anja merret

Should you ever wonder what the intellectual capacity of social networking contributors and participants would be, then consider this. A picture of an anteater garnered 2 345 diggs, or votes, and 172 comments, within a matter of 23 hrs and 24 minutes.

With other words, the groundswell of opinion towards a picture of an anteater with a caption of “Fuck you I’m an Anteater” managed to collect an extraordinary number of votes and comments.

What does this mean? Well actually nothing really. At the end of the day, nothing has changed. The masses have a limited mental capacity. They have no interest in anything that could signify a level of intelligence above zero.

Today, while driving my daughter to a BBQ on the beach, we passed a group of young people in a park having a picnic. This was a wonderful idea, after all the UK is enjoying extraordinary weather. Who would have thought that 23 degrees could be a possibility in the UK in May.

As part of the picnic props of this group of people in the park a blow up rowing boat sat nestled on the lawn. A two seater number. We laughed as we drove past it and I cracked a joke about the fact that inevitably there would be somebody sitting in it and rowing. After all we are in mad England.

Low and behold when I drove past on the way home, there was actually somebody sitting in this blow-up row boat, in the middle of a park with no water or lake in sight, rowing with oars. In the air, in case you wondered.

So why should I be amazed that a picture of an anteater waving his arms in the air should collect an inordinate number of votes while wonderfully written stories and articles languish around the lower strata of Digg with five or twenty votes (they should be so lucky).

It does seem that the common denominator after all, whether in real life or in cyberspace, is regrettably very low and languishing at the feet of mankind, not even managing to rise to knee level. Oh dear. But no surprise really.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Question: what is it about governments, big business, institutions, non-profits, charities etc that they want to keep the poor poor? Alright, as generalisations go, this one is one of my better ones. Two articles that made me think this appeared in the media today.

The first one was in the Independent and discussed the farming revolution in Malawi. It described how Malawi has been able to turn around from being a country that needed food aid for five million out of twelve million of its citizens to one that is exporting food.

This was achieved by the new government, led by Bingu wa Mutharika, who supported its farmers by subsidising high-yield seed and fertilisers. With the benefit of state coupons the costs of these two essential ingredients to farming success were lowered dramatically.

The cost of the subsidy system to the state was £30m. Malawi’s donors refused to fund the programme, arguing that this would not help. They were wrong. From a yield of 1.2 million tonnes of maize in 2005, the harvest was 3.2 million tonnes in 2007. More than enough to cover local demand of 2.2 million tonnes.

The simplicity of this self-help programme should have made it obvious that it would succeed. This makes one wonder why donors would boycott the effort. Could it be that they really want Africa to stay poor and wish its people to starve? After all one can control the masses much more effectively if one controls the food supply.

Some of the many reasons voiced by the critics were stunningly stupid. The money could be more wisely spent on research. Yip, let’s do research while the people starve. Or what about - rich farmers would also benefit from the subsidies. But the trump card as always was the one about how this programme opened itself up to corruption.

The opinion that corruption is widespread in Africa is held by many. However, quite frankly, the African continent is but a babe in arms when it comes to corruption. Petty corruption would probably be the best description.

The truly awesome corruption is practiced by the developed world. In fact, corruption will follow where the real money is. And the real money is now in Europe. Forget about the Dollar, hello to the Euro. Two recent examples of this are Siemens and Liechtenstein. It’s worth checking the links.

The second article that made me ponder the topic of poverty today was by well respected South African marketer Chris Moerdyk. He submitted a letter, directed at heir-in-waiting to the SA Presidency Jacob Zuma, to the Mail & Guardian’s Thougthleader.

In this letter he discusses the petrol price rise in South Africa and that Mr Zuma had voiced some concern about the escalating fuel price. Chris Moerdyk is fairly skeptical that Jacob Zuma would do anything about the petrol price once President. The reason for this is that the government benefits immensely from a higher oil price.

Checking the figures it appears that the SA government gets a nice little 27.9% in taxes from the price of fuel. Add to that the other taxes that it levies on the industry involved such as transport, wholesale and retail operators and the windfall on higher oil prices is enough to make the Minister of Finance rub his hands in glee.

But that’s not all. The biggest con of all is SASOL. South Africa’s coal to oil producer charges the same prices as petroleum companies, although the cost of production of this fuel has not nearly increased at the same rate as oil has. Sasol doesn’t actually know what to do with the profits. There was talk of a special government levy….

It is therefore not entirely necessary for the petrol price in South Africa to be as high as it is. In fact not nearly that necessary. So what does the price of petrol have to do with the poor? They are the worst hit by it. Inevitably the poor live further away from work than the well off. This means that transport costs to work have escalated.

Transport costs will also impact heavily on food prices and other necessities such as fuel for heaters and cooking appliances. Most poor people, especially in Africa, cannot afford electricity. Not that the price of electricity is going to go down any time soon, or ever!

Some countries have already experienced riots because of the high cost of food. As this is being written food riots are happening in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Haiti’s food riots were the first. A Google search offers up 3 655 articles on food riots!

Would one be surprised to read that agribusiness multinationals are making billions in profit out of the growing global food crisis? Just one example is Montsano who reported in April 2008 that its net income for the three months up to the end of February of 2008 had more than doubled over the same period in 2007. Its profits increaaded from $1.44bn to $2.22bn.

