The D.I.Y Rape

Just as one was beginning to think that Japan had progressed from the Shogun era attitudes towards women, on cue: RapeLay. Released on April 21 2006 in Japan, RapeLay is a visually simulated computer game that makes it possible to stalk and rape Yuko and her two daughters Manaka and Aoi from the comfort of your room.
The story goes: you find a girl at the train station, fondle her publicly in the train and take her to the bathroom where you are free to do with her what you will. The next day you do the same with her mother but take her to the park where you publically force her to have sex with you and then do the same with her other daughter. You make them all your sex slaves where they are at your every command with baited breath. Points are awarded for violence, abuse and pretty much anything that makes the women suffer. Along with this you have the choice between sex positions such as reverse cowgirl, blowjobs and threesomes. Gory details include bloody penis and vagina, tears, violent screams and bonus points for forcing the women to get abortions. The option of internal ejaculation adds suspense to the pregnancy front of the game, but your semen landing place is once again, anywhere you please.
With different modes of playing, you can introduce different aspects to the game. For example five players or “5P” mode where you are restricted to one sexual position but share the rape of a girl with three other men. “Shippo” mode is where three or more girls can be forced to fulfil your fantasies at the same time.
While this game raised much controversy and had the US right campaigners up in arms, such complaints will go unheard because what this game is promoting is completely legal in Japan. A spokeswoman for the Japanese government's gender equality bureau said the office "realises the problem is there" and it is working out what can actually be done about it. Of cause we presume this will be done without offending any man in charge and without forcing him to give up his school girl porn.
However, despite this game being an outrage to the status of women in their society and simply being the way I finally lost all faith in humanity, I have to wonder that if murder is considered a higher crime than rape, or even on the same level, then how are so many computer games that encourage the killing of “enemies” deemed ok? We can’t have double standards and yet it seems impossible to remove all the sex and violence from every computer game that is selling and is selling well. A classic case of catch 22. Which leaves the public (me and you) in a position to be filtering systems of what we see and hear, what we watch and play.

The Impact of Television on Young Children.

Hello precious readers!!!

As I have bored you to death many times over telling you that I am indeed a drama student, I shall exclude that detail from my most recent experience from my beloved drama classes. {sarcasm har-har...

Let me first explain the tutorial system in this ever so organised department. We have three lectures a week; one 55 minute voice tutorial a week; one, 1 and a half hour movement tutorial a week and finally one, 1 and a half hour theatre-making tutorial a week. Confusing yes? Anyway...

This semester in voice we are doing a prepared poem and an impromptu speech on a random topic for our exam in two weeks and of course when I learned of the latter element to our exam it took me back down the vista of months to my matric English class and our darling Mr. White who adored his impromptus [oh, what glorious days].

Now on one of these occasions, where Mr. White had decided (or had been persuaded) that poetry and grammar were in dire need of a break, the dreaded F-word had arisen [fun] and out had popped the impromptu idea where topics were thumb-sucked and dished out to willing victims, came the inspiration for this blog post. "Explain the impact of television on young children."

This is what resulted... haha poor Mr. White.
"Good day class, as you can see here on the black board is an illustration of a television and a young child. Now pay attention class, this will be in your exam. Now if a television of about 5 kilograms is dropped from a roof top, 30 meters above the ground then the television will accelerate towards the ground at 9,8 meters per second, which is the gravity constant class. This means, class, that for every meter of that 30 meter fall the television will go 9.8 meters per second faster. Now if there is a child of about 1 meter tall standing in the trajectory of the television, the television will then only have 29 meters to fall, but at it's rate of acceleration and considering the television's weight which, class will be 50 newtons (weight = gravity +/- 10 m.s x mass of object 5 kg), the impact on the child standing under the television by the television could result in hopeless consequences for the poor child..."

This wonderful physics description was courtesy of my lovely little friend Daniele, who, despite the fact that we all knew that Mr. White wanted an oral on violence or sex on television, gave us a dazzling oral about violence through means of a television involved in a science discussion. This speech (or demonstration - call it what you will) has ceased to evacuate my brain and as a result the mere mention of an impromptu speech causes me to mentally beg that I get the same topic just so that I can demonstrate the same wit and ingenuity that she did, um well I beg so that I can copy her and appear witty and imaginative.

