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<title>Fight Fire with Sapphire!</title>
<description>The wisdom of Derek Sapphire, healer, activist and guru</description>
<link>http://dereksapphire.blogspirit.com/</link>
<lastBuildDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:29:47 +1000</lastBuildDate>
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<copyright>All Rights Reserved</copyright>
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<guid isPermaLink="true">http://dereksapphire.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/10/22/racism-and-capitalism.html</guid>
<title>Racism and capitalism</title>
<link>http://dereksapphire.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/10/22/racism-and-capitalism.html</link>
<author>noreply@blogspirit.com ()</author>
<pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:18:00 +1000</pubDate>
<description>
&lt;p&gt;Fellow travellers, we have long known that capitalism and racism are inextricably connected. Here is yet another&amp;nbsp;example: Witch doctors in Tanzania think that the body parts of albinos are somehow magical. They&amp;nbsp;use them in wealth-creating rituals, a practice that has lead to numerous killings of the more &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.newsnet.co.zw/index.php?nID=14125&quot;&gt;melanin-challenged members of the local community&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I find it &lt;em&gt;deeply disturbing&lt;/em&gt; that these wise people have been so corrupted by AmeriKKKa's aggressively promoted myth about whiteness conferring wealth.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;We can only hope that the downfall of extreme capitalism that is currently occurring will stop this racist association being the&amp;nbsp;dominant paradigm, and such tragic acts of imperialistic barbarism will finally cease.&lt;/p&gt; 
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<guid isPermaLink="true">http://dereksapphire.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/08/18/gender-stereotyping.html</guid>
<title>Gender stereotyping</title>
<link>http://dereksapphire.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/08/18/gender-stereotyping.html</link>
<author>noreply@blogspirit.com ()</author>
<pubDate>Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:35:00 +1000</pubDate>
<description>
&lt;p&gt;Appalling reich-wingers continue to claim that institutionalised sexism doesn't exist anymore. &lt;em&gt;Excuse me?&lt;/em&gt; Take the Iguana-gate affair. Would there have been even the slightest interest in this matter had Belinda Neal been a male?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Of course not.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And remember all the mockery of Ms Neal for saying, &quot;Don't you know who I am?&quot;. No man in politics would have received such criticism if he'd said it. (And no man would have needed to say it anyway,&amp;nbsp;because people &lt;em&gt;would&lt;/em&gt; have known who he was.)&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In any case,&amp;nbsp;this seemingly aggressive attitude is quite understandable from a woman in politics. She has been&amp;nbsp;routinely ignored; treated as second class citizen by the political patriarchy for decades. She shouldn't be excoriated for such&amp;nbsp;demands; she should be celebrated for them!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Of course many other media attacks on her have been sexist in the extreme. But sassy as always, she continues to fight on. For instance, understandably affronted by an appalling item in the Murdoch rag &lt;em&gt;The Australian&lt;/em&gt; in which it was claimed &quot;she wears the pants&quot; in her relationship with her signifcant other, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24192235-5001021,00.html&quot;&gt;she is complaining to the Press Council&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I hope she finds justice. I also hope that John Della Bosca lodges a claim of his own, because it implies that he doesn't wear anything!&lt;/p&gt;
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<title>Herr Hayden's latest hate crime</title>
<link>http://dereksapphire.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/06/18/herr-hayden-s-latest-hate-crime.html</link>
<author>noreply@blogspirit.com ()</author>
<pubDate>Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:27:26 +1000</pubDate>
<description>
&lt;p&gt;Speaking of speciesism, fellow travellers: The appalling Matt Hayden, like so many reich-wingers, has been relishing the Iguanagate scandal. And in this particularly vile post, &lt;a href=&quot;http://matthayden.blog-city.com/bolshie_bimbo_backs_beastly_belinda.htm&quot;&gt;he suggests a nickname for sassy sister Belinda Neal&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;The Beast.&quot; It is as speciesist as it is sexist.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Appalling. Just appalling. &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
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<guid isPermaLink="true">http://dereksapphire.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/06/18/position-altered.html</guid>
<title>Position altered</title>
<link>http://dereksapphire.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/06/18/position-altered.html</link>
<author>noreply@blogspirit.com ()</author>
<pubDate>Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:50:00 +1000</pubDate>
<description>
