The Really Really Free Market – Cape Town November 12, 2009
Posted by Andreas in "The Economy", Environment, Facebook, Life, Politics, Society, South Africa, Sustainable Living, activism, anarchism.Tags: gift economy, The Really Really Free Market - Cape Town
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We’re having the very first ever Really Really Free Market in Cape Town this Sunday (at Zandvlei in Muizenberg where the kite festival normally happens) and Meghan made this beautiful flyer:
Join the Facebook group and pray for good weather 
Penis 101 November 10, 2009
Posted by Andreas in Life, Men's health, Sexual health, Society, South Africa.Tags: Men's health
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I wrote this for the Health24.com ManZone recently:
Penis 101
I often wonder about men and their penises. We joke about them, brag about them, feel embarrassed by them and name them after dead American Presidents. Women content – perhaps with some justification – that we use them more frequently than our brains when it comes to decision making. Psychologists have us believe that girls envy them, but feminists decry them as sexual and cultural weapons. In the era of HIV/AIDS they’ve become the real Weapons of Mass Destruction in our society.
Basic functions
So why is it that when penises are constantly on our minds, the vast majority of men know so very little about them? Of course we all know the two basic penis facts:
1. Drink too much beer and eventually urine will gush out the front end.
2. Become sexually aroused, get an erection and there are several mechanisms to eject a sticky fluid out in the same direction.
Beyond these rudimentary insights, however, most of us are essentially clueless.
Girls vs. Boys
Compared to the detailed medical understanding that most teenage girls have of their entire reproductive system, we guys wallow in the depths of ignorance. You know what it’s like: give your girlfriend or wife a chance to elaborate and they launch straight into fallopian tubes this and ovarian cysts that, leaving you utterly befuddled. Ask any grown man about the whereabouts of the epididymis or the corpora cavernosa, on the other hand, and all you’ll get are blank stares.
You see, for all the macho bravado and enthusiasm most blokes exhibit when it comes to telling cock jokes, most of us don’t actually like talking about our penises. Not with our partners, not with our mothers, not with our doctors and most certainly not with our mates.
From around the time when they get their first period, most girls are initiated into a process of lifelong education concerning their private parts – at special school classes, through regular gynae visits and most importantly by talking to their mothers and other women around them. Guys don’t benefit from anything even remotely comparable. I don’t know about you, but my dad certainly never sat me down for an informal chat about things going on “down there”.
An introduction to your penis
“So what!?” I hear you complain. “Most women don’t know the first thing about crankshafts, the off-side laws in rugby or braaing either.” The point is, of course, that should you wake up one morning and find that yesterday’s one-night-stand left you with the Cooties, or your wife looks at you accusingly because after months of trying you’ve still not managed to impregnate her with your long-awaited first-born, you may regret knowing so little about the inner workings of your own nether regions.
So in the spirit of public education and brotherly solidarity we have decided to put together a couple of articles to give you the lowdown on the penis. Nothing gross, don’t worry. Just some basic information – a “Penis 101″ of sorts:
► How the penis works
► How an erection happens
► What’s wrong with my penis?
► Penis resources
► Penis size per country
► The lowdown on the penis
► The lowdown on your testicles
► Your foreskin
► Erectile Dysfunction (ED)
Attack of the man boobs October 29, 2009
Posted by Andreas in Life, Society, South Africa.Tags: Men's health
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I wrote this for the Health24 ManZone recently:
Attack of the man boobs
What’s worse, a woman with fake boobs or a man with real ones?
Personally, I’d always go with the natural look, even if it sometimes falls short of what the media and society at large consider to be perfection. When it comes to the human body, the natural and real are just so much more interesting to me than the manufactured and artificial.
That’s not to say that I’m not concerned about the state of my chest, of course. Like most men, I find the prospect of developing man boobs quite disconcerting. So I regularly find myself checking out the situation when I’m in the shower and although it’s fair to say that I’m some way from growing proper moobs, it’s equally apparent that my pecs have seen better days.
If I was made of more free-spirited stuff I’d show you a picture of what my torso looks like today, but I’ll spare you the abuse. Suffice it to say that things have changed somewhat for the worse.
If you have a more exhibitionistic streak, though, don’t let me stop you. If you are particularly proud of your upper body, bloke-knockers or not, send us a photo (ManZone@health24.co.za) and we’ll put together a gallery for ManZone readers to look at. We’re especially interested in hearing from anyone who has managed to get rid of their flesh pillows and before-and-after photos are most welcome.
