George Carlin is a GOD

While we're on a religious theme, and it being Sunday, I'm posting the following videos from YouTube. They were sent to me by my sister, Lynette who though I'd enjoy them. Yep, I sure did; they're very funny, but so true...

Desperate Christians Part 3

My Christian email correspondent from last week; the one I thought had cut and run, is back. I think somehow he believes that I need "saving" so he sent me the the following bit of Christian "wisdom" in a really large font size:

HE IS GOD!!! GOD changed the status of David from a shepherd boy to king of Israel , Esther from a slave girl to a Queen and Joseph from a prisoner to the first (and only foreigner to become) Prime Minister of Egypt . That same God will give you a new designation very soon in Jesus name. In chemistry he turned water to wine, in biology he was born without the normal conception, in physics he disapproved the law of gravity when he ascended into heaven, in economics he disapproved the law of diminishing return by feeding 5000 men with two fishes & 5 loaves of bread, in history he is the beginning & the end, in Government he said that he shall be called wonderful counselor, prince of peace, in religion he said no one comes to the father except through him so who is he.(JESUS). Join me and lets
celebrate him, he is worthy BEWARE: LUV disappoints, SARS is dangerous,
AIDS is real, BOOZE intoxicates, DRUGS kill ....but JESUS saves...don't delete
spread info 2 every living soul in your list. Heavenly Father, Most Gracious and Loving God, I pray to you that you abundantly bless my family and me. I know that you recognize, that a family is more than just a mother and father, sister and brother, husband and wife, but all who believe and trust in you Father, I send up a prayer request for financial blessing for not only the person who sent this to me, but for me and all that I have forwarded this message on to. And that the power of joined prayer by those who believe and trust in you, is more powerful than anything. I thank you in advance for your blessings. Father GOD, deliver the person reading this right now
from debt and debt burdens. Release your Godly Wisdom that I may be a good steward over all that YOU have called me to be in my financial Blessings. Father, for Stars don't struggle to shine, Rivers don't struggle to flow,also you will never struggle to excel in life, because you deserve the best, hold on to your dream and it shall be well with you...Amen. The eyes beholding this message shall not behold evil, the hand that will send this message to others shall not labor in vain, the mouth saying amen to this prayer shall laugh forever, remain in God's love. THE WILL OF GOD WILL NEVER TAKE YOU TO WHERE THE GRACE OF GOD WILL NOT PROTECT YOU". I SEE SOMETHING GOOD HAPPENING TO YOU TODAY. SOMETHING THAT YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING TO EXPERIENCE. THIS IS NOT A JOKE; YOU ARE GOING TO RECEIVE A DIVINE VISITATION THAT WILL MOVE YOUR LIFE FORWARD MIGHTILY BY THE OUTWORKING OF GOD'S UNSTOPPABLE POWER. DO NOT BREAK THIS CHAIN; SEND IT TO A MINIMUM OF SEVEN PEOPLE INCLUDING THIS SENDER. YOU ARE BLESSED BEYOND ALL CURSES IN JESUS' NAME!

My response as usual, was scathing. And I did promise to post it on my blog:

Ah, my religious friend is back. Good afternoon to you, sir. I thought you had cut and run after your last discussion with me. BIG UP to you “brother”, you sure are a sucker for punishment.

Firstly, there is no need to use a large font size in your mails to me. Although I wear spectacles, I can read normal and smaller font sizes. In the world of electronic mailing, using large fonts is known as shouting at your recipients. It means that you are angry with them for some reason. Perhaps I’ve given you reason to shout at me, because I’m a smug bastard who likes taking the Mickey out of poor delusional theists (fools) like yourself. Anyway, now that we have e-mail etiquette out of the way, let’s turn to your latest absurd attempt at convincing me that God/Jesus/Holy
Ghost/Yahweh/pie-in-the-sky/whatever exists.

With reference to the first two paragraphs of this assault on intelligence: Except for these ludicrous claims appearing in that classic fairy-tale called the bible, where is your scientific proof that Jesus:
turned water to wine
was born without the
normal conception
ascended into heaven (do you have the stellar address for this place called heaven)
fed 5000 men with two fishes & five loaves of bread

Incidentally, the word “disapproved” as in “he disapproved
the law of gravity” means, according to the English dictionary “to give a
negative judgment of something based on personal standards”. Synonyms for
disapproved are condemn, censure, criticize, dislike, object to, frown on,
reject. What are you trying to say here: that Jesus condemned, objected to or
frowned on the laws of gravity. Very strange person, that Jesus chap.

