i dreamt
floating on sleep’s wing
Venus’ face glowing down upon me
her warmth propelling me to Joy’s heights
i lept
onto her web of attraction.
spinning myself into blind entanglement
my core humming euphoria, wild emotion cascading helter-skelter
i woke
to parched throat, dry eyes and stabbing reality.
reality clipped my wings
and a voice stripped raw by nightmarish screams,
head hung low on stooped shoulders
that bitch Eris led me astray again!
Point of Focus for this blog is the arms issue.
I expect government MP’s to act with a bit of intelligence when it comes to international politics. I can’t say whether David Maynier of the Democratic Alliance is just playing the anti-ANC game or he was being really daft. I digress.
David Maynier was ranting because of 100 sniper rifles and 50 000 rounds of ammo supposedly sold to Libya by our beloved Republic of South Africa in 2010. I find nothing particular about this in the bigger scheme of things. Up until the Egypt uprising the west and the goody-goody bunch were willing to let things slide as far as Libya is concerned. Hell, he paid a fee to get the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing thing to go away. Please Google Lockerbie bombing.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/africa/110223/gaddafi-ordered-lockerbie-bombing
“Gaddafi announced in 2003 that he was abandoning his program for weapons of mass destruction and renouncing terrorism. He also accepted Libya’s responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid compensation to the victims’ families”
Now, let’s get back to the arms issue. In the past 2 years “Italy has sold Libya explosives, gun targeting equipment and other military hardware worth tens of millions of Euros…” Of the lovely toys:
1. Missile systems maker Mbda Italia signed a deal worth 2.5 million Euros ($A3.42 million) in May 2009 to supply Libya with ‘material for bombs, torpedoes, rockets and missiles’
2. Helicopter maker Augusta Westland signed two contracts with Libya in October 2010 worth 70 million Euros ($A95.88 million). Also last year, Selex Sistemi Integrati signed a 13 million euro ($A17.81 million) deal to provide Libya with gun targeting equipment.
Further reading can be found on http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=582388&vId=.
The UK also didn’t miss out. Read further on http://bristolagainstarmstrade.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/uk-arms-sales-to-middle-east-include-tear-gas-and-crowd-control-ammunition-to-bahrain-and-libya/
In 2009 alone EU countries sold 470USD in weapons to Libya. The Bush and Obama administrations came in under-performing at a puny 46USD worth of arms. Other juicy details can be found on below link.
http://theworldlink.com/news/local/article_d7a036a4-7b2f-53ae-afe8-869bbd170903.html
Everyone was happy to do business with Libya after they dismantled their nuclear program. Hell, with all the Human Rights violations which have happened there over the past decade or so the writing was on the well. Weapons of Mass Destruction aside, Libya was the evil which could be tolerated. They were the tolerable along with Egypt, Mubarak being heavily funded by the West as well.
So, just the convenient bombing of Libya, all this excitement about arms is beginning to annoy me. Our media gets too excited and fuels our excitable politicians. The real issue at hand here is regime-change. It’s nothing more and nothing less. Zuma and the ANC administration new that, yet they chose not to abstain. Russia knew that, yet they didn’t use their veto. All these governments are then brothers in arms.
Hell, Bahrain is using their army to quell their own people. It took Iran to point this out, yet no one seems to care. Tanks from neighboring countries are rolling into Bahrain, from Qatar (I stand corrected) to shut up the damn civilians. 2000 troops from Saudi Arabia brought in and martial law declared…wait a minute, isn’t that similar to Libya?
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/bahrain/index.html
Anyway, I think the DA should have exercised some caution before yammering this time. I also think that by avoiding direct answers regarding LEGITIMATE arms sales to Libya, the ANC isn’t doing themselves any favors.
Disclaimer: I know this topic isn’t simple, but the bullshit streaming from all the political leaders pisses me off the most. Everyone acts concerned about the civilians, yet all of it is political gesticulating. Fat fickle politicians!!! I don’t care if you disagree by the way; just bring constructive criticism with some valid sources.
http://www.gcis.gov.za/aboutus/exco_profiles/ceo.htm
Manyi biography
Above is the Manyi interview on kykNET
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Open-Letter-to-Jimmy-Manyi-20110302-2
Above is the Trevor Manuel rant.
Now, as the DG of the Dept of Labour, I assume we’re aware that Manyi had to look at Affirmitive Action and how best it can be applied. Oversupply of Coloureds in the WC is a fact in the workplace especially middle management. Similarly in Gauteng senior management is mostly Indian.
Where I’m getting with this “thing” is why would fellow comrades in Luthuli House waited an entire year before reacting to Jimmy? Did they really need the Kuli Roberts comparison to act? Do they really give a damn in the African National Congress what Kuli writes in the Bitche’s Brew?
With the upcoming 2012 ANC tango, I think Manyi has made himself too useful and an easy target. This is another form of load-shedding not dissimilar to the pre Polokwane power-shuffles.
The sad thing about Affirmative Action is that anyone who is employed by (dept of) Labour to monitor has to be aware of numbers of managerial posts per province and how that info can best be utilised to satisfy government’s AA/EE scores. if we as South Africans are not happy with AA/EE and such then we need to vote in a govt which won’t support it, or join the ANC and make a difference from within.
