So Osama’s been killed. Apparently at least, but we’re not here to get into conspiracy theories. We’re here to ask how it is that we’ve got to a point where millions of people celebrate killing? Sure, the guy did some pretty horrendous things and in the eyes of some was considered pure evil (what exactly is “evil” anyway?), but does it warrant hordes of people gathering to wave flags and chant “USA” as if they’ve won some big contest?

How does this:

create this reaction?

A family member wrote something on the topic:

This morning I received an email letter from a dear friend, Anne, in Johannesburg who has just completed her fourth treatment for cancer – each time a different cancer.

As I listened to the news of Osama Bin Laden this morning and heard the response of the American public, I thought about the metaphor of cancer. Through all of Anne’s surgeries, I do not recall us “celebrating or being jubilant” over the loss of part of her body that had succumbed to cancer. I remember us rejoicing that she was alive, had courage and had hope, that she was willing to do whatever it took to get aware, to see connections, to bring the unconscious to consciousness, to work to create peace and healing in her body. But we did not feel “relief,” we were not “glad,” we were not “happy” that her breasts had to be removed because for some deep and unknown reason their cells had started growing in an out of control and destructive way. We grieved the loss of parts of her body and searched for underlying causes and did everything we could to find ways to heal the rest of her body.

In the same way, I find it vulgar and offensive to be “jubilant, celebrating, happy” that a part of the world’s body, humanities body, was surgically removed, so to speak. Osama Bin Ladin was certainly cancerous to the body of humanity – I have no qualms saying this. However, the deep hidden causes that gave rise to his out of control and destructive behavior is not know to me. I grieve the loss of potential, of human life – his and all those he destroyed. I am saddened to think of how broken and hurt he was internally to have projected so much hatred and anger on to others and created so much hurt, pain and fear in the world. Sometimes it is necessary to remove a diseased organ – this is tragic, not something to celebrate.

And as we well know with cancer, we can remove diseased organs, but more often than not the cancer reappears somewhere else unless there is radical life style change, insight and deep inner work. And even then it is often not enough… I fear for our world. There are thousands of Bin Ladens to take his place. Perhaps we need to start listening to the symptoms instead of trying to get rid of them and pretending there is not a cause. Like killing Bin Laden, removing the organ does not guarantee health or wellness – it is merely treating the symptom, not the underlying cause.

Until we get to the cause, then nothing has really happened to make our world a safer place. In fact, tonight I feel less safe than before, but this time as a result of the attitudes and stated beliefs of vengeance that are clearly evidenced in people celebrating Bin Laden’s death.

Have we not progressed in consciousness beyond the middle ages when people showed up with picnic baskets to watch and cheer on as people were executed, hung drawn and quartered and their bodies were put on display? Can we allow ourselves to feel the pain of our diseased humanity and learn to heal ourselves, find a cure, before we destroy ourselves. Can we learn by asking deeper questions and finding deeper answers than the surgeons knife and the assassins guns. This is not healing -nor is it justice. True justice seeks reconciliation and healing, not revenge.

Thanks to Lyndall Johnson for the message

We posted a video a while ago of a Minister (Government not religious) of an African country holding a press conference about gay people. Now if you haven’t seen it, watch it! Watch it now because you will absolutely and up on the floor killing yourself laughing! You will laugh every time you see it and each time it will get funnier, until you stop laughing.

Because when you stop laughing you’ll realise how frightening it is, how scary it is that leaders of countries can firstly be this uneducated and secondly wield so much power that they can make people illegal for sexual orientation.

Now I know this is not unheard of. But let’s be fair its 2011! 2011 people! Haven’t we moved on, I mean isn’t the world liberal enough for an idiot like this to be beaten globally as soon as he posts a video like this – evidentially not!

I’m not sure if this is the same country but just for a minute after you have stopped laughing, think that this is an actual newspaper article in an actual country – that’s terrifying!

. . . We may as well keep the momentum going (we made the cardinal sin – excuse the pun – of entering into commentary on religious / political issues which has seen some people take great offense and we like it)

I came across this post the other day and my initial reaction was simply WOW!

