Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Living in the present

About a tribe in Brazilian rainforest called the "Pirahã"

"Thirty years of living with the Pirahã has taught Everett that they exist almost completely in the present. Absorbed by the daily struggle to survive, they do not plan ahead, store food, build houses or canoes to last, maintain tools or talk of things beyond those that they, or people they know, have experienced. They are the "ultimate empiricists".

"If anything, they are superior in many ways to us. Thinking too much about the future or worrying too much about the past is really unhealthy. The Pirahã taught me that very lesson. Living in the moment is a sophisticated way to live. I don't see depression. I don't see some of the things that afflict our society - and that's not because they don't face pressures."

Missionaries and government officials see Pirahã society as poor and seek to help by giving them money and modern technology. "The Pirahã aren't poor. They don't see themselves as poor," he says. He believes capitalism and religion are manufacturing desires. "One of the saddest things I've seen in Amazonian cultures is people who were self-sufficient and happy that now think of themselves as poor and become dissatisfied with their lives. What worries me is outsiders trying to impose their values and materialism on the Pirahã."
"


From "The power of speach" - Guardian 10th Nov

Monday, November 03, 2008

On greatness

"I have a great drive to be mediocre
but not even a mediocre drive to be great"


reply:
"(if everyone had wanted to be great)... then we would live in a world full of disappointments"

"I strive to be great in my overall life, not at one thing but at many things at once so it accumulates into great life full of various achievements"

- 1st November 2008

Friday, October 24, 2008

Playgirls

I've written about porn for women and about what is sexually attractive for women and what other's have said is/should be attractive but here is a something like... hmm
play boy for women. Its called "Tighty whitie dude" which contains photos of men (with great bodies) in tighty whities.. ofcourse.
the site contains mostly underwear commercials thus " does NOT contain any nudity or adult content"... (depending on who asks)

some samples...






YUM!

Friday, October 03, 2008

I am genuinely scared of Palin and the republicans that put her up there...(and those who support her)

Okay
I am not really into too much politics. being a labour market researcher, I do keep up to date on policy changes and party's view on labour market, family and some economic policy issues. However, I am not too up to date on the day to day soap opera of politics this world has. YES I do believe most of this politics issue is just soap opera for some.
Anyhow most any of us interested in politics in the slightest bit, knows about the nominee McCain campaign voted as his running mate. Sarah Palin. I do not need to post up all of her no-she-did-not-just-say-that videos.
but here are some classics, that really out does even yes... monkey boy, Bush Jr.



and by Keith Olbermann


and then the VP debate yesterday.
*you can see the whole debate with this link


Okay. in comparison to this, she did better in the vice presidential debate.
BUT only because she remembered a few sentences she can shout out at any given time she did not want to answer to any of the questions given to her.
She referred back to Energy issues four times throughout the debate as well as keep repeating her "track record" many of which are not true or are half truths.
Also you can see that her "answers" are just words, none of which consists more than three syllables - third grade level words, that do not mean ANY THING! Especially in the beginning. The only word apparently she knows (also how to pronounce) is Maverick. Joe Biden pwns her at the end of the debate where he points out actually Mc Cain never was a Maverick on the hard issues that mattered.

Okay enough of my analysis. All I want to say is that I can see how the Republican party works. They wanted to put that ignorant woman who has no qualification nor the brain, heart capacity of being anything near VP on so people can relate. However, seeing what she does apparently the Republicans believe that the "average American" is someone who is ignorant and cannot comprehend any of the truth or reality of society told in a concrete factual manner. Palin speaks especially in the beginning of the debate as if she is addressing kindergarten children who does not understand long coherent sentences. The whole debate looked like that, a third grader discussing with a public policy/political science graduate student. The third grader just calling the grad student mean/bad person without any evidence and throwing tantrums in between.

Any one who supports Palin should go get some education and think hard... do we want a society where we are lead by incompetent, ignorant people with no knowledge of how society/politics/international relations works JUST because that is how many other citizens are like?? do we really want our society to fall into something like that of our lowest common denominator? and mediocrity?

Here is a newweek article that supports what I thought is the case. How the approach of "Palin being on the ticket because she is able connects with everyday Americans" is just something we cannot have..

