The accidental sexist
Posted by johandp in Uncategorized on 19/10/2015
Recently I ran into a woman I met a few months ago. When I saw her I remembered she was the girlfriend of a man I had met on the same occasion. “Oh, you’re Damien’s girl,” I said immediately. I realised then my brain, despite my rational and reasonable nature, is wired for sexism.
It is peculiarly sexist that the single most important fact I could remember about this girl was that she was somehow connected to a man. My very language implied that he owned and controlled her. It would probably exaggerated to say that this implied that she had no separate existence. But it would not be a gross exaggeration.
I always find it interesting to observe how my brain does not work they I would envision it to work. I am a white heterosexual male, endowed with male white cisgender privilege. The unconscious pathways of my brain were formed in the soup of this privilege. It will take time and deliberate conscious effort to rewire them. In the mean time, feminists (and I consider myself one, despite my sexist brain), be patient with me.
Saffa in Japan – Part 4
Posted by johandp in Uncategorized on 06/04/2015
(This is part four of a series of posts about my impressions of Japan. Please forgive any generalisations, inaccuracies and the taint of a mindset unaccustomed to the East)
Gratuitous picture of Ramen to prove I did actually go to Japan
This post is an assortment of some of the more interesting things I encountered during my visit to Tokyo and some of the surrounding areas. Look out for strange English translations, museums with parasites, street music, and people who just give you pens.
Saffa in Japan – Part 3
(This is part three of a series of posts about my impressions of Japan. Please forgive any generalisations, inaccuracies and the taint of a mindset unaccustomed to the East)
Cherry blossoms in yoyogi park
This post is loosely concerned with food and socialising in Japan. Cherry blossoms, sushi, cats, apples, bars, and more, including pictures.
Saffa in Japan – Part 2
Posted by johandp in Uncategorized on 29/03/2015
(This is part one of a series of posts about my impressions of Japan. Please forgive any generalisations, inaccuracies and the taint of a mindset unaccustomed to the East)
In my previous post I expressed great admiration for the culture of service and deference in Japan. However, not everything in Japan is amazing. The efficiency (things are really efficient here) and orderliness come at a cost and Japan has a darker side.
Saffa in Japan – Part 1
Just some amazing sushi, served with the utmost humility.
(This is part one of a series of posts about my impressions of Japan. Please forgive any generalisations, inaccuracies and the taint of a mindset unaccustomed to the East)
I am currently in Tokyo and perhaps one of the strangest experiences I’ve had is being thanked and greeted, in unison, by all the waiters when I left a restaurant. It was as if the king and his retinue had just visited. This is not uncommon, apparently. The last customers to leave a store are often bowed to, I’m told, and it’s a distinctly unpleasant experience for a Western mindset.
Are car guards a form of charity?
In South Africa we have an interesting phenomenon: car guards. These are people who stand in parking lots and parking spaces generally, typically wearing a neon vest, “looking after” your car. Typically they receive (at least part of their) income as donations from the motorists whose cars they have kept safe. I have encountered car guards for years and I realised I actually know little about them.
I suspect international readers may find this concept hard to understand and I refer you to this comical video by a South African comedy duo. Despite the comedic element, the portrayal is fairly accurate. As in this video, car guards are almost always male, but unlike in the video, they are also almost always black.
Many car guards are hired by the owners of the premises. I am not sure of how much protection they actually provide. I have never heard of a car guard actually stopping or attempting to stop a theft. That does not mean, however, that car guards do not prevent attempts – like visible policing they may make thefts less likely. For the most part, however, their role seems to be to help motorists get into and out of tricky parking spots. These men are not security guards – they are not armed and I suspect most are not trained to deal with proper criminals.
Many “car guards”, I suspect, take advantage of the fact that anyone with a neon vest has a legitimate claim as guarding any otherwise unattended parking facility. Car guards have become so ingrained in daily lives that we hardly even think about paying them. Much like providing a tip to a waitron, it has been customary and we feel guilty if we shirk this duty.
In so far as car guards are not actually providing a useful service, they effectively represent a form of charity, a means of creating employment not unlike asking people to dig holes and fill them up again. This is probably not entirely fair and we must consider that South Africa sits with a glut of unskilled labour that is not being put to productive use (our youth unemployment rate is notoriously high). Car guards represent one way of giving an income, one that is earned, at least in some measure, to a portion of our unskilled labour force.
The question of whether this is good or bad is moot. It is certainly better than having a larger supply of beggars. The fact that this country has no better way of employing much of its population is the problem. It’s also probably true that the South African public has come to expect car guards: we want them there.
I leave you with some questions. If you have something to say about any of them, please leave a comment:
- Do you know of any research on whether car guards do reduce car thefts?
- Do you feel safer with a car guard nearby?
- Have you heard of a car guard preventing a theft?
- How do you feel about paying car guards?
- Do you think there are more “productive” means employing a larger part of our population?
The wonder of not exercising for your health
I have been using Strava for only a few weeks and already I feel that it has changed how I feel about exercise (it remains to be seen if this change is permanent). The instant availability of my speed and distance have a strangely motivating factor about them. I used to run for exercise (it was a chore). Now I run to improve my speed or distance – it’s even (just a teeny tiny bit) exciting.
A strava themed meme (generated by the author at memegenerator.net)
Real meat pollution
“What if you could turn it all around? Lose weight, regain the ridiculous energy levels of your youth [….] How about if you could do that while still eating really well? You know… all the good stuff […] juicy steak, eggs pretty much any way you like them, roast chicken, heavenly bacon and more?” – The Real Meal Revolution
The above is a quote from a suddenly popular book, The real meal revolution, which proposes that people should follow the Banting (low carb, high fat) diet for weight loss and health (it is essentially a paleo-style diet as I understand it). In two previous posts I considered, respectively, healthy eating and ethical eating. One of my problems with these new-fangled diets, in my opinion, is that they make it much harder to do something I find to be an ethical imperative: eat less meat.
Food wars (Part 2)
In a previous post I briefly discussed the difficulties of trying to eat healthily with all the pseudo-scientific claims about what is healthy. The topic of food ethics is, perhaps, even more convoluted. Vegetarians, vegans and environmentalists all have a view. There is Fair Trade and non-GMO (Monsanto is evil, apparently). With all this clamour there are so few unambiguous truths and I feel I would need several PhDs and two lifetimes to be able to sift through it all.
Meditations of Lambchop 