The amount of time and money, I thought, went into building such incredible structures defined by architectural expression combined with environmental beauty must be staggering. In fact I have been to see a good few of these purely to take in the awesomeness of mans ability to express and create in such mammoth proportions . . . here are some of the bu8ildings I’m talking about . . .

Cathedral of Saint Basil - Russia

Church of Hallgramur - Iceland

Las Lagas - Columbia

But then I started thinking (which is dangerous at the best of times) about what the point of these things were. I suppose they were to give people a place to prey, but could you not do that in a simple big hall or venue? So I decided to ask a few people and the general response is ‘to honour God of course’.

Really? You built this palatial building with money you took from hard working congregants to honour God?

Now don’t misunderstand me! I’m not here to have a debate on whether or not there is a god and if so which religion is correct because I think I get enough abuse already, so for the sake of this discussion let’s assume there is a god.

Now does anyone really believe that if there is this all powerful, all knowing, all creating being that he / she / it (I’m going to use ‘it’ from now just for ease of reference) would want us to honour them with things like this?

Basilica De Higuey - Dominican Republic

Jubilee Church - Rome

If this being is so potent and so magnificent do we really believe ‘it’ is this much of a narcissist? Do we really think that this omnipotent thing wants us to use hard earned money from people who desperately need it and take it under the guise that it is serving god to build decadent glorified halls? I think that it (being the god) would rather you give that money children starving around the world, use it for text books, education, medical supplies or anything really that will benefit society other than aesthetically for fks sake!

Surely taking this money and using it to build one of these is merely for PEOPLES egos rather than to honour anything? I mean I’m pretty sure if there is a god it doesn’t have an ego and so the building of these massive decadent Churches, Mosques, Temples or whatever are peoples own pissing contest!

Personally I think these are magnificent buildings, they really are and I seriously recommend you go visit and appreciate the beauty of their history and architecture (if you don’t fell like travelling CLICK HERE and go see the rest – they are truly spectacular. The greatest ones are those in this article that are small and unique in position or age or origin)

BUT I really do feel, just like with religion in general (and this is a much larger discussion for another time), humans have taken it and manipulated it to feed their own hubris (that’s means arrogance for those of you who didn’t have my vagina drawing Latin teacher)!

When I look over these photos again I can’t help but wonder how many meals, vaccinations and mosquito nets these buildings represent and if this would not be a far greater way of honouring god than building a showy and self indulgent castle to show off!

St Michaels Monastary - Kiev

I guess the latest incident where South African Zionists have branded Desmond Tutu a ‘bigot’ and an ‘anti-semite’ have finally tipped me over the edge!

At the end of 2009 Judge Richard Goldstone published a report on the Gaza Conflict whereby both sides were taken into account before the report was published. As one can imagine the Palestinians would have been tremendously sceptical having a Jewish judge appointed by the UN to investigate any abuse of human rights and while they did dispute the report in its finality it was the Israeli government who were most critical of the report (for the record both sides were found guilty of human rights violations)

Now let me back up for a moment and give you a very brief picture of who this man is and why he was chosen to evaluate one of the most difficult and heated conflicts in the ongoing battle in the middle east.

He has held served on the Supreme and Constitutional Courts in South Africa (and not in the nice easy post apartheid times – but rather trying to be impartial during the harshest and most cruel times). He has been head of investigations into human rights violations at home and was appointed to most post apartheid tribunals by Nelson Mandela.

He has gone on to be appointed globally to investigate and prosecute human rights violations in countries like Argentina, Rwanda, Kosovo etc in fact if you want the most intelligent most unbiased report of the most difficult, horrific and emotional situations he is the Michael Jordan (you can read about him here)!

Now to get back to case in point.

After the report in 2009 he was personally and professionally attacked by Jews and Zionists around the world. He was called a disgrace to his people and shunned from communities – and why? Because he was impartial, because he told the truth and because the truth was too tough to believe the Jews lashed out at him – my question? Why so defensive?

The man has a lifetime’s worth of track record of nothing but the highest ethics in the toughest times and yet when the truth doesn’t favour us we turn against him both personally and professionally – again I ask, why so defensive?

After these unfair accusations of the man I decided to keep quiet. Why? I’m not sure – maybe I believed it wasn’t my fight, perhaps it was due to the fact that I didn’t realise just how unfair the criticism of him was, naively so.

