10 December 2003
It seems there is hope. That hope is emblazoned on the pages of bloggers worldwide, peer-to-peer sharing, WiFi and my personal favourite: "Freekboxes" which are hacked together using free software and recycled parts and shipped to developing world human rights activists.
Viva freedom, viva
25 August 2003
Prisons - the new business opportunity
New leviathan prisons are being built with thousands of eerie acres of factories inside the walls.
Prisoners do data entry for Chevron, make telephone reservations for TWA, raise hogs, shovel manure, make circuit boards, limousines, waterbeds, and lingerie for Victoria's Secret. All at a fraction of the cost of "free labor. Prisoners can be forced to work for pennies because they have no rights. Even the 14th Amendment to the Constitution which abolished slavery, excludes prisoners from its protections." Read all about it at: http://www.prisonactivist.org/crisis/evans-goldberg.html.
TODAY'S TRIBUTE: The Zapatistas of southern Mexico who are fighting the onslaught of America pty ltd. For more about these astounding revolutionaries who are simply trying to save the world by saving their neighbourhood visit: http://www.zapatistas.org/.
ZAPATISTA COMANDANTA ESTHER SPEAKS! - "Primarily the women, it is they who feel the pain of childbirth. They see their children die in their arms from malnutrition, for lack of care. They also see their children without shoes, without clothing, because they do not have enough money to buy them, because it is they who care for the homes, they see that they do not have enough for food."
02 July 2003
Mobile phones will be discarded at a rate of 130 million per year by 2005. Is that new Nokia really worth it? That's another 65 000 tons of waste. You know what? Big business is not going to change. Their only aim is to make money. It is up to us to change the world. As long as we as consumers continue to consume at the current rate, we are self-annihilating.
RECYCLE, REUSE, LIVE!
Yes at the moment it's only snow leopards, pandas and wild dogs that are in danger of extinction. But 100 years from now maybe 200 or a thousand years from now. It will be all of us. And we will single handedly have destroyed life on earth. What idiots we are! What fools!
Today's hero: Karen Trendler who has (against many odds and despite opposition from many quarters) rehabilitated multitudes of injured and orphaned animals to the wild. Phambili Karen, Phambili Wildcare.
10 June 2003
06 June 2003
23 May 2003
The DRC's four-and-a-half-year war, has already claimed an estimated 4,7-MILLION lives. "Does the world care what happens to Congo? No," said Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Vollot, the French commander of UN forces in Ituri.
TODAY'S TRIBUTE (a repeat): Although not an African, Romeo Dallaire a UN peacekeeper from Canada is someone who truly loves the continent. He tried to put a stop to the Rwanda massacres in the 1990s and although he was blocked at every point, he kept trying. Today he lives with the torment. We in Africa salute you comrade Dallaire. Your memory lives on. Aluta Continua
15 May 2003
Cape Town - 14 May 2003
Many southern African leaders had singled out lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as scapegoats for their countries' problems, the Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) said in a new report.
The report documents pervasive harassment and violence against sexual minorities in southern Africa. Titled "More Than a Name: State-sponsored Homophobia and its Consequences in Southern Africa", documents verbal attacks, police harassment, official crackdowns, and community violence aimed at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
It claims victims had been assaulted, imprisoned, expelled from schools, fired from jobs, denied access to medical care, evicted from their homes, and driven into exile or, in some cases, to suicide.
The organisations said that when political leaders such as Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe made speeches that gays and lesbians were "worse than dogs and pigs", it should come as no surprise that violent attacks followed.
The report examined conditions in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The report said that while South Africa prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in its constitution, the equality guaranteed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people was fragile, and even endangered by the "silence and foot-dragging of political leaders in South Africa".
The two organisations will call on the governments of all five countries to refrain from promoting intolerance and from inciting discrimination and abuse.
It further recommended that:
Deputy-director for the programme at Human Rights Watch Widney Brown said they had worked closely with many non-governmental organisations to identify and interview lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people as well as other victims of abuse or discrimination.
The identities of many people interviewed were protected. Among those interviewed for the report were human rights activists, women's rights activists, lawyers, HIV/Aids peer educators and organisers, academics, journalists and government officials.
Brown said she was hoping to meet with government officials to discuss the report. + Sapa
09 May 2003
do a search for blogs and you come up with zilch
oh guess what
they've all been bought up by microsoft, aol time warner, or some other godzilla of the internet
it's the same as what i learned in journalism school - ie before the web was born
"freedom of the press is only for those that own one"
the more things change, the more they stay the same
Donald Rumsfeld's in the poo ...
Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, sat on the board of a company which three years ago sold two light water nuclear reactors to North Korea -- a country he now regards as part of the "axis of evil" and which has been targeted for regime change by Washington because of its efforts to build nuclear weapons. http://www.mg.co.za
ugh, let me get that horrible taste out of my mouth and focus on today's tribute. it goes to someone who is the epitome of everything that Rumsfeld is not.
TODAY'S TRIBUTE: Arundhati Roy, the new messiah, who said "People rarely win wars, governments rarely lose them."
17 April 2003

15 April 2003
11 April 2003
Google under fire
Microsoft as "evil empire"? That's so 1998. Now it's time for the technology press to focus its muckraking eyes on a new supposed monopolist: Google. With its dominance in Net searches, and the rise of Google News, journalists have gone from praising the company to wondering if it's abusing its newfound power. Leading the charge is plucky British site The Register, which has two recent Google bombs -- one fingering the site for changing history ("Googlewashed"), and the other knocking Google News for listing press releases alongside real news
Read more ....
QUOTE:
"Big news: Yes folks, it's true. As you may have read, Blogger's parent company, Pyra Labs, was purchased by Google. This should only mean good things for Blogger users. No immediate changes will take place, except we're working furiously to get more servers in place to handle the extra load this news has caused. Stay tuned."