Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
Kony 2012: The Ugandan Reaction
Despite being the subject of the most viral video in internet history many in Uganda have yet to see the Kony 2012 video and when they did they were not impressed. This report by Al Jazeera shows some of the reaction to the film after it was screened to a crowd of over 35,000 people in the northern city of Lira, an area directly affected by Kony’s LRA.
Al Jazeera reporter Malcolm Webb was on hand to gauge people’s reactions and filed the following account:
“People I spoke to anticipated seeing a video that showed the world the terrible atrocities that they had suffered during the conflict, and the ongoing struggles they still face trying to rebuild their lives after two lost decades.
“The audience was at first puzzled to see the narrative lead by an American man – Jason Russell – and his young son. Towards the end of the film, the mood turned more to anger at what many people saw as a foreign, inaccurate account that belittled and commercialised their suffering, as the film promotes Kony bracelets and other fundraising merchandise, with the aim of making Kony infamous.”
A woman Webb spoke with afterwards compared Invisible Children’s approach of selling products with Kony’s image to “selling Osama Bin Laden paraphernalia post 9/11,” which she felt would be offensive to many Americans, irrespective of how “well-intentioned” the fundraising campaign was.
And now the Prime Minister of Uganada Amama Mbabazi has released his own YouTube video response to Kony 2012 clarifying that the warlord is no longer in Uganda and that his government did not ‘need a slick video on YouTube’ to help hunt him down…
Posted in Culture by Jimmy
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Kony 2012 on trial
Unless you’ve been living under a rock you will have by now heard of the wanted international criminal that is Joseph Kony. The man has become a household name overnight due to an emotive film by charity group Invisible Children. Their aim is to make Kony famous so he can be arrested and brought to justice. And it’s safe to say part one of their mission has been successfully completed.
From trending on Twitter to over 70 million views on YouTube, Kony has been well and truly thrust into the public conscious. But in doing so, so has Invisible Children themselves and they are not without their critics.
The film has actually not been well received in Uganda, the one nation it purports to help. With Kony having fled northern Uganda six years ago, many have slammed the video for being misleading and presenting an image of the country that is dated.
But the criticisms that has gained the most attention is a blog called Visible Children written by Canadian political science student Grant Oyston. Oyston raises a number of concerns about the validity of the Kony 2012 campaign from the group’s support of military intervention, to their poor rating on Charity Navigator for transparency and accountability, to the 32% of their $8.6m outlay that actually made it to affected areas and this picture of the founding members posing with guns alongside the Sudan People’s Liberation Army…
Although for that picture, and the rest of the points against them, Invisible Children can explain and they have done so on their website. Click to read their official response to the case against their organisation and the #Kony2012 campaign.
So Invisible Children is on trial before they can see Kony captured and brought to trial, and you are the jury. Watch the video, if your one of the few people on the planet that hasn’t yet, click the links to read the arguments against and those in response and then make up your mind if Invisible Children and the Kony 2012 campaign is for you.
If it is then you know what you have to do…
Posted in Culture by Jimmy
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Tough Chinese parenting
Chinese parents are notoriously hard taskmasters but for this family that is an understatement. A recent family video of their 4-year-old son being forced to run in snow, in freezing temperatures in just his pants caused widespread outrage when it hit the t’internet earlier this month.
The video was actually shot on a family holiday to New York during Chinese New Year celebrations. The boy’s dad calls himself Eagle Dad and follows a technique of parenting taken from what eagles do when they drop their young out of the nest, forcing them to learn through a serious of cruel tests.
Despite widespread condemnation Eagle Dad says the harsh parenting method has helped his son overcome learning difficulties and excel in school, even jumping a year. So what do you reckon? Is this kid the next Chuck Norris in the making or a case for ChildLine??
Posted in Culture by Jimmy
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The Laughing Heart x Levis
Read the poem then watch the advert. Works so well together. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski inspired me this morning:
your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.
Posted in Culture, Fashion by Bemps
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Confessions of a hopeful single # 1
Me & Him = CRAZINESS by Helene Ayoola Enahoro.
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I log into Facebook and there it is; a message from Him. Same as always, he’s back (I don’t really know where he goes) and he wants my number (I changed it after I decided I didn’t want to be Mrs Crazy anymore) let me take it back…
I met him a couple of years ago. It was a time when I was single and seemed to be out quite a lot. As you do when you’re a constant on the clubbing scene, I started to see the same faces quite often. I can’t even remember how we met, but we did and we seemed to be inseparable from that moment. Well I say inseparable but actually I didn’t really see him during the day. We were more a nocturnal couple, always out together in the evening never really during the day.
Our first date was so normal. He came to pick me up, took me to Nobu for dinner, then to a friend’s wedding reception then to a club. It was a really nice first date. Things just went downhill after that. You know when you go out and you see that one couple in the club causing a scene, screaming and shouting making fools of themselves? Yup, that was us. That’s what we did on nearly every single outing. But it seemed normal at the time, it appeared to be the dynamic of this ‘relationship’ we had.
