by admin -

Open Energy To The Home (ETTH) to free those prepaid meters from ANC Monopoly Capital.

WHILE residents of Lavender Hill and Steenberg were protesting against prepaid meters and Cape Town City officials sought to blame Eskom for tariff increases — some 20 000 Capetonians attended a two day ‘Solar & Storage Convention’ at the CTICC. As an angry mob gathered along military road, the public were treated to demonstrations of solar power and storage solutions, with storage a key element missing from the debate on renewable energy, and a programme that include Internet of Things (IOT) and smart grids.

It is a stark contrast between those able to afford solar financing options (40k to 60k is not cheap) required to embrace a smarter future which seeks to bring renewable energy into the home, with those left out of the equation. Electricity provision has historically been a state monopoly. Yes there is progress when it comes to feed-in tariffs, but the ‘energy divide’ between South Africa’s rich and poor demonstrates how far we have to go before we can start referring to parity of treatment and equality in energy access.

All of this is occurring during a pivotal “Big Bang” moment for the energy sector, years in the making.

This month literally saw the signing into law by the President of an amendment to the Electricity Regulation Act, one which heralds a market reform of the country’s electricity regulations.

After decades of stagnation, Eskom is finally taking up a new role as a ‘national transmission company’, allowing Independent Power Producers (IPP) to compete with the behemoth in generation of electricity. Forgive me if I sound a little droll, a brave step, better late than never, but totally unacceptable when one realises our government is merely re-configuring a problematic state monopoly, with the resulting pyramid scheme involving the bulk sale of electricity by Metros and Munis to consumers and end-users still very much in place.

Demand Energy To The Home (ETTH)

Yes, us luckless consumer , those who actually pay for electricity instead of stealing it outright, are still being treated as an awkward afterthought by our fancy-pants President and his bloated cabinet.

We are thus issued with a100 day notice of an ‘impending change to our prepaid meters’ which will require new software via an Eskom circular, then a simple insert on SABC news. It appears Parliamentarians don’t use prepaid meters or worry about working in the dark. Zero announcement of tangible assistance to impoverished households, and nothing when it comes to upgrading our meters to a new, supposedly more secure system, with even less debate on the timing of the announcement.

Imagine what would have happened if the ANC had introduced a similar policy affecting mobile phones instead of embracing a big bang in 1994?

Remember that Nokia moment when literally everyone in South Africa had a Nokia cellphone?

What our President was really saying, “from next week, many ISPs will be able to provide the nation with Internet, but not one will be able to sell data directly to the consumer, fibre transmission will remain a monopoly.” Or “Folks, every small town and dorpie will be allowed to be in the Internet business” but “no actual business must operate with the intent to do business“, (apparently making money is a crime in South Africa?) as queues form outside the relevant government departments notorious for lack of service delivery?

Do you honestly think we would have smart phones if our government was the sole supplier of mobile telephony? Thirty years of socialist tinkering with the our economy has produced an entire generation without jobs.

This months Electricity Amendment announcement is really the dramatic equivalent to our Slick President announcing our country will be finally getting colour television, except the whole world has already moved on to HD screens, energy smart grids and streaming services.

Open Net Metering

If I still have your attention, (see my critique here and here) then consider open net metering. Currently our prepaid meters have no specification for connectivity, no external ports with which to interface these meters with a local area network (LAN), and no way of channeling data on the cost of these units from Pretoria, to our household consumption and home automation assistants.

Not only are we faced with a proverbial closed prepaid proprietary system whose data is controlled by the mandarins-in-charge (forgive the pun), but there is no clear path towards ‘time of use’ consumption, autobidding of energy, demand management, future options and a market trajectory which lowers the cost per watt, instead of creating energy inflation.

The global trend is towards concatenation or reduction of supply chains, towards placing a ‘factory on the desktop’, or a snappy logistics company at the factory gate, not the Presidents long-winded version of corporate capital, monopolistic bureaucracy crossed with a pyramid scheme and complicated multi-tier government.

Imagine being able to charge up your batteries when energy is cheaper, then using your storage when consumption is at a peak and expensive?

