HUM TV is one misogynist media outlet

The Sunday night HUM TV play shows a man abducting a woman who rejected his brother and, about to force her to marry his brother (who apparently wanted to commit suicide because the girl rejected him). Talk about openly showing violence against women on prime time! In a society, country and region where women have been known to suffer acid attacks by jealous men, it's shocking to see that such a scenario is shown as entertainment in TV play. HUM TV is one misogynist media outlet. 

It turns out (you can tell the whole damn story in a single episode) that the fellow who got rejected by the girl only met her once and once again at tea when he came with him his elders to seek her hand in marriage. Apparently, they used to talk for hours on the phone. This again shows love and relationships in a twisted, unhealthy manner - romantic relationships cannot be honourable or dishonourable. They cannot be obsessions or polite telephone conversations. Extremely unhealthy way to depict love. 

I watch HUM TV plays now and then, and, almost every single one is extremely problematic in how it depicts women.

Winnie Mandela passes....✊🏿 🇿🇦

I must confess I had no sense of Winnie Mandela other than being Nelson Mandela's wife. My knowledge of her is extremely limited. I only remember photographs of Winnie and Mandela's walking together, one set of hands holding each other, and the other set of hands held up in the air triumphantly after Nelson walked out of prison. The only other thing I remember is that she was linked to controversy. I don't even remember exactly what but it was definitely negative. It's too bad I didn't know more about her at all but since her death a few days ago, have read a few tributes and, social media posts that have put me to shame. Why don't I know more about her? 

I wish my ex/dead South African boyfriend and I had talked more about her while we were together! 

Anyway, these are a few solid pieces I have read:

1. Winnie Mandela’s legacy: A renewed militancy in South Africa | Sisonke Msimang | April 4 | The Washington Post: "Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died Monday at age 81. As she is eulogized, there will be many who point to her perceived failures. They will call her a “firebrand” and point to her “radical” political views. Most damning, they will say she was a convicted kidnapper, a corrupt politician and an adulterous, violent woman. Many will compare her with her ex-husband, Nelson Mandela. He will be cast as an angel, while she will be painted as the she-devil who almost took him down."
2. ‘Winnie’ — a portrait of South African masculinity and its discontents | Sisonke Msimang |  An in-depth look at the life and times of Winnie Mandela largely in her own words | Africa is A Country : " Winnie tells a different story however. The film provides a feminist context for the events that ultimately neutralized Winnie Mandela’s potency and undermined her leadership: her personal relationships, the murder of Stompie Sepei, her separation from Nelson Mandela and her testimony at the TRC, which prompted Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the commission’s chairperson, to “beg” her to “say sorry.” While others have defended Winnie Mandela on how she relates to internal ANC politics and made the case that other comrades were scrutinized less because they were men, Winnie provides an in-depth look at the life and times of Winnie Mandela largely in her own words and in the words of people with tremendous respect for her. Spanning fifty years, and using archival footage, extensive interviews with Mandela herself, her daughter Zinzi, and a range of confidantes and experts, the film provides a lucid and sympathetic portrait of Mandela. " 
3. Madiba Is Dead: Condolences to Heroic Mother Winnie | EZILI DANTO | LA Progressive : "Nelson Mandela and the South African people’s long struggle is reduced to a celebration of one man who spent 27 years in prison, doesn’t hate his white oppressors or wish them the violent deaths, deprivations and grief they meted out to millions of South Africans.  The same white supremacist, profit-over-people system that pronounced Black Haiti was not ready for independence in 1804, also nearly 200-years later in 1994, opined that Black South Africans were not ready to rule themselves without the colonial white minority’s economic, cultural and social controls and conditions. The oppressors still point to Haiti and Zimbabwe as failed states for kicking them out. Still use all their Ndoki forces to angelize whites and demonize Blacks. The colonial narrative proclaims the colonists’ benevolence, innocence and blamelessness while promoting Black guilt and responsibility for the poverty and instabilities in Haiti and Africa. Will the corporatocracy ever give up its monopolies, its gated communities built on genocide and death of mostly non-whites and the poor worldwide? Atone for the crimes against humanity since their new world began? No. White domination has no conscience. Haiti’s current occupation by the US/Euros behind UN guns and the white saviors’ charitable industrial complex, evidences the Western powers continuing 500-year-old international crimes."
4. Winnie Mandela was a hero. If she’d been white, there would be no debate

Tweet by Musa Okwonga 

Evening walk

We had a fantastic evening walk today. The first photographs are from an abandoned building next to the old US Embassy compound. This building is further down a slope. I wonder when it was built, who lived in it and, who it belongs to. When will it get renovated? Do you say the layers of paint? Amazing, isn't it? 

The exercise was good and, we enjoyed exercising with everyone else on the top of the hill. Kavita helped her father with his sit ups. 

After you drink all the whiskey

Painting wine bottles 🍷

At the old apartment, we had a whole rooftop where we kept our empty wine bottles, jars, plants, and had a very eclectic bohemian rooftop where we had evening tea and parties. 

I always end up keeping containers, especially wine bottles to re-use as candle holders. 

Anyway, I brought over many old wine bottles into the new apartment building and, lined the along the stairs. 

So, for a project, I decided to take them to the office and re-paint them with oil paints. It was really fun to mix colours and paint them. 

See how they turned out: