BBC 1Xtra has done a documentary of the short but spectacular rise of Kwaito.
Listen to it here. To go to the web page go here.
Monday, June 19, 2006
A Kwaito history
Baked beans en cocaine
Just found this rather nice Boerepunk (Boerpunk) music video on YouTube.
They are Rokkeloos (meaning dressless - and a clever-ish Afrikaans pun on reckless). In this video Rokkeloos definitely do wear trousers and skirts (and bikini tops). Apparently they are a bunch of (rather angry) gals from Tswane. Me thinks they are a bunch of control freaks because they don't allow embedding of their video on Mhambi! Agenee! Give it up sistas.
Rokkeloos seem to be on the same nihilist wavelength of that other Afrikaans band du jour, Fokofpolisiekar, and Mhambi thinks they might just be better. In this song they sing that "dreams smell like baked beans and cocaine".
This is what the Mail and Guardian has to say about them.
Over-opinionated, still working in restaurants, living on rice and baked beans, going through a permanent “sexual phase” and partying hard, these four also come across quite raunchy. They mention their celebrity groupies: Paul Riekert (who produced their CD) and Chris Chameleon (who shags the lead singer). They call themselves female chauvinists and don’t tolerate victimised women or men who treat them nice to get something out of them. They have a serious attitude, even though their lead singer is called Prinses Petro.
Rokkeloos’s album is called Nooiens-vaart. The songs certainly have the most original sound of the three bands. Johannes Kerkorrel-like riffs result in a previously unheard genre -- kwela punk. Since they sing in Afrikaans they probably won’t make it on to the airwaves. You have to like them for their humour -- they mention “klippies en cocaine” and sing: “Ek hou van melktert ... brandewyn ... skaapbraai ... en hard naai [I like milktart ... brandy ... sheep braai ... and fucking hard].”
Read an interview with them in Afrikaans by the inimitable Watkykjy.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Argentina makes BBC's virtual reality Messi
It seems the incredible second Argentine goal that featured 21 passes is a bit too much for the BBC's virtual replay application.
On loading the goal - click on Goal by Estaban Cambiasso - the Shockwave app starts to load the textures and animations, but then it gives an error, not enough memmory for sprites.
Argentina patiently strung together 21 passes before Juan Roman Riquelme fed Saviola who slipped a pass inside for Cambiasso. Cambiasso knocked the ball into Crespo who backheeled a return pass into the Inter midfielder who thumped the ball home from 12 yards.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Kak duidelik says it loud and clear
When somebody says it better, in fact when they say it kak duidelik, then its better to defer to their superior eloquence. I have to defer to the kak duidelik blog on the matter of football:
The World Cup started with a moerse BANG on friday!! Germany with a win over Costa Rica, 4-2. A befokte goal from Torsten Frings!!!! Maybe, kykie possibly, the goal of the World Cup 2006.
Kykie, it was a mal goal, but I hope there are going to be better ones… after the first match, its been a let down so far. England’s match was NWATTA!! Straight up!!
England’s match was NWATTA!! Straight up!!
That ref was blowing for absolute kak… kykie, I dunno if it was because Crouch was too tall or what. Then someone told me that referees are old ex soccer players, that couldn’t make it to the big stage. So I’m thinking, this bra was naar, cos someone wysed him he couldn’t play… COS HE’S TOO SHORT!!! Now he took it out on Crouch, cos that bra is kaaaaaaaaaaaaak tall. I can’t put a picture of Crouch on my site, it’ll take too lonnggggg to download ek se…
Anyways, today Australia is playing against Japan. I recon Japan should win (maybe its cos I don’t gran the ossies). USA up against the Czech. And then… Italy VS Ghana… not sure who will win there… ofcourse Italy is going to win!
Anyways, ek hoep Eskom don’t catch on kak today, I know there’s an article saying that they won’t cut us off, but its Eskom we talking about.
Read more of this kak here.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
South African violence: Is it out of control?