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

God piss in my breakfast cereal

I don't believe in god... well not usually, although I can be considered antagonistic.
I only believe in GOD's existence when it decides to take a long hard piss towards my way.


30th September 2008... raining raining raining

Friday, September 26, 2008

"This film has not been rated"



A movie about the MPAA (Motion Picture Association America) film rating system and how the government and the big corporate industries are controlling what is being shown in media.
Nothing too shocking but something that really gets you thinking.
The most important point this movie takes is how the rating system is a monopoly system where there can be no other rating. Also how sex is considered bad while violence is allowed. Also how the the MPAA is essentially blocking the independent movie makers to distribute their work from even to be seen through ridiculous rating systems.

Whichever the case, it is interesting to listen to all the directors who has gotten the NC 17 rating for their movies, why it was the case . most of which is ridiculous...

Monday, September 15, 2008

Stay at home dad

As family norms, gender norms change more and more men are allowed and take the opportunities to stay home with their children. In most countries, men are allowed to share the parental leave given from 3months up to 3 years with the mothers. Also in many countries, such as Sweden, Denmark there are leaves that are ear-marked for men.(which means that they loose this benefit when they do not take it up).
This trend makes it easier for us to spot men with buggies alone on week day afternoons, doing shopping. Also men with young toddlers playing on the play ground on weekdays.
Anyhow, Jon la Joie wrote a song just for these daddies who stay at home and take care of their children.. quite hilarious, using heavy metal as the medium. However, the fact of being a stay at home dad? It will become more and more common... no joking matter.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

The two men

after 31 years of life,
I realize that in the time I have loved and been loved
there is two men in my life that stand out
the one that I loves regardless of anything
regardless of what he does and how he is
and the one that loves me
regardless of what I do and how I am

both born on the 15th of February different years ofcourse
the one I loved is Charlie, my dog my brother
and the one that loves me endless is my father

The former passed away recently and this is my tribute page to him

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Something important

A song I came across in Gilles Peterson's compilation album Brownwood Bubblers no.3
The guitar sounds were nice but I think the lyrics are even better... kinda hits you in a strange way

Anyhow here is the lyrics and the guitar chords to the song...

Something important

By the Jukes

http://www.myspace.com/jukesuk

Capo on1st fret

Em7 F#m(7) Bm

Oh~~~
Sometimes when I am doing something I really enjoy
A friend knocks the door so I let her in
She asks me,
what are you up to?
And I say, I don’t know… nothing much
Maybe I’ll have a few books open looking at pages I like to see
Or I’m listening to music
Probably the telly’s on
And before she asked me what I was doing, I felt like I was really doing something
Only now I am not so sure

Em7_________F#m
All the mountains high
______Bm_________Em7
And the streams running high
__________F#m___Bm
They don’t ask why, why do I
________Em7
Something doesn’t make
________F#m________Bm
Everytime I ask myself why
____Em7
Why I do that thing
______________F#m____________Bm
Shouldn’t I be doing something important

Maybe I’m doing nothing, just running through a film in my mind
Or listening to cars outside on the street
Then there will be a voice in my head
The voice comes and she said
Shouldn’t you be doing something important
Cuz look at you sitting through time and time running through you
And away with you
and what have you got to show for your time
I don’t know…
All I know is I didn’t worry about showing anything for my time
Before I asked that question why

__________Em7
Cuz something doesn’t make
________F#m________Bm
Everytime I ask myself why
____Em7
Why I do that thing
_____________F#m____________Bm
Shouldn’t I be doing something important

Em7_________F#m
All the mountains high
______Bm_________Em7
And the streams running high
__________F#m___Bm
They don’t ask why, why do I

Friday, August 22, 2008

Olympic sports

Okay its the Olympic season and for most of it (fortunately) I was away... where there was no TV access.. but now thanks to the internet TV instant broadcasting systems, all I do it watch Olympic games.
But more and more I watch, it seems like most of the sports that are included in the games are something no one would do as a hobby.. like pole vault. I mean do you have ANYONE around you who goes pole vaulting on weekends?
I guess its more like, trying to find out, the fastest person in the world, the person who can jump highest, throw furthest etc.
But then again I wonder how you become an athlete for such sports?
Do you one day announce, I will become a pole vault athlete?
Who chooses them?
Are there criterion which makes you better apt for this?
so many questions...
but all this sports really makes me feel all tired... *yawn*

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Men never mature

A mother was asked how she lives harmoniously with three men, her husband and two sons. Her answer, delivered with awesome arrogance, was:
‘You simply operate on the assumption that no man matures after the age of 11.’


