being done by women’s groups to both protect and further advance the women’s cause.<br /><br />Gay rights in relation, particularly gay rights in South Africa, can barely be said to be nascent and thus their protection and advancement is of utmost importance. Across the world, it is generally within particular spaces and even then so, within particular sectors of society that ‘post-gay’ is a reality. The case for South Africa is even more extreme. Most of South Africa’s LBGT individuals (as Simon points out by mentioning the horror of corrective rape) are far removed from the life promised by our progressive constitution. Yet, as with much of South Africa there’s a stark disconnect; to those of us who are gay and live relatively affluent lives in urban areas, where the notion of overt & extreme homophobia is practically foreign, we can enjoy these rights.<br /><br />Despite this, we cannot be complacent, the reality is homophobic attitudes in South Africa are the prevalent opinion on gay rights. Lest we forget, our very own President stated, gay marriages were “a disgrace to the nation and to God” and that “When I was growing up, an ‘ungqigili,’ (a homosexual) would not have stood in front of me, I would knock him out.” Whilst this statement cannot be taken as irrefutable proof of malicious intent and disregard for constitutional rights afforded to the LGBT community; that statement in conjunction with the less than accepting attitude of the majority of South Africans towards gay rights goes to show the protection of these rights is of paramount importance.<br /><br />To return to the point I opened with, Simon cannot be faulted with pointing out that strategic essentialism, conceivably is self-defeating. To this though, I would say strategic essentialism is only one element of the gay rights movement, the radical element. However, as the history of minority rights movements shows one needs both the radical and the more mainstream elements for there to be progress in the fight for rights, and protection for those won.<br /><br />For every Andrea Dworkin who turned off so many to the Feminist cause with her militant positions & aggressive posturing, there must be a Gloria Steinem to temper those positions and postures making them acceptable within society as a whole. For every Martin Luther King Jr. who brought the American civil rights movement into the mainstream of popular political thought & culture, there must be a Malcolm X to test the limits and push the boundaries when moderation of positions turns to appeasement of the powers that be. With the gay rights movement, it is no different. For those of us who already enjoy these rights and for those who are still to benefit from them, no matter what possible alienation it may cause, the radicalism of strategic essentialism is integral to the protection and advancement of these rights.<br /><br />This post was originally posted on <a href="http://www.thatshowitis.co.za/mag/entry/gay_pride_is_there_really_a_point_anymore/">"That's How It Is"</a>Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-810316052247312812010-07-03T12:27:00.002+02:002010-07-03T14:51:43.621+02:00Football, It’s Been Fun, But We Need To Talk…To say I’ve never been a football fan, wouldn’t be sufficient. In fact, it would require a whole new word as ‘understatement’ just wouldn’t suffice. However, like every other South African, since June 11th I have fallen for football big time, and boy have I had it bad. Flush with the excitement of the World Cup, a part of me began to think, ‘You know what Mvelase, maybe you’ve been wrong about football all these years. This just may be the start of a beautiful sporting relationship,” and like the start of any relationship, it was beautiful.<br /><br />Football flirted with me in that opening match, with the brilliance of Siphiwe Tshabalala’s opening goal, the brilliance of Itumeleng Khune and finally the heartbreaking Mexican equaliser all presaged by the pride-inducing beauty of the opening ceremony. As an act of seduction, football couldn’t have done better than that… I was a bit liquored up, it showed me the best of what it could be; how could I not fall for it? <br /><br />I was so enamoured by my new discovery that I allowed friends to attempt to convince why I should support their teams in the European leagues. As my family is split down the middle on this one, I allowed both parents equal opportunity to convince me of why I should support Pirates or Chiefs. I’ll admit it, I even thought perhaps I’d give Wimbledon a miss this year and stick with the football. Those days were the best, I basked in love’s first blush, but, oh how quickly things have soured…<br /><br />As is oft done in relationships, I chose to ignore those initial signs. Those markers that maybe all is not as wonderful as you want to believe it to be. I chose to ignore the numerous inexplicable decisions which were made by the refs, decisions that even a novice me could see were wrong. I thought, perhaps this was what football was meant to be like, I may not have liked it, but I could live with it. But it was too late, that small seed of doubt had been planted in my mind, and no matter how hard I tried to ignore it, I couldn’t. <br /><br />Then England v. Germany & Mexico v. Argentina happened… Video replay. Need I say more?