Greasy Seasonings!
Filed under: Acting, Cafe Critique, Food, I'm not sure, Life, Literature, Mates, Politics, Remembrance, Yada Yada Yada, nostalgia, poetry
To all who have visited my site (mispelt ’sight’), and even those who haven’t, may your seasons be unmentionably pleasant.
Happy Holidays
Freedom for Aung San Suu Kyi
I’ve been thinking about the terrible plight of Aung San Suu Kyi. I received an sms from Amnesty International and what is happening in Burma is so nauseating and disgusting that I have to speak about it.
Some nutter, an American Mormon, stalks Suu Kyi two weeks before she’s due for release after being jailed for 16 of the last 19 years (it may be 13 of 19, I can’t remember) for the horrible crime of being democratically elected!!! Now she’s been arrested for breaking the conditions of her “detention”.
If we really want to get depressed, we need do nothing more than consider through history what human beings have done to each other. What someone called “Man’s inhumanity to Man”. We may think that if we are selfless, honest, virtuous, generous and any other virtue we can think of, that we are living a good life, and that our goodwill will prevail. There are those who operate on a totally different paradigm, and they have no trouble sleeping at night. Read more
Egalitarianism
Equal rights for all. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Those who promote these ideals sometimes fail to consider or understand the obstacles preventing them.
A simple case in point. A couple sitting at a sidewalk cafe. At a table behind them, someone sits down and starts smoking. A patron asks politely that the smoker desist. The smoker asks why, and the man says he finds the smoke irritating. The smoker says that he’s allowed to smoke at this table as it has ashtrays for the purpose, but in any case the smoker says he’ll quit after this one smoke.
I leave that one with you. How about this? An Actor is to perform a scenario – a party scene. Read more
Bourgeoisie
I suppose it’s quite easy to denounce our bourgeois society. The very term is derogatory. My struggle is that of the misfit in this ocean of mediocrity and it seems that I’m surrounded by them. I find myself shouted down, almost at every turn, by those narrow-minded, fearful and controlling others who seem to have no problem with your opinion, as long as it’s theirs as well.
But wait one minute. Could it be that the very thing I complain of is something of which, I myself, may bear some guilt? I know that my taste in music, for example, is probably quite “mainstream”. I’m not saying I’m a secret member of the Bucks Fizz fan club, but what I don’t know about jazz, rap, hip-hop etc., could fill a library twice over.
My reading list, although certainly leaning towards progressive, liberal thinking, is hardly modern. Nor is my taste in art. Even my favourite movies are quite old, though I hasten to add, not, in my humble opinion, dated. Read more
Australia?
There are a lot of Australian flags fluttering in the breeze these days. Our national day strikes on the 26th January. Fireworks, barbecues, ‘drunk and disorderly conduct’ stories in the press… the usual stuff. Some enterprising person has come up with a flag that clips to the window of the car. Hmmm, lots of them around.
I sometimes think that the nationalist / patriotic fervor is not with whom most Aussies identify. I could be wrong. Some people I know have feelings ranging from ambivalent or embarrassed to disgusted and hostile. I share none of these feelings but I think if someone asked me I’d probably lean towards feelings of suspicion, similar to the feelings around Christmas. It’s probably OK for the kiddies but it’s not for me. Thanks anyway but I don’t really trust it. Read more
Ostracized
The problem with speaking my thoughts and feelings is that someone may politely tap me on the shoulder and mention that I might want to “toughen up, Princess”, to quote the oft-repeated phrase in the Mining community. In other words, issues get dismissed or minimized. And I get ostracized.
Nothing shuts me up quicker. And I s’pose that’s the point. So I clam up and my feelings sit inside and nothing get’s done. Good one.
I’ve heard so many times that the reason guys don’t talk about their feelings is because they don’t want to be seen as weak. This is not accurate at all. I’ve tried to express my feelings many times and I’ve been told, essentially, to shut up. So it’s not the speaker, it’s the listener that’s the problem. If I’m not being listened to, I learn to shut up.
But this is no good. No good at all. Because it doesn’t go away. Read more
