Ed Young’s latest Satanic tirade.

DIABOLICAL really, but the devil works in mysterious ways, and Ed Young is no exception. Aside from the fact that he is probably getting paid by Arthrob to reveal his innermost angst, and post-acne mutterings, some of which may or may not involve Devil-worship, his ongoing Jew-baiting is becoming somewhat of a problem.

Now I am not accusing Young of being anti-Semitic, that would be cheap, rather, his invective falls into a pattern that is so often the case these days with white South African youth who never experienced the repression of the eighties, and now have neither the guts nor the temerity to fight for freedom of expression. It is bad enough that our courts are starting to err on the side of profanity, (as the Faasen case shows) protecting middle-class bureaucrats like Young, who use hate speech to illustrate a point (as if elevating abuse to the level of speech somehow renders the abuse beyond the pale of justice) and whose invective comes pretty damn close to being obscene.

(People have even begun to reclaim the P-word, and, in a desert such as South Africa, in which speech has not been given its due protection for some time, I am not about to argue otherwise).

Does Ed Young have a point? Consider this, I have a letter signed by Brett Murray, Andrew Putter, Sue Williamson, Bruce Gordon, James Webb, Julia Clark amongst others apologizing for the trauma I experienced after an SANG security guard assaulted Veronique Malherbe. Yes I did intervene, and was subsequently also assaulted. Later, I was attacked from behind, beaten unconscious and suffered an infraction to my ribs. This is a long shot from how Ed Young, devious and illiberal as ever, would like to see things.

No Mr Young, I did not attack a SANG security guard. Charges against the perpetrator were later dropped after he fabricated a counter suite right in the middle of 911, and as the WTC was falling down, I deemed it inappropriate to engage in a tit-for-tat, which you now clearly wish to do.

Take the so-called “bomb threat” against Soft Serve (sic) the following year. A choice use of terms, but ludicrous and most certainly demonic on the part of Young who seems to have forgotten that a video tape of a “protest” by Beautiful Black South Africa, which included yours truly wearing a white mask, to protest against the exclusion of anarchic harmony from the YDE event was actually screened on eTV. I thus also have photographs of what Young would like to call a “bomb threat” and can only question the demented psyche needed to conceive of an aesthetically pleasing thing (which included a top model) as violent.

BOMB THREAT TURNS INTO CREAM PIE

In fact a berry and cream pie was specially commissioned for the photo opportunity in which James Webb would have allowed himself to be cream pied in the interest of peace and high art but he chickened out and the art world is the poorer for it.

The other allegations made by Young are more serious and should be seen in the light of his attempt to gain notoriety as a neo-con-conservative “conceptual artist” who seems want to create a “fight club” in which he entertains us all with his shriveling sex life and social palavers while at the same time wishing to be cast as virtuous and adult-like.

BEATEN UP BECAUSE OF BAR TAB

I started patronising Lola’s when the proprietor was a wonderful Canadian Jewess by the name of Wendy. Lola’s became quite the scene for Long Street bohemians and inner-city types before it was taken over by a queer couple who now insist on raising prices, entertaining the jet-set and avoiding the locals during high season. Needless to say I had built up quite a tab that spanned almost a decade. Having fallen on rough times, Russell then hired a Jordanian-Lebanese waiter who immediately took a dislike to me, a Jew.

I was beaten up over a single coffee in full view of the public. Ed Young in fact, participated in the nasty incident in which, shame, a “simple” Nigerian security guard prevented me from leaving. I defended myself without success, (ironically on the same day that Yasser Arafat passed away), and to no avail considering both the waiter and security guard were bigger, meaner and taller than me, and Young, sitting at a nearby table, actually joined in with a couple of sadistic left-hooks for good measure. I should therefore demand a fair fight, (or as Andrew Porter put it, handbags at twenty paces!) a rematch perhaps in a dojo or lawfully-constituted boxing ring? A parking lot would also do.

Ed since you seem so desperate to continue with this “fist fight” why not start your own fight club? I challenge you, Ed Coward, to a rematch. Queensbury rules. One-on-One, no partners, no Jordanians, or Nigerian thugs on your side. No hysterical girlfriends, drama queens or salaried security guards intervening or throwing in the towel.

EDWARD ‘THE GOV’NER’ YOUNG

Clearly Edward “The Gov’ner” Young lives off publicity as a “rude-boy” and is tolerated because the decadent media would die of stagnation if it were not for his many foibles like sucking up to another Gov’ner Ronald Suresh Roberts, a class idiot who believe it or not, introduced himself by interrupting a conversation I was having with Ralph Borland. (Ralph is my homeboy!) Now apparently I have insulted Roberts by my mere presence, and Young “had to ask me to leave”. Ed, go *&@#$ yourself, I have the right to freedom of association, and that does not mean I have to associate with Roberts or anyone with a carrot stuck up his arse.

As for the incident involving Gael Reagon at Joburg Bar, really all about Gael and the class/race issue that keeps people of colour oppressed in Cape Town, I will leave it up to her to respond to the incident in the manner in which she sees fit, but the damning question remains, I will pose it once again. Ed Young, are you a Satanist? Have you ever been a member of the Church of Satan?

I challenge you to answer this question without the evasions that characterize your attempt to downplay an incident in which you clearly took responsibility for the desecration of a Bible amongst other things. I also take exception to your use of language. In particular, words like “fuckhead” “knob” and “cunt” betray your adolescent obsession with sex and infantilisation of your own member and the genitals of others — the real victims you claim to parody in your online blog.

Ed, I don’t particularly dislike you (even dogs deserve sympathy). I merely pity your fruitless attempts to pretend that you’re a big-time artist. I also refuse to acknowledge anything you do as “art”. If this is what you are after, my acknowledgement and G-d forbid, my respect, I am afraid, you lost it from the very beginning when you starting swearing at me to get attention. Neither your first exhibition “arsehole” nor your subsequent forės rate in my book. That you are a prize prat and idiot to boot, only time will tell, but for now, I caution you against seeing my life as some kind of sounding board, or my words as anywhere near the kind of endearment I have given my contemporaries, such as Beezy Bailey and Barend De Wet.

PS: My blog gets on average 5000 hits a week.

Link to Ed Young’s Diary on Artthrob dated March 1, 2008

Link to Public Eye Letter regarding SANG trauma.

Link to District Surgeon Medico-Legal examination conducted on Sept 11, 2001 (911)