Mission I. N. Fil. T. R. 8

Someone told me I could find her in the BRAAE labs – the post grad labs – but will I be able to get in. I’ll have to find a way in…

I ascend the two flights of stairs and assume stealth-mode. I just walk around there like part of the furniture – stealth mode active. Except I wasn’t furniture – I wonder if anyone noticed?

So anyway, here I am in front of the doors of BRAAE – the post grad labs – with no way of getting in… this random guy comes with his access card and opens the door. I just smiled and expected him to walk past and leave me peering through the window like that last puppy in the pet store. Little dig I know I’ m a bloodhound.

Oh well, the guy kept the door open waiting for me to enter, so I didMy post-grad slealth disguise must be working.

So I infiltrate the post-grad labs and locate the target. She wasn’t hard to locate.

I locate her. - She greets me with a loving hug and a handful of pecans (what a sweet friend). Then she said I could chill on Facebook or whatever. Then I was all like:

“Aren’t they gonna put me out? I’m not a post grad…”

“Not if you just keep quiet and not disturb anyone.”

“Yay! I’m in BRAAE labs! I’m in BRAAE labs!”

“Except post grads don’t do that once when we get in these labs... We are just confident and in control.”

“Well I bet yall do it on the inside…”

So that’s the story. That’s how I infiltrated the post grad labs – in my undergrad first year.

Can’t wait for post grad, they got the nicest computers ever and the air-con on at just the right level. Teehehe.

Mission complete.

Gender equality? A raw deal

by Lunga Khuzwayo

“I shall give you a woman who will love you unconditionally, cook and clean for you, comfort you, fulfil your desires, do whatever you tell her to and never complains”, says God. Then Adam asks, “That would be great but how much will it cost me?” God replies, “An arm and a leg”. Adam thinks about, sighs and says, “What can I get for a rib?”

Ever since the uprising of feminism, men have struggled to keep a woman in their traditional role of submissiveness. For a rib’s worth, women no longer have to play the role of servitude. The fight for gender equality and deterioration of the patriarchal system has resulted in the empowerment of women. However, it is questioned to what extent of gender equality women are aiming for. As a feminist, there is a thin line between being anti-men or just pro-women.

I have considered myself as a feminist, opposing any idea of male dominance; nevertheless, I have found myself complaining about men’s courtesy: They do not step aside for a lady anymore, a constant bashing of shoulders along the corridors. My face almost met the ground by a group of guys who decided not to step aside for me, “NO MANNERS”, I screamed out...inside my head, that is. This new generation of men have taken gender equality to a literal level and one begins to question their degree of feminism.

Do we still want to be treated like a ladies or is being ‘one-of-the-guys’ good enough? Being independent is what us women pride ourselves in, and maybe it is time to let go of the lack of gentlemen in the world. We can’t have our cake and eat it.

Pointing fingers at the media? Get over it. NOW.

By Isabelle Abraham

“Journalism is dead.”
“Sensationalists, not journalists.”
“It’s the media’s fault.”

And the list goes on. Yeah, I get it. Journalists aren’t the most popular of people. Just take a look at poor Daniel Pearl. We’re being blamed, we’re being sued, and we’re being murdered. Not the most delightful of careers. But at least we’re trying to do something. It’s true that in news today, reporters are more concerned with entertainment than fact. But who’s to blame for that? Certainly not the numerous consumers who pay to read that garbage.

Think about it. If you know (from experience) that citizens want to read about scandal and sleaze, what are you going to write about? Duh. Those readers pay for that stuff, and that money goes into the journalists’ salaries. So they’re going to write about scandal and sleaze.

The media gets blamed for ruining lives. For negatively influencing young people. For not being fair, for not being factual, etcetera, etcetera. Sure, we accept all that. Yet plenty of good has been done too. There are journalists who have made a difference. A good difference. People’s lives have taken a turn for the better. And all thanks to whom? Yeah, you know whom.

The media has been blamed enough for problems that exist in society.

It’s time that PEOPLE take responsibility for what they’ve done to themselves. Some people just lap up what the media feeds them. If they want to take things at face value, it’s their problem, not the media’s.

Still sceptical? Take a look at these articles:


· Don’t Blame the Journalism
· A new threat to media freedom
· Semenya: The media’s to blame? Huh, am I missing something?
· Dear Winnie: You don’t own media freedom

ON THE EDGE

What’s with the drama in this day and age? Why do kids do drugs? Why do people engage in such high-risk lifestyle behaviour?