Two articles on how the poor are being treated hardly supports a sweeping generalisation as made in the opening paragraph of this article. However, if one were to research this topic further, one would find a fair size body of articles and research that supports the position that the poor are getting poorer. Can one blame governments, big business, institutions, non profits or charities for this? Who else?

Popularity: 3% [?]

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake struck on December 26, 2004. It was the first time I had ever heard the word Tsunami. It’s a word that many people, myself included, will never forget. I was visiting my daughter in the UK. Not being at home at the time made the disaster somehow even worse.

One thing that amazed me during the time I was in the UK was how the English people mobilised themselves to collect money and any other form of aid they could think of. One had to stumble over many a mountain of bagged clothing outside Oxfam shops wondering what people in tropical climates would do with all these winter clothes. Still, it was the thought that counted.

Every shop we went into or pub we visited for a drink had competitions or collection buckets. Shopping malls had collection points. Bands were playing for donations to help Tsunami victims. The appeals that went out were mind blowing. Reading the newspapers at the time it was incredible to see by how far the UK population’s donations outstripped the government’s pledge. Final figures are around a staggering £330 million that the UK people collected.

And it is something I have noticed again since moving to the UK. The English people have a huge heart when it comes to collecting for the needy. The London to Brighton cycle ride is one big fund raiser for the Heart Foundation with thousands taking part and raising money through having their effort rewarded with sponsorships.

It’s wonderful to see this. Often one forgets that human beings are caring folk. We are so inundated with horrific tales of killings, torture and general crimes against humanity that we forget that every day many many people give small and touching bits of themselves to help others.

There are folk who help pick up dropped parcels, open doors for moms and their prams, offer up their seat on a bus, smile at each other and crack a joke. So many times the human interaction is kind and caring in small little ways.

Then of course there are the big gestures. The ones made by Nelson Mandela forgiving 27 years in jail to build a new nation. Or there was Mother Theresa who spent a life time helping others in dire need. Muhammad Yunus who founded Grameen Bank to lend unsecured tiny bits of money to the poor to enable them to earn a living for themselves and their families.

In between these two groups of people, the ones making the small gesture and those with the huge statements, there are thousands of people who make their own big steps. They apply themselves to making a difference by doing something beyond the call of duty.

One such person is Simon Forbes. Simon has decided to make an extraordinary effort to raise money for RDA (Riding for the Disabled Association). On May 24, 2008 he is cycling from London to Paris. Considering Simon is not Tour de France material, this is an amazing effort and besides the days spent in the saddle during the event, he has also been donating his spare time to training efforts.

Simon’s family has been involved in RDA for several years, so for him this is a personal project. For most people collecting funds for the RDA would probably not register on their personal Richter scale of emergency funding requirements. After all there are many many charities and NGO’s who are feeding starving people or sheltering AIDS orphans who surely require funding more urgently.

But that’s not the point for me. I support Simon because he represents for me that human characteristic that is the good part. He’s making a huge effort to collect funds to make the lives of disabled people a little more comfortable as well as giving them the opportunity to have great fun.

It’s this kind of action that restores in us our faith in mankind. And we need that faith restored on a daily basis. Every media screams at us with tales of horror. Innocent people are caught up in wars. People are cheated out of their homes by banks, taken for a ride by unscrupulous corporations or overtaxed by their governments.

Isn’t it wonderful to see a person do something great for a change. It’s enough to restore our faith in the goodness of people never mind that we get a warm fuzzy feeling at the thought.

In a way, by donating money to his cause, I can join in with his efforts and state that humans aren’t all bad. We can do good stuff too. Simon’s just doing the hard work for me this time around, which I am mighty thankful for not being particularly sporty anymore.

So why don’t you consider contributing too. It’s really easy at http://www.justgiving.com/simonforbes. It will take ten minutes if you read the terms and conditions, less if you don’t. I timed it. Incidentally Just Giving is a great web 2.0 idea. Harnessing the power of the web for the good of mankind, truly wonderful to see that.

Join me in applauding one person’s effort to make a difference. By getting together we can truly make a bigger difference. So let’s do that. Let’s remind ourselves that humans are special and that we care about their well-being. To read about RDA visit their website. To donate go here. Please do. It will be immensely appreciated.

Popularity: 5% [?]

What is it about the situation in Zimbabwe that has produced one of the most severe cases of stick-your-head-in-the-sand-itis that one can imagine. Watching a video on the online New York Times on the refugees streaming into South Africa got me into such a state that tears were running down my cheeks.

Of course, as part of dramatic reporting techniques, some of the shots were probably staged. But nevertheless, the woman who had just scraped under the fence into South Africa and was now filmed walking along the road to Messina with one plastic packet of her possession, got to me.

I wept for her and the hopelessness of her plight. The unemployment figures in South Africa for its citizens are high. Stats SA maintains it’s 23%. It’s probably more likely to be double that. The exact numbers are not known as many South Africans do not claim unemployment benefits and fall outside the scope of surveys.

So many eek out a living in any way they can. They might sell a few bananas and oranges from rickety tables, stand guard over cars in shopping malls or flog those ubiquitous plastic clothes hangers at traffic lights.

