Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s Day. Just finished singing this in choir, great piece and as usual, the tenor part is the hardest.. :)
Democracy promotion abroad. Funny how it seem to only happen in locals of geopolitical importance. I’m sure we’ll get around to distributing freedom for everyone eventually. Afghanistan, on the other hand, is geopolitically important to the West for possible energy reserves and pipe lines that could be a significant boon to our adversaries thus in Afghanistan we remain, murdering people merrily with our drones and wondering why…oh why… do they hate us so.
Of course, hating the West is nothing new in Afghanistan (or even here in North America as those without sufficient enthusiasm for the ‘America, Fuck Ya!’ spirit are labelled unpatriotic or “self-hating”) and unsurprisingly the West’s notions of liberty and equality do not have much traction.
This situation in Afghanistan, of course, is bad for women and a recent government ruling highlights the archaic regime’s failure to understand that women are people.
“Conservative religious lawmakers in Afghanistan blocked legislation on Saturday aimed at strengthening provisions for women’s freedoms, arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles and encourage disobedience.”
Ah, the shit-stain of religion once again reemerges to sully humanity’s escutcheon in the name of peace, order and good government. Christianity, Islam it doesn’t really matter it is all cut from the same tattered patriarchal cloth. Religion is bad for women and great for patriarchy.
“Khalil Ahmad Shaheedzada, a conservative lawmaker for Herat province, said the legislation was withdrawn shortly after being introduced in parliament because of an uproar by religious parties who said parts of the law are un-Islamic.
“Whatever is against Islamic law, we don’t even need to speak about it,” Shaheedzada said.”
They also plan to outlaw the earth revolving around the sun as well. Stupid says as stupid does.
“The Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women has been in effect since 2009, but only by presidential decree. It is being brought before parliament now because lawmaker Fawzia Kofi, a women’s rights activist, wants to cement it with a parliamentary vote to prevent its potential reversal by any future president who might be tempted to repeal it to satisfy hard-line religious parties.”
What?!? The religious fighting against rights for women. This is shocking.
The law criminalizes, among other things, child marriage and forced marriage, and bans “baad,” the traditional practice of exchanging girls and women to settle disputes. It makes domestic violence a crime punishable by up to three years in prison and specifies that rape victims should not face criminal charges for fornication or adultery.”
Anything disagreeable so far? To those not mired in the delusional fap-world of religiosity, nothing disagreeable at all.
“The child marriage ban and the idea of protecting female rape victims from prosecution were particularly heated subjects in Saturday’s parliamentary debate, said Nasirullah Sadiqizada Neli, a conservative lawmaker from Daykundi province.
Neli suggested that removing the custom — common in Afghanistan — of prosecuting raped women for adultery would lead to social chaos, with women freely engaging in extramarital sex safe in the knowledge they could claim rape if caught.”
Agency for women? What is this foolish talk? Social chaos indeed. This kind of hare-brained thinking needs to frakking die already. I have news for you my deranged mullah friends. Women have the capacity to make decisions for themselves that what is best for themselves. Your religiously addled brain can now begin to melt.
“Adultery itself is a crime in Islam, whether it is by force or not,” Rahmani said.”
And the vast majority of males being charged are a testament to this scripture…
“He said the Quran also makes clear that a husband has a right to beat a disobedient wife as a last resort, as long as she is not permanently harmed.
“But in this law,” he said, “It says if a man beats his wife at all, he should be jailed for three months to three years.”
And that law is rigorously applied because the male lawyers, male judges and the male justice system are all about protecting women in Afghanistan. It is certainly not about proscribing female behaviour and legislating how women should act. It is shit like this that religious have to answer for.
“Lawmaker Shaheedzada also claimed that the law might encourage disobedience among girls and women, saying it reflected Western values not applicable in Afghanistan.”
The right to be treated as a human being is not a Western Value, but a basic human right. Fuck you and your sophomoric cultural relativism.
“Even now in Afghanistan, women are running from their husbands. Girls are running from home,” Shaheedzada said. “Such laws give them these ideas.”
Ideas like. “I am a person who deserves to be treated with dignity and respect”. Obviously this needs to be quashed ASAP by the noble forces of Islam.
“There’s a real risk this has opened a Pandora’s box, that this may have galvanized opposition to this decree by people who in principle oppose greater rights for women,” said Heather Barr, a researcher for Human Rights Watch.
That’s true for lawmaker Rahmani, who said President Hamid Karzai should never have issued the decree and wants it changed, if not repealed.
