150,000 iraqi dead. I wonder how it is that we haven’t truly kept track until now. The standard word on iraq is that this is not a war on the people of iraq – only the insurgents. But if that were truly the case we would mourn each civilian death there as we mourn our soldiers here…our civilians here. To not count or mourn the civilians there is to say without words that they are our enemy… that we do not care.
It isn’t that I don’t understand the difficulty in reporting such numbers in the midst of a war that is tearing the country to shreds,
“Accurate figures on the number of people who have died in the Iraq conflict have long been the subject of debate. Police and hospitals often give widely conflicting figures of those killed in major bombings. In addition, death figures are reported through multiple channels by government agencies that function with varying efficiency.” (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061110/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq)
I think my concern is that we seem to care so little. The idea of people being killed on their way to shops, to school, to sleep…the idea that in the daily progression of life people become unspoken and unseen causalities of an unpopular war. At the very least we should want to know.
Tags: soapbox
i’m staring out the window and gazing at what can only be described as “spastic” weather. New Zealand is the king of spastic weather. This morning the clouds were thick and by the time I walked outside the sun had come out but the wind whipped up into unbelievable gusts. And then rain fell from the sky where there were no visible clouds and shortly afterwards the sky opened up and has remained open for most of the day.
It reminds me of my life right now. The constant changing of events within moments of each other. Last night my “landlord” came it to inform me that my room is rented to someone else as of next week…um…yeah…didn’t know that. And then I got an e-mail confirming that my class is NOT being offered next semester. And of course there was the chat with both my school and my loan company with no one having a proper record of my loan money.
My life is in a bit of chaos – and I am left blowing in the wind, basking in the sun, soaking in the rain…
Tags: school, transition
i’d like to write some fun stuff now but stress seems to have taken over my mind body and soul. it seems that the slightest thing – what should be the easiest thing – becomes this monumental task incvolving way more effort than i ever though necessary.
today was the day that classes opened for registration at tulane. i got online and eagerly searched for the three i need…two of them go off without a hitch…but the third…
i can take one of two classes. usually one of them is offered one semester and the other the next. of course today…neither was listed. more than that…i’ve been trying to get in contact with my school for more than a month now on some loan issues. no reply. so what should have just been a routine registration has instead become an email writing campaign to find out what is going on.
the idea of still not graduating next semester is almost more than i can take…actually it may be more than i can take.
Tags: transition
This weekend was the beginning of my social butterfly stage. I’m not exactly sure what causes it other than lethargy…but whenever I’m about to move I get caught up in a whirl of social activities. All of a sudden my weekends are studded with events and the list of other things I need/want/ am supposed to do gets longer and longer.
Friday kicked it off with the spacifix concert (LOVE THEM) where, despite my old age I rocked it (albeit progressively quieter as time inched toward 2)! Saturday was all about recuperating and studying (kind of) and Saturday was off to the skytower to have lunch for a friend’s birthday. Stunning views and a good time.
Of course next week I’m spending the weekend with a friend in another town. The following week is dinner at a friends, a party the following week. Then the plan is to go canoeing now a river for three days…and that doesn’t include rotarua and the bay of islands…all things I still haven’t done. And my time is getting thinner and thinner. It is amazing how fast time goes when you realize you aren’t quite ready for “what next”.
so i finished it…my spss paper. i can’t say its good. i can say i learned something…whether it was enough to make the paper make sense i’ll find out in a week to a month. we’ll see then. so a load off of me and now there is room for yet another load…my exam for the same class. the irony – these last two things are worth 70% of my grade. seems wrong on every level. the only saving grace is that here 50% is still passing.
of course…after tuesday’s exam i have to get back to my job. before i get home i have quite a hefty “to do” list. i need to…
- pull together my portfolio of my work for class
- finish my report for my capstone for tulane
- enroll in classes at tulane
- apply for TWO differnt fellowships
- pull together two speeches
- write a final report for a work project
- back up my harddrive
and yet, even as i know my plate is full i sit here typing this…preparing to go see the spacifix and contemplating how good my bed will feel afterwards.
It isn’t difficult for me to get caught up in my life here in zed and forget that I’m in another country. I mean, yes, the demographics are WIDELY different than what I would find in downtown Houston, Dallas, or New Orleans…I just don’t think to myself every second of the day, “You’re in another country.”
And unlike living in South Africa or visiting Guatemala, the differences aren’t pronounced enough to shout that for me. There are no roosters in duet with donkeys at all hours of the day and night, there is no corn growing in my backyard, and my shower is actually a shower and has hot water.
Even so, zed does remind me in little ways that “I’m not in Kansas anymore.”