“BEWARE: LUV disappoints, SARS is dangerous, AIDS is real, BOOZE intoxicates, DRUGS kill ....but JESUS saves”

No my friend, Jesus does not save, neither does God, for they don’t exist….only in your imagination maybe. What you really need to beware off is irrational beliefs in Gods and fairies and goblins, and the trash written in books like the bible. And beware people who peddle this rubbish. There is only one source of power in the world, and that is an unencumbered mind. A free mind, thinking rational and logical thoughts is more powerful than all the gods you think exist. Try it, free yourself. I am “saved” already…

Evolution is alive and well, and happening. People who have abandoned religion and other superstitious nonsense and growing their minds, are evolving to become better people. Those who cling onto religion and fear are doomed to extinction. It is only a matter of time before this irrational belief in religion is eradicated. The signs are strong that the younger generations are slowly but surely moving away from religion.

Oh, and by the way, as requested, I am sending this to a minimum of 7 people. I will go further though and post it to my blog as well.

Regards

Lenny

Fender Vendors

They're not your average pavement or roadside hawker. Fender vendors are the brave souls who dodge cars at busy traffic intersections every day, braving the elements, risking death or injury to make a meagre sale. It is impossible to miss them on your daily commute to work on weekdays or when going out anywhere on weekends. They have no holidays, every Sunday is a workday.

There are the regulars at every intersection. The faces become familiar over time. Amazingly, most even recognise regular passing motorists and wave cheerfully, hoping to make a sale. Most have a cheerful disposition and are really friendly. In fact, it is a pleasure to see a cheerful face as you crawl through traffic, and notice that your fellow motorists are decidedly glum-looking. What a disgrace to also watch how some motorists wave the vendors away rather impolitely. I have had occasion to witness motorists rebuke these vendors and utter vulgar insults as well.

I know that these vendors are considered a nuisance and a many motorists would dearly love to see them removed from the intersections. Considering the sea of crime engulfing the country, South African motorists probably consider these vendors as a threat. Given there may be a small criminal element among them who have been known to conduct smash-and-grab raids on vehicles, the majority are honest individuals just trying to make an honest buck. There is no need for paranoia. So what if some of them are peddling items, that you would normally purchase only from a licenced retailer. They don't have economics degrees. They will soon enough realise that they need to switch to stock that sells.

Let's give them a break and some support from time to time. And you don't have to buy any of the illegal stuff...unless you want to.

South Africa burns...where is the fiddler?

There are cries of xenophobia everywhere; the newspapers are full of it, news on TV, the blogosphere, people discussing it in groups. Pictures of a poor man burning is travelling around the world. Most South Africans, and in all likelihood people all over the world are perplexed. The victims are just shocked, horror written all over their faces. Is this really a scene from the new South Africa, only just 14 years old? What is happening here?

I have spent a few days taking in the reports of violence, killings and destruction of property from around the Province, trying to make sense of it all. Most of the attacks seem to be targeted at foreigners, mostly illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi, but there have also been attacks against locals. The perpetrators of the attacks are referred to constantly, as "they". Who are "they" really? Are they Zulus or Xhosa's or some other linguistic or tribal group, as has been claimed in some reports? Or are they just a mixture of poor South Africans, living in the squalor of the townships, shanty-towns and ghettos?

We have been living alongside illegal immigrants for a number of years now, but why the sudden torrent of anger directed toward them, originating in Alexandria township? Apart from the first half or so years, of the country's transition to democratic rule of government, there has been a noticeable decline in the state of the economy and quality of government. The first signs were the escalation in the rate of crime being perpetrated on people of all races. The poor got steadily poorer and more desperate by the day. Criminals became more brazen when they realized that the police and indeed the government were quite helpless, nay clueless when it came to protecting its citizens. While the poor suffered intense hardship, prominent members of the government were helping themselves to the taxpayers money. The government (local and national) lost sight of its vision to rebuild the country, pave the way for creation of equality, wealth and justice for all; instead, with the exception of a few dedicated politicians and civil servants, most concentrated on lining their own pockets. Meanwhile, our President continues to support Zimbabwean dictator, Robert Mugabe, while his people stream into South Africa to escape that brutal regime.