<br /><br />Those matches only reinforced what I already knew. Wimbledon had started a week before and the speed with which I ran back to tennis could rival the speed at which a football player previously writhing in life threatening pain gets up when seeing the referee isn’t buying his ‘injury.’ As I tweeted after Ghana was cheated out of a semi-final spot by Luis Suarez, “The more I watch football, the more I realise this sport’s just not for me… I can’t handle this kinda stress.” Angrily-tweeting and ranting to anyone close enough to hear my threats of blue murder against Suarez, I suddenly realised what my issue with football is. <br /><br /><br />It’s not an issue of being on the losing side. Loss I can handle, I’m a Roger Federer and a Ferrari fan. In both sports, I have had to take a humbling master-class in how to handle loss after having always been on the winning side. The issue I have with football, is that quite often, too often, one feels a justified sense of rage and anger at a loss, because, to quote myself again, ‘we was robbed.’ Football’s very own Dark Overlord, Imperator Sepp Blatter, finds these egregious errors add a ‘charming human element to the game.’ I know the Imperator is somewhat preoccupied counting the billions the Empire of FIFA’s gotten from their South African adventure and refining his confidence tricks to get even more out of Brazil in 2014, but I and millions others, find these moments less ‘charming’ & more ‘infuriating.’ With an attitude like that from the administrators of football, I suddenly began to get something of a modicum of understanding for football hooligans, for what is a ‘football hooligan,’ if nothing more than an enraged fan, and was I not that?<br /><br />And that’s where I realised I had to stop. <br /><br />When one is suddenly seeing the world from the paradigm of boorish thugs, one must stop and evaluate how it is they ended up in that position. I had tried my utmost to ignore the less attractive parts of this beautiful game, and the beautiful game, I will now admit, it is, but there is only so much one can take. This was not to be a lifelong love. This was a month long mistake, Football was that boyfriend you look back on and think, “But what was I thinking?”<br /><br />However, I am someone who likes to finish what they have started, and I will watch the World Cup to its conclusion. Till the 11th of July I will watch the games and cheer for some or other team to take the cup (let it be Argentina). But even before the euphoria has died down, before Imperator Blatter flies off while we’re still too happy to notice we’ve been fleeced, I will kick football and everything it brought into my life out on the kerb. As beautiful as this game is, my nerves cannot handle the stress of this game.<br /><br />Even with the most disastrous of flings, one wants a memento. So, though ‘I will kick football and everything it brought into my life out on the kerb’ the vuvuzela, I’ll keep…Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-63759626096793290792010-05-21T13:59:00.000+02:002010-05-21T14:01:08.189+02:00“Sticks And Stones May Break My Bones, But Words Will Never Hurt Me”Who could’ve known that one Facebook group, started by a bunch of college students in the US could cause such a furore, but that is exactly what happened when the group, ‘Draw Mohammed Day,’ was opened. Many have pointed to the initial aim behind ‘Draw Mohammed Day;’ a reaction to the intimadatory reaction (I know, ridiculous isn’t it) of certain groups to South Parks plan to depict the Prophet Muhammed in an episode (the episode was ultimately censored). I concede and agree that the motivation behind the original idea was wrong. To group everyday Muslims, our friends and neighbours, with the extremist fringe elements is patently wrong and has a displeasing odour of Islamophobia to it. However, as most things that go viral on the internet, the original idea was altered if not ultimately lost. In fact, in the vociferous debate that raged on Twitter this morning (which led me to write this post), I only saw one person arguing the same point that the originators of “Draw Mohammed Day” were making. For most, this became a question on Freedom of Speech, censorship, be it self-censorship or censorship by others. Ultimately, the question many debated was, what, if any limits, should be placed on freedom of expression.