For instance, yesterday on the shuttle from work the driver seemed to relish in the idea that we had no front brakes. Hear me now…I don’t mean it was time to get them checked or they were starting to give…I mean they had gone out earlier that day. There was nothing left of them. And yet, we still drove along, him braking with the emergency brake and continually marvelling – out loud – that we had no brakes but that we shouldn’t worry…oncoming traffic be damned.
Another reminder happened a few days ago when I went to the doctor. I had some routine tests run and when the doctor was finished with me she handed me my labs and told me to make sure I drop them off right now.
Let me be clear here. I don’t mean she handed me paper. I do not mean she nudged me to walk down a hall and hand them to a nurse. She handed me my labs, in a plastic bag, and directed me to walk them down the stairs, through the university, up symmonds street and to the medical lab near my house. That just wouldn’t happen at home.
Tags: newzealand, travel
the top muslim cleric in australia recently gave a speech that is causing outrage. he blamed “imodestly” dressed women for rape saying that it was 90% their fault and likening uncovered women to uncovered meat. needless to say that folks are emotional.
on the today show it was mentioned in passing that there appears to be outrage within the muslim community there as well – not just outside of it. and i can’t help but hope that internal outrage is given the chance to speak to make sure people don’t lump all muslims into one voice.
as to his argument…i’ve heard it before. a friend of mine from university had converted and we debated frequently various ideas from politics to religion. one day he tried to get me on board with dressing 3/4ths covered.
my retort was then and is now, that if man is to claim himself (and this sense i do mean himself) a free willed and thinking being he cannot claim not to have control over his actions. people are faced every day with opportunities to do right and to do wrong…to do what they believe or to turn away. whether it be to eat pork or do drugs or have sex before marriage or to give to charity…they are all choices humans are equipped to make.
and when i fall short i am only permitted to blame others in a court of law. when it comes to me and God, well blame falls away and only i’m left standing.
yesterday S and i got into a conversation about halal meat. there are different interpretations of halal and with so many muslims from so many different countries and cultures here it is easy to wonder how so many opinions on such a seemingly simple topic can emerge.
so S got online and began looking for information and was pleased with the information he found.
for my part, this was simply further proof that in religion it is important to question not your God but the people who claim to speak for your God. interpretation in religion has been used to justify slavery and wars…why not to justify rape? not because it is written in islam or christianity but becuase a person is not God and faith is personal.
noam chomsky said in understanding power,
usually you find out what you think by interaction with people, otherwise you don’t know what you think – you just hear something, and maybe you accept it, or you don’t pay any attention to it, or something like that…and you learn by trying out ideas and hearing reactions to them, and hearing what other people have to say about thetopic…
i mention this because some people use fear as a tool/weapon. “if you had more faith you would believe what i’m saying”. but my parents’ pastour used to talk about questioning not as detriment to faith but to strengthener of faith. i wish people would ask questions, read their holy books, pray…for themselves, not because someone told them to.
simply following instructions can get you into a lot of trouble, just ask germany.
i nagged my mother tirelessly. i wanted her to work out. and she responded like a true champion. she hit the gym with a zeal and dedication that made me proud. next on my list has been my sister. equally, she has met the challenge…hitting the gym and looking to my mother for inspiration.
now the nagging finger must turn…to myself.
i’m lazy. combine that with sluggishness and you have me…a lazy slug. and i know that i have to move in order to have the energy to move but i still find myself sitting inside my room peering out at the lush greenery that auckland has to offer me to wander through (at the very least).
hypocrisy aside – i need to do this for my health. i need my heart to get some exercise and i need to burn off some sugar so i can create some energy so i don’t want to nap at 3 in the afternoon.
any suggestions to hep get me started are greatly appreciated. remember…i’m the laziest of lazies…
with love,
the slug!
the debate rages on in the US with most people oblivious – it seems – to the reality that it is not going on anywhere else.
nigger. the power of it mobilizes schools of thoughts. rappers who consider it in all its variations (with an “a” or and “er” ) to have meanings that they are privy to using to express themselves. oprah who, idealisticly speaking, thinks it should be banned from spoken written words… and possibly thought as well.
and i can see both sides. typically my emotional radar is low key despite having opinions…like, uing it casually opens it up to anyone to use or that you cannot ban words. and even in that thought process i wonder at the notion of free speech…and it gets complicated.
but what rages me is not this argument in the US, it is the lack of this argument in the rest of the world.
there is a young auckland band that just got a record deal. i love their music and they are amazing on stage. made up of 8 pacific isalnd guys and a loan white guy, they use nigga/nigger in their language. footage of them in LA for the first time showed them on the balcony of their hotel pretending they were on mtv yelling out “we’re here on cribs nigger, what”.
and i cringed.
and in south africa, i was greeted with “what’s up my nigger?” and variations of that PAINTED on the fronts of the local taxis.
and its only a word…its only a word…but in the context of an international world that seems to have embraced a very narrow vision of the US it makes my skin crawl.
Tags: soapbox
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