Author: Ophelia Benson

  • Going down

    Ensaf Haidar says Raif’s health is deteriorating.

    Ensaf Haidar, who was granted asylum in Canada with the couple’s three children, said on Thursday that she hoped her husband would end a hunger strike he had initiated more than 20 days ago to protest against his transfer to a different prison in Saudi Arabia.

    A member of Amnesty International in Canada and a spokeswoman for the Canadian government both said they were unable to confirm the hunger strike.

    …

    “I am very worried about him,” Ms Haidar said on Thursday. “His health, both physical and mental, is very poor.”

    She said she last spoke with her husband two weeks ago, and had been kept informed of Mr Badawi’s condition by a contact in Saudi Arabia whom she declined to identify.

    Bad, bad news.

  • Guest post: Maureen’s adventures in the flood

    Maureen Brian wrote up her adventures in the Hebden Bridge flood on Facebook and I got her permission to post it here too. She notes that she’s too decrepit to join in the scrubbing but she makes damn sure to give credit to the people who do. Here’s Calderdale Flood Relief in case you want to make a donation. I’ll add some photos from the Calder Valley Flood Support group on Facebook.

    To set the scene, I was in London when the flood hit on the afternoon of 26 Dec, having lured V. here to commune with the cats on the promise that this place was warm, cosy and full of books and other things to play with. Yes, I ended up feeling guilty.

    The house was above the flood line – higher than ever recorded before – and was not harmed at all. We had already had several scares and one actual flood in the month. The electric power failed. The gas stayed on (so coffee) as did the landline but your bog standard phone is not as much fun as the internet. The house at the back of mine, though, is built into the hillside and had water pouring in at the back and out at the front several times. At least that was ground water and clean but still a mammoth task to get rid of!

    Meanwhile, the whole of the centre of town was destroyed. The buildings are almost all of solid stone and will survive but the mess was horrendous. Most of the damage was to homes and businesses which had been gradually and painfully rebuilt after the 2012 floods – yes, that’s 2, one in June and one in July!

    Credit

    The majority of the buildings in the centre of town were built or had a major refurbishment from 1850 onwards when it was entirely reasonable to have cellars. Now they filled up again. We lost the use of, in no particular order, all the food shops, all 6 of the cash machines which were under water at the height, all the cigarette shops (4), our bookshops and a famous comic shop and the roads to the adjacent towns of Mytholmroyd and Todmorden were impassable. So, total boredom, cold and discomfort for poor V. The available candles and torch batteries just about held out but not the fags!

    Credit

    Christmas is the time for major engineering works on the railway so I arrived back on my planned date of 27 Dec, early evening, to find that the railway station had no lighting at all and exit involves use of a subway which is dim and creepy at the best of times. But there was V. wrapped in several scarves and bearing a torch. Back home in 5 minutes where we could sit in the dark and watch the lights in the houses across the valley, but gritting our teeth a little at their good fortune.

    Mytholmroyd had it worse than HB and up on the top of the hill people were advised not to try to get anywhere unless they knew the route very well as wet bogs were exploding across the roads with the sheer volume of water, something which happens on unlit roads with no notice at all.

    So that’s the summary of the bad bits. You will have seen the pics of shops dumping their entire ruined stock out into the streets.

    Bookcase

    Mashable

    The good bits are really good. After 2012 a group had got together – we do that in HB at the slightest excuse – to set up stores of basic equipment, sandbags, things to start the cleanup. Those were soon exhausted but by then the place had leapt into action. Marco at the pizza shop – just beyond the edge of the flood, still with power, was handing out free pizza and vast quantities of strong coffee to volunteers before the water had receded.

    We also had the Town Hall, the 1890’s council offices recently extended to provide meeting rooms and space for small businesses plus a cafe and even more importantly working loos. It seems that supplies of cleaning materials and basic necessities – food, loo paper – poured in along with the volunteers. It was up and running as the 24 hour hub for HB in no time at all, coordinating requests for help with available muscle and liaising with police, fire brigade. It also offered specialist help and advice, all for free. All this is why I’m convinced we’ll get the town back on its feet though that may not be finished within a year. Most of the goods on offer were gifts from businesses and individuals.

    We just cope. Helen at the wool shop is busy knitting up what remains of her stock and offering jumpers to friends and customers to retain her sanity until she can open as a business again in her volunteer-scrubbed shop in Market Street. Pics you may have seen taken from a balcony there are hers though any number of people are claiming credit for them! It’s become a running joke.