And then came higher and even higher interest rate hikes, and to add insult to injury, monthly fuel price hikes with its concomitant rise in the price of food and basic necessities. The poor were now reeling from the double whammy. Is it then inconceivable to imagine that the recent outbreak of so-called xenophobic attacks could be linked to the desperate situation the poor have now been cornered into. Fourteen years after being freed politically, they now find themselves enslaved economically. It could have started as a small squabble in Alexandria, but quickly escalated out of control. We will never really know. The victims certainly don't know why they have been attacked. The problem is that it has happened.

But, the government has been obscenely silent about the whole mess. Where is the fiddler? Mr. Mbeki, it is time for you to go, don't wait for the 2009 election...

Life of Brian

A few weeks ago, I purchased a DVD of Monty Python's Life of Brian, on sale at a local music shop. In between everything else I managed to squeeze in yesterday, I watched the movie on my home theatre system. I remember watching the film at one of the local cinemas in Durban, some time after it was released in 1979, and had forgotten all about it until I spotted the DVD on sale.

Now, I don't exactly remember any of the controversy surrounding the film when it was released in South Africa, but given the subject matter of the film and the conservative Apartheid society of the time, I would have been very surprised had there been none. The film which portrays religion as hypocritical and fanatical, certainly did cause a consternation among the religious community in Britain and the USA when first released. If there were any protests in South Africa, on a scale equivalent to that of Britain and the USA (apparently it was banned outright for 8 years in the Republic of Ireland), I must have missed it.

But, after watching the film yesterday, I was struck by how timid the perceived blasphemy and criticism of Christianity and religion in general, really was. Oh, to be sure the portrayals were quite funny and relatively current, but compared to the scathing criticism found widely today in mediums such as the blogosphere, I thought it was quite timid. I'll bet a film made today with the same subject matter, won't be as accommodating to the religions of the world.

Well, I'm not overly disappointed though, since the film is regarded as a classic Monty Python feature and makes a welcome addition to my DVD collection. Anyway, the song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" by Eric Idle in the film's closing scene is one of my favourites.

A passing shot...or desperate Christians Part 2

Remember my "friend" from the other day, the one who responded to my heated mail disputing the claim that NASA scientists had proved the bible to be true? Well, after the last response to him (the one that made me feel sheepish afterwards), he responded again saying that I should leave him be and get on with my life, this after he had initiated the debate.

It's not surprising really, there's nothing new about theists who either cut and run when the debating gets tough, or rehash tired old religious dogma and present it as new evidence. Theists have said nothing new for thousands of years, and yet they still persist in attacking, and worse, ignoring new scientific evidence which has become stronger year after year. The more science prooves that they are delusional, the deeper they dig their heads in the sand (aka, religious texts). I am sure my "friend who shall still remain nameless" has gone to his pastor to seek solace and reaffirm his faith.

It being Sunday, I am convinced that the sermon today, in a certain church in Durban is going something like this:

And I say to you brethren, as we approach the end days, there will be false prophets walking the earth who will entice you to give up your faith. These false prophets are the henchmen of the devil, and there will be one who is called Lenny. Be aware of the devil called Lenny as he will surely create turmoil in your mind and tempt you away from our Lord as he recently tried with brother "name withheld".

Boy, I wish I could be a fly on the wall of that church...

Feeding frenzy at the sharktank, Durban

It is done. The Sharks are through to the semi-finals of the Super 14 rugby tournament. The excesses of yesterday's cheering and after-match celebrations are very evident this morning as I nurse a slight hangover. It was great though to see a highly talented team finally hit their straps after a rather mediocre season. Considering that the Sharks topped the log last season and were "beaten" by the Bulls in the finals only through a refeering error, this has been a strange season for them. Well, all's well that ends well; it may be a good thing that they are peaking right now for the final games. As always I'm truly impressed by Ryan Kankowski, "Beast" Mtawarira, Rory Kockott and Jacques Botes, although to be fair the whole team put in a splendid performance yesterday. Running in 7 tries to 3 against the Hurricanes was quite impressive. Can't wait for next weekend when they take on the Waratahs. Go Sharks!!!

