It’s time to bring out the cocoa, draught excluder, big slipper and blankets and settle down into the darkening nights and Autumn TV schedule. Loving it!
(Especially as I have just started a diet and sworn off drinking for a bit – what’s left for a girl to enjoy?!)
What indeed!
And, thanks to the local CEX all the cheap back issues of DVDs my little heart could desire.
I was going to write a very long blog entry about last night’s BBC2 documentary programme – but I find that Vanessa Barford has said all that I had to say here – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7259057.stm
They look for a solution that will at least allow them to be attracted to the gender they are naturally attracted to – without feelings of shame, sin and wrong-doing – and move around in society without harassment. The price is often being disowned by your family,” says Tanaz Eshaghian [Programme Maker].
The thing that is never quite said in the documentary, although it is a tacit subtext is that some of the pre-op transexuals are perhaps not transexual but either (a) transvestite or (b) gay. Neither of which is an option open to them in Iran which is why they are going ahead with major, intrusive and painful surgery (albeit helped by a state grant to cure their “illness/abnormality”).
The sad ending to the documentary’s narrative showed that post-op transexuals were no more able to fit in to Iranian society (work, take part in organised education, be part of a family unit) than they had been before.
Plenty of food for thought and discussion at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b0092wrz.shtml?filter=txdate%3A25-02&filter=txslot%3Aevening&start=1&scope=iplayerlast7days&version_pid=b0092wrt
Also an interesting Woman’s Hour discussion with the programme maker at – http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/01/2008_09_mon.shtml
Writing about http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/groups/tlig/comms/feb08/prog.htm
I went to rather a depressing conference last Wednesday. And it left me feeling like this <=
To cut a long story short I had not chosen wisely. Whilst the topic seemed relevant and appropriate the audience at which it was pitched did not really include me.
The other attendees and the presenters were almost exclusively members of IT departments in universities. They were concerned about things like being able to ‘market’ themselves to the rest of the institution and whether or not they should be allowed to use an internally-facing sub-brand. They were also interested in proving value to customers and management stakeholders and setting up good basic internal communications.
This was interesting up to a point – since arriving at my current institution I’ve noticed a queue of people coming to me for internal ‘marketing’ advice. They of course mean, and need, nothing of the sort – but it takes a while to persuade them of that.
But, while I was sat with half an ear on the presenters, and partly to stop myself picking a fight with an obnoxious chap sat in front (who, amongst other things, turned round to tell my colleague that the sound of his typing was irritating – hello?! new technology conference!), I made a few notes about what I’d hoped the conference would be.
Basically, what I need to work out, and what I’d hoped to have the opportunity to discuss, is what do I do with the following list of tools? Is there a clever way of piggybacking on them or using them that I am missing? How on earth does crisis management work in these fora? In fact how do you manage communications through them without looking like you are donning your Nazi jackboots and behaving in a completely inappropriate way?
(Of course, I do realise that most of the point of web 2.0 is the socialist, egalitarian, utilitarian vibe and that by seeking to manage things or use these tools I am proving myself to be a potential member of Prentiss McCabe or worse still Malcom Tucker…)
I appreciate that some of these are in no way web 2.0 – but I thought I’d throw the lot into the mix.
So, that’s what’s bothering me at the moment. How are you?
Writing about https://caseyleaver.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/red-arrows-daily-mirror-successful-public-affairs/
and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7175513.stm
Well, when is an Early Day Motion not an Early Day Motion?
Today David Willets, the Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities & Skills, will put a motion opposing the withdrawal of funding for “equivalent or lower qualification students” to the House of Commons.
We are wondering whether this has led to the suspension of the EDM… probably something to do with political rules and procedure?
I am really quite surprised about how effective the University leadership, press and public affairs folks have been at keeping this potentially parochial issue so high profile – a big congratulations to them!
I’m wondering whether we can watch live on BBC Parliament?
I’d like to make it clear from the start that this is a completely uninformed view as I have seen none of the current series of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
But I was utterly astonished when I heard that Lynne Franks was going to be taking part.
“I’m going to stab her in the middle of the night and take hers,” Janice growled. “You don’t think I’m kidding, I’ll eat her t**s. I’ll fry up those big old boobs.”
Janice Dickinson (who apparently used to be a model) on Lynne Franks last night.
But then I googled “Lynne Franks” this morning, and it became clear that this is part of a sustained profile raising campaign. Rarely is she mentioned the the media without her key message – her SEED venture.
So, as long as she can keep her cool in the jungle, not so daft after all….
Writing about web page http://www.easylivingmagazine.com/ You know it’s time to stop buying Cath Kidston when they start giving it away free with magazines. Last summer, I bought two fitted single sheets from a yardsale in Earlsdon. I have been intending to do something creative with them all winter. But I have no idea what. They … Continue reading “Partwork Cath Kidston”
Writing about web page http://www.easylivingmagazine.com/
You know it’s time to stop buying Cath Kidston when they start giving it away free with magazines.
Last
summer, I bought two fitted single sheets from a yardsale in Earlsdon.
I have been intending to do something creative with them all winter.
But I have no idea what.
They are highly coloured and
patterned and attractively faded (you pay extra for that at Cath
Kidston)! I think I had romantic notions of patchwork and things.
Himself’s
parents got me a Cath Kidston guide to interior design a couple of
years ago and I got over-excited about the boundless possibilities once
we had our house.
Now I realise that there are a miriad of
practical, functional, remedial things that need to be done before you
can get elbow deep in materials and patterns, wallpaper swatches and
tester pots.
