​for men everywhere …

Stop! Listen! Think! Act!

Stop!

Stop the abuse!

Of grand-daughters,

colleagues,

daughters,

girlfriends,

partners,

mothers,

sisters,

nieces,

wives,

all women.

Listen!

Listen to the voices!

Of grand-daughters,

colleagues,

daughters,

girlfriends,

partners,

mothers,

sisters,

nieces,

wives,

all women.

Think!

Think of how you treat,

grand-daughters,

colleagues,

daughters,

girlfriends,

partners,

mothers,

sisters,

nieces,

wives,

all women.

Act!

Act now to change yourself!

Stop! Listen! Think! Act!

The violence,

the abuse,

the rape,

stops when you stop,

the violence,

the abuse,

the rape.

Stop! Listen! Think! Act!

The violence,

the abuse,

the rape,

is perpetrated by,

grand-fathers,

colleagues,

boyfriends,

husbands,

nephews,

brothers,

partners,

fathers,

uncles,

men,

all men.

Stop! Listen! Think! Act!

The violence,

the abuse,

the rape,

stops when us men stop,

The violence,

the abuse,

the rape,

today, now.

Stop! Listen! Think! Act!

on apathy: “I don’t Care”

I Don’t Care

I don’t care,
if you’re battered black and blue,

I don’t care,
just as long as I can drink and screw.

I don’t care,
if you’ve lost your damn job,

I don’t care,
you’re just a kernel off the cob.

I don’t care,
when I see you begging in the street,

I don’t care,
I get to suckle on capitalism’s raw teat.

I don’t care,
about the elderly, the poor, or the weak,

I don’t care,
if the earth will be inherited by the meek.

I don’t care,
if the climate is warming, I’m so much cooler,

I don’t care,
in my penthouse I’m the boss, the only ruler.

I don’t care,
for those rolling for scraps in the muck,

I don’t care,

I really don’t care, cos’ I don’t give a fuck.

inspired by Bob Geldof’s “The Great Song of Indifference”

H O P E

there’s always hope, I suppose,

so I still cling onto it,

a wishful hope perhaps,

that there will come a day,

when,

those who profess to believe in a higher being,

an almighty, or many,

will listen to what the tenets of the myriad creeds of the ‘almighties’ to whom they pray each day,

say.

Yup, a vain hope it may be indeed,

that these holier-than-thou ‘believers’ would,

or could,

for maybe just a little while,

shut the hell up?

and actually listen,

to those humane tenets that we are told are present in every creed,

and maybe then,

if they shut the heavens up for a bit longer,

they may actually,

really,

for once,

to all those glorious words,

pay some heed.

Ps: I mean if one claims to be a ‘fundamentalist’, it follows that its obligatory to follow the ‘fundamentals’, erm like let’s take this really, really ancient one as an example:

“Thou Shalt Not Kill”

Yup.

That would be a good start

peace | love | uBuntu

For Men Everywhere (One Billion Rising)

…

1 Billion Rising.

For Men Everywhere.

Stop! Listen! Think! Act!

Stop!

Stop the abuse!

Of grand-daughters,
colleagues,
daughters,
girlfriends,
partners,
mothers,
sisters,
nieces,
wives,

all women.

Listen!

Listen to the voices!

Of grand-daughters,
colleagues,
daughters,
girlfriends,
partners,
mothers,
sisters,
nieces,
wives,

all women.

Think!

Think of how you treat,

grand-daughters,
colleagues,
daughters,
girlfriends,
partners,
mothers,
sisters,
nieces,
wives,

all women.

Act!

Act now to change yourself!

Stop! Listen! Think! Act!

The violence,
the abuse,
the rape,

stops when you stop,

the violence,
the abuse,
the rape.

Stop! Listen! Think! Act!

The violence,
the abuse,
the rape,

is perpetrated by,

grand-fathers,
colleagues,
boyfriends,
husbands,
nephews,
brothers,
partners,
fathers,
uncles,

men,

all men.

Stop! Listen! Think! Act!

The violence,
the abuse,
the rape,

stops when us men stop,

The violence,
the abuse,
the rape,

today, now.

Stop! Listen! Think! Act!

…

One Billion Rising

…

Today we rise.

No more hiding in the shadows,

of culture,
creed,
tradition.

No more silent complicity,

defensive arguments,
sickening pretences,
shabby excuses,

for the actions of men,

brutal and coarse and vulgar and obscene and murderous and abusive.

Today, we rise,

as one.

Today the change starts,

with me,
within me.

Today we rise.