South Africans are blessed with a fairly well developed sense of black humour. A joke that made the rounds a few years ago said that: you know when you are in Johannesburg when you can buy anything at the traffic lights. Visitors are amazed at the goods available. Instant shopping. I used to get my windscreen washed once a week, at a set of traffic lights at the top of a freeway off-ramp, by Godfrey. He had a ’shop sign’ up that said www.godfrey.co.za.

Fleeing into this environment in the hope that you can find employment and shelter is beyond hopeless. One can only shudder at what has made this woman walk for hours in the heat, clutching one packet. How much worse must it be where she is coming from. According to The New York Times article, it is estimated that about 1 000 people cross over into South Africa every day.

To those who might want to argue that Zimbabweans think of South Africa as a land of milk and honey, I would like to ask what personal circumstances would make them walk into another country, scraping through barbed wire fences, even possibly facing crocodiles in the river separating the countries. How desperate would you have to be to do that.

I have some personal experience. My family went across the border from East Germany to West Germany in the late 1940’s. My brother-in-law, as a young boy, walked with his family from the German areas of Russia after the second world war. My father saw the refugees at the Dresden railway station and adjourning park just days before they got bombed.

Through all these personal histories of family members, one thing came through loud and clear. They and we, only left our homes because we absolutely had to. And as with the Zimbabwean refugees we left everything behind. In our case, my parents tried to give away as much as they could to those staying behind, without raising suspicion.

What the difference was though was that some provision, as much as could be done after the war, was made for refugees. People were accommodated and helped as much as was possible. Governments took note of refugees and did something about it.

Regrettably this cannot be said for the way any of the countries around Zimbabwe are reacting to this flood of desperate people. It’s as if it is not happening. A report I read a few months ago estimated 2 million Zimbabweans in South Africa alone.

I would imagine that Zimbabweans living in the north would head towards northern neighbours rather. With other words, how many displaced and desperate people are being ignored by the Southern African countries. Millions. All totally overlooked, except for the few who are sent back by the South African government when caught. That’s almost worse.

Why not call in the United Nations, Oxfam, Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, you name them. These organisations will come and help with shelter, food and medication. At least this will shine the spot light on the problem rather than allowing these poor folk to disappear into abject poverty.

Perhaps everybody in Africa is listening to South African President Thabo Mbeki’s ‘there is no crisis’ statement. Well not everybody. It was wonderful to see the trade unions take a stand during the recent arms for Zimbabwe drama held in Durban. And the front page of the Independent in the UK screams about genocide in Zimbabwe. So thankfully not everybody is buying into the ‘no crisis’ point of view.

However, while a bunch of people are making some noise and rattling some sabers, people such as the woman who brought me to tears, are walking along dusty roads carrying their worldly possessions in a plastic packet. It makes me want to cry all over again, just thinking of her. Stop focusing on Mugabe and his henchmen and focus on the real issues here, the people. PLEASE!

Popularity: 6% [?]

This Carnival keeps on growing. We now have over sixty great articles to showcase in this edition of the Carnival.

We start with GP who maintains that - Follow up with feeling…. makes all the difference. Read about it: GP presents Follow Up .. with feeling posted at Innstyle Montana- Come on Inn.

Clever as usual as Madeleine Begun Kane presents Taxing Verse posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog.

Sidhusaaheb presents ‘V’ for Victory posted at I, Me, Myself.

al presents Overplaying the green movement! posted at Daily Oil Blog.

Grieve not for what is past … our joys as winged dreams do fly … doesn’t it make sense that we behave the same way with our grief as we do with our joy? See what Gabriella Kortsch, Ph.D. presents Our Joys posted at Psychology, Transformation & Freedom Papers.

Jake Riley presents Derren Brown - Person Swap posted at Free MAGIC TRICKS.

Joel Chue presents Healing Power of the Mind - The Best Medicine posted at Mind Power: Unlock The Subconscious Mind Power Secrets.

In tips for creating a clutter free home Scott.Goolsby presents Unapologetic Genius » Blog Archive » The Wrath of Clutter posted at Unapologetic Genius.

Patrick A. Sizemore presents Is it Alright to Have Fun? posted at College Information for Smart Students

David Cassell presents Getting Help With Mathematics posted at selectcoursesblog.com.

On living for the moment. Laksh presents Dance in the rain… posted at Musings.

Jose DeJesus MD presents Your Is A Negative Word posted at Internet Business Blog.

Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents How To Write Your First Paragraph posted at Rebecca Dean.

You can learn a lot from your fish says therapydoc at Eating Just Enough posted at Everyone Needs Therapy.

:: Suzanne :: presents sleepwalking posted at :: adventures in daily living ::.

Gavin R. Putland presents Still on the mountaintop: Economically rational racism posted at /etc/cron.whenever/.

Kenton Newby presents Physical Info Product Creation: Using Multiple Formats to Multiply Profits posted at KentonNewby.com.

Hypnosis is not the ability to have complete domination over one’s mind, nor is it domination over another human being. Covert Hypnotist presents What Hypnosis is NOT! posted at Conversational & Covert Hypnosis Blog.

One of those days… Something funny happened on the way to the bank. paulmct presents The Nuts Are Out « Bloggin’ Off posted at Bloggin’ Off.

Mark Riffey presents Why should a small business sell gift cards? posted at Business is Personal.

