My keyboard is messed up. It sounds like a typewriter when I type. All because of the ajaira lok who spilled MY drink on MY laptop. Talk about double jeopardy. Okay, maybe not the best application of the word, but cut me some slack, folks. I have competition. SB is on a roll, churning out random write ups like its free. Which it is, actually. But who get the gist.
I've been meaning to comment on a news report I read on bullying, analyse a certain Obama policy that I'm in favor of and mildy throw some chicken feed on swine flu, preferably separately, but since these will soon (in about an hour) become old news, I am having to briefly round up my thoughts.
Obama's policy: of releasing the 'torture' documents from the past administration's treatment of its alleged terrorists
Critism so far: the degradation of the Muslims and others will spur Anti American sentiment (as if it can get any worse than it did during Bush's regime)
I completely disagree with the critisim. I think, on the contrary, it sends a message to the world about Obama's transparency, and resolve to do what is right. He really is speaking to people like you (yes, you) and me here. We want to know the truth. It will make us angry, yes, but Obama is giving us the opportunity to be angry. Without this revelation, we would have been blissfully unaware. Us being angry is what some people are worried about, and perhaps some of that worry is justified, some of our Muslim brothers have not shown a great deal of level headedness in the past. But Obama has. He's a good thinker, he knows what's right, he can identify a touch situation and then, most importantly, he can remain cool headed at the same time. He really IS the savior of this nation of United States. And by allowing us to see what went wrong, he is really opening up the door to open, transparent communication.
At the same time, there is (as there should be) a political motive. He had to take heat for abolishing torture of war criminals and alleged criminals in custody. By revealing these documents, the nation gets to see what exactly he is abolishing. And the people have that right. A right that the former administration had taken away from the people, in the name of 'national security'. You have to realize, criticizing the former President was deemed 'unpatriotic' as Paul Krugman points out, and people just could do nothing about it. Bush had the 8 years he wanted to turn the budget surplus into a huge deficit and to completely destroy the financial sector on the domestic front and wage two horrendously failed wars internationally.
But, I digress.
My entire point may seem like: Yay for Obama and Down with Bush! But it really isn't. It's about human rights. And how it was taken away. Now that we have a chance of getting it back, the neocons are going crazy.
On to my other area of interest: bullying.
Kids often do things that they don't realize. Sometimes, they do. My friend was talking abour her daughter who already had a preference for friends who were White and who had blond hair like mommy, who gets frustrated with her friend who is autistic and ends up hitting her to get her to talk, which she never does. My friend told me because she as worried. She didn't want her daughter to be a bully, to pick on the minority. Because when she starts school, there will be people who are different from her, and her mother, and that differnce will be the basis of bullying.
The story I posted on fb earlier, about the 11 year old boy who commited suicide when he couldn't take the bullying in school anymore, I thought of my school, my friends. There weren't overt bullies that I can remember, but there were kids who were dominating, who would create problems for people who didn't conform to their 'style' by alienating them, shunning them, not inviting them to their birthday parties. All these little things to make people feel bad, they start from an early age, that mean streak, very obvious, untainted by social norms that dictate manners. Now, a dozen or so years later, I think about where they are. And I frankly don't know. They haven't become the starlets that they promised to be, they haven't gone on to become leaders of the new generation, they haven't really done much. They just had bullying tendencies when they were in school. That's the highlight of their lives. If you ask them, maybe it was the best time of their lives. Which brings me to: why do they do it? Various theories identify bullying among children: unrest at home, insecurities, mimicking what they see elsewhere and so on. But the more important question is: how do you stop it? As someone said, for children their problems are as big as ours, and when grown ups marginalize them, they feel just as bad as we do when our problems are marginalized. And this 11 year old boy's story exemplifies that. Only that his mother did try. But she really couldn't help him. The school failed him. The system failed him. May he rest in piece.
Swine flu: go away. Come again another day. Little Johnny wants to play. Joking. Don't come back. Just go! Sounds like it's the same thing as the bird flu. Killed dozens of people in New Mexico. Maybe 7 people in NYC has it (test results are due tomorrow) but it hasn't killed anyone in NYC yet. Suspecting it in Texas as well. Details are unclear (to me, atleast). Maybe it's a pandemic. But whatever it is, I'm glad I don't eat chicken. My suggestion: cook your chicken really well. Or just don't eat it. Don't die for chicken. And there's a med for it, in case you get it. So if you get it, don't panic. Help is out there.
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