South Africans, white and Asian ones in particular - and I have to include myself - do seem to be hysterical about the massive levels of violent crime in the country. But an article online has given me hope.
In the past I have staunchly defended South Africa's crime situation. Stating as an example that my whole family is there and touch wood, nothing has happened to them.
But recently I have come to see the problem as so large and intractable as to threaten the young democracy itself. And the despair is increased by the perception that crime is getting even worse.
Anecdotally it does seem to be the case of late. Apart from all the well publicised murders in recent months, in one month during my last visit my uncle was robbed at gunpoint, my sisters husbands father was severely assaulted (he was commotose for a few days) on his agricultural small holding, a fugitive policeman's car went up in flames in front of me on the highway from Jhb to Bloemfontein and a friend's brother was shot dead in an liquor store in Cape Town. It has been increasingly hard to convince myself that I was just unlucky.
But a very illuminating article in the Mail and Guardian and the comments of Anthony Altbeker, crime expert, researcher linked to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria and author of The Dirty Work of Democracy: A Year on the Streets with the SAPS, has forced me to put on hold these creaping doubts.
Altbeker says that although most South African crime statistics is unreliable, two, murder and car hijackings, are reliable.
"Police cannot refuse to record a murder for obvious reasons. And then there is also a body to account for." The other concerns car theft and carjacking. "These tend to be well reported for insurance purposes."
This one has to say, makes sense. And here is the good news:
"Both murder and carjacking rates have declined over the past years. Last year's count of carjackings was 12 434, according to the SAPS; in 2002/03 it was 14 691. Murders totaled 18 793 in 2004/05, with 21 553 two years prior to that. The number of reported incidences of murder and attempted murder is considerably lower than just after the birth of democracy in South Africa in 1994."
But the crime has been redistributed. Whitey South Africans undoubtedly now experience more of it. But he says: "If you ask me whether white people are more often the target of crime than 10 years ago, I'd say absolutely... But if you ask me if they are more targeted than five years ago, I'm not so certain. There has been a redistribution of violence after the end of apartheid. But it is not just whiteys that express more fear, it is everybody."
Even now "Murder rates of white people are two-thirds lower than the national average."
The crime levels black South Africans exprerience is astounding, and to read an account of it go here.
Altbeker goes on to say why he thinks crime is falling, one of the reasons being that the generation that grew up during the 80's and early 90's (Township) War is getting older.
"September 1990 went down in the books as the most violent month in South African history. Now, 15 years after that worst apartheid violence, we live in a more stable society where people have learned habits of self-control."
Mmm... and now I feel a bit ashamed for doubting in the South African dream. I was an investigator of the Truth and Recociliation Commission. I investigated a massacre that took place on 4 September 1990. 42 township residents were slaughtered during the night. Most of them by a marauding Zulu militia. Later it turned out their weapons were supplied by the security branch of the police, and the investigation into the killings intentionally botched by the police.
If indeed the gereration of the Township War is partly to blame for South Africa's violence, it is incumbant for us to sit this out and hold our critical fire. We are partly responsible.
Just hope your not one of the unlucky ones. Sphere: Related Content
Sunday, June 04, 2006
China defends its Africa policy
A top Chinese diplomat has vigorously defended his country's growing economic involvement in Africa, including close trade links with Zimbabwe and Sudan.
The charge d'affaires at China's South Africa embassy, Zhou Yuxiao, said China was just protecting its own interests.
Its policy of non-interference in the affairs of others has nothing to do with its need to import oil, he added.
Read a BBC report on this here. Sphere: Related Content
Saturday, June 03, 2006
I signed the Euston manifesto
I signed this manifesto that calls for the renewal of the left. And it is with this text that I signed it.
