South African hacks, including some on this newspaper, can be glad they’re not living in Iraq. An Amnesty report, quoted by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during the House of Commons debate on Tony Blair’s Saddam Hussein dossier, says dozens of Iraqi women have been beheaded for alleged prostitution.
Straw said: ”The victims were executed in front of their homes by a militia created by Saddam’s son, Uday. Among those executed for ‘prostitution’ was Dr Najat Mohammed Haydar, an obstetrician in Baghdad’s leading hospital whose crime was to be critical of corruption in the health services.”
That’s a lot worse than a cold shoulder from Manto.
What a way to go
Far more fortunate, however, was the Nigerian woman who — according to e.tv — was ”sentenced to death by adultery”.
To boldly go…
Bush is speaking to the Saudi king, who wonders aloud why Star Trek has Asian, black and white people — even aliens — on board but never any Arabs.
Bush replies: ”Star Trek takes place in the future!”
Bob calls the tune
The recent brouhaha over the new Broadcast Bill has overlooked one important fact: the SABC is already under direct government control — Uncle Bob’s government.
Lemmer was directed to a recent Sapa report about how the Broadcast Complaints Commission of South Africa had restricted the showing of a music video called Zimbabwe after a complaint from that country’s high commissioner. This worthy demanded the banning of the video as it was ”in very bad taste and does not in any way assist in the promotion of the cordial and excellent relations existing between South Africa and Zimbabwe”.
The complaints commission agreed the clip was in questionable taste (there’s a scene of someone puking) but said it did not encourage hatred nor was it indecent or obscene. Nevertheless, the SABC was instructed to show the video only when children would not be watching.
Now Lemmer might be one of Will Carling’s ”old farts”, but when was good taste a criterion used to determine what goes out on SATV?
The weekend war
The Boeremag, a group of rightwingers with an uncertain grasp of reality, recently sent out call-up papers to the good burgers of Lydenburg to prepare for war against the African National Congress. Recruits are required to pitch up with weapons, uniforms and first-aid gear — and supplies for just three days.
No walk in the park
Lemmer understands perfectly the aura of protection around world leaders gathered in Sandton and Wits recently, but he did not anticipate the lengths to which people would go to keep out the riff-raff. You can imagine his surprise when he saw a big signpost around the summit: ”Accredited Pedestrians”.
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