This latest outcry against a similar man of principle and character has got me riled up and seems a large amount of people as well.

Desmond Tutu has been an ambassador of truth, honesty and goodwill. He is a proud South African, has headed the frightening TRC (one of the most difficult things i imagine any human could do), been a front runner in the fight against AIDS, spoken out numerous times about Zimbabwe and has been critical of human rights violations all over the world!

Last October, the Archbishop Emeritus asked the Cape Town Opera not to travel to Israel. His argument was based on his firm belief in human rights and equality. He wrote, “Only the thickest-skinned South Africans would be comfortable performing before an audience that excluded residents living, for example, in an occupied West Bank village 30 minutes from Tel Aviv, who would not be allowed to travel to Tel Aviv, while including his Jewish neighbours from an illegal settlement on occupied Palestinian territory.

This has once again enraged the local Jewish community and caused them to paint him in a most unfair light. This is not the first time he has spoken out in this conflict – In fact he has spoken out against Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians many times yet only when the finger is pointed at us do we become angrily defensive – the question is why?

WHY can the Jews not engage in debate on an issue from a non emotional and non pious perspective?

It seems as if anytime anyone comments negatively on Israel we immediately attack them in any way possible without intelligently evaluating their argument. Isn’t this the whole point of being human? Didn’t Descartes’ say ‘I think therefore I am’? Was this not the absolute difference between us and animals? The answer is a simple! The thing that separates us from the beasts is the ability of thought, rationalisation and evaluation! So then why do Jews react so emotionally to a country that isn’t even ours in most instances?

I wish I had an answer – I wish I had some serious Zionist friends that I could bounce this off but in the meantime I feel embarrassed. I feel that a nation of people like the Jews that has suffered so much persecution over centuries should have become wiser than this, we should have become tougher and more resilient and have the ability to absorb criticism before responding in an intelligent manner.

I wont sign a petition on this but I will give you the opportunity if you wish (HERE) , and to read some more on the topic before deciding one way or another!

I mean if you think about it I would wanna know who all the irritating Twilightiens are out there.  I mean sure this woman is a complete moron (she did wait her whole life to get her first tattoo and this is what she got!!) but at least if you were to sleep with her (and I really hope no one who reads our blog is that desperate)  you would know immediately what all kinds of CRAZY you were getting yourself into!

The hint of BUTT CRACK made me hurl a bit in my mouth!

The supermarket worker, from Reading, braved 22 hours in the tattoo artist’s chair after months saving £2,000 [~$3,100] to put permanent reminders of stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner on her skin.

She was desperate to get almost the whole cast of blood-sucking characters on her back because she claims they helped her lose five stone [70 pounds].

Despite working in the cake department, she ditched calorie-laden foods in favour of getting stuck into the popular books and movies- and dropped 14 dress sizes in just six months.

She plans to save £2,000 more to spend another 12 hours under the needle as she eclipses her whole torso with the gothic tribute.

Via the brilliant GEEKOLOGIE

You know those times when you watch a video and can’t help but cringe from embarrassment? Well this is one of them, compliments of a Mr Adriaan Bergh, an aspiring Mr South Africa who “competes in ALL sports” and whose ideal date would be with a “gorgeous YET intelligent woman”. Dude, why would you do this to yourself?

Thanks Carl

I’ve just posted some pictures with the title, “Boys will be boys” (the title of the e-mail that had the pictures was “why boys need parents”). Although it was meant as a light hearted take on guys, while I was posting it I received a story that made me think a little more about the subject. At what point does the innocent curiosity of childhood have the propensity to change into something more sinister? It seems like that point is becoming younger and younger with an increasing number of sexual assaults happening amongst children. I think this is the real reason why boys need parents.

This is a very moving account of a childhood incident that shouldn’t happen to anyone. It made me sad. It made me angry. It made me ashamed to have the common title of “human”. It made me scared that if I have children one day they’ll grow up in this society. It’s something you should be aware of as it’s happening all around us. Real men do not rape! Boys that grow into real men do not rape!

Akona N writes:

I said No…

Before I begin, I’d like to copy and paste a part of a twitter conversation I had that has me now sitting in front on my laptop, cigarette in hand, writing something I never thought I would ever share.