-extract from the article
The Ideal Husband - New York Times 15th July 2008

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Anger

Be angry with stuff, people, things that happen to you and the world.
It might be the best incentive to kick your lazy ass to make something of yourself and your life.


2008 07 09

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Trisia's Choreography to "Low" Decomposed

Here is something I've never done before...
and just for some of you who might actually use this.
Anyhow This is the dance moves to Trisia's choreography for FLO RIDA's LOW
For those of you who don't know what this is... here is the video



wonderful isn't it.
Although you really have to have the dance genes to be able to copy this..
here is abit of help.

I call this the

Trisia’s low dance decomposed

Note: / indicates each beat / count
Each line has four beats/counts
lyrics are in italic.


Shawty had them

/Apple /Bottom /Jeans [/Jeans]
/ Jump Legs apart right hand punch / pull out pull in(knees should follow as if your arms has a invisible string that pulls it) /pull out face left right hand behind /clap

/Boots /with the /fur /[ With the
/swing left /pull towards chest /roll arms(slow) around wave /push towards left

/fur] The /whole /club /was
/spread arms(right up) /fold /chest wave towards right / left foot in front

/lookin /at /her /
/step back right foot /fold in /body twist towards left(two count)

/( )She /hit the /flo [She /hit the
/swing right arm back/ fold back in hand on floor/ spread legs /right leg on floor open left side

/flo] Next /thing you /know /Shawty got /
/both legs on floor face right side both hands on the floor /head on floor /arm pull back (2)

/low /low /low /low
/bounce left*2 /bounce right*2

/low /low
/swing arm right up left low /right side straight left up

/low /low Them
/swing head /hands down hip up


/baggy /sweat /pants/And the
/ /clap left/ /clap up (body still facing foward)

/Reeboks /with the /straps [With the /straps]
/ /clap up while swinging towards the left /swing right leg back jump /land with two arms in the sky apart

/ ( ) She/ turned / around /and gave that
/right leg pop /butt pop /left leg pop /snap with two hands in the front

/big boo /ty a
/right arm circle /pull right hand up left hand crotch
/smack /[Ayy]
smack butt with right hand push body out (as if the hand pushed butt forward) (2)

/ She /hit the /flo [She /hit the
/spread arms then gather both hand up right side /with both hands sweep floor(two counts)

/flo] Next /thing you /know / Shawty got
/left hand up right hand down /pull left hand down towards right hand /sweep(two counts)

/low /low /low /low /low /low /low /low

Wiggle bottom low while clapping every other beat

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Where the hell is Matt, again?

Matt hits again... 14 months 42 countries... and unlike the first time around he made some friends along the way

Friday, June 13, 2008

Maternal instincts

People say that you can tell when your maternal instincts kick in when you start cooing at little children.. or babies more so.
Then why do I coo more at little puppies??
Do I have some sort of canine-owner instinct that has to be fulfilled??

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Secrets on line dot com

I think many of you now know about post secrets a site which publishes postcards sent by anonymous people on their inner most secrets. Some of them are just plain secrets with good artwork where as others are deep hidden secrets which surprises you that people are like that.. although it soothes you as well to think others are as weird. Check out the books based on this.

But now there are several more forms of that which you can do on line. Such as secret talk and group hug. Secret talk is more of a conversational platform where you post up your inner most secrets and other are allowed to comment on them and give you suggestions their thoughts. Group hug is where people can only either hug or shrug at your confession/secret. It has a nice format, secrets and confessions are not supposed to be filtered by the webmaster and most of its on relationships and eating, mental disorders. Like Postsecrets it also has a book out based on its secrets.

Then there are many confessions sites, not all Christian oriented, such as E-admit,and of course confessions.net, confessions4u, daily confessions, confessionspost etc...