Save the Polar Bear - Message from the We Campaign

Earlier this week, the Secretary of the Interior placed the polar bear on the Endangered Species List as a threatened species. More than 136,000 We members like you helped make that happen by signing our petition asking the Secretary to take action on this issue. What's even more amazing is that all this happened in just a week.

The listing is clearly a step in the right direction. Much more needs to be done -- to save the polar bear and solve the climate crisis. Much more. But when these positive steps do occur, we should acknowledge the work that we've done together. And we should set our sights on more and bigger successes.

So...again, thank you!

Sincerely,

Cathy Zoi

CEO

www.wecansolveit.org

Desperate Christians

Last night I received a hoax email from my first cousin who is obviously a newly-converted Christian. I regularly receive, or should I say, am bombarded with mails from him, selling Christianity. Up to this point I had politely ignored the mails, quietly deleting them without any complaint. He is a cousin after all, and I didn't have the heart to tell him to stop pestering me with religious pornography. Anyway, I did hint on a few occasions that I was an Atheist, but new-found believers are known to be relentless in trying to convert everyone to their one-tracked, twisted, illogical, and irrational ideology, and so he persisted.

However last night, I totally lost it, when I received the hoax mail about how NASA had proved the bible to be true. The hoax had been around in one guise or another for about 30 years, and had been refuted by several sources over the years. Recently it seems it had gotten a new lease of life and was doing the rounds again, and eventually found its way into my inbox courtesy of my cousin. What annoyed me so much was that anyone with a modicum of intelligence, reading the mail would suspect that it was less than plausible, and would bother to take the time to verify the material before forwarding it any further. It seems that my cousin, and indeed those before him were only too eager to believe (a characteristic of religious people) and passed it on in glee, relishing the thought of proving us heathens, non-believers and sceptics wrong. Indeed, the glowing introduction in the mail to the so-called proof, proclaimed that "Angus Buchan said on his Mighty Men Conference: Faith is believing in what you can not see, The reward is to see what you believe. This is the proof!!!!!"

Essentially the hoax insinuated that NASA, during its research had come across a "missing day" in its calculations which proved certain passages in the bible to be true. Several websites refuted this claim, including a Christian site called answersingeneses.org, yes, that selfsame organization behind the abominable Creation Museum. It is unthinkable that true scientists would be wasting their energies on trying to prove the bible to be true. Imagine NASA spacecraft being built on a wing and a prayer (the scenario is hilarious: NASA announces that their latest shuttle will be powered by a new fuel called faith and all scientists are now required to pray hard that it takes off). Now, after my initial suspicions about the claims in the mail had been confirmed, in a fit of rage, I rushed off a reply to my cousin and all his recipients as follows:

Hi good people,
I don’t know Deborah Elkington, but this hoax mail seems to have originated from her in this thread. I don’ know this Angus Buchan either but he is obviously a monumental idiot as well. I don’t normally respond to hoax mails, and I just delete mails promoting religious rubbish. However, this one needs to be stopped dead, because, not only is this story (urban myth) extremely old, it annoys me that people actually believe such crap. The so-called “proof” below that NASA proves the bible true, was refuted ages ago, and has been around in one form or the other for about 30 years. For those who are religiously inclined and don’t believe me, the story was refuted by a Christian Website called answersingeneses.org. Follow the web link if you have access to the Internet, but I have copied it below for you.
For those of you who would like further “proof” that this story about NASA is bollocks, please refer to the following websites:
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/j/joshuaday.htm
http://www.snopes.com/religion/lostday.asp
http://patriot.net/~jlazio/essays/missing.html
http://www.new-life.net/myths.htm
http://www.about-him.com/guest16.html
There are doubtless more sites with similar refutations. As an atheist, I personally don’t mind other people deluding themselves about the existence of God, but I get really annoyed when un-verified information purporting to be the truth is passed on to me, especially religious dogma. I’ve said all this before, so you are welcome to debate with me on my blog-site: http://lenny-says.blogspot.com/
Thanks for your time
Lenny

This morning, I was a little peeved at myself for being so rash, and unkind to my cousin and was about to send him an apology this evening, when I read a reply to my mail from one of his (my cousin's) original recipients and changed my mind. The person who shall remain nameless was obviously very angry that I had blown their "proof" out of the water, wrote thus:

Thank You sir for your comments below..

