Archive by Author
Being male was the cameraman’s bad luck
Posted on November 3, 2009, by mercedes, under Gender Masala, culture, human rights, media, stereotypes, women, men and more.
Guest blogger: Suad Hamada, IPS correspondent in Bahrain
Shall we talk about it?
A Saudi woman journalist escaped punishment last week but her cameraman wasn’t so lucky.
Rozana Al-Yami, 22, was pardoned by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah after the court sentenced her to 60 lashes for her work at the talk show Red Line in LBC, a Lebanese satellite TV.
She made international news. He didn’t. No one mentioned that he has to serve a two-month jail term. His name remains anonymous in press reports.
Some would call this positive discrimination in favour of women but to me iit s a general bias. Women have been striving all over the world for equality, not favoritism. (more…)
13 Comments
Jacaranda watch final days
Posted on October 28, 2009, by mercedes, under Gender Masala.
The rainy season has arrived. With the soft evening rain, the blossoms drift softly to the ground.
Even the light turns purple.
140 Comments
Jacaranda Watch
Posted on October 26, 2009, by mercedes, under Gender Masala, arts.
The magic continues...
... with scarlet bougainvilleas for contrast.
180 Comments
Jacaranda Watch
Posted on October 22, 2009, by mercedes, under Gender Masala.
White jacarandas are few, and a treasure to find.
90 Comments
Purple rain, purple dreamscape
Posted on October 21, 2009, by mercedes, under Gender Masala, arts, culture.
By F. Beaumont
I just have to do it. This posting is not about gender, politics, foreign aid or photoshopped models.
It is about beauty. The beauty of nature: the splendid jacarandas blooming just now that turn Pretoria into a lilac-purple dreamscape.
It s said that 50,000 jacarandas line the streets. When the blossoms drift to the ground, carpetting sidewalks, it’s like a magical purple rain. Awesome.
By F. Beaumont
425 Comments
Beauty as an optical illusion
Posted on October 12, 2009, by mercedes, under Gender Masala, adolescents, arts, children, culture, media, stereotypes, women, men and more.
Fashion models in ads are optical illusions and the award-winning video Evolution of Beauty, from the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty proves the point eloquently. Watch it at:
http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.ca/bblank.asp?id=6895
Digital cosmetic surgery - nip-and-tuck, botox and liposuction, on the screen, with a click - render these models picture-perfect (excuse the pun) and thoroughly unreal.
There is no way a non-photoshopped woman can attain that perfection. Hey, we are human. We have flaws.
108 Comments
Red light for Burqa-wearing drivers in Bahrain
Posted on October 5, 2009, by mercedes, under Gender Masala, culture, human rights, politics, religion, stereotypes, women, men and more.
Guest blogger: Suad Hamada, IPS correspondent in Bahrain
Dressed to drive? By S.Hamada
Burqa-wearing women may lose the right to drive in Bahrain over a conflict between government and conservative lawmakers.
The government wants to amend the traffic law and grant male traffic officers the right to ask women to lift the veil and show their faces.
On the other hand, some lawmakers are loath to approve the amendment or at least demand that female traffic officers be employed for this task.
Let’s hope that in either way it will be a win-win situation for women: that they will continue to drive, and enter a job sector that has been reserved for men since the 1970s. Bahrain doesn’t impose a dress code on women. Wearing a burqa (or Niqab, in Bahrain) is a personal choice.
OK, not all women here wear a burqa as personal choice; some do it to obey their male relatives or conservative families. (more…)
32 Comments
Foreign aid, elites and entrepreneurs
Posted on September 28, 2009, by mercedes, under Gender Masala, women, men and more.
On my way to the Sao Nicolau waterfall on the island of Sao Tome, I stumbled upon two Jurassic Parks of failed industrial development.
Ghost factory. By M. Sayagues
At the coffee plantation Monte Café, to the left of its dilapidated pink colonial buildings, stands a huge shed. The caretaker unlocks a gigantic padlock and we step into a surreal décor for a tropical Blade Runner movie.
The shed houses a web of pipes and drums, coffee-processing machinery made by the Brazilian company Pinhalense. It is huge, complex – and never used.
The caretaker remembers when the machines were put in place, about a decade ago, but he never saw them working.
Donors pulled the plug on this US$24 million project after US$14 were spent and a few siphoned off. (more…)
83 Comments
Putting a value on our work
Posted on September 24, 2009, by mercedes, under Gender Masala, culture, media, women, men and more.
Guest blogger: Miren Gutierrez, IPS editor-in-chief
Seven PM at the supermarket. After a long day at the office, she is standing in line to pay for groceries to make dinner, stealing glances at her watch, grappling with two young kids who want her to buy some chewing gum…
Unequal sharing of the work pie. M. Sayagues
Does this picture ring a bell? Survey after survey across the world report that women put in between 20 and 30 hours a week of domestic and family work. Unseen, unsung and unpaid, yes, but not insignificant.
Unpaid work in the home, done mainly by women, is estimated at approximately 50 percent of all productive activity even in industrial countries, and as much as 60-70 percent in many developing countries,” says Hazel Henderson in an interview with IPS. (more…)
77 Comments
HILARIOUS CONDOM ADS
Posted on September 21, 2009, by mercedes, under Gender Masala, adolescents, culture, media, religion, reproductive health, stereotypes, women, men and more.
Gender Masala has been dealing with serious topics seriously …it’s time for a fun break! Check out these hilarious condom ads from several continents. They make safe sex fun.
Make safe sex fun. By M. Sayagues
Ranging from sassy dialogue to black humour, these are one-minute comedies with a smart punchline. The Mother from Hell and the Spoiled Brat skits have a Borat-like humour. And who would have thought a condom ad from India would depict anal sex?
Click on the ad from Argentina even if you don’t speak Spanish. Everybody who has been a teenager will chuckle about these teens, their parents and their predicament. (Watch it here)
Laughing got me thinking about how seldom one sees humorous ads about condoms in English-speaking Southern Africa. I have seen some cool ads in Mozambique, though – I think there were Brazilian advisors involved. (more…)
