After nearly 4 years of blogging and a host of abusive comments mostly from anonymous people, I finally chosen to enable comment moderation. Devious Diva has come up with a code of conduct for commenting which I am adopting with some slight variation as follows:

ONE: Friends and allies of this blog are always welcome. Anyone wanting to discuss the issues in a civil and respectful way are always welcome.

TWO: People who attack and insult people personally on this blog will have their names dropped into my moderation list. This is so that if you have something to say (yes, even if you disagree with me!) and you say it without rudeness and name-calling, I can approve it once I’ve seen it. People who leave comments anonymously without email address will not have their comments posted because I have noted it is this group of people who leave abusive comments.

THREE: People who continue to ignore my repeated requests for respect and civility on this blog will go on the banned list. No discussion. No cries of censorship. You will just be banned.

FOUR: If your comment does not appear as soon as you hit send, it does not mean that you are banned. It might mean that I haven’t had a chance to read through the comments and approve them. I do get a fair amount of spam and sometimes comments slip into the spam list instead of moderation. I apologise to the few people whose comments have got lost in this way.

FIVE: I still reserve the right to delete any comment that I consider necessary to remove even if you have had other comments approved.

I am trying to install an auto system to deal with the above so if anyone has ideas please let me know.

Thanks to everyone who has supported Black Looks over the years including those who do not always agree with what I or other guest bloggers have to say.

Tags:
Blogging
Comment Moderation
Comment Policy

*** Oxfamming the word [via No Longer at Ease] from Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina who gave us the wonderful How To Write About Africa.

“Would you like an Oxfam biscuit? Can we fly 103 of you to France to be loved? We can breastfeed you. We can save you from yourself. We can save ourselves from our terrible selves. Help us to Oxfam the whole black world, to make it a better place. We will shut all your industries and build our organic Jeffery Sachs-designed school inside your national parks, where you can commune with nature, grow ecologically friendly crops, trade fairly with eco-tourists and receive visitors from the United Nations every month who will clap when you dance. Instead of sweatshops, we will have Ubuntu shops where you can arrive in biodegradable loincloths to make bone jewellery for caring people who earn $1million a year, live in San Francisco or Cape Town and feel bad about this. In our future world you will have three balanced meals a day. Trust us. You can’t do it yourselves. We have dedicated our lives to you. Come kitties, come to mummy”.

*** White South African blogger, Inside Candy wonders where all the Black bloggers are and wonders if it has anything to do “with access, not enough interest or exposure” - A look at the last census statistics from 2001 should give her some clues although there has been some increase in numbers of Black Middle classes since then and there have been increases in mobile phone ownership and computers.

I realise that this is a potentially loaded question, but where the hell are all the black bloggers hiding? To date, I’ve only met one (I repeat, one) black South African blogger - Obakeng, “The Chief” of ONC Today.

Black Africans (BA) make up 79% of the population v whites (W) at 9%.
BA with higher education - 5% v W 29%
BA with landline or mobile phone -31% v W 95%
BA with own computer 1.8% v W 97%
Unemployment of Black Africans 28% (has risen since 2001) v 4% of whites
Medium annual income of Black Africans 12,000 Rands v 65,400 Rands for whites.

So yes, there are issues of access, cost and time - if it takes you up to 4 hours to get to work and back then blogging is not going to be a priority even if you could afford to have your own computer or access an internet cafe.

Admittedly there are not many but here are some of the blogs by South African POC but I am sure there are many more and as one comment states .

My Realities by the late Busi Sigasa
Loudrastress by Pumla Gqola
Abahlali baseMjondola The Durban Shackdweller Movement
My Haven by Matuba Mahlatjie
Lesbian Rules by Marda Butler
Clement Nyirenda’s Blog World
Township Vibes
SwamiShivapadananda
Lavina Live

*** Speaking of Black bloggers, I am looking for some here in the Britain (recent memories of colonialism leave me choking over the “great” and the “kingdom”). Meanwhile British immigration legislation regresses “ and feeds into the myths and racist assumptions about immigrants living of the state and taking “our jobs. The Labour government plans to introduce more “tests to prove their worth” for anyone wanting to become British fortunately there is resistance from some back benchers.

Ms Smith said migrants from outside the European Economic Area [ Political speak for unwanted especially Muslims] would be encouraged to “move on” through a system that leads to citizenship - or choose ultimately to leave the country.

The package of measures includes:

* Raising visa fees for a special “transitional impact” fund

* More English language testing ahead of nationality

* Requirements to prove integration into communities

* Increasing how long it takes to become British

*** The Zimbabwe elections are due to take place on the 29th March and the big question is how “free and fair” they will be. Sokwanele reports on the recent jeering by crowds as Mugabe celebrated his 84th birthday

While the protestors danced and sang, a helium-filled blimp was raised 100 metres above the bridge with a banner that cast doubt on the integrity of elections due for March 29. “Free and fair or just hot air,” ran the slogan on one side of the balloon while the other called on President Mugabe to, “Have your cake… and beat it!”