“We cannot have an Islamic country with basically Western laws,” he said.”
If protections and human rights are contrary to running an Islamic country then I suggest that having a Islamic country isn’t a shit-hot idea in the first place and the notion should be binned accordingly.
Islamic religious arseholes. :/
We need more of this in our music scene because frankly, the omnipresent bland radio pop (A big unthankyou to CBC radio 2 for adding more of this soul withering drivel to my listening day) bores the everliving fuck out of me. So hit me with some hard rock hallelujah any day of the week and I will be appreciative.
And no, it doesn’t get better and that is why its *great*. :)
Speaking of the “great” category – BOOM – Cezar from Romania nails this performance. Gold pure sonic gold.
Of course, it could just be me…
Okay, religion might not poison everything.
Christians attend a gay pride event apologizing for the crummy behaviour of many of their churches.
And the response…
Thanks Buzzfeed for a little pick me up today.
I’m not much for the Hollywood movie-culture scene. Either I’m getting to old or too smart for the usual smarm of what Hollywood has to offer; and on that note I’d like to think of my self in the later rather than the former category.
Ironic self-delusion aside, pop culture these days rarely entices me with its chintzy glitz and shiny images. Enter Iron Man 3. This is the end chapter for Tony Stark and the current Disney/Marvel money machine. IM3 hastily ties up the plot lines started in the previous movies and attempts to give the viewer a satisfying denouement to the Iron Man story (rest assured dear readership the money-mantle is just changing form, prepare yourself for Avengers “9″ and Thor Infinity).
Iron man 3 is a mediocre flick, it had all the prerequisite action and ‘witty-dialogue’, but as a final chapter those are now baseline expectations, and thus I expected more.
I suggest looking at rotten tomatoes or metacritic for an actual review of Iron Man 3 because it is not really my intent to review the movie so to speak, but rather set up a preamble to some inane meta-thoughts spawned by the viewing of said movie.
Meta-Thought #1 – How long is the superhero fad going to last? Marvel and DC are currently churning out flick after flick about super powered characters and the woes that they face, but the saturation point must soon be coming. There are only so many times we can genuine feel someone with fledgling superpowers/super-situation rediscover their humanity and victoriously battle evil to save the girl/earth/multi-verse.
Why do I tire of this? Because humanity isn’t that fucking special. Human dignity and worth are crushed as a matter of routine and a large majority of people who are not the ones with Orwell’s perpetual boot stamping on their face do not know or do not care to know about it. We stand atomized in our societies and hem and haw about the injustice going on, while those without the burden of conscience continue to perfect the system that allows for the savage exploitation of so many.
We have ‘super-problems’ in the present on a scale that individuals cannot fix. Yet, we are fed a stream of movies that exemplify individual action and ‘sacrifice’ that always somehow manages to resolve the problems and win the day. I think that the glut of hero movies being promulgated as Triple A entertainment of late represent the subconscious desires of people who feel fundamentally powerless to escape that crushing reality and identify with a idea/role that gives them some feeling of autonomy and power.
Meta-Thought #1A – A meta thought on a meta thought (Groovy!). Gee-Wilikers! How far can the Arbourist go on this thought-wanking experiment? Don’t worry gentle readership it will be all over soon, my interest and angst are waning as writing stuff like this depresses the heck out of me. But, back on topic, (let’s, like good academic writers, paraphrase the last sentence to establish a sense of coherency ((another level of meta! Holy Frak!))) the idea that somehow an individual can rid themselves of the sense of powerlessness through exclusively embracing individual action is at its very foundation misleading. Misleading in the sense that, back here in the real world, it is going to take to change things is mass-coordinated, cooperative action to change what is wrong with our societies.
The great man (and I do use “great man” because it is part of the trope, women-folk with their “feelings” just don’t cut it) that is going to change society for the better does not exist. Great men wannabees are identified and either destroyed or co-opted to work for the system rather than against it. Herein lies my discontent – the model of change we are being shown simply does not work. Individuals, without organizational support, that go against the system are crushed. It is only through collective action and coordination that change can be affected on the societal level. But we’re never given that set of blueprints to base our narratives on.
Why? Because it might inspire people to get together and actually change the system. And that is why Iron Man 3 is a mediocre movie.
(Wow…concluded just about as well as the movie did…)
The bible isn’t all bad. Just mostly. :) Video ends 5 minutes ish. The rest is US political meandering.
bleatmop
The Intransigent One
Mystro
The Arbourist
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