Archive for the 'World' Category

Giving hate the finger

02Jun09

I haven’t posted yet about Proposition 8 being upheld. It took me some time to get my head around my reaction to it. I’m not a US citizen nor an expert on constitutional law. So when smarter people than I tell me that there were some good reasons behind the proposition being upheld, I know [...]


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My BADD 2009 Round-up

09May09

I went away for a few days right after posting my entry for Blogging Against Disablism Day, but I’m back now. My thanks to everyone who commented on, linked to, or just read my post.
I’m finally getting round to reading everyone else’s posts. Here are some of the entries that I liked, that made me [...]


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“Mainstream” schooling and disablism

01May09

This post is my* contribution to Blogging Against Disablism Day 2009.
I’m getting good at tuning out background noise in the Board of Education office, a task made easier by the fact that all the conversation is in Japanese and I’m not fluent enough to follow it all anyway. But occasionally words and phrases come up [...]


Filed under: Japan, Musings, Teaching, World   |  10 Comments
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“That’s how I was raised”

21Apr09

So apparently there’s a Miss USA beauty pageant. I hadn’t been following it, for any one of a million reasons, but then Renee at Womanist Musings drew my attention to one of the contestants, Miss California, and her views on gay marriage.


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Composition

14Apr09

I’m not much of an art connoisseur, but sometimes I come across pieces that are clever, or entertaining, or thought-provoking.

These pictures are all three. They’re taken by Peter Funch, a Dutch artist who spends two weeks taking photos of passers-by on specific street corners in New York, and then composites the photos in a [...]


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Flights of insanity

11Jul08

I’m back from my holiday, which was great. I’ll probably write a little bit about it this weekend. But first, some therapeutic ranting.
In January, I start planning a trip to China with K. We arrange dates, and I clear the time off with my supervisor.
I ring the only English-speaking travel agent I know of [...]


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It’s those noisy high heels

25Jun08

I’m supposed to be lesson planning, but this article caught my eye.
Women in a northern Malaysian city ruled by conservative Islamists are being urged to forsake bright lipstick and noisy high heels in an effort to preserve their dignity and avoid rape.
Kota Baru, the city in question, is part of Kelantan, a state that has [...]


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What is her plan?

04Jun08

Obama has finally clinched it.
Over the past few weeks, commentators have been saying that the Democratic nomination is his. But it would have been foolish for him to announce himself as candidate then, when there were still delegates in play.
But today’s primary results (a win for Obama in Montana and Clinton in South Dakota) appear [...]


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Seeing the world a different way

26May08

When I was eleven, I learned how to solve a Rubik’s cube.
I’d like to claim that this was a result of precocious mathematical ability and an innate sense of algorithms, patterns and parity. In actual fact, it was the result of a summer spent in the Lake District, where it rained almost every day. The [...]


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