Where are the incentives from government for households to embrace a better future filled with electric vehicles charged by renewable and solar energy?

If you think this is a topic exclusively for the well-to-do? Think again, because collective housing schemes could also pave the way to collective energy generation at local level and potentially solve many of the problems encountered by the residents of Lavender Hill.

by davidrobertlewis -

Gender Wars: Brave New Olympics, it’s not so simple.

AS THE world deliberated on the controversy surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khalif, who had previously failed a gender test by the International Boxing Association (IBA), matters were coming to head in a long-standing legal dispute involving South Africa’s Caster Semenya, 32, who was born with ‘differences of sexual development’ (DSD).

Caster cannot cannot compete in female track events without taking ‘testosterone-reducing drugs’. World Athletics updated its rules in 2023 to state ‘DSD athletes would be required to reduce their testosterone level to below 2.5 nanomoles per litre for two years in order to compete internationally in the female category in any track and field event.’

The South African disagrees, stating:”World Athletics is showing discrimination against athletes with her condition” and her allegation is supported by Athletics SA and the SA government with the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights scheduled to deliver a final ruling.

Whither Weight Divisions?

Enter the Paris Olympics which has focused attention on the paradox presented by affected persons who include the ‘intersexed” — two boxers have been roasted on social media for competing in women’s events, even though under the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules, those who transition from one sex to another, or who lack the chromosomes we traditionally associate with the two sexes, may yet be allowed to compete, under their respective, reassigned or altered genders.

Yes you read that right, the controversial opening ceremony with its drag queens and pagan references, was all about ‘reflecting equality and inclusivity’ for which the IOC now prides itself, no harm there, except if you happen to be a man pretending to be a woman, just to get a gold medal?

Though transgendered persons may possess a right in law to claim ‘womenhood’ for instance, they do not possess an automatic right to compete within many sports codes outside of the Olympics, for obvious reasons. If the trend continues so far as the Olympics is concerned, women’s events will invariably be dominated by cisgendered men at the expense of cisgendered women, — weight divisions are being further eroded by those who claim such distinctions are fat-phobic?

Hang-on a Minute, what about Blade Runner?

Just about nobody suggests that South Africa’s ‘blade runner’ Oscar Pistorius is being discriminated against for not being allowed to compete alongside able-boded athletes in the men’s 100m, since the use of a prosthesis and certain types of track shoes are also banned alongside performance boosting drugs, blood doping and other controversial medical interventions.

Allowing the intervention of technology (in this case gene or hormonal therapy) should always be considered an unfair advantage, much the same ways as a range of airfoils and engine designs are also banned in F1 racing.

Woke or Broke?

During a heated online debate on the subject I found myself being inboxed an article Shades of Gray: Sex, Gender, and Fairness in Sport, which at the face appears to make out a reasoned case that ‘hormones are all that separates men from women‘, even though on its own account, this isn’t actually true — the tragic reality of the human condition is our biology determines performance, with factors such as stamina, muscle torque, and relative weight and height – the same paper woefully proceeds to issue forth in utter ignorance of its own data.

Being a ‘cisgendered male’ competing in a women’s event (or somewhere inbetween) whilst undergoing hormone therapy or other therapies, clearly provides unfair advantages of reach and gait, whilst making a mockery of the division of the sexes. Does the Olympic event require a separate league for the differently-abled — those who may fall outside of standard definitions of what it is to be a man or a woman?

Do we know what the term ‘Woman’ refers to these days?

Spare a thought for biologist Richard Dawkins who was banned by Meta this week. His crime, being the author of an essay which had this point to make: “Sex is not defined by chromosomes, nor by anatomy, nor by psychology or sociology, nor by personal inclination, nor by “assignment at birth”, but by gamete size. It happens to be embryologically DETERMINED by chromosomes in mammals. … But it is universally DEFINED by the binary distinction between sperms and eggs.”

by davidrobertlewis -

Gillian Schutte defends race labeling, toads

In the critically acclaimed film “BlacKkKlansman,” directed by Spike Lee, the term “toad” is ingeniously used to refer to a specific type of ‘white person’. The historical context of this term presents all sorts of problems but has been decoded by critics as a dramatic technique that ‘provides insight into the racial climate of the time and the profound impact of the civil rights movement’.

