Sports, sex, and the runner Caster Semenya : The New Yorker

A fascinating cultural anthropological case. The concept of gender
being mediated by societies and further ideological conflict between
the developed and undeveloped world.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/11/30/091130fa_fact_levy?printable=true

THE COLONIAL SUBJECTS ARE GETTING RESTLESS

African Archbishop Alleges Aids Workers ’Introduce Boys to Homosexuality’

It's all very interesting because of course there's been a Western agenda on Africa - to colonize and exploit it - and naturally cultural imperialism follows. It's just very interesting to see how and which Western values are appropriated (Christianity) and which ones are rejected (homosexuality), and all using the Queen's English. Sure, the practice of sodomy and male-male love has always happened in Africa as it has elsewhere in the world, but the modern scientific concept of homosexuality is new to us all.

I’d love to remind all the archbishops in Africa that Christianity and the modern concepts of sexuality, homosexuality, and homophobia were all imposed on colonial Africa by the Europeans and that there’s no such thing as an "African culture."

Very good article, cultural anthropologically-speaking. Culture clash, conflicting agendas, moral subjectivity, religious absolutism, public/global health vs. alleged African cultural purity. Juicy!

Moins de 400 femmes porteraient le voile intégral en France

Only 367 women in France wear head covering scarves. Should they all be rounded up and be forced to remove them? The French would like to take away a civil liberty because it makes them uncomfortable. The Muslim response in France needs to be heard:

Immédiatement, les représentants des musulmans se sont unanimement dits hostiles à une loi, soulignant que le voile intégral était un phénomène ultra-marginal et que la question devait se régler entre musulmans, plutôt par la pédagogie que par l’interdiction. Ils critiquaient aussi l’emploi du mot «burqa», qui désigne le voile des Afghanes et qui n’est quasiment pas porté en France. Un fait confirmé par les services de renseignements.

MISOGYNY, RACISM, AND THE BURQA

Further thoughts on the subject:

The "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" axiom comes to mind here. I understand wanting to be respectful of the culture and wearing a scarf if it is a custom when traveling to foreign countries, but one is not required by fear of punishment by the state to do so. If a woman is traveling to Afghanistan, she is not required by the state to dress in a certain way, but it becomes a matter of personal safety as she would be punished by warlords for not wearing a burqa, which is oppressive and denies freedom.

My original comment comes from a feminist perspective. A historical misogyny in the form of male-dominated government control of women's bodies in the Arab world is merely being shifted to another end of the moral spectrum where women's bodies are once again being controlled by the state, but this time in the Western world with France's decision. I am talking about women's bodies and how women are pawns in a game of dueling moralities. Do any of these laws affect men?

A government telling women what to wear is not freedom, in France or Afghanistan. No, we cannot be nude on the street in France, but the particular case of the burqa is different and has political, cultural, and historical considerations that must be taken into account. This desire on the part of France to rule on Muslim women's dress is not only misogynist, it is the cultural anti-Arab/anti-Muslim sentiment of the French people rooted in colonialism, which always employs racism in order to function. That racist, colonial legacy is being played out today in this contemporary situation and the female body and the behavior expected of women as "le deuxieme sexe" is the battlefield.

I want Muslim women to be able to choose to wear the burqa as an individual liberty. I doubt this would be a personal choice - I don't know. I would rather the state not be involved in this. The punishment of a woman for not being covered enough is the same as the punishment of a woman for being covered too much.
OCH

LEAVING TEHRAN

By JASON REZAIAN in Dubai | 24 June 2009

[TEHRAN BUREAU] I decided to leave Iran a couple of days ago for several reasons. First of all, it was beginning to feel as though I could be of little use to anyone by being there. Choked off from most telecommunication, barred from reporting and holding both Iranian and American citizenship, my presence in Iran during this crisis had devolved into being little more than one more thing for my friends in Tehran to worry about.
[more]Leaving Tehran – Tehran Bureau

Sarkozy: No place for 'burqa' in France

Women and their bodies are once again finding themselves the pawns on the battlefield for male abuses of power. In the case of Sarkozy's statement condemning use of the burqa, women are being just as subjugated as they are in the middle east as to how they are and are not permitted to dress. I find this HIGHLY OFFENSIVE and were I in France today, I would wear a burqa to show my solidarity with people who CHOOSE to wear whatever they want.

I think it is a huge mistake, as was the banning of head scarves some years ago in France. It is a violation to dictate cultural signifiers and suppression of free will. It should be a person's choice to wear a burqa and it should be a person's choice to leave France. "Do these women have that choice?" is the question, but it is not the state's responsibility to answer it for them, either.

Moral imposition is highly questionable, as are fluctuating conceptions of freedom, or in this case: liberté, égalité, fraternité.
OCH


Sarkozy: No place for 'burqa' in France

SAY NO TO BIOFUELS

Say NO, NO, NO to biofuels, even ethanol. ALL biofuels require more destruction of forests and soil because we need space to "grow" fuel in addition to food, food production is affected GLOBALLY, and biofuels STILL pollute. imagine that you were a third-world farmer required by your corporation-lobbied/controlled government to grow soybeans on your land that get shipped to biofuel factories in the first world but you couldn't plant food or make enough food to feed your own kid. That's the reality, in a nutshell. ELECTRIC VEHICLES NOW!

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090505/BUSINESS/90505016/-1/NEWS04

US Travel Ban on HIV-infected Individuals

Most Americans are ignorant to the fact that the United States doesn't allow people with HIV to enter the country.


UPDATE: The ban has been lifted, but has yet to be done so administratively.

VARIOUS AND SUNDRY PENNY ARCADIA

If you happened upon this site after seeing the lovely performance at Brava Theater of Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!, you were no doubt affected in some way or another. Thanks for seeing the show. It sure is a whole lot of fun, ain't it? I'm curious to hear your thoughts, criticisms, and experiences, so please make some comments!
OCH

INDULGENCES

Indulgences Return, and Heaven Moves a Step Closer for Catholics - NYTimes.com

Funny how some people construct these particular moral codes by which to live and make plans for their life (and afterlife), only to rail full-force against these confinements, momentarily transcend them through sin, then suffer innumerable manifestations of guilt (sometimes violent and criminal) whose lingering shadow, and only its shadow, can be dismissed through a donation to the very organization that sustains the concept of sin, which in turn repeats endlessly into a perceived eternity. Hmm. Sounds like a real hot time. Have fun with that one, kids.
OCH