8
OPINIONS
Leave Caster alone
Reasonable Doubt
ADAM RANG
Point of information TATENDA GOREDEMA THE SRC 2010 constituting meeting took place a few weeks ago and provided those who attended with something to talk about over the vacation period. The meeting took place late on a cold Friday, the weather conditions outside matching those inside the Biko building as a drama of deceit and doublecrossing played out. I have never been a fan of political organisations and am opposed to their existence on campus, so the meeting was somewhat enjoyable to watch as independents took key portfolios in next year’s SRC. However, the double-dealing and treachery that emerged from the meeting are worrying traits that cannot be ignored. The only reason SRC President Chris Ryall would have felt comfortable enough to convene the constituting meeting, according to sources, would be if he was certain he had secured an independent to vote in alliance with the incoming DASO candidates in order to secure key positions. As it turns out, Mr Ryall and his DASO cohorts were apparently double-crossed at the meeting, as one of the independents who had gone into alliance with DASO decided in the meeting to vote with his fellow independents and SASCO candidates. The first vote was for the position of Vice President-Internal, which was contested by Wandile Mamba and Zamantungwa Khumalo. Mamba duly won and from then on it was a DASO routing. Some have stated in the aftermath of what happened that student politics are dirty and in need of cleaning up. I agree wholly with this statement because student politics in its original form has nothing to
do with the self-interest and duplicity I witnessed on that Friday. What I saw had nothing to do with student politics; it was a sickening demonstration of what some people perceive student politics to be about. Clearly there is a belief amongst some that an SRC has to be ideologically driven and reflective of what parent national political parties stand for. DASO is representative of the DA, and as such is perceived as trying to impose a sort of centre-right white liberalism on the SRC. SASCO is associated with the ANCYL and the ANC and is seen as trying to bring a socialist tilt to the SRC. Whether these perceptions are fair or unfair is irrelevant. The SRC is not a political organisation and should never be treated as such. If DASO had carried the independents they needed in the meeting to secure key portfolios, then independents would have been on the receiving end of what DASO got. Whichever way you look at it, self-interest is currently the endgame of student politics at this institution and the only losers in the game are you and me. My view is that student political organisations are the root of this evil that annually rears its ugly head. Certain people are obsessed with the idea that the SRC is a place to help develop their CV and further the fortunes of their political organisations. The SRC is not, in fact, the place for that; it is a body solely established to protect ordinary students’ interests. To speak of the actions I witnessed at that meeting is not to say that I am naïve or have a fantastical view of the world and how things should be done; my intention is to inform you, the ordinary student, about what sort of body
VOLUME 68 NUMBER 11
you can expect to deal with next year. The nature of the constituting meeting suggests to me that the SRC will be divided into two camps next year, the unhappy and supposedly disenfranchised DASO camp with one executive position on the SRC, and the more powerful and currently happy independents with SASCO support. Whether or not the independents will be able to get along throughout the year remains to be seen, and the SASCO candidates are along for the ride as long as DASO does not have much of a say. Sounds more like national politics, doesn’t it? This is why I maintain that the only way for future SRCs to be wholly representative and focused on the task of taking students’ concerns to administrators, is to reform the electoral process and to bar political organisations from running in SRC elections. As I have stated at every opportunity, I have low regard for political organisations on campus and believe them to be an adolescent waste of time. In my view the allocation of portfolios should be done according to the number of votes for each candidate; otherwise the ordinary student’s role is marginalised in the subsequent constituting meetings, which do not take into account the amount of votes garnered per candidate. And the constituting meeting that takes place after results are official should be announced by the IEC rather than the president of the SRC, who actually tagged it “my meeting” on that solemn Friday. Perhaps if these measures are undertaken and implemented, we can quote Plato when he said, “Joy was in those days but to live.”
