After the successes of the women’s movement in the 1960s and 1970s an inevitable backlash followed and still continues: feminists are man-haters, anti family values and tyrannical arbiters imposing their values on other women. Feminists are merely women making their own choices about how to invest their time.
Hoda Mohammed Jassim deserved a little luck. A widower with five children, her home in Baghdad was flattened when American troops tried — and failed — to defuse a truck full of ammunition left by Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard. And fortune did, eventually, come her way — but from a most unlikely source.Riding to her rescue came the team from Iraq’s first ”makeover” TV show.
The question that arises every time I make my little foray into the underworld — the hidden, sinful, blatant, brazen world of sex and titillation — is whether this is objectification or the celebration of sex. In the 1980s I felt liberated when I celebrated Madonna’s blatant sexuality, but now I am all grown up.
Coach Ros Howell was upbeat on Tuesday after South Africa’s hockey women drew 2-2 against Spain in a warm-up friendly for their vital opening Olympic match against Holland on Saturday. ”This was a good effort,” said Howell after the game. ”The Spanish are always a tough nut to crack.”
Joe van Niekerk’s recall after a nasty knee injury to Jake White’s Springbok starting line-up for Saturday’s crucial Tri-Nations Test against the All Blacks at Ellis Park has given renewed hope that South Africa can finally get title number two under the belt. Van Niekerk’s return bolsters a new-look loose-trio.
Sizwe Nzimande is the new chief operations officer for the Premier Soccer League (PSL). The 30-year-old marketer was introduced at a media briefing at the league’s offices on Wednesday. Nzimande will take over the day-to-day running of the PSL. He has been given a two-year contract and will start his new job on September 1.
Zimbabwe supporters will hope a resolution to the cricket crisis that has seen 15 of their senior players axed can be reached before the country’s scheduled return to Test cricket in January. Zimbabwe, in the absence of former captain Heath Streak and most of their first-choice team, have seen a new look side frozen out of Test cricket by the International Cricket Council.
Last-ditch efforts to ”clean up” Athens before the Olympic games begin on Friday have included removing thousands of immigrants, beggars, drug addicts and homeless people from the capital’s streets. Human rights activists said on Tuesday that they feared vulnerable people, including asylum seekers from war-torn countries such as Iraq, were falling victim to the campaign.
Andrew Mehrtens has been named in the All Blacks’ starting line-up for Saturday’s Tri-Nations Test against the Springboks at Ellis Park in Johannesburg. Mehrtens’ elevation to the flyhalf spot comes at the expense of Carlos Spencer, who is not in New Zealand’s 22-man squad.
They call it ”glory’s last shot”, and no one at the PGA Championship understands that better than Ernie Els. The South African has won three tournaments this year and is second in the world rankings, but the Big Easy has had a hard time bagging a major. He did everything he could do in the first three majors of the year except win.