Abnormally enlarged male breasts – the medical term is gynecomastia – are a serious problem for a surprisingly large number of boys and men that can lead to considerable embarrassment and emotional distress. Being a notoriously uncommunicative lot when it comes to important issues that affect us directly, most men have developed elaborate mechanisms to avoid talking about the issue. We’d rather discuss the minutiae of Formula 1.
Did you know that while man boobs can be a by-product of being overweight, in many cases they are the result of a medical condition most likely related to hormonal imbalances? Do you have enlarged breasts yourself, but have no idea what to do about them? It seems to me that an open and honest conversation about the issues involved would go some way towards making this less of a headache for so many of us.
One guy who doesn’t beat about the bush when it comes to mantits is Anton Marshall, front man for the Cape Town band Three More White Guys. He actually sings about them!
Marshall: “Our song Mantits is really about the pressure all large people – or out-of-shape people – feel. Most people don’t realise that in modern times guys are under as much pressure as women to have a flat stomach and chiselled chest. Take a look at a magazine and you’ll see all the images being thrown at us about what we’re supposed to look like. I was looking at one of those celebrity gossip rags and I remember thinking: ‘Man, that crap you’re saying about Jack Nicholson’s boobs is such bullshit. The guy’s 70! He’s my granddad!’”
ManZone: Do you think moobs are a big personal issue for many guys?
Marshall: “Yeah I think there’s a ton of ways people get ostracised and being differently shaped or overweight are just two of them. In my experience, men seem to do one of two things with the mantits issue: they either wear it like a badge or they completely retreat within it. There just doesn’t seem to be any middle ground. Ultimately, wellbeing is about more than just mantits though. It’s about feeling good about who you are.”
ManZone: Any advice for dudes with man boobs? Do we embrace them, take them to gym or to the plastic surgeon?
Marshall: “All and none of the above. It won’t do you any good to do anything without first deciding that there’s something wrong or right with it. I’ve personally come to accept that I’ll always have the potential to be overweight and out of shape. So I deal with that danger my way. I personally wouldn’t consider surgery right now. Or gym, to be honest. But I do feel I’m in control of my body at the moment and I’m just fine with that.”
More info:
- Man boobs demystified
- Exercise can get rid of your man boobs
- Man boobs are more common than you think!
- Men with boobs
- UK men seeking smaller moobs
- ManBoobs
- gynecopmastia-gyno.com
- gynecomastia.org
Poison on the Platter October 19, 2009
Posted by Andreas in Environment, Film screening, South Africa, Sustainable Living, genetic engineering.add a comment
Free screenings of a powerful new documentary about genetically modified food
Poison on the Platter, a short documentary film about the detrimental effects of genetically modified crops in India, which will be screened at the Labia on Orange cinema on Tuesday 27 October at 6.15pm and on Wednesday 28 October at 6.15pm.
Entrance to both screenings is free of charge, but since only a limited number of seats are available, you are strongly encouraged to reserve tickets by calling the Labia at 021 424 5927.
While the European Union has decisively rejected the use of genetically modified food crops, powerful multinational biotech companies like Monsanto, Syngenta and DuPont are aggressively marketing these crops in developing countries such as South Africa, India and Brazil.
Poison on the Platter is a short (26 min), but powerful documentary film by well-known Bollywood director Ajay Kanchan that critically examines this process with special reference to India. The film stresses the numerous detrimental effects genetically modified crops have on the environment, human health, sustainable agriculture and people’s right to safe food.
Devinder Sharma
The Indian experience is of great relevance to South Africa, where the widespread introduction of commercial genetically modified crops including cotton, soy and maize has been actively promoted by the government and the biotech industry without significant public participation or awareness.
Poison on the Platter is an eye-opener for anyone who is concerned about the proliferation of genetically modified food crops in South Africa.
The screenings will be followed by an open discussion with Devinder Sharma, a prominent Indian food policy analyst, author and chair of the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security in India, who was instrumental in the production of the film.
This event is presented by the Labia, Biowatch, Surplus People Project, Agroecology and Family Farming (AS-PTA) from Brazil, Chetna Organic Farmers Association from India, the African Centre for Biosafety, SAFeAGE, Woman on Farms Project and Workers World Media Productions and While You Were Sleeping, a Cape Town-based non-profit film collective committed to bringing progressive, non-mainstream documentaries with important social and environmental messages to South African audiences.
