All This Red is Repetitious
Tomorrow will be my 9th day in a row of work. And to think I was interviewing for a "real job" just 2 weeks ago. What pish-posh silliness! If I had started the job I was considering I would have started Monday, and I would have made less all week than I have already made in 2 days work... AND I would not have gotten featured. Perhaps I AM on the right path for me for the time being.
The more I do background, the more I can't stand background people over all. There are a good many individuals I like, but there are so many rude, uppity complainers! And it's even worse when it's a bunch of women. There is nothing I hate more than being in a room full of self-absorbed women. It just makes me want to stab people. At least men can manage basic conversation about literature and adventure (not that women can't, but far too many women choose NOT to). Get some substance, people! Looks and gossip are not everything (gasp!)
Also, older men tend to be such creepsters! Not all, but far too many! There's one creepster in particular that is always booked on the same shows with me. So far the creepiest thing he's said was to Megan and me, which was "You two get in so much trouble when you're together. We should all go for a ride sometime." What the shit is that? I am not a naive toddler, and there wasn't even candy offered.
TC showed up at 8 am a couple of days ago to bring me breakfast before I headed off to work. Which was extraordinarily thoughtful since he had to drive through rush hour traffic and he doesn't live close by. I'm glad that, regardless of whatever the circumstances, I have such a good friend to spend time with.
On to a review of the most recent book I've read: "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
What a great book! I've been promoting it to all of my friends, and even TC can't wait to read it (and he's not the biggest fan of books about feminists. Or so he pretends just to get me all riled up). The #1 reason to read it: it will give you a much better understanding of the Islamic world and women's place in it. I learned so much, and it changed my position on a lot of issues. It is also a book that will deepen your gratitude for the freedoms we, as Westerners, are provided and take for granted.
Here are some quotes that I found particularly interesting:
1. Ayaan writes about how she was a translator for refugees in Holland. She, herself, was originally from Somalia, and in one case a child of Somali parents was getting into fights at school and the parents didn't see a problem with that. Ayaan had to explain the differences in culture to both the Somali parents and the Dutch teacher. And in doing so, she came to a realization:
"I cycled home thinking 'This is why Somalia is having a civil war and Holland isn't.' It was all there. People in Holland agree that violence is bad. They make a huge effort to teach their children to channel aggression and resolve their disputes verbally. They analyze conflict and set up institutions to regulate it. This is what it meant, to be citizens."
2. Ayaan is a believer in multi-cultural tolerance, but not to the extent of creating double standards. Her belief is that immigrants should assimilate enough to be an active member of the country they have immigrated to, and to live by the rules of that country. She is very specific in regard to Muslim immigrants in Holland, but her thoughts can easily lead to better understanding of Europe and their growing Muslim population.
"Holland's multiculturalism-- its respect for Muslims' way of doing things-- wasn't working. It was depriving many women and children of their rights. Holland was trying to be tolerant for the sake of consensus, but the consensus was empty. The immigrants' culture was being preserved at the expense of their women and children and to the detriment of the immigrants' integration into Holland. Many Muslims never learned Dutch and rejected Dutch values of tolerance and personal liberty. They married relatives from their home villages and stayed, inside Holland, in their tiny bubble of Morocco or Mogadishu."
3. Ayaan also manages to address the cause of the 9-11 attacks in a very rational and thoughtful way.
"People theorized beautifully about poverty pushing people to terrorism; about colonialism and consumerism, pop culture and Western decadence eating away at people's culture and therefore causing the carnage. But Africa is the poorest continent, I knew, and poverty doesn't cause terrorism; truly poor people can't look further than their next meal, and more intellectual people are usually angry at their own governments; they flock to the West [...]. Other articles blamed the Americans' 'blind' support for Israel and opined that there would be more 9/11's until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was resolved [...] If the hijackers had been nineteen Palestinian men, then I might have given this argument more weight, but they weren't. None of them was poor. None of them left a letter saying there would be more attacks until Palestine was liberated. This was a belief, I thought. Not frustration, poverty, colonialism, or Israel: it was about religious belief, a one-way ticket to heaven."