@Akona1: Maybe I’m just a girl standing in front of the virtual world asking it to help me help the real world…

To which a friend whose opinion I respect implicitly responded:

“We live in times that require strength; you’ll have to tap into what makes you a strong woman and march us forward.”

Twitter’s brilliance is the 140-character limit per tweet (less when you reply / @ someone), however, it is too limiting at times. So I have a little story to tell you. A story I’ve never told so publicly, a story begging to be written because something has to be said and done, a story I hope will make a difference, no matter how small.

It was January 23rd of the year 2000, 6 months after the passing of my beloved mother, I was 15 and in standard 7 of high school. It was a few hours after one of the school’s interhouse swimming galas and some friends and fellow swimmers, cheerleaders and school mates had gathered for a little braai at a friend’s house nearby. There was music, swimming, food, dancing, laughing and drinking. I’d arrived at the house a little later than most of the guests as I had to do some admin at school before leaving and when I arrived the gathering was in full swing with about 40 or so people having a good time in the sun.

The first half an hour or so I spent chatting to some friends, played a little soccer in the medium sized backyard with some of the boys, most especially because I wanted to get the attention of this older boy I had had a crush on. At some point we went and sat down under a tree and chatted – I was cool, calm and cute with my heart fluttering with every word that sang out of his mouth.

After a few minutes, one of his friends joined us and offered me a beer. I’d tasted alcohol before and was not opposed to it, but I was not interested in having the beer he was adamant I should have. With some back and forth regarding my not wanting it, he got up and left with it but then returned with a cider. I took it and drank it and we continued to talk and laugh under the tree. About half way through the drink I wasn’t feeling good at all, dizzy and nauseous, I thought that being out in the sun and the days activities were weighing down on me so I excused myself went inside the house to use the bathroom. It was occupied, as I turned around to try and find another loo the friend, lets him R, was standing very close to me stroking my arm and told me that there was a bathroom outside by the maids quarter that I could use if I didn’t want to wait. I followed him, letting him guide my faint self and my wobbly legs outside.

At the entrance to the bathroom, the boy I had been crushing on was standing at the door and I thought it was so sweet of him to be there to see if I was alright. R led me inside and suddenly the door shut with a bang and he was in there with me. Slurring my words, I asked that he please give me some privacy and he said he wanted to make sure I’d be okay. I tried to open the unlocked door, but the handle wouldn’t move. I was confused, was it stuck? Was crush boy holding it so that I wouldn’t be able to open. Then a moment is realisation dawned on me. It wasn’t the heat that was getting to me, something was very very wrong.

R turned me around and started kissing my neck and face, my weak arms tried to push him away and with all the saliva I could muster I spat in his face and my dry mouth fought to say the word I knew would stop this madness. No. At first it came out as a whisper and I could not believe my voice was failing me at such a crucial moment. Again, I tried, No. This time the venom I needed carried through and his hands, which were now on my budding breasts, stopped mid grope and I sighed in victory.

The room was spinning, my heart was hammering at my chest and my legs were about to give in when I was jolted into shock, as he had reached under skirt and frantically tugging at my underwear. No wasn’t getting me anywhere. I said it again, I pushed as hard as I could, and my final words were “don’t do this, I’m on my period”. I saw the glint in his eye; he licked his lips and turned me around to face the wall. He ripped off my panties and as I looked down, my bloody tampon was lying there, staring back up at me. Tears rolled down cheeks and joined the blood keeping my tampon company.

R giggled and said he loved when a woman was menstruating and I could feel his penis getting hard against me and all I was thinking was that I was just a girl, and he was about to force me into womanhood. He pushed me to the ground in the corner of the bathroom. There were some planks and nails and broken tiles that hurt my back, and as he mounted me I was ever so grateful for the pain on my back which was helping me not to concentrate on the burning sensation coming from him entering me.

Minutes passed and he got off, got up, zipped him pants, bent down and kissed me on the forehead. I closed my eyes expecting crushboy to enter and have his way with me too, but there was silence. I lay there for a long time.

When I finally opened my eyes it was getting dark. I got up, cleaned myself up in the basin, cleaned the blood of the floor, tied a knot into my panties and put them on. Used some toilet paper as a makeshift pad so as not to soil myself. I left the house and walked home.