I would have liked for a shift in emphasis here or there. The scant reference to the massive environmental challenge we face and the possibility of this truly global issue to help us mobilise and transcend national interest, being my main gripe. But essentially this is a wonderful document. It practically resonates globally and locally. As a South African its a rallying cry for the left in South Africa and Africa to follow the lead of Cosatu and meaningfully oppose the oppressive Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe and other even more oppressive African regimes. Also to stand up for women's, immigrants and gay rights in the face of an deadly assault from ultra conservative governments, vigilantes and religions (both Christian and Muslim) in Africa. As usual the best remedy is development. In a global economy is it not time we stop calling government contributions to the third world 'Aid' instead of progressive global taxation? And the sooner as that other trendy left debate, blaming it all on corporations, shifts to its focus onto the real issue, the selfishness of the all powerful developed country consumers/ citizens, the better.
Read the Euston Manifesto here.
Euston Manifesto Sphere: Related Content
Friday, June 02, 2006
South Africa still very unequeal despite recent good growth
Neva Makgetla, a Congress of South African Trade Unions economist, on the latest poverty figures in SA.
In 2004 — the latest data available — 70% of all households lived on less than $2 per person per day. Half of all households spent under R800 a month, or just over half the poverty line. Still, 2004 showed a very modest improvement compared with 2002. In 2002, 75% of households lived on less than the poverty line, and 60% of households spent less than R800 a month.
The available data suggest that the current growth spurt has done virtually nothing to support greater equality in earned income. In 2005, again using Labour Force Survey data, the poorest 50% of employed people got about 12% of income. In contrast, the richest 5% enjoyed 42%. These figures remained virtually unchanged from 2002.
The data do not permit reliable estimates of income distribution between households. Obviously, given high unemployment, the figures would be more inequitable than for earned income. Still, a slight drop in unemployment and the extension of social grants may have helped.
Unemployment fell very slightly between 2002 and last year — from 42% to 38%, using the broad definition that includes everyone who wants paid work but does not have a job.
Social grants probably played a stronger role in alleviating poverty. In 2002, about 25% of households living under the poverty line subsisted mainly on social grants, with 15% surviving on remittances from relatives and the rest from earned income.
In contrast, in 2004, 30% of those living under the poverty line said social grants were their main source of income, with more or less the same share living on remittances. The percentage reporting that most of their income came from earnings had declined, underscoring the inadequacies of job creation despite growth.
While overall inequalities have remained little changed, there has been a substantial expansion in the share of black people in the high-income group. In 1996, only about one in seven of the richest 10% of income earners was African. In 2005, the African share had almost doubled to just under a third.
Most of the increase in the African share in the high-income group resulted from the promotion of Africans in the public sector, which also increased its share in the high-income group overall. The share of Africans in the public sector in the top 10% of income earners rose from a third to half, while the share of the public sector as a whole in the best-paid 10% rose from 29% to 33%.
Read it all here.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Xenophobic attacks in Plettenberg Bay
Violent attacks by South Africans against foreigners in Plettenberg Bay emanated from a march that took place on Tuesday, Western Cape police said on Friday.
"According to the information police received, individuals in the community demonstrated their dissatisfaction regarding foreigners taking job opportunities from them," said Captain Malcolm Pojie.
He said locals marched to the Plettenberg Bay municipality to complain about business and job opportunities they claim were taken by foreigners on Tuesday.
Later that evening in Qolweni informal settlement, the locals gathered and started ransacking and assaulting foreigners who were believed to be from Somalia.
A special investigation team was established and police were deployed in the area to sustain public order over the weekend.
More than 40 people were arrested when they gathered outside KwaNokuthula township.
The foreigners say the violence against them is taking place in all the towns in the southern Cape.
Plettenberg bay
Word on the street is that at least 13 foreigners have been killed since last Monday. But police say they are currently only investigating one murder after the body of an unknown man was found. Police say these reports can only be regarded as rumours at this stage.
Charges of robbery, housebreaking and assault are being investigated against the group that was put in custody on Friday afternoon.
Large numbers of police officers from the surrounding towns have been deployed in Plettenberg Bay, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported. -- Sapa Sphere: Related Content
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Kwaito is too Western
According to the Financial times, the reason why there are few new South African stars in the international music world is that South African music has become too Western.
