Yes, Yes, I know it has been a gazillion years since my last blog post.
Indeed, as Angel opined, I had gone kyknoord. Which, I think means I went AWOL.
The truth is that I have just had so much work to get done. It has been an incredibly busy two/three weeks, with difficult assignments due, many gazillions of meetings, academic talks, and of course, lots of bunny hopping to do.
To give you an itemised list of what I have been doing…
- Academic Talks by…
- Armartya Sen - a Nobel Prize-winning developmental economist (1)
- Nadine Gordimer - a Nobel prize-winning author (1)
- Trevor Manuel - our minister of finance (1)
- Edwin Cameron - a Supreme Court of Appeal judge (2)
- Faarooq Manghere – director of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Project (1) and,
- Fikile Vilakazi – director of the Centre for African Lesbians (1).
The first four took the form of a conversation, where Armatya Sen talked a lot about economics that I’m afraid I didn’t really know much about. His accent also wasn’t the most coherent, and so I struggled to hear him, and instead ended up checking out who was in the audience, which resembled of Who’s-Who of Joburg’s academic arty-farty elite. The last three took the form of a student forum, which my society (Wits Model UN), as well as Golden Key and the Law Students Council all co-organised, and it involved a public forum discussion surrounding the issues of gay rights etc etc etc. It was quite stimulating (I thought) and students appeared to enjoy it, which you can find here if you really wish… http://www.youtube.com/joburgtom
- Oh yah. One other academic talk we (Kev and I) went to was one given by Ruthann Robson, who can be considered the ‘Mother’ of Lesbian legal theory, is a visiting professor from an American university. Anyone, she talked about sexual constructs which we create in society, which was very interesting and indeed mind-opening. She ended off with this question: “If a man wishes to legalise his sexual relationship with his dog, and he claims that the both he and the dog do this consentually, should we allow him to do it? No, of course not! But just consider the fact that the argument we are using to say No, is the exact same argument other people used to justify the criminalisation of homosexuality – ie that it’s unnatural and that it just can’t possibly be consentual.”Ok.. so yah.. even liberal-ass me finds it a bit of a whacky concept to get one’s head around, but it’s nevertheless an interesting argument, and I think it could be applied to say, for instance, two consentual adult brothers wishing to legalise their sexual relationship.
- Afterwards, Kev and I (and Kev’s new boyfriend, our friend Angelo) went to Ants in Melville. I think I have blogged about this restaurant before (maybe on my blog), but i simply have to blog about it again, because I LOVE IT!!! The restaurant is rather rustic in it’s nature, but it serves the best pasta, and chasing the pasta done with a good glass of red wine just fills with such joy. It’s the type of joy that just is.
Afterwards, we went to the Oh bar, which although isn’t normally anything to blog about, will be blogged about today because I got a cool shot of the ceiling… I think it looks incredibly 70’s disco.
- Besides all the academic talks, we also were given a lecture by Edwin Cameron. He gave us a lecture in our HIV/AIDS and the law course, specifically on how the criminal law can and does interact with HIV/AIDS. I have sort of forgotten the gist of what he had to say (I know, I know, bad student are I), but I remember it being fascinating, and that’s all that matter really.
- Somewhere in the past two weeks, a whole bunch of us also went to go see the musical Hair at Montecasino. The cast was really quite excellent, and they sang with such passion. I also thought they were very brave when suddenly they all appeared out of nowhere NAKED. *gasp* And they just pranced about willy-nilly (hehe – my use of puns are cleva, neh?) without any inhibitions. I was also suprised when I saw a guy that I once went on a date with. It was, incidentally, one of the worst dates I had ever been on, because I ended up having more of a bond with his straight male friends than him, but I still felt imporant and stuff cos I knew someone from the cast. heee heee.
Anyway, afterwards we went to the new lifestyle extension at Montecasino, which as far as fake Italian goes, is not bad. And coming from me – that’s something. They have a musical fountain too, and I took a video. I hope it comes out. If it doesn’t, then go here… http://www.youtube.com/joburgboy, and have a look for it somewhere on that page!
- Other than that, I have been lank busy with assignments, bru. I have had Competition Law and Moot to get through, and they both been incredibly looooong and incredibly difficult. Moot was perhaps the most interesting one, as we got a topic and you have to argue for both the applicants and the respondents. In this case, the applicants was this NGO who represented people who had been raped, murdered etc, and they wanted to hold the government responsible under the constitution for failing to secure their rights to freedom and security of the person, life and dignity. One works in teams, and so Keval did the applicants, and I did the respondents. And I found it really difficult because we found in many of the issues raised that the government simply didn’t have much of a defence. Procedures weren’t followed and certain core constitutional obligations were totally disregarded. So I ended making up THE most whacked up and convoluted arguments for the government. It wasn’t really that fun.
- But it’s over now, and I am preparing to enjoy my weekend. Today is Freedom Day in South Africa – 13 years ago, South Africa went to the polls to vote in the first truly democratic elections. The country is now a teenager, and isshowing all the volatility and promise that a country of this age would typically show. It makes me proud to be a citizen of a nation that is so young and has such room for improvement.
HAPPY BDAY SOUTH AFRICA!
- Before I leave, I must note that I haven’t checked this post for spelling errors and the like. And so I apologise in advance.