Contacts:
The Labia:
021 424 5927
Biowatch:
Michelle Pressend
082 564 1581
michelle@biowatch.org.za
www.biowatch.org.za
Surplus People Project:
Tennille Rode
021 448 5605
spp@spp.org.za
www.spp.org.za
While You Were Sleeping:
Andreas Späth
084 772 1056
Andreas_Spath@yahoo.com
www.whileyouweresleeping.wordpress.com
The 2009 UCT Green Week Documentary Festival September 22, 2009
Posted by Andreas in Film screening.1 comment so far
The UCT Green Campus Initiative and While You Were Sleeping are hosting the 2009 UCT Green Week Documentary Festival which will take place at the Labia on Orange cinema in Cape Town from Monday 28 September to Friday 2 October.
You can’t afford to miss these thought-provoking and inspiring documentary films covering themes from global oil depletion and hyper-consumerism to pollution and sustainable alternatives.
The End of Suburbia
Monday 28 September 18:15
The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the End of the American Dream is a classic documentary film that explores some very serious questions about the sustainability of our current way of life with brutal honesty and a touch of irony. As the demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply, Peak Oil and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now. The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. What does Oil Peak mean? Are today’s suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? And what can be done now, individually and collectively, to avoid The End of Suburbia?
The Power of Community
Tuesday 29 September 18:15
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil is an inspirational documentary about Cuba’s recent emergency transition to local organic agriculture, renewable energy, and large-scale mass transit. This transition occurred following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, when massive subsidies of imported oil and food to Cuba were halted. The film presents ordinary Cubans who talk about the immediate hardships they faced and the ways in which they overcame them. The Power of Community visits urban gardens and organic farms, explains the relationship between food and fossil fuels, and shows how a society can change from an industrialized, global focus to a local, community-based one. It provides us with a rare view into this island’s culture, using firsthand reporting that focuses on what Cubans have learned about adapting to living with less.
Garbage!
Wednesday 30 September 18:15
Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home is a feature-length documentary about the environmental impact of the huge amounts of rubbish we produce in our households every day. Director Andrew Nisker asks an average urban family to keep every scrap of garbage that they create for three months. From the plastic bags they use to the water they drink out of bottles, from the air pollution they create when transporting the kids around to using lights at Christmas, they discover that for every action there is a reaction that affects them and the entire planet. Everyday life under a microscope has never been so revealing. By the end of this trashy odyssey, you are truly inspired to revolutionise your lifestyle for the sake of future generations.
What Would Jesus Buy?
Thursday 1 October 18:15
What Would Jesus Buy? is a funny but thought-provoking documentary about our society’s ballooning shopping habits produced by Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame. The film follows New York’s legendary performance artist and activist, the Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they go on a crusading mission across the USA to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse: the end of humankind as a result of consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt! Reverend Billy’s epic journey takes us from chilling exorcisms at the Wal-Mart headquarters to retail interventions at the Mall of America and all the way to the Promised Land … Disneyland. Provocative and entertaining, but never blasphemous, Reverend Billy demonstrates that serious social activism can be fun as well as effective.
A Convenient Truth
Friday 2 October 18:15
A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil is an informative and inspirational documentary aimed at sharing ideas to provoke environmentally-friendly and cost-effective changes in cities worldwide. The film focuses on innovations in transportation, recycling and more which have transformed the Brazilian city of Curitiba into one of the most liveable cities in the world. Cities should be a solution not a problem for human beings. The city of Curitiba has demonstrated for the past 40 years how to transform problems into sustainable and eco-friendly solutions that can be applied in most cities around the world.
Each screening will be followed by a facilitated audience discussion. Tickets are R20 and can be reserved by calling The Labia at (021) 424 5927. Reserving tickets is strongly recommended to avoid disappointment.
This event is presented by the UCT Green Campus Initiative, the Labia and While You Were Sleeping, a Cape Town-based non-profit film collective committed to bringing progressive, non-mainstream documentaries with important social and environmental messages to South African audiences.