<br /><br />Funny, it’s very rare, if ever that you’ll meet a single person who is a believer in democracy who’ll happily say, ‘oh freedom of expression, I only sorta kinda believe in it.’ Yet you talk to many people, many of whom would profess to be ‘liberal’ or ‘progressive’ and you take just one swipe at their support for it, and that is exactly what you’ll find, a wishy-washy half-arsed support for a cornerstone of democracy. From me, those are rather harsh words. <br /><br />However as much as these views irk me I certainly understand them, mainly for the reason that I used to hold the very same opinion. The primary reasoning behind these views (particularly in the spectre of the “Draw Mohammed Day”) is why should we offend? Why should we not respect the views, opinions and sensibilities of others, let us live and let live. Those seem like very reasonable arguments, until you take them to their very possible conclusions. For the question must be asked, where do we draw the line? If we choose to or legislate against the drawing of the Prophet Muhammed, because it offends Muslims, perhaps the Catholics should call for commentary on the Pope or the numerous Roman-Catholic Church policies to be stopped because it offends their sensibilities.<br /><br />But let’s bring this closer to home. Certain members of the ANC have called for there to be laws protecting the integrity of the President/Presidency (the two are one in the same for them) or some such malarkey. Well some of the comments directed at Jacob Zuma have been little more than nasty insults directed at him, a recent one that comes to mind is a comment that equated him to a ‘porn-star’ or of course the classic piece of gutter-journalism on Jacob Zuma, that Daily Mail piece. These comments are offensive not just to Zuma, but arguably many other South Africans who believe a man of his stature ought to afforded a certain modicum of respect. If these comments are offensive to so many, drawing from the original argument ought they not to be stopped? One would? I’d say yes. Sure, they may not be expressed in the most eloquent of manners but political views they still are, and if those offensive views are suppressed, why not those of Ferial Haffajee, Mondli Makhanya, Justice Malala, yours or mine.<br /><br />Ultimately, the reason I support “Draw Mohammed Day” is not because I want to ‘teach those Muslims a lesson or two,’ but rather because to be against it, for me, would be taking a first step down a very slippery slope. I fear where such bans would lead us to, a state where there would be no debate, no discussion, no dissention. Why? Because we all decided that being offensive was wrong and should be stopped. Yes ‘Draw Mohammed Day,’ is offensive, but as far as I’m concerned, offend away. Offend me as much as you want, I will object to it to you, but I will never cry to the state to make you stop. <br /><br />To quote comedian Steve Hughes: “When did sticks and stones stop being relevant? Isn’t that what you teach children for gods sakes? You’re offended? You’re an adult, grow up deal with it!”Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-3367767269281376622010-05-20T14:57:00.000+02:002010-05-20T15:06:53.977+02:00E-Mail To Malawi's High CommissionIt is with great sadness and regret that I note the conviction of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza by magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa for merely being in love.<br /><br />A few years ago I went on holiday to Malawi and it was a wonderful few weeks I spent there. I have always spoken highly of the warmth and love of your people and your country. But after this, I can no longer do that.<br /><br />Your constitution, in much the same way that South Africa's does, expressly prohibits discrimination, yet your leaders have yet to speak up against this ruling or speak to your people on homophobia. This silence can only be seen as a tacit agreement with this odious view. <br /><br />These laws being applied are a horrendous hangover from our colonial days, and as a fellow African, I can only hang my head in shame as further invective and vitriol is hurled at our continent and us as a people for being "backwards" for what can one say to that when our attitudes show just that.<br /><br />Cordially,<br />Mvelase PeppettaMvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7041119451687604773.post-44322950741422357342010-04-30T15:20:00.000+02:002010-04-30T15:32:55.917+02:00The 3rd & Final Leaders Debate: My Take<p class="MsoNormal">Last night saw the 3<sup>rd</sup> and final debate in the run-up to the British polls last night between the top 3 party’s leaders, Nick Clegg for the Liberal Democrats, David Cameron of the Conservative Party and embattled incumbent, Gordon Brown for Labour. The general topic was the economy and much to my surprise I have to say I found it to be a rather entertaining and stimulating exchange.