Now there are sites that are specifically for posting up anonymously on specific topics.
Boss Bitching is one where you can post up all sorts of things your boss did, and get rated in "stop complaining" "sounds bad" and "boss is a prick"

Whichever the case, it seems that the internet and its on-line users are now substituting the roles formerly done by priests, friends and hot-line desks. Also its now much easier to confess purely anonymously, even choosing the forum based on your topic.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Do your worst world!

The best way to look at an excruciating experience is to think of how it would sound when you tell others in retrospect as a "you-won't-believe-what-happened-to-me" story which is worth telling. The more horrific your experience, the better the story.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

75 cents and other wild things

As a non-European, I actually have never heard of Eurovision before I came to live here. From what I've heard from the Europeans themselves, it is more of a joke that used to mean something a long time ago right about the time when Abba was in and dinosaurs used to roam the land. (for the Italians, I've heard that after they stopped winning, they stopped participating altogether, to show their disapproval for the Eurovision's bad tastes)
I never actually saw any of the contests nor did I kept up to date with who is in, who won etc... until recently.

Why, you ask?
Well, there have been remarkable "developments" in the whole Eurovision song contests and it seems as if all of the member states are taking it to a whole new level, well a funny, gag like one to be precise.

Let's start with Ireland's entry for this year.
Ireland was represented by Dustin the Turkey... who is not only a fowl, but also can't sing, and he does technoish dance songs... to make things even worse. I don't know what bothers me more, the genre he sings or his massive disco "Balls" which he exposes carelessly. (although I must say the bird even has a political career and has been in the scene for some time, with his own TV show... respect!)


Okay the second one is from Spain.. Rodolfo Chikilicuatre - Baila el ChikiChiki
This song is reggaeton... which is alright, for some... but okay... this guy also can't sing, which is also alright.. but best thing is he is an Elvis impersonator (or is trying on the geek chic that is very in these days, I am not too sure). The highlight of this song/video is when he tells you which dance to dance... including the robocop, or shall I say, EL robocop.



But finally and my favourite has to be 75 cents and Kraljevi ulice representing Croatia, with their song Romanca. The whole gang includes a folk singer, a grandpa rapper and two musicians and finishes off with one exotic dancer. 75 cents, who is actually a very young 77, shows how grandpa rap can and should be! Of course it comes out actually more like your every day neighbourhood granpa yelling "get off my freakin lawn!"....



I think the Croatian government and well the whole European union should use him, along side John McCain as the billboard models for older workers and postponing your retirement. I mean who can beat that!

Whichever the case... in this fierce competition, who won?
Of course this idiot won.. who looks like a mix of Enrique Iglesias and some backstreet boy(s) type boy band, check out the dancer he has!

Oh well, too bad, but I am sure you will hear more of our wonderful granpa 75 cents, who will only increase his currency value as the years go by.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Marriage as an institution does it work?

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) found 45% of marriages will end in divorce before a couple's 50th anniversary. There is 31% chance that your marriage will end before your 10th year anniversary, and calculating divorces and deaths, only 10% of all couples will celebrate their 60th anniversary, not to say that there are many people getting married in the first place, since marriage rates are continuously dropping and keep hitting record lows.
Of course this is due to many things such as development of contraceptions, economic independence of women, changes in social norms including family norms, and also it may have to do with the fact that we are not meant to be monogamous in the first place and now its the era where people are not restricted to this myth.

This generates several schools of ideas, those who think why bother? and those who believe, do it anyhow and two is always better than one, do it but don't do it in the institution,,,,

but seriously are we going into the era of singles? (who are the majority already)
But then why is it that EVERYONE around me is already hooked up?

I guess one of the reasons that make people want to pair up is due to the fact that since everyone else is, you can't avoid it. Its like playing that game you used to play in grade school where someone shouts out a number and you must team up with others to form a group of that specific number. If you don't you are out of the game. Since I feel like I would like to be in the game, I think I have to team up, and this day and age, its still "two" that is being shouted, not one.. or three. Of course the beauty of it is that due to the ease of breakage of the relationships, even if you're out of the game this round, there is another round coming up, if you wait long enough. Then again, there is no guarantees there as well.

