Soonamai Desai

I have been reading the (unpublished) memoirs of Soonamai Desai, a Gujarati lady who lived to be 100. She died in 1983 and the memoirs speak of both her public and her private life. She was the first woman corporator in Navsari and travelled widely. I have been intrigued by her life and also by her description of social life in general, the difference between the India she grew up in and the one she died in, and the way in which her story ties up with 'standard' history.

For example, she speaks of meeting Madam Cama in Paris and of how the lady had made arrangements for what should be done if she died there as she expected to since at the time she doubted that the British would give her permission to return either to England or to India because of her Nationalist activities. As it turned out, the British did allow Madam Cama to return to her homeland and she died on Indian soil but I hadn't known anything at all about the French funeral arrangements. In fact, I didn't know that they had existed at all.

What I found particularly touching though weren't her memories but her description of growing old. She said that in old age, the respect and admiration of one's acquaintances give way to their mockery and to a 'don't care attitude'. After all what can the old actually do? They become dependent on others and are therefore helpless. To understand the lot of the old, one has to be old -- to understand how desolate they can be as all their contemporaries pass away and they have no one to turn to. She ended by saying, "So now my life is not only in its evening -- it is decidedly night and as I look back, with a few blinding spots which have hit me hard enough to make my head reel; life, fate, destiny -- call it what you will -- has been good to me and it is in this mood that I await the coming of a stage of life called death but which could be but another phase of life with some impatience and great curiosity."

Non Violent Rape = Being Forcefed Chocolate Cake

Nick Erikson who was to stand for election to the London Assembly representing the British National Party wrote in his notorious rightwing blog:

"I’ve never understood why so many men have allowed themselves to be brainwashed by the feminazi myth machine into believing that rape is such a serious crime.

Rape is simply sex (I am talking about 'husband-rape' here, for those who deliberately seek to misunderstand me). Women enjoy sex, so this type of 'rape' cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal. To suggest that rape, when conducted without violence, is a serious crime is like suggesting that force feeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous offence. A woman would be more inconvenienced by having her handbag snatched. ... Again, for those who are seeking to cause trouble by deliberately misunderstanding me: yes, violent rape by a stranger in the street is a terrible crime, but I am not talking about that -- I am talking about 'husband-rape'.

The demonisation of rape is all part of the feminazi desire to obtain power and mastery over men. Men who go along with the rape myth are either morons or traitors."

This is what the same politician had to say about domestic violence:

"Take domestic violence for instance. The truth is that Home Office figures have shown that there is an equal amount of violence perpetrated by men and by women, but the feminist media keep repeating the myth that virtually all domestic violence is men attacking women. The Sun has recently launched a campaign against domestic violence - just another excuse by its female editrix, Rebekah Kemp (nee Wade), to vilify men.

But now the full ugliness of Rebekah's misandry has - it seems - been revealed. She has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting her husband (the actor Ross Kemp)! Eventually released without charge - remember that the police are also committed to the feminist agenda - Rebekah has been keeping very quiet about this incident. It was Noel Coward who said that "some women are like gongs - they need to be struck regularly". It would seem that the editor of the Sun fits this description perfectly! Come on Ross, let's see if you're as tough as your on-screen persona - give your wife a good slap!

As an aside, unprovoked male violence against females is, in fact, extremely rare. The vast majority of domestic disputes are initiated by the woman. What often then happens is that the man defends himself and the woman, being generally smaller and weaker, comes off worst. She then calls the police and the man is arrested and convicted, even though he is the innocent party who was merely acting in self-defence!"

I don't even know how to respond to this.

Sources:
[1] thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-23470426-details/Women+more+troubled+by+bag+theft+than+rape,+BNP+candidate+claims/article.do
[2] salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/04/02/brits/
[3] reddit.com/info/6ef6d/comments/

MP v. Pilot

I was just reading about a row between a member of Parliament, Abdul Wahab, and the captain of an Indian airplane, Rajat Rana.

I have no idea of what the rights and wrongs of the situation are. Considering that we spend much of our time engaged in unrestrained sycophancy, I find interesting that in the comments in response to this story on the Times of India website, not one person seemed to support the MP. The one commenter who said that the pilot was in the wrong said:

vijayamohan,coimbatore,says: The pilot’s action was totally unjustified. His writ runs only while the plane is airborne. Technically, the correct procedure would be to offload the MP in midflight (preferrably without a parachute)

[9 Apr, 2008 1213hrs IST]

The MP’s side of the story:

“I arrived at the airport well ahead of the schedule departure of the flight at 8.55 am. But the flight which was coming from Doha was delayed. Around 9 am, the duty manager escorted me and my wife to the aircraft. Mr Rana who was waiting at the ladder shouted at the manager for delaying the flight, alleging he was bringing in passengers late. His anger wouldn’t ebb even after I had taken my seat inside the plane. … It was at this point I decided to intervene. Mr Rana then told me it was none of my business. I replied he was only a glorified driver and shouldn’t equate himself with a people’s representative. He became furious and called up the duty manager to get me off the plane. As I didn’t want to cause any inconvenience to co-passengers, I decided to get down.”

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/MP_offloaded_from_plane/articleshow/2936142.cms
(As far as I know, the pilot hasn’t made a public statement. And, incidentally, as someone pointed out, the pilot would have had to shout to be heard over the engine noise.)