I am a Christian , I don’t care about Nasa or anyone else. I am a blessed Christian. To me , Jesus is the way , the Truth and the Life... God Said it , I believe it and that settles it.

Have a good day.

Which, off course ticked me off again, as this is the sort of reply you would expect from a theist, whose faith is increasingly being crushed by damning scientific evidence. It is a cry of desperation, typical of a believer, as the last straws he is clutching onto are slowly but surely snatched way from him. Anyway, I could not resist replying thus:

Hey bro’, believe what you want, it’s no skin of my teeth. I’m not surprised you don’t care about anyone else. All theists are the same – all they care about after millennia of religious brainwashing, is their own personal salvation. Give up your chase of imaginary Gods and concentrate your time and effort in helping your less-fortunate fellow man out of this mess we are in, in the world today, which I may add is largely due to the excesses of religion and the purveyors of religious dogma. You’ll find as I have, that you will much more “blessed” and you soon wont have this irrational fear of non-existent Gods.

Verily I saith unto thee, brother, join me in clear and rational thinking. Blessed is he who forsakes all Gods to help his fellow man. Heaven is here on Earth, look no further, stop destroying her. Now please go forth, and stop with that religious mumbo-jumbo; you’re preaching to he whose mind is free of religious pollution.

I am truly sorry if I have offended thee; I am a real bastard when it comes to
religion, and could not resist.

Regards

Lenny

Now I am feeling sheepish for being a wise-ass and having acted rashly yet again....

Favourite Video from Pangea Day - 1

Here is the first in a series of short films from Pangea Day which really caught my attention. It can be interpreted in a few different ways, but I'd like to think it portrays respect for different cultures and tolerance. What do you think?

Pangea Day

Last night I was honoured to be part of the the global audience that watched the live 4-hour broadcast in 7 languages, via television, the Internet and mobile phones, of Pangea Day from Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro. What the heck is Pangea Day, you may ask? Well, it is an event designed to bring the world together through the medium of film, allowing us to see this world which is divided by ethnic, racial and religious differences, political and territorial borders, conflict and intolerance, through someone else's eyes. It was a day designed for people to tell their stories through the medium of short films, music and inspiring speeches.

Pangea Day was the brainchild of Jehane Noujaim, a documentary filmmaker, who after winning the TED prize in 2006, was granted a wish to change the world. Pangea Day is result of this wish and the culmination of almost two years of dedicated work to put it all together. The short films that were broadcast last night during the 4-hour broadcast, were winning submissions from around the world. South Africa featured prominently as did the the rest of Africa which is currently the source of widespread distress and despair.

The short films featured were poignant, sometimes funny, but truly inspirational. Personally, I am not given to displays of emotion, but there were times last night that almost brought tears to my eyes, and other times that touched on raw anger at some of the scenes I witnessed.

To really appreciate the significance of this event, which I hope will be held at least annually, you have to view some of the live broadcast and the short films that were aired. Over the next week or so, I will post some of the short films that really inspired me, on this blog. To start, here is the opening sequence from last night...

Happy Mothers Day

Traditionally, Mothers Day used to be the day the kids woke up their mums in bed, while serving breakfast. Thereafter mum got the day off, while dad and the kids took care of everything, well almost. These days it seems that just getting mum a (well deserved, I might add) gift will suffice, and then everyone is off to do their own thing. Well, this year since I'm over 600 Km away from my mum again, this blog will have to do until I visit in June (with a pressie off course).

Historically the celebration of motherhood dates back to ancient history with the Greeks who celebrated Rhea, the Mother of all Gods, and the Romans who honoured Cybele, their Mother Goddess. I am unaware of any Eastern tradition of Motherhood celebration which is contemporary with Greek and Roman history, but there most probably is. In modern times, Mothers Day is celebrated worldwide at different times, between 02 February in Greece and the 22 December in Indonesia, but the most common day for most of the world is the second Sunday in May, just as in South Africa. Off course, every day should be celebrated as Mothers Day, but unfortunately mums cannot be given so many rest days, as the rest of us will surely suffer greatly without them being there for us.

I've tried several times, to add a fancy animated card to this post, but I'm having trouble with pasting the HTML code. If I do get it right, it will be on my next post.