So I didn't really have a point, bar wanting to share one of my most precious memories with you and provide an escape for you readers from the droning compulsory blogs our journ department is making us write. So cheerio...
love, peace and vegetables
xx

Allow me to re-introduce myself...

My name is Rose, I am lovable, am a critic and have thorns so don’t mess with me! I can see you reading this and that is an ugly sweat shirt...I told you I’m a critic. I also am a student journalist; I left most important stuff out, simply because right now they are all irrelevant. Let’s get back to journalism, I have never wanted to be a journalist, I never dreamt of it, nor did I tag along with my dad to work all the time. My dad, Phil Molefe, his been in the media for as long as my life history exists, his a veteran in print and broadcast media, I swear he bleeds for the industry.

I hate how people assume that I’m following the ‘big guys’ footsteps... OK maybe I am, but has it ever occurred to anyone that I do have a mind of my own and I did have my own ‘sleep one night and figured out things with my eyes closed’...they’re called dreams. And actually...I did tag along to work with him...only sometimes, when I was bored with watching Generations (popular South African soap opera) at home, why watch it on television when you can go to the SABC and watch it in studio.

I didn’t realize how much I love writing until I started out my journey into becoming Miss Journalist. Maybe I did, I was just not confident enough that I could actually write readable, enjoyable pieces of writing. I have had my fair roller-coaster with journalism. I hated it, then loved it, then I semi-enjoyed it, then back to dreading it again. I was so indecisive, it put me to tears. I wept thinking to myself I never want to do this, I hated the boundaries and disliked the terms and conditions. I hated the department for not selecting me last year, I busted my ass trying to prove a point, little did I know that sometimes your best is someone’s worst. I made the decision to be at it again and pay the price for a serious ass whipping, instead this time I told myself I am going to ‘write what I like’.

I remember when I first started working for newspapers; my editor would always tell me to write how I would want to read it. It occurred to me that we always put on a face for the world and we become surprised when they don’t understand us, it’s only because we don’t understand ourselves either. I learnt to love what I do from the inside out and do not regret the prices I had to pay to be where I am now.

Hi my name is Rose Molefe and I am a journalist.

Do You Have an Apple?

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas” told by George Bernard Shaw to remind us that ideas are not like any other thing we come across. Now imagine a place to share ideas with anyone generous enough to share. An abundance of ideas. That is what I aim to ensure this blog is all about. Tree Pants will “wear the pants” in the relationship between our trees of knowledge and the trees of knowledge you possess. The inquisitive mind will reside here and become exposed to possibly highly offensive criticisms and opinions of an informed calibre.

But why a blog you may ask? There are three reasons. Number 1: My Journalism marks in jeopardy if I did not aid in creating a blog. Number 2: Blogs are a platform from which we can reach all corners of the globe and expand what we know, have the chance to form opinions and to share those opinions. Number 3: Number 2. Number 2 was an important one therefore reiteration was crucial. In the world we wake up to every morning these days, there is so much going on and lots to engulf your mind in to pass it up.

My contribution will be the kind you either enjoy or the kind you despise; no grey areas. I never stand on the fence with my opinion. I find the fence a cop-out and the easy route to take when too lazy to form an opinion of your own. I have the attitude, put quite aptly by the Kings of Leon: “It’s safe to say, if I don’t get this out of me, I might quite easily end up dead.” If I have something to say, it shall be said and, unfortunately for some, I have little remorse. I tell things how I see them and love to know what is thought about what I have to say. Don’t get me wrong however; I am not merely an overly opinionated, seemingly know-it-all ranter. I do make sure my facts are accurate and that the opinion I form and share is educated. As a Journalism student I understand the importance of information and how it is portrayed.

In a nutshell, we criticise the world we witness. A vital ability to have. We have opinions on the world we witness. A vital ability to have. But above all this we want others to be sparked by what we have to say and share their apples with us.