We are like firemen, fighting about which hose to use, while the house burns down.
Suhaib Webb (via thetruthsiren)
Blog
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This is not Africa
TRIGGER WARNING [RAPE]
The Silent War is a social awareness campaign about rape in South Africa illustrated and designed by Greg Richards.
“As there are six colors in the South African flag I developed six different areas of rape to raise awareness towards. Each poster carries a different colour of the flag. The six areas are: child rape; why men rape; woman’s chance of being raped versus learning to read; South Africa being the rape and HIV capital of the world; women are primitively referred to as fair game by men; and the frequency of rape incidents per day. For each image the person is looking directly at the viewer to create a direct communication of the campaign’s message.” writes Richards.
OK but where is the racial diversity? One the issues with rape in SA is that yes, although it does affect the black population at a higher level than other groups, it doesn’t mean that it is exclusive to black people in this country. It’s the same way that people think that black people are the face of HIV/AIDS. This campaign also seems to over-simplify the issue, from what is shown above.
“Still proud to be South African?” – urgh, that tag line gets to me. I may not be South African by birth but I’m very emotionally attached to this country and honestly, I just don’t like the worth and pride of South Africans being linked to this issue. There are many reasons to be proud of being South African and I haven’t met a single person here that goes around boasting about rape or HIV/AIDS rates in this country so I don’t see why there’s a need to question their pride.
Also, something about the way these ‘people’ were drawn doesn’t sit well with me. They all look like they were inspired by a UNICEF or UNHCR handbook.
why wouldn’t people be proud of their country ? yes, it’s not perfect, but it’s a beautiful country with beautiful people ! as you said it’s not like people are proud of the rape issues so much that they have included them in their national anthem or what not… I feel like this campaign is somehow racist. Those people are just black people who look kind of sad/abandoned, so it’s like those are the only people here who get raped and rape each other : black people. “Strangely” when they want to claim good things, it’s like there are 200 billion white people in this country, but rape? oooh, the blacks. There’s no set profile for rapists or people who get raped, but do all these folks look alike?
hmm thats weird, i thought there were white people in SA too, or rape just happens to black people living in SA now? what? the artist is white? supriseeeee
To add to the responses above, the writer is obviously ignorant of many dynamics in South Africa, and South Africans themselves have had more powerful and meaningful anti-rape campaigns, some even headed up by Charlize Theron. So this is opportunistic, if nothing else. Another little known fact, or seldom reported fact is that in many rural areas, black witch doctors (a.k.a. sangomas) have been stupid and irresponsible enough to tell their patients that sleeping with a virgin (including babies) is a cure for AIDS. This was a major trigger in child rape a few years ago. So the moral of this story is, if you don’t know what you’re talking about, keep your elitist bull to yourself. South Africa has a lot more going for it than just rape and crime, and if you bothered to take a holistic view of the country, you wouldn’t find any reason to include that supposedly catchy phrase about being proudly South African. If you have money to waste on advertising campaigns, use it to expose to corruption and greed in the ANC-led government. That is by far the biggest threat to democracy and service delivery in South Africa, not crime, or rape, although both of these are strongly opposed by numerous civil groups and society as a whole.
Sensationalistic bullshit. That’s all this is. What irks me even more is that it’s the colonialists that want to teach us how to undo what they entrenched through the policies that they established in South Africa that gave rise to apartheid and gender inequality in the first place. Talk about selective amnesia, you arrogant pricks!
(sorry, I needed that rant!)
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Random thoughts about creation and manipulation
I believe that this earth is a closed system. Nothing can be depleted or destroyed to the point where it is not recoverable. Everything alters their state subject to the manipulation that it is subjected to, but that altered state either makes it usable or unusable. If unusable, appropriate manipulation can be brought to bear on it that will recover it into a usable state once again.
Therefore, our ability to deplete natural resources is in fact only limited to our inability to recover what we’ve altered. I disagree with the premise that the earth will be incapable of sustaining life in years to come because it will be over populated. It can never be over populated but it can be, and is abused. It’s our abuse of the resources at our disposal that leads to the massive disparity in quality of life between nations and geographical locations.
The greater our ability to responsibly balance how we consume, the greater will be our ability to restore and sustain the availability of resources that we have at our disposal. Even the conception and birth of a baby is a result of resources in some form or another being consumed. The mother, through the nourishment that she provides her body, influences the quality of foetal life, as well as the subsequent birth. Just because it is all a result of extremely complex chemical reactions does not imply that something is being created out of nothing.
What exists, exists. How we manipulate that will determine how many beautiful or disgusting permutations of the combination of our resources can yield subject to our limited intellectual and physical abilities. The more we grow to understand this world and everything it contains, the greater our ability to influence its form and function. But we must never forget that we are nothing but manipulators of what already exists, and therefore we should not delude ourselves about our capabilities.
This realisation, for me, further establishes my views about the atheist philosophies compared to that of the theists, who are now more fashionably called creationists. Man has never, and will never create something out of nothing. Nor are we able to truly grasp what nothing is, because it will always be thought of in the context of the absence of something. And as we know, the absence of one thing creates a condition in which something else is manifested. Think about it. All we do all day is alter the state of things. Things that already exist.
