Rewind The Future

Buns, Signs and Brigands

Who knew that a plate of doughy, raisin-filled confectioneries could cause such hubbub and furor? 

While trawling the annals of News24.com - which I try to do at least once a week, while being the news-hater that I am - I came across the following poll:

So, like a dedicated mouse-clicker, I went to the link regarding the whole bun story. I wanted to vote too. =D

Reading the story, I realised it was just a bunch of people with nothing better to do than attack a retailer over the fact that a sign from another religious denomination was placed upon a foodstuff associated with their own religion. These naysayers were Christians. I’m not using that as a religious slur or as something derogatory - not in the slightest. I respect every religion equally. I’ve gone through a few of them, following their practices and teachings: I was Christian, then Buddhist, then New-Age, then Muslim, then Agnostic, then Atheist. I’ve sampled across the board. I came to realise that most of these religions - including the non-religion of Atheism - preach the same basic tenets. Now, I’m a-religious but still believe in a higher principle or power. I call it God because it’s easier to have conversations with people when you use a common term instead of some obscure philosophical bullshit about self-regulating, self-perpetuating blah blah blah.

Anyway, back to the thing I found common in all these religions/religion-substitutes: it’s all a matter of Cosmopolitan thinking. I’m referring to the Cosmopolitan philosophy that some of my friends are into. If my knowledge of the actual theory seems sketchy at best, it’s because I’ve only ever heard it iterated second-hand. But from what I gather, it’s a different take on utility, in that instead of basing your moral compass on the quantitative value of the pleasure people will get; you instead try not to harm anyone. It’s quite a liberal theory. Don’t harm me and I won’t harm you. Simple. Basic. To the point. So, what’s with all the other stuff? The stuff about heaven and hell? The prophets? Miracles? Etc… It’s cool to get into it as concepts but I don’t see how they make you any better as a person. Sure the odd anecdote or parable will help to adjust your mindset, but most of the time those work to make people judgmental and disproportionately self-righteous. I’m just saying…

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Racism: A Dearth of Understanding

I had killed this blog - figuratively, as you all know. But sometimes there are things which get you so riled that you need some sort of public outlet without implicating yourself completely. What I am about to say is not slander, it is backed up by proof.

Being a South African, I try my damnedest to avoid matters regarding race. I have all kinds of friends from all kinds of backgrounds. It would not only be illogical but also small-minded of me to entertain any notions of difference or separation based on the colour of someone’s skin. I mean, what epoch are we living in where after all of the scientific evidence to the contrary - the failed theories of eugenics and the Watson and Crick false theories of evolution - I would still believe certain people to be superior to others? And it’s funny because in South Africa, yesterday was Human Rights Day and only a day later I happen to catch someone abusing his freedom of speech to spread a grossly perverse racist polemic. It’s crazy… 

There is no superior race or superior nation or whatever. All of it is contingent bullshit. And when you get people acting as if this was God-ordained - taking us to a late Middle Ages and Victorian conception of the world - the mind is stupefied at their lack of understanding. What good is the internet and book upon book of clear, concrete facts if people are just going to believe something that their grandmothers or grandfathers said? People don’t even ask questions anymore. What the fuck?! It’s akin to believing the earth is the centre of our solar system or that the world is flat. Where have you been all these years? Where were you educated? It’s difficult for us to even fathom how such a person can exist in the 21st century. 

Back to the matter at hand. I was reading some news on News24.com when I clicked upon one of the sidebar links. It was about a lingerie model who was offered a place in the next round of the Masterchef South Africa (SA) TV show. Now, you can imagine my surprise when clicking upon a further link (to view a video of her explaining a recipe) I came upon this: 

[Here’s the url, hoping they haven’t taken it off http://tinyurl.com/7m85mes]

I hope you can all read that clearly. The first guy isn’t that bad. I understand where he’s coming from - even though I do have problems with what he has to say (which I’ll get into later). The second guy just had me seething. You see, according to current South African definitions I’m Black or African or whatever you want to term it and being so, Neil Lindsay’s comment is infuriating. I would like you to think of it in context. What Tim is saying, is that all these people who have never had a chance to make a crème brûlée or a beef stroganoff should not be included in the next round of the show if that food is shitty. I totally agree but then again, historically speaking, it has been the reserve of the well-off (predominantly White) South Africans. So, if you want a show that represents a society of equal opportunities for all races and which judges people on the merit of their food alone, you have to take the historical stuff into account. We are not existing a-historically in this country and we should stop pretending that we are. For shows like Masterchef SA to ignore this would be somewhat of a travesty. Sometimes, in certain contexts, before things can be completely equal, previously-disadvantaged people have to be judged on a mixture of potential and merit.

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This Blog Is Dying

I don’t usually like to remove myself from things without giving due justification and this will not be an exception. I’ve been going through certain changes - some minimal, while others are more in-depth - and I realised that this blog is no longer able to fulfill my creative urges and where I want to take my art and writing. I’m re-envisioning what it is I want to do and how I want to do it and the blog format, unique to Tumblr is just not cutting it anymore. I need more freedom. I did a bit of research and the two main contenders for my next blog, were the blogspot and wordpress hosts. Wordpress apparently wins out in this fight, so it is to wordpress that I go. 

While my new blog is under construction, I don’t want to put up a link to it or anything because there’s a certain level I want it to reach first before I start making it public. In due time I will return to Future Rewind - my first blog - to pay it my final respects. This has been a good experience. But it needs to end now… But we all know nothing ever really ends, somehow, someway I will return here in the future.