weechewie's blog

By the way, if anyone finds an audiobook link to the old Ladybird book version of Sleeping Beauty please post! The ones I found tonight were all American, not impressed.

In other news...

While the powers that be continue to ignore the people of the land and do what they want despite massive protest (http://planning.cne-siar.gov.uk/PublicAccess/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=L7TE81RO02A00), I just wanted to say that Withered Hand rocked last night! Every time I see them I love them more, I think :) 

Also, just want the people closest to me to know I'm thinking of them all. This is a really hard time and you're all in my thoughts and prayers. Lots of love x 

Planning granted :(

http://planning.cne-siar.gov.uk/PublicAccess/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=neighbourComments&keyVal=L7TE81RO02A00

Cull of the Wild

What would you do if some of your nice, mind-their-own-business, self-sustaining neighbours were suddenly threatened with being 'shot, poisoned, strangled... and forced out of their habitats' (Smith, 2010) because someone wanted to start a new business in your area? Would you stand back and watch a slaughter of 'pregnant... or lactating mothers' (ibid)? No? Even if the victims I am referring to are not human?

At the moment, Western Isles Council are considering plans for a fish farm which could see an obliteration of some of Scotland's most prestigious wildlife. There is strong opposition from both locals and wildlife groups, but without national knowledge and condemnation I worry that our wild neighbours are doomed. I have signed an online petition and also written an email to the council concerned (enquiries@cne-siar.gov.uk) to voice my condemnation of these proposals and in a hope they will see things at Scotland's level and not just from a monetary point of view. 

I urge you to petition against this fish farm as well. This is a chance to make your voice heard on behalf of those who cannot stand up for themselves. We wouldn't put up with this if they were planning on discarding humans. 

Reference List

Smith, D. (2010) 'Fears that seals will be shot dead if new fish farm goes ahead', Sunday Herald, 7 November, p.20.  Available at http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/transport-environment/fears-that-seals-will-be-shot-dead-if-new-fish-farm-goes-ahead-1.1066447

'Making Scotland's Landscape' (2010), directed by Graham Strong, BBC. Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00vszcv/Making_Scotlands_Landscape_The_Sea/

Online petition against the fish farm http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/help-save-seals-from-fish-farm/

Animal Aid information http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/f/ACTIVE/blog/ALL/1//?be_id=289

 

One down, six to go!

That's my first uni assignment done! I had to answer two questions, one on Cleopatra and one on Paul Cézanne. I think my Cleopatra answer flows better than the Cézanne one; I suppose we'll see what my tutor says. I'm really enjoying this course and looking forward to starting the next section. I've got a bit of a headache from being at the computer so much this week: it's not good sitting at a monitor all day at work then all night at home. I just wish I had some Pear Kopparberg to relax with tonight! But I think Terry Pratchett is the perfect alternative actually, I've just started Unseen Academicals and it's pretty funny so far. It'll be nice to go read something other than a course book tonight anyway!

A Banksy by any other name

Watched a cracking documentary about Banksy/Thierry Guetta (aka Mr Brainwash) at the weekend called Exit Through The Gift Shop. This mad French 'film maker' Thierry Guetta followed around a load of street artists, including Banksy, until he thought it would be a good idea to do his own street art, throw himself a big exhibition and make a cool million in his opening week. I can't say I'm keen on his 'art' though; Leonard Nimoy getting the Warhol treatment? Nah, not for me. MBW's works seem to be shoddy rehashes of stuff already done time and time again: the Campbell's soup can for instance. For most of this film I thought he seemed like a cool guy. By the end of the film, it was clear that the street artists he had filmed were a means to a terrifying end.

Banksy encouraged Guetta to go and do some art of his own so that he could have a go at editing the shocking, fit-inducing stream of kaleidoscopic crap Guetta had produced in his 'film' about street art.  Banksy admitted himself that he regrets offering encouragement; he helped create a monster!

This documentary is inspiring, hilarious and a good example of why art causes so much debate. It raises the oft-asked question, what is art? It also shows the extremes some people go to in order to get famous despite being not very good. As much as Guetta wanted to be a street artist, I really don't think he is. He's barely an artist at all, getting people to Photoshop other people's art work for him to sell on at a price according to his mood. Banksy is a true original, and one among many, but that's why I like him. Anyway, try and get a hold of this film, it's bloody good. 

By the way, the Taj won on Friday. I had a stressful week and needed the hit!

Taj today, Taj tomorrow...
Just wondering what might be happening with dinner tonight. Fancy a curry but mum-in-law might have made us something already.
'Stop giving me choices'... good wee song that. So's 'Tiger Feet', was on the radio this morning on the way to work. Yass!

Not tonight, Josephine...

Just finished filling in a job application and I now don't like what I was going to post here earlier so the blog will have to wait. Working til 7pm tomorrow night then got yoga so will probably be Tuesday now. I did try!

Goodnight!

Fed up with Facebook!

I am going to write a blog today, I promise! So much time is wasted checking Facebook five times a day to see who's got the most interesting status update... what have I become?! But it's not all bad. I've been writing today and I studied a load yesterday so I do actually have a new blog boiling away in Brainland. Watch this space!

