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This comes down to journalists (print or photo) needing to be really responsible in what they write, because it&#39;s too easy to manipulate the facts into a one-sided view to get the reaction one wants. I think it&#39;s been a problem for as long as newspapers have been in existence! That&#39;s why I hardly ever read newspapers, and when I do, I question everything I read.<br /><a href="http://

Damaria (and Judy),<br />Yes, I agree with you both. The New Statesman definitely didn&#39;t get it right. I&#39;ve visited Damaria and strolled with her in her neighborhood. She told me how her neighborhood is a village with people looking out for each other.<br />The phenomena of selective journalism makes me mad, too. Especially when I see reports of African news in the United States. Where is

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I haven&#39;t read the book, so I find this issue hard to comment on. I have seen where people try to make parallels with Huckleberry Fin. <br /><br />In that regard, I have read Fin, and can say I find it wrong that they&#39;ve changed the book. The character that says the offensive language is an offensive character. Yes, these books are fiction, but fiction must accurately portray the time and

@tiah - thanks for your comment. I had trouble getting into the book and only read it in December after Baby dragged me to watch the movie.<br />At the time, I didn&#39;t give much thought to the statement about lesbians. <br />But then, it was easy enough for me to dismiss the statement because I&#39;m not lesbian, and the statement didn&#39;t sound like it condoned my greatest danger and fear (

Your reply to that question is so much more polite and kind than mine typically is.

what tiah said.

Isn&#39;t that how most discussions go? An issue is brought up, and then the issue is turned to the &#39;more important&#39; contest or &#39;how about MY groups rights&#39; - which are usually from the group who has been benefiting from the repression of others.

You&#39;re very right, Tiah. The sad thing is that people who do this ignore that their own rights don&#39;t have to be taken/compromised in order to make sure that other people enjoy their full rights.

Yup, I think we all HAVE to disconnect sometimes, otherwise we wouldn&#39;t be able to live. Especially if we feel powerless to do anything about a problem. It&#39;s too heavy to carry around thinking about it. The witchcraft thing is frightening, how blame can be pinned on a woman rather than looking for a cause or blaming chance.

Moi, I am admiring how you are managing to take topics, each could be a book in itself, into readable bits.

thanks, Tiah. I try not to think how easy it is to find enough materal to fill 16 books on the subject, otherwise I might just explode or implode - one or the other :-(

Hi Damaria, I am so sorry I didn&#39;t contribute to your 16 days of activism! When I got back from holiday I just couldn&#39;t gear my brain to anything worthy like that and I didn&#39;t want to do a half hearted job. I&#39;m really useless in that regard at the moment.

Hey Po<br />don&#39;t worry about it. I hope the holiday was good? It sounded like you really needed a break.

Both. There are issues the media tries to sweep under the carpet, or ignores due to lack of &#39;marketability&#39; or the difficulty to wrap it up into nice sound bites. Other times, things are sensationalised - which is often easier to do than put in hours of research. <br /><br />Life is rarely all good or all bad. Take a look at a funeral: even in sadness somebody cracks a joke, remembers a

Can I make a 5(a):<br /><br />Neutral (which is slightly different to &quot;indifferent&quot;). I sympathise with them insofar as I don&#39;t believe society has the right to look down on them. <br /><br />Sex work should be legalised, it is a job but not really like any other because how many of the women (or men) who are sex workers would choose that job if there was another option for them?

I find sex work / sex workers complex. What makes me sad is how marginalised anything surrounding the issues or people are. Write a book about drugs or murder - sells! Tracey Farren&#39;s &#39;Whiplash&#39; (a fantastic book!) and the number of people who have told me, &quot;I don&#39;t want to read about prostitutes.&quot; Whole book clubs shunning it. <br /><br />I don&#39;t get it.

I think I see esx workers as people doing a job, as workers. However in my mind they choose this job because they are in a difficult or limited position in life. I assume them to desperate because of poverty, or addiction, or having to support a family. I don&#39;t see it as a happy choice for most of them, but a relctant one. I know there are some women who probably choose to do it because they

I don&#39;t know. Hugs!

The addiction ones are the &quot;easier ones&quot; - I would try and get their loved ones involved and organise some sort of intervention or something - maybe chat to a councellor and assess the way forward! I would do SOMETHING though!<br /><br />The other one - I have been in a situation where a friend was in an abusive marriage. Eventually I pulled away from her. I just couldnt stand by and

I think I would go for three. I hope. I hate that I sometimes choose 2, but this has never happened to a close friend. I would choose three, and if they think is necessary, participate in one.

Damaria, I know what you mean about not travelling so well - have been away too, and back home since Monday, Still feeling as if my head is in Pilansberg although my body is home!<br /><br />Good luck with your new project &quot;place for people&quot;!<br /><br />Re your blog party - I&#39;ve been privileged enough to know only decent kind men. Let me think about whether I can contribute

Hi Judy<br /><br />I don&#39;t have a required length for the blog post. It can be as long or short a your stor demands.<br /><br />Tell us about the good men in your life. This campaign is not just about abusive men; it&#39;s also about celebrating good men, who are, in their own way, contributing to the campaign through their action, though they wouldn&#39;t even know it and they would not

Damaria! Travelling 950km in one day is hectic! That is just too much for anyone, even He-man. No wonder you are exhausted. You poor thing. <br /><br />I will have to do some thinking about your party topic!

