I started blogging in February 2003 and have made it habit to blog almost everyday. This page is where I note down my thoughts, opinions and critique of almost everything. Please note that this is an adult blog and would require the reader to be thick-skinned. Oh, and some of the stuff here may be gay related so proceed at your own risk. No refund given for offence taken.
...thrills, spills & flatliners
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WEBLOGS I READ
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Same-sex marriages have finally become a reality in California on Monday. Two solemnisations were the focus of media attention, but the one that moved me most was that of octogenarian lesbian couple Phyllis Lyon (83) and Del Martin (87) in San Francisco.
They met and fell in love five decades ago when being seen as queer was dangerous and holding hands in public was unthinkable. What a journey it must have been for them: from forming the Daughters of Bilitis, considered the first lesbian rights group in the United States, to witnessing the gay liberation movement that transformed the city and now this, marriage.
What a sight it must have been: Phyllis Lyon pushing Del Martin in a wheelchair into the office of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom who had the honour of marrying them (again).
This is actually the second time Mayor Newsom married them. The first was in 2004 after the mayor ordered that marriage licenses be given to same-sex couples who requested them. They were however nullified by the California Supreme Court on 12 August 2004. In May this year, the same court ruled that the ban was unconstitutional and this set the stage for Monday's celebration.
What remains unknown is whether Californian voters will overturn the court's decision in November's election. I hope not. In Phyllis' words after the August 2004 nullification, "After being together for more than 50 years, it is a terrible blow to have the rights and protections of marriage taken away from us. At our age, we do not have the luxury of time."
Sir Edmund Hilary, the first man who conquered Mt Everest with his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay, died today of a heart attack at a Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand. He was 88 years old.
Unknown to a lot of people, he was also responsible for setting up the Himalayan trust during his time as New Zealand's High Commissioner to India. This trust built schools, hospitals, bridges, etc for the Sherpas in their remote region of Nepal. Ever shy of publicity and fame, it was to this organisation that he poured in lots of time and effort. Sadly, his wife Louise and one of his daughters Belinda died in a plane crash while en route to meet him during one of his hospital building projects.
He is survived by his second wife June, son Peter, daughter Sarah and six grandchildren.
This one is set in Decatur Georgia where a school brings together American children and those of refugees from 40 or so war-torn countries and works darn hard to educate them. The cultural exposure that all of them get and the friendships they develop are nothing short of amazing.
All this in a formerly white-only suburb that was historically one of the bastions of the Ku Klux Klan.
A lot of these kids have seen or experienced things that no kids should ever have to go through. And this brings more challenges to the ever patient teachers who have to coax and comfort them. And I guess it helps that some of the staff also had first hand experiences of living as refugees or escaping war situations, like for example the lunchroom lady from Srebrenica who was driven from the town during the Serbian massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian men and boys.
Do read the story and watch the video of Dante Ramirez, a white American boy and his Burmese refugee friend Soung Oo Hlaing.
I guess this is one of the things that still make America a beacon of tolerance and diversity despite many current evidences to the contrary. Yes, it is still capable of opening its heart and arms in an amazing way.
They may not be gay, but at least this time round, they didn't just stand around and let the bullies win.
13 September 2007 | TheChronicleHerald.ca 'I'VE STOOD AROUND TOO LONG' Central Kings students wear pink to send bullies a message By Ian Fairclough - Valley Bureau
CAMBRIDGE - Two students at Central Kings Rural High School (in Nova Scotia) fought back against bullying recently, unleashing a sea of pink after a new student was harassed and threatened when he showed up wearing a pink shirt.
The Grade 9 student arrived for the first day of school last Wednesday and was set upon by a group of six to 10 older students who mocked him, called him a homosexual for wearing pink and threatened to beat him up.
The next day, Grade 12 students David Shepherd and Travis Price decided something had to be done about bullying....
Read the rest of the story in the links below. At least these kids have enough moral fibre to take the initiative to stand and denounce, albeit in their own way, what was obviously wrong and reprehensible. Kudos to them and to the rest of the student population for joining in.
There were two articles I read recently that got my attention.
The first one was written by Theresa Tan of the Straits Times and was part of a multi-page feature on China's (notably Hainan in this feature) preoccupation of having male progenies over female. Story after story spoke of the desperate measures some couples resort to get a son or a village full of bachelors who are bearing the brunt of an ever decreasing pool of potential brides.