Traditionally associated with amphibians, toad is used as a code word by Lee’s ‘African American’ detective Ron Stallworth” to ‘identify racist and bigoted individuals’ within the Colorado Springs Police Department.

The tactic, essentially one of reverse psychology, sheds light on the “hateful language used by white supremacists to demean and dehumanize black individuals”

Unfortunately South Africa’s Gillian Schutte is not Hollywood’s Spike Lee — her adoption of counter-factual histories, bold language and narrative that appropriates the rhetoric of the radical black left, (without giving any credit), is merely repackaged by a ‘white person’ given some leeway to comment on the sensitive topic — with the result she is a firm favourite of today’s editors — those who may wish to see their own jaundiced views reflected back in print media.

There is thus a plethora of Schutte’s published writing in my country.

Her opinion pieces circulate online in their dozens in the aftermath of the GNU — all leading one into the arena of ersatz political analysis, of the kind delivered by feminists who may object to transexuality by misunderstanding gender. Sorry Gillian, it’s not all reducible to biology but rather a subject informed by legal definitions open to legislative scrutiny. Allowing a man to transition to a women and vice versa, is neither a denial of the suffragette movement nor would treating all humans as equals — judging a person on the basis of ones character not ones colour — be a negation of civil rights — quite the opposite.

Schutte appears oblivious to the problem presented by ‘race and gender’ from the perspective of the administration of law, and I speak here as a recipient of the idiocy of laws of my own country. Yes, she may object to non-racialism but invariably it is without bothering to examine the provenance of the term, within the Unity Movement and the racialisation of society which this movement opposes. (Read my piece here)

The same may be said of Schutte’s Hogwarts feminism.

Race slurs are the tactic of racists.

Need one remind readers that racial slurs by individuals, like the tactics of racialisation, have long been a tool of those who lack coherent arguments, or who seek to reduce the nuance and complexity of life into convenient soundbytes. Maintaining power by replacing patriarchy with matriarchy, rule by men, with rule by women, ranks as bad an idea as replacing ‘racialisation with more racialisation’, one form of hegemony with another. Hurt cannot be healed by more pain. An eye for an eye leaves the world blind.

I thus find myself constantly amazed, gobsmacked that Schutte is allowed inches of column space to spew her drivel, pontificating on a subject for which she provides very little context and history, save an appeal to her own authority.

While those who were on the frontlines of the anti-apartheid movement and its campaign against the racialisation policies of apartheid may be a dying breed, one should never forget the premise of the Unity Movement — there is only one stream of common humanity, not separate streams resulting in different species of human, as the apartheid doctor Piet Koornhof would have it.

Race Theories rejected by science

The assertions made by Unity won out when the multi-regionalist theory of human evolution (the idea that the races spontaneously evolved in different parts of the globe resulting in mutual claims of superiority/inferiority) was finally shot down, alongside apartheid race eugenics, by the paleoscience of the nineties.

Sadly race science has seen an upsurge, there have been many attempts in recent years to resurrect the idea of ‘separateness in lineage’, those who seek to rebrand the theory to explain the presence of ‘Neanderthal alleles‘ and thus links to sub-populations seemingly external to our common human genome. But this tinkering with interpretation of data reminds one of the rephrasing of the specific ambitions of the anti-apartheid movement by millennial radicals into a more generalist claim involving ethnicity and religion, and a tragic process whereby the NGK is allowed to escape its role merely so Christianity may triumph?

The hackneyed arguments brought by Schutte that ‘dropping race labels are somehow akin to dropping gender labels‘, or egad, promoting non-racialism is somehow a ‘ betrayal of the struggle for democracy and human rights’, since it allegedly results in ‘an embrace of colonialism” by our GNU‘, must be rejected given the particular circumstances of our democracy, a state of affairs which is anything but PW Botha’s Tricameral Parliament, a dismal political experiment which comprised separate houses for each designated ‘race group’ alongside a reform of racialisation laws to reflect a new type of racist othering.