Methinks Jimmy was led to the water for a sip of the good-stuff, only to realise that there are comrades laying in wait for a good old traditional sacrifice by fellow “darkies“
disclaimer: i’m my own editor, if you’re unhappy with the contents of this piece you’re welcome to divert your browser to another blog or sunday-sun drivel. thank you.
I thought i was a facebook addict, thats until i got onto twitter. Boy did i learn otherwise. i think the major thing with twitter is the ease and the rapid response functionality. lately i find facebook full of mxit flotsam and amateur intellects (except a few of you precious ones of cause). besides, its been burdened with too many apps and new functionality which have made it diverge from what originally lured me.
Then again, with smart-phones and their real-time reactions maybe our hunger for constant news and feedback is heightened. with the death of my samsung thing and the purchase of my BB(blackberry), the addiction has manifested itself into a insatiable behemoth. i got my twitter which is easy to update. main screen, new post, enter button and you’re done. its the ease which makes it tops! i got that interfacing into my facebook and i can track any comments my friends make. i also have my whatsapp for BB and iPhone users. i assume other android phones like HTC also accommodate whatsapp, however I’m not certain and won’t bother to research (HTC pet-hate).
yeah people, its the information age and to a certain extent we have to admit that we are slowly becoming the slaves and not the masters. narcotics have evolved into smartphones with multiple apps and interfaces. the convenience which we were sold is but the catalyst to the everlasting hunger for information, acknowledgment and interaction.
however i found that i can survive with a piece-of-shit basic phone. and that gave me some comfort. sadly had to return it for my upgraded BB and I’m back in full swing. fuck rehab!!!
disclaimer: grammar, punctuation and and general disorderly setup of the post is intentional. keeping with the topic, get it?!
Dear Gavament
I’m acting under the assumption that most of you never went to high-school, or the years being chased by the apartheid regime has clouded some of those memories. Let me attempt to plug some of those memory gaps.
We live in a conservative society which is always looking for weaknesses in the neighbour’s armour. Hence HIV is such a big problem on the African continent than anywhere else. As much as cancer and diabetes is potentially the bigger risk, because of the sexual transmission nature of HIV and AIDS; society uses a much bigger gavel.
So, now to the lemmings part. These high-school cretins are much more judgmental than their parents. If you’re fat, skinny, freckled, disabled, stutter, black, white, knock-kneed, buck-toothed etc, you get tons of insults and bullying from fellow scholars. Keep in mind, in this day and age most of these cretins are also far more sexually active than i ever was in high-school (don’t judge). Remember that Limpopo school with 57 pregnancies to date? Youngest one was 13 years old i think?
Okay, so now you want to expose your kids to testing at school? Leave the fact that its hard as it is at public clinics where the nurses demand to know how the “bloody whore” got pregnant? ” it wasn’t so tough opening your legs for boys, you shouldn’t need pain killers for pregnancies(contractions)”. Look at the numerous complaints from parents and social workers against nurses at public hospital. Or just ask Debora Patta to visit Dora Nginza or Cecilia Makhiwane with a teenager requesting morning-after pills. Slaan a hidden cam on her and you’ll get the chills. Also keep in mind that confidentiality will never been guaranteed no matter how hard you try. Hell, you can’t even keep the matric papers off the streets!
Anyway, good job at potentially increasing teen suicide rates and depression. Also exposing how many teachers are shagging your kids. well done!!!
disclaimer: Article is crude and callous in the hopes that you’d stop marveling at your Armani suits and Breitling and focus on the HUMAN element in this decision.
Some links to help you out:
Kids and brutality
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Paarl-school-assault-being-probed-20110208
School pregnancies
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/School-pregnancy-stats-shock-20071126
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/5-000-E-Cape-teen-pregnancies-20070420
Head bowed, I dream
Of spreading my arms, wings extended;
My wing-tips touching the firmament,
Gold in color they gleam,
like spun gold, sharp as razors.
Eyes blinking, I cast a wish
To spin on the upper echelons of the crisp cold Skies,
Cross-winds buffeting my pain
Spiralling upper-droughts carrying me to Valhalla
With deep breath, I gather my resolve.
Like veteran warrior collecting his armour to fight another day.
Yet my battle fields will be draped in flowers, butterflies coloring the sky
Bird song replacing drum and din,
Faeries gliding my feet on loamy soil
I dream of happiness
Disclaimer: this is an attempt from move from my darker writings. not as useful when venting, but nonetheless poem came to me in the dark corners of a dingy pub with interesting patron. had to write it
I didn’t know this! Now we’re not gonna have any more of those ads with that cheesy-action-movie dude and the blondes. Demmet!!!
Maybe I’ve been avoiding the news, but I’m still in touch with whats happening…. Malema and Zuma having public spats and Twakkies being in the firing line from Jake White and his cronies I’ve just been muting everything out as its mostly distracting and soul-dimishing.
Anyway, i don’t gamble AT ALL. Went through a period when my parents were gambling addicts and got enough of the habit at home. I still think a man/woman/klingon should still make their own choice what to do with their time and money. Gambling is stupid, unnecessary, addictive and tears families apart. But humans need to make their own mistakes and HOPEFULLY learn from them. Next thing we’ll be banning islamic head-gear and youtube…just saying. Some bored minister of health already working on tightening smoking laws, while state hospitals are falling apart. You decide which one is a priority, people will continue to smoke irregardless.
What do you guys think?