Contacts:
The Labia:
021 424 5927
UCT Green Campus Initiative:
Katinka Wågsæther
katinka.l.w@gmail.com
www.uct.ac.za/about/greencampus
While You Were Sleeping:
Andreas Späth
084 772 1056
Andreas_Spath@yahoo.com
Toilet training boys August 25, 2009
Posted by Andreas in Life, Parenting.1 comment so far
I wrote this for Parent24.com a while ago:
Toilet training boys
Dads should be responsible for teaching their sons toilet etiquette. I say this as the father of two boys who has unwittingly sat down on a toilet seat sprinkled with little boy wee far, far too often. So believe me, I understand the magnitude of the challenge.
If you’re unconvinced, let me paint you a picture that might change your mind. Remember the last time you went to a night-club or pub bathroom. As the evening progresses, levels of inebriation skyrocket and toilet bowl marksmanship takes a precipitous dive. The place turns into an apocalyptic nightmare from hell where just to get to the sink you have to wade through putrid puddles of what you hope is mostly water.
The culprits are men whose fathers neglected to teach their sons how to pee straight.
Mothers, quite frankly, just aren’t equipped to do the job – what do they know about the mechanics of urinating out of an external appendage? Besides, women clean up behind men enough. This is one area where fathers can bring their unique expertise as men to their parenting commitment. Single moms, I suggest you rope in a sympathetic male friend or relative.
I think my 8 year old son Benjamin is fairly representative of the pre-teen crowd. Since he is forever busy with incredibly important activities he always leaves matters until the very last possible moment, then rushes into the bathroom and generally does a shoddy job of relieving himself because he’s already halfway out the door to get back to his incredibly important activity. Fathering advice for little characters like him would simply include getting them to develop a rudimentary sense of forward planning and slowing down to do things properly.
Beyond that the problems males have with peeing tend to be a combination of personal attitude and applied physics which can be summarised as follows:
● No man or boy ever has as good an aim as he thinks he does.
● Accidents happen.
● Even the most dead-eye practitioner has absolutely no control over random toilet bowl ricochet and splash back.
So what is a concerned father to do? Here are three basic practices to inculcate in you sons:
1. Sit down to pee.
2. If you do have to stand, in the name of all that’s hygienic, lift the seat.
3. Clean up your mess.
While propositions 2 and 3 should be self-evident and uncontroversial, I should perhaps unpack number 1 a little bit. Take a close look at the toilet in your bathroom. Even a bloke with half a brain will realise after a few moments that it was designed to be sat on. Obviously I’m not talking about urinals here. Personally I think the individual variety is just about acceptable, but the perpetually smelly, multi-user, gravity-driven types should be banned outright.
I got Benjamin’s 10 year old brother Josef to wee sitting down from when he was very small and it worked perfectly. Frankly, he didn’t know any other way. Until his uncle showed him how to do the business standing up, that is. Thank you very much, buddy!
Yes, of course there are situations when standing up is more practical than sitting. When you’re in the forest, say, or on top of a deserted mountain, but while we’re in civilisation, can’t we just all agree to take a seat, please!? Women around the world already do it with great success and fathers could do worse than teach their sons to follow their lead.
So if you’re a dad looking to make a practical contribution to your son’s development, why not pay a little attention to his bathroom habits and help him get to grips with some of the bits he might be struggling with? You might think it’s a thankless, behind the-scenes job, but if all of us fathers play our role, the world’s bathrooms, both private and public, will be better places.
Fake boob spotting August 19, 2009
Posted by Andreas in Life, Society.add a comment
I wrote this for Health24.com a while ago:
Fake Boob Spotting
Pseudomammophobia is the irrational fear of fake breasts.
No it isn’t. I made that up. I think there should be a scientific word for the condition though. Surely the fact that the very part of the female anatomy most intimately associated with nurturing is gradually being replaced by plastic squeaky toys should have Freudian psychologists frowning in ominous unison all around the globe.
Impostor boobs are everywhere these days. Hundreds of thousands of women go under the knife for breast augmentations annually, making them the most popular cosmetic surgery procedure in the world. Reality TV shows such as E!’s Dr. 90210 portray creepy Los Angeles plastic surgeons as altruistic celebrities while the BBC3’s shockumentary Addicted to Boob Jobs follows women in the impossible pursuit of perfect orbs.
Who started this?
It was Japanese prostitutes who first had liquid silicon injected into their chests to impress American GIs at the end of World War II, long before modern breast implants were invented in the early 60s. Their current popularity is simply the most visible “gift” bestowed on us by the planet’s burgeoning porn industry pandering a fetish for uber-sized hooters that’s supposedly shared by all men.