Strip away Schutte’s radical invective and all what one gets is a ‘lesson about toads delivered by a toad’, and if that makes one an enemy of amphibians then so be it.

READ: If everyone is a racist, nobody is a racist

READ It’s 2023, enter the ‘woke’ anti-everything brigade

READ: Yoga ‘wokeism’ misses the whole point of post-modernity.

by davidrobertlewis -

Comediangate: IOL a laughing stock after ‘exposing’ comic

THIS week IOL waded into yet another ‘multibaby’ scandal, this time involving the identity of an account on social media platform X.com. The manner in which the news group deals with facts raises a number of questions regarding ‘press privilege’ and its latest antics must be condemned as an abuse of press freedom.

For starters, the news group was forced to issue a hasty public apology for fingering a KZN comedian, who they claimed was part of a ‘conspiracy involving apartheid-era stratcom agents.’ This resulted in R1.2 million defamation lawsuit filed against it. IOL were given two weeks to respond.

Online personality The Kiffness tweeted:

“Inexcusable defamation from @IOL.

@IqbalSurve, you can’t keep making unsubstantiated claims about people & get away with”

Here is how the IOL apology read:

“We previously reported and posted that the person behind the Goolammv X account was Mohammed Yacoob Vawda, a UKZN lecturer, SABC radio personality, and stand-up comedian. We were mistaken, and confirm that he is not the person behind that account. We unreservedly retract the accusation and apologise to Mohammed Yacoob Vawda and his family. Please desist from directing threats and abuse at him.”

Yes IOL are clowns, the dangerous kind.

Not only were IOL dead-wrong about the identity of @Goolammv, but their shoddy attempt to correct their mistake by spinning the story as just a minor hiccup, a silly detail involving mistaken identity, by literally going through the telephone book, to presumably finger another man, merely confirms the group has waltzed straight from a ‘multibaby’ into a ‘multi-comedian’ scandal. The group proceeded to run stories alleging connections to a “sock puppet operated by an individual with connections to high-profile politicians and senior government officials.”

So far as editorial were concerned it was enough to name anybody with a government connection or problematic past to throw shade. Take one public comment on the story and the resulting headline: ‘Ismail Abramjee Concedes Goolammv Identity Following Investigation’, a piece of yellow journalese that revolves around Abramjee’s comments on ‘Goolam Mohammed Sulieman Vawda’, which took the trouble to note the social media activist actually ‘used his real name and initials’.

Not exactly, anonymity nor a ‘cloak and dagger’ operation as Survé would have it?

Another post on July 18 deploys the Renaldo Gouws controversy while claiming the tweeters ambition is to “KILL” the entire black-owned Group’. Allegations include a ‘plot by commentators to subvert our democracy’. The element of treason seems a bit far-fetched and contrived considering IOL is a privately owned company while Gouws is a member of Parliament.

What has lead to this astonishing loss of editorial oversight?

The comedy of errors really begins after CEO Iqbal Survé was once again challenged on his failure to ‘pay back the SACTWU money’. That’s right, money borrowed (and never paid back) from a union pension fund which was used to orchestrate a buyout of the Independent Group from previous owner’s Tony O’Reilly. The R300 million loan was frozen indefinitely following a decision gained by the company in it’s favour. Bear in mind the loan still exists and the decision does not bar citizens from asking such questions.

Survé at first attempted to deflect attention from public questions on X.com by claiming without any supporting evidence, that @Goolammv was an ‘apartheid agent’ (or as it appears, somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody else who may have been fingered as an agent?)

This writer was party to the thread and witnessed the sequence of events which lead up to the IOL story by a paid hack.

Following the incident Survé now claims “@goolammv Goolam Muhammed Suliman Vawda is a charlatan, tender entrepreneur, money launderer connected to powerful politicians”. Zero details about the person concerned other than Survé is upset.

The claims seem absurd and licentiousness given freedom of speech within the public sphere. It is clear Survé perceives a need to abuse his position, to target his critics, to avoid such questions. Whither the right of reply? Worse the calumny follows a now well-established pattern of abuse within the group in which journalists are fed information by management. Instead of content flowing up a chain of editorial command it flows down into the ranks, via its owner. [Note: following my comments here, IOL suddenly announced it was rolling out its ‘Thought Leader’ section, which is just shy of hiring Anton Harber].

