International Blasphemy Day
Today is International Blasphemy Day. September 30th is the anniversary of the original publishing of the Danish cartoons in 2005 depicting the prophet Muhammed. This led to orchestrated outrage: at least 135 people were killed in the subsequent violent protests, and death threats were made against the cartoonists and their editor.
In this orgy of lies, hate and violence, who did the Pope and the archbishop of Canterbury rush to condemn? The cartoonists, of course! Because one thing these faith-heads have in common is that they dare not allow free thought to question their indefensible pile of absurdity. The idea behind blasphemy is that certain ideas are sacrosanct and off-limits to critical scrutiny. A wall of obligated “respect” has been built around their silly ideas of talking snakes, celestial virgins, personal deities, spiritual realms and bronze-age dogma.
It’s time to break that wall of immunity down, brick by brick. You want to believe an illiterate goatherd with a taste for blood and prepubescent girls is divine and must be worshipped? Fine – feel free. But don’t expect me not to mock this absurdity. You want to believe a tasteless cracker is the actual flesh of your personal voice in your head? Sure. Why not? I respect your right to do that, just like I respect your right to stick needles through your eyelids. But in either case, don’t expect me not to ridicule your sorry ass.
To mark the day, here is a video from the hilarious Louis CK. I don’t know if it’s blasphemous, but it is very funny.
Related articles:
Tuesday’s Tune: René and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War
Olympia, a portrait of his wife Georgette by René Magritte, was stolen from a Brussels museum last Thursday. Magritte is my favourite surrealist and it reminded me of a favourite ballads by one of my favourite musical artists: René and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War, by Paul Simon.
Besides its pretentious-sounding title, it is an amusing, touching and joyous piece of surrealism itself. It portrays the couple as secret admirers of the doo wop groups of the 1950’s: The Penguins, The Moonglows, The Orioles and The Five Satins. I love this song.
A video made for this song by Joan Logue in 1984 is unavailable so I pieced together a string of images of Magritte paintings to accompany the song. I think Simon got the mood exactly right, as the resulting video shows.
This beautiful song is found on Simon’s 1983 album Hearts and Bones. Although it was not a commercial success, it is certainly one his best albums – the product of some of his most creative and high-quality song-writing. It even includes a musical guide to songwriting, Song About the Moon – and I have yet to find a better, more practical guide.
Jacob’s ladder of lies
In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, South African President Jacob Zuma attempted to wash away any culpability for his role in his government’s deliberate extermination of at least 300,000 (mainly ANC-supporting) AIDS sufferers. He attacked ex-president Thabo Mbeki maintaining that his insane idea that there is no link between HIV and AIDS was his own private view and not government policy.
Somehow it was Mbeki’s private affair that let his criminal, alcoholic health minister unleash her bizarre cure of onions, beetroot and garlic (with a side helping of African potatoes) for AIDS on the public health system. It was rigorously enforced; doctors were fired trying to treat their patients with anti-retroviral drugs drugs. Activists had to go to the Constitutional Court to force these murderers to allow the distribution of ARVs. They didn’t take Mbeki and Tshabalala-Msimang to court in their private capacities: they sued the government – which vigorously defended its position.
So Zuma lied that it wasn’t government policy. But worse than that, Zuma vigorously defended this disgusting policy at the time. In an address to parliament in 2000, calling on members to acquaint themselves with the AIDS-denialist literature. Then he dragged out the old straw man canard, They laughed at Galileo:
In Europe in the Seventeenth Century, the main stream scientific view was that the sun moved around the earth. An Italian scientist Galilei Galileo had a different view and believed that the earth moved around the sun. However his views were considered to be so threatening to the scientific establishment that he was forced to publicly recant. As we all know today, he was right and they were wrong.In the history of science and in particular the history of medical science, there are other examples where solutions were found to difficult challenges as a result of robust scientific debate between conventional and alternative views.
This House, which is based on the fundamental principle of the right to differ and to express a different opinion, ought not to balk at the idea that the President is asking scientists to behave as scientists.
As Carl Sagan said: “They laughed at Galileo. They laughed at Newton. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.”
