Patriarchy Redefined?

I have been grappling with this issue for a while now. Most of the people seem to have put the concept of patriarchy under siege. Why? I think my accusing finger will point to pro-feminist propagators, if ever there is something like that.
Why do I think so? In the name of feminism people have developed some sort of agenda to paint anything they have a problem in accepting in gender and sex (whichever term you prefer) discourses as sexism. And this sexism is often skewed towards patriarchy.
In my opinion, patriarchy has nothing to do with suppression of women or females. It is some form of ideology that seeks to identify male from female. It is the society we live in that has influenced us into believing that patriarchy equals suppression of the female. Can we just be male and enjoy it without being accused of sexism?
I mean when a man abuses his female counterpart, that has little to do with patriarchy but a lot do with abuse! Let me stop here and allow for reactions. I will come back later to expound on some of the issues raised here.

Of phishing emails and sms smishing

The Cape Argus (8th October 2009) and The Star (22th October 2009) newspapers carried stories about bank electronic fraud that is becoming increasingly worrisome to South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric). Fraudsters send either email messages or smses to randomly targeted bankers requiring personal information so that they may gain access to the bank accounts and "steal" their money. What caught my attention was the advice Sabric gave such as urging customers to ignore emails of those nature even though they read exactly like those coming from genuine banks. Another piece of advice from Sabric is never to respond to any sms requiring personal details. Rather call your bank.

What's intriguing about the pieces of advice is that, more often than not, when any customer get such correspondences the first thing on mind is 'let me act quickly before anything happens'. That will be panickingly responding to the email or sms only to regret it later when you go to your bank only to discover that you have been cleaned out! My word of caution therefore is let's think carefully before we act.

Latest on Bafana

Did you hear the latest developments on Bafana Bafana coaching situation? SAFA has dismissed the coach from the post yesterday because they are not convinced he is the right man to lead South African soccer into the World Cup next year as hosts. Apparently a new coach will be announced this Friday. In the meanwhile his assistants will be holding the fort. It is interesting that his technical team remain while he goes even though the logical thing will be to sack the whole bench because they all contributed to the teams performance. Has SAFA always been out for Santana's head? One wonders!

On My Mind

Sometimes I wonder how life works. Media reports are that inflation has been dropping in the recent months in South Africa but to my surprise basic groceries prices seem to be picking. I am missing something? Now I hear Eskom proposes to hike electricity charges by 45% in next three years. Things are not getting any better, are they?

Apologies

Good day Prof

I have not been able to neither attend the class today nor hand in hard copy of my assignment, but I have emailed it to you. Please check you mail for the assignment.

I am soory to have not come. I was held up by something so I didn't make it to class.

You student

Gosiame

Question 3

Good day Prof!

I sent question 3 through your email but posted questions 1 & 2 on the blog because I read your email saying should sent question 3 answers directly to you before posting on the blog.

ASSIGNMENT 4 - DEADLINE 27 August 2009 16h00

Question 1

The writer of the blog is Patrick Thornton but the owner of the blog is King Kaufman

Question 2

Summary of "Let's Be Honest About J-School"

Patrick Thornton is of the idea that journalism schools (J-schools) are not that important in producing modern day journalists if they do not offer latest Web technology instruction. He believes that all J-schools do is to equip their learners with academic skills rather than trade skills. In particular, he favours hands-on learning especially learning using latest Web tools. He argues that journalism lecturers must make use of latest modern technology in their teaching, hence the need that they must have own websites or be part of social media.

His greatest concern is for graduate students whom he believes do not need programs that promote academic skills over trade ones. He posits academic skills are good for any undergraduate program because that is where scholars are grounded. To him, trade skills are entrepreneurial and therefore very important for graduates. Trade skills can be acquired through the Web by using free sites such as BeatBlogging.Org. Besides free sites one can also make use of places like Poynter.Org's News U, or Lynda.com and MediaBistro. He believes trade is more important than academic skills because trade gives one the necessary experience.

Thornton further asserts that latest Web tools like blogging and social networks produce better journalists than J-schools. He posits traditional J-schools produce writers while the (social) Web produces reporters. The later succeeds where the former fails because it offers its users with repeated practice and besides that it is a far much cheaper form of learning than the former. When studying over the Web one gets an opportunity to write over and over again and on the process gain the necessary know-how of the job. This repetition gives invaluable practice and experience whereas traditional J-school learning gives theory. That is why he believes the Web is important in graduate programs. Over and above, he argues that J-schools only offer more education which only leads to improved writing but poor reporting.

In short, Thornton believes that the future of journalism lies in the Web and any modern day journalist must go this route if he or she wants to be a successful reporter. He urges journalism lecturers to have own sites so that this may afford learners hands-on experience. This will do a lot of justice to journalism now because he sees journalism making more and more use of the Web especially these days and ones to come.