Survé’s social media feed increasingly relies on dubious sources, scurrilous rumours and unsubstantiated information, for example one Mehmet Dag, an Egyptian expat and one-man political party, is a regular contributor, who calls Survé “his brother”. Dag also claims to have a dossier on various conspiracies involving local politicians.

Readers may remember Dag as the man behind a campaign to remove LGBTIQ rights from our constitution alongside the rainbow crossing in Green Point. 

Survé’s latest attention-seeking suggests that IOL sources are in reality Boswell Wilkie clowns.

UPDATE: IOL now claims that ‘charges have been laid’ against the ‘creator of notorious X account ‘goolammv’’ supposedly by a ‘senior media editor not affiliated with the Independent Media Group.’ The article does not name the individual nor does it carry any details of what these charges are, other than he is accused of ‘terrorising’ politicians and business leaders via his X.com account. Last time I checked, asking uncomfortable questions via X.com, a platform which prides itself on freedom of speech, was not considered a crime in the Republic.

UPDATE: News24 hits back with ‘Suspect’ Survé, top editors face criminal probe for Goolam gaffe “Media baron Iqbal Survé and some editors in his upper echelon face a criminal investigation for doxing the wrong man in their much-vaunted “unmasking project”.

UPDATE: Survé socks it to News24 statements seem to fudge the defamation case reported elsewhere while making wild allegations. Should Survé hand himself into a mental asylum?

by davidrobertlewis -

GNU revolution or failed marriage?

BARELY a week after it was announced the ‘Government of National Unity’ (GNU) appears to have faltered. At contention is the difference between 8 cabinet posts or six for the Democratic Alliance and the tricky subject of who is to be named as deputy president alongside many regional agreements within provincial government.

Of course there were bound to be hiccups, the two major players at the center of the emerging coalition hold diametrically opposed views on many issues, including land distribution, taxation, and foriegn policy but with some convergence around democratic centralism, and especially the urgent need to maintain a stable economic outlook — one that allows for a thriving market economy capable of supporting a social wage — avoiding the pitfall of inflation and Rand volatility.

No sooner had the ink dried on the GNU pact (which includes up to 10 parties with over 60% of the popular vote), newly re-elected President Ramaphosa was calling for a joint sitting of Parliament amidst the political deadlock. This signals an extraordinary start to our new Parliament and the seventh administration, which if it fails to reach consensus on the vital subject of the cabinet, could make way for the eighth and nineth before the year is out, with the resulting inability to pass legislation.

Any thought that the ‘grand old party’ which has ruled South Africa for thirty years can simply absorb its detractors, or rule by commandeering votes or gerrymandering Parliamentary seats needs to be dispelled forthwith.

Following the ANC historical loss of a ruling majority during the May election, ‘business as usual’ for the party, which has a history of absorbing opposition and coalescing around the so-called ‘tripartite alliance’ is now a practical impossiblity.

The COSATU labour federation which formed a key component of the previous election-winning strategy, may be extremely unhappy at the outcome of the election, since the electorate apparently favours ‘economy over ideology’.

The South African Communist Party (SACP), the other partner besides the trade union holds no actual seats in parliament, which begs the question, has this tired formula run it’s course? Is the labour left of old, a mirage congregating around a once formidible oasis of BEE patronage?

This as the rise of right-wing factions under ultra-Nationalist Jacob Zuma, signals opposition politics, especially when it comes to the left-right cleavage, is inexorably altered?

At the time of writing, the leader of the official opposition has yet to be announced, but I dare say those amongst the rank and file will be eyeing any instability at the centre of politics with much glee, perhaps anticipation — upsetting the ANC apple-cart would bring exoneration for Zuma, unable to take up a Parliamentary seat due to a criminal conviction — several of his so-named MK party MPs, including impeached judge John Hlophe, would certainly face charges if they were not elected.

One can only hope and pray that our nation’s politicians are able to set aside their differences in the interests of the country.

by davidrobertlewis -

RAMAPHOSA GAFFE: A River too Far?