    We went down to the Town Hall on Wednesday to charge my phone and were amazed not just by how efficient it all was but also how jolly. While we were there we bumped into members of a Muslim community group up from London to supply both muscle and curries – one of many such groups – also young soldiers coming in for their baked potato and baked beans, along with locals happy to just talk to other people. Floods and similar events isolate people terribly.

    Credit

    We also saw the visit of Rory Stewart, junior minister at Environment and now officially Minister for Floods. I understand that he later got a short lecture from a FoE person on retaining water in the hills rather than relying upon massive and expensive civil engineering works in the valley bottom once the flood is happening. He seems brighter than the average Tory but will he be able to convince Cameron, the very man who appointed a climate change denier as his first Secretary of State in that department?

    We are fortunate not to be blessed – yet – by a visit from Cameron himself who might not have been well received, shall we say?

    So where are we now? Bright sunshine and the odd shower. The Dusty Miller pub in Mytholmroyd, badly affected, is opening tonight with an impromptu party but very likely no furniture. The Picture House in HB, scrubbed clean and with the carpet and seats removed from the stalls, starts its intended programme on New Years Day, using only its rather hard 1920s seats in the balcony with no heating so the ads say “bring a blanket.” There is a crack along the length of the A646 of perhaps a kilometre where it overhangs the canal and would fall into it should we get that sort of rain again. Looks like it will be a rebuild costing the government more than it might have done to start managing the catchment area of the benefit for the ordinary mortals below. Meanwhile traffic is slow and single file.

    We are still here and will remain. We could just do with a more scientifically literate government.

  • How it starts

    Gosh, really?

    The Rationaliser ‏@TheRationaliser 8 hours ago
    @RichardDawkins Out of curiosity, do you think your gender/colour/class has given you privilege in your life?

    Richard Dawkins ‏@RichardDawkins 8 hours ago
    @TheRationaliser I don’t know, but my first class education probably has.

    Really? He doesn’t know? At all?

    I get that the word “privilege” gets thrown around too much, and has become both stale and belligerent, but none of that means that there is nothing to it at all. How can Dawkins simply not know if his being male and white and upper middle class has given him any privilege?

    How, for instance, does he think he came by his first class education? The very label – first class – acknowledges that it’s not universal, so how does he think it happened that he got it when others didn’t?

    The things are all joined up. Class privilege has a massive impact on what sort of education one gets, in many ways. It means growing up with literate parents who value education, for instance. It means having parents who know how to work the system. It means money to pay for books and private schools. It means having connections. White privilege and male privilege are pervasive in the same way.

    It seems strange to be wholly in the dark about all that.

  • There go the honorary degrees

    TIME magazine lists some people and institutions that have cut ties with Bill Cosby.

    Spelman College. In July, the historically black women’s college discontinued its endowed professorship with Cosby, who donated $20 million in 1988. The school had suspended the program in 2014 before terminating it completely.

    CAA. The comedian’s talent agency, which had represented him since 2012, dropped him in late 2014.

    New York University. In September, university officials removed“William H. Cosby” from the title of its Future Filmmakers Workshop.

    NBC ditched a sitcom. A cable network dropped Cosby Show reruns.

    Drexel University. The Philadelphia school revoked Cosby’s honorary degree in November.

    The University of Pittsburgh. “Based on a unanimous recommendation from the University Committee for honorary degree recipients, the University of Pittsburgh has rescinded the honorary doctor of humane letters degree awarded to Bill Cosby in 2002 at the commencement ceremony on Pitt’s Johnstown campus,” the school announced in November.

    Jerry Seinfeld and David Letterman. In July, both of the comedians asked for their endorsements to be removed from a 2014 Cosby biography titled Cosby: His Life and Times.

    Drew University. The New Jersey university voted in October to revoke Cosby’s honorary degree.

    Brown University. The Ivy League institution rescinded Cosby’s honorary degree in September. “It has become clear,” wrote Brown President Christina Paxson, “by his own admission in legal depositions that became public this summer, that Mr. Cosby has engaged in conduct with women that is contrary to the values of Brown.”

    Disney removed a statue of him from a theme park.

    Fordham University. In September, the New York City university’s Board of Trustees unanimously voted to rescind Cosby’s honorary degree. It was the first time Fordham ever revoked the honor.

    Tufts University. The Massachusetts school announced in October that it was rescinding Cosby’s honorary doctorate of arts.

    Goucher College. Cosby had received an honorary degree in 2001 when he was the school’s commencement speaker. In October, it was rescinded.

