Double Cyute Attack: Mamah kitteh adoptz bebe bunneh

 

*splort*

After AIDS, another "disease" that rape cures in South Africa

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/12/eudy-simelane-corrective-rape-south-africa
Because we all know that the best way to get someone to like your favorite beverage is to heat it to boiling point and pour it down their throat while beating them to a pulp.

Summer Scent OST: Maybe - Seo Jin-Young

Ah, what a song. I have got to go and buy Summer Scent one of these days.

Women's Day

There may not be much to be happy about, really. From Brazilian churches defending the "human right" of fetuses to kill or seriously harm a 9-year-old waif of a child, to an Eastern European head of state defending the killing of women for "honor", to Indian tradition-peddlers defending attacks on "loose" women like thrashed pub-goers and gangraped lovers, to Pakistani Taliban shutting down women's education, the situation looks pretty disheartening. Even where women have made strides in getting employment and supporting themselves, it leads them into the clutches of predators. And let's not even get started on what's happening in the Congo.

But for those who have been strong and/or lucky enough to go through life without getting totally screwed over by the traditionalist patriarchy, congratulations on making it this far, and best wishes for the future. That's not just for women, by the way, because this is a day for men too; any system of oppression is not just bad for the oppressed group, it also corrupts and damages the oppressor group. Not to mention that we men all have mothers, sisters, daughters, lovers and wives, after all. As long as feminism and masculism are seen as an us vs them thing, gender-identity extremism and reactionism will inevitably thrive in the collision zone. But when educated aware men join hands with educated aware women to ensure dignity and rights for each other, extremism will be tempered and reactionism will wither away.

So Happy Women's Day to all women AND men.

 

Chechen President Defends Gynocide

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1010/42/374894.htm

Kadyrov Defends Honor Killings

02 March 2009

By Lynn Berry / The Associated Press GROZNY — The bull-necked president of Chechnya emerged from afternoon prayers at the mosque and with chilling composure explained why seven young women who had been shot in the head deserved to die.

Ramzan Kadyrov said the women, whose bodies were found dumped by the roadside, had "loose morals" and were rightfully shot by male relatives in honor killings.

"If a woman runs around and if a man runs around with her, both of them are killed," Kadyrov told journalists in Grozny.

The 32-year-old former militia leader is carrying out a campaign to impose Islamic values and strengthen the traditional customs of predominantly Muslim Chechnya in an effort to blunt the appeal of hardline Islamic separatists and shore up his power. In doing so, critics say, he is setting up a dictatorship where Russian laws do not apply.

Kadyrov's bluster shows how confident he is of his position. "No one can tell us not to be Muslims," he said outside the mosque. "If anyone says I cannot be a Muslim, he is my enemy."

Few dare to challenge Kadyrov's rule in Chechnya.

Kadyrov describes women as the property of their husbands and says their main role is to bear children. He encourages men to take more than one wife, even though polygamy is illegal in Russia. Women and girls are now required to wear headscarves in all schools, universities and government offices.

Some Chechen women say they support or at least accept Kadyrov's strict new guidelines.

"Headscarves make a woman beautiful," said Zulikhan Nakayeva, a medical student whose long dark hair flowed out from under her head covering, her big brown eyes accentuated by mascara.

But many chafe under the restrictions.

"How do women live in Chechnya? They live as the men say," said Taisiya, 20, who asked that her last name not be used for fear of retribution. She was not wearing a headscarf while shopping in central Grozny, which she said was her way of protesting.

I know the Russian culture is also a bit misogynistic, but this article makes me wish for Chechen War III with a Russian victory. His brazenness just goes to show how confident he is that neither the Russians nor the Chechens will oust his despotic dynasty. The Russians prefer to allow him his little tinpot moments as long as he toes their foreign policy line, and the Chechen want to avoid more conflict badly enough to put up with this crap. But ...

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

- Benjamin Franklin

 

Dubai Shopping Festival

Today was the last day of the festival, and I had been pretty busy all these days, so I decided to go to Al Seef and walk the carnival area to the abra docks. Got there by water taxi.

Rode a ferris wheel for the first time in living memory, and took some birdseye pics of the creek area.

The yacht wharfs

Midstream Deira skyline, the typical Bollywood introductory shot anytime Dubai needs to be mentioned.

The rest of the games and shopping area in Al Seef, with downstream Deira as the backdrop.

After some indulgent carnival snacks (deep-fried, of course), I strolled around the shopping area, the so-called "night souk". I was a bit hurried, but I managed to grab one thing I have been seeking for a couple of years at least.

Finally, my very own Daruma/DaMo doll. I shall fill in the other eye when I graduate.

Indian Ethos Taliban get "Pantsed" on V-Day ... Ha Ha Ha

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100624625

... a posse of hard-line Hindu activists barged into a pub in the south Indian city of Mangalore last month and roughed up young women clients who were enjoying a quiet drink. ...

Susan, a 29-year-old journalist, decided to counterattack.

With several associates, she launched a group on the social networking Web site, Facebook. They called it the "Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose and Forward Women." And they unveiled a plan to dispatch piles of pink knickers to the leader of Sri Ram Sena in a nonviolent gesture of defiance.

The women chose Valentine's Day. This day particularly rankles right-wing Hindu extremists, who consider it an immoral commercialized Western import....

In other news,

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5729126.ece

Young secular Indians are organising their own vigilante groups - some armed with Taekwondo moves, others with pepper spray - to protect unmarried couples from Hindu radicals looking to disrupt Valentine's Day celebrations.

For the first time, several secular groups have organised patrols across the country to combat the Hindu nationalist organisations which they accuse of trying to "Talebanise" India. The secular groups decided to act after television coverage showed activists from the Sri Ram Sena (Lord Ram's Army) attacking women in a pub in the southern college town of Mangalore last month.