Repression // Current

Timid Obama

It's hard to say if Obama's trip to China has achieved some results. The American... more

hyperion74
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MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST on HuffPost: PIRATE RADIO Part 2: Hoffman, Nighy, Curtis

Richard Curtis had a death in the family. I’d flown in to London to do the... more

DanPersons
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MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST on HuffPost: PIRATE RADIO Part 1: Nick Frost, Talulah Riley, Tom Sturridge

So here’s what I did on my class trip to London: shoot a video featuring people on... more

DanPersons
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10 days ago
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MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST on HuffPost: Anthony Fabian on SKIN

You could probably forge a good, absurdist, dark comedy out of a government where... more

DanPersons
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23 days ago
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MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST on HuffPost: Lars von Trier's ANTICHRIST: A Conversation

“Lars von Trier doesn’t like to fly.” “Lars von Trier isn’t going to talk to... more

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25 days ago
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Can't see your face? then sorry we have no place

A COLLEGE has banned a Muslim woman from becoming a student - because she will not... more

CarolineS
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27 days ago
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Iran, the alleged death of Khamenei

The tyrant is alive or dead? Dictatorships always have something grotesque, just look... more

hyperion74
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1 month ago
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Countries Take steps to ban Burqa

Whether the muslim women actually want to wear it or not, the move to ban these... more

CarolineS
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MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST on HuffPost: Nicolas Winding Refn on BRONSON

You wanna talk extreme? Charles Bronson, ne Michael Peterson, has spent thirty-four of... more

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"When someone perpetrates an act of rape, it's about reclaiming a sense of power"
Kelly Hatfield, formerly the director of People Opposing Women Abuse.

South Africa, has the highest rate of crime per capita than any other country in the world, and according to the BBC, a young female has more of a chance of being the victim of rape than learning how to read.
When you have a country who’s parliament is so corrupt that even the President has been tried for a rape crime, what hope does that really give it’s citizens who, a quarter of them live on less than 75p a day
It comes as no surprise then that women’s rights in South Africa is appallingly behind the rest of the world, also there are virtually no feminist movements, and women are paid on average 30 % less than men, often for the same type of work.
Of these women, it is statistically black women who are more subject to Rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment by farm owners, managers, and by other farm workers according to United States government research. The dreadful consequences of this type of inequality is apparent in one recent court case that garnered media attention where a mother begged a judge not to send her working husband to court for raping her daughter, for fear of the family starving.
For a woman, more importantly a mother to have to make a decision based on her child’s safety or the rest of her family going hungry is direct attestation that something is urgently wrong.
About 50,000 rapes were reported in 2001, that figure rose to 54 926 in 2006 nevertheless not at rapes are reported and this estimate goes as high as 450,000.
A woman is raped every 26 seconds, according to the South African police that figure is 36 seconds, of course different organisations give different estimates, with the lowest being every 17 seconds.

The problem may lie in the unacceptable public welfares system resulting in insufficient education, the lack of specialist rape units and correct training for the persons that run it, some cite the media and internet with the growing catalogue of sexual images and videos available, whilst others pin the blame on the various tribal cultural beliefs inherited in traditions. Many men in South Africa believe they are entitled to sex and that women enjoy being raped. In a study done in the Gauteng area, 8 in 10 men believed women were responsible for causing sexual violence (Scared at School, 2001)
Even though In 1999, the government established approximately two dozen courts intentionally to handle sexual offenses, this has done little to halt the increasing number of rapes and indecent assaults, as most victims are too scared to come forward about their ordeal, the myth that sex with a virgin can cure AIDS is becoming increasingly worrying too, with the number of child rapes sadly escalating to an unacceptable high, naturally the amount of cases where this method has cured the sufferer of HIV is zero.
Still, after the government won a court case against the pharmaceutical companies to buy AIDS vaccines more cheaply, these possible cures cost £30 to £40 per month, when some people only earn the equivalent of £300 a year this is an impossible solution, forcing the estimated 5.5 million of HIV sufferers to seek alternative options, a desperate person takes desperate measures and unfortunately it is the women and the young that bear the brunt of this.
This isn’t just an epidemic restricted to South Africa either, a study in Zaria, Nigeria by the UNFPA found that 16 percent of hospital patients treated for sexually transmitted infections were younger than 5, this is a trend that should not be growing.
Try to put yourselves in these situations, how would you spend that 75p a day? Or try counting 26 seconds repeatedly, over and over. The problem with the developed world is that we fortunately seldom see these types of stories, to truly grasp and understand the horrors Africans have to deal with, we would have to personally experience them."When someone perpetrates an act of rape, it's about reclaiming a sense of power"... more