But maybe we should just all give up trying to find the person who you will spend "the rest of your life" with and accept the fact that this is just for the time being. All relationships being a long term fling of some sort, that will end eventually.

This should not be taken all too negatively. For this means that you don't have to worry about whether this person is perfect for you, if that person is "the person", and don't have to think that this will and or has to be the last decision you will ever make on relationships. Really choosing Mr./Ms. Good enough for now, will be the only choice you need to make, yes that and if you want to invest in that person for at least during that period of your life, and you rather be two with that person rather than one.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Rethinking Aid donations

It has been reported that 40% of the money promised/delivered to aid Afghan has been spent on "corporate profits and consultancy fees" and that "much of the money earmarked for aid is diverted to political or military purposes."

It makes one think about the realities and purposes of aids especially when one considers the conditionality the aids entail, such as world bank's conventionalities which include liberalisation and privatization of public goods etc. This of course has to be considered in addition to the amount of tax deduction companies and individuals get.

These problems have been addressed, such as UK charity organisation asking their government to withhold money from the world bank until it changes the conventionalities of their funds, which unfortunately did not succeed. Last year UK's development secretary, Douglas Alexander handed £2bn-plus to the institution no strings attached.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Sex in Public Park legal in Amsterdam

Earlier this month it has been announced that it will be legal to have sex in Vondel park from this summer onwards (in english)

Paul van Grieken, an alderman (city council member) for the Oud-Zuid(old-south) district of Amsterdam said . "Why should we try to maintain something that is actually impossible to maintain, which also causes little bother for others and for a certain group actually signifies much pleasure?"

There are some rules behind this though.
1. you must take your "trash" with you afterwards
2. you cannot have sex in/near the children's playing area/playgrounds
3. you are only allowed to have sex during the evening till night but not before and after..

however there will be more restriction on walking your dog and you will always have to keep it leashed while in the park not to disturb sun-bathers, cyclists.

In addition the police's National Diversity Expertise Centre (LECD) wants sex allowed in all public parks in the Netherlands, expanding this movement to Rotterdam and Utrecht etc.

In response to this the CDA(Christian Democratic Party) leader Pieter van Geel, has called for ban of sex in the park, saying "We aren't restricting people from having sex in open spaces because no one wants to enforce it. If we keep pushing the limit up, what will be next?"

In the dutch news today

there are some very interesting headlines that I would like to share..

1. Sperm donors can take more active roles as fathers..
as the study by a researcher of family law at Tilburg University shows based on the cases where the donors asked some type of rights through courts based on their biological links.. he says the cases go through quicker as well

2. The Dutch feel happy
85% of dutch replied the glass is half full, not half empty (15%) and on average feel happy 5 days out of the week..75% feel lucky/good about their job,and 60% are happy about their outer appearance.

3. Women rather talk to their girlfriends than their partners
More than half (55%)of Dutch women rather talk to their girl friends than their partners and one out of three women speak to their girl friends more/longer than to their partners..

Banned Commercial: mocking christians?

Ad watch dog decides to ban a commercial on women's hair product due to complaints that it was mocking the Christian faith.
It shows women in various praying positions, saying that the new product is a new religion..

According to an article in the Guardian

The Advertising Standards Authority received a total of 23 complaints, including one from the Archdeacon of Liverpool, objecting that the ads were offensive to the Christian faith. The complaints particularly highlighted the use of the phrase from the Lord's Prayer and the depiction of the letter "t" as a cross in "thy".


Judge for yourselves..



I think its more of a complement if you asked me..

This one exploits little children as well..



Here is another one from the same company ... using the same theme "a new religion for hair" which apparently they have used for the past seven years..

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The new ten commandments

The Vatican has made a new list of sinson top of the one Moses made while he was trippin, and the Seven Deadly Sins .. since they are not suffice to keep people feeling guilty enough to spend their time and money in/for the church for salvation.

the list includes..
· Environmental pollution;
· Genetic manipulation;
· Accumulating excessive wealth;
· Inflicting poverty;
· Drug trafficking and consumption;
· Morally debatable experiments;
· Violation of fundamental rights of human nature.

Pope Benedict, in support of the move has noted that "We are losing the notion of sin ...If people do not confess regularly, they risk slowing their spiritual rhythm."