Anyway, to all mums the world over, have a wonderful day.

Miss Daisy Driving

Earlier this week I happened to give a friend and working colleague a lift to work, after his car had broken down. While we were plodding our our way through the usual early morning traffic, he commented that I was a very patient driver because I had given way to another driver who seemed in a huge hurry. He admitted that he was not as patient and typically drove quite fast. The conversation then expanded into general driving behaviours of South African motorists and how we all are such bad drivers, breaking the rules with reckless abandon.

The reason I'm only writing about this now, is because I've been wondering how to approach what happened next without being or sounding sexist. You see, during our conversation, my friend enquired if I had noticed anything lately, about women drivers. Admittedly, I responded immediately that I had noticed how aggressive women drivers had become on our roads. It seems that over the last few years more (younger) women are on the road, driving their own cars. And, to my chagrin are behaving as badly and aggressively as their testosterone infused, male counterparts. Just the other day, another car driven by a young woman, almost crashed into the side of my car while attempting to change lanes, and then she gave me a terrifying stare suggesting that I was wrong to be in her driving space.

Just as I had analysed and sought to understand the behaviour of mini-bus taxi drivers, I realised that I had to do the same for women drivers. Why have women drivers suddenly become a new force to be reckoned with on our roads? Has this behaviour always been there and we have just not noticed it before? Is there a justification for this behaviour?

Well, the (many) conclusions I have come to, are in fact not surprising:

• Increasingly, women are required to work to supplement the family income in these trying times. This accounts for the increase in women drivers on the roads.


• In the modern era, women are far more independent than in previous times, and subsequently have their own careers and generate their own income. Naturally, the need arises to commute independently like men do.


• Consequently women are exposed to the same pressures as men in the workplace, and in order to compete and survive need to adjust their (normally perceived) timid behaviour accordingly. However women compete on an historically unequal footing with men which requires them to work harder. Further, women have to balance family life with work; take care of the kids, cook, clean, shop etc. This can't be easy and probably accounts for the built-up aggression.

Personally, I don't condone bad or aggressive behaviour on our roads, whether from men or women. We just need to understand why it exists, how it affects others, and make adjustments to correct and eradicate it. Wouldn't the chore of having to commute daily become so much more pleasurable when all users of the road have changed their behaviours and attitudes.

Dedicated to Bernedette Muthien and all at Engender who are working towards gender equality, amongst other noble initiatives...

Exposing the Irrational

I have posted a few blogs already which question irrational beliefs, especially those concerning religion, and I intend to continue to do so, as new information comes to light. While catching up on the latest debates raging in the pages of Google Groups, I came across a person by the name of James Randi, who appears to have spent the greater part of his life exposing and debunking claims of supernatural powers such as those by faith healers, and by all accounts seems to be quite a well known sceptic. Instead of explaining in detail some of his work, I have attached a few videos from YouTube which I believe are self explanatory.

James Randi exposes Uri Geller and Peter Popoff

Peter Popoff vs James Randi 2007

James Randi examines faith healing

James Randi and an Astrologer

The great powwow that wont be

Recently, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that he would be inviting world leaders to a summit in Rome, some time in June this year to discuss the global food crises. When I heard this on the news, it immediately reminded me of all the other "summits" that have been convened in the past, where international governments sat and talked about various crisis facing the world... and which came to basically nothing.

Small fortunes were wasted each time, when the governments of the world were feted for days, even weeks, in luxurious conference facilities, sometimes in exotic get-away locations around the world. These gatherings usually achieved remarkable success in only emitting lots of hot air and little else. These were nothing more than elaborate talk-shops designed to maintain and enhance the aura of self-importance around pompous-asshole-governments around the world. While these egotistical bastards sat around bickering and arguing, the troubles of the world grew greater, the peoples that were meant to be helped, sank into greater despair. The governments of the world returned home, made commitments, formed committees, emitted more hot air and very little was actually done to solve the problems.

The global food crises will not be solved by world governments who are not in the business of solving problems - they create them. The problem can only be solved by relevant special interest groups, big business with genuine social responsibility programmes and ordinary caring individuals. The governments of the world need to get out of the way, remove all red-tape and let these groups and individuals get on with the job of tackling and solving world crisis.