Our arguing seemed to steadily get worse, what started out as little disagreements turned in to full blown melodramatic shouting. Then the beginning of the actual crazy behaviour began…. One night while we were out we both started shouting at each other. I don’t even know what about, I’m not sure we ever really knew what we were arguing about half the time. I tell him I going home as I don’t want to be around him anymore and I go to leave. So I exit the club and call a cab. Whilst waiting, he comes outside to tell me I should go back to his house like originally planned, though this time I didn’t even want to be in the same country as him let alone in the same room. So I told him no. Then he asked me how I was going to pay for the cab as I didn’t have any money on me. (I never needed money when I was out with him as he always paid for everything. So he always assumed I didn’t have any on me) However, my mother taught me better than that! She always told me to carry money just in case the person you’re with turns crazy and you need to get home. Thanks mum! So I tell him to leave me alone and I’ll be fine. I shit you not, the next thing I know he’s grabbed my bag and made a run for it! For a split second I contemplated running after him, but I hate running plus I was wearing heels so it was a double no no. I would have gone straight home only my bag had my house keys and phone in it. The cab arrives and like something from a movie I tell him to ‘follow that man, yes the man running away from us…’ it was a slow motion car chase, the cab gets to his car, we sit and wait for him to get in and then follow him to his house. At the time he lived in a gated community type thing so you had to have a code to get in. His car goes in and then the gates shut. I had no doubt he would pay for the cab but obviously he’s angry at me. So I jump out and climb over the pedestrian gate. Correct, in my tight dress and heels. Once over the other side I take off my heels and run after him. Then I hear someone shouting, I turn around to see the cab driver hanging off the gate trying to come after me. Conclusion we have to help the cab driver down, he pays him and adds a huge tip as the diver ripped his coat trying to get over the gate, we spend the rest of the night into the morning arguing and then he drops me home.
This was now a new feature for us; we had taken these arguments to the next level. I must stress that it never got physical; he never laid a finger on me, he actually treated me like a princess (when we were not acting like silly crazy people) I think that’s why I stuck in there, because when everything was calm it was almost perfect. Almost. But for a couple of months we continued like this, perfect moments then crazy flashes. Until one day I cracked, I couldn’t handle it anymore.
It was on another night out, the same thing happened as always, though this time a group of us went back to his house for an after party which meant there were people to distract us from arguing. Something was different about this time; it felt strange to be there. So I excused myself and went and sat in the bathroom and realised that I wasn’t happy. This was my epiphany moment; this was not a healthy relationship. I made the decision that I didn’t want to do this anymore and I needed to go home right now. So I start to collect my things and say I’m leaving. He just looks at me and says ok. Er NO. Nothing with him was ever that simple. I check my bag and he’s taken everything out. That’s was it, I went LOCO. One thing I cannot stand is feeling trapped. I want to always feel like I can leave at any moment and as soon as I don’t feel that way I start to panic. I didn’t want him to know I was panicked, so I just became calm an eerie type of calm. He clearly thought I was going to stay so went to the living room to join his friends. Anyway, so crazy me starts searching around the flat, all I need is my phone and his car keys. I knew he wasn’t clever enough to keep my phone on him and I was right. It took me a while to find it though so I decided to block his toilet with tissues paper to keep myself amused, random I know but it made me feel better. I got his car keys and a garbage bag. I started to fill the garbage bag with some of his stuff then left the flat. I went down to the car, drove it to the other side of the car park, put his stuff in the boot, took money from the car and called a cab to take me home. My phone starts to ring and I just ignore it for a while then answer. He wants to know where I am and where his car is. I tell him his car is gone along with his stuff and that’s what he deserves for taking my things. He threatens to call the police but really I haven’t done anything illegal so I’m not worried. I didn’t steal his car I just moved it to a different parking space. He found his car and his stuff, eventually.
You may be reading this and be thinking that’s not crazy behaviour but it is for me. Starting arguments in public, running around the streets screaming, crying, climbing over gates, pretending I’ve stolen someone’s car… THAT IS NOT HOW MY MOTHER RAISED ME. Being crazy is not ladylike at all, it’s all very time consuming and exhausting. He kept calling even though I had told him it was over but to be fair I had said it so many times before and not meant it. Or maybe I had meant it but we always ended up back together. I tried to get his number blocked but apparently you can’t do that unless you file a police report. But like I said it never got nasty between us, just a silly type of crazy. So I changed my number instead, I needed to be completely cut off from him.
The only way I can describe this ‘relationship’ we had was passionate. We passionately liked each other… until the arguments started. Then we passionately hated and despised each other. I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life. Someone who can wind me up to the point where something clicks in my brain and I lose all common sense and start acting crazy. And it wasn’t even about the alcohol as neither of us drank very much when we went out. I guess some couples, no matter how much they care or love each other, are just not meant to be together.
P.s Hell to the NO, I will not be giving him my number!
We will be featuring “confessions” from time to time. To read more from our girl Helene, click here.
Posted in Culture by Guest Blogger