Hi Damaria, I&#39;d like to contribute a-post-a-day ie, 16 (short) daily posts for the duration of the activism period - preferably as guest blogger. Would that work?

Oh hey Moi<br />Thanks for coming over and offering to guest-blog. Yes, please, it would work. Would you like the posts to be published on Shukumisa web site ( which is the main blog about sexual violence that I work on) or Storypot? I&#39;m flexible either way.....and I&#39;m asking because I know you&#39;re a writer and am trying to determine which primary platform would work best for your

I&#39;ll email you, Damaria, to chat strategy. Main thing, I guess, is to get the campaign out there since we only got 16/365. <br /><br />Best would be to have bits on different spaces all over the &#39;net so that, like with dog turds on the lawn, people can&#39;t avoid stepping in and having to look close at least one stinking pile of facts ;-&gt;

Hi Damaria, <br /><br />Out of interest, if i wrote a piece on the violence against lesbian woman... would it count or be included in your blog party? It&#39;s just something I have been thinking about doing because i met someone who has been through it and I don&#39;t know whether it counts more for homosexual violence or just plain gender violence?<br /><br />Peace,<br />Paula

@Paula - of course it would count. Consider that the victim has many roles - yes, she&#39;s gay. But she&#39;s also a woman, and we can&#39;t exclude her issues when we talk about gender violence because she&#39;s not heterosexual. That too, would be discriminaion.<br />So please, write the post and send me the link.<br />P.S. From my client point of view, really the coalition is made up of

What a great inspiring story! Education is the key to getting Africa to take its place as a world leader, so this article is such a positive read! And in the New York Times as well!<br /><a href="http://judycroome.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">Judy</a>

This is a difficult topic for me. My parents are both teachers. The teachers had at school never wnet on strike even though they were supposed to back when I was at school. They were more concerned about our education.<br /><br />My dad never went on strike. But his pay was so bad. He was trying to support a family of sometimes 6 on a teacher&#39;s salary and it wasn&#39;t working. Maybe he

@po- I also thought about becoming a teacher. I did Education to third year level in addition to my Bsc majors. My mother was all for it, because in those days, being a teacher meant job security. By her reckoning, I may never be richm but I was never going to be unemployed either. We all know what happened with that concept when government started retrenching teachers.<br />And you&#39;re right.

Wow Damaria, I never realised you did a BSc too, that&#39;s so cool, what were your majors? Weird that you ended up a freelance writer. I hope the teachers can sort things out. Another problem is that working conditions are much worse in poorer areas, and when workers are unhappy it is difficult for them to put their work above their unhappiness. So even though my teachers never striked, they had

I majored in Chemistry and Biology, with minors in Maths and Physics.<br /> <br />I was actually quite good at them. But they were not my dream; that was just doing something that my brain seemed wired to do, but which didn&#39;t fulfull me at all.<br /><br />You can imagine how my family responded when I told them that I wasn&#39;t going to be a good little scientist, and instead I was going to

As to the teaching profession, I think it is a very difficult profession. Thankless. <br />The thing is, in my village, teachers were considered to be better off. I guess because everyone else was so much poorer. <br />As for sharing your education, you can always choose to do later it life. After you&#39;ve made your money. Or you could teach at Saturday school like I did with PROTEC.It was

I can&#39;t make up on my mind about the whole thing. I think the &quot;guilt&quot; that government gives certain jobs, esp ones from traditional female dominated rolls (nurses, teaching) that their &quot;love&quot; should get them through the shitty pay - is just a shit argument. <br /><br />I know money is tight. But maybe people would have an easier time accepting that their needs can&#39;t be

Great post, Damaria. You said all the things I&#39;ve been thinking.

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I&#39;m so glad your friend&#39;s wife has people like you that muck in and help with the practicalities of coping with this surreal situation. You&#39;re right that the law must now take its course, but hopefully you&#39;ll get to a point where you feel able to visit your friend, even just for closure on his perspective.

You&#39;re right; at some stage I will have to visit with him and ask him what happened. I think the frightening thingfor me is that I still think of him as a friend, not as someone who can and did kill. And a part of me is not comfortable with that, because before this, in my life, people who kill were not people I know. They were not people I care about. They were strangers I could easily

Lee Cahill is you neighbour?! Such a small world. She and I did the same novel-writing course this year.

wow. Small world indeed.

What a stunning initiative!!!!<br /><br />I am going to blog about it right now!!!

Great, thanks Laura. I hope many more people blog about the initiative.

A great way to make a positive and real difference in the world. I&#39;ve added this task to my shopping list and will spread the word as well!

thanks Judy.