Dream of the Dragon

Tag: false starts

June 22, 2010

Making Rape More Dangerous

by Justin

This beast speaks for itself: http://www.antirape.co.za/intro.htm. Rather than explaining the way it operates, I suggest getting the info direct from the source – complete with an uncomfortably straight-forward animated gif.

The anti-rape condom is being given out in South Africa right now in an effort to curb the grotesque and effectively unchecked prevalence of sexual assault in the country. In 2002 South Africa ranked second globally for instances of rape followed by arrest with 54,000, though it ranks 26th for overall population – the same site ranks it number one per capita. The United States has nearly double the number of convictions, but ranks 3rd in total population and 9th per capita. What’s worth noting is that in the US we have a broader definition of what constitutes rape, significantly more effective and accessible venues to report sexual assault, and a far less corrupt justice system. It’s worse in South Africa than the numbers suggest.

A 2009 study by South Africa’s Medical Research Council produced more revelatory results after anonymously polling 1738 men: Read the rest of this entry »

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May 28, 2010

Mourning Aftermath

by Justin

“A ritual is an opportunity to participate in a myth. You are in one way or another putting your consciousness, even the action of your body, into play in relation to a mythological theme, and, as I hope I’ve made clear, mythological themes are projections of the order of the psyche… by participating in a ritual occasion you are in a magical field, a field that is putting you in touch with your own great depth.”

Joseph Campbell from The Myths and Masks of God

In the thick of a more immediate and shocking wave of grief, I’ve started mourning the absence of ritual in my life. Ritual, mind you, not worship. America, or rather post-industrial culture in general, lacks a strong tradition of practicing ritual without specific and distracting religious baggage. Read the rest of this entry »

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April 8, 2010

Man your own jackhammer.

by Justin

Ladies and gentlemen: China is out of effing control.

At first I suspected that it always has been, but that might not be accurate. The original ruling dynasties seemed to keep things in a kind of order – maybe because the country is so large and populous that a unified whirlwind could never be summoned. The Mongol agenda was one of service and submission. My grade-school understanding of that period is that China was poor and ineffective, united more by the greed of a conquering power than anything else. A Chinese ascension prior to Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward must have been impossible. Even during Chairman Mao’s cultural revolution Read the rest of this entry »

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