Rantings on a Saturday Night

I’ve been wondering, but I don’t recall hearing a joke that starts with “The Prophet Muhammad, blah and blah walks into a bar...” I guess I could think one up, but I’m not going to be poking an angry beast with a pointy stick at this time. Assuming there is a joke like that floating around out there and it isn’t intended to be offensive or blasphemous, would that be alright? Okay, the “bar” part might be a problem, so let’s change that to “juice bar” or something really, really neutral. Again I ask: if the joke does not mean to give offence, would we still be seeing what we see today? I mean, would the Muslim masses take to the street and threaten all things West that remotely connects to the origin of the joke? Yes and no, I think. I believe some Muslims would take to the street wielding an AK-47 for just about any reason they can find. I do also believe, however, that some have a sense of humour. You know, the ones who aren’t always angry/bitter/hateful and who believe the world should be subjected to them or at least owe them something.

I am, of course, referring to the current upheaval about the cartoons about the prophet Muhammad that were published in a Danish newspaper last year (I don’t know why it’s only erupting now). I’ve been meaning to write about this for a week now and thought that the topic would be old and stale now, but after reading today’s newspaper, I know the fight is still going strong. The problem is two-fold: in Islam, it is blasphemous to depict holy figures in drawings, paintings and the like, the least of which not being caricatures. Secondly, some of the cartoons (with reference to one in particular) where very stereotypical about the West’s view of Muslims which is, bottom line, offensive, even to the non-zealots.

Being true to tradition, the West has very neatly summarized everything and placed it into pretty little categories: freedom of speech vs. respect of other nations and religions. Very tidy: something that makes for a good old fashioned debate in churches, schools, universities, water coolers and cigarette breaks. The West likes to believe they are very open minded, so everything is tolerated and considered for a while. Well, that’s what the ideology says.

Here’s a very concise version of what I think is the dirty little truth. Europe doesn’t like having to have non-Europeans in their midst. We saw it with the Jews and today we see it with the Muslims. They just don’t like throwing their doors open to strange folk who come in with strange customs and religions and eventually threaten their way of life. The problem is that the minorities aren’t minor anymore. Remember Paris? After September 11 some people feel that Arabs are free game for ridicule and blame and I guess a constant search for attacks on them eventually led to “The Cartoons”.

Muslims, on the other hand, just love to play the victim card. Wait, that’s more the Palestinians, but the fact is that they just love a good old rally with posters and protests and stuff. They are so sick and tired of everyone and everything else. The truth is that if the immigration situation was reversed (Europeans flooding the Arabian countries), the Europeans would probably have been treated just as worse, if not more. It’s a question of identity and “birds of a feather, flock together”. As a rule of thumb, different cultures aren’t compatible.

Freedom of Speech is a joke. There is no country in the world that has total freedom of speech. Some are just worse than others. To my knowledge, only “interregnum Germany” (pre-NAZI) briefly had total freedom of speech (i.e. absolutely no censorship whatsoever). Censorship is needed to protect against things like (child-) pornography and to protect governments from complots that sprout from dissent. Freedom of speech does not exist, so don’t ever come crying crocodile tears by me about it.

I am not a supporter of the Muslims, on the contrary. I do believe that some people are dealing with this in a proper and honourable manner, but that the most are irrational and vindictive. I also believe that certain things just shouldn’t be done.

Reading the newspaper today, I found an article entitled “Is it okay to hate Jews again?”. The article focused the growing amount of anti-Semitism that can be found not only among the protesting Muslims (apparently Jews should be blamed for the Danish cartoons...) but also among middle to upper class Westerners. As the author said, anti-Semitism flourished in Europe for nearly 2000 years and then just disappeared after the Holocaust (which is being contest anew by both Muslims and Westerners). It was probably unrealistic to think that it was gone for good, but the fact is that Jews and Israel are taking flak from multiple sides now. For me that’s just very sad, especially after I personally heard an anti-Semitic comment being made.

The problem is that issues are very rarely, if every, neatly catagorizable. There is almost always a myriad of other underlying issues.

I don’t want to say anything more about this issue. I’ve said more or less what I want. I’ll probably regret it or want to add or re-write some of it later, but I won’t, because it is not my intention of getting involved in this debate. This isn’t my fight and for all I care both sides can go jump into some sort of large body of water. There is merely one issue I want to raise: why would such radical reactions never be seen from Christians? The media is littered with blasphemous comics and sayings that have become commonplace. What would happen if all the Christians take to the streets to boycott all the cartoons, movies, television shows and publications that are blasphemous? What would happen if Hollywood is given an ultimatum over it’s beloved “oh my g*d” phrase? Sadly, we’ll never find out. Besides, even if that did happen, the rest of the world just wouldn’t care and continue as they would. Indeed, we would see and increase in blasphemous material. Yay for the little world we live in!

Having been docile for a couple of months now, it seems the bird flu scare is back with a vengeance: Nigeria, France, Germany and Egypt, amongst others, within a week? This is getting interesting.

