ARS NOTORIA

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Friday February 19 2010 CHICHARREROS filled the streets of Santa Cruz on Friday for the funeral of a giant sardine. by JAMES TWEEDIE The baroque funeral cortège of the deceased 10-foot long oily fish wound its way through the narrow streets of the regional capital, accompanied by a phalanx of priests and hordes of lady mourners – most of them men. One of the more unusual events of carnival calendar, the Sardine's Funeral symbolises the death of the past and the birth of the future. The sardine has special significance in Tenerife's capital Santa Cruz. Residents bear the derogatory moniker of  chicharrero  from the time when the town was home to poor fishing folk, who could only afford to eat the worst of their catch – a small species of sardine called a  chicharro . In keeping with the spirit of irreverent political satire which pervades carnival, this year's funeral was turned into an impromptu protest against Santa Cruz council's controversial...

The view of South African history from Santa Barbara, California  Clint Eastwood rewriting history, photo from ReelMovieNews The reasons why the western media has attacked, and will continue to attack Jacob Zuma , centre around the ridiculous identity politics of the soft left in Britain , and the centre right posing as "liberal" in the US. They have politics hollowed out of all socialism: lacking any coherent philosophy of social justice and brimming with empty-headed market oriented opportunism. The western media approved of Mandela's overly conciliatory beginnings after his release in 1990 and saw its reflection in the policies of Thabo Mbeki's government. Mandela should speak out against Invictus' distortion of history and reject his over-flattering portrayal, one that reduces the whole of the liberation struggle of the ANC, from the time the ANC was founded in 1912, to the "Christ-like" actions of one individual. History has plenty of people w...

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE CARNIVAL, Saturday February 6 2010 Joint murga competition winners  Los Mamelucos THOUSANDS crowded into Santa Cruz' waterfront on Saturday for the final of the 50th annual carnival Murga contest. by JAMES TWEEDIE The  murgas  – a half-hour mini-opera with humorous and satirical themes sung to classical, stage-musical and popular tunes – are the most anticipated spectacle of the city's massive carnival. The packed audience were standing on their wooden folding seats for much of the performance, regardless of which group they were rooting for. The 12,000 tickets to the final at the open-air Recinto Portuario sold out in three hours on January 13 and were selling on the internet at up to a ten-fold mark-up. Murgas have their origin in Cadiz in mainland Spain, where the contest still takes place every January. The art form spread to the Canaries, Uruguay and Argentina. According to one participant, the great popularity of the Murgas goes back t...

This is a key point in South African history that doesn't get enough attention from historians. The action that precipitated the 90 day detention rule and the clampdown in South Africa by the Apartheid government was the Paarl rising. Tony Hall broke the story of the P.A.C. involvement in the riot, the assumption of Potlako Leballo to the leadership of the P.A.C. replacing Sobukwe and P.A.C. plans for an uprising. The story appeared on the front page of the Star newspaper on March 25 1963 (while his wife Eve Hall was still in Pretoria jail). Subsequently Tony Hall was banned from publication after a court case followed in which he was required to reveal his sources but refused. Tony Hall comments on how he got the story: "I took the call asking for a reporter to go and interview Leballo at his invitation. I went - and came back with this huge scoop." The Star Johannesburg Monday March 25 1963 DRAMATIC CLAIMS BY P.A.C. LEADER ------------------ ...