Aaron Brandon presents Mindmapping, Secret To Success? posted at Online Business, Blog.

Rob Moshe presents What Are Your Dreams? posted at Rob Moshe.

Gratitude is an act of internal focus, not external. In order to complete the spiritual process of a blessing experienced, it is not someone outside of myself that I need to offer acknowledgement to, but to my own spirit. CG Walters presents In Gratitude, You Accept Yourself and Are Doubly Blessed posted at Into the Mist.

The dilemma that young professional women have when choosing education and a career versus starting a family early in life. Phil for Humanity presents The Dilemma for Young Women << Phil for Humanity posted at Phil for Humanity.

Barb A. Ryan presents 1 - Your Personal Financial Planning Skills posted at Pasadena Financial Planner.

James Brausch presents Dos Palabras posted at Costa Rica, HQ.

Why having a birthday on April 1 can be…interesting!babs mountjoy presents No Fool like an old Fool posted at Awalkabout’s Weblog

Fruitpunch presents The pressure of Success posted at Fruit Punch Diary.

Alex Blackwell presents Seven Practical Personal Development Strategies posted at The Next 45 Years.

Louise Manning presents Good children posted at The Human Imprint.

sarah presents Life lessons learned from “The Babysitting Blues” — Guest blog by Steve! posted at SARAHSPY.

Robert Phillips presents Do You Have A Convenient Excuse? posted at CYBERCA$HOLOGY.

Joel Chue presents Self-Hypnosis - The Basics - Chapter 5 posted at SELF HYPNOSIS: Weight Loss, Quit Smoking Self Hypnosis!.

James Lee presents Frogs, Social Proof, and You posted at Online Business Freedom.

Can something be done to improve brain health and reduce Alzheimer’s risk? much, it seems…starting with one’s job. Alvaro Fernandez presents Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention posted at Sharp brain blog.

Avani presents How do your words make you feel? posted at Food For Mind.

Mark Schauss presents Ignoring the Supreme Court Ruling - Bush Administration Flaunts the Law On the Environment posted at Toxic World Blog - Detoxify and Heal Your Body.

Margaret Garcia-Couoh presents Naked Talk posted at Parenting Squad.

Some satire comparing Yuppie runners and old school blue collar runners. Jimson Lee presents The Yuppies Habits vs. Me posted at SpeedEndurance.com.

Steve Faber presents - 4 Things That Can Make You Free (Financially and Otherwise) posted at Debt Free.

MBB presents Pay By Credit Card To Protect Against An Airline Bankruptcy posted at Money Blue Book.

Dereck presents Your First Goal Should Be To Clarify One posted at I Will Not Die.

An excellent presentation of the attributes every leader should have. Life. Money. Development. presents The 7 Attributes of Leadership posted at Life. Money. Development..

Why do we feel the need to separate ourselves into groups within groups, only to exclude those that we have more in common with than not? New Old-Fashioned Gal presents New vs. Old-Fashioned Quilting posted at A New Old-Fashioned Gal.

In situations like we need to feed the baby, to care for the parents, to make sure there’s shampoo in the shower and bread in the kitchen and many other consideration, who can blame someone who’d choose fame and money from life’s happiness? How about you? Mina Togonon presents Why Pursue Happiness Over Money? posted at 24 Hour Paradigm.

Edith presents Eight Rules of Developing Great Taglines posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

Kelly presents Just a Few Things I’ve Been Pondering… posted at View Along the Way.

Guilt hovers over you like a dark cloud. Thoughts seem to have a mind of their own, intruding at all hours of the day. Chances are that sometimes we feel guiltier than the inmates of Wormwood Scrubs! So next time, the Judge Judy in your head goes into overdrive, follow these tips. Shamelle presents Give Up The Guilt. You’re Not A Bad Person posted at Enhance Life.

Prejudice… James DeLelys presents WORDS » Articles posted at WORDS.

I found a cardboard cutout of Subway spokesperson Jared Fogle, and his chest hair was sticking out. So of course I took pics of it on my cellphone and wrote an article about it. Blue Sunshine presents Subway’s Jared Cardboard Cut Out Has Gross Chest Hair posted at MiscGarbage.com.

On arranged marriages. hammy presents Marriage-ment by Guessing Around | The Blah Blahs and the Yada Yadas posted at The Blah Blahs and the Yada Yadas.

The difference between men and women. Kacey presents A Man and a Woman at an Antique Mall posted at WineontheKeyboard

There have been some changes in our culture-here’s one nobody is talking about. Dave from Welcome Back Rosenthal presents Obama The Rock and Tiger. The New Black Man is a Little Less Black posted at Welcome Back Rosenthal.

The law of attraction states that objects of similar vibration attract one another (like attracts like). But the problem is this-HOW can you ever CHANGE your vibration in order to attract that which you desire? The answer is in the key of TRANSMUTATION, that ancient process from alchemy that dares to change ordinary metal into gold, that dares to seek the elixir of life to cure all diseases and to restore even the aged back unto eternal youth. ITAKEOFFTHEMASK presents The Law of Attraction and the Key of Transmutation posted at itakeoffthemask.com.

Fiona Lohrenz presents Does Your Teen Help At Your Day Care? posted at Child Care Only.

A look at why people stare and what to do about it. Edward Townsend presents Why do People Stare? posted at Confusion and Frustration.