I got a new phone last week! Yay. I’m terrible sorry, but I just had to mention that. It’s a Sony Ericsson K750i: the one I really wanted! This is the first time I have ever had a top-of-the-line (that I care about) phone. I’m not planning on turning into a yuppie now, but I am enjoying the GPRS and Java while the novelty still lasts (and it still does).

This evening feels very strange. Up until just now the streets felt unnervingly quiet. In Bellville the sky was filled with a thick cloud and mist blurred the near empty streets’ lights. Here, in Stellenbosch, the sky is clear and stars glisten as brightly as I haven’t seen them in a very long time. Everywhere it is very hot and I wonder why more people have not been enticed to go outside to enjoy the sweet and intoxicating summer’s night. I also have this strange feeling of having to be somewhere doing something. I know what it is, but that is just my ego and that insecure little boy inside thinking out loud. I am also aware of the things that I have not done: friends I haven’t been to see, even though I promised and have had both time and opportunity to, and university work that I feel will soon be smothering me. It’s enough to place a weight on a person’s lungs that inhibits the breathing. It would’ve been nice to talk to someone tonight.

My New Room

We’ll, it’s just after three on a hot Stellenbosch Monday afternoon, I’m relaxed and settled into a new flat and behind me lies my first day back at university. Ahead of me lies angry, anguish, fear and tears, but those will come in due time. Right now I’m very comfortable with a full stomach sitting in my new high back black leather chair listening to good music. The only responsibility I have is to read a few pages from my new textbooks. Yay, new textbooks! For the first time in two years I had to go into a SHOP and BUY new textbooks. Last year we either used the books from the first year or pre-ordered everything from the respective departments. University policy changed and we no longer get cheap books (Today’s take nearly cost me about R750 ≈ $125) but I am still the envy of many economic and law students to buy textbooks until it comes out of their ears.

I’ve been wanting to make a post everyday since Thursday, but every time something came up. No, it’s not because of my hectic social schedule; on the contrary, in fact. To recap:

As Thursday progressed, it slowly turned into a rather awful day. I’ve thought about the causes a bit, especially while complaining about it to Nikki (who is sick at the moment, but still bared with me – thanks babe, and get well soon!) and it turned out that it was quite a melange of different reasons. There was the pre-start-of-university anxiety. There was the fear and resentment towards exclusionary friends. There was the resentment of other’s fortune, despite the fact that I believed that I had gotten over that a long time ago and an array of little accidents and mishaps that can conveniently be described as Murphy kicking you when you are down. I have discussed these things and reflected upon them in an e-mail to Nikki, so I’m not going to repeat myself for my own sake; it was just a really bad day that was fed by paranoia and anger.

Thursday evening was “Vensters”: plays put on but the first years’ in the hostels which is part of the yearly Rag festivities. This year was good, most of what we saw was really nice. Vensters now is sponsored by the Municipality of Stellenbosch, which means there are emergency vehicles everywhere. I saw less of them this year than last year and it might have been a little easier to get some alcohol. Other than that it was pretty normal.

Friday morning was the start of the MCM Applied Mathematical Olympiad (that was a point of resentment – I had applied for participation but wasn’t chosen, but I’m over it by now, really). Some of my friends are taking part and, upon receiving news that “it’s difficult”, another friend and I went to pay them a visit. It was a slightly more dismal sight than I had anticipated: it was a Saturday afternoon and they were slumped over computers grasping to find a working strategy or algorithm. I saw some of them again today and they say they have a solution, but they are not terribly enthusiastic about it. Knowing what the problems are, it’s probably a good thing that I wasn’t chosen. I would probably have opted to do the other problem. The competition ends tomorrow morning 03:00 (GMT +02:00) and I wish the participants good luck for this final stretch!

Friday is a blur. I can’t remember what happened. I most likely lazed about for one last time.

Saturday a friend helped me to move the big stuff (bed, desk etc.) with his dad’s bakkie, so I started to move it. We worked at a slower pace than when we could’ve and when we were finished we lazed about town, but it went well. We were quite tired by the end of it and just went home early. Yesterday was the official move and I very slowly packed up my things and loaded the car. It was already dark outside when I set off. This was mostly due to procrastination from my part, but in the end everything went smooth. My cousin and I are getting along quite well. We’re also going to be staying out of each other’s hair, so there shouldn’t be any problems.

So now I’m sitting in my new room: it has four walls (my room at home technically has more), a bed (with an uncomfortable mattress), a desk (which I need to try to adjust, dimension wise), a PC stand (which has a slight wobble) with a PC, my new chair, a lamp that doesn’t work (so now I have to use the lava lamp Nikki gave me), a fan, a nightstand, built-in cupboards and a good supply of cloths and (mostly old) study material. Not much, some might say, but as I am sitting here on my soft throne, it is my kingdom.

I still don’t have that feeling of decadent freedom (I mean that less serious than it sounds) that comes from living in a flat, mostly because I live with my cousin and with him being older, being here first and with his father owning the place, I still feel a bit constrained. Maybe that’s just me being considerate or maybe I’ll loosen up later. Until then, the king commands you go have a drink to celebrate this moment where I blissful in the face of the oncoming storm!