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I really had no idea what to expect when the debate started, sure I had read the articles on the first two debates which generally had found Clegg to have bested Brown and Cameron in this form of electioneering thus accounting for the reported upswing in Lib-Dem’s in recent polls. The only knowledge and experience I’d had regarding debates was (as most people have) the American model. Whilst this generally followed the ‘town-hall debate’ format of American debates, with questions being taken from the audience, where the British departed from their American counterparts was in the manner in which questions were answered. Whilst in the American debates this format is generally marked with seemingly disingenuous, ‘I feel your pain,’ plaintive answers lightly skirting over the actual issues, at least two of the debaters, Brown & Cameron took the opportunity to actually go into the nuts and bolts of their respective policies. Clegg, however, was patently out of sorts, displaying his and his party’s naivety and unpreparedness to govern.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The looming spectre of “BigotGate,” which had occurred just the day before, was, I will admit, one of the main reasons I chose to watch after ignoring the first two debates. However, any expectations for a full on attack by either Clegg or Cameron were thwarted with Clegg and Cameron choosing to take the higher ground on what essentially was a non-issue. In fact, the only blatant reference to the gaffe came from Brown himself who in his opening statement said, “There’s a lot to this job (the Prime Ministership) and as you saw yesterday I don’t get all of it right,” which I felt brought a sense of much-needed finality to the issue in an appropriately apologetic tone before swiftly moving along.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggOcWdG1SL-7ofwxKj8ItBSXK-7xtPdGNVti-NHeBn4QtwkecY8gwMiOX0oiMnE_ZJRzxHsFBk_zdnyu8mmZcahrDgFIkGN4l8cY4lUDqI4MHZCuPBfCzkluJq4Dml3qjmcPwIVBKWZ2Gv/s1600/clegg.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 229px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggOcWdG1SL-7ofwxKj8ItBSXK-7xtPdGNVti-NHeBn4QtwkecY8gwMiOX0oiMnE_ZJRzxHsFBk_zdnyu8mmZcahrDgFIkGN4l8cY4lUDqI4MHZCuPBfCzkluJq4Dml3qjmcPwIVBKWZ2Gv/s320/clegg.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465921931711850722" border="0" /></a>Nick Clegg, whilst he in my opinion failed in the debate, the one message which he was able to successfully put across, was how the blame for the muck and mire that the United Kingdom found itself in today could be squarely placed at the feet of both Labour & Tory, and as far as I saw, there was no response to that claim from either Cameron or Brown. Despite the fact that his main message was put across successfully, Clegg took quite a battering from both Cameron & Brown who took this opportunity to show the Lib Dem manifesto for what it is, a collection of unfeasible idealism. He was particularly hammered on Lib Dems’ call for an amnesty for illegal immigrants that had been in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region> for over ten years, with Cameron & Brown coming extremely close to outright ridiculing the proposal. Personally of all the zany policies, that Clegg put forward, the most nonsensical was his housing policy. Exactly how he expects to compel private owners and builders of blocks apartment blocks to start building family sized apartments instead of the studio apartments with the market has a demand for, I don’t know. The one positive in his housing policy which he didn’t speak on too much, choosing to instead focus on the previously mentioned malarkey was his call, which he admitted was unpopular, for more council housing. Essentially with Clegg, form for him was his strong point, he channeled the best of US political debate style, appeals to emotion and broad (read vague) statements when it came to actual policy.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsDNM71J4p6FX2fyHYGm_cGFBumUHqY6ubNceYWeQQ-QcKXkT9oDH7nBDONgS7LefWZR4RgXK5u7VGkPQOMqwarfJwHft5gI3TAvtTz0wkoOHQQRLvL_mhZWjL-T3nK7nRF212bwl1zEuO/s1600/cameron.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 235px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsDNM71J4p6FX2fyHYGm_cGFBumUHqY6ubNceYWeQQ-QcKXkT9oDH7nBDONgS7LefWZR4RgXK5u7VGkPQOMqwarfJwHft5gI3TAvtTz0wkoOHQQRLvL_mhZWjL-T3nK7nRF212bwl1zEuO/s320/cameron.