Monday, May 11, 2026

When Women Have Had It With A Rapist

 

When it comes to murder the victim most likely is a woman, whereas the murderer is a man. However, sometimes the female victims have had enough, and it even happens that some of these women gang up on the male culprit and set out to kill him. One of these cases is the "execution" of the Indian gangster, murderer and serial rapist Akku Yadav (1971–2004), who started out on his criminal "career" as a child, when his father formed a family gang with his sons and nephews.


There is no doubt about his crimes, but somehow he always got away, scott free which must have been seen as an injustice by those he had injured, harassed, threatened, robbed or raped. The youngest one of his victims was a 10 years old girl, so nobody seemed safe for him. He had been arrested several times, but was never convicted. The last time he was to bail his way out of yet another accusation, but that didn't work out so well for him, as 200 angry women or more stormed the courthouse and killed him.


He was stabbed, stoned, his penis was cut off, and he had chili powder thrown into his face. Also he was set on fire by the angry women who didn't try to get away from the gruesome scenery. On the contrary, all of them claimed to have killed him. Some were arrested, but later on acquitted as all charges against the women eventually were dropped. One detail makes me think that the authorities didn't like the very idea of female killers, and that this was part of their acquittal. As it is, it seems that the police more or less refused to accept the confessions of the women. Instead the police said that the women had protected the real killers, who - lo and behold! - were assumed to be male. None of the women bought that one, but they may have come to enjoy their being able to leave without having to go to jail for what was a murder.

This incident was turned into the film "200: Halla Ho" and a Netflix web series, "Indian Predator: Murder in a Courtroom".


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/sep/16/india.gender 


Wikipedia

 

Thursday, May 7, 2026

Gender Games

 

I would have to admit that I do find Eugenia Falleni (ca. 1875-1938) on this photo rather masculine in looks. Actually, I wouldn't be the least surprised at hearing that she in reality was a man, and not a woman in anything but name. However, I would be wrong, because at some time around 1900 Eugenia Falleni gave birth to a daughter which, neither then nor now, is a male ability. (And, by the way, I don't think anybody know who the father of that child was.) Anyway, in her early youth, after her family had moved from Italy to New Zealand, she was nicknamed "Tallyhoe" because she somehow "swaggered like a man" and even cross-dressed.

 

Here Eugenia is as her alter ego, Harry Leo Crawford, who is how she presented herself to the world some time after the birth of her daughter. Not only did she attain a male personality, but, 39 years old, she also married a woman, the widow Annie Birkett, in 1913. Annie was the mother of a boy who came to take part in the fate of the two women.

Annie Birkett

The marriage didn't last that long as Annie suddenly disappeared in a very mysterious manner. What happened? Nobody knew, but as Eugenia/Harry remarried after the disappearance of Annie, who was found dead and maybe even burnt in a cove some time after she disappeared, Eugenia was accused of having murdered her. Something she denied having done. In her first appearance in court she was still dressed as a man, but later on she once again started to dress as a woman.


The "Man-Woman-Case" as it was named became widely known and debated everywhere, but without any real understanding of the Eugenia-Harry-enigma. What was she, did she murder Annie and why did she dress as a man??? Discussions were not bringing any solution to the many enigmas, and Eugenia was sentenced to death for the presumed murder of Annie, but, in reality, maybe also for "falsifying her sex". However, strangely enough she was released in 1931 "because of ill health" and went on with her life, now going by the gender-neutral name of "Jean Ford". In 1938 she died in an accident, but her life is still being discussed by many people who want to find explanations of her and her fate. Nobody has succeeded in that yet, and it may never happen. Some part of the confusion may be her second wife's claim that she never suspected that the individual she knew as her husband was in reality a woman. The claim of the new wife seems a bit far-fetched as the daughter of Eugenia must have been well-known in the society as she testified in the trial of 1920, saying that her mother had always dressed as a man. 

To me it looks like Eugenia was a lesbian, but most likely so was her two wives. All of them chose this "Gender Game" to be able to live a life that was good for them in a society that wasn't too happy about people who didn't really fit in . 


https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/discover-collections/read-watch-play/history/queer-histories/hidden-agender-eugenia-falleni-and 

 

https://murdersmostfoul.com/the-lane-cove-mystery-and-the-tragic-case-of-eugene-falleni/ 

 

Wikipedia

 

Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Left On The Shelf

 

Sexual roles being what they are in a Patriarchal society women have for a very long time period been expected to center their career wishes on their relationship with the man who turns them into a "Mrs." instead of a "Miss". As to men, then they stay "Mr." all their lives which is a neutral term, devoid of any evaluations, except for one important one: They are not female, but male. However, one may assume that they, like everyone else, are aware of the female distinctions that used to - and still do to a certain degree - turn a private relationship with a man into a female career move. To stay a "spinster" wasn't considered a good female career for any woman even though it may have been a voluntary choice, and not a Miss/Mrs.-thing. Both men and women recognized the less good status of an unmarried woman which makes it even more obvious that it was a social set-up.