Just a couple of things I feel about this list of modern sins.. one, I like some of them, such as environmental pollution and inflicting poverty, but one can see that they are more abstract then the old ones but also they are on politically sensitive issues that people cannot agree on as being morally right or wrong(in comparison to things such as thou shall not kill, which I think most of us agree upon).

This makes me think that the church has made a move implying that they will indeed act as a political body, not just as a spiritual, and take stances/mostly conservative/ on certain issues such as abortion, homosexuality, scientific experiments and etc. They will use this list.. which this time around we all know that it was NOT given by GOD..(but maybe has been made when the priests were indeed high).. as grounds in which they can argue for their position and to (pressure politicians to)change policies to fit their conservative agendas.
If it is not enough that George W. is using God as an excuse for all his "deadly sins" committed to the rest of the world.

On a similar note, the new Korean neo-liberal conservative president Lee named as his new minister of social welfare and health in Korea someone who has written in a newspaper that the lack of belief in God increased social polarization of Korea and that we must over come issues of poverty and inequality through enhancing our religious beliefs... of course on top of that he has been found for plagiarism, not paying his health insurance contributions, tax fraud, real estate fraud and use of public funds for personal use.

Do as Christians say not as Christians do.

------------
here is a nice link of a book Hwa wrote in comments, but the link is broken there.
It is called The Vatican World Politics

Monday, March 10, 2008

Mixing friends

Charlie Brooker on why you should not mix friends at your party...

"you have work friends, and college friends, and various groups of random friends you've picked up along the way ... and since they're all quite different, you behave differently with them. I might be a swearing lout with one friend and an urbane sophisticate with another. Mix them all together in the same room and it gives me an identity crisis: suddenly I don't know who I am any more, and I panic and smash chairs against the wall until everyone goes home."


Charlie Brooker

Monday, March 03, 2008

Slap me like the Fender Jazz Bass that I am

I love bass players
I have always loved bass players. I don’t know when it all started since I didn’t notice my fascination until I had a collection of boyfriends or crushes with one thing that connected them all, their ability to play bass.
I never fully understood why I fell for these men, but one reason would be that I myself love bass sounds and music with good bass lines.(This is why I love funk)
However, recently I figured another reason why I like them. I feel like I am a bass, and when I hear good bass lines I feel like it, may it be the music, the bass line or the bass player, is playing (with) me. This is related to the theory that all sounds/tones hit a certain part of your body, like drums are connected to the human heartbeats, and etc. And well in relation to this, I realized when you slide your finger on the lower E bass string, it hits right there at my G, if you catch my drift. So when I date these men, I date them in hopes of them being able to play me, my body just like they funk their bass.
Oh btw did I mention of all the bass techniques I love the slapping and popping technique?

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Disadvantaged groups in the labour market and US presidency

Being a labour market researcher (yes, I've said it, I've revealed my identity yet again) I tend to use the approach or view that I use in my normal labour market analysis in other things as well. I ask people about their jobs and tenure, to examine their employability and how they fare accordingly etc. Well true, not all the time, but many times, more than others would do.

Anyhow, it struck me recently that the US president candidate race that is going on these days is quite remarkable when examined in this sense.
Of course I know I am not the first person who has thought of this, but let's look at our main candidates. (and believe you me, I am not the most enthusiast in following this race as well.. so my knowledge of it is actually quite remote)

The republican party candidate, and hasn't he won already, Mr. John McCain. He is the representative of the older worker's group. which is one of the most disadvantaged groups in the labour market. being 71, his chances of employment in the labour market should be actually down to the 1 digit levels!(In the Netherlands only 5% of older workers of over 55 who were searching for jobs actually found a stable job the following year)

The second candidate, Hilary Clinton, is also from the weak groups of the labour market in two accounts. She, being a woman, is naturally a weak group in the labour market, and on top of that she is also 60 years old which means her chances in employment as an older + female worker are in the normal labour market studies very very low.