What went wrong with South African music? The unpalatable answer may be the elections of 1994. Apartheid gave South Africans something to sing about, and the cultural boycott, wrongheaded as it was, shielded musicians from the pressures of globalisation. As in any island ecology, diversity flourished. Today, too many sing from a western songbook, whether aping gangstas or serenading tourists.
I can't agree. In the article Kwaito is compared to rap. Kwaito is not akin to rap, although recent exponents of it, like Zola, have produced Kwaito which resembles it more. Kwaito has its roots firmly in music that has been around South African cities for decades.
Truth be told South African black music has been influenced by Western music for a long time, and their are few examples of Mali-like indigenous music. The South African music that made it world-wide in the 50's to 80's came from its cities, where it absorbed American influences like jazz and gospel.
Kwaito is a South African music genre which reflects its dynamic urban culture. It was not made for export. It is mass music genre for the young and energetic urban South African, and interestingly, it crosses South African colour lines. So while it might not appeal to the International market, it is more significant than its predecessors.
Read more here Sphere: Related Content
A startling takeover in Africa
From today's UK Guardian archive, a report on the annexation of the Transvaal:
A startling takeover in Africa
Thursday May 10, 1877
The Guardian
Prince Bismarck once spoke of England - somewhere about the time the Ionian islands were transferred to Greece - as a ceding Power, and therefore, wanting in one of the "notes" of true imperial vigour.
When a State ceases to annex and begins to surrender territory, it may be taken as certain, in the opinion of the German Chancellor, that it has passed its climacteric. Tried by this test, it cannot be said that the British Empire gives signs of decay.
...
There is a general feeling in this country that our responsibilities in South Africa are sufficiently onerous. It is not a mere question of annexing a slice of territory here or there. That could be a small matter; but with every mile we increase the burdens and risks which accompany dominion over savage or semi-savage races.
We are not in a position to pronounce a definite judgement. The situation in the Transvaal country had become deplorable. A chronic state of anarchy had set in. The Portuguese are reproached, and not without reason, with the marked deterioration which seems to overtake the national character whenever it is brought in contact with inferior races, as in Africa.
The Dutch appear to suffer in the same way. In Europe they are unsurpassed as representatives of the principle of order. In South Africa we see in their kinsmen a degree of lawlessness scarcely matched by any other community of European descent.
Read the full text here
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Does Rhodes's and the Afrikaners' dream end in the UK?
In a rather bleak article in the UK Observer "Cecil Rhodes's dream ends where it began - in Bishop's Stortford " Jason Cowley recently lamented the loss to Africa of its white population.
The article marks a break in the reporting of this center left paper group. It is the first time as far as I am aware that it or the Guardian has published an article talking of a violence induced white exodus from South Africa.
Mr. Cowley however does not talk about Afrikaners, those other whites that arrived 100 to 200 years before Rhodes and who do not see Rhodes representing them as a group. Are they also leaving? There is no breakdown of the UK immigration figures that make a distinction between Afrikaans and English white South Africans.
In London however its clear that their are many Afrikaners in the UK. While Putney and Wimbledon has been predominantly English South African for some time, now Walthamstow and Leytonestone is South African as well, but predominantly Afrikaans.
Historically Afrikaners were less educated, poorer, and more patriotic. They have no family ties in Europe (People are often amazed to hear that there are no real cultural links between the Afrikaners and the Dutch). Their language is only spoken in Southern Africa and Namibia.
South Africa's borders were drawn by Afrikaners, while trekking for independence from the British and safety. Everywhere they went in numbers became South Africa. And ironically their Apartheid policy united disparate black tribes.
Are they now leaving? And if so, what will South Africa be like without them? If South Africa was created by the Afrikaner quest for safety and a better life, would it make a difference if they sought it elsewhere? Sphere: Related Content
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Why do lesbians dress so badly?
...and gay boys look so great? Mmmmm....?