When one sits down and think it over, it becomes obvious that the female distinctions are society's way of turning what's social into something private. According to this system it's not Society's fault that women are being evaluated in such a specifically sexual manner, almost like animals in a cattle show. Oh no, it's the fault of the young girls and women of all ages: They lack charm and thus can't entice some man to hand them the coveted "Mrs.-title". Or put another way, as they don't have what it takes for women in a Patriarchy, they have been left on the shelf. Now, that many women don't find it worthwhile anymore to center their entire life upon a man, many men have been complaining about all those "aloof and non-responsive women that leave them in solitude". All of a sudden, the male sex has attained their own sexually funded term: They are alone, frustrated and angry, which means that they have become what's called "Incels".


Now these "incels" are not just "male spinsters", because they are full of a blatant hatred of women, harboring weird ideas of male "rights" that they have been "cheated" out of by those unresponsive women. To read their utterances on social medias often is like dipping one's toes into a lake of fire and brimstone. How dare they go on like hateful toddlers demanding tits that don't belong to them? It's quite amazing to watch, and women may fight the most obvious misogyny.

As to cultural critic and journalist Kate Bolick who wrote "Spinster" then her book is advocating the fulfilling life of staying unmarried in a society that expects women to be eager to live the life that the Incels see as Natural. By now, more than 100 million women have chosen the spinster-setting, and the number is growing. 


https://medium.com/@thehappybachelor678/the-rise-of-lonely-single-men-but-romance-is-not-the-solution-a0a34f0dfe02 

 

https://www.zerotolerance.org.uk/news/blog/the-five-core-elements-of-incel-ideology/ 

 

Wikipedia 

 

Sunday, May 3, 2026

To Go By Looks


The childhood-career-plans for this gentleman was to become either an "Indian" or a bookseller, but frankly, I don't think that's what he became when he grew up. No, he looks more like a bookkeeper, i.e. a clerk, working in an office. It made me think of appearances, and how they form our immediate understanding of other people. That was much easier in the past, when poor was poor, and rich was rich, and most likely always flaunting that fact in their dress and manners. Now it's a bit different, to put it that way, as the former status-givers in clothes and looks are not at easy to discern as earlier on. 

When it comes to personality and character it may get tricky to find out how and what people are. As we most often classify others we may be a bit too hasty. 


If she didn't have that gun, nobody would have wondered at her life situation, her social status or anything. Most people wouldn't even try to guess at whom she is, because to them she would just be a poor illiterate woman from some obscure country they don't even know of. They would be very surprised to learn that she is an Albanian woman of 106 years, who is all set to defend herself and her property at all costs, even if it takes shooting someone out to rob or kill her. 

Melina Salazar was rewarded for not going by looks and attitude, as well as being able to give that extra that often makes a real difference to people who are not very popular with others. This man's grumpiness may have closed doors for him, but so may his looks as a poor Veteran. Had he looked rich many people would have overlooked his less pleasant behavior. However, some give-away-symbols may have changed over time as indications of wealth may look like the opposite of what they are. 

Thursday, April 30, 2026

When Words Are Used Differently


As may be well-known by now, I'm not exactly a tRump-fan. Actually, I find him a disaster in every aspects of life and politics. That's why I didn't feel that it was so very strange, or even unexpected, that over time he has received several threats on his life. Maybe, it was a wee-bit "strange" that one of those who presumably wanted to kill him, was the former FBI-director, James Comey. On the other hand, noooo, it wasn't all that strange as he, in his position within the System, really was sitting in the front row with a clear view of what was going on in tRump-land.


However, to me it seemed very weird that the above combination of numbers, presented in sea shells, should post a genuine threat, but if "86" is mobster-slang for "kill", and tRump, strange as it is, is the 47the (as well as 45th) president of the USA, which he is, then it can't be denied that this may be a kind of murder threat. Of course, one needs to know the slang to get the message, and one might ask how the sitting American president would get to know that kind of things. Is he a gangster? Does he have some mob-connections? That shouldn't be beyond me to suspect - and even worse, actually much worse. 