*** Larry Pinkney of the Black Commentator continues to be one of the few and in my opinion rational voices in the midst of the Obama bandwagon and the myths of the “change” rhetoric. In Goose Stepping Behind Obama: The Absense of Critical Thinking Pinkney writes:

Resigning one’s self to voting for the so-called “lesser of the two evils” plays right into calculated corporate hands of media manipulations and the disempowering Democrat and Republican Parties. By the same token, euphorically goose-stepping behind the candidacy of Barack Obama, or any other Democrat or Republican, is tantamount to choosing death by hanging as opposed to death by firing squad. This is not exercising a choice. It is dangerous and ridiculous non-choice, especially in America - the so-called bastion of democracy.

Finally, Passing Thoughts by Kameelah reflects on the politics of race, passing, Islam in the US and South Africa

This choice almost immediately flung me into the forever foreigner stages whereby everyone I encountered while living in Washington D.C. to living in Cape Town, South Africa saw me not as Black but as “something else” because of course there are no Black Muslims, only African Muslims and because of course only real Muslims wore full hijab. As I learned, quite interestingly, the hijab had the power to erase elements of indigenous Blackness in favor of a more “authentic” international Blackness associated with African countries like the Sudan,

Tags:
Blogging
Black Britain
South Africa
Zimbabwe
Oxfam + NGO
US Elections

Journalist and blogger ,Andrew Havens [Meskel Square] has a feature article on “Gay Africans and Arabs come out online” published by Reuters. Andrew interviewed women and men from the LGBT communities across Africa and the Arab speaking world for the piece.

NEWS AND ABUSE

That limited form of coming out has earned the bloggers abuse or criticism via their blogs’ comment pages or e-mails.

“Faggot queen,” wrote a commentator called ‘blake’ on Kenya’s ‘Rants and raves’. “I will put my loathing for you faggots aside momentarily, due to the suffering caused by the political situation,” referring to the country’s post-election violence.

Some are more measured: “The fact that you are a gay Sudanese and proudly posting about it in itself is just not natural,” a reader called ’sudani’ posted on Ali’s blog.

Africa
LGBT
Blogging

*** Freedom Rider on the “Obama Cult”. What a relief.

They are every where, like pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. If you don’t fall asleep and turn into a pod person too, they are out to get you.

I mean Obama supporters of course. If their adoration for cynical nothingness wasn’t so dangerous it would be funny.

*** Kameelah Writes is hyped up on Wax Poetic and Holga cameras and refuses to apologise for her “lack of excitement” over the primaries.

*** One I missed is Mike Tyson’s visit to South Africa and his hope of meeting with Winnie Mandela - WHAT! and Jacob Zuma - no surprise there. Loudrastress publishes a press releases asking people not to welcome Tyson in a country “where 1 in 4 women are beaten by their male partners and 1 in 3 are likely to be raped in their life time”

Last year over 52 000 rapes were recorded in South Africa - of which approximately 20 000 victims were girls under the age of 18. Although these figures are already horrendous, it is widely agreed that they are significantly inaccurate and that the real rate of rape is much higher but unreported.

Given this mantle of violence under which South African women must live, Mike Tyson is a highly insulting choice for a hero, and any suggestion that he has “changed” must be treated with the contempt it deserves: his conversion to Islam whilst serving a prison term for rape some years ago certainly made no noticeable difference to his attitude towards women, and only 3 months ago he was convicted of drug abuse and drunken driving. If newspaper reports are to be believed, it seems Tyson never misses an opportunity to demean and vilify women (see attached quotes). Is this has-been athlete with an on-going penchant for violating women someone South Africans should lionize? Is this a man we should present to South African children as someone to admire and emulate?

*** African Path reports on the merging of Tampax, Always and HERO (an awareness building and fundraising initiative of the UN).

“Working with HERO, the Protecting Futures program brings together the brands’ global resources to help make a positive impact on these young girls by improving access to feminine hygiene products as well as education and health services,” said Michelle Vaeth, Protecting Futures Program Director for P&G. “Through this program, Tampax and Always will help build an infrastructure that – with support from local and national governments - can give children in these communities the chance to reach their full potential.”

*** From Stereohyped’s Daily Dose of BHM on Wilma Rudolph, who despite having polio as a child, became the first American to win three gold medals at the Olympics.

She won a bronze medal in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, but it was during hte 1960 Rome Olympics that she broke the record with three gold medals. After retiring from sports, Rudolph became a teacher and sports commentator. She died of brain cancer in 1994.

*** Haitian Justice reminds us there is still no news on Haitian activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine who has been missing since 11th August last year. The third annual solidarity with the Haitian people takes place on February 29th. Finally the publication of the book by Peter Hallwood, Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment.

*** Sabbah publishes an extract from the “US Campaign to end Israeli Occupation - “$2.55 billion in military aid to Israel”…. One of the comments writes

Bush wont listen.
It doesn’t matter what anyone says. BUSH WONT LISTEN.
As much as most of the world hates OBL, Bush is the same person, only just on the other side.
Until Bush is gone there will be pandering for the Israelis.
After that event, there will be more pandering.
AIPAC controls the US.

The more important question is, if he becomes President, WILL OBAMA LISTEN?