CarolineS
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1 month ago
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Banning Repression

“The burka is a prison, it’s a straitjacket”
French Urban Affairs minister, Fadela Amara

The burqa, always a sensitive religious symbol, is making headlines once again as governments around the world begin taking carefully constructed steps towards a full or partial ban on the controversial clothing.
As with everything, there are two sides to every story, while the burqa is seen by some as a sign of subservience, a piece of religious repression that is not mandatory in the Koran, instead serving to deface women from the role of human being to shrouded servant. Others argue that religious freedom, whatever that entails is one pivotal law that must remain in place for concern of offending not just Muslims, but people of all religions who consider religious expression through certain clothing a vital part of their religious freedom.

How can a woman be truly free if there is a barrier placed before her that prevents her from interacting with fellow humans, how can you truly relate to a person if you cant see her smile or frown? Our faces are possibly the most important parts of our bodies, excluding the mind, the face allows us to see who we are talking to, the starting point for our connections as humanity, not forgetting the health risks that a person’s skin needs to be exposed to sunlight.
Quotes by Muslim women who are pro burqa simultaneously have the same correlation, that by wearing the burqa they will not get harassed by men in the street, instead of creating a law that mandates women should be fully covered, is it not more logical to create some sort of law that enforces restraint on behalf of the males?

One thing Britain prides itself on is the acceptance of other cultures and religions, which has allowed this country to become a very ethnically diverse and equal place, British people, past and present have fought for too long to guarantee rights such as equal pay in the workplace and votes for women, and it would be an insult to the memories of these people, most notably the suffragettes if we allowed other persons to enter our country and abuse our rights under the guise of religious expression, when in reality, the burqa holds no place in the Koran and therefore in Islamic law.“The burka is a prison, it’s a straitjacket” French Urban Affairs minister,... more

CarolineS
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1 month ago
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MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST: Joel and Ethan Coen on A SERIOUS MAN

The Coen brothers are at it again. They’ve already sicced existential hit men,... more

DanPersons
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1 month ago
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MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST on HuffPost: Ben Whishaw and Paul Schneider on Jane Campion's BRIGHT STAR

Guess I’m going to have to reevaluate my opinion of THE PIANO. I was one of those backlash guys, one of the ones who read all the effulgent praise about the film, the stuff elevating it to hitherto unknown heights as a stunning, sensuous cinematic event, and anticipated an experience that would forever change my notions of cinematic storytelling. What little I remember of my exposure to the movie centered on the loving display of Harvey Keitel’s unit. Nothing particularly wrong with Harvey Keitel’s unit, it just wasn’t what I’d bought my ticket for.

The plus side of being a film journalist is that you can get to a movie before the hype begins, before the superlatives get ladled on and the talents of a nuanced and intelligent filmmaker such as Jane Campion get blown all out of proportion. Campion’s newest film, BRIGHT STAR — her first feature in some four years — is likely to get all possible variations of “romantic,” “beautiful,” and “sensuous” tagged to it, but don’t let that blind you. Behind the sumptuous trappings — and, yeah, the film is beautiful, no argument — there remains Campion’s typical, incisive examination of the conflict between repression and passion, the creative heart and societal strictures.

The story is built around the relationship between poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) — published but impoverished — and Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), a woman who vents her creative soul through her exquisite skills as a seamstress and can hold her own in repartee with the educated Mr. Keats. It is observed by Fanny’s family — including Campion stalwart Kerry Fox — and Charles Brown (Paul Schneider), whose dim view of the budding romance may not solely be motivated by its potential to derail Keats’ career. And it is played out in a world of rigidly formalized courtship rituals and a heightened sensitivity to scandal, not necessarily the perfect environment for genuine love.

The film, in short, is sweet, sad, and moving, but with Campion’s astringent edge keeping the proceedings from lapsing into sentimentality. And that makes all the difference.

That, and the fact that you won’t get distracted by Harvey Keitel’s unit.

Click on the link above to hear my interview with Ben Whishaw and Paul Schneider.Guess I’m going to have to reevaluate my opinion of THE PIANO. I was one of those... more