    Oh well, there’s always the barbecue sauce.

  • All huggy buggy

    His special barbecue sauce.

  • Hello

    A popular tweet:

    Shari VanderWerf ‏@shariv67 11 hours ago
    Excuse me, sir. Do you have a minute to talk about global warming?

    Embedded image permalink

  • No foreign travel for Cosby

    Cosby has been to court for his arraignment.

    Judge Elizabeth McHugh ordered him to surrender his passport and to avoid contact with Ms. Constand.

    Judge McHugh concluded the proceeding after about 15 minutes by saying, “Good luck to you, sir.” He replied, “Thank you.” He will remain free on bail of $1 million.

    Mr. Cosby then headed to the Cheltenham Township Police Department to be fingerprinted and to have a photographs taken. A small gathering of people outside shouted, “You’re a monster” and “Shame on you” as he walked into the station. He said nothing.

    I’m wondering if this will play out the way the OJ Simpson case did. The other day at the local branch library I happened to see a shiny new copy of Jeffrey Toobin’s book on the Simpson case and decided to read it. It brings it back…the disgust of watching the defense turn it into a (parody) “civil rights” case, while the domestic violence aspect just slipped away. The disgust of watching that actually succeed.

    My guess? I don’t think it will. Cosby’s defenders, if he has any, are keeping a very low profile.

    There was no Larry Wilmore show in 1994.

  • The millions who live under theocracy

    Maajid Nawaz expands on his thoughts about “wear hijab day.”

    Simply wearing a headscarf on World Hijab Day falls terribly short of our moral responsibility. It is, after all, being called World Hijab Day. So, it is not only Western Muslim women who must be considered here, but the millions of Muslim women who live under theocracies around the world, for whom World Hijab Day is enforced every single day, and for the rest of their lives.

    That’s why I would never in a million years wear any form of hijab.

    Did these non-Muslim women—indulging their Orientalist fetish by covering their heads—not stop to consider for one moment that their counterparts in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and under Taliban or ISIS rule also require our solidarity in taking their hijabs off?

    It is simply an undeniable fact that most Muslim women attacked around the world for how they dress are attacked by other Islamist and fundamentalist Muslims, not by non-Muslims.

    …

    When I suggested this in a tweet, it caused a bit of a Twitter storm, which, sadly, was predictable.

    I am a liberal. The headscarf is a choice. Let Muslim women wear bikinis or burqas, liberal societies have no business in legally interfering with the dress choices women make. I have consistently opposed the ban on face veils in France, just as I oppose their enforcement in Iran and Saudi Arabia.

    Outside of this legal debate though, and as a reforming liberal Muslim, I reserve the right to question my own communities’ cultural traditions and taboos. And, as a liberal, I reserve the right to question religious-conservative dogma generally, just as most progressives already do with Christianity.

    But people jump all over him when he does. I’ve seen some remarkably ugly (and casually made) accusations over the past week.

    Why is a woman in a headscarf deemed more modest than one without, and what implication does that have in attitudes toward the “honor” of women who do not cover? Only a racism of low expectations would prevent liberals from asking these questions of my religious-conservative fellow Muslims. No idea is above scrutiny, just as no person should be beneath dignity.

    Sounds fair to me.

  • Book people help out

    Monday I mentioned a BBC photo of a heartbreakingly huge pile of full bin-bags outside a bookshop in Hebden Bridge. Today I read in the Guardian:

    Authors including Jon Ronson and Ian Rankin have joined efforts to help a bookshop badly hit by the floods that have swept the north of England. The Book Case in the West Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge was one of the businesses in the town wrecked when the town was hit by the severe rain battering the region.

    Sam Missingham, head of events at publisher HarperCollins, and Yorkshire-based husband-and-wife author team Bob and Carol Bridgestock, who write crime fiction as RC Bridgestock, have been lobbying authors to provide signed copies of their books to sell in an auction to raise funds for the Book Case – and among those who responded to the call are fiction author Marian Keyes, Rebus author Ian Rankin and journalist Jon Ronson.

    A series of eBay auctions have been the authors’ donations – and for precious collectors’ items donated by book lovers – to raise money for the Book Case, which has been in business for almost 30 years and hosts a local writers’ group, author readings and book signings.

    …

    Kate Claughan of the Book Case said on the shop’s Facebook page on Tuesday: “Obviously the last few days have been shocking and very difficult, but we have truly been amazed and overwhelmed by the support and solidarity from our customers and the wider publishing and writing community.”

