Give Madge a break!

Okay... I'm so annoyed with this whole drama surrounding Madonna and her adoption of the Malawian kid.

 

The kid Mercy has lived in an orphanage since the day she was born. An orphanage in Malawi is... how shall we say this... "not likely to be a nice place". If the conditions of poor orphans in Africa is anything like the condition of poor orphans in India, then this is a certainty.

 

So, along comes James Kambewa who apparently "wears a necklace with his daughter's name on it" and vows that he can take care of the child, that he wants her to grow up as a Malawian, and does not want this shocking, immoral white woman raising his girl. How heart warming.

 

He hasn't even seen the child face to face. Four years old and he has never seen the kid. The kid continues to live in this orphanage.

 

Right. Clap clap clap for the caring father. Boo to the evil white woman. Who cares about the four year old girl living in an orphanage? She doesn't need those trappings of Western civilisation. She doesn't need a soft bed, cuddly toys to play with and a good education. She doesn't need to grow up fit and healthy and have a chance to be whatever she wants to be - an ambassador to Malawi or a doctor or a lawyer or a happy mother.

 

No! Fie! Fie! She needs to stay in that orphanage. And learn what it is to be Malawian.

 

Commonality

Ok. Is it just me? Maybe it is my freaky snobbery. But I hate it when shopgirls or shopboys or waiters or waitresses try to recommend a product to me on the basis that it's their favourite too. I mean hello. Why should it make any difference to me that some total stranger, with nothing in common with me, and who frankly I don't really think I'd like anyway... Why would it make any difference to my purchase decision that they like the same thing? Or maybe they're just taught to say that.

Call me empathetic

Okay. For those of you who know me, which is admittedly just tequila, I have had this from my work 360• feedback before. That I'm not empathetic enough. Two years ago really. And I have tried to be more caring, more interested, more understanding. So I get the results this week. And my empathy levels are even lower than they were two years ago. So either this survey tool is poked or my actions are totally unproductive. And maybe I am just unempathetic. But also, WTF does empathy mean in a work context??? Obviously I care about my staff development, their careers, their learning. Why am I supposed to care about them as people? And more importantly, why does that have any bearing on my ability to be an effective manager? Yes, yes, I know. People feel more motivated if they feel you love them, for more than just their work. But seriously - why??? Do they not have families and friends to care for them and be all ooh ahhh empathetic? Why project your unmet emotional needs on ME, people? Sigh. That's the end of my vent. Tomorrow I shall start being more of a bleeding heart. Hey! Hi! How are you? Did you sleep well?

Tear tear

Ok so I watched the Barack Obama videos on YouTube. And it was pretty moving, powerful stuff. But now that I've had my teary eyed moments... I have to wonder... What the heck is he actually planning to DO??? Let's hope he's not wondering the same thing.

An ode.

There I was
surfing the net coz I was bored.
No friends today,
The rain is fucking raining down
making me think twice about
surviving this sort of weather
next year.

So I start typing in
random names from my past.
And then i think,
I wonder whatever happened to
VINNI.

So I google and NZDC the name knowing what I have been told about
VINNI
But do I care?
NO NO NO.
That is just how I roll,
Asking for punishment.

And i find it,
Just like I thought I would.
Oh well
I will always have the picture.

Sing little birdie

Okay I just need to have a little vent about shows that do the national talent search and have the obligatory judging panel (one softie, one medium, one harsh-ass) and basically churn through a huge number of auditions at lots of random inbred towns.

 

What's to vent about, you might ask? It sounds perfect.

 

Well, I'm actually sick of the little kids who audition. There are always these little ten year olds, eight year olds.... even a six year old... and no matter how crap they are, they get through! Because seriously, even the harsh-ass does not want to tell little six year old Maisie that she's outta here coz she got no talent.

 

But that does NOT mean she does! She might SUCK! I mean come on people, break the kid's heart now, before someone else breaks it for her.

