serialdeviant.org(y)

Is it worse to be a woman than a black man?

I was having a wee chat with Neil about this last night, wondering why Muslim nations that are criticised by ‘the West’ for various missteps in the ‘path to democracy’ or human rights violations or female oppression or whatever have been able to elect female leaders while the US (land of the free) hasn’t seen that happen. The first examples that come to mind are (of course) Benazir Bhutto and Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Neil’s response was fairly predictable: “It’s not the land of the free.”

(Not verbatim, but pretty close.)

It does make me wonder why this is so? Even if Megawati and Benazir had been chosen by their parties as pure figureheads, they were still elected by the population as President / Prime Minister. I just find it surprising that a country whose frequently-communicated values include freedom and gender equality should find it so difficult to find female Presidential aspirants of quality.

I’m not forgetting Mrs Thatcher or Helen Clark, or even Gloria Arroyo. They aren’t Muslim.

China blocks activist from jail visits by attorneys:

An open letter signed by 57 people, mostly activists and writers, called Hu’s detention “unacceptable” and demanded that he be released immediately.

The signatories urged the government “to make good use of the opportunity to make the Olympics a truly grand event for the Chinese nation by opening the door of social reconciliation” and proving that it has made efforts to improve human rights.

IMHO, if athletes from most of the participating nations turn up and compete anyway, even if they or their governments make noises about human rights and dissidents’ detentions being unacceptable, the Chinese government will have proved their point — hardly anyone really cares about these activists, and the ones who do don’t have the power to do anything about it.

The article, Glorious diversity of our mongrel nation, is a bleeding heart editorial I agree with (although I have, at the moment, chosen to make a life here in Scotland, I would not consider myself a Scot. Lah), but it’s the comments that make it funny. In a pathetic kind of way.

Confusion as hand luggage rules relaxed:

Since a tightening of security in August 2006, passengers at UK airports have been restricted to one piece of hand luggage.

But from this morning the one-bag rule will be lifted at 22 airports, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Prestwick, Aberdeen and Heathrow.

However, consumer groups have warned that passengers face further confusion as individual airlines are entitled to enforce their own limits.

Further errors could be made by passengers who depart from one airport but return from another where the new rules are not in place.

Keep using one bag. It makes life easier.

• missed my haircut appointment because I slept in (Google Calendar can’t text me if my phone is in a dead zone, i.e. most of the house)
• helped to carry pieces of wood (floor joists) into the house and set them out to dry
• had dinner at China Blue (tofu, salted fish, and miced pork claypot, I love you)
• watched Jackie Brown
• went to Asda for the weekly shop and bought hardware at B&Q
• played on the computer

One, a semi-serious video for lads to learn how to be confident and pick up women:

Two, a completely un-serious video sending up wannabe pick up artists:

I love Paul Rudd. He’s devastatingly good-looking and has no problem making fun of himself.

(To me he is beautiful.)

First on the agenda of my shiny new Project Un-dull-ify: gym time.

I aim to be at the first Body Pump clinic at the local sports centre, bright and early on a Saturday morning. I didn’t even know what Body Pump was until I, 1) asked when I dropped into the sports centre to locate a schedule, and 2) looked it up on the Ingterneck.

There are some concerns among the Project Un-dull-ify Team (of one, hereafter known as PUT) that ‘mainstream hit songs’ might be interpreted in ned-happy Scotland to mean ‘banging techno’. Nevertheless, PUT plans to push through any potential auditory agony with the same technique used while studying for one’s O-levels: when you have finished your allotted task, the peace, quiet, and comfort will be super-sweet.

An additional worry is the combination of free weights and klutziness. If PUT can survive the first few classes without fracturing or spraining any digits, PUT will push on and build pretty gym muscles. Eventually.

I believe it is not very cool to still be thrilled to see snow falling at age 31 (soon to be 32)? Neil seems to think so. There’s a lot of delight that emanates from me when twinkly flakes appear — as if by magic — out of the sky, swirling around as they give it up for gravity and land on my face and coat. Up to 40cm is expected in the Cairngorms, so I’m told.

It’s snowing on and off in Edinburgh today; I’m hoping for enough of a storm so I can go outside and play, but I don’t think the chances of that happening are very high. Weather forecasts are predicting heavy snow tomorrow, though. I can’t wait! I already slipped on the frosty ground a few weeks ago and a magnificent bruise flowered on my left knee; I need more superficial injuries to feel like a kid again.

I’m amazed at how a little frozen water can lift my mood. Chewing on ice cubes when I was younger (and I still do it when I’m back in Singapore) never fails to cool me down and make me feel better. Ice must be my friend.

What makes snow snow. I’ve had some instinctive guessing at why the temperature needs to rise before snow will fall, but here’s an explanation from the BBC (which actually makes sense).