    The shop didn’t have flood insurance because Hebden flooded very badly three years ago.

  • Bants

    Deborah Cameron talks about some Words of the Year.

    If this blog could ban a word in 2016, that word would be ‘banter’. Banter cropped up in the news several times during 2015, and on each occasion it revealed itself, once again, as a term whose main function is to normalize misogyny. Of course it’s true that getting rid of the word wouldn’t eliminate the thing itself. But it might make it harder for people to pretend that sexist verbal abuse is just a bit of harmless fun, in a totally different category from the racist or homophobic equivalent.

    One traditional place for the ‘harmless banter’ argument to surface is in discussions of the shit that gets said to and about women by sportsmen, sports fans and sports pundits. In March, when the FA made a statement condemning sexist chanting at football matches, women involved in the Beautiful Game were supportive, but also sceptical. Carolyn Radford, the Chief Executive of Mansfield Town, contrasted attitudes to racist abuse (which was condoned for far too long, but is now subject to a zero tolerance policy) with the endless trivialization of sexism and misogyny. ‘Because it’s “banter”, so to speak’, she said, ‘I’ve got to flick my hair and just accept it’.

    I just saw a public Facebook post in which a guy gave an eloquent rant about Tory Education minister Nicky Morgan, which ended with this:

    You utter, vacuous, woo-believeing, backward, medieval, anachronistic, tory, pasty-faced, oleaginous, imbecilic, obambulating, tory, self-serving, cumbercunt of a twatmangle.

    He’s a decent guy, a Facebook friend, and I strongly doubt he would call say Bill Cosby or Anjem Choudary a cumbernigger of a niggermangle – but it’s ok to call women cunts and twats. All the comments on that post were men going teehee, you called her a cunt, teehee.

    So, yeah. We’re supposed to flick our hair and accept it. We don’t count.

    Just to be clear, I’m not really in favour of banning words. On the contrary, one depressing feature of this year has been the continuing determination of some feminist organizations to purge their political vocabulary of terms that refer to women as a class. A proposal to drop the word ‘sister’ from future campaigns was approved at the National Union of Students’ annual women’s conference. The Midwives’ Association of North America rewrote its core competencies document replacing the phrase ‘pregnant women’ with ‘pregnant individuals’. As more and more organizations campaigning for abortion rights took the word ‘women’ out of their literature, the Nation columnist Katha Pollitt wrote:

    it feels as if abortion language is becoming a bit like French, where one man in a group of no matter how many women means “elles” becomes “ils.”

    My first ever post on this blog pointed out that ‘woman’ has a long history of being treated as a ‘dirty word’, and that reclaiming it from silence and euphemism was one of the goals of the Women’s Liberation Movement. The new argument for avoiding it (that it’s exclusionary) may look different from the old one (that it’s ‘indelicate’), but if you’ve been around for long enough to remember when the old one was common-sense, you’ll find it difficult not to notice certain similarities. There is a persistent distaste for the idea of embodied femaleness which has deep historical and cultural roots. And that, I believe, is something feminism must continue to challenge.

    Banter or no banter, Cosby or no Cosby, Facebook or no Facebook.

  • Cosby says the darndest things

    Larry Wilmore on Cosby last July, after the New York Times published that deposition in which Cosby admitted drugging women in order to fuck them. (In other words, as Wilmore emphatically points out, to rape them.)

  • Cosby charged with sexual assault

    The Washington Post:

    For the first time, Bill Cosby will face criminal charges in connection with an accusation of sexual assault, Montgomery County prosecutors in Pennsylvania announced on Wednesday.

    Prosecutors charged Cosby with aggravated indecent assault, a first degree felony, First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a morning press conference. The single charge stems from an alleged sexual assault in early 2004.

    “Today, after examination of all the evidence, we are able to seek justice on behalf of the victim,” Steele said. Prosecutors launched a new investigation into the allegations against Cosby after new information about the case emerged in July, he said. The 12-year statute of limitations to file felony charges in connection to those allegations expires in January.

    It was the second investigation to examine allegations that the comedian drugged and assaulted former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004. Constand first accused Cosby a year after the alleged assault, but at the time, prosecutors declined to press charges.

    It will be a difficult prosecution because of the long time gap – but prosecutors might be able to argue the judge into allowing evidence of other allegations against Cosby.