 

My primary school singing teacher routinely put in my report "doesn't understand pitch", "needs to try harder", and as time wore on "doesn't seem to concentrate in class".

 

*shatter*

 

sheeeeeat!

Okay so I tried to make this blog all high-brow, intellectual and meaningful, but Tequila dragged us straight back into the gutter... where we belong? Maybe so! But, I am now powerless to halt this descent... so after nearly wetting myself laughing at that Maury video clip, I felt impelled to google it. And, people, you may rest easy, because the show is REAL! Yes, there really is trash like that alive and well on this earth, and earning their rightful place of fame on syndicated TV.

 

Check out the Wikipedia "summary" of the show... including detailed descriptions of how the themes of the episodes play out... I read the "Who my baby daddy" section and had to stop because laughing so hard at work looks unnatural. Wallow, my fellow piglets, in the filth of human depravity...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maury_(TV_series)

 

BWAHAHA!

Respect mah authoritah !!!

So I have always been a fan of trailer trash, the trashier the better. Which is why Ricki Lake and Jerry Springer were like the top of my viewing list all through high school. I came across this clip from The Maury Povich Show, which is a low brow talk show in the US. I watched this clip on replay so many times.....Its like a train wreck that you can't look away from. I really hope this is real. Awesomest of the awesome.

Deep and meaningful

Over the weekend I watched The Constant Gardener... it's based on a john le carre novel, and I thought it was absolutely excellent. Story of a diplomat's wife who is murdered in africa, and the diplomat starts investigating, finding a complex conspiracy involving big pharmac companies, drug testing on illiterate blacks in poverty...

 

i BAWLED my eyes out for about half the movie, mainly for the plight of africa... whenever i see movies like that, it makes me despair. that continent is so ravaged... it is such a beautiful place, the land, the flora and fauna, the people are so beautiful, and yet they are torn on every side by war, drought, famine, disease and corruption. Everyone rapes africa. Their own people - dictators, tyrants, tribal wars and corruption all the way through. The western nations - unwilling to write off debt, unwilling to contribute meaningfully. The corporations - pharmacy companies, weapons companies. It is like the people are in an abyss, unable to find a way out.

 

How is it that atrocities of poverty and war are visited on this continent on such a large scale, but we are unable to find any method or approach that will help? Is it basically that no one can help them unless their own people become educated and rise up and create change? But then, given the state of the nations, how will there ever be enough food, enough water, enough health to enable them to access that next level of the hierarchy of needs? As America spends three trillion dollars on their "war on terror", who is interested in spending on a war on poverty?

 

One solution I considered - foreign run schools and educational institutions that are not only funded but actually run, staffed, managed by overseas people. Thus eliminating some of the corruption. Make them accountable to the highest bodies like the UN, and subject to strict audits and checks. Feed and educate the children. They are the only people who can agitate for change...

 

As the western world gets swept up in anxiety over climate change, sustainability and carbon footprints... this movie made me think... how fickle we are, to move from social trend to social trend... as the children in africa keep dying.

 

So basically, fck global warming... can someone please think about the children!

I am all that you say I am....

Now I have been called a lot of things in my life....wanker, mangina, tequila, big foot(thanks D). But what happened yesterday was a first on so many levels. Let me set this up for you....This holier than thou christian middle aged man walks onto the surgery and in the course of talking to him he says that he hasn't had a check up in 6 years. So out of a general courtesy I inquire about the reason why. "Well" he says "because all you people are a bunch of Soul Sucking Capitalists."

So here is the thing. You wouldn't walk into a lawyer's office and say shit like that only because you know that they would fuck you up so badly you wouldn't be able to shit for a week. So what makes it ok to walk into my surgery and say crap like that? Don't let this non-Caucasian, eager to please face, fool you fucktard....this one is no pushover. I will cut you down and smile all the while wielding a 5 inch needle. You have been warned!!