Perhaps one of the scariest developments is the so-called boob jab. In a 30-minute procedure, a “hyaluronic acid filler” is injected into the breast from under the arm. Since the body gradually absorbs the filler, which is also used to treat aching joints in overworked horses (I’m not making this up!), the effects only last for a year or so. It’s the prospect of road-side boob refill stations that I find particularly disturbing.
Look, but don’t touch
According to British writer Tony Parsons, fakies “are not there to be fondled, kissed or felt, they are there to be admired, discussed, lusted after and photographed. The moment they are touched [...] the spell is broken. And this is true of all fake breasts, no matter how much money has been spent on this act of female self-mutilation.” I guess it’s not altogether surprising that the part of a woman’s body that is most consistently adored, objectified and ogled by the majority of us heterosexual men would be turned into a commodity and consumer product.
In the past it was dead easy to spot fake breasts – any woman who appeared to be smuggling oranges, grapefruit or basketballs under her top was a guaranteed implantee. But the craft has improved substantially in recent times, and distinguishing fakes from the real thing is becoming more difficult. In the absence of a conclusive hands-on test, and if you’re not willing to risk a slap in the face for asking straight out, curious onlookers, like naturalists of old, have to resort to careful visual observation. To this end, the friendly folks at Howcast and Playboy have provided us with this educational video: How to Tell Real Breasts from Fake. Watch and learn.
Garbage! August 6, 2009
Posted by Andreas in Environment, Film screening, Sustainable Living, activism.add a comment
Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home, a feature documentary about the environmental impact of the huge amount of rubbish we produce in our households every day, will be shown at the Labia on Orange cinema in Cape Town on Sunday 16 August at 6:15pm, on Monday 17 August at 8:30pm and on Tuesday 18 August at 8:30pm.
Concerned for the future of his new baby boy Sebastian, writer and director Andrew Nisker takes an average urban family, the McDonalds, and asks them to keep every scrap of garbage that they create for three months. From the plastic bags they use to the water they drink out of bottles, from the air pollution they create when transporting the kids around to using lights at Christmas, the McDonalds discover that for every action there is a reaction that affects them and the entire planet.
“Household waste is a huge factor in the degradation of our environment. There is an unspoken and ongoing acceptance of extraneous packaging, for instance, mostly in the name of branding, resulting in tons and tons of garbage that we really can do without and this is visually portrayed in the film,” Nisker explains.
“Society is tired of waiting for slow moving politicians and corporations to implement change, but the truth is we don’t need to wait. From the bottom up, the time has come to change our own worlds starting at home and to send a message to the polluters that we have all chosen a green path. Viewing Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home empowers audiences to make those changes, now, by making simple lifestyle choices,” says Nisker.
Everyday life under a microscope has never been so revealing. By the end of this trashy odyssey, you are truly inspired to revolutionise your lifestyle for the sake of future generations.
The screenings will be followed by a facilitated audience discussion. Tickets are R20 and can be reserved by calling The Labia at 021 424 5927. Reserving tickets is strongly recommended to avoid disappointment.
This event is presented by The Labia and While You Were Sleeping, a Cape Town-based non-profit film collective committed to bringing progressive, non-mainstream documentaries with important social and environmental messages to South African audiences.
Contacts:
021 424 5927
While You Were Sleeping:
Andreas Späth
084 772 1056
Andreas_Spath@yahoo.com
Book Review: The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen July 22, 2009
Posted by Andreas in Book Reviews, Environment, Gardening, Organic Food, Sustainable Living, Urban Agriculture.2 comments
This is a very accessible book for anyone who wants to start to be more self-sufficient in their home. It’s inspirational and covers a lot of ground from growing and preserving your own food, cleaning your house, saving water and electricity and more, all in an environmentally sustainable way, without going into too much detail, which makes it a good starting point for beginners like myself.
The book is not particularly well edited – typos et al abound – but makes up for it by providing a lot of useful information and a very nice resource section at the end. The authors’ approach is largely DIY with an emphasis on keeping things cheap and simple. A great little book.
Beyond Elections documentary screening July 9, 2009
Posted by Andreas in Cape Town, Film screening, Politics, Society, activism, anarchism.add a comment
While You Were Sleeping, the non-profit film collective I’m involved in, is showing a great movie about participatory democracy in action at the old Labia cinema on Orange Street on July19, 20 and 21.