In 2000 Padraig O’Malley interviewed then ANC Secretary General and current deputy-President, Kgalema Motlanthe on his views on HIV/AIDS (part 1, part 2). He toed the line that HIV does not cause AIDS, as simply a natural breakdown of the immunity system. As such the “opportunistic” diseases should be treated in their own right. He called AIDS a symbol – perhaps he hadn’t understood Mbeki’s assertion that AIDS was just a syndrome - not a disease. He then went on to blame the drug companies for fabricating the whole thing to make huge profits. And of course he had a swing at whites:
No, they are gullible. You see half of them don’t read but they regard themselves as well informed because they’re white. The reason why when you ask – you ask any of the experts whether they have seen evidence, any piece of document that says scientist so-and-so in such a country has isolated this HIV virus and photographed it and studied it’s modus vivendi under controlled conditions, they will swear at you.They will tell you that question was answered twenty years ago, they will tell you you are giving audience to dissidents. They will not tell you because it’s not there. That’s why they become vicious because it is simply not there. They take it on authority and then it gets passed on like that but there’s no authority, it’s a lie repeated by those who are supposed to know better. The truth of the matter is that if they were to admit that indeed no such thing has happened, I mean it would cause serious reverberations across the scientific world.
Zuma can lie all he wants but we know the truth: the ANC hates its own people and was willing to let them die in their hundreds of thousands rather than confront the source of this disease and the source of the life-saving drugs. As George Annandale writes on this subject:
Perhaps the president can explain how it is possible to recall and redeploy President Mbeki for creating a nuisance and sowing division in the party, yet, when he was the driving force in the thinly veiled extermination of hundreds of thousands of HIV/Aids sufferers, this moral alliance and its moral upstanding leaders, could not stop him.
Yes Jacob, they laughed at Galileo. And we would laugh at you too if the stench of death didn’t hang around you like a vulture.
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The rise of the Weak Man
As the editor of a major South African broadsheet, Peter Bruce writes an amazingly naïve article on his surprise at how the Zuma presidency is panning out:
Jacob Zuma is proving to be almost the opposite of what I expected him to be. I expected a decisive presidency but he isn’t. I expected an authoritative leader, yet no one in or around the ANC seems to pay him the slightest heed. I expected that he would keep party loudmouths quiet but the only person whose attention he seems to have is the mayor of Balfour.
Zuma’s weakness was fully expected. Zuma is not a leader at all. He didn’t take the Party by the scruff of its neck and impose his leadership vision on it. He never had to stump for support or run on his record. He has never debated an opponent in public nor has he made any direct appeal to the South African public.
South Africa is being ruled by a Weak Man.
A Weak Man is someone who is deeply flawed and in deep trouble. He desperately needs support to keep him out of jail or penury but has nothing to offer his benefactors other than his soul. He is without principle and will do anything to get out of his predicament. He has another very important characteristic: he is a populist and appeals to the ordinary man who empathises with his “oppressed” persona.
The Weak Man is surrounded by power-hungry individuals who prefer, or are only able to rule by proxy. In Zuma’s case this is largely the South African Communist Party and its leftist allies, the trade union movement Cosatu and the ANC Youth League. These organisation would be hard-pressed to win any seats in an election, let alone a general election itself.
Bruce is “rescued” by writer Meshack Mabogoane:
“A hardcore party man, he (Zuma) defers to the ANC for the positions he adopts,” writes Mabogoane. “He reads what is written for him and avoids discussing complex matters. At the same time his comments on crucial matters are usually made after the events and are generally evasive and weak. Zuma has never committed himself to any policies and never offered any personal vision.”
The ANC leaders he defers to are SACP chairman Gwede Mantashe, SACP secretary-general Blade Nzimande and Cosatu head Zwelinzima Vavi.
This same strategy was tried in the campaign to get John Hlophe onto the Constitutional Court. The fact that it stumbled at the last hurdle this time does not mean it won’t be successful in the long run. The problem with Hlophe is that he is just too unpredictable and not nearly as pliant as is Zuma. Perhaps Hlophe will come to realise this and make himself the vassal his supporters so wish him to be. At the moment he is not quite weak enough – but give him time.