    Under rules of evidence in Pennsylvania, prosecutors can introduce allegations brought by the other women if those allegations establish a mode of operation or pattern of behavior by Cosby. While a judge could rule against prosecutors, the process of determining whether that evidence is admissible will involve court hearings and never-before-heard testimony from the other alleged victims of the famed comedian and father figure.

    “The chances that they can keep this testimony off the public record is poor because the case hinges on these other allegations,” Coburn said. “This is going to be devastating to his reputation.”

    And that might put a dent in this disgusting culture of impunity for celebrities. That would be good.

    Cosby acknowledged in a 2005 deposition that he intended to give drugs to young women with whom he wanted to have sex. His admission that he obtained Quaaludes to use on women was contained in a 10-year-old deposition given by the legendary comedian in a civil lawsuit filed by Constand.

    U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno unsealed those records for the first time in July, writing that Cosby “has donned the mantle of public moralist and mounted the proverbial electronic or print soap box to volunteer his views on, among other things, childrearing, family life, education, and crime. To the extent that Defendant has freely entered the public square and ‘thrust himself into the vortex of [these public issues],’ he has voluntarily narrowed the zone of privacy that he is entitled to claim.”

    …

    Victoria Valentino, a former Playboy model who alleged that Cosby drugged and assaulted her in 1970, said news of the criminal case is vindication for the women who have come forward with similar allegations.

    “We knew what the truth is and we made a decision to stand our ground and we were not going to be silenced anymore,” said Valentino, now a nursing school instructor in California who first told her story to The Post last year. “We were not going allow the shame and the blame and the humiliation and the fear of the crime that was perpetrated on us to silence us any longer.”

    In 1970. 45 years ago. For 45 years or more he’s gotten away with it.

  • Wake up

    Because it made me laugh my insides out.

  • Safe travel

    Taslima mentioned this on Twitter, so I looked it up. International Business Times reports:

    Indian Army personnel allegedly gang-raped a 14-year-old girl Monday in a moving train in the eastern state of Jharkhand, according to local reports. Police in Jharkhand reportedly detained one of the men and said the other two would be arrested soon.

    The girl ran away from her home Sunday and was travelling alone on a train bound for the town of Amritsar, in the northwestern state of Punjab. Her family alerted police of her disappearance, who informed railway authorities.

    The Times of India reported officials spotted her boarding a train car reserved for troops.

    Railway police rescued the girl, who later said in a complaint that one of the soldiers offered her liquor and two others raped her after she was drunk. The man who offered the girl liquor was arrested and the other two were absconding, DNA newspaper reported.

    Taslima had guys tweeting at her that the girl drank liquor!! the girl got in a traincar with soldiers!! In other words she asked for it. Taslima explained to them that she didn’t.

    Rape is a crime. It’s not a judicial and fitting punishment for running away, or disobeying parents, or skipping school, or drinking, or getting on a train with men. It’s a crime and a violation of rights; it’s an act of violence. Nothing justifies it.

  • Guest post: There’s this thing you might have heard of called “socialization”

    Originally a comment by Samantha Vimes on For no reason at all.

    There are some uninformed people speaking up this time.

    Listen, guys: there’s this thing you might have heard of called “socialization”. It’s where people form opinions, values, and behaviors based on what the people who came before them and live around them think, do or say. It’s the reason why so many people have a low opinion of women. It’s not that women are, in general, so bad at life that we deserve to be mocked and scorned. It’s that when you were boys, the men around you taught you to deride women. She’s angry? Must be that time of the month; it cannot be thought that he did something genuinely wrong and is being told about a legitimate grievance. She’s asking if you want to eat? She must be a fucking passive-aggressive manipulator– it can’t be that eating is a social thing and she thinks it would be more polite of her to wait a while if you aren’t ready to eat with her now. You had an argument and she expects an apology, even though *she* apologized? It must be that she is actually crazy, not that her socialization taught her that all arguments end with both people apologizing to each other to show the relationship is more important than the topic of disagreement, so she swallowed her pride and apologized even though she was right, and now you’re just sitting there, smug, thinking you “won”, when she was just trying to show you how much she cares.

    Look, men and women are socialized differently, and the way to deal with that is to open up more lines of communication and talk about why things aren’t working smoothly if both people just act the way they were taught to act.

    For instance, “spread for me” is a horribly sexist sounding phrase to a woman’s ears, because it reduces your lovers to passively granting access to sex, rather than reflecting enthusiastic consent and partnership. It also sounds objectifying.