Silveral presents Celebrities as Role Models | Celebrity News, and Gossip posted at Celebrity News, and Gossip.

Brad Trnavsky presents Showdown With Customers at High Noon - Sales Management 2.0 posted at Sales Management 2.0 - Featured Blog Posts.

Come check out this week’s great quotes from some of the world’s greatest minds. This week’s guest speakers include: Confucius, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Douglas Adams, Ben Stein, Grace Murray Hopper, and Hugh Macleod. “Never contract friendship with…” FitBuff presents Friday’s Fitness Quotes: “Never contract friendship with…” posted at FitBuff.com’s Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog.

Infertility meets insensitivity. Sonia Guardado presents No Apologies Please posted at The Bonbon Chronicles.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Watching what my younger daughter gets up to in geekland is always interesting. She is one of the early adopters of digital technology. Thanks to her I have been a Twitter member since January 2007, months after she had joined of course, and had a page on Facebook before most other Old Timers. An iPhone made its way into our UK house within three months of the US launch.

But even with this track record I was somewhat taken aback when she announced that she had signed up for a week-end course in electronics. Huh? Circuit boards and soldering irons? Yes, she was going to use her Flash AS skills to talk to circuit boards and make them do stuff together.

This particular course was run by two bright people. One, Dr Brock Craft, working at the London Knowledge Lab where the course was also being held, has a fascinating background. His focus is on Information Visualisation and physical computing. Read more about his latest fun stuff he ‘plays’ around with on his blog.

The other co-presenting bright spark was Alias Cummins, a Flash Developer par excellence. The course covered the beginnings of working with Arduino using Flash. The ultimate goal was to get to a spot where the students could get Flash to talk to an integrated circuit using Arduino. The primary development language would be ActionScript 3.

Daughter came back quite inspired and demonstrated how she could light up little bulbs on her circuit board using her Mac and Flash and how to manipulate images on the computer screen with a light sensitive bulb and lever attached to the board. Now I am waiting with bated breath what new stuff will come out of that.

The other somewhat ‘unusual’ project she has been amusing herself with is as collaborator in a friend’s MA Communication Design degree project. It involves an interesting foray into a different perspective on user interface design. It further makes use of Flash programming with a view to making the software work on a multi-touch table.

The three whiz-kids converted our lounge/diningroom into a studio recently, with umpteen computers, a data projector, Wii remote perched on funky legs and other gadgets scattered randomly around. It’s a truly international collaboration with Johannes the multi-touch table developer coming from Germany, Mel the MA student from Austria and Niqui from South Africa. If this is what makes young adults happy, then the world is in a good space.

It was fascinating to watch the first experiments. With a gadget like pen, a Mac, the Wii controller and data projector they were able to manipulate the circle images which were projected onto the wall. With other words they were twirling the circles on the wall with the pen gadget. As an aside, it was quite surprising that all three of them were on Mac. Wouldn’t have seen that a few years ago.

As with the week-end course on electronics, this particular project was fun to watch taking shape but didn’t really register on my mental screen as being anything else except a typical academic theory project. After all touchscreen technology has been lurking in the wings for years never truly coming into its own. Even Microsoft is playing around with tables.

That was until I spotted this video. For once a Digg friend actually sent me to something worthwhile. Light bulbs went off. I could have been Britney Spears stepping out of a taxi with the Paparazzi attention she normally gets, that’s how many lights went off.

The video is of a TED talk by researcher Johnny Lee who put together an interactive whiteboard with about $50 worth of gadgets, a computer and projector saving about $3000 in equipment costs. It was exactly what had happened in my lounge a few weeks ago.

Even as techno-illiterate as I am, I could see the possibilities a bit more clearly. After all I should have more faith in my daughter. What she finds fascinating could be the next big thing. So if anybody feels inspired and wants to send her some Shekles so she can have fun doing more research stuff rather than slogging away at Flash Development, feel free!

Popularity: 7% [?]

The closing ceremony to the Sydney Olympics ended with an artistic performance by the next hosting country. China and it’s main city Beijing will be hosting the games later in 2008. The display that China put on was breathtaking. It felt, at the time, that having to wait for four years for China’s opening ceremony would be far too long.

There is no doubt that for China hosting the Olympics is of huge significance. Amongst many reasons, such as pride of ones nation’s achievements, the most important one could be that China feels it has finally arrived on the world stage.

China will ensure the Olympics are held at the most fabulous facilities. The games will be known for their effortless management, smog free Beijing, polite people who will all want to practice their newly learnt English skills. They might also be remembered for the fact that China, for the first time, won the most medals out of all participating countries. Team America you can start worrying.

Within this scenario, it must be horrific for China to have the ‘Free Tibet’ demonstrations, first in Tibet and now during the carrying of the flame. London gave some indication of things to come. The momentum grew in Paris and it will be interesting to see how dramatic things will be in San Francisco.

There has been some pressure exerted on sponsoring companies to withdraw their money, on leaders of countries not to participate in the opening ceremony and even to cancel their athletes’ participation.

Germany’s Angela Merkel is rumoured to have withdrawn from attending the opening ceremony. Of course one has to remember that she and her foreign affairs department might still be annoyed at the criticism and snub China played on Germany when Merkel met with the Dalai Lama recently.