Another manifestation of the Weak Man phenomenon is one Siyabonga Gama who is in the running to be the next Transnet CEO. Except that he has been suspended by his board for awarding lavish contracts without authority amongst other misdeeds. There is no doubt he is a loose cannon and shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near South Africa’s largest state-owned enterprise.
But what do we see instead? Huge, unprecedented political support – and threats – from the same team that put Zuma in power. In fact, they are claiming he is a victim of political conspiracy just like Zuma was. Another Weak Man is being pushed into an influential position to do his masters’ bidding. Transnet of course has many billions of Rand flowing through it and under its control. Thanks to previous CEO Maria Ramos, it is not yet a smoking, bankrupt ruin and remains a deep trough for alliance parties and the leaders that run them to get their snouts in it.
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Tuesday’s Tune: I Shall Be Released
Mary Travers, the Mary in Peter, Paul and Mary, has died at the age of 72 after a long battle with leukaemia. Peter, Paul and Mary were probably more responsible for the popularisation of folk music than anyone else. Indeed, my early indoctrination into the wonderful world of folk music came via a well worn and scratchy LP, the eponymous Peter, Paul and Mary. Their version of Dylan’s Blowing In The Wind introduced me to his Bobness, apart from being a worldwide hit.
In choosing a song for this post I plumbed for another trio – not PPM. This trio consists of Travers together with two other iconic female singers: Joni Mitchell and Mama Cass Elliott. They appeared together on a Mama Cass TV show in 1969. All three have very well known, distinctive voices and it’s a delight hearing them harmonise together. Fittingly they sing a Dylan song, I Shall Be Released.
Norman Borlaug: modern hero
Who are our heroes? Is it someone who plays a mean lick on a guitar and lives a glamorous life? A model with inflated breasts who appears at charity events? An explorer accompanied by a TV crew enduring some pretty rough times? A journalist who bravely exposes a corruption scandal? An ordinary person who at great personal risk dives in to dangerous waters to save a child? A sportsman who achieves amazing physical feats but remains humble? A politician who risks her reputation to break a political logjam and end a conflict?
All of the above would qualify as heroes among varying groups. Some might even be recognised as such by their governments or international bodies. But what does it take to become a hero? How about someone who quietly save the lives of hundreds of millions of people? There is only one person who could claim that sort of hero status: Norman Borlaug.
If you’ve never heard of Norman Borlaug it’s probably because he lived a decidedly unglamorous, modest life. He was a brilliant scientist who is known as the Father of the Green Revolution. His work in developing a high-yielding variety of disease resistant wheat and improved varieties of other crop plants led to the feeding of legions of starving people. He started in Mexico, where he produced a fungus-resistant strain of wheat that allowed farmers to emerge out of poverty and starvation to selling surplus wheat. He achieved spectacular increases in crop yields in India and then the rest of Asia.
Borlaug won the Nobel peace prize in 1970. Never has such an award been more fitting. Penn & Teller call him the Greatest Human Being. Ever.
Dr Norman Borlaug died last week (September 12). He was 95 years old. Norman Borlaug was a modern hero.
“Norman E. Borlaug saved more lives than any man in human history,” said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program. “His heart was as big as his brilliant mind, but it was his passion and compassion that moved the world.”
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Tuesday’s Tune: Meet the Elements
They Might Be Giants, that geeky Grammy-winning duo of John Flansburgh and John Linnell, has released a pro-science album, appropriately called Here Comes Science. It’s another of those albums that one would expect to be mediocre at best. But that’s not the case at all – it turns out to be rather good, with quirky, catchy material. It’s unashamedly aimed at kids and I would highly recommend the CD/DVD be shared with children while enjoying it yourself at the same time.
Most of the tunes are very accessible to even young children. Meet the Elements though is just good music – for all ages.
This also give me the excuse to linking to the classic The Elements by the fabulous Tom Lehrer.
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ANC MPs fail the Kid Test
I think it’s safe to say that parliamentarians of the ruling party, the ANC, are a pretty dismal lot. Since South Africa doesn’t have a constituency system, the Party’s representatives don’t have to display any qualities of character to voters. Criminals, homophobes, racists, sexists, liars, cheats, xenophobes, drunkards, wife-beaters, perverts, sociopaths, drug-addicts and paedophiles are all welcome and are well represented in the parliamentary benches – well at least those who bother to attend.