    Furthermore, demanding that a woman “ask you” for things is demeaning. These are not the days where a man must provide for a woman. We can buy our own food. She doesn’t need your permission to eat. She just wants your fucking company, so don’t pretend like it’s a huge favor you’re granting. Do you want to eat or not? If she asks and you aren’t hungry, how about saying how long you think it will be before you are ready to eat? (My husband is diabetic. Sometimes we actually can’t eat at the same time, and sometimes I get low blood sugar – more likely to make me cranky than PMS ever would – because I wait too long for him… but I’ve learned to grab a snack, I just want to know what size snack to get.)

  • Spoilers and social justice

    Pull up your chairs for a lesson in Spoilers and Social Justice. Shut up, this is important.

    First of all – is it hypocritical to want spoiler alerts while thinking trigger warnings are out of hand or silly or both? Yes, yes it is. Thank you for asking that question. The answer is yes.

    Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get down to the real politics.

    Spoiler warnings are an intersectional social justice and accessibility issue. For example, I am rarely able to experience media right away. I don’t get to see movies when they come out because I work a lot of hours, I’m a student, and I’m usually totally broke. Spoilers are a constant reminder that I’m too poor to have the benefit of seeing movies opening weekend (or even in the theater usually), too poor to watch shows on cable, or too poor to read books right away. Helping me to avoid spoilers by labeling them helps me to experience media the way people with more money and time than me get to experience that media. When I’m angsting about not wanting a movie spoiled for me, it’s not because I’m a hypocritical jackass. It’s because I’m a poor college student who has to wait a few weeks to see a movie I’m excited about but cannot afford the time or cash to see yet.

    We just don’t think, do we. We forget all about poor people, shivering in their rags and unable to see the new Star Wars movie the day it opens. We just stride past them, holding out their sad little tin cups, on our way to buy a $200,000 T shirt and tickets to the new Star Wars movie.

    From an accessibility perspective, there are many people with a wide variety of disabilities who may not be able to see a movie when it is in theaters, or who may not get through a book quickly.

    That’s true, that’s true. I’d better stop talking about books, and articles too, because who knows how many people haven’t had time to “get through” them yet, who are nevertheless reading my blog posts?

    People with PTSD, agoraphobia, or a myriad of other concerns may be unable to see a movie in a theater but will be thrilled to see the same film in their living rooms. I love to watch movies with my friend with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome, and would hate to have those movies spoiled for her just because her condition makes the loud sound systems of movie theaters intolerable. Should I feel free to spoil a book that my dyslexic friend is in the middle of reading just because I read it faster?

    Hell no! That would be awful! That would be the worst kind of cishet white ablebodied privilege. I feel sick just thinking about it.

    Trigger warnings are essential for making our writing, classes, and world more accessible for people. Spoiler warnings are, too. Let those of us who, for whatever reason, get to a piece of media after you enjoy it the same way you do. I know you’re a mega-fan who got to see Long Awaited Movie on opening day, but I have to wait until payday. Then I’ll go to the theater, with a pair of earplugs for the loud bits, and with your help I’ll get to experience it the same way you did on opening day.

    I see Utopia arriving.

    Oh wait, is that a spoiler?

  • Zither

    Feel a need for the Third Man theme music? Of course you do.

    https://youtu.be/r8jN1treRKQ

  • Remember, it’s all about you

    Glosswitch has an amusing satirical post purporting to be a speech by the CEO of Sexism Inc at the end of their AGM.

    The market has seen some tough times lately, what with the resurgence of interest in feminism since its early noughties slump. There was a time, two or three years ago, when some of you expressed concerns that we might not get through it. Certainly there was a need for some restructuring but, while we were all sad to see Mr Clarkson and Mr Buchanan go, I know that they, too, saw the need for sexism to move with the times.

    It’s important for any organisation, even one that doesn’t prioritise the subjugation of half the human race, to stay nimble and flexible. That’s why in May this year I was absolutely delighted to announce the acquisition of Libfem Corp and its subsidiaries, Everyday Feminism, Amnesty and NUS Women. While these will now operate as part of Sexism Inc family, they will retain their unique brand identities, finding new ways to market objectification and sexual exploitation to women without recourse to the more “traditional” messaging favoured by our more established brands.

    Haw!

    It’s Patriarchy 2.0, you see.

    Now, the material exploitation of female bodies is available on a pay-as-you-go basis. Want sex? You’ll be doing sex workers a favour. Want to father some kids? Take your pick from a wide range of overseas surrogates. Need your kids to be white? Buy the eggs elsewhere. The key word here is choice. Choice and self-validation. Remember, it’s all about you.