This will not be the first time that the Olympics have been used to punish a country. Many athletes from various countries have suffered badly when their teams were withdrawn because of some political point being made. Even I felt this when I attended the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984 and the Russian block boycotted the games in retaliation for the US boycott of the Olympics held in Moscow in 1980.

So what is the reason for China’s troubles in Tibet? Tibet’s history is fairly colourful in that it has been overrun in some form or other by most of the big powers whether it be Mongolia, Russia or the British Empire. Now it is controlled and owned by China. As with the rest of China, there seems to be little freedom of speech or permission for religious affiliation.

Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, China has had to pump a fair amount of money into Tibet to try and lift its population out of abject poverty. The population has more than doubled since China took over. The GDP is thirty times that of the period before 1950, infant mortality has dropped from 43% to 0.661% amongst other achievements. With other words not everything China is doing in the highest country in the world is evil.

It seems the issue revolves around human rights abuses. The Dalai Lama seems to have given up on the idea of a separate nation and is purely trying to exert some pressure to restore human rights. This effort is much frowned upon by the Tibetan Government in Exile that still operates out of India. Yet no other country has recognized the Government in Exile as the legitimate government of Tibet.

So it doesn’t seem quite as straight forward as one might think. Yes there are human rights abuses. And yes China has been incredibly heavy handed in dealing with the Tibetan uprisings. It is not known, and it is unlikely to ever see the light of day, as to how many people have died so far for the cause.

But compare this against what America and its allies are doing in Iraq, the situation in Tibet hardly makes a ripple in terms of human rights abuses. Let’s check out Darfur, what about the Congo, Zimbabwe and recently Kenya, the beating up and killing of monks in Burma, and there’s Russia and Chechnya. These are just a few examples of countries where there have been onslaughts on human rights and human lives lost that makes Tibet look like a peaceful haven, almost.

Of course that doesn’t mean that I condone the infringements on human rights in Tibet or the way that China took over Tibet or the manner in which the Dalai Lama was banished. In fact I was quite sad that I had not made the trek into London to take part in the protests.

I just think that if one were to make an effort to speak up about human rights abuses, one should be more inclusive. Let’s make a big noise and a consistent one about all of the human rights abuses and lets punish the countries that condone or practice them - not just China.

Popularity: 7% [?]

An article on BBC News online caught my eye. It dealt with the bias that women face worldwide. In a UN-commissioned report the findings were that women are discriminated against in almost every country around the world. The report was compiled by Fareda Banda, a Zimbabwean born law professor based in London.

In itself this was not news to me having come across various forms of discrimination myself. What really caught my attention was a comment by a reader that said ‘EVERY woman I know has experienced discrimination or abuse’. That seemed a particularly radical statement. It made me benchmark that against the women I knew sufficiently well to be able to make a call.

Here are a few examples. My best friend who lives in Cape Town, has been the main bread winner in her family unit ever since she got married at the age of 19. She recently took the plunge to extend her self-catering accommodation and bought the property across the road from her home. She had to have her husband’s signature on the documents as she did not have sufficient legal status to do this on her own.

My sister does not make any major decisions in her family through 40 years of marriage. She maintains that it is because her husband does everything so much better. Whether that is true or not, he makes the decisions from what religion the family practices, the number of children to have and what car is bought. They live in Germany, with other words in a developed country.

Sure one could say that as she and her husband are in their sixties, this could be considered a different generation and that things have changed for younger women. So lets have a look at the next generation down, women in their twenties. Here’s a situation to consider.

During November of the previous year, my younger daughter was a speaker at a Flash conference here in the UK and which I was fortunate enough to attend. During the final session, the organiser of the event thanked all involved and spent some time praising and pointing out the virtues of the relevant contributors.

Towards the end of this presentation he asked two of the handful of women speakers to stand up in the audience. He then proceeded to tell the delegates that if they would sign up for the following year’s conference they would have the pleasure of watching these two speakers in a mud wrestling competition.

The predominantly male audience, which is normal for IT conferences, was vastly appreciative in its response to this news snippet. I have no reason to believe that this was not a joke. However, none of the male speakers were subjected to this kind of sexual innuendo.

If one were to think this an isolated incident, then have a look at this report back on a panel discussion at the Interactive Festival in Austin called SXSW in March this year. The topic was ‘What Women Need to Succeed’. The panel consisted of five women who have certainly made it in the interactive media industry and are well qualified to voice an opinion.

One of the panelists referenced a recent discussion that said if men were stupid enough to think with their penises, then as a woman trying to get ahead in IT one should exploit this. By the time this statement reached my daughter who was attending the conference, but had skipped this panel discussion, it had morphed into a description more aligned to what Lewinsky got up to with Clinton.

One would almost be inclined to think that here is the answer to what has been bothering leaders in the IT industry for years, namely the lack of women choosing this career path. However, of course this is not the case. There are certainly other issues contributing to the fact that at any given time a room full of IT specialists will have about a maximum of 10% females amongst them.

Of course these few examples do not make a totally compelling case. However, they are a reflection on the developed world where discrimination is still found. And I have to agree with the person who left the comment that every women he/she knew had experienced discrimination. On examining my life and the women I know the same applies to my experiences and knowledge of life.