I'm talking on average of course. And ok, the average gay man is not a paragon of good taste and creative couture either. Anybody that has been to a gay club recently can attest to a near uniform and monotonous sea of muscle Maries, decked out with the same close hair crops, jeans, white t-shirts or pectorals.
But boy, the high level of self imposed body fascism to get those washboard stomachs *aer* evident.
But my contention still is that gay men do tend to spend more time on their appearance than the average bloke. AND the average lesbian does tend to spend less time and effort on theirs, than her straight gender-sake.
What could explain this phenomena? Are gay men more female like and lesbians more manly? That's just too crude an explanation.
This is my theory. (It does not take into account things like hormones etc but rather the social manifestations of human behavior.)
My theory is that the answer is tied up in male and female sexuality, what we desire and importantly what we need to do to be desired.
Straight male sexuality is all about desiring the other, the so-called sex object. It is often stated that male sexuality is visual and rather shallow. And that straight female sexuality is about being desired. For females it is said it is more about personalities and the emotional feelings their partner conjures.
Now when we have two males, they still desire like males do, their mate is the sex object, but they too are in turn also being desired and the sex object. The result is that both tend to spend allot of time on their appearance.
With lesbians it works the other way around. Being female, they do not desire a sex object. As a result neither needs to look at their best to get some attention.
This simple theory explains allot of things. For instance why you often see well kept females as partners with burly badly dressed men. This is why straight females openly say they find other females attractive, but their partners will be reluctant to admit the same of a male.
It also could explain why in swinger circles sexual activity revolves around the females. The gals can have other gals, and guys. But the guys can't be seen to be involved with other guys.
This is not because men are not bi-curious like allot of females seem to be. (Many young straight boys had some sexual encounters with their pals when they were out camping).
It is because for females male on male action severely threatens the way they as females see themselves sexually. Most straight women just don't find two men having sex sexy. Men don't go in homo territory in conversations with their female partners or when swinging for fear of not being sexy.
On the other hand they will freely admit that they find the idea of two girls together very titillating, and their girlfriends might nod approvingly.
This desiring of shallow physical beauty and the response to it could also partially explain why gay men have such promiscuous sex lives and multiple short relationships.
And this theory could explain on the other hand why lesbians tend to have more stable long term relationships.
Global warming: Adapt to a global solution or die
In today's UK Guardian Robert Macfarlane asserts that "Climate change is the most serious emergency the human race has faced".
It continues: "The consequences of a rise of 3C, described last week by the (UK) government's chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, as "likely", would be calamitous: a worldwide drop in cereal crops of between 20m and 400m tonnes, 400 million more people put at risk of hunger, and 3 billion people left at risk of flooding and without access to fresh water supplies."
In the article it is made clear how difficult it would be for a Tory leader, whose party is wedded to choice, deregulation and a free market, to push through the tough policy measures needed. "A strong countervailing governmental force is needed to work both against the business state and individual self interest."
Climate change "demands nothing less than a total restructuring of the human relationship with nature. In these senses it, it represents at once the greatest threat that the modern world has known and the greatest opportunity."
This echoes the words of superstar sociologist Manuel Castells, who in the second volume of his trilogy The information age put forward the idea that Green imperatives could provide a comeback for communal politics.
Not only will the stark choices push government internal policies away from the hegemony of current laizzes faire ideologies, but it will also force governments to work together with other goverments. In short, the need for global regulation may provides the platform for the first truly global political movement and even, dare I say it, global government. Without it life could get very nasty indeed. Sphere: Related Content
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
His big white self: Nick Broomfield becomes thoroughly part of the story
Nick Broomfield might not be aware of it, but His big white self his documentary on South African Eugene Terre'blanche and his Afrikaner Weerstands Beweging (AWB), follows a precedent established way back.
In 1834 The Spectator bemoaned the "maltreatment of the aborigines" and according to it, this had no equal in history. The Afrikaner colonists had a very bad press, starting at the turn on the nineteenth century by an account of the British traveler John Barow, and a few years later in a book by John Philip, a compatriot.
