The Sable Verity

A friend of mine suggested I write a piece on a common excuse White people use when in the midst of a racial or racist mistake; intentions.

For both Black and White people, some of these might sound familiar. Read more »

It seems Elisabeth has had no idea until now, the amount of details that the police and others associated with the case have released to the public.  No doubt she’s pissed, hurt, and feeling violated again.  I hope this squashes all the talk about her giving an interview, because clearly, having the media involved in her life, or her past ordeal, is the last thing she is looking for:

http://news.scotsman.com/world/Fritzl-incest–victim-.4261118.jp

May 18, 2008

Elisabeth Fritzl will be interviewed by the same reporter who spoke to Natascha Kampusch

Elisabeth Fritzl is to talk about the 24 years she was imprisoned in her father’s dungeon on Austrian TV.

Miss Fritzl, 42, is thought to have chosen the same interviewer who spoke to Natascha Kampusch about the eight and a half years she was imprisoned in a cellar.

Miss Kampusch, now 20, escaped in August 2006 and told of her ordeal on Austrian ORF TV.

Miss Fritzl could make millions of pounds in syndicated rights for the interview. It is thought that more than 300 TV stations will broadcast it.

She is expected to talk about the first time she was raped by her father Josef, 73, and how she coped with multiple births alone in the dungeon.

The interview has been organised in part to reduce the pressure on the family from photographers camped at the door to Amstetten-Mauer hospital where Miss Fritzl is in a secure ward with her mother Rosemarie, 69, and five of her six children.

Miss Fritzl’s eldest daughter Kerstin, 19, is still in a coma.

Josef Fritzl is to undergo DNA testing to see if he is the killer of three women whose murders have remained unsolved in Austria.

Natascha Kampusch broke free from an eight-and-a-half year captivity in August 2006 and told the world of her ordeal on ORF TV in her homeland.

Media reports in Austria say that Elisabeth is now poised to do the same after marathon negotiations between the TV station and her lawyer.

Upwards of 300 TV stations globally will pay handsomely to beam it live or in repeat showings.

Media in Austria said none of the children - either the three she gave birth to who lived upstairs from her underground tomb nor the two of three healthy ones forced to endure her captivity below - will be in the studio with her.

Christoph Feurstein, the journalist who interviewed Natascha for her first - and subsequent - TV appearances, has been lined up for what promises to be a gripping television spectacle.

It is expected to be broadcast next Monday evening (May 26).

Elisabeth is also expected to talk about how she felt after one of her stillborn child was burned in a stove by her father after it died; how she thought she would never see sunlight again; and her hopes for a more normal future with the children who adore her.

“Elisabeth’s hatred of her father is a bottomless pit,” said one ORF source.

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Dungeon: The hallway in the cellar leading to one of the bedrooms where the children slept

The cellar bathroom: Bright decorations cannot disguise the ramshackle state of the hiding place

“It might not be good for the psychological healing process but Elisabeth’s heart pumps nothing but pure venom for him.”

It is unclear whether she will have to wear tinted glasses for the interview. Her eyes are still very weak from years of never seeing sunshine and high-powered studio lights could, fear doctors, be too much for her.

There is increasing tension between authorities and paparazzi who know that a picture of Elisabeth or her children would be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Monster: Josef Fritzl confessed to holding his daught captive for 24 years and fathering seven children

In a weekend fracas a security guard at the hospital was injured after he fell from a balcony while tackling a photographer.

Hospital officials confirmed that 17 lensmen have been caught in recent weeks trying to get into the Amstetten Mauer hospital.

They included one dressed as a policeman, another that disguised himself as a cleaner and a third who dug a hole in the grounds, filled it with provisions and then covered himself with a bird watcher’s hide in the hope of the life-changing picture.

He was caught by a sniffer dog while several others hiding in trees have been rumbled with thermal imaging cameras provided by local mountain rescue guides usually used to spot trapped climbers or stranded skiiers.

Austrian media also reported yesterday that a hospital worker had taken secret pictures of the family and was offering them for sale at 300,000 euros - £260,000.

Officials have sent a letter to staff warning them that there will be legal consequences and a claim for damages that would “far exceed any profit made from the sale of such photos.”

The Fritzl family staying at the clinic include Elisabeth and her two children from the cellar Stefan, 18, and Felix six, and her three children that lived in freedom - Alexander 12, Monika 14 and Lisa 15.

Elisabeth’s mother Rosemarie is also in the hospital.

Daughter Kerstin, 19, the third cellar captive, is still in a coma. Meanwhile Josef Fritzl is to undergo new DNA testing to see if he is the killer of three women whose murders have gone unsolved in his homeland.