    The operating system used by Patriarchy 2.0 is Queer Theory. It did require some tweaks from the original version presented by Ms Butler – Ms Serano did some sterling work on this – but I think we’ve found something every modern-day patriarch should like. The fundamentals of sex-based exploitation are still in place – we all know the anatomy of the people who’ll be doing most of the world’s unpaid work – but our special override function renders them indescribable. It’s ingenious (any problems with the online version can be dealt with by pressing caps lock and typing TERF).

    That part isn’t really satirical, it’s just straightforward description.

  • The perfect guy for the job

    From the office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights:

    Two UN human rights experts have urged the Zambian Government to show it is serious in its efforts to tackle gender-based violence and sexual violence against women and girls by ending the impunity of Zambian singer Clifford Dimba, who was convicted in 2014 for the rape of a 14-year-old girl and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Mr. Dimba was pardoned by President Lungu after serving one year of his sentence and subsequently appointed as an ambassador in the fight against gender violence.

    Got that? A convicted rapist was appointed as an ambassador against gender violence. What a calculated insult to women and girls.

    “Such an outrageous release and appointment as an ambassador for the fight against gender-based violence not only traumatises the victim all over again but discourages other victims from reporting similar offences,” said Dubravka Šimonović, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences.

    “The pardon and appointment undermine the strong message against sexual abuse of women and girls that was sent with the original sentence and trivialise the serious nature of these offences,” Ms. Šimonović said. “Rather, Clifford Dimba has been placed in a prominent position and even portrayed as a role model to fight violence against women.”

    Since his release, Clifford Dimba has allegedly been involved in two other incidents of violence against women. “This clearly shows that impunity for these offences generates more violence and harm,” said Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, the UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

    “Furthermore it constitutes an utter disrespect for women and girls in Zambia who might rightly feel that their Government is not protecting them. The pardon has meant impunity for an abhorrent crime and his subsequent appointment as ambassador for the fight against such violence is more than cynical and adds insult to injury for the victim,” she added.

    Deliberate, sarcastic, mocking insult, is what it looks like.

  • Regent University of Science and Technology: A Tertiary Institution or a Front for Christian Indoctrination in Ghana?

    Going by its name, one expects Regent University in Ghana to be a institution that is committed to the pursuit of academic excellence in science and technology. But in actual fact it is not, at least going by the experiences of Bede Nkumasi. Nkumasi earned his doctoral degree from one of the top universities in Europe last year. At the end of the program, he returned to his native country, Ghana, where he planned to put his knowledge to use in the development of the country. For now, that dream is on hold because Nkumasi recently resigned from his teaching position at Regent University due to compulsory religious devotion and other ‘unacademic’ policies and practices on the campus. The university’s president is slowing turning the institution into a quasi-church. In fact Regent is better called a university of ‘Christian Science’ and theology, not a ‘Christian’ university of science and technology. This is what happened.

    Some months ago, Bede Nkumasi secured a job at this university and has looked forward to teaching and nurturing students, inculcating the skills and expertise he has acquired over the years. A few weeks after resuming at the university, he noticed that Regent University was not really committed to science and technology education. This is mainly due to the way the institution was managed by the president. He realized that Regent university was actually a front for Christian evangelism and indoctrination of both students and staff. Bede Nkumasi is a self styled christian. So one should not think that he is a militant atheist who may be against religious observance. No, he is not. Nkumasi thinks that religion, christianity in this case, should not be used to undermine the learning of science and technology in a university. Nkumasi is of the notion that education and religious service should not mix.

    Unfortunately he was mistaken because that was not – and is not – the case at Regent University of Science and Technology in Ghana. Learning and pentecostal christianity mix in ways that hamper academic pursuits. Shortly after Nkumasi started teaching at Regent University, the President made it compulsory for the teaching staff to attend chapel service for the five working days in a week. Staff members who did not attend the service were queried. They risked being sacked from their jobs. Meanwhile, compulsory chapel service was not in the job contract that Bede Nkumasi and other lecturers signed when they joined the University.

    At Regent University, attending chapel service is compulsory for all students only on Thursdays. Students who do not attend the service may not graduate from the university even when they have excelled in their courses. The university has a machine at the Chapel that records the attendance of students and staff. The President of Regent University literally ‘worships’ the Nigerian pentecostal pastor, Bishop David Oyedepo and uses his videos and publications as the basis of learning and instruction at the university.

