Philip Ruddock invited me to have my hand shaken and afternoon tea at the classy Hornsby RSL. He wants to thank me for being an outstanding citizen and being an international volunteer. The only problem is I’m in India when this presentation is happening. So sad.
Well I think I’m pretty much set for my trip to India on Wednesday week. I have tickets, passport, visa, insurance, new camera, and my last night of accommodation in India booked.
The military has now killed three of the monks protesting in Rangoon. It is looking pretty bad there. I hope that the world does something to help.
Sign a petition here or read more about it here.
Went and saw Once last night. I was quietly blown away by a beautiful film with awesome music. So good that I just brought the sound track.
The busker who the film is centred around is the lead singer of the frames which did help to explain the goodness of the music.
It’s funny, these days I can often pick an Indian with a fake accent calling me from a call centre. How good the accent is let’s you know how expensive the call centre is.
I just had the Heart Research Institute have someone call me. They had a nice script but when I said I wasn’t that alarmed about the rate of heart disease in Australia the guy just kept on going through the script ignoring my comment. It’s no fun when you can’t debate these people.
Well I just finished The West Wing. A fine show I must say, though no Buffy.
I thought an interesting comment was made — somebody said to me, I heard somebody say, “Now, where’s Mandela?” Well, Mandela’s dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas.
I just joint facebook, but I refused to list my high school or primary school.. I hope that keeps all the undesirables away. I really just want to find people from India and play Scrabulous.
Well I have just booked myself a trip to India. I leave on the 10th Oct and should be back in Sydney around the 30th Oct.
I am going to visit the hospital in Dimapur and see the opening of the hospital which should be good. I’m finally starting to get excited about the trip and I’m really looking forward to hanging out with some of the old CIHSR and EHA crew.
Interestingly I may end up as the token white person though at the opening, as all my ex-pat friends who were working on the project will have all left by then.
I have no new blog posts to read because of Fusion having meetings in Tasmania which Jenny and Howie have to go to. Grrr.
I’m not sure which is more depressing. That I am having to read boring technical notes on application logic programming or that I actually understand the boolean logic language they are using.
I was having a conversation on Sunday with someone about micro finance and development. I made some comment about how it was only good if given to women, and she said she had heard that too but didn’t understand it. I don’t claim to have a good understanding of why poor men are so much worse then poor women with loans.
I think in part it is because of the power differential. When you are used to having no control over money and suddenly get access to some of your own then you really value it.
The other thought I had is that if you as the “male provider” are so poor as to need a loan then you have “failed your family” and are likely to just want to drown your sorrows rather then seek active change. There is also the unwillingness of a man to seek help rather then just rely on himself. I know personally that many times I try too hard to do things myself rather then ask for help.
I’m not sure where this all fits in, but I am starting to think that maybe I need to think more about gender and it’s role in poverty. I think I need to develop a more holistic view rather then my rather simplistic current view that men are crap.
Got my cast off today. Wrist is still a bit sore, but feels good to have it free. Really enjoying having a sense of touch on my hand. What was gross though was all the dead skin on my arm.. eww..