Lastly, Barack Obama. Okay he isn't a older worker, he is a male, in his prime, normally considered the most productive age and probably has the highest employability chances. However, due to his ethnicity he can be included in the migrant workers group, even if his mother is indeed white American.(I always wonder about that if black+white=black, is it that stronger colours always trump the lighter ones? such as asian+white=asian?) Also his name which is a of an arabic/muslim origin, regardless of the fact that he is in fact Christian, as many studies conducted in Europe can show you, his name alone will decrease his chances of getting a job, even if every other criteria is the same.

So there you have it folks the three major groups that are most disadvantageous in the labour market fighting for the top spot of the labour market, US presidency. Of course they only have 30% chance of getting the spot--- just statistically thinking it was a race between the three of them. Ofcourse it can be said that McCain has 50% while as Clinton and Obama has 25% since they have to win the democratic contest.. but then again.. this is all numbers.

Friday, February 08, 2008

THREE!!

I loved the BBC three blobs when I was in Britain... watching loads of TV
but then the news came, that they might get rid of them...
Then I started to find the indents on you tube...
they are brilliant
They were made by the Wallace and Gromit people

Here are some montages I've found.




some related to special events


And then my favourite

Story of stuff

My friend sent me a link to this site which is called the story of stuff.

Story of stuff
It is about.. exactly what the site name says ... story of stuff.
However, it is not what we usually have in mind when we think of stuff or products.
The whole idea of this project is to make people, I think mostly aimed at Americans, more aware of exactly what it takes for us to consume things and what the consequences of this consumption is by taking a glimpse at the whole process of ..stuff.
Although for most, especially scientists or people who deal with these issues, it is a rather simplistic view on the world, it maps out the total process of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal.

Media driven NEED
The key point of this video is that we are trained or pushed by society and capital into thinking that we are in need of things, and this is driven by media which is funded by capital. That consumption, or the golden arrow of consumption, has been emphasized especially after the Second World War so that society can generate ever increasing need for it.

It also talks about how we ourselves realize ourselves through consumption these days and well media drives our needs for new stuff and buy stuff to make us feel better about ourselves or just to sustain a certain level of self image.

Production process
But more importantly, its the point that when we do this, we forget the exact process it came through or what disposing of it will do in the longer run. In other words, when we buy a product, as a consumer on its own interest, will try to buy the cheapest product available, which suits one's needs. Not taking the responsibility of how exactly this product was made to be sold for what it costs. What we fail to realize is that us, as consumers buying the product, we are in fact encouraging the previous processes of how this product came about (thus the extraction of natural resources, production= with harmful chemicals, exploitation of labour etc). The beauty of it all is that the product manufacturers are so good in hiding this and distracting our focuses elsewhere- in our realization of selves when we buy the product = marketing. Also the key ideas of capitalism are based exactly on such things, of how individuals acting on their own free interest will eventually end up in an equilibrium and of larger profit. (such is the ideas of the invisible hand market or economic liberalism)

MEAT and food
Although this video has not taken produce/food products as its main focus point, it is the same process. I think the reason why we are consuming vast amount of meat, more than doubled per capita in the last 4 decades, its because 1) its become more cheaper and available, 2) we have no idea about how it is produced. This is due to the picture of the happy cow we see on the cover of our ham. We imagine a world where ham grows from trees so to say.
We have turned ourselves into happy blissful consumers, for our own interests. We are at the point of time, where we are able to consume as much as we want to a point of Glutonny. Raised by parents who have suffered from wars, children of the mass media and marketing age we are used to easy consumption.
However, I think times are changing and although slowly, we have came to a point when we realize that this is not sustainable. The focus on economy and capital generation with short term projections will not do.
We must be responsible and take charge of what is happening.

Revolution from within
I think we are in a age or a new enlightenment, where we critique the ideas of pure capitalism. If up the era of after WW II (1950s) to the end of the cold war (1990s) can be categorized as the fight between capitalism and socialism, I think now is the time of true evaluation of our capitalist society not from a East vs. West view, but with a post-modernist view of socialism, a critique from within. Not only must we own what is rightfully ours so to say, it entails rightfully taking responsibility of our behaviours. And what I seen now more and more especially in the societies where capitalism has already flourished to its up most, is this type of need for change. People realizing that this societal structure cannot go on like this.