    The course outline at Regent is based on Biblical teachings. For instance, though, Regent styles itself as a university of science and technology, it does not allow the teaching of evolution. So this university graduates science students who are ignorant of the central pillar of modern biology! Lecturers are compelled to teach creationism – Bible based creationism only in science classes, not evolution. Now may I ask: What kind of scientists do they want to produce? Creation scientists?

    This so-called university of science and technology included 4 videos of Bishop Oyedepo as compulsory reading materials for the general studies program. A concerned Ghanaian said regarding the videos, “I do not understand how these videos are connected to teaching and learning in a university of science and technology but they said the videos are compulsory and that the students and staff should use Oyedepo as a reference point and a role model.”

    Meanwhile Oyedepo is not a scientist. Oyedepo is not a technologist.

    This travesty going on in the name of tertiary education at Regent University of Science and technology should stop. Those who are administering this institution should be called to order. The university defines its domain as that of “advancing science, engineering and technology education to meet the growing industry needs. Its programmes are distinctively developed with the aim of producing the technological human resource capacity for the nation and beyond. The University prepares graduates who have the proficiency to deal with the challenges of the 21st century, the capacity for insightful understanding of prevailing economic issues and technological problems. Over the years, Regent-Ghana has been committed to achieving high academic standards and compliance with all regulatory requirements”. Now I ask, how can Regent University effectively occupy this domain with an educational program that is based on the Bible, not on natural science?

    The university says that its mission is “to become a cutting-edge, world-class, Christian University, committed to raising highly skilful, visionary, ethical and God-fearing leaders to function as change agents” and with its vision of “raising highly skilful, visionary, God-fearing, ethical and passionate leaders, to function as change agents” How does compulsory religious service for students and staff help in raising highly skilful change agents with cutting edge knowledge in terms of science and technology?

    The university’s commitment reads as follows ”As Ghana (and for that matter, Africa) searches for answers for her developmental challenges, all stakeholders have a duty to make significant contributions to making Africa gain a 21st century push in its social dream and economic development. In this regard, the higher education sector will have to be the nation’s pacesetter in innovation, and a major player in capacity building. Regent University College of Science and Technology is thus playing its part by preparing graduates who will rise to Africa’s scientific and development challenges of the 21st century”.

    One wonders how Regent University could achieve these lofty goals when there is no real commitment to qualitative education and learning. The president of the university describes the institution as

    a place where lives are shaped, and destinies are formed to impact generations. We are committed to raising visionary, ethical and dedicated passionate leaders to contribute positively to the African renaissance. As the African renaissance gradually builds momentum, we at RUCST are determined to preparing and equipping our students to fully take up their rightful roles as responsible citizens across the continent in whatever role they may see themselves. As an institution, our insistence is that our graduates must be different; for if certificates and degrees alone can transform Africa, the continent will not be where it is at the moment! At RUCST, we place strong emphasis on theory and practice, and on character formation, aiming at producing well rounded and well grounded graduates, with strong ethical grounding. Our relatively young and dynamic faculty, are complemented by seasoned, highly qualified and experienced professors from around the globe.

    Definitely, this is mere rhetoric that is meant to attract students and get parents to send their children to this institution, not a demonstration of genuine commitment to academic excellence. This message does not reflect what is actually going on at the institution. Otherwise, how does one explain the fact that this same president sanctions compulsory religious devotion as a strategy to attract students and banks and grow the university? So, praying and mandatory religious worship is a way that this university plans to raise students who would contribute to the cause of African renaissance and development? I totally disagree.

    The circumstances that led to the resignation of Bede Nkumasi are clear indicators of the decadence at this university, and it should serve as a wake-up call for all those who are concerned about the standard of education in Ghana. Ghana’s Ministry of Education and other regulatory agencies in the country should look into what’s going on in the name of university education at Regent University of Science and Technology. That an institution is a Christian university is not a license for the president of the University to treat the students and staff as he or she likes or to introduce any Christian program anytime he deems fit. The Government of Ghana issued a licence to the owners to operate a university, not a church or as a church. Regent University was given the permission to operate to educate students not to indoctrinate them. This institution is licensed to teach students science and technology, not to brainwash them with christian ‘superstitions’ and dogmas. Those who run the university should not take advantage of the limited job and tertiary educational opportunities in Ghana to manage it any manner that they like. If the president of Regent University could not run the institution in accordance with the law and the educational standards in Ghana, then the license that was issued for the operation of the university should be revoked. That is to say, Regent University should be de-registered.