Went to school the next day and didn’t say anything to anyone about what had happened. Why? I didn’t want to be a statistic, I didn’t want to give him the power to make me a victim, I didn’t want to feel any more ashamed than I did and I didn’t want anyone’s pity. I wanted to believe that I am stronger.

In my head, I had a long life ahead of me and I was going to live it, without the stigma of being a survivor. It took me years to even say it to myself – I was raped. My innocence was gone. To this day, at 25 years of age, I still struggle to call myself a woman – because of how ‘becoming a woman’ happened. Never even told my boyfriend, years later, that he was in fact not my first.

It is now November of the year 2010, and rape is in the headlines every day, there seems to be more victims than there are not, some as young as a year old. Most recently, a 15-year-old girl was drugged and raped, in front of her school mates, on school property, her rape was recorded on cellphones and spread around her school. First the police refused to arrest the offenders because they did not want to interrupt they boys while writing their exams, then her teachers said she deserved to raped because she was drunk and now, the National Prosecuting Authority dropped the charges against the rapists because they say there is not enough evidence.

One in nine rapes are reported. When this one, with video evidence and witnesses cannot be prosecuted, what hope do victims who are raped in dirty bathrooms have?

I’m telling this story not because I want your pity, I’m telling you because I need your help to do something about this. I need help to get justice for all the victims, whether we know about them or not. I need to help to change the entitlement of our patriarchal society. I need help to say enough is enough. I said NO.

Let’s march, Let’s Shout, Let’s petition, whatever! Let us please do something.

Thank you for your courage @Akona1

I heard recently that 1 in 3 South African men are overweight. While it’s not ideal, I doubt we’re the worst in the world and fortunately 1 in 3 aren’t fat enough that they get stuff stuck inside of them, or more accurately, within a roll. I’ve always wondered how people actually manage to get that large and when it gets to a point where they can’t move their lard ass to the kitchen anymore, what sick “caretaker” starts bringing them the vast quantities of junk it takes to sustain their bulk.

So stuff stuck inside you ask?

How about a turkey sandwich:

According to an emergency room doctor: “A morbidly obese man with a large abdominal pannus (the overhanging image above) came in exhibiting red, irritated skin around the abdomen.

It looked like a routine skin infection. But what was the cause? During the exam, I lifted the pannus and a turkey sandwich fell from between his folds.

The man said it was about a month old, which the smell confirmed.”

If you want to read about the loose change, a packet of duck sauce, a couch and some weed go here.

If you want some inspiration to get into shape watch this.

While none of these guys look particularly good or too smart to start with (and yes judging a book by its cover and all that), it’s quite scary to see the effects of Crystal Meth over time. Except for the chick who was on it for 8 months – it seems to have done her some good!

Click pic for bigger.

Quite a contrast to this healthy looking lady who works in a medicinal marijuana shop – and people who work in stores generally make use of their product.

See more pictures relating to the ‘erb at Boston Big Picture.

I’ve mentioned before that I think humans are definitely the worst species on the planet. Sure, we may be the smartest, but with a powerful brain and a propensity to procreate a little too much we tend to be a rather destructive bunch. So without rambling on any further about why we suck, I’ll get to the point of the post which was to highlight just how rad dogs are. Here’s a little story that may ring quite true to a number of you (if you can’t read the writing, click on the image for a bigger pic):

I came across this series of photos the other day entitled, In almost every picture #7.

It tells the story of a Dutch woman whose life is seen from the point of view of a fairground shooting gallery.

The chronological series begins in 1936, when a 16-year-old girl from Tilburg in Holland picks up a gun and shoots at the target in a shooting gallery. Every time she hits the target, it triggers the shutter of a camera and a portrait of the girl in firing pose is taken and given as a prize.

And so a lifelong love affair with the shooting gallery begins. This series documents almost every year of the woman’s life (there is a conspicuous pause from 1939 to 1945) up until present times.

At the age of 88 Ria van Dijk still makes her pilgrimage to the Shooting Gallery.

In almost every picture #7 is a biography of one woman’s life from an unusual perspective, one which allows us to witness the times she lived in, as well as acting as a revealing look at the changing face of photography through the decades.