Somehow, tRump and his henchmen fail to see that what they themselves do to annoy, threaten or ridicule everyone not a tRumpified Republican is as much of a crime as all that they accuse the Dems of. It was to be expected, but still, it makes them look very naive and even totally ridiculous. One thing it doesn't make them look like is INNOCENT, because their unfounded accusations make people come to think of some of their grave misdeeds, like for instance the AI-picture of a hog-tied president Joe Biden. 

 

How could something like that make its way into an election-situation? In my opinion, it's the lowest of the lowest, and now that we are talking of threats, then this is a genuine threat of murder which the numbers 8647 isn't without some kind of "translation". Biden didn't deserve anything like that, as he and his party, contrary to tRump and the Republicans, delivered what might be expected in a decent and honorable American president.  


As to the orange Menace, it seems that even dogs know what kind of person he is.  


 

 

Sunday, April 26, 2026

Crushed by The Dust Bowl

 

OK, these tRumpified times are hard, but one shouldn't forget that they have been even worse, not all that long ago. tRump's ongoing war on science and recent closure of several kinds of science departments made me think of a very difficult time period: The days of the "Dust Bowl" in the 1930s that sent good and hard-working people down a depressing social slope. Many families left the hardest hit regions in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, the Oklahoma Panhandle, and Colorado to make a new life in other parts of America: They went west, hoping for the best, even though they may have wanted to stay on what had been fertile land.

 

The reason for this disaster was severe drought, wind erosion, and violent storms. All the way to the coast of the Atlantic coasts there were risks of darkening skies and suffocating dust-filled air. It has been said that the Dust Bowl covered 100 million acres in 1935, but by 1940 it had declined to approxiate 20-25 million acres, but still the lands were desert-like, also for the lack of rain.

People suffered both mentally, physically and socially, one of the reasons for this evil "spiral downwards" being that science seemingly wasn't up to this situation. There should have been warnings several years before it happened, as there would be today when made possible. I don't say that there will be new Dust Bowls or other just as serious or even worse natural catastrophes, only that tRump's war on science is very, very short-sighted. After all, natural disasters may happen, and our only protection against them is vigilance and highly educated scientists.

Ironically enough, what really brought attention to the desperate situation was, that in 1934 a lot of dust fell on the Mall and The White House in Washington, D.C.. The same year The Dalhart Wind Erosion Control Project was established. Also there were measures, for instance in form of loans, to make the farmers protect their land, but still, many chose to leave their homes: Between 1935 and 1937 over 34 percent of the farmers in the area left. I take it that some of these were those who had been known as more or less slack farmers. After all, the Dust Bowl wasn't only a natural disaster, but - up to a point - also a human lack of diligence and reliability. Many seem to have given up on the art of agriculture, so to speak. They let the grass, that kept the soil where it belonged, get destroyed, both by having too many cattle feed on it, and ploughing it too hard.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl 

 

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/dust-bowl

 


Thursday, April 23, 2026

Poem by Else Cederborg: "Soaring"

 


 Caught me a bird today - or maybe not?

Was it more like the bird catching me?

After all, it came from nowhere

circling high up, far, far above me

flew away, came back 

and then it may have perched upon my shoulder  

 

There I was, caught by something that soars at will

feeling grounded by strong talons keeping me tight, in place 

I, once more the captive of what was nothing, but a dream of soaring

 

All Rights Reserved©Else Cederborg 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, April 20, 2026

A War Heroine In Nursing

 

Anna Etheridge (1839-1913) had been a nurse for her sick father as well as at a common hospital before she started her real career as what's called a "camp follower". That happened when she followed her Union soldier husband as he entered the American Civil War, but when he deserted, she stayed on, and became one of the only 2 women who were given the Kearny Cross. Not being in favor of wars of any kind I ought not praise Anna, but it's obvious from all accounts that she was a dedicated as well as very brave woman who made it her duty to see to it that the wounded soldiers were saved from the battlefield and treated when possible. The soldiers called her "Gentle Annie" and she was held in high esteem by them. 

She was armed with two pistols which she knew how to use, and she had her own horse, but she doesn't seem to have taken part in the battles as anything, but a very dedicated nurse. However, there are reports of her being present on the battlefields, even when the fights were at their fiercest with bullets and shrapnel flying everywhere. I've seen no indications that she herself became wounded, except for a wound in one of her hands, but her bravery as a nurse has been praised by many. The government didn't approve of women in the field, and she, as well as other women, decided to serve on transport ships, but sometimes she had to enter enemy territory to retrieve the wounded. It seems that she had some close calls both before and after this interim in her years of service, but was neither caught nor seriously wounded.  
 

After her first husband deserted she was divorced and free to marry her second husband, James Etheridge. Their marriage ended with the war, but she married once more after meeting her new husband, Corporal Charles Hook, some time afterwards. They stayed married until his death in 1910, and three years later she herself died. At that time she was on an army pension which had been approved by the Congress in 1887.


Sunday, April 19, 2026

Short Story By Else Cederborg: "Floating" (Previously published)



Floating


This wasn't the best way to start the day. Everything went on in slow motion and Valerie couldn't make herself move. She just lay there, stuck, flat on her back even when trailing her arms and legs over the white sheets of the bed. The sharp, metallic sounds from nowhere and everywhere blended in with the wallpaper quality of anonymity in this room that wasn't hers, not even her choice. She was brought here and vaguely remembered when they lifted her off the pavement and put her on the stretcher.

"Careful, careful," someone yelled, perhaps the one who had called 911, when he found her, "poor creature, looks like a stroke."

Yeah, she thought with something like a subdued giggle, more like a blow to the head. More like something-out-of-nowhere that made my head spin, my legs fold, and my soul slither down my spine, untying each chakra as it went. When I fell, I was dead, and when someone grabbed my purse and kicked me in the stomach before running off, the pain brought me back to the bleak realities of being robbed and not being able to move.

She had a feeling that she ought to be grateful for that revival, but somehow she couldn't and later on, when those two came to visit her, lying there, she even regretted having got hold of her chakras and survived.

Over and over she thought of their visit and she kept repeating one sentence that had harbored her mind: Were those people really her close relatives? The one in black and purple looked nightmarish, like a ghoul or a vampire, and she even kissed her and called her "My dear". The other one, so stiff in her facial features that they almost creaked when they were set into movement with something that vaguely resembled a smile, called her "Mom". 

 When Valerie thought of her she was appalled: This creaky one came from ME? Then what was - or am - I to have produced anything like that robotic creature?

This thought made her spin in the white room with all the instruments, the syringes by the bed, and all those the people in white whipping in and out the door. How did that happen in my world of wavering colors, sounds like deep sea murmurings and floatings in and out of flowery realms? Not me, no, not the one without any anchors in the world of necessity. All that was left on that pavement and now brought back as a rerun of old movies, something in black and white that was so far back in the past that it felt quite creepy as all the actors were gone long ago.

Still, that stiff face did hurt, only she didn't know why.

They talked of chances, life expectancies, of treatments, hopelessness and of insurances. The discussion even got heated, stiff-face cracked and the word "money" escaped those thin, thin lips, but black-and-purple said "hope". Valerie knew that meant new syringes, new treatments and new floatings somewhere out of their reach and into that world of colors and sounds, anchored by chakras.

 

Else Cederborg

All Rights Reserved  


 

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Blackmailing By Death Threats


 

She wants to jump - or so she says - but no, the police will have none of that

To end up dead isn't all that that unusual. Actually, that's what we are supposed to do sooner or later no matter what: At one point the planet Earth wants to shake off those living organisms that aren't young and
fertile anymore. However, some chose not to wait for that day, but hasten towards it. Knowing that is the same as knowing that those threats of suicide that some of us have experienced from friends or relatives may turn into a reality. 


Evelyn McHale leapt to her death in 1947 when she jumped from The Empire State Building

Yes, some really do seek this premature ending whether it's because they find everything in life too difficult, too burdensome or not worthwhile. Others may seek death, more or less in mock, or to blackmail someone to do something this person doesn't want to do. We may not believe that Ms
X, who threatens to kill herself once in a while, will ever do so, but on the other hand, she MIGHT and that would lead to boosts of sorrow and regrets in us that we want to elude as best we can. According to Ms X the only way to do so is to do what she wants us to do and that may not be what we ourselves want to engage in.

 

Her blackmailing - and blackmail it is - may have started out as a mock-threat, but ended up being genuine. She really kills herself and that situation is very difficult for the person who was blackmailed, especially if he or she can't check up on the blackmailer. Many thoughts and fears rush through the mind of the victim of the blackmailer. Also a certain amount of annoyance as this shouldn't happen: It's not fair and it doesn't change so very much as what has been obtained through blackmail isn't the same as what was given freely. Besides being dead the blackmailer doesn't even see how his or her exploits as a blackmailer ended up. 


Tuesday, April 14, 2026

The Helping Hand And Its Limitations

 

For some time I've had the non-pleasure of needing a hand now and then, simply because some everyday actions don't work out as they should and how they did some time ago. It's annoying because one of the very big pleasures of life is to be able to do what's needed when it's needed. Of course it's nice that most people do lend me that needed hand. Actually, it's touching, and I appreciate it, but I would prefer that it wasn't needed, and that I could just go on as usual.