This bad press, together with the capture of the Cape by the British from the Afrikaner colonists, the abolishment of slavery, and the replacement of their language with English in public life and eventually in schools, lead to severe discontent. This discontent reached such a level that they decided to abandon their farms and move inland.
In His big white self it's very easy to see why Afrikaners could be regarded with contempt. I found myself shifting uncomfortably in my seat as ultra racists candidly and casually reveal their shocking ideologies.
The hard uncompromising barrage of racist rhetoric (YouTube clip) and violence is at times hard to bear. Mercifully the film shifts gear every now and then to light hearted and even warm exchanges.
Made in Broomfield's now distinctive style putting himself firmly in the movie, it is full of warm interactions between him and these very same racists. One suspects that most audiences will feel some disquiet at the obvious close rapport between Broomfield and the driver (JP) and his wife (Anita). In fact New labour's ex spin mystro Alistair Campbell said as much during a BBC Radio 4 interview.
His big white self is the follow up on Broomfields The Leader, the Driver and the drivers Wife. That movie was recently voted in the 13th best documentary of all time in the UK.
In this movie, Broomfield goes back to South Africa after 14 years. News is that the fascist AWB leader Eugene Terre'blanche, who had been serving a 6 year sentence for assault and attempted murder, and has been released from prison. Allegedly Terre'blanche is a changed man, has found God and writes poetry.
Unlike The Leader movie, where Broomfield browbeats his subjects and pokes fun at them, he wanted to get closer to Terre'blanche and understand what makes him tick. The problem for Broomfield is that because of their previous tempestuous relationship, Terre'blanche repeatedly rebuffs Broomfield's attempts to see him.
Once again he ends up spending most of his time with JP and Anita, who has since divorced. Both of them struggle to come to terms with the new South Africa. JP is deeply disillusioned with Terre'blanche. He says that he "feels like a race horse, trained for a race" but it never came. The "race" he talks of being a full scale war, a revolution to bring about a white - presumably Afrikaner, but lets keep it simple - homeland. This has left JP a broken man.
JP - making a bomb is as easy as pie...
Anita however is doing more to come to terms with the new realities, she works as a nurse in a predominantly black hospital. (Chances are of course that Anita has always worked in black hospitals.) But lets not complicate matters. She has had no massive conversion from her racist views. But she is pragmatic, says she has no choice and tries to make the best of it. Like their former leader - and too many of their fellow countrymen mind you - both of them seem to have found their solace in religion and the promise of paradise hereafter.
The movie has many good moments, none less so when Broomfield finally tricks Terre'blanche with an English gent disguise and gets into his house. He even persuades Terre'blanche to read him some of his poetry. The camera work is - if not cinematic - good, and it's once again clear that Broomfield has an excellent intuitive relationship with the camera operator Jane Churchill, who happens to be Broomfield's ex-wife.
Throughout the movie he presents a large segment of expositional back-story. At the time (1990 - 1991) of Broomfield filming The Leader movie, South Africa had already started its decent into its most bloody period since the second Anglo-Boer War. The so-called township war. This is a history in which the AWB played more than just a bit part. And all he came back with was a very amusing portrait of AWB buffoonery and Terre'blanche's ego.
It was very entertaining and illuminating none the less, and since he interacted so successfully with the characters then, made for entertaining TV and gave a fascinating insight into Eugene's enormous ego. It was Broomfield at what he does best.
In this movie however Broomfield attempts to sketch a contextual grand narrative for which he should be congratulated. No documentary has yet tried to portray the tumultuous last days of Apartheid.
"It's interesting how quickly a generation forgets," says Broomfield. "People might not understand where the seeds of apartheid were, how it all came about." Broomfield told the UK Guardian.
But when seeing the film it immediately becomes clear why this bigger picture story telling can be such treacherous ground. This section of the movie is hardly about the seeds of apartheid.