The only requirement is a slavish devotion to their political masters. If a boot needs to be licked, they’ll polish both with their tongues. If a bum needs to be kissed, they’ll get that tongue in – deep. That is the only qualification required. They understand that their livelihoods, cars, housing, overseas jaunts, kids schooling, medical care and fancy clothes are granted to them by the Party leaders and in turn blind loyalty is required. Otherwise it’s back to the shack, drinking sorghum beer out of a paint tin.
Certainly, intelligence is not a prerequisite. In fact, I would imagine that intelligence is specifically frowned upon, along with original thought. Nothing better illustrates this than the show put on by ANC MPs at the recent meeting of portfolio committees on the country’s space policy. They were discussing the launch of SA’s satellite, Sumbandila Sat, to be launched in Russia on September 15. These MPs asked a bunch of questions so peurile, so irrational and displaying such a breathtaking degree of ignorance, that one is left thinking that maybe the other prerequisite of becoming an ANC representative is deep stupidity. I guess it’s much easier to control dull brutes than those with functioning mental facilities.
But maybe I’m being a bit severe. Perhaps these cretins people are simply uneducated – victims of “no education before liberation” or something. In that case we could apply the Kid Test to them. Kids don’t have a lot of knowledge, but they display an appetite for it, a curiosity that requires an answer. None of us can know everything and we often reach for our inner kid, asking perhaps naïve, but searching questions.
Let’s examine the questions asked by the MPs to see if they pass the Kid Test:
How, one asked, do we protect our space from being used by other countries’ satellites?
I would give this one a PASS. This is the sort of question a kid would ask and would lead to an answer that could lead to a life-long understanding of what we mean by “space”.
Shown two comparative satellite pictures of Midrand, one dating from the ’60s and the other more recent, another MP asked what could be done to prevent satellites causing so much damage.
This is a FAIL. No kid would ask this question. It can only be asked by an idiot adult who has no idea what he is looking at and desperately wants his voice to heard.
Another MP said her suburb was frequently disturbed by the noise of satellites flying overhead taking these pictures.
This is a FAIL. Have you ever heard a kid making this sort of observation? This idiot needs to be locked up in a lunatic asylum.
Another suggested that indigenous knowledge must be applied to our use of space — and began to illustrate her point by telling a story about two women flying on a loaf of bread.
WTF? If this was a kid telling her story, it was a kid on LSD. FAIL.
At which point, the committee chairman shut down questions.
Well, yes. Perhaps he was just embarrassed but more probably he couldn’t think of a question to ask which would match the brilliance of his colleagues.
No Global Warming in the past 10 years?
I recently read a pseudo-science climate-change sceptical rant which gleefully linked to a grubby article in the Australian. It deals with the fact that global temperatures had not risen in the 10 years since 1998. The interpretation: global warming stopped sometime in the last decade. The inference: anthropogenic global warming is a myth.
As usual, of course, climate-change deniers cherry-pick the data, presenting out-lying points (1998 being the warmest year on record) as references and ignoring explanatory data. And of course ignoring the fact that the last 10 years has been the warmest decade on record!
Peter Sinclair has produced another excellent video, this time challenging the global-warming-has-stopped canard. What’s disturbing is that with the return of an El Niño cycle, we can look forward to some hefty increases in global tempratures in the coming few years.
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Tuesdays’ Tune: This Is The First Day Of My Life
Down here in the Southern hemisphere, Spring has exploded its sweet fragrances, warm days and revealing clothes on a grateful population. It’s become more difficult to be gloomy with new life springing all around.
It reminds me of a favourite song, This Is The First Day Of My Life, by Bright Eyes. Bright Eyes is the songwriting vehicle of Conor Oberst, a prolific songsmith hailing from Omaha, Nebraska. The song comes from the 2004 album, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.
This video of This Is The First Day Of My Life won’t fail to put a smile on your face as you recognise the moment of New Love. Oberst’s quivery voice is the perfect accompaniment to an early Spring, finding its first legs.
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