Worst. Lie. Ever.
28/12/2008
We all know politicians lie, and quite possibly never stop lying. Usually, however, you get some sense that maybe they hope you'll believe them, or they've achieved such self-deception that they believe it themselves, or something. Something to redeem them from the sheer obvious stupidity of this.
It's a pretty dull story, really - Bishops accuse Government of not doing enough to help the poor (hands up if you're truly surprised), Government says "oh no, we're wonderful people really". But in amongst that was this little wonder, courtesy of Lab. MP Sir Stuart Bell:
It is also nothing short of nonsense to say that the government's policies are designed to win a future election.
I'd like you to take a moment to think about that. Imagine hearing him say that. Imagine watching him keep a straight face whilst claiming that government policies aren't aimed at re-election.
WHAT... THE... FUCK?
Christmas [hug]s
24/12/2008
If you're someone who stops by here, then I'm almost certain I want to send you a [hug] for Christmas, along with the fervent wish that you enjoy a peaceful, joyful few days... and aren't related to a vicar ;-)
Much love
Not impressed
21/12/2008
Many apologies for the extremely intermittent availability of this site for the last few days... As of late the reliability of the electricity supply around here and my ability to concentrate on work have been battling it out to see which is the most abominable. I think I'm winning, but it's not by much: there've been at least 3 power-cuts of over 2 hours in the last 48, and one or two smaller ones; meanwhile I fell asleep reading one of the sociology texts yesterday.
Unfortunately, we don't really know why the electrons keep ignoring our house (and others around). There are some men digging up the road nearby, so it might be something to do with them, but the last power cut started late saturday night, which seemed an odd time for them to be working. If it's not that, I haven't any ideas, which means that I'm completely in the dark as to when it might start being trustworthy again. If I turn up in Baghdad, you'll know I wanted some reliability in my utilities provision.
In happier news, tonight I'm heading off to London to see some of the wonderful people I met in Tanzania. Can't wait :-)
Dusting
16/12/2008
Heavens... I know I said it would go quiet, but I didn't expect the silence to be quite so absolute. The problem, of course, is that I'm veering from one extreme to another. In cambridge I do lots of things that it'd be fun to write about, but have no time to write. Now that I'm home, very little has happened at all (save me doing lots of greek homework and starting an essay), and I've either forgotten the things I would have written before, or they've lost their relevance.
There is one exception to the nothing much that has happened so far this holiday: a couple of days after getting back, I went to see my old gang playing at the Oxford Centre for Music. Flute choir were as good as ever, and I have to say that Emma and Amy raised a big smile inside me, when the group first came in - I could see Amy whispering "is that Giles?"... It's always good for the ego to notice people who're still pleased to see you ;-)
And I suppose the odd interesting thing happens to me, even when I'm just reading. The essay I'm reading for is on religion as a badge of identity for immigrant communities in the UK, and one of the issues that keeps coming up is marriage. To what extent is arranged marriage the norm, and importantly for today at least, to what extent do people in these communities feel the need to marry within their own group? Generally, the answer to that second question has been that it's the norm - and not just because parents/elders say you should. I've struggled to understand that: I can see why you might want to marry someone who shares your religion, cos that's a commitment to a set of values you want to live by, and being married to someone who disagrees would make living by those tenets difficult. But why does it also apply to race (and the literature agrees that it does)? Then I realised that it's for just the same reasons. Also evident from the studies I've read is that there's a widely held view among, for example, the Pakistani community in London, that their white peers don't share the same moral values in every respect - a common example being that western women are "too promiscuous". Whether this view of fundamentally different values is true or not doesn't matter.
The existence of that perspective makes it possible for me to understand why a young Pakistani Muslim would feel unable to marry outside that community. I've worked through to an empathy I just couldn't manage before. Now, it may be that I'm slow to have missed this. It may, on the other hand, be that I'm entirely wrong in my assessment - that the motivation for "internal" marriages is entirely different (this analysis the result of me putting 2 and 2 together from the literature, not a fully-fledged position set out by anyone I've read). If the first is true then big deal: I'm slow sometimes, and I've lived most of my life in scarily white bits of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. If the latter is true then.... I guess I'll have to start all over again, not really able to empathise after all :-S.