Still, we have set ourselves a deadline of
sorts – Nan and Grandad are coming to visit soon and the spare bedroom
must be habitable by then. We’ll have to buy a bed for a start!
Writing about Commentary on French riots from Neighbourhood #1 Watching More 4 news last night we saw an interview with Naima Bouteldja Sarah Smith was asking her whether British-style hate crime and race crime legislation would have helped to prevent the build up of illfeeling which has in part led to the recent rioting. Naima … Continue reading “La Haine Recommence”
Writing about Commentary on French riots from Neighbourhood #1
Watching More 4 news last night we saw an interview with Naima Bouteldja
Sarah
Smith was asking her whether British-style hate crime and race crime
legislation would have helped to prevent the build up of illfeeling
which has in part led to the recent rioting.
Naima Bouteldja’s first response was an emphatic no.
At
which point I’m ashamed to say that we stopped listening and started
discussing it thus missing most of the rest of the interview.
In short though we covered two points:
How
can you have a self proclaimed secular society that believes in
Libert, Egalit, Fraternit and then protect certain groups?
When we picked the interview back up she seemed to be saying
that the main sparking point was the way that the Government, and
Dominic de Villepin in particular, had dealt with the initial incident
and then the way that the CRS had managed the subsequent civil unrest.
Quote from Naima Bouteldja’s Guardian article:
Four
days after the deaths in Clichy-sous-Bois, just as community leaders
were beginning to calm the situation, the security forces reignited the
fire by emptying teargas canisters inside a mosque. The official reason
for the police action: a badly parked car in front of it. The
government refuses to offer any apology to the Muslim community.
Now, I find the majority of French policemen quite scary – but the CRS are a different matter altogether. They’re more akin to the Russian “FSB” – and those guys are really scary.
Definition from Anthony’s Home Page
Anthony’s Home Page
The average person in France associates the abbreviation CRS with riot police, demonstrations, and other public scenes of disorder, mainly because the CRS
is the unit of the regular police that is normally detailed with this
type of crowd control. (They also perform duties such as rescue
operations and the like, but those activities don’t get much media
coverage.) They have a widespread but undeservedly sinister reputation,
probably thanks to guilt via association, since they are usually seen
publicly only in tense situations, such as public demonstrations,
riots, and the like. While the media give considerable attention to the
occasional instances of police brutality, in many cases the CRS
end up more beat up than the crowds they are attempting to
control—which is especially significant when you consider how well
protected the CRS usually are.
Closer to home Professor Danielle Joly has posted an Expert Opinion on the Mediablog.
…and actually – who are we to be so smug?
How is this any different from St. Pauls, Toxteth, Broadwater Farm and Brixton in the 1980s?
Or more recently Lozells?
Follow-up to How Euro Am I? from Casey’s Blog with this: UK prisoners should get vote, European court rules A ruling from the European court of human rights today gave British prisoners the right to vote. The Strasbourg’s court’s decision means that legal changes will need to be made to give prisoners the option to … Continue reading “I’m not sure I agree”
Follow-up to How Euro Am I? from Casey’s Blog
with this:
A ruling from the European court of human rights today gave British prisoners the right to vote.
The
Strasbourg’s court’s decision means that legal changes will need to be
made to give prisoners the option to cast their vote in future national
and regional elections.
I’m not sure that I agree with this either:
I’m thinking aloud now (and haven’t formulated an immovable opinion) but….
It
seems to me that people who are put into prison are there because they
have chosen to break the rules of the society in which they live and
have therefore been removed from that society.
I think that
if you are removed from society you lose the right to participate in
that society (voting, buying lottery tickets etc.).
Shoot me now. I’ll be reading the Daily Mail next.
Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/how_euro_are_you I watched this the other night on BB2 and found it fascinating. It’s no surprise to me that I come out as Mrs Chiantishire – but I was a little disappointed that I only got 9/14 on knowledge (as the holder of a GCSE in European Studies and a former … Continue reading “How Euro Am I?”
Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/how_euro_are_you
I watched this the other night on BB2 and found it fascinating.
It’s
no surprise to me that I come out as Mrs Chiantishire – but I was a
little disappointed that I only got 9/14 on knowledge (as the holder of
a GCSE in European Studies and a former student of the Ingatestone Anglo-European School.
(The GCSE was mandatory.)
I was also pleased to see that some of the pundits themselves confessed to some confusion on the issue.
…and I was mightly impressed with both Will Hutton and Sir Stephen Wall.
Finally, I just want to add that this kind of programme is truely what the BBC does best – real debate, conveying complex topical information in a digestible fashion.
Just what I feel the Government has failed to do with the European issue (and with tutition fees come to that).
…it’s not good for me. On the Sherlock Holmes principle (every new piece of knowledge displaces a piece that is already held) I must stop reading it. For example – this morning I have learnt about Drag Kings. Specifically how to practice walking like a man: Practice walking with two ripe plums in a polythene … Continue reading “Must Stop Reading the Metro”
…it’s not good for me.
On the Sherlock Holmes principle (every new piece of knowledge displaces a piece that is already held) I must stop reading it.
For example – this morning I have learnt about Drag Kings.
Specifically how to practice walking like a man:
Practice walking with two ripe plums in a polythene bag between your legs. Don’t break them.
…and how to ‘pack’ yourself (should the need arise):
For
your manhood: fill a condom with hair gel, tie tightly and then put it
inside another condom and put that inside a sock or a stocking. This is
called ‘packing’.
If you ever see me on the bus
reaching for a copy of the Metro then slap me sharply on the wrist and
frogmarch me back to my seat.
Casey's Blog 