A Call to Arms (but not the violent kind)

It’s been a pretty stressful week this past week, really. Work’s been stressful, I’ve had to deal with a telephone bill for a property I don’t even live at anymore; and to top it all off, the money I work so hard for, and get taxed to the hilt for doing so, is being squandered via greedy but apparently “within the rules” expense claims by the people who supposedly work for us! While I worry about innocent Muslim and Jewish families being blown up in the Gaza Strip, the two million displaced Pakistani people across the Swat Valley due to violent clashes between Taliban and government forces (“Why is no one helping us? Where is the outcry?”, Habib Malik, Sunday Herald, 17th May 2009), global warming and how secure my own job is, these very well paid, arrogant Parliamentarians are getting us to pay for their dog food, moat cleaners and housekeepers – things we, the hard working public, must do by ourselves. In no other company would employees get away with such blatant thievery: we would be grovelling in front of the CEO while he calls the police, reporting our sneaky, fraudulent actions.

In the grand scheme of things, are we meant to see ourselves as lucky that all we need to worry about is being ripped off? Are we supposed to be grateful that, while the innocents are being slaughtered abroad, while our soldiers are away fighting, trying to bring peace and stability to regions our wise leaders messed with in the first lace, all we have to worry about is the threat of redundancy and a few corrupt MPs? No. This is just another example of the power abuse wreaked by those with choice over those without. As a country we seem too quiet on the big issues, although reports on weekend binge drinking would say otherwise. But is that just another smokescreen? I think it’s high time, we, the people, say to the Commons, “that’s enough. Do your job or get out”. Sackings have already taken place (David Cameron is taking this seriously, at least; “Expenses: Cameron sacks Mackay”, James Cusick, Sunday Herald, 24th May 2009) but where are the apologies? Where are the promises to refund us? Where are the cries begging forgiveness? They are nowhere. Instead, Westminster has apparently hired professionals (BBC Radio 2 News, 23rd May 2009) to help this thieving lot come to terms with the stress and pressure they’re under (from being found out). I wonder how they’re paying for that?

This kind of thing definitely makes you think: what’s the point? I have thought it every day for the past fortnight. What’s the point in working hard? You just get made to work harder to cover for other people who can’t be bothered. What’s the point in even going to work? My taxes are being abused by these “honourable members” (“Time for a Westminster revolution?”, Brian Wheeler, Friday 22nd May 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8060896.stm) while that money should be put to use to stop child abuse and improve public services. What’s the point in even trying to cut a decent life out for yourself? The dishonest ones seem to land on their feet and get the best of (material) things and nothing happens to them. But let’s not forget that politics, slippery beast that it is, probably wasn’t created to make our lives easier; as Shepherd Book says, “A government is a body of people, usually, notably, ungoverned” (“War Stories”, Firefly, Joss Whedon, 2002).

This latest barrage of insults we have to put up with might do a great deal to arouse our anger and also apathy, giving rise to a sense of “if they don’t care, why should we?”. The simple answer is because we have to – we have to care precisely because they don’t. Get out on the streets, protest peacefully. There are plenty of lovely government offices we can voice our opinion to. Write to the papers, write to your own MP telling them exactly of what you think (try to avoid profanity, you might get sued or some rubbish like that), blog about it, talk about it, tell your friends to write about it. Whatever we do, we have to keep going because this type of behaviour is dangerous to us as well as to the perpetrators. Some of these poor – I use this word loosely – sods might even find their lives in danger by the more extreme members of the electorate (or just some loony looking to be big).

The biggest danger we can now face is complete and utter apathy: “Some have described this as Britain’s Weimar moment, when the people lost faith in parliamentary democracy. Actually this is an insult to the Weimar Republic, which faced a much worse economic crisis”, (“Where will voters turn when there is no one left they can trust?”, Iain MacWhirter, Sunday Herald, 17th May 2009). The UK is in recession and our MPs are ripping us off left, right and even left of centre; Labour no longer recognises its own name, its own history, its own supporters. We must stand our ground to make sure we don’t lose so much faith that just anyone is voted in at our next election. And voting is what we must do, especially us women; lives were not sacrificed easily for us to have this right. No matter our disillusionment, no matter if Labour and the Tories are pretty much one and the same – don’t vote for them if you don’t want to. Your vote should be used the way you want it to be used – to select someone who represents YOU. “Elections are essentially moral choices” (ibid). This isn’t the time to be flippant, voting BNP or similar just because in extreme times the most extreme choice can look like the best answer? To that I say, no chance. No chance and no decent change is what we will have if we vote in (or don’t vote in, if turnout is very poor) the worse choice of a bad bunch. You wouldn’t vote for the most rotten looking banana just because they’ve all gone bad, would you? Iain MacWhirter wrote, “Be in no doubt: the Conservatives are going to win the next general election” (ibid). Reading this felt like someone pushing my head towards a bowl of cold custard. With a skin on it. And a little hair lying in the middle of it. I won’t vote for them by default. Something bloody spectacular would have to happen to sway me towards their way of thinking.