18 May 2008

Art imitating life ........

The other day I was driving to the office listening to the radio and it was time for the traffic joke on Radio Highveld. The joke went as follows ( not exactly as it was played on the radio - you can down load the original from here )

Jo was sitting at home watching the football when his daughter, Eve, came home.
"Dad" said Eve "I have some news that you will not like"
Now Eve had just recently turned 18 so Jo was concerned to what Eve had to say.
"Dad, I am with child!" Said Eve
Needless to say Jo was shocked.
"What did I tell you to say when a boy tries to touch your breast?" Asked Jo to his daughter Eve
Eve responded "Don't!"
"That's right! And what did I tell you if a boy tries to tough your private area? " Asked Jo.
"Stop!" responded Eve
"That's right! So how did you get into this predicament? " asked Jo of his daughter.
"But Dad! The boy tried to touch both so I said " Don't, Stop!" "

This got me thinking is this art imitating life ? How many girls out there fall pray to this very story. I know when I left South Africa there were stories of HIV/AIDS awareness teams going into the rural area's to educate the population on HIV/AIDS and prevention. These educators were going out into the field with out the proper equipment to show people how to put condoms on. So what they were doing instead of having an anatomically correct penis to demonstrate how to put a condom on they had a bit of a broom handle. They would show the group how to put a condom on the broom handle and say " This is how you don't get HIV by protecting your self like this" This led to reports of people finding boom sticks behind doors with condoms on them. People were saying this is what they had been told to do.

To make matters worse you then have the minister of health here having sex with a sex worker who has HIV and he said it was "OK" because he had a shower afterwards!

The cure for HIV is out there!
It does not come in a bottle and its not a pill or an injection its called "Education" and "Responsibility"

People in this day and age take things way too literally. Its up to every one of us to ensure that the message we send out is clear and understandable or so much hard work will be undone.

On a lighter side of thing here is a few more graphical examples of "Art imitating life" from my favorite South African satire cartoon strip "Madam and Eve"

Please be sure to visit the "Madam and Eve" blog site here.

How computer games can influence the world around us.

Ok South Africa does have a bit of a rap about bribery and corruption but I had to post this as its just very amusing. Its not quite this bad but it is just as blatant.

(Click on the images to get the full size)

No comments: