Rants, raves, whinges… all of the above
Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death by an Iraqi court. I don't feel even he should suffer the death penalty, despite the atrocities he committed.
The burning question for me is, what will the Australian government's reaction be? Banning the death penalty locally is applaudable, but an acceptance of the practice internationally is pure hypocrisy, no matter who the victim is.
I had the most amazing afternoon. One of those mind-blowing, surreal situations, that give you an entirely new perspective on society.
But first, a bit of background. I recently joined AIESEC Sydney, which, to put it simply, is a student leadership organisation (the largest of its kind). I'm helping organise an event for the "Koori Kitchen" project, which one of our members is running to give indigenous Australian kids from the Redfern area experience in cooking and education about nutrition and food. I'm interviewing some indigenous people from schools and Universities in Sydney to prepare for this event.
Today, I interviewed a woman from UTS about indigenous cultural issues, and how we can make the most of this project and provide the biggest impact to the kids. I expected the interview to last 30 minutes, an hour at most. Instead, we spoke for close to 2 hours about issues ranging from teaching styles, food habits, the Stolen Generation, to prevalent problems in the education system and racism and discrimination that pervades our society even today.
I and my colleague walked away from the interview dumb-struck. How is it that we weren't aware of these issues? Is the rest of Australian society in the same situation? I found discussing it so incredibly interesting, and so incredibly complex, and clearly there are a plethora of issues that do not get the focus deserved.
I also believe that this was the very first time I have sat down and had a conversation with an indigenous Australian in my (almost) 22 years. That is frightening.
Some interesting points from the interview:
I'm still feeling buzzed from the interview. I have another two to do, and can't wait to learn more and pass it onto others!
Have you ever had a moment where an idea just seems to click into place? An epiphany, if you will. I was chatting to a friend tonight and had one of those moments. My mind is racing, and I'm trying to jot down all of my thoughts into VoodooPad at the moment. My head is spinning and I feel like I have mental diarrhoea. I LOVE it.
Then it hits me. My honours thesis is due in 7 weeks, then I'm pissing off to Asia for 2 months. The soonest I can actually dedicate a decent amount of time to this endeavour is likely to be 4 months away.
… and then my heart sinks. Dammit.
Over the past few months, I've been getting a number of calls on the landline from banks (Which Bank?), but instead of someone on the other end asking to speak to "such and such", I'm instead told that all of the operators are currently busy, and that I've been placed into a queue.
There are a few problems with this:
It's gotten to the point where I hear the message and hang up. If these companies aren't going to provide decent customer service (they shouldn't be ringing anyway) by putting an actual operator on the phone when they call, I don't want to have to deal with them or waste my time WAITING to deal with them!
All of my friends from uni are currently applying for next year's graduate positions, and one in particular was offered a job at a particularly large maker of… tobacco products, in sales/marketing and an above-average salary.
My first reaction to this was "no way", on the basis that he would be selling and marketing products that *ahem* cause the deaths of many, many people around the world. Additionally, any "increases" in sales performance are, in reality, hurting people. A 25% increase in sales year-over-year means 25% more people are likely to die of lung cancer from the product being sold.
So my question is, should ethics be involved in choosing an employer? Personally, ethics definitely should play a part in the choice, but is that an approach that every person should take?
Obviously, this is an extreme case, but I think the example can be extended to companies that aren't socially responsible. Are you selling out by taking the money and working for a company whose values you don't agree with?
I find myself spending a long time trying to figure out a particular problem (without much success), but I've noticed that I'm often most productive (or creative?) when I least expect it:
In these situations, an idea pops into my head, my mind starts racing - it's like a fog has been lifted away - and the solutions to the problem just "appear", one after the other. Perhaps it's because (unlike every other second of the day), I'm not thinking/worrying about anything, and I'm able to really think about the problems (without interruptions and other worries). It's an interesting feeling, anyway.
(Here ends my, er… philosophical quota for the month.)
The New York Times has a great article on how diabetes (both Type 1 and 2) are on the rise in New York: "Diabetes and Its Awful Toll Quietly Emerge as a Crisis"
The article warns about the many problems that people face with diabetes, and how more and more children are developing Type 2 diabetes (previously thought to only affect "older" people). It seems that the disease can also be inherited, which is worrying, since a cousin on my father's side has Type 1, and an aunt on my mother's side has Type 2.
I came across a BBC article today on a row over the printing of a few caricatures in a Danish newspaper, one of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad with a headdress shaped like a bomb. Although this occurred last September, it seems to have caused a bit of outrage. I see two reasons for this:
That's pretty harsh, if you ask me. The caricatures were re-published in other newspapers across Europe, and many Arab countries and groups have expressed their outrage. I say "rightfully so". The chief editor in charge of the France Soir paper (which re-published the caricatures) was recently fired in response to the publishing of the caricatures, and people now have their knickers in a knot because they feel it goes against the ideals of democracy, free speech and freedom of the press! Fair enough, but what about respecting other people and their beliefs?
If Jesus or the Virgin Mary were published in such a way (let's say with a bomb strapped to the chest) in an Arabic newspaper, the Western world would be up in arms about it! Swap the perspective on that and we might understand why so many Islamic people are furious. Free speech and democracy are fine, but that doesn't mean it's acceptable to go around disrespecting people and their faith.
Funnily enough, there's a Wikipedia article on this.
(via Fraser)
UPDATE:
Ehsan Masood wrote that:
As a writer, do I have the right in law to caricature other people if the net result is merely to cause offence? Absolutely. But will I exercise that right knowing that these "other people" are also likely to be my friends and neighbours, my parents' neighbours, my children's friends, people I have known for decades? The answer is self-evident. No.
I think that pretty much sums it up…
A couple of people have noted that I haven't posted much to this blog. Don't know whether that's a good or bad thing, though. 
The truth is, I've been extremely busy with everything else in my life that I haven't had a huge amount of time to write on the blog.
So here's what I've been up to:
That's about it, really. I've been trying to do more exercise, as I sit in a chair all day and night, and that can't be healthy. Soccer is great, and I hope to play a game of squash each week with a friend.
I would also like to do more with my time. I don't feel that I'm very socially responsible, and would like to be. I live a pretty peachy, comfortable life, and I want to help others who haven't had the opportunities I have been given (yes, it's cliche, deal with it :)). How I'm going to do that, I'm not sure, yet.
A couple of friends and I went down to Melbourne over the weekend (more on that later, when I get the photos up). It was a great weekend, but a small event on Sunday afternoon really stood out in my mind.
We had just parked along the Esplanade at St. Kilda Beach, when a person from the car that had just vacated the same spot walked over and handed us their all-day parking ticket. We were stunned! Nothing like that ever happens in Sydney. To make it even weirder, as we hopped out of the car, another person walked over and gave us one more all-day ticket. In turn, when we left, we gave one ticket to the people in the car parking in our old spot and the other to another car on the street. They were just as flabbergasted as us!
Somehow, that just made the weekend. A person went out of their way to help us out, and we in turn felt motivated to do the same for others. It's funny how that works. I just wish some Sydney-siders could learn from this - by giving up seats on public transport, allowing someone to get onto the train before you (instead of barging through), or just holding the door open. Simple, short actions, really. It makes a world of difference.