Broomfield's seeds of apartheid starts off somewhere in the 50's but the flick really picks up with a history of the period after Broomfield left South Africa in 1991. It's the time just after he finished The Leader movie. It's a tightly edited, tense, action packed journey using news footage, focusing on Terre'blanche and his AWB in the run up to the first multi-racial elections, up until his release from prison in 2004.
It includes blonde journalist Jani Allen's I'll fated court case against The Leader movie, where Broomfield suggested she and Terre'blanche were having an affair. Because of the ensuing litigation Terre'blanche bedroom life was laid bare and he lost support with his conservative base. And so Broomfield becomes even more thoroughly part of the story.
If Broomfield was guilty of ignoring the danger of the AWB in his previous movie, in this narrative he swings in the other direction. He wildly over-states the AWB's importance. The average non South African viewer watching this could be forgiven for the impression that the battle during the depth throws of apartheid, was between only the AWB and on the one side and the ANC on the other. The Vryheids Front, Constant Viljoen and FW De Klerk only get a nod.
But the role of Buthelezi's IFP, the security forces, the co-called third force, and the Zulu-AWB alliance does not, never mind the PAC and the rest.
If you are inclined to believe like Alistair Sparks and others that the battle in South Africa was between the rival visions of Afrikaner and African nationalism and not just race, then you to will find it unfulfilling. If you are like me an Afrikaner, you might feel aggrieved that Broomfield suggests incorrectly that there was a half a million force of race-crazed AWB members like in this movie, ready to fight. The AWB at his height had little more than 20,000 members.
You might also find it more than a mere mild oversight that he keeps mum about the British historical role in this mater. To Broomfield the seeds of apartheid are those that don't slip through his facile TV friendly filter.
The irony of it all is that Broomfield really likes JP and Anita. He says – although not in the movie - that they are very loving and caring and that South Africans "on both sides" are very passionate people. He says, that he finds it amazing that the Afrikaners that had such control on all the leavers of state and power could give it up like they did – but that's not in the movie either.
When questioned by myself at the London premier of His big white self about this assertion of 500,000 race demons from hell, Broomfield reposts that he is not wrong; he meant Viljoen's Vryheids Front and the AWB forces combined. But there is no escaping though that the implication in the movie is that there were 500,000 extremely rabid Afrikaners out there, without showing that Viljoen and his supporters were of a different ilk, and probably made up more that 80% of the support of parties to the right of the National party.
In order to keep things succinct and ratchet up the dramatic tension all of this is understandable, it's makes for good TV. Film is an extrmely reductive medium and operates best at the emotional and visual level. Afrikaner trailer trash is garanteed to provide excellent fodder.
In his interview with the UK Guardian he says "it is the feeling that the incidental stuff can be much more revealing than the big questions".
True, but he does not achieved that in this movie. While it's admirable that Broomfield's work shows the contradictions and textures and of even those with the most objectionable views, it does not illustrate what kind of social forces shape a society that have these people hanging around its fringes. It is easy entertaining filmaking, but illuminates very little.
Taking the mickey of the Eugene and his AWB is of course fine, they invite it. But as soon as Broomfield makes a wider point, he has a duty to be fair. He may be genuinely perplexed by anyone questioning him why he does at least not mention the British racism towards Afrikaners, cultural imperialism, wars, and concentration camps in his movie. But the throwaway line in His big white self that the local white school is still Afrikaans language, and not English, shows - especially to Afrikaners – a disregard for history and them. (British colonial authorities banned the use of Afrikaans in schools a second time after the second Anglo-Boer War).
Feminist and liberal writer, Olive Schreiner commented that for Afrikaners that left the Cape on their Great trek, the worst "was the cold indifference with which they were treated (by the English), that they were regarded as a subject and inferior race."
