Apologies to all 5 readers of our blog for being in absentia - I have to regain my blogger mojo somehow, it's been M.I.A. for too long.
It's not as if there's nothing to say, because we've been doing lots and I've got images from various events to share.
The futility of blogging set in big-time for me over the past month with the cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in China taking over the news, and showing shocking images of people in distress and shock.
My anger at Myanmar's paranoid rulers for not allowing aid into the country when their citizens are suffering is tinged with a glimmer of understanding about why they are acting this way. God knows how many secret service agents will pose as aid workers to use the opportunity to infiltrate a country that has been so impenetrable to scrutiny. Through their military eyes, the suffering of their people comes second to allowing in the gooks and spooks.
I've cried when viewing the grief of the Chinese people who have lost everything. It's almost unbearable to witness the sense of loss - especially in those parents whose only child has died. So many schools collapsed due to shoddy building practices and corrupt officials who lined their pockets with bribes from construction companies that shouldn't be allowed to build dog kennels, let alone schools. China's "one child" policy is now being questioned, but my thoughts are that the death toll would have been far greater if the families had more than one child each because not many children survived their schools pancaking into rubble as they did.
Blogging has seemed rather frivolous when confronted by such serious tragedies, coupled with news of blatant racism and ignorance with kaffiyeh-gate in the USA and Camden-gate here in Australia.
I'm getting too angry at things which I cannot fix. It's a waste of energy; clutters my mind; renders me less effective in what I have to achieve and with what I can control.
So I've decided that I have to turn off the TV. It sucks the essence out of my soul. The last 12 months in Australia has seen me turn away from past decisions to not watch TV. It's been too easy to switch it on and sit in front of it, especially when most of my time has been spent living alone while J has been back in Germany.
It's not that I will be blocking myself off from the world, it means that I will now choose to read what I want to learn more about, instead of mindlessly watching what someone else has chosen for me to view.
I know that I am a better person when I do this, and I'll be even better when we leave Australia at the end of June - and J and I are back together again.
11 comments:
Habibti.
You should follow me. the newspaper comes to my home, and with exactly the same crisp pristine fold , it gets chucked.
Day in day out, all i read are the funnies.
More than half of whats written is bullshit about a bunch os ass kissing politicians who are more into BALLS flexing. Little boys who cant grow up and have now gone from plastic toy soldiers to real human.
People dying, children starving, and f**kheads worrying about whether their Jimmy Choos match their Louis Vuittons.
This is the way of the world. Shallow and selfish.
The best you can do to keep whole and sane, is to hold onto the ones u belive in, and love.
Watch a senseless soap and read the funnies.
Ands HUG and kiss the one you love.
Hugs and xxxxx 2 u.
I agree with you about the sense of
helplessness - but I find that letting off steam through the blog is better than just sitting here about to explode.
I wondered why you stopped writing. I understand the helplessness but there is still stuff that can be done. Protest, talk, find like-minded people. Raise funds. Meet strangers every day and do the right thing.
Best wishes with your travels.
w.
and that just spells it out...the government would rather let their people suffer than let spies in to the country....thats the reality of life as it is...
Pretty much ditto what the PWA (kaya) says. The other day I actually counted 178 pages of newspaper that I didn't read & that was just for 2 days worth of GN. If it's not doom & gloom it's not newsworthy, unless your unmarried & caught kissing/supplying drugs or prostitutes/filming up someones skirt with a hidden camera.
What's happened in Burma & China is truly devastating. Mother Nature threw a wobble, but the sad thing is hateful little men in army uniforms refuse to accept help & would rather people suffer. How sad is that?
I think I must start a fundraising drive now, to hire an assasin for Bob Mugabe. If ever there was a truly hateful man still stealing oxygen, it's him.
Heaps of love to you both hon :-)
The difference in the news was just about the first thing I noticed upon turning up to the Emirates. There're a lot of stories about people's achievements. Some of them wouldn't be noteworthy in Aus. There are stories about female role models; women who start pilot training, form an equestrian group or who study something unusual. There was a story recently about a small group of people, both emiratis and non-emiratis, who had just finshed an ambulance training course.
One purpose in reporting such stories is to build self esteem and show what can be achieved. Sure the press has been hijacked to an extent to deliver a particular message, but it isn't one of doom and gloom!
The Aus press is all doom and gloom. Who has hijacked it and why? Why are Aussies being moulded to be fearful and cynical?
I found it an incredible relief to get out of the country I love and to get away from the media induced depression!
Keeping blogging NZM!
Blogs are expressions of human concern/happiness/wonder/sorrow/anger and sometimes the stuff of life that is in the small things – in the dew of which, Khalil Gibran says, the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
And anyway if you stop what will we read? Where are you going to?
Sounds like you've got a dose of SAD (seasonal affective disorder). When I lived in Melbourne I used to get it every May. It lasted months.
It sounds selfish, but amongst all the worlds tragic happenings you need to consider your "5 readers" still need you! Nice to see you post again, your writing is intelligent and eminently readable (even entertaining!).
Though I have to agree with you about media after seeing it in action here. So easy to skew it....
Kaya: I hear you! Enjoy Pakistan then! LOL!
Seabee: It does help from time to time!
Lirun: hope that you're loving South America!
Wendy: Of course, you're right!
utp: welcome to our blog!
Jayne: agree with everyfink you wrote. The UN are being so wussy over Zimbabwe and Mugabe that I wonder if any of them have a spine between them.
Aussie: the UAE papers are nothing but press releases really! But it is good to see some positive stuff.
Gargoyle: thanks for commenting, I know that you've been lurking for a while. We're moving to somewhere in Europe - not sure where yet! I hope that you're settling in Bangalore!
Anon: Maybe that was it! But I don't usually get affected by weather, and the weather in Melbourne was amazingly beautiful during May/June.
Meg: Fiji's media is censored like the UAE's - don't dare say anything against the leaders and rulers! Nice that you find my writing to be entertaining - thanks!
I also felt the suffering of the people of Burma and China and the frustration along with the rest of the world at how these governments allowed this to happen. It was truly heartbreaking watching th eparents crying outside the crumpled remains of their childrens schools, knowing that they had no chance of finding them, dead or alive.
Kaya: heck when all is going to pot, it is better to spend your time matching your Choos and Vuittons and leaving the rest to chance.
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