I would imagine that the reason why I had to examine this statement more closely was the fact that discrimination can be so insidious that one doesn’t actually notice it anymore. And in comparison to what women have to suffer in the Arabic, African and Eastern countries the developed world does treat it’s women well. Nevertheless, reports such as this one, should be taken note of.

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Presenting a wonderful collection of articles which have been submitted for this Blog Carnival.

We start off with the first submission to this carnival:

GP presents You Might Just be an Endurance Rider posted at Innstyle Montana- Come on Inn.

Joshua Seth presents Can’t Sleep in Hotels? Try This Travel Tip… posted at Joshua Seth Blog.

Anthony presents I Took Time For Myself… posted at The Lives and Times… of Anthony McCune.

Fruitpunch presents Priceless, yet warm hearted compliments posted at Fruit Punch Diary.

What does “home” mean after an experience living abroad, away from home? Mark Koester presents Strangely (not) at-home: Being at home and away from home posted at The Mystic Atheist.

Rich Vosler presents Don’t let your struggles defeat you posted at Sales Training Tips.

My greatest ethical or moral role models live their lives as their religion/doctrine/philosophy but based on their thoughts and actions you would never imagine they spend time on such impractical extravagances. CG Walters presents Who is your greatest ethical or moral role model? posted at Into the Mist.

Success comes with a price. It demands dedication and effort and lots of hard work. Before you plunge and buy, it might be good to ask first how much is the cost of your ‘whistle’. wilson ng presents Dedication and Focus posted at Reflections of a BizDrivenLife.

Allison Jones presents Single Life and Bad Advice posted at Entry Level Living.

These are some of the most interesting things to witness in human behavior. These are 15 of the most creative ways to propose to your sweetheart. Harrison presents Top 15 Creative and Romantic ways to Pop the Question to Your Sweetheart posted at Bridal Party Tees.

woopi clients presents Federal Government posted at GOVERNMENT.

nicole presents 84 Things To Live By posted at Makeitbetter’s Weblog.

Sophie presents Indecent questions posted at Life Junkie.

Hypnosis entails more than just the trance-like state you see depicted in many movies and television shows, it is a deep and complicated relationship held between the hypnotist and the subject that comes complete with a desired set of goals to achieve. Covert Hypnotist presents What Exactly Is Hypnosis? posted at Conversational & Covert Hypnosis Blog.

Alex Blackwell presents Four Rocks to Grasp in Life posted at The Next 45 Years.

Tina Su presents The 5 Myths of Positive Mental Attitude posted at Think Simple. Be Decisive..

Amy. S. Quinn presents How to Telecommute Successfully: 50 Tips and Resources posted at Bootstrapper.

Heather Johnson presents The Top 100 Productivity and Lifehack Blogs - College Degree.com posted at college degree.

A lesson in dealing with obstacles. StarLightWalker presents Obstacles posted at StarLightWalker.

Doug Kercher presents Another Playing Lesson posted at Doug Kercher Golf.

Engaging conversation is not a behavior trait, but a skill that anyone can master. It’s a skill that offers huge rewards – improved relationships, a wider circle of friends and better career opportunities. More importantly, it yields self-confidence in social situations. David B. Bohl presents Become an Engaging Conversationalist posted at Slow Down Fast Today!.

Christine presents The French School System and Sex Education posted at Me, My Kid and Life.

How seemingly unsolvable problems can be solved by changing your frame or perspective. Warren Wong presents How To Solve Problems By Changing Your Frame Or Perspective posted at Personal Development.

Silveral presents Celebrity Pets – And Their Owners. | Celebrity News, and Gossip posted at Celebrity News, and Gossip.

This is Anthony’s way of trying to break down barriers between people. Anthony presents Pete’s View In Melbourne, Australia posted at What I See Out My Window.

Vee presents Don?t Call Them Guys posted at Polishing the Pearl Blog.

It is a common belief that people cheat on their partners out of malice or illwill. This article will demonstrate a surprising truth that, usually, the exact opposite is the case. Nara presents Why People Don’t Tell Their Partner Before They Cheat posted at Infidelity.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Ode To Eliot Spitzer posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.

Weight Loss Dude presents Why Don’t You Just Eat Less? posted at Weight Loss Dude.

For those with broken hearts….. James Lewitzke presents 9 Reasons You Should Never Fall in Love posted at Lightning Shock.

A post about lessons on life learned while meeting a very special person in the remote part of the bush in Niger, West Africa… Ishtar presents Trivialities or tranquility posted at Esther Garvi.

Ben There presents The Long And Weary Path posted at Beer And Incense.

So you want to be one of those people who seem to get noticed wherever they go? You want to have an invisible magnetic attraction that can be felt? You want to come across as confident, cool and in control whether you are in front of an audience or walking down the street? Then you want presence. Ralph Jean-Paul presents Be THE Presence in Any Room posted at Potential 2 Success.

Time is Money. Here’s a detailed summary of the key concepts in the time management lecture by Randy Pausch… You can skim through it to get the points you need… SJ Yee presents Time Management for Lazy People posted at Personal Development for the Book Smart.

My dream is that one day people will stop being so wasteful. Phil for Humanity presents Stop Watering Your Lawn << Phil for Humanity posted at Phil for Humanity.

Tim Gary presents Introduce Yourself Anywhere and Prepare for Surprising Results posted at Internet Success Bites.

