Here are two interesting articles about the issue: Racist Hunger Games Fans Are Very Disappointed and I See White People: Hunger Games and a Brief History of Cultural Whitewashing.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Hunger Games
I recently watched the Hunger Games movie, only to find out afterwards that there had been some backlash at the casting of black actors in certain roles. People never cease to amaze me.
Here are two interesting articles about the issue: Racist Hunger Games Fans Are Very Disappointed and I See White People: Hunger Games and a Brief History of Cultural Whitewashing.
Here are two interesting articles about the issue: Racist Hunger Games Fans Are Very Disappointed and I See White People: Hunger Games and a Brief History of Cultural Whitewashing.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Annual Human Rights Conference
On Friday I attended NICEM's annual Human Rights Conference. Held in Belfast with speakers from the UK, Ireland and Switzerland, the conference focused on the relation between the European Convention of Human Rights and the Strasbourg Court.
The full programme and notes from the speakers' presentations can be accessed here. I particularly enjoyed the presentation by Gabrielle Toggenburg, programme manager at the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, on the Lisbon Treaty.
Plus it turns out you can get an app for the Charter of Fundamental Rights of The European Union. Check it out here: fra.europa.eu/charterapp
The full programme and notes from the speakers' presentations can be accessed here. I particularly enjoyed the presentation by Gabrielle Toggenburg, programme manager at the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, on the Lisbon Treaty.
Plus it turns out you can get an app for the Charter of Fundamental Rights of The European Union. Check it out here: fra.europa.eu/charterapp
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Racist Comments
I just read this article by Field Negro about why he doesn't delete racist comments from his blog. And trust me, some of those comments are impressively racist.
"Those trolls could be your neighbor, your co-worker, or even the person you set next to in church . . . far too many of you so called progressive thinking people have been fooled into thinking that A-merry-ca is this forward thinking place full of enlightened people . . . The real A-merry-ca is a place filled with the kind of folks you see commenting on this web site on a daily basis. The real A-merry-ca is full of envy,hate, and "color aroused" angst brought on by ignorance and prejudice . . . me blocking their comments won't change how they feel in their hearts or how A-merry-cans, in general, feel about you and me."
"Those trolls could be your neighbor, your co-worker, or even the person you set next to in church . . . far too many of you so called progressive thinking people have been fooled into thinking that A-merry-ca is this forward thinking place full of enlightened people . . . The real A-merry-ca is a place filled with the kind of folks you see commenting on this web site on a daily basis. The real A-merry-ca is full of envy,hate, and "color aroused" angst brought on by ignorance and prejudice . . . me blocking their comments won't change how they feel in their hearts or how A-merry-cans, in general, feel about you and me."
Thursday, March 22, 2012
A bee in my bonnet
There are a couple of things on the news these days that make me yell wildly at the tv, ranting like a crazy person.
The story of Trayvon Martin, the black teenager, unarmed except for a pack of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea, who was shot by neighbourhood watch capitan George Zimmerman. Zimmerman claims that he shot Martin in self defence and has yet to be charged, the authorities in this case failing to realise that self-defence is an argument to be made in court after being charged, not an argument to prevent being charged in the first place. The dearth of reporting on this case in its first few weeks is appalling. It is only now that the FBI are getting involved that the news is hitting the mainstream media, despite the incident happening in February.
The other story that gets my goat is the new legislation around abortion and mandatory trans-vaginal ultrasounds in the American South. Nothing says it better than these Doonesbury cartoons, which have been banned by some news outlets. Similarly I get enraged when I hear arguments as to why women working for Catholic institutions in the USA shouldn't be entitled to free contraceptives as part of their insurance package. What has happened to women's rights?
Women "have settled for a cheap, knock-off version of gender revolution. Instead of equality at work and in the home, we settled for "choice", "flexibility" and an exciting array of badly paid part-time work to fit around childcare and chores." This article hits the nail on the head, explaining why we should get angry, fight back, take a stand.
The story of Trayvon Martin, the black teenager, unarmed except for a pack of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea, who was shot by neighbourhood watch capitan George Zimmerman. Zimmerman claims that he shot Martin in self defence and has yet to be charged, the authorities in this case failing to realise that self-defence is an argument to be made in court after being charged, not an argument to prevent being charged in the first place. The dearth of reporting on this case in its first few weeks is appalling. It is only now that the FBI are getting involved that the news is hitting the mainstream media, despite the incident happening in February.
The other story that gets my goat is the new legislation around abortion and mandatory trans-vaginal ultrasounds in the American South. Nothing says it better than these Doonesbury cartoons, which have been banned by some news outlets. Similarly I get enraged when I hear arguments as to why women working for Catholic institutions in the USA shouldn't be entitled to free contraceptives as part of their insurance package. What has happened to women's rights?
Women "have settled for a cheap, knock-off version of gender revolution. Instead of equality at work and in the home, we settled for "choice", "flexibility" and an exciting array of badly paid part-time work to fit around childcare and chores." This article hits the nail on the head, explaining why we should get angry, fight back, take a stand.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Friday Fling - The Best Articles I've Read This Week
Just one link this week, but it's a long one! Check out this New York Times article on How Companies Learn Your Secrets. Creepy yet interesting.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Wanderlust
I have to say that I have no desire to see the movie Wanderlust starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, however I was very taken by this article at cultureby.com.
The old career path was simple.
Fix on the objective. Commit body and soul. Keep your eyes on the prize. Stay at it.
No experimenting with other options. No idle curiosity. No putzing around. In sum, no career wanderlust.
Make a choice. Stick with it.
The old career path was simple.
Fix on the objective. Commit body and soul. Keep your eyes on the prize. Stay at it.
No experimenting with other options. No idle curiosity. No putzing around. In sum, no career wanderlust.
Make a choice. Stick with it.
It is no surprise that this article stuck with me. I'm in the midst of a (rather difficult) career transition, from legal executive to (hopefully) policy advisor working with ethnic minorities. Yes, I had a good career, yes, I could have stuck with it. But was it fulfilling? Did it make me happy? Did I want to do it for the rest of my life? No way. It took me a long time to figure out what I really wanted. And it will take me a long time to get exactly where I want to be. In the meantime I am checking out my options, learning as much as I can, and moving forward.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Friday Fling - The best Articles I've Read This Week
It's been a couple of weeks since I posted one of these - for some reason I haven't found much of interest on the tubes recently. Could I be looking in the wrong places?
Anyway, on to a few articles I've enjoyed this week:
Anyway, on to a few articles I've enjoyed this week:
- Anthropological theories on human nature over at Living Anthropologically
- And an interesting look at domestic violence from pop-culture site Mamapop
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