The search for the beginning of creation will never end, because every single time we think we arrived at the smallest particle known to man, we fail to conclusively answer a simple question. What causes that particle to assume the characteristics and properties that it does? There is always more, and the only thing that limits how much we understand of how much more there is, is our limited knowledge and our limited abilities to delve deeper than we already have.
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A Love Story
Beautiful story. Inspirational enough to want to share it. They don’t make love stories the way they used to. Hollywood / Bollywood pales in comparison.
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/) -
The Truth About Introverts
I get the good intention behind this poster that has been going around for a while now, but I respectfully disagree with it. It is based on the premise that being an introvert is actually a handicap of sorts and requires special attention. It also labels people, which is something that I vehemently disagree with in the strongest of terms.
I have seen, and continue to see many people that actually succumb to the expected behavioural patterns of the labels that they’re assigned by society to the point where they start acting the way they’re conditioned to do so rather than because it’s something they would actively or consciously do. The moment we label people’s state of mind, we set in motion many negative sequences and patterns of behaviour.
The point I’m trying to make is that unless there is a physical defect that causes someone to behave strangely, any awkwardness or unusual behaviour is simply a symptom of their self-esteem or present state of mind. If this label of introvert were true, you would never see an ‘introvert’ light up the moment they find they’re in their element amongst people they can trust where their contribution is appreciated and they have no need to feel incompetent or insignificant. If they were truly afflicted with a state of ‘introvertism’ then that kind of behaviour would never be possible.
It’s not about introverts versus extroverts. It’s about confidence or a lack thereof. It’s a simple matter of someone feeling significant and appreciated, or not. And don’t confuse it with someone that is naturally introspective versus someone that has no time for the detail that begs to be observed. It’s simply about focus, personal preferences, and the like.
Some colleagues of mine once played a trick on one of their co-workers. Despite the guy being perfectly healthy, they all conspired to make comments about how he wasn’t looking very well at all, and that he really should take time to rest. They repeated this cycle for a few hours in the morning with various people making comments about the way he looked, his demeanour, his eyes looking tired, etc. By lunchtime, he felt physically ill and asked for time off work. And he looked ill as well.
Another experiment carried out on kids in the first or second grade showed how negative associations play out in actual academic performance. Half the kids in the class were given blue ribbons to tie around their heads with the other half given red ribbons. The one group was told that they got the blue ribbons because they weren’t so smart, and the other group was told that they were smarter than the blue team. That resulted in the normally smart kids with blue ribbons suddenly doubting themselves and slipping back when asked questions in class, while kids that were normally slackers wearing red ribbons were suddenly enthusiastic and engaged.
We often respond to the labels and stereotypes that society places on us without realising it. It starts out innocently because it just makes it easier to put people into boxes the moment they act against the norm, but this convenience for the ‘normal’ people has massively detrimental effects on those being boxed in this way. This instant gratification culture that we have going suggests that anything out of the norm should be fixed with a pill. It’s made us lazy to apply our minds and to engage meaningfully. Anything outside the norm is inconvenient and shunned unless it has a sensational or fashionable quality about it.
Sorry for the word spam, but there’s so much more that can be said about this. The bottom line is:
Please don’t label people’s state of mind just because they appear to be different. It’s the ones that sit back and observe that see things with a fresh perspective, rather than the ones that fit in and do nothing but perpetuate the norms, that actually add to the wholesomeness and progress of society. The rest just maintain the status quo.
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Mishary Alafasi – Ash-Sharh
Surat Ash-Sharĥ (The Relief) – سورة الشرح
1. Did We not expand for you, [O Muhammad], your breast?
2. And We removed from you your burden
3. Which had weighed upon your back
4. And raised high for you your repute.
5. For indeed, with hardship [will be] ease.
6. Indeed, with hardship [will be] ease.
7. So when you have finished [your duties], then stand up [for worship].
8. And to your Lord direct [your] longing.
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Brain Dump
My mind is a mess. Articulating even the most simple thoughts are proving to be a challenge. There’s a haziness in my thought processes that feels angst-y and unnatural. I hate almost every post I write these days and I feel like a superficial moron seeking attention more often than not. For the first time ever I had to remind myself that this is my blog and not a public bulletin board.
This is supposed to be my space to rant and rave and ramble without apology yet recently I’ve been addicted to affirmation. As is the case with affirmation, it’s rarely there when sought after. I despise this state of mind that tends towards attention-seeking behaviour while simultaneously feeling disgusted at the thought of writing for an audience. I feel agitated and irritated and unnatural in my space. I feel like something is amiss.
There’s a consistent dis-ease within me that is exacerbated the moment I step into the house after a light hearted day at the office. Writing this all down has required constant conscious effort to dismiss the thoughts of who would read what into what I’m saying. I cannot afford to care. If I do, it will add to the weight of self-imposed responsibility that claws at my conscience every waking hour in my quest to constantly consider the needs of others before my own. I tire me out and from that there appears to be no…repose.