&lt;p&gt;Fellow travellers, of course you are well aware of my attitude to immigration. I am very much &lt;i&gt;for&lt;/i&gt; the increased intake of non-animal creatures -- particularly from the Middle East. However, I have recently become aware of a case that forces me to reconsider this position.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I speak, of course, of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.smh.com.au/news/pets/monster-or-moggie/2008/06/14/1213321683010.html&quot;&gt;the threat posed by a certain breed of feline&lt;/a&gt;. Due to their potential to disrupt delicate Australian ecosystems, it is imperative that none of these hybrid &quot;supercats&quot; (and what an appallingly elitist term that is!) should be let into the country.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Certainly, they are non-human persons with rights. And I feel for them, I really do! But it is my considered opinion that the rights of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.currumbin-sanctuary.org.au/content/standard.asp?name=GreaterBilby&quot;&gt;local citizens&lt;/a&gt; take precedence in this case.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If you think I am being speciesist, so be it.&lt;/p&gt;
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<title>&quot;Humorist&quot; actually humorless</title>
<link>http://dereksapphire.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/06/12/humorless-humorist.html</link>
<author>noreply@blogspirit.com ()</author>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:05:00 +1000</pubDate>
<description>
&lt;p&gt;Not that I'm surprised, fellow travellers, but the tiresome Matt Hayden has taken offence at &lt;a href=&quot;http://matthayden.blog-city.com/fight_sapphire_with_fire.htm&quot;&gt;my latest post&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Must I clarify? (Sigh.) Herr Hayden, I was being tongue-in-cheek.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I find it very sad that he couldn't see that, especially since he describes&amp;nbsp;his own blog as &quot;sit-down comedy&quot;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Where's your sense of humor, Matt?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
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<title>Ms Universe and Universal</title>
<link>http://dereksapphire.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/06/02/ms-universe-and-universal.html</link>
<author>noreply@blogspirit.com ()</author>
<pubDate>Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:00:00 +1000</pubDate>
<description>
&lt;p&gt;While appalling reich-wingers like Matt Hayden &lt;a href=&quot;http://matthayden.blog-city.com/movie_star_blames_victims.htm&quot;&gt;claim that karma doesn't exist&lt;/a&gt;, we know that it does, don't we fellow travellers?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ms Universe will always keep the cosmic scales&amp;nbsp;of justice balanced (but not in, like, a rational way). Take, for instance, the appalling spiritual toxicity produced by Hollywood for many, many years. This makes Ms Universe mad as hell and &lt;em&gt;she's not gonna take it anymore!&lt;/em&gt; And so She has decided to do something about it. She has asked her significant other Sister Nature to strike a mighty blow to the heart of that appalling &lt;em&gt;nightmare&lt;/em&gt; factory.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And here it is: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&amp;amp;sid=ahfU4DygkbiI&amp;amp;refer=us&quot;&gt;a massive fire at Universal Studios&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Empoweringly, Sister Nature has added&amp;nbsp;Her own touch to this sassy statement. You see, She&amp;nbsp;has chosen to burn down the huge mechanical model of King Kong.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This was an appallingly speciesist film (and sexist -- why wasn't there a &lt;em&gt;Queen&lt;/em&gt; Kong?) which has&amp;nbsp;caused great distress to our simian sisters (and brothers) over many decades. To know that a relic from it is now a pile of ash is heartening to all those who believe in justice.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Smokin'!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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<title>Big cat gets political!</title>
<link>http://dereksapphire.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/02/26/big-cat-gets-political.html</link>
<author>noreply@blogspirit.com ()</author>
<pubDate>Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:00:00 +1100</pubDate>
<description>
&lt;p&gt;Fellow travellers, sometimes an event that seems unpleasant or distressing at first is actually cause for joy!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Take this story, about a Chinese schoolboy having his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3433291.ece&quot;&gt;arm bitten off by a circus lion&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Clearly, the non-human person was making a political statement.&amp;nbsp; And I believe this was three-fold:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Firstly, he was venting his rage at being made to perform tricks in the circus.&amp;nbsp; Imagine how this former &quot;King of the Junge&quot; must feel to be so routinely humilated!&amp;nbsp; Appalling.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Then there was his choice of a schoolboy as a co-performer for his impromptu act.&amp;nbsp; This was significant.&amp;nbsp; Of course, children are symbols of the future.&amp;nbsp; Without doubt he was warning of the environmental destruction that will result from the Chinese Government's plan to build 550 coal-fired power stations.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And interestingly the boy's &lt;i&gt;left&lt;/i&gt; arm was taken.&amp;nbsp; No accident there.&amp;nbsp; Our feisty feline fellow traveller was pointing out that the nation's &lt;i&gt;communist&lt;/i&gt; voice was being drowned out by the &lt;i&gt;capitalist&lt;/i&gt; cacophony.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;These motivations are obvious to anyone with any sensitivity.&amp;nbsp; But of course the usual suspects will blame &quot;brutal&quot; nature, wring their hands about it and call for better security.&amp;nbsp; But they will never, &lt;i&gt;ever&lt;/i&gt; address the root causes.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Sound familiar, fellow travellers? &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
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