The We Campaign

In previous blogs I mentioned joining the We Campaign which is doing great work to raise awareness about climate change, and the efforts to halt global warming. I recently received a mail (copied below) from a Matt Howes who is affiliated to the campaign, which made me feel good about doing my bit for this noble effort. I hope you will join me too...

Dear We blogger,
Thank you for signing up to be a part of the We campaign. As bloggers, you are often the first place your family, friends, colleagues and other readers go to get their news and information. We have seen the great work you are doing to raise awareness about the need for action on climate change, and we encourage you to keep up the positive work. As you know, one of the We campaign¹s central missions is to bring people together who may disagree on certain issues but recognize we all must unite behind the common goal for solving the climate crisis.
In that vein, we¹d like to give you an advance look at the next element of our national advertising campaign. As you may remember our previous TV ads featured ³unlikely alliances² coming together for the We campaign. Later this week, we¹ll begin airing new 15-second television ads inviting people to ³sit on the couch² much like Revs. Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson and like House Speakers Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich did in our earlier ads.
The nature of this crisis demands a collective response: greenhouse gas emissions anywhere contribute to climate change everywhere. The We campaign couch symbolizes this call for unity across traditional political, social, demographic and economic boundaries. We wanted to give you a preview of our new ads before they appear on the airwaves and ask your help in drawing attention to this call. As we move into summer, we will continue to roll out new pairs of unlikely alliances and will update you as we these new ads and related activities are finalized. In particular, we¹ll be announcing ways for the public to get more directly involved, focusing on the symbol of the couchŠ with more details in the weeks to come.
For a sneak preview of our new ads, click here:
http://www.wecansolveit.org/content/video/202/
http://www.wecansolveit.org/content/video/203/
Thank you again for your commitment, and we look forward to working together to help solve the climate crisis.
Matt

I will continue to update this blog with any new developments that are made known to me.

And the winner is...

On the Fresh Drive radio show this afternoon, Catherine chose "Loser" by Beck as her song of the week. I clearly remembered this tune from Beck's "Mellow Gold" album, in my song collection, but had not listened to it in a while.

When I got home, I decided to listen to the song again, from my collection which are now converted to MP3's and stored on my computer. It got me thinking about why anybody would write about being a loser, or confess to being one. It seems just such a strange thing to do. Even if I were at the lowest point in my life, and considered myself to be a loser, I don't believe I would admit as much.

Intrigued, I performed a quick filter on the word "Loser" in my collection, and it brought up a few songs with the same title, so it sent me searching for songs with the same title by other artists. Amazingly, I found dozens of songs listed with the title "Loser," from different genres and each with it's own peculiar meaning. Here is just a sample of the artists I managed to find, but there are literally hundreds with the word "loser" in the title:

• Beck
• Motorhead
• Smokie
• 3 Doors Down
• Iggy Pop
• N.E.R.D.
• Kamikaze
• Lady Saw (never heard of them before)
• Randy Newman
• The Crox (never heard of them before)
• Slapshot (never heard of them before)
• Ayreon
• Anal C..t (I don't even want to spell it out)
• The Bosshouse (never heard of them before)
• Trapeze
• Dave Alvin (never heard of him before)
• Richard Cheese (seems to be a cover of Beck)
• Grateful Dead
• The Order
• Dangerous Toys (never heard of them before)
• Paddingtons (never heard of them before)
• Plasticines
• Dolores O' Riordan (of The Cranberries)
• Cracker
• Nosliw (never heard of them before)
• Smile Empty Soul (never heard of them before)
• Saving Jane
• Angel Witch (never heard of them before)
• Skew Sisken (never heard of them before)
• The Bad Bloods (never heard of them before)
• Bamboula (never heard of them before)
• Jimmy Bowskill
• Soren Berlev (never heard of him/her before)
• The Nadas (never heard of them before)

Of those I am familiar with, the winning "Loser" is 3 Doors Down. Make of the lyrics what you will:

Breathe in right away,

Nothing seems to fill this place

I need this every time,

Take your lies get off my case

Someday I will find a love

That flows through me like this

This will fall away, this will fall away

You’re getting closer to pushing me

Off of life’s little edge

Cause I’m a loser

And sooner or later

You know I’ll be dead

You’re getting closer,

You’re holding the rope,

I'm taking the fall

Cause I’m a loser,

I’m a loser, yeah

This is getting old,

I can’t break these chains that I hold

My body’s growing cold,

There’s nothin left of this mind

Or my soul

Addiction needs a pacifier,

The buzz of this poison is taking me higher...

