Scared?

Women's Manifesto:

We admit that our situation in today’s world continues to be tenuous given that we are less willing or able to pursue an objective by threatening death and destruction. We realise that most men will agree that this is a good quality. We therefore will coordinate our efforts world wide to reach all levels of society, whether as Femmes Democrates or Feministas, to speak up against male rule, brutality, bias, double standards, exploitation, social injustice and environmental degradation. By joining efforts we will prevail over the aggressive male. For that we will open our ranks to men as listeners and contributors but we will not fall in the trap of seeking their approval by all means. We will be impervious to derision and slander. Men have erred for hundred of thousands of years, why should we get it all right from the onset. Easy and steady. It is safe to say that we cannot do worse than them.

Back to the Books guys!!

Whenever I hear about this reheated nonsense from the Republican anti-choice section (including the presidential running mate, Ryan) about ‘illegal’ versus what?...legal rape?.... ‘God wanted pregnancies by means of rape’ as well as claims about a woman’s ability to ‘shut that whole thing down’ (what exactly do you mean by that, Toddy??) to prevent impregnation in the event of a sexual assault, I am - to say the least - confused. Why are the befuddled thoughts of these old farts (the quotes stem from speeches by Ryan, Mourdock and Akin respectively) given any consideration other than as a proof of their insanity? In fact, why are these men in the limelight at all? And, frankly, how could it possibly be that they are running for office? What a sad nation that not only continues to listen to this low caliber Republican babble!! Or, differently put, why isn’t there a much more needed debate going on about extending welfare for single parent (mostly female) headed households, maternity leave, child support as well as quality child care, while at the same time improving the prosecution of sexual offenders, enforcing tougher sentences and introducing hormonal sterilization as a measure to better protect society from hormonally challenged aggressive males? Why are they and, sadly, even we more up-to-date Old Worlders paying more attention to this pathetic male ramble than proposing palatable solutions to the underlying issue of trying to reduce abortion rates by improving the lives of mothers? Someone needs to do their homework!!

I dare you!

When I was still into anthropology years ago, I used to read about the principle of “culture vs. nature” and wondered, how one could possibly separate the two. Since then, I have looked more into evolutionary psychology, human evolution and even dabbled in neurology and determined that all human cultures are manifestations of one and the same thing: human nature. The nuances and even the seemingly striking differences between cultures barely cover the overarching similarities. Just have another peek yourself. What you see, if you dare look, may not be pretty though!

I Stand Corrected!!

So last night after posting my scathing remarks about the screen writers’ plight, Matt took me to watch a film to prove me wrong. He succeeded and that does not happen often. But watching “Ruby Sparks” was not only entertaining it was truly beautiful. Zoe Kazan, screen writer, producer and lead role, amazingly spun a clever plot of surreal events around the main character, the celebrated up and coming literary genius Calvin W. There is not a moment when one doesn’t beg to know why the impossible should not be possible. After all, the story is told with such aplomb that it keeps the audience spellbound, hoping that the enchantment will never fade. And it doesn’t - Zoe keeps her promise of a great story!!! Well done!

Let me Bore you!

The trickiest thing in writing is to develop the plot without anyone guessing what’s up next while at the same time keeping the audience engaged and willing to believe that the turn of events is likely or at least possible. I never liked the “suspense of believe” element in stories whether in writing or on screen. At the end of every movie I habitually scroll back in my mind to the opening scenes to see whether the characters’ initial actions are believable with what we know about them and their circumstances in hindsight. Only few films pass the test and I wonder how the writers get away with it. But then, we all like to just let ourselves move along with a story, we want to trust the writers’ genius to entertain us and take us into a parallel reality. Yet, I can’t help wondering whether it is it me getting older or whether movie plots really are getting dumber?

Bucket please!!

There is this guy, Kucklick is his name, who recently had the great idea (or maybe he was just out of ideas) to turn our human experience on its head and make it the topic of his doctorate. In a long winded, tiresome and utterly pointless babble he put forth the thesis that much of what ails our modern civilisation can be explained by a wave of male-bashing that set in sometime during the early nineteenth century. He quotes a number of philosophers who at the time (and for the first time ever in human history) ventured to say that men have a latent tendency towards violent and asocial behaviour. How that could either turn into a doctorate or be published by a reputable publisher in Germany is puzzling indeed. But then, it's not easy to work in publishing these days. Lowering one's standards is one way of staying afloat, I suppose.

Seven years of Jules

"Wow, I can't believe it, seven years of Jules," Zoe blurts out as her brother takes a deep breath to blow out the candles on his giant No 7 b'day cake. She means it. "Yeah, thanks for being there, guys," Jules graciously replies. And he means it too.

Families to the Front

It is interesting to see how the gap between our expectations of what childhood should be like and what childhood actually looks like is widening once again. In the 19th century governments across industrial nations were persuaded by their voters to provide affordable education for all children regardless of their socio-economic background. It was found that education was a public good that would benefit not just the individual but also society as a whole. Since then, tax payers have been asked to contribute to state funded education to create the first co-educational compulsory state education system ever. In the wake of that development new attention was given to teaching methods and child development. Alternative approaches were formulated namely by Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner, to emphasize the importance of the formative years on the later development. So-called reform schools shot up especially around industrial areas and in less privileged neighborhoods. Enabling all children to achieve their full potential was deemed worthy of public support. However, today, we once again live in societies were a child’s lot in life depends on that of her or his parents’ pocketbook. As families have to fork over a good chunk of their income and savings to ensure their child receives quality education and care, children with less affluent backgrounds are left behind. Their education will derive mostly from a jumble of mass media, pop culture and the internet. Even though one educational report chases the next stating that children spend too much time in front of screens and not enough time on challenging subjects, engaging hobbies and sports, we now look mostly towards parents to provide them. And those who can manage, will do their best to oblige. They shuttle their offspring across suburban landscapes, they coach afternoon sports, arrange for trips to the museum and supervise homework. They get involved in parent teacher networks, they organize school fundraisers and they lobby for healthy school meals. After all, we do know what’s good for children. Why then have we stopped caring for them? All of them.

This Reminds Me...

The eye catches only a fraction of what is going on around us. We blink, we zoom in, we zone out and during all this time stuff is happening all around us. Our other senses try to fill in some of the gaps, our ears might take note of a car approaching although we haven’t spotted it yet. Our sense of smell might tell us that our neighbor is enjoying another night of barbecue while all we have in front of us is a slice of cold pizza. But more intriguingly, behind the world of senses, there is yet another information processor at work who diligently fills in the gaps. However, that one uses information based on our memory of past experiences. Unfortunately, that data base tends to be flawed, because memories are notoriously inaccurate. However, that does not discourage our left brain from actively producing scenarios that are as close to what might have happened as possible. Because, most of all, it likes a good story. The scary part is that everyone likes a good story and so we all amble through life with a rather sketchy concept of reality. Although designed to help us avoid repeat mistakes, this over zealous story teller can actually get us into trouble by alerting us when there is no reason for concern. It might tell us, for example, that our neighbor “always” barbecues on Sundays without “any” concern for others. Instead of completing the picture, our story telling brain is adding to it. It digs into our deep coffers of trauma and pain in trying to link the current experience to one of the past even if the match is not even close. While throughout evolution this principle must have kept us out of harms way, nowadays with our tightly knitted relations we tend to be overwhelmed with messages. Putting a lid on the chatter box may at times be a good idea.