However, I think that all situations - good or bad - may further a lesson, something to teach us humans something important. One lesson for me has been the realization that one shouldn't demand too much of helpful people. Actually, one should try to one's needs before they turn into DEMANDS which may happen quite soon as it's so much easier to ask someone to do something than to try doing it oneself ....

Friday, April 10, 2026

Ups And Downs In The Life of "The "Golden Boy", Andrew

 

The irony of life with its ups and downs is something most of us have to endure, but some people represent certain aspects of this system in a more obvious manner. One of these people is The former Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. He is supposed to have been the favorite son of the late queen Elizabeth II, and he is the one of her four children who resembles her the most in looks. Born in 1960 as the second son and third child of the Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, he was privileged from the very beginning of life, so he may have come to think that privileges of all kinds were his birthright that couldn't be disputed by anybody. Also, his originally good looks and charm may have given him an erroneous idea of his own importance to many different people who wooed him both as a prince and as a handsome guy.  

I seem to remember his older brother, King Charles III, saying something long ago about his younger brother being "handsome as a movie star" (which he himself never was) so maybe there was some envy at an early age? Anyway, Andrew gained a certain reputation of being an extrovert, sporty, charming and simply dashing man. He was the darling of women who fell for his charm, good looks and/or royal title. 

 

Besides, in the Falklands War (1982) he gained another kind of a positive reputation, namely as a war hero after serving as a helicopter pilot in the Navy. However, early on one of his nicknames, namely "Randy Andy", somehow was what came to sum up his life and whole being in the eye of the public. 

He dated many women, and one of his best known affairs was with the American photographer and actress Kathleen Norris "Koo" Stark. She was known for her role in "Star Wars: A New Hope" and films like "Emily" and "Electric Dreams" before she became a renowned portrait photographer. I don't know why she wasn't "wife material" like Sarah Ferguson whom he married in 1986, but that doesn't seem to have been considered by either of them. 

Both Fergie and Andrew were unfaithful - or simply led their own "swinger-life". When they were divorced they kept living together, both caring for their two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie. As to Sarah she has been working for some cancer charities, and founded "Children in Crisis" and "Sarah's Trust". However, her odd friendship with Jeffrey Epstein lost her the trust of several charities. 

By the way, one of the very strange parts of that friendship is that this American pedophile trafficker seems to have been paying her money, either as loans or wages: It isn't quite clear what their relationship was, but it's obvious that they in some respects were quite close.

In 2014 a young woman, Virginia Giuffre, accused Andrew of having abused her when she was a 17 year old sex-trafficked victim of the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell-organisation. Andrew denied even having met Virginia and seemed much more worried about her having said that he had a "strange odor" and sweated much more than normal. In an interview he came to reveal that he found those allegations that ruined his image of being a "Prince Charming" much more alarming than what happened to the sex-trafficked Virginia. His total lack of empathy was quite unsettling and have cost him a lot of sympathy in England as well as elsewhere.

I'm not sure when this particular photo was taken, but having seen several like it - and it is from a late time period - it seems to me that he started to look unhappy and worried quite some time before his brother, King Charles III, stripped him of all of his royal titles, namely in 2025. The reason for the shift in looks may be that the infamous doings of Epstein and the names of his associates/customers were brought into focus. Not only tRump, but e.g. also Andrew were mentioned. Several unpleasant photos were published, and there were rumors of violent sex leading to murder.

However, when he was arrested in February 2026 it wasn't for pedophile misdemeanors, but for "suspicion of misconduct in public office". It seems that he may have shared sensitive government information with the criminal Jeffrey Epstein. 

When he was taken away by the police, he looked like he had had the floor removed under his feet without being prepared for the shock. It must have been a strange experience for this former darling of Brits to be treated like a common criminal and not having the Royal privileges that would make it possible for him to do something about it. He always struck me as being arrogant, and I didn't like his attitude in the interview, but this photo made me feel his situation as something "commonly felt" by humans of all kinds of social standing, and I felt sorry for him. Also, I feel sorry for his daughters, but not yet for his ex-wife, Fergie, because she did have some weird financial ties with Epstein.

The Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie with their mother, Sarah






 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Wikipedia 


Saturday, April 4, 2026

Poem by Else Cederborg: "Echoes"

 


 

Echoes


Echoes go so well with lives

with love, with fates

even with humanities

no more heavyhanded clue than an echo

shall - shall not

love - love not


Love to the drums of doom

success - failure, success - failure

all of it echoes

been there, done that

too old to un-remember former loves

those memories cost heavy duties

all of them love-killers


ALL rights reserved

© EC