Good show young man, now get back to work

On January 20th 2009 at 12.00pm, Barack Obama became President of the United States. Let's just get it out of the way: YIPEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The moment was groundbreaking in so many ways, however, being a Pakeha I think it's hard for me to grasp just how groundbreaking it is for black Americans to have a president who reflects their race and heritage, or even to have a president who is not a priveleged white man. So what I'm most excited about is to have an American leader who is vaguely competent.

We all know Obama is not a Messiah who will solve all the world's problems with one wave of his hand, however today I had a quick read of his agenda on whitehouse.gov and I was pleased to see fairly progressive stances on, among others: civil rights (including rights for both POC and LGBTs), energy & the environment and women's rights.

Here are some items on the agenda that immediately popped out at me :

• The repealing of Don't Ask Don't Tell
• Plans to invest in renewable energy resources and cut greenhouse gas emissions
• The closure of Guantanamo Bay
• Continued support for Roe V. Wade and increased funding for family planning and safe sex education (though unfortunately no mention of ending the Global Gag Rule)

These are a few items out of over a hundred, I strongly urge you to go check it out yourselves and report back on anything you think is worth mentioning, positive or negative.

It would be ridiculous to suggest Obama will carry out all these promises, however even if he does a few things like prevent a global depression, end prison torture, end the war on Iraq and tighten up environmental regulations, and improve the health care system even slightly he'll have made a huge, huge improvement on the Bush presidency. And it is a relief to see that he does have a plan, not just a vague notion of "hope".

However, one section in the foreign policy agenda really disappointed me.

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden strongly support the U.S.-Israel relationship, and believe that our first and incontrovertible commitment in the Middle East must be to the security of Israel, America's strongest ally in the region. They support this closeness, and have stated that the United States will never distance itself from Israel.

During the July 2006 Lebanon war, Barack Obama stood up strongly for Israel's right to defend itself from Hezbollah raids and rocket attacks, cosponsoring a Senate resolution against Iran and Syria's involvement in the war, and insisting that Israel should not be pressured into a ceasefire that did not deal with the threat of Hezbollah missiles. He and Joe Biden believe strongly in Israel's right to protect its citizens.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden have consistently supported foreign assistance to Israel. They defend and support the annual foreign aid package that involves both military and economic assistance to Israel and have advocated increased foreign aid budgets to ensure that these funding priorities are met. They have called for continuing U.S. cooperation with Israel in the development of missile defense systems."

Judging by the Democratic Party's general stance on the Israeli government (They just love it! In fact, it's the main subject they wholeheartedly agree on with the GOP), I hadn't had high hopes that Obama would come out to condemn the attacks in Gaza. Still, it's a major disappointment.

I just can't see supporting (and sending billions of dollars in military aid to) a government that has just killed over 1000 Palestinians in an extremely disproportional response to attacks from a government that was democratically elected by a people who were slowly being pushed out of their own country and suppressed by the Israeli government in question. This is despite evidence that the majority of Democrats (the people who elected you Obama, duh) did not support the offensive on Gaza. Not to mention, uh, most other countries in the world (apart from New Zealand. Nice one, McCully).

I'm sure it was a big relief to Obama that a ceasefire arrived in Gaza before his inaugaration, so he can pursue the much more apolitical issue of the global economic crisis. But he'll have to address Israeli-Palestinian relations sometime in the near future, let's just hope he comes to his senses before then.

On a lighter note, did anyone get up to watch the inaugaration ceremony? It was pretty awesome. I watched it on CNN of course, so I could get my required daily dose of Anderson Cooper. Any thoughts on the occasion?

I'll see you all at school very soon!

Bush Leaves, World Breathes a Sigh of Relief

Ahhh. At last. Watching the CNN coverage of President (!) Obama's inaugaration ceremony today, the sweetest sight was seeing Dubya climb into the helicopter, hopefully never to be seen again. I'll be posting a bit more on the 'Bama's presidency soon, but for now let's just bask in the glory of that final wave goodbye.

By the way, were you (after possibly hiding under a rock for the last eight years) wondering why everyone hates Bush so goshdarned much? I think this video pretty much sums it up, I take no responsibility for any cussing involved.

Days of International Observance.

Something horrible happened to me today. I found out that the day after my birthday was International Waffle Appreciation Day. Then something worse happened; I found out that my actual birthday is International Tuberculosis Day. (And my birth was bloody induced! Stupid birthday!)

Here are some more days for you to remember...

Okay, so it's kinda late (like, 9.30 in the evening), but today the 11th) was International Day for Peace in Kenya. I'm not really aware of what happened/is happening in Kenya, so, as I write this, I'm gonna find out.