The pleasure of driving...slowly

I drove to the mall earlier today at a sedate 70 - 80km/h, and quite enjoyed the ride. My slow pace was self-imposed, not caused by heavy traffic as usual. Funny how driving slowly allows you to take in the scenery (what there was of it) and become aware of so much more that is happening around you. You get to observe, the fascinating, even dull, and sometimes peculiar behaviour of other motorists and pedestrians rushing around quite oblivious to your almost voyeuristic behaviour. You also notice objects, buildings, that hole in the fence, strange coloured house, that pothole you've driven through on several occasions, and even drab advertising billboards, that you've missed before.

Driving slowly may even become something of a fad in the coming months, as fuel prices soar to ever greater heights. Since January we have had a monthly increase in the fuel price of about 25 percent. In 1999 the price of fuel in South Africa was around R2.23 per litre. Since then the price has increased on average 15 percent, year on year. If current economic (and political) trends continue, we are being told that soon we will be paying around R10 a litre. This is causing alarm throughout the country as fuel price rises has a concomitant effect on other commodities, especially food. This is not great news for consumers, and dare I say, to those who are used to driving fast.

In reality beer is cheaper than petrol or diesel at the moment. So, slow down enjoy some beer (while you still can). Rather drink, don't drive...

Save the Arctic Polar Bears

As a member of the We Campaign, I'd like to encourage you to support the effort to save the Arctic Polar bears who are threatened by ice shrinkage. Help by signing the petition to the Bush Administration requesting that polar bears be placed on the endangered species list.

More information at:
http://www.wecansolveit.org/

Cry the Beloved Congo

It was perhaps fortunate I lost my Internet connection recently, as it allowed me time to catch a most disturbing documentary on the History Channel entitled "King Leopold's Ghost" by Pippa Scott, which is based on a book of the same name by Adam Hochschild. I have been itching to write about this documentary ever since I saw it, but I'm currently engrossed in a book titled "After the Party - A Personal and Political Journey inside the ANC", by Andrew Feinstein, which I'm finding hard to put down. Besides, I wasn't so sure how to approach the King Leopold story, and had to conduct some research first.

Essentially, the documentary (and book) reveals a horror story of colonial exploitation, human-rights abuses, forced labour, torture, mass maiming and killings, of the peoples of the Congo, the likes of which were unprecedented up to that time, and which seems to have been conscientiously buried in history. The villain responsible for these atrocities was King Leopold 2 of Belgium, who in pursuit of colonial territory and personal wealth, was responsible for the deaths of more than ten million Congolese, between 1885 and 1908. Now take a minute to digest that figure; ten million hapless souls murdered, in most cases brutally by Leopold's private army of enforcers. The only atrocity that comes close in scale, is the systematic extermination of about six million Jews by Hitler in World War 2.

Now, I consider myself quite widely read, and I am very aware of the extermination of the Jews, but why is it that I only learnt of this atrocity in the Congo, right on South Africa's doorstep, only a few days ago? Why has it been hidden? Why is it not widely known in history texts, and taught in schools? Why is King Leopold still highly regarded in Belgium? Is it because Black lives are expendable? Why is the extermination of six million Jews more widely recognized and reported on, than ten million Africans? Why is America (who are known to have been complicit in and supportive of King Leopold's efforts in the Congo) and Europe so silent about this issue?

Largely due to its rotten past history, the Democratic Republic of Congo today is still plagued by corrupt rulers, and greedy overseas companies stealing its natural wealth. It is indeed a testament to the will and strength of the Congolese people that, throughout their existance, they have survived Arab slave traders, European colonialist exploitation, sickness, disease, starvation, the CIA, Corporate thieves, murderous warlords, and a succession of dictatorial rulers. How much more can they take before total decimation of the Congolese people from the face of Africa?

It is my fervent hope that more decent people like Adam Hochschild, read and learn about this shameful episode in our history and make every effort to denounce King Leopold and Belgium, and also all the other bastards in Congo's recent history who are tearing this country apart.