I’m not sure about you, but I found this incredibly sad. In the absence of any other information about this lady’s life it suggests a life of repetition to me. In an ever changing environment that is so full of variety it makes me feel like this person has been left behind in a deserted fairground. Maybe I’m over thinking it, but the feeling I get is that same one when you’re the last person to leave a party, the sun is coming and you’re driving home while everyone else is starting a new fresh day.

I’m not a believer in fate. In fact I’m quite a firm believer in coincidence. Given the number of events happening all the time, I don’t think it’s surprising that some pretty “fateful” stuff happens. Having said that, what are the odds of the following story happening. Huh?

In July 1975, newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic went nuts over the death of 17-year-old Erskine Lawrence Ebbin, the poor kid having been knocked off his moped by a taxi in Hamilton, Bermuda.

You see, the previous year his brother was killed … on the same street. Also by a taxi. Both kids were 17, and they were hit almost one year apart. Oh, and they happened to be driving the same moped.

Well … OK. Mopeds are inherently unsafe, right? And maybe they both drove recklessly. It could happen.

The following clipping appeared on page nine, column three of The Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph on July 21, 1975:

That’s right.

The two brothers were killed by the same taxi.

With the same driver.

Carrying the same passenger.

Almost exactly one year later.

Read more here.

My brother oddly enough has always had the view that ‘normal society’ kills genius and i must say the older i have gotten the more i agree with him!

If you think about it the ‘system’ is DESIGNED to look after the masses – not to blame the system but it HAS to make sure that it gets the bulk of people into a semi productive state so they can continue to keep the economy and the state going!

TRUE? Absolutely! The schooling system cannot be geared towards exploration of various talents – that would be impossible to manage i mean as a generalization our schools are overcrowded (globally that is!) our teachers underpaid (globally again!) so HOW can we ever expect our schooling systems to encourage creativity?? The bottom line is WE DONT and i think we sort of pretend its like an ugly ex girlfriend we sleep with occasionally – we just dont talk about it and pretend it doesnt happen! BUT? Are we destroying the youth?

Personally i think we are – personally i believe we are destroying a number of creative aspects inour children and eventually we will lose every creative genius that could possibly come about! Am i alone – probably not (at very worst my brother is with me) but im pretty sure this is a rather widely agreed with paragraph?

Sir Ken Robinson makes a phenomenal argument along these lines and i suggest you go read this mans Wiki (click on the name) before you listen to him as he is an immensely intelligent man and he makes some seriously brilliant points (plus the fact that he is rather funny is added value)!

. . . what the hell has the world come to – i mean seriously!

We came across this piece of info yesterday and this finally made me breakdown and cry! I mean if a guy cannot pay for a prostitute and take her wherever he wants to do what he wants then we are losing as a society – im getting desperately concerned today!

Its seems that due to the massive amount of prostitutes who are willing to do whatever needs to be done in full view of the public – the government has decided that it needs to act and act fast – so what did the super efficient Swiss come up with?

This . . .

“The idea itself is adopted from German cities like Essen and Cologne, and will be a way for prostitution to continue on behind closed, uh, doors.

The boxes will serve as quickie drive-throughs, so-to-speak, and will free up city streets from unsightly acts that haunt Zurich residents whose homes overlook the city’s red light district. “They get up to all sorts in broad daylight – and we’re sick to death of looking at it,” one resident told the U.K.’s Metro.”

Seriously dudes how f**king sad is your life that you need to pay some poor girl to get in your car and park in the most depressing space in the universe and do what i dont wanna know to you! The saddest thing is that this doesnt happen often or alot BUT it happens so much that the government had to put up these hideous things to stop children from being scarred for life!

And you always thought the swiss were civilized?

It really is a bit of an anti-climax now that so many years of build up and excitement has come to an end. We did really well and while you may also be feeling the extreme “Sunday night blues” (even though it’s not a Sunday), the good news is that we’ll be posting more of our usual sh|t; like mocking Twilight fans.

Here’s a prime example of the idiocy that is Twilight. I’m actually quite surprised that this person managed to go through the process of getting inked given how easily these people scare:

She’s aged really badly for a teenager.