They must have a need for speed. We want excitement! The people want an event! Give us a thrill.
Let’s live the rockstar lifestyle: a different lover every night, on the best cocaine and ecstasy, get into a brawl every night - just to feel something... Gone are the days when you got excitement from the rarities in life that now just happen everyday – the latest album release, going to the shops. Now artificial stimulus is needed to give any feeling.
Back in the day going to town was an event, seeing a movie was an event! Now we live in the instantaneous age: instant life, instant experience, instant event!

Going to the mall isn’t an event anymore: we do it everyday. People used to dress up for the shops.
"Let's go to town!" they would say and everyone would get dollied up. Today you can just get the latest track or movie that isn’t even on circuit yet, right at the end of the dial-up tone.
Living in the microwave-age, how do we get the thrill? Wherein lies life events? Drugs? High risk sex? What about self-destructive behaviour? Carving up the Christmas arm…?

So what of living the instant-rockstar lifestyle? Life’s too short anyway. It’s like, who needs a umbrella when it’s raining? Your gonna get wet anyway.

Blogging The F-Bomb

Yolandé Botha

Feminism is not dead, it's cyber. With a Guardian estimate putting the number of feminist blogs at 240 000, it is clear that blogging has become essential to feminist communication. Although feminist blogs are able to illicit debate, can they lead to activism which can alter public policy?

“Blogging is my activism – it provides us with a platform to comment, analyse and influence,” says Jessica Valenti, founder of Feministing. The apathy of our generation has resulted in blogging and activism becoming intertwined. Blogging enables us to create awareness without having to take direct action.

The blogosphere also unites feminists resulting in more cohesive orgainised demonstrations. Blogs such as Charliegrrrl have been successful in campaigning for legislative change. Charliegrrrl readers were instrumental in lobbying MPs to have pornographic magazines moved to the top shelf of British newsstands showing that blogs are capable of influencing social change.

Many women around the globe do not have the luxury of web-access and this questions whether blogging is only serving the interest of privileged women. According to Georgia Aden, a post-graduate researcher who studies feminist blogs, women in less developed parts of the world are unable to voice their concerns through blogs. This is counterbalanced to an extent by the large number of feminist blogs such as Broadsheet which are dedicated to highlighting global women's issues.

Ultimately, the online feminism has empowered feminists to create a new anthology of literature which seeks to create the necessary awareness which galvanizes action. Cyber feminism has inspired a fresh generation of women to know that we can influence change – and we can do it in stilettos.

The Flight of Falcon

By Isabelle Anne Abraham

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No it’s just a HOAX!

October 15th: the world wasted two hours of its time following the story of a young boy who was spotted embarking a balloon, which floated away. The helium balloon, untethered in Fort Collins, was monitored as it soared through the skies. Eventually it landed, to everyone’s dismay, without Falcon Heene.

Fears escalated that he had fallen, while others regarded this as a publicity stunt by the Heene family, who had starred in episodes of the program Swapping Wives. Prayers, criticism and scepticism spread across the Internet. Then, after authorities spent a significant amount of time and money searching for the child, he was found. He had been hiding in the garage attic the whole time, afraid of punishment for releasing the balloon.

E! Online reported the event in typical tabloid fashion. Unlike other reports, theirs consisted almost entirely of quotes by celebrities. They relied on outsiders’ opinions of the incident. Mail&Guardian online took a sceptical view of the episode. They focused on the fact that later Falcon said that he did this for a show. TheDenverChannel had perhaps the most comprehensive account of the situation. Their coverage was mostly objective. They estimated how much the authorities spent, they explained why the child was not at school and they described the events in sequence.

So now the question remains, was this simply a naughty boy’s attempt at adventure? Or was it an attention-grabbing scheme plotted by fame-hungry parents?

Zuma's Presinetial Cold-line

How accessible is the president really now? Well ask him yourself. Just call him up on his Presidential hotline. That’s if you can get through.

Political commentarians have been making commentary about this government service and its inadequacy. Like Zapiros Madam & Eve cartoons. Zapiro has released a series if cartoons that comments on the President’s new toll-free hotline. In particular, Zapiro has been commenting on the poor delivery of this service. One cartoon in particular comments on how the call-in staff is inadequately trained.

But Zapiro isn’t the only talking head that is loud and unproud in their commentary of Zuma’s presidential hotline. The DA has been quite vocal about their attempts to get through to this hotline and there lack of success. This initiative is a good one in that it has curbed the notion that the government is inaccessible but that it is a mission to get hold get through on the hotline, claim the DA. Apparently Zuma claimed to be directly accessible through this hotline, now it would seem he isn’t.

This presidential hotline seems top have only created another bulls-eye for Zuma’s commentarians to focus their crosshairs on. And rightly so. It would seem this hotline is a ploy Zuma has endeavoured upon in order to win some favour. If that is so, he has failed – for personally President Zuma has no favour with me. He still has a lot to prove. And he can call me up on that one.