In this respect Marx may have been right. We might now go into socialism... hurrah~

Hard choices
Having said all this, one last point to make is that, although everything is easily said, and maybe easily understood however, it is hard for us to change our live styles to live more responsibly. Especially when we take everything into account. I have a friend, who have said that earlier on his life, he wanted to be aware of every consequence of his behaviour, especially as a consumer and a living being of this society, it ended up him not being able to do anything and being chronically depressed. He had a point there, it is that if we think of all things, it might lead us to a conclusion that its best to go rot in a flower bed somewhere because whatever you do, and however we live, we will destroy the earth somehow.
The key point is about balance, and trying to change your whole approach to things. First of all, to be more conscious of behaviour, especially your consumption behaviour- yes including food. I don't mean just buy organic food. Eat less! Eat just as much as you need. when buying anything think of the consequences of it- see where and how it was made - such as if it is fair trade, doesn't exploit labour, doesn't exploit the earth, - as well as how it looks and how cheap it is. (I've heard that in Germany there is a book called the little black book of manufacturing... or something that tells you all about the major manufacturers' production characteristics..)
Fair enough, living with these rules is not easy. If you go out and buy only organic food- first of all its hard, because with the exception of few major cities- such as Berlin, New York etc - its probably impossible to buy all organic, and will cost you at least twice as much and have been critiqued as being the new way of showing money of the upper middle class. But yeah, unfortunately this is the price we pay, but then again if many people think the same, this will form an interest group, pressure groups for politicians and government to really crack down on the food industry so that the organic mark becomes redundant because everything is grown organic.
And then comes the balance. its hard to find out exactly what is the right balance of things, so you don’t go kill yourself and are able to enjoy yourself, while being more conscious. How can we do this?

Help groups
The most important step is to reassess your ideas on what are your wants and needs are. You need shoes, but not need Pradas. You need clothes, but do not need five pairs of jeans of different designs every year. Its hard to re-train yourself into trying to really change your consumer habits, since we are almost forced into increasing our needs making ourselves believe that we need several things to survive by media and society. Think about your current living methods, and see what can be changed, little baby steps...
It might be that we actually need rehabilitation to really change our behaviours, and well the good news is that there are groups that can help - such as those who make you pledge not to buy anything for a year or the same but just for clothes. The bad news is that joining the group ain’t the end of it and this consists of a life time commitment.

Free time comes along the package
But then again, having said this, I've actually have experienced not buy anything other than food and essentials(okay I'm sorry but this included books and CDs) for a given number of months, not really as a rational choice but more because I was lazy, and you have no idea how liberating it feels. First you gain a lot of free time, because you don't have to go and waste time eye shopping, shopping for bargains, trying various things, and lastly finding something you like. All that time shopping is used on other things.

Blog hits!

Yes, I know I feel bad. I have completely abandoned my blog in the past few months.
But for good reasons!- was busy with work, sick and well other things I would rather not mention. ...

Whichever the case, I know that most of the people who come to this blog, don't come in to see what I've been writing up on, but go to very specific entries(approximately 20~30 people come every day for these entries). Just for the rest of you, who do read up on what I've been writing up on recently to see, I've taken the popular entry list from the program I have here on the blog... you can see it as well if you press the number next to the blog that show how many hits this blog had... approximately 6600 or so I think...
Anyhow here is the list of 6 Feb 2008 with the most popular blog entries



As you see its the 3D Korean beauty entry that has the most hits.. this is due to people who want to search up photos of beautiful Korean women... also the one with titles such as "beautiful Asians" also have high hit rates.
The other hits were the entries with the words "penis" and "porn" in them.
You can imagine why these may be hits.
The rest are those which are more informative... such as ... asparagus makes your urine smell, how to get good skin, dating range and how to find housing etc.

Anyhow it actually makes me a bit sad even to think that the vast number of people who come, come for very specific entries...
I wonder if they search around for other entries or just leave after seeing that?

Doesn't really matter since this whole blog started off as something for my release of brain discharge which may or may not be suitable for others.
Anyhow, I am back. and YES once again I am using up my working hours to write on this blog, regardless of who reads it or who doesn't!

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Happy 2008~~


Happy New Year!
Originally uploaded by hwayoungjung
Happy New Years my dear fellow internet prowlers

and may I just add

fuck is it 2008 already? What happened to 1999?