It is this perceived indifference to their plight that the violence and racism in this film is a most extreme result of. Not to allude to that at all and the notable efforts of Afrikaners that do not follow that route might be more succinct and easy, but is not only wrong, it makes the film part of the perceived onslaught on Afrikaners. Broomfield either did not do his research or did not care. Like salt to a snail, films like this encourages Afrikaners to pull back into their shell, oozing foam, all boorish but emminently filmable. This cycle is bound to repeat itself.
Tags: Nick Broomfield His big white self Documentary
Afrikaner
Monday, April 10, 2006
The music industry moves towards more sensible licensing for Podcasts
The Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society and the Performing Right Society in the UK has recently launched a licensing scheme for music podcasters.
The license will allow podcasters to include music from over 10,000 artists to be included in their podcasts. They do this by granting both the writer and publisher permissions that is necessary. (Most songs have two sets of rights vested in them. The rights in creating or writing a song, as well as the actual performance).
"The royalty rate for the scheme will be the greater of 12 per cent of gross revenue or the minimum fee per track downloaded as part of the podcast: full-track 1.5p; half-track (less than 50 per cent by duration) 0.75p."
I take that to mean that if you charge £10 for your podcast you would have to pay £1.20 in royalties. Or if you had 20 full tracks in this podcast, it would be 30p (1.5p * 20). So in this instance the £1.20 still would apply. If it was free podcast you would have to pay 30p.
If the fee you charge is small, say £1 then this amountum amount you would pay in royalties would be 12p. This an equivalent of 8 full tracks if your podcast is free.
Thus free podcasts will be hit by a very small licensing fee.
Under the scheme, where podcasters do not use digital rights management technology on their podcasts, they will have to comply with certain conditions.
They will be required to:
* obscure at least 10 seconds at the beginning and end of each individual track played in a podcast with speech or a station ID;
An annoyance since some music editing software would be required.
* deliver podcasts only in their entirety, not individual tracks or portions of a podcast;
Again, podcasters would stitchto stich the casts together using editing software.
* ensure that music constitutes no more than 80 per cent of the total length of any programme;
Verbal diarrhea encouraged then. Hopefully podcasters will ad this to the beginning or end of their sets.
* ensure that the podcast is at least 15 minutes in length; and
* take all reasonable steps to ensure that individual tracks within a podcast are not capable of being ripped and that metadata or other information or data transmitted or downloaded by the podcaster is not used to identify recordings for download from unauthorised databases or sites.
I presume that if the podcast is saved as one long audiofile all the individual tracks meta data will be lost anyway.
So not quite the free digital utopia. But a huge step in the right direction none the less. There are more general conditions.
All Podcasters will also be obliged not to:
* produce podcasts that contain recordings from a single artist or that have more than 30 per cent of the musical works written by the same composer or writing partnership;
* play any individual track more than once in any single programme;
* provide an electronic guide to the podcast which contains tracks played and corresponding times;
This is very annoying and stupid to boot, I can understand them wanting the time ommited - it makes it easy for pirates to find tracks and rip them; BUT track listings are very useful, especially if you want to search to buy a track or album. I cant remember the number of times I have listened to the BBC's Blue Room, copied and pasted the song info into Amazon and ordered an album.
* insert any flags or other markers in the podcast which may directly indicate or which may be used to indirectly infer the start and end point of tracks or segments of copyright content;
* incorporate repertoire works into advertising; or
* use the repertoire in such a way as may be taken to imply that any goods or services are endorsed, advertised or associated with the repertoire or any artist whose performance is contained on the repertoire or any other party who owns rights in connection with the repertoire.
Further cover is provided for podcasts that generate low levels of revenue and usage, by incorporating the medium into an update of its Limited Online Exploitation Licence (LOEL) - due to be launched in the second quarter of 2006. Royalty rates begin from £50 a quarter.
Apparently non-music podcasts (e.g. predominantly speech with very little music) will be licensed under a new on-demand scheme for non-music services which is being prepared for launch at the end of April 2006.
Lets hope there will also follow more sensible online download and streaming licenses for Film producers (especially documentary makers) that include copyrighted archive footage into their work. Sphere: Related Content
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