Twitter is really a fast growing community site and providing a good environemnt to interacting with people of same thinking or business line. So, go and get a twitter, now. Mattg presents Do You Get Twitter? posted at Matt Garrett.

The title of the post is ‘Whisper Sweet Mortgages In Her Ear’. Paulmct presents Whisper Sweet Mortgages In Her Ear « Bloggin’ Off posted at Bloggin’ Off.

Evanstien presents The Purpose of Human Relationships: by Nicholas Powiull posted at Conscious Flex.

Rising to the anticipated, and unanticipated, challenges of Life. Carole G. McKay presents Expanding Horizons posted at Gold Post-it.

Greg Laden presents Squat Toilets, Sexy People, and The Nature of the Internet posted at Greg Laden’s Blog.

Anthony presents Perry Local Schools Graduate Pursuing Career In Motorsports Industry posted at Stark County, Ohio News And Views….

Silveral presents Celebrity couples – top Hollywood couples | Celebrity News, and Gossip posted at Celebrity News, and Gossip.

Naomi Stevens presents EARTHQUAKE HITS BRITAIN posted at Diary From England.

Edith presents How Do You Measure Success? posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

The secret to everlasting beauty! Abutei presents Top 5 Beauty Tips posted at How to Abutei.

Fruitpunch presents What?s my next step? posted at Fruit Punch Diary.

Stephen Dean presents Positive Thinking Is Worth Less… posted at Copywriting Blog Focused On Internet Advertising.

Piotr Stepien presents The Power of Decision (about Steve Pavlina) posted at we overstep.

This is a great post about the best ways to ‘work a room’. Its amazng when you begin noticing how good some people are at this! Todd presents How To ‘Work a Room’ Better Than Obama posted at We The Change.

Mark Schauss presents Links to Help Inform You About How To Achieve Victory Over Our Toxic World posted at Toxic World Blog - Detoxify and Heal Your Body.

Ineffective ways of spending time on the internet - we all do it at times. Tejvan Pettinger presents 10 Stupid Things we Do on the Internet posted at Net Writing.

Prejudice! James DeLelys presents healingthroughwords.com » PARABLES posted at Author James DeLelys.

Robert Phillips presents Lessons Learned from The General posted at CYBERCA$HOLOGY.

James Brausch presents Costa Rican Domestic Help posted at Costa Rica HQ.

Joshua C. Karlin presents An Opportunity Not to Be Missed posted at Internet Business.

Why sleep is so important. Alvaro Fernandez presents Sleep, Tetris, Memory and the Brain posted at SharpBrains.

Ella Moss presents True Purpose of Life posted at ZODIAC TIMES.

Blue presents Using Sex To Sell Get Rich Scams posted at Money Blue Book.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Recently I have been talking about more serious issues. It has been quite a wake-up call how readers can often be quite nit picking and very ready to point out where one might have gone wrong. I truly appreciate feed-back, but it does make one hesitate to write again. I mean, who wants to be wrong?

On the other hand, an intelligent discourse can be quite interesting and welcome in the sometimes rather dumbing down news environment. And as with many hands make light work, loads of brains and a varied knowledge base can expand a topic considerably and that is really enjoyable.

As much as I like to research and be fairly logical in my writing, I really enjoy writing a blog because I can air my opinions without having to join a debating society to do that. With other words there is generally a fairly generous sprinkling of personal and somewhat emotional content.

What this last year of blogging has done though, it has made me appreciate the lot of the journalist more. It would seem that as a journalist, there should be a course during ones training on how to develop a very thick skin.

So for once, I am going to abandon all pretense at logic or rational thought. Which means of course that there will be a larger number of readers who will want to point out the errors of my way. However, as there is no way to really prove the point, we can all either be wrong or right. So, water off a duck’s back, as they say.

Here it is then. What if the reason for living is just to live and there is no other reason. We decide to come onto the earth to experience life for life’s sake. With other words, we do not take on a human life to be wealthy or poor, to be famous or infamous. Or even to win a Nobel prize. We just come to check it out. Observe the show. Participate if we should feel like it.

If we come onto planet earth for the sole purpose of experiencing a life, then there would be no right or wrong. There would be no expectations we would have to work towards. We would not have to benchmark ourselves against successful people. We would not need to be successful because the concept would not make any sense to somebody who is only there to experience life.

Formal religion would have a problem surviving against that world view. There would be no obligation to have to believe in a deity. One would not need to abide by any religions’ laws. The concept of heaven and hell could not survive as our purpose would not be to lead a religious life. Inherited sins wouldn’t exist either. Not that it ever made a huge amount of sense to me in any case. But some people believe in it, so fair enough.

So why would anybody want to win a Nobel prize then? For the fun of it? Maybe to see what it feels like to have that kind of honour bestowed upon one. Or for instance why would one want to go through the kind of relentless agony in order to win the right to sit in the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, as Obama and Clinton are going through at the moment. Maybe to be able to use Air Force 1.

So if there is no meaning to life, why even bother? Good question. What about all the philosophers and great thinkers. They could have all been on the wrong page then. Or maybe they were just entertaining themselves, wondering what it felt like to voice a controversial opinion. Well lets see what other people have to say about this opinion.

Popularity: 9% [?]