FOR some it was merely a ‘gaffe’, an awkward ‘statement that many regard as anti-Israel’, for others it was a ‘river too far’, a red line in the sand marked Antisemitism.

In many countries such as the UK and Germany, the phrase ‘from the River to the Sea’, is banned outright due to its falling within working definitions of Antisemitism proposed by the IHRA.

‘The River’ chants association with a listed jihadist terror group Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya aka HAMAS, merely bolsters this view. The organization long stated ambition, before the liberation of the City they refer to as Quds, is the total annihilation of the state of Israel — the replacement of the Jewish State by an Islamic state ‘from the River to the Sea.’ .

For a country, South Africa whose stated policy has traditionally been one of tolerance and support for a two-state solution, President Ramaphosa appeared to be signalling a shift away from the bipartisanship associated with the Mandela era —  towards the hard-liners in his party, who by implication favour the imposition of an authoritarian, clerical regime under Sharia law. 

Mandela who is often misquoted on the subject, had long recognised the rights of both states to coexist, stating in 1990: “Support for Yasser Arafat and his struggle does not mean that the ANC has ever doubted the right of Israel to exist as a state, legally.”

It is near impossible to see how any of the ruling parties current stated policies square up nor even coincide with the policies espoused by the  Jihadists in Gaza.

Abolition of independent trade unions, limitation of women’s rights, jailtime for LGBTQ, a ‘final battle between Muslims and Jews’, are certainly not policies one would wish to see on a party-political platform in the week before a national election, but the ANC has been going down this annhiliationist road for decades.  It is a partner in a coalition in Johannesburg whose far-right anchor party Al Jam-ah, represents precisely such values — an undermining and eventual replacement of progressive ideas which underpin our constitution with Sharia law.

The reality of the conflict in which so-called moderates rank as impossible conservatives who would probably turn a blind eye to public beheadings, and stonings,  as is the case in Iran, leaves one at a loss as to the way forward?

Holding out for a Fatah victory when Hamas have turned into the political movers and shakers on the world stage appears to be a losing proposition.

Hamas have shown that not only are they able to eliminate  their opposition, but are able to absorb many of the elements which make Fatah the more palatable side of Palestinianism. Yesterday they were able to launch a salvo of rockets at Tel Aviv at the same time as they lured the IDF into Rafah with an associating cost on civilian life.

While some may see South Africa’s case before the ICJ (ostensibly brought to limit casualties) as truly heroic, the attempt to intervene politically may yet backfire, at least if our government fails to draw any guidance from the ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s recent indictment of Hamas leaders Sinwar, Deif, Haniyeh (see here)

South Africa’s presumed policy of non-alignment is also dangerously beginning to resemble all out partisan support of any terror group associated with the conflict, which risks further antagonising the West.

I think readers know well what needs to be stated here: if you still believe Jews and Palestinians to be ‘separate and distinct race groups’,  you may yet be correct in your analysis of the parallels between our own struggle and the struggle for Palestinian Statehood, but if like me, you reject the entire notion that nations can ever be considered ‘races’, then you may suffer from a wrong diagnosis, and be dispensing the wrong medication to the wrong patient?

Note: Read my earlier pieces debunking the apartheid analogy here, or traverse a page debunking many of the myths associated with the Jerusalem conflict. If that doesn’t get your goat, then read my defense of Secularism in preceding posts.

READ: Salman Rushdie says a Palestinian state formed today would be ‘Taliban-like’

by admin -

Sinwar, Deif, Haniyeh indicted for Genocide

THREE LEADERS of Palestinian Islamist group Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya have been indicted by ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan:

“On the basis of evidence collected and examined by my Office, I have reasonable grounds to believe that Yahya SINWAR (Head of the Islamic Resistance Movement (“Hamas”) in the Gaza Strip), Mohammed Diab Ibrahim AL-MASRI, more commonly known as DEIF (Commander-in-Chief of the military wing of Hamas, known as the Al-Qassam Brigades), and Ismail HANIYEH (Head of Hamas Political Bureau) bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of Israel and the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 7 October 2023:

•Extermination as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(b) of the Rome Statute;