I know it seems that the author is anti-Islamic, but that's really not the case. She believes that Islam needs to go through on Enlightenment period that will allow individual rights for women and children, as well as permit greater tolerance for non-Islamic culture. However, that in itself is a dangerous opinion and led to the brutal murder of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's friend and for her deportation out of Holland to the US under witness protection.
The more I do background, the more I can't stand background people over all. There are a good many individuals I like, but there are so many rude, uppity complainers! And it's even worse when it's a bunch of women. There is nothing I hate more than being in a room full of self-absorbed women. It just makes me want to stab people. At least men can manage basic conversation about literature and adventure (not that women can't, but far too many women choose NOT to). Get some substance, people! Looks and gossip are not everything (gasp!)
Also, older men tend to be such creepsters! Not all, but far too many! There's one creepster in particular that is always booked on the same shows with me. So far the creepiest thing he's said was to Megan and me, which was "You two get in so much trouble when you're together. We should all go for a ride sometime." What the shit is that? I am not a naive toddler, and there wasn't even candy offered.
TC showed up at 8 am a couple of days ago to bring me breakfast before I headed off to work. Which was extraordinarily thoughtful since he had to drive through rush hour traffic and he doesn't live close by. I'm glad that, regardless of whatever the circumstances, I have such a good friend to spend time with.
On to a review of the most recent book I've read: "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
What a great book! I've been promoting it to all of my friends, and even TC can't wait to read it (and he's not the biggest fan of books about feminists. Or so he pretends just to get me all riled up). The #1 reason to read it: it will give you a much better understanding of the Islamic world and women's place in it. I learned so much, and it changed my position on a lot of issues. It is also a book that will deepen your gratitude for the freedoms we, as Westerners, are provided and take for granted.
Here are some quotes that I found particularly interesting:
1. Ayaan writes about how she was a translator for refugees in Holland. She, herself, was originally from Somalia, and in one case a child of Somali parents was getting into fights at school and the parents didn't see a problem with that. Ayaan had to explain the differences in culture to both the Somali parents and the Dutch teacher. And in doing so, she came to a realization:
"I cycled home thinking 'This is why Somalia is having a civil war and Holland isn't.' It was all there. People in Holland agree that violence is bad. They make a huge effort to teach their children to channel aggression and resolve their disputes verbally. They analyze conflict and set up institutions to regulate it. This is what it meant, to be citizens."
2. Ayaan is a believer in multi-cultural tolerance, but not to the extent of creating double standards. Her belief is that immigrants should assimilate enough to be an active member of the country they have immigrated to, and to live by the rules of that country. She is very specific in regard to Muslim immigrants in Holland, but her thoughts can easily lead to better understanding of Europe and their growing Muslim population.
"Holland's multiculturalism-- its respect for Muslims' way of doing things-- wasn't working. It was depriving many women and children of their rights. Holland was trying to be tolerant for the sake of consensus, but the consensus was empty. The immigrants' culture was being preserved at the expense of their women and children and to the detriment of the immigrants' integration into Holland. Many Muslims never learned Dutch and rejected Dutch values of tolerance and personal liberty. They married relatives from their home villages and stayed, inside Holland, in their tiny bubble of Morocco or Mogadishu."
3. Ayaan also manages to address the cause of the 9-11 attacks in a very rational and thoughtful way.
"People theorized beautifully about poverty pushing people to terrorism; about colonialism and consumerism, pop culture and Western decadence eating away at people's culture and therefore causing the carnage. But Africa is the poorest continent, I knew, and poverty doesn't cause terrorism; truly poor people can't look further than their next meal, and more intellectual people are usually angry at their own governments; they flock to the West [...]. Other articles blamed the Americans' 'blind' support for Israel and opined that there would be more 9/11's until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was resolved [...] If the hijackers had been nineteen Palestinian men, then I might have given this argument more weight, but they weren't. None of them was poor. None of them left a letter saying there would be more attacks until Palestine was liberated. This was a belief, I thought. Not frustration, poverty, colonialism, or Israel: it was about religious belief, a one-way ticket to heaven."
I know it seems that the author is anti-Islamic, but that's really not the case. She believes that Islam needs to go through on Enlightenment period that will allow individual rights for women and children, as well as permit greater tolerance for non-Islamic culture. However, that in itself is a dangerous opinion and led to the brutal murder of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's friend and for her deportation out of Holland to the US under witness protection.