In which a vow to keep personal issues far away from the 'post to journal' button is broken...
I apologise in advance for this post. It's wrong of me to make my first post in a while full of whinging, but I need somewhere to dump this, (before I explode at an innocent bystander), and you, dear livejournal, have been chosen. Feel special.
I love talking religion and politics with strangers, but prefer not to with friends, since (in my experience, anyway), it can ruin what would otherwise have been a perfectly good relationship. Which makes it even worse that I'm dumping this on you, f-list. To spare you, I'll stick it all under a cut; feel free to skim past.
The 'teddy teacher' has been spashed across the headlines of some of the daily papers, (mostly tabloids), for a little while. I particularly liked the way they kept emphasising the possibility of a punishment of 40 lashes. Nice touch, guys.
I think my views on the whole thing are probably quite obvious. What gets to me is when people who really should have known better don't quite understand that.
At work yesterday I sat myself down at a table to eat lunch with colleagues whom I've worked with for three months. They make up a decent range of people, from a grandmother to a 16 year old. They're generally nice people to work with and talk to, which is probably why I was surprised and then a little pissed off when everyone went a bit awkward when I sat down, and someone followed it up with "So what do you think of the teacher in Sudan?".
I probably shouldn't be this upset or angry. It's a fair question from most people, but I was surprised that they didn't already know what I'd reply, since the person who asked answered their own question whilst I was still inwardly spluttering, with a presumtive, placating "I think it was a little naive of her and that she should have known better". Not even an attempt at a normal hello, to disguise the awkwardness. Idiots throwing paper or yelling things, I can deal with in various creative ways. Friends, (or at least acquaintances) who should have known better than to think that I'd need placating, are more difficult. I think I'm overreacting, but I can't seem to help it. What really worries me is that this may be influencing the way I see other things.
I squeezed into a gap at the edge of the platform on Baker Street about a week ago, between a businessman who was wearing too much cologne, and two middle aged ladies. A couple of you may have noticed that I'm fairly fond of my city, (even the scummy bits), and that I may tend to idealise it a bit as a melting pot. Ever so slightly. Which is possibly why I was so irritated when the middle aged ladies, (who were reading the front page of The Metro) began to shoot me affronted looks and talk loudly about the story - the things that everyone's thinking - she didn't even choose the name, how barbaric the whole thing is and so on. At first I thought that I was just imagining it, but when the looks became a little more pointed and voices began to get louder, all I thought was that I'd been stupid to pick that day to go with the religious headgear, and that I'd better move to another spot, (which I did). I think that if that had happened to me today, I might have confronted them about it. Which...would not have been good.
But what really cemented my worry was the practise interview I had today. My interviewer confronted me with a couple of pictures of ladies in Niqabs, and then an old picture of a Mexican freedom fighter wearing a balaclava. I got so defensive that it skewed my thinking and I found it difficult to answer the questions, (and accidentally said 'baklava' instead of 'balaclava' the first time, to round it all off). Which will really, really not be good if something similar happens in an interview.
*headdesks*
Whinge over. Definitely over-reacting. I'll be better in a few days.
And for the record, I think the only reason they're pushing this is because she's English. I knew kids in Syria who had baby chicks named Muhammed, and they're as hot on religious law as anywhere else. And if giving something a name like Muhammad makes it an image of that name then about a quarter of my male relatives would be far better people than they are.
The next post will be a happy one, filled with sunshine and books.
Edit: To say thank you guys for all being awesome. I skip town on Tuesday afternoon and won't be back 'til Friday evening at the earliest, and I don't know how good my internet access will be over the next few days, so I probably won't answer any emails/be around most of the time. That's all. :)
I love talking religion and politics with strangers, but prefer not to with friends, since (in my experience, anyway), it can ruin what would otherwise have been a perfectly good relationship. Which makes it even worse that I'm dumping this on you, f-list. To spare you, I'll stick it all under a cut; feel free to skim past.
The 'teddy teacher' has been spashed across the headlines of some of the daily papers, (mostly tabloids), for a little while. I particularly liked the way they kept emphasising the possibility of a punishment of 40 lashes. Nice touch, guys.
I think my views on the whole thing are probably quite obvious. What gets to me is when people who really should have known better don't quite understand that.
At work yesterday I sat myself down at a table to eat lunch with colleagues whom I've worked with for three months. They make up a decent range of people, from a grandmother to a 16 year old. They're generally nice people to work with and talk to, which is probably why I was surprised and then a little pissed off when everyone went a bit awkward when I sat down, and someone followed it up with "So what do you think of the teacher in Sudan?".
I probably shouldn't be this upset or angry. It's a fair question from most people, but I was surprised that they didn't already know what I'd reply, since the person who asked answered their own question whilst I was still inwardly spluttering, with a presumtive, placating "I think it was a little naive of her and that she should have known better". Not even an attempt at a normal hello, to disguise the awkwardness. Idiots throwing paper or yelling things, I can deal with in various creative ways. Friends, (or at least acquaintances) who should have known better than to think that I'd need placating, are more difficult. I think I'm overreacting, but I can't seem to help it. What really worries me is that this may be influencing the way I see other things.
I squeezed into a gap at the edge of the platform on Baker Street about a week ago, between a businessman who was wearing too much cologne, and two middle aged ladies. A couple of you may have noticed that I'm fairly fond of my city, (even the scummy bits), and that I may tend to idealise it a bit as a melting pot. Ever so slightly. Which is possibly why I was so irritated when the middle aged ladies, (who were reading the front page of The Metro) began to shoot me affronted looks and talk loudly about the story - the things that everyone's thinking - she didn't even choose the name, how barbaric the whole thing is and so on. At first I thought that I was just imagining it, but when the looks became a little more pointed and voices began to get louder, all I thought was that I'd been stupid to pick that day to go with the religious headgear, and that I'd better move to another spot, (which I did). I think that if that had happened to me today, I might have confronted them about it. Which...would not have been good.
But what really cemented my worry was the practise interview I had today. My interviewer confronted me with a couple of pictures of ladies in Niqabs, and then an old picture of a Mexican freedom fighter wearing a balaclava. I got so defensive that it skewed my thinking and I found it difficult to answer the questions, (and accidentally said 'baklava' instead of 'balaclava' the first time, to round it all off). Which will really, really not be good if something similar happens in an interview.
*headdesks*
Whinge over. Definitely over-reacting. I'll be better in a few days.
And for the record, I think the only reason they're pushing this is because she's English. I knew kids in Syria who had baby chicks named Muhammed, and they're as hot on religious law as anywhere else. And if giving something a name like Muhammad makes it an image of that name then about a quarter of my male relatives would be far better people than they are.
The next post will be a happy one, filled with sunshine and books.
Edit: To say thank you guys for all being awesome. I skip town on Tuesday afternoon and won't be back 'til Friday evening at the earliest, and I don't know how good my internet access will be over the next few days, so I probably won't answer any emails/be around most of the time. That's all. :)