•Murder as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(a), and as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i);

•Taking hostages as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(iii);

•Rape and other acts of sexual violence as crimes against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(g), and also as war crimes pursuant to article 8(2)(e)(vi) in the context of captivity;

•Torture as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(f), and also as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i), in the context of captivity;

•Other inhumane acts as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(l)(k), in the context of captivity;

•Cruel treatment as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i), in the context of captivity; and

•Outrages upon personal dignity as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(ii), in the context of captivity.”

by davidrobertlewis -

President Raisi is dead, long live the people of Iran

Iranian parliamentary leader, President Raisi, has died in a helicopter crash over the weekend. The head of the ‘Combatant Clergy Association’ was active in a theocracy run by Ayatollahs following the 1979 revolution.

Raisi ran for president in 2017 as the candidate of the conservative ‘Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces’, losing to moderate incumbent president Hassan Rouhani, 57% to 38.3%. He successfully ran for president a second time in 2021 with 62.9% of the votes, succeeding Hassan Rouhani.

Raisi’s presidency oversaw a massive clampdown on women’s rights following the Hijab Revolts spurred by the death of 22-year-old Mahsi Amini in custody.

Between November 2022 and March 2023, up to 7,000 schoolgirls were poisoned at dozens of schools in at least 28 of Iran’s 31 provinces, according to human rights groups and government officials. ‘Hundreds were hospitalized with symptoms that included respiratory distress, numbness in limbs, heart palpitations, headaches, nausea, and vomiting. The outbreak at schools for girls, first reported in the holy city of Qom, generated new protests against the government.’

As a religious scholar in Iran’s theocratic government and a protégé of Ayatollah Khamenei, Raisi climbed the ranks of the judiciary, serving as a prosecutor in several cities.

After being named Iran’s top judge, he is believed to have been part of a small committee that ordered the executions of thousands of political dissidents in 1988.

Raisi oversaw a general clampdown on independent trade union activity with the banning of independent unions. At the same time he promoted the inclusion of Iran in a group of nation’s known as BRICS, whose members are drawn from autocracies as well as democracies.

Execution of LGBTIQ individuals also ramped up under Raisi, who actively promoted the death penalty for homosexuality and other ‘moral offenses’.

It is not surprising that South Africa’s Naledi Pandor, whose government is in a coalition with far-right Al Jama-ah party in Johanessburg is a big fan.

by davidrobertlewis -

Courts are promoting unlawful occupation of rental property

THE so-called 'Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act 19 of 1998' has turned into the "Promotion of Unlawful Occupation of Land Act" under the machinations of my country's woke judiciary.  Here I relate my experience with a civil court proceeding held April 11, 2024 in which the respondent to an eviction proceeding didn't appear, hasn't entered 'notice of intention to defend" against the application, yet received extraordinary protection from the court, a court seized with feminist ideology and critical race theory to the detriment of my own black household and black children. What an absolute joke, I have less rights as a law-abiding citizen than a foreigner scoffing at the law and gaming the system. I am now facing having to place my own belongings in storage, splitting up the kids and not having a home, because my only property has been hijacked with the assistance of our courts, affecting my own ability to pay rent.

UPDATE: Eviction order was handed down on 2 May, respondent once again absent from proceedings. Wholly unnecessary hearing where the matter could have been simply placed on the unopposed roll. Am still gobsmacked that the court even deliberated on the matter without the other party being present and/or filing notice of intention to defend. Something needs to be done to avoid wasteful, unnecessary duplication of legal services which seem to have become the bread and butter of a corrupt profession

by davidrobertlewis -

New edition of ‘Media Activist Handbook’ released

In an era defined by interconnectedness and information overload, the media wields an unparalleled influence over our lives. It shapes our perspectives, molds public opinion, and shapes the narrative of our collective consciousness. Yet, as the saying goes, “With great power comes great responsibility.” The immense potential of media to foster positive change has never been more apparent. It is in this context that the Media Activist Handbook emerges as a guiding light, illuminating the path towards harnessing the transformative power of media for the betterment of society.

A new edition of the venerable Media Activist Handbook has been released, you can find it on our jump page, or download it directly from Gumroad.