Wikipedia says : "Recent events in the country left Kenyans in fear of their future. The stalemate between the political leaders has created opportunity for destructive forces, and organized militia, which have risen to kill innocent people (more than 450 killed, thousands injured and over 250,000 displaced - initiated by (Kenya Welfare Foundation & Kenya Development Network and Consortium)"

Shit.

That was last year. Would anyone happen to know what the situation in Kenya is right now?
Here's a link to the wikipedia page if you're interested


That kind of depressed me.



Today was also World Religion Day. I hope you guys all appreciated religion of every kind today! Me, personally, am still mourning the end of Santa's Dreidel Week.

Coming up we have International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on the 27th, and the day after that is Data protection day. Cheerful month, January.

On a lighter note, tomorrow is 'Organize your home day!' So get shelving!


(Sorry for spamming the blog. On the bright side, you have plenty to read (and think about) now!)

Israel + Palestine from John Green

I know I've already posted a vlogbrothers video, and this is kind of lazy, but this is pretty much the only thing that helped me understand Israel + Palestine. Enjoy.

It's coz we aint black

There's something I've been hearing a lot of lately, and that thing is racism. A recent study by York University in Canada found that many people (who, I assume, would never think of themselves as racist people) failed to call an actor out on a variety of racial slurs, including the term 'clumsy nigger', and were in fact more inclined to pick that person as a partner when asked to choose (about 63% of the participants picked the racist actor). I am ashamed to admit that, as an active collectivite, I failed to call people out on blatant racism in the past week. I was thinking about it last night, and this morning, and I realised that we (well, at least me) encounter so much racism on a daily basis, and fail to act, purely because it's not directed at us, because it's easier to let a sleeping dog lie.

Why are people in New Zealand (a supposedly inclusive society) and all over the world, racist? I feel like, because we as a country, didn't support things like slavery (although it did happen), we feel free to point at countries like the States and say that they're the country to be looked at if you want to see racism. Sure, we have done better than some countries (like Australia, where much of the Aboriginal population lives out in shanty towns, marginalised still by the rest of the population), at trying to repair the havoc colonization wreaked. But I still hear racist stereotypes all the time - PI's favourite restaurant is KFC, all Maori people are on the DPB etc.

Personally, I believe that a large part of the blame is on separatism. Not that I begrudge anyone of maintaining their own, separate cultural identity, but surely the government allocating more money to schools with Maori and Pacific students, on the assumption that they're poorer or dumber than their white or yellow counterparts. Labelling people as this and that - black, white, red, yellow, brown; Maori, European (effing European! you were born in New Zealand for chrissakes! You're Australasian! Jeez), African, Scandinavian etc. It encourages stereotypes, and a stereotype, being an impression of a group based on a small cross-section, is the underlying root of racism.

The definition of racism, according to wikipedia (that great and holy bastion of knowledge) "is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race." Essentially, that we are different from each other because of our race. This idea is bullshit, and yet perpetuated by our government and media. When scientific studies of health and education are published in New Zealand, they always separate NZers into categories (seriously. Check for this next time), saying things like, Maori and Pacific Islanders are more sensitive to diabetes, that people of Asian descent are smarter. Yes, there are differences, but they are primarily cultural, and no more significant than the differences in educational achievement between the kids that study for two hours every night, and the kids who go to Macca's instead (mmmm...mcdonalds....). And this racism is flying under the radar, subconsciously reassuring (primarily) white New Zealanders that it's okay to discriminate.

(Just as a side-note, I also feel that the anti-PC movement is to blame. Just because it's not politically correct be racist, doesn't mean that you should discriminate against someone to support the identity you're attempting to create for yourself, as someone who takes no bullshit. News flash, racism is bullshit.)

What can you do about it? Short of writing to the government and research bodies of New Zealand, and asking them to stop differentiating, and thus discriminating (, start by calling people out on their racism (and homophobia. And their anti-Muslim, anti-Jewish and anti-American feelings). When your father or auntie or cousin curses 'those bloody Asian drivers', tell them off. Tell them that they're racist (something that they probably haven't considered, and would be horrified to think of), and that you're not cool with it, and that they're hurting people every time they make a prejudiced remark. Stop stereotyping, even if it's just a 'dumb blonde', and maybe get people to consider that what they perceive as racial differences may actually be cultural ones, and thus not apply to everyone. Race is just a skin colour. Nothing more.

Just a Question...

Well I was surfing Bebo the other day I happened across Romanas page and saw that she had that application called 'Collect Rice' now as far as I know all the prices of food and such are rising because there is a shortage of these staple foods such as rice so therefore my question is:

If the rice shortage is as bad as it seems then things like http://www.freerice.com/ (which is a brilliant site!) and the 'Collect Rice' are we making it worse or will these sites be outta busniess soon as rice gets too expense?

Sorry if the answer is painfully obvious and I'm just not up with the play....

lovelovelove

Kermit_2.0


http://www.stuff.co.nz/4500195a6026.html