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465922093352085906" border="0" /></a>Cameron was the one candidate I was probably most interested to hear. Reason being, of the three candidates and parties, his was the one I had paid the least attention to. My reasoning for not bothering to listen or read up on the Tory manifesto was supported right from the moment he answered his first question. Despite all the promises of a ‘new Conservative Party,’ he espoused the exact same liberal-economic policies that Conservatives in the <st1:country-region><st1:place>UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> (and their Republican counterparts in the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>) have been selling since at least the eras of Thatcher & Reagan. “Smaller government is the way to go, government has to cut the deficit as government cannot stimulate the economy etc.” In these claims one could immediately see, that there was no new Conservative Party, a point which Brown repeatedly hammered, though how effective he was in relaying that message, I’m not too sure. A rather humorous moment for me with Cameron was his blatant attempt to capture some of that Obama-magic. His policy (and Brown’s it would seem) regarding financial regulation mirrors that of President Obama’s and after explaining his policy, in case you had missed that it was a near mirror of Obama’s Cameron stated, “we agree with President Obama’s plan…”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiWKYEt6XZEzqo4ITgZMD17WTZrAz9e82YuMWS76LaSlepIJ7o0kU7nur3SKH0dPv8kl5DrmTTMT2Ef-ybvGun_owhhE3YZ98_n73B9f86tqqzLwRmxlS3uxiWTkPV2NBDxb6Ut3wAp8wQ/s1600/brown.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 243px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiWKYEt6XZEzqo4ITgZMD17WTZrAz9e82YuMWS76LaSlepIJ7o0kU7nur3SKH0dPv8kl5DrmTTMT2Ef-ybvGun_owhhE3YZ98_n73B9f86tqqzLwRmxlS3uxiWTkPV2NBDxb6Ut3wAp8wQ/s320/brown.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465922268023715714" border="0" /></a>Gordon Brown explained his party’s policies extremely well, being able to respond to the critiques and attacks of Cameron & Clegg. However, this is where the problem with Brown comes in. Unlike Cameron & Clegg, who were very good at their delivery and thus had a number of easily remembered moments with Brown, there are no such moments. There are only two quasi-exceptions to this. His opening statement which is only memorable as being the only mention of BigotGate and when I felt he scored points not through anything he said, but because he stood back and allowed Cameron & Clegg to bicker between themselves when they were answering the immigration question.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Ultimately, I am a believer in substance over form and that is why I felt that this debate went to Brown, followed by Cameron then Clegg trailing a very distant third. However, the main poll that was being circulated both on television and on Twitter after the debate, YouGov’s poll, gave the win to Cameron by 41%, followed by Clegg with 32% and Brown trailing far behind with 25%. What to make of these numbers, I truly don’t know. What to expect on election-day, again I don’t know.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">However, many seem to be returning to the belief that we can expect Cameron to be Prime Minister either through aligning with Lib-Dem as Brown charged or one or some of the smaller fringe parties. My take on this possible scenario is this. Clegg is an idealist, but at the end of the day he is a liberal idealist and though he may now eschew Labour for ‘betraying’ liberal ideals as one analysis prior to the debate argued, I cannot see, how the Lib-Dems would be able to explain to their electorate, that they chose to align with the ultimate enemy, Conservative A scenario I could see playing it is a Clegg Prime-Ministership. What would occur is Brown would resign after Labour placed 3<sup>rd</sup> position in the election and the Labour leadership would go to Clegg proposing a Lib-Dem led coalition. This would scupper any chances of a Conservative led coalition government (made up of the smaller parties). Lib Dems if they failed to do this, would ultimately have to answer to their extremely liberal base as to why they failed to stop a Conservative government.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Ultimately though, I don’t have a crystal ball to look into because despite what the analysts say, having a politics degree doesn’t mean you can tell what’s going to happen. The only thing I can say for a certainty is this. Keep your eyes glued to the <st1:country-region><st1:place>UK</st1:place></st1:country-region>, exciting times are ahead and anything could happen.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Mvelase Peppettahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02398403407172623417noreply@blogger.com1