However, the bright spark was the story of the Yao couple, two peasants who are practically living hand to mouth. But what set them apart from their peers is that they have been accepting unwanted and discarded baby girls and have brought them up with hardly any outside help. Sometimes, even going by with only two meals a day, usually plain noodles or buns, but the girls would get three meals of rice and other cooked dishes.
In time, some friends and relatives chipped in by either adopting some of the girls or helping to take care of them.
"Boys and girls are the same. Both are lives".
The other is an op-ed that was written by Uzodinma Iweala for the New York Post entitled "Stop Trying To 'Save' Africa".
It is an interesting and different perspective of the whole "Save Africa" cause célèbre that is currently all the rage in first-world western nations.
His contention is that there seems to be a certain throwback to the old colonial days when missionaries were sent to Africa to introduce them to education, Jesus Christ and "civilisation."
No doubt such help is appreciated by those receiving it, but the imbalance inherent of such a programme seems rather obvious. You have the spot light cast on Bono, Madonna, Angelina Jolie or some other celebrity while Africans regardless of the amount of work they do for their brethrens are cast either as props or supporting actors.
I have to admit that my image of Africa has been coloured by the very campaigns and programmes that were set up by well-intentioned celebrities or political personalities to alleviate some of the problems they face. To me, it seems Africa is a helpless continent that needs external intervention to save them from themselves.
Yes, I, an Asian who is a descendant of the very people who were once the subject races of "well-intentioned" British colonialist have unknowingly bought into this neo-colonial belief of western superiority over the backward and infighting tribes of Africa.
And I believe that it is this very idea of western cultural and intellectual superiority that colours a lot of their views and foreign policies regarding Asia, Africa and the Middle-East. The IMF and the World Bank are prime examples.
This leads to the question of whether colonialism as we know it in history is really over. Are our minds, ideas, cultures, beliefs and perspective still colonised by the west. It seems the answer is a resounding "yes".
Then this would bring up the next few questions that remain to be answered: Is it for the better? Will the world be forever divided inequitably between the west and the rest? And is Uzodinma Iweala too unrealistic for his own good?
Though I don't know if "happy birthday" is inappropriate considering that they have extended your home imprisonment by another year recently. As of today, she has been detained for more 11 years.
"So Suu Kyi's courage is the courage to sacrifice her own happiness and a comfortable life so that, through her struggle, she might win the right of an entire nation to seek happy and comfortable lives. It is the absolute expression of selflessness. Paradoxically, in sacrificing her own liberty, she strengthens its cry and bolsters its claim for the people she represents." - Gordon Brown, "Courage: Eight Portraits"
And love is not the easy thing The only baggage you can bring... And love is not the easy thing.... The only baggage you can bring Is all that you can't leave behind
And if the darkness is to keep us apart And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off And if your glass heart should crack And for a second you turn back Oh no, be strong
Walk on, walk on What you got they can't steal it No they can't even feel it Walk on, walk on... Stay safe tonight
You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been A place that has to be believed to be seen You could have flown away A singing bird in an open cage Who will only fly, only fly for freedom
Walk on, walk on What you've got they can't deny it Can't sell it, can't buy it Walk on, walk on Stay safe tonight
And I know it aches And your heart it breaks And you can only take so much Walk on, walk on
Home... hard to know what it is if you've never had one Home... I can't say where it is but I know I'm going home That's where the hurt is
I know it aches How your heart it breaks And you can only take so much Walk on, walk on
Leave it behind You've got to leave it behind All that you fashion All that you make All that you build All that you break All that you measure All that you steal All this you can leave behind All that you reason All that you sense All that you speak All you dress up All that you scheme... (U2 - Walk On)
Oh my fucking gawd... I can't believe this. Almost makes me ashamed to be a Chinese.
To cut to the chase, police raided a brick factory in Shanxi owned by the son of the local Communist Party. There they found workers who have been held virtual prisoners and were practically slaves. They had to work 20 hours a day with no pay and with only bread and water for food. They don't even have water to bathe and all them smelt foul and were so caked in dirt that it could be scrapped off with a knife. A few of them are so traumatized that the only thing they can remember is their first name.
It's so ironic that a communist country that is supposed to champion the poor proletariats end up being like the very greedy and inhumane capitalist and bourgeois they used to vilify and persecute.
I just saw this on my friend's LJ and thought I'd share it with you all here. It's a short and precise study on the relative cost of things in the first and third world. Food for thought.
I saw this YouTube video on my friend's LJ yesterday. Do watch it. It's a very powerful story of a love of a father for his son. Very moving despite the Christian overtone. Brought a tear to my eye.
You can read more about the father and son Team Hoyt here.
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