I WOULD like to join the chorus of support for Caster Semenya that has erupted across South Africa. The human rights abuse suffered by this woman is inexcusable, because no one on this planet has the right to broadcast somebody else’s personal medical details. The scumbags who leaked the story claimed that it was in the public interest. In actual fact, five athletes this year alone have received the potentially traumatic news that they can not be classed as women in the context of sport, but they have been allowed to quietly retire with their right to privacy respected. This is not an article about Caster. Instead, I would like to voice my disgust at the slimy politicians, who have hijacked Caster to further their own interests and sow division in this country. First off the starting block were Winnie Mandela and Julius Malema, whose sporting credentials are somewhat suspect, to say the least. Instead of allowing Caster to speak for herself in her own time like the strong woman that she is, they thrust themselves into the limelight while Caster was dragged around looking deeply uncomfortable. Malema asked, “Where are the white people to welcome Caster home?” Here’s your answer; they weren’t there because you didn’t invite them. The people that swarmed Caster and turned her homecoming into a political rally were bussed to the event by the ANC. Unfortunately, Semenya’s own mother got in on the act by saying that the treatment of Semenya was due to white people not wanting to see a black person do better than them. No. It’s not. It’s due to an incompetent ASA, a mercenary within IAAF who leaked the story and an insensitive news outlet that broke the story. Still, the ANC Youth League decided to elaborate by claiming that the treatment of Caster was a “coordinated racist attack,” because hermaphrodites “do not exist in the world of sanity.” Now I know what you’re
thinking; the ANC Youth League aren’t the sharpest crayons in the box. Sure, their expert psychological advice on the trauma of rape victims was questionable, their attempts to write press releases often result in nonsensical ramblings, and their ability to tell a “fake American accent” from one that is partially British due to exile needs improvement. Even a stopped clock must be right twice a day. If what they are saying is true, then that means even my own Gender Studies lecturer is in on this conspiracy. For years, she has been brainwashing us into believing that intersexuality (the less offensive term for a hermaphrodite) is a reality on a surprisingly large scale. I guess I found it so easy to believe because it was backed up by case studies, as well as academics in every gender department in the world. We better go tell the antiapartheid activist Sally Gross, who is also intersexed, that we’re onto her and her lifelong plan to discredit an 800-metre runner. One minister even went as far as to say that there would be a “third world war” if Caster was excluded. Considering the world just watched underweight South African troops storming Pretoria, I don’t think anyone will be running to the bomb shelters. Let’s hope that Caster receives the real support that she needs and that she is aware that the whole country is behind her. I strongly encourage those that want to believe that white people are somehow to blame for this incident to switch on their radios and listen to the diverse voices that are expressing their disgust for how Caster was treated each and every day. In the meantime, the African Gender Institute here at UCT offers fantastic courses that add greatly to our understanding of complex gender issues, such as intersexuality. I’d encourage everyone to take a course as an elective at the very least. As for Malema, if he would like to add the completion of Introduction to Gender studies to his already impressive G in woodwork, I would be more than willing to sponsor his studies if it meant slightly less bullshit coming out of his mouth.
LIAM KRUGER
SO, A couple of weeks ago Disney bought Marvel Comics. In many respects it’s not that big of a deal. Marvel – which publishes Spider-Man, X-Men and the like – has been hopping from one owner to another over the past couple of years, and if anything, this move mimics Time Warner’s acquisition of DC, Marvel’s primary competitor in comic publication. This is just a slightly more visible repercussion of an economic climate that likes producing monolithic companies like Google, Microsoft and Disney – which could be distantly worrying, if you’re not a fan of monopolies, but otherwise shouldn’t affect your day-to-day all that much. So should you care? If you’d like to lose your virginity before your late twenties, I urge you not to, because in many respects this is the sort of thing that matters most to the comic-book clique. That said, given the way that the entertainment industry has hinged itself in recent years on those oh-
so-recognisable Übermenschen, with their spandex and their chiselled jaw-lines, we should probably be considering the possibility of Wolverine and the Jonas Brothers coming soon to a theatre near you. Well, within limits. Disney bought Pixar, too, and that’s been a pretty lucrative, non-interfering purchase for both parties – Disney takes a “hands off” approach to most of Pixar’s management, meaning there isn’t any major creative restriction. Disney likes this, because that keeps Pixar’s audiences happy, and gives Disney the rights to sell you Toy Story toys, video games and cup holders out of every mercantile orifice. We can only assume that the same will hold true of Marvel, which has established its characters in a number of different media – to do otherwise would risk the loss of Marvel’s primary audience, in which case Disney will have just wasted four billion dollars (not that they can’t afford it, even with low first-quarter profits). Another concern that some have raised
Courtesy of www.desinformado.com
Bitten by a radioactive trademark
DISNEY AND MARVEL - Corporate romance, they grow up so fast about censorship – that most family-friendly Mickey Mouse fans are unlikely to approve of a dude who has knives coming out of his fists – is almost frivolous, bearing in mind that Disney also produced Kill Bill.
What the purchase does mean, however, is that Marvel Studios now has the resources to produce almost all of their films directly, without having to go through middlemen like Sony and Lionsgate. To illustrate the
difference: Iron Man was a Marvel Studios production; Spiderman 3 was Sony’s abortion. We should, therefore, see some fairly decent Marvel blockbusters being rolled out in the years to come – and Disney’s connections to Pixar (The Incredibles) and Spielberg offer some interesting prospects. That said, all we’re likely to see in the immediate future is greater use of Disney’s international merchandising powers to extend the Marvel characters and their trademarks. Where some troubles may occur is in the character rights that Marvel signed over some years ago to the likes of Sony – namely, that Sony retains the rights to make so-called films starring the XMen, Spiderman and the Fantastic Four in perpetuity, so long as they keep making them. Whether or not that agreement is worth the paper it’s printed on when put against Disney’s legal team remains to be seen and – barring the release of Hannah Montana vs The Incredible Hulk – may be the most interesting consequence of the deal that has so far emerged.