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Elisabeth Fritzl and her children are being cared for at this private Austrian hospital

Police chief Franz Polzer says he is being considered as a suspect in the 1986 murder of 17-year-old Martina Posch, and two other murders in 1966 and 2007.

Also on Sunday another major newspaper, the Kurier, asked the question in a headline: “Is Austria the heart of darkness?”

It said that 64 percent of Austrians believe the image of the country has been damaged as a result of the Amstetten case.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=567131&in_page_id=1770

From the brilliance that is Jack and Jill Politics:

Light, Bright and Damned Near White is a documentary investigating colorism which is discrimination based on skin color within an ethnic group. In my many-shaded family, we always called it color-struck. Let’s put it this way. My great-grandmother who was described as black as an iron skillet chided her pregnant cafe-au-lait-skinned granddaughter (my mother) when she caught her drinking chocolate milk since it might make the baby (me) dark. Wow. She meant well. Darker skinned people often feel that they receive harsher discrimination. Though I’m light, I feel I’ve certainly gotten my share and always rolled my eyes at this notion that I had it any easier. Still, according to Light, Bright and Damned Near White, lighter skinned immigrants tend to have incomes 8-15% higher than dark skinned immigrants with similar characteristics.

This video goes into the tension within the black community but also takes a look at colorism within other ethnicities (Indian subcontinent, Latino, etc). My own theory is that colorism is both a reflection of larger social racial tension turned in on itself in addition to deep discomfort with the reality of multi-racial identities within groups. It’s also dumb. Bigotry comes in more than one color, y’all.

Set your Tivo to see Light, Bright Damn Near White documentary clips and an interview with one of the directors, CC Stinson currently airing on TVOne Access . The topic of this month’s episode is “Black is (Still) Beautiful” in hollywood. A whole segment was devoted to the issue of Colorism and several clips from the film were used to help explain this phenomenon. And take a look at the blog at DamnNearWhite.com

To all the women—young, middle-aged, and elderly—who still believe that we were placed on this earth to “service” men. May this book liberate your pussies, free your minds from the chain of sexual oppression, and make you realize that you are entitled to fuck your way. 

…

This book is about fucking. This book is about love. This is a book about what love has to do with fucking and fucking has to do with love…I have never been one to sugarcoat anything, so why start now? Dear G-Spot is an in-your-face, straight up with no chaser book about fucking. How to fuck, how not to fuck, and knowing whether or not you have any business fucking in the first place. While there have been countless books written about sex, in the tradition of my short story collections, I seriously doubt you will ever red another one quite like this bitch here. I am “coming hard” so you can “cum hard” later. Some of the parts of this book are very graphic, and they were meant to be.”

~~Zane, from the dedication and introduction to her book, Dear G-Spot

Usually, I don’t read Zane, an Essence best-selling African American erotica writer, because I find her literary style clichéd. However, when I read this, I thought to myself, She did it! This Black woman wrote a raunchy-fun sex manual for us. Thank Sappho and the Song of Solomon lovers! But why isn’t her sex-advice column in Essence or Jet or Vibe—or an “alternative media” like the Village Voice or Nerve.com? And, if she’s gonna get down like that, then where are the pictures?

If I had to place Zane in context, she’s belongs to the Sex-Positive Advice Club. A brief definition the sex-positivism, from Wikipedia:

The sex-positive movement does not in general make moral or ethical distinctions between heterosexual or homosexual sex, or indeed masturbation for people who are otherwise celibate, regarding these choices as matters of personal preference. Some sex-positive positions include acceptance of BDSM, asexuality, polyamory, transsexuality, transgenderism, and other forms of gender transgression in general.

Most elements of the sex-positive movement advocate comprehensive and accurate sex education as part of its campaign.

More at: http://www.racialicious.com/2008/05/26/what-color-is-your-orgasm-sex-positive-advice-in-black-and-white/#more-1595

London, May 21 (ANI): Austrian cellar mum Elisabeth Fritzls lawyer has revealed that she taught her kids math and grammar while incarcerated in her dads dungeon.

Her lawyer, Christoph Herbst told a Channel 4 documentary that the family lives a more or less regular life in the Austrian hospital where they have been kept since Josef Fritzls secret dungeon was discovered.

“They rise at about six or seven in the morning. Then they have breakfast together, they get the breakfast from the hospital…Then they sit together at a large table and talk, discuss and make jokes, the Telegraph quoted him, as saying.

“Then everybody does their own thing. They play on the computer, they read books, do some drawings, whatever they want…It’s very amazing to watch the family because they behave like a normal family, Herbst added.

He said: “Elisabeth tried to educate the children in the dungeon. They had lessons, they learned grammar, they learned the language, mathematics.

“So they have been raised very well, they are very well behaved…I think Elisabeth tried to give them a structure and a good life under the circumstances in the dungeon.” (ANI)