Guilty as charged!

When things go wrong they often go awfully wrong. The saga of South African athlete Casper Semanya who won the 800 meters final at the Berlin world championships is just raging on and on. And it is getting murkier and uglier, and some sports and political officials start getting lost in their own spin and lies and excuses.

And sadly the lovely Semanya is just lost in this rotten mix of politics and sports. The well-being of this young athlete seems to be abandoned by all. The day before the final in Berlin all hell broke loose. Australian papers put her gender in doubt. Semanya didn’t care and just did what she came to do in the German capital. Run and win. Got the gold medal and went home.

But the row sadly was hijacked by politics and a can of ugly worms was opened. Shouts of racism, abuse, double standards and colonial attitudes were thrown in the mix. The spin and the insults pushed the truth to the backroom. The international athletics federation announced that a gender test would be done and the results announced in November. South Africa went mad as hell.

Now an Australian paper revealed that those tests show that Semanya is inter-sex. She has no ovaries but small male genitals on the inside – which is a cancerous threat. So she is a female but with some male parts. It’s rare but it can happen. Obviously such revelation is – far and foremost – the most shocking for Semanya herself. And for her family. Especially living in rural South Africa such revelations can bring about unpleasant looks, comments and actions by the community. But the revelations got hijacked by ugly politics. Once again.

The South African sports minister calls the media together, blames the press for publishing the revelations, and threatens with world war 3 if Semanya’s sports future is threatened. The waters are getting murkier, the spin more complex and the web of lies wider.

What the minister avoids is that South Africa’s own athletics federation earlier this year did a gender test on Semanya without telling her. How ugly is that?!? Pure and simple abuse of the upper echelon. Hiding this disgust but screaming and shouting racism after Berlin. It’s pretty rotten to the core.

So let’s cut the crap and face reality. As ugly as it is, and how hard the spin is trying to avoid to look in the mirror.

The international athletics federation stands accused of leaking the results of the gender test. Human rights violation. Guilty!

The South African athletics body stands accused of lying about the gender test they did on Semanya before Berlin. Basic human violation. And it stands accused of racist slur. And it stands accused of not putting Semanya’s well-being (mentally and physically) at the heart of the matter. Guilty on all accounts!

The South African minister stands accused of crying wolf and attacking the messenger – the media. And he stands accused of talking tough without even first looking into the abuse by the South African athletics body back at home before even Semanya took the gold medal. Guilty!

A total rot that should be dealt with firmly and harshly. It’s all so sick and sad. Politics and sports sadly get mixed together. Hijacked. Taking down to the gutter. Used and abused. Just look at the history of the Olympics and you will see how the purity and innocence of sports never even makes a chance to survive a second. Human behaviour is an ugly affair.

My heart goes out to Semanya. Used by many. Abandoned by many. Be strong girl, and just be yourself. Respect!

And amidst the row a South African trashy magazine takes it one step further into the rot. They decided, for an undisclosed amount of cash, to publish a photo-spray of Semanya with a “real” female look: long hair, high heels, jewellery,... The ultimate abuse to push the “image” of how a women “should “ look. The ultimate abuse of the fight for gender equality. What a load of stinking crap! I hope at least Semanya got good cash for it but I fear the dirty tactics that might have been used towards her to accept doing such a photo shoot. Burn that magazine, burn!

Wow. That’s just a rotten situation. Ugly to the core.

Moving on. I see that that the fight for and against Obama’s health care plan is still raging across the US of A. Demonstrations in DC. Cries of socialism. The banners of a me-me-me society stand out. People seem madly obsessed about any State role. Sometimes I wonder how they want to built any type of society if there cannot be a central governing body. You need some kind of central hand on the steering wheel otherwise there won’t be any society but just a pile of individuals busy with only themselves. Still don’t get it what is so evil about trying that all American citizens can access some kind of medical aid.

Sports, politics, healthcare. From there to military games feels strangely an easy thing to do. Venezuelan president-for-life Chavez has bought Russian missiles. It must make Washington nervous. What hurts me is again the money wasted on arms and political machismo instead of lifting people out of poverty and investing in schools, hospitals, roads, housing. Cold war emotions in the 21st Century.

Back to Africa.

Hot seems unsafe. Kenya has banned the condom brand Hot. A Zambian product but produced in the United Kingdom. The name might have increased passion and lust, but using Hot’s condoms seemed as unsafe as just not using any latex protection at all. Official tests were done and Hot was proven deadly. And thus banned. Don’t play with people’s lives! Wonder where the blame lies. The Zambian company or the British manufacturer.

From sex in Kenya to suicides in France. A mind on the run. But all about human behavior.

The French labour minister Darcos is to meet the boss of France Telecom, the country’s largest telecommunications company. Nothing special at first sight.

But the minister is worried about the level of suicides amongst the company’s staff. It seems working for France Telecom is a stressful affair. 23 Employees have killed themselves since the beginning of 2008. Trade unions blame management for being tough and unreasonable on its staff since privatisation just over 10 years ago. France Telecom managers have looked for a way out of this bad publicity and went onto the internet. They did dome Google search and announced that the rate of suicides within the company is the same as the national average and thus..... no problem. So forget the hype and just move on. Just keep the body bags handy.

It’s a mad world out there. Political hijackings of a gold medal saga. Nightmares of creeping socialism in the US. I wonder when the first helpline for this will be opened in America. Chavez and his rockets. Conservative America must be having serious nightmares. Visions of communist evil through Obama’s health plan. And visions of communist rocket attacks from the US backyard. And they thought they had won the cold war under cowboy Ronald Reagan. Nightmares! But I’m sure some big pharmaceutical company in the US will come up with the ‘anti-left sleeping pill’. Another great opportunity to cash in. Cash in on fear. The US is really the land of endless opportunities. Meanwhile Kenya is Hot-less. And suicidal stress in France. And the world just keeps spinning. Dizzy. Gimme some medication of dizziness please. Dazed. A blur.

Human behaviour is a never-ending source of inspiration, frustration and madness. Is there any medication against humans?

Throw out. Wow, what a beauty! Pearl Jam covering Neil Young’s all time classic “Rockin’ in the free world” live in Melbourne in 2006 with a guest appearance by Bono. U2’s frontman was on his personal ‘Make Poverty History’ tour and jumped on stage to give the audience a unique performance alongside Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. Rock history. And I just heard Pearl Jam’s new album “Backspacer”. To be released in the coming days. Great tunes. First reaction is that this album is much better than their last studio release. Pearl Jam is still going strong. Nearly 20 years now.

C-Ya

collateral – around September half-way mark