UK elections

The Gaping Wound

Feminism, Race, UK elections, Women
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Zimbabwe is Britain’s dirty not-so-secret; its people’s current terrible plight is the end result of our imperial endeavours in East Africa. British rule consisted essentially of our exporting the then Rhodesia‘s wealth back home to Blighty via a colonial administration that worked hand-in-hand with the nation’s white landowners (though nation is a misnomer, since we drew the border. Ditto the rules on land ownership.).

Cutting a very long story short, British colonial rule culminated in the eventual election of President Robert Mugabe, probably the only time the man has actually had a shred of political legitimacy. Mugabe is now well on the way to making himself President for Life, the better to finish the job of utterly destroying his fellow citizens.

How bad is it in Zimbabwe now? Could it get any worse, after the mad schemes of Mugabe, the torture and the murder and the AIDS and the home bulldozings and a life expectancy of 34?

Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings found out how bad it is for women when her eye was caught by an article on sanitary towels:

“SHE has been arrested 22 times, tortured so badly that her front teeth were knocked into her nose and had an AK-47 thrust up her vagina until she bled. Thabitha Khumalo’s crime: to campaign against a critical shortage of tampons and sanitary towels in Zimbabwe, one of the least talked about and most severe side-effects for women of the country’s economic crisis. (…)

So desperate is the situation that women are being forced to use rolled-up pieces of newspaper. Zimbabwe already has the world’s lowest life expectancy for women ‘ 34 ‘ and Khumalo believes these unhygienic practices could make it drop to as low as 20 because infections will make them more vulnerable to HIV. ‘It’s a time bomb,’ she said. The shortage is forcing schoolgirls to stay at home when they start menstruating.

The Zimbabwean TUC has been trying to help by importing sanitary products to distribute free:

This, I suppose, is why the latest consignment has been seized by the police and the Central Intelligence Organization, rather than by the customs officials. Opinions about the Zimbabwean government’s motives vary: opposition to the ZCTU, general mean-spiritedness, what have you. For my part, I have never found it very worthwhile to ascribe any coherent motivation at all to the people who run Zimbabwe. Your mileage may vary.

It’s a shocking article, but if you’re male and see the words ‘sanitary towels’ and think it’ll be boring women’s stuff, don’t skip it (and the very illuminating comments) because it isn’t. This is about how, as Hilzoy puts it:

…there are so many different ways in which people who are desperately poor get screwed; ways I had never ever thought of.

Quite.

Read more: Women, Periods, Menstruation, Zimbabwe, Mugabe, Poverty, Unions

Respect and Galloway

Sleaze, UK elections, UK politics
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With the unexpected victory (to them) of George Galloway over Oona King last week, there have been some fairly desperate attemps made to explain away this victory. The key factor, as Dead Men Left explains is a belief that:

rational individuals could not possibly have voted for Respect. What both imply is that voters in Bethnal Green and Bow had every reason to be happy with their lot, were they not driven by their irrational urges. Both are slurs, in particular, on the Bangladeshi community in East London.

The most disgusting and insulting “explanation” of Oona King’s defeat has to be the idea that she lost because she was part Jewish and part Black –and the white racists and anti-semitic muslims in her district couldn’t handle that. But, as the following letter, quoted by both The Ghost of Wat Tyler and Jews sans Frontieres:

After Oona King’s defeat, I found comments by Tony Banks and others patronising and insulting to us British-Bangladeshis/Muslims. Contrary to the pathetic excuses they were making for her, we did not vote against Ms King because she was a woman, or because she was black, or Jewish. She was all those things when we voted for her in 1997 and 2001. We voted her out because she did not listen to us on Iraq. If she had done her job and represented her constituents (rather than pursue her personal ambitions by following Blair) she would still be our MP. Simple.

Suber Akther

London

Hear hear.

Meanwhile, in UK politics…

UK elections
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Meaders at Dead Men Left nails New Labour’s complicity in smearing Respect and George Galloway –

[…] To recap, Benjamin Virgo, a 34-year old student living in Bethnal Green, was quoted by Euan Ferguson in last Sunday’s Observer smearing Galloway and using a frankly racist elision to do so. Ben Virgo, a 34-year old student living in Bethnal Green, was at the centre of the “rent-a-crowd” allegations against Oona King, in which the Virgo family were repeatedly used in New Labour photoshoots. King, it would seem, helped the family Virgo acquire a larger council flat, so they were returning a favour.

Andrew’s found another appearance by Ben Virgo, this concerned King supporter, at a University College Conservative Party function:

“I met him last autumn at an event organised by UCL Conservative Society,” writes Mr J Robertson. “I thought I’d found in him a solid Conservative supporter. His biggest political concern appeared to be his children’s education in a school where many of the classmates do not speak English, and that he would ideally like to move from Bethnal Green.”

There is a connection between Virgo’s alleged assualt on Tuesday, his children’s classmates allegedly not speaking English, and Galloway’s election victory. It is the same one the BNP made when they ran their campaign against immigrants allegedly receiving preferential treatment for housing in Barking. Perhaps Virgo could move there, if Bethnal Green is not to his liking.”

More election sleaze here…