…

Hamba Kahle* Anene Booysen (1996 – 2013)

 

I am reposting this today, the day Anene Booysen will be laid to rest after being brutally raped and murdered.

The funeral service is taking place at the Dutch Reformed Church in Bredasdorp**, Anene’s hometown.

 

Hamba Kahle*, Anene.

 

Hamba Kahle Anene Booysen! (1996 – 2013)

 

Dead at 17, brutally raped and left to die,
in the dirt,

 

at a construction site in Bredasdorp.

 

‘horrific’, ‘repulsed’,
‘brutally raped’, ‘shocked’,

 

do these words mean anything,
to anyone,

anymore.

 

Not to Anene Booysen,

 

murdered at 17, brutally raped and left to die,

in the dirt,

 

at a construction site in Bredasdorp.

 

Anene was raped,
savagely mutilated,

 

Her 17 year old body tossed aside,

 

by the hands of men.

 

Men, always men,

 

cowardly, beastly, perverted, twisted men.

 

‘Beastly’, ‘perverted’, ‘twisted’,

 

do these words mean anything,
to anyone,

anymore.

 

Not to Anene Booysen,

 

who now lies cold and dead.

 

How many Anene Booysens will it take,

 

for us,
society,
families,
people,

 

human-beings,

 

and,

 

men, especially men,

 

to excise the ghastly menace,

 

of the heinous capacity that resides,

 

within men,

 

always men,

 

to brutalise, rape, mutilate, and murder.

 

‘Brutalise’, ‘murder’, ‘rape’,

 

do these words mean anything,
to anyone,

anymore.

 

Not to Anene Booysen,

 

murdered at 17, brutally raped and left,

 

to die,

 

in the dirt,

 

at a construction site,

 

in Bredasdorp.

 

 

Anene Booysen
(1996 – 2013)

 

* – Hamba Kahle – “Farewell, Travel Well” in Zulu

 

** – Bredasdorp is a small town near Cape Town, South Africa

 

 

Anene Booysen (1996 – 2013)

 

Anene Booysen
(1996 – 2013).

 

Dead at 17, brutally raped and left to die,
in the dirt,

 

at a construction site in Bredasdorp*.

 

‘horrific’, ‘repulsed’,
‘brutally raped’, ‘shocked’,

 

do these words mean anything,
to anyone,

anymore.

 

Not to Anene Booysen,

 

murdered at 17, brutally raped and left to die,

in the dirt,

 

at a construction site in Bredasdorp.

 

Anene was raped,
savagely mutilated,

 

Her 17 year old body tossed aside,

 

by the hands of men.

 

Men, always men,

 

cowardly, beastly, perverted, twisted men.

 

‘Beastly’, ‘perverted’, ‘twisted’,

 

do these words mean anything,
to anyone,

anymore.

 

Not to Anene Booysen,

 

who now lies cold and dead.

 

How many Anene Booysens will it take,

 

for us,
society,
families,
people,

 

human-beings,

 

and,

 

men, especially men,

 

to excise the ghastly menace,

 

of the heinous capacity that resides,

 

within men,

 

always men,

 

to brutalise, rape, mutilate, and murder.

 

‘Brutalise’, ‘murder’, ‘rape’,

 

do these words mean anything,
to anyone,

anymore.

 

Not to Anene Booysen,

 

murdered at 17, brutally raped and left,

 

to die,

 

in the dirt,

 

at a construction site,

 

in Bredasdorp.

 

 

Anene Booysen
(1996 – 2013)

 

* – Bredasdorp is a small town near Cape Town, South Africa

 

 

Violence against Women

(the following had to be written. the savage gang-rape in Delhi, India screams at our collective complicity by our silence and by our inaction)

MAN,
cowardly, brutal,
puffed-up on conceit,
self-assuredly bigoted,
as dead as stone,
stripped of all humaneness,
down to the bone.

MAN,
you kill, molest,
you batter, and you smile,
you smile,
when you hear the bones, the lives, the dignity shatter.

MAN,
you lie, humiliate,
You rape, and you laugh as a complicit society condones your escape.

MAN,
you have escaped,
too many times to say,

‘Man’,
that means you too, brother,
and you too father,
son, lover, singer, farmer, poet, thief, doctor, chef, engineer and the rest of you polite people,

you and your wretched array.

MAN,
stand up and stop the abuse now!

MAN,
your shameful hands need cleansing,

your soiled conscience is reeking,

of your manliness.

MAN,
stand up and stop the abuse!

MAN,
stand up! speak! Act,

for once,
put your testosterone to less harmful use,

lest your dwindlng humanity to the gutter,

you are prepared,

to forever lose