At Large

Monday morning, and an e-mail from Sleepy telling me that another kid we used to teach at Mayhem, well, I should say 'teach' had died. An accident early in the small hours of the morning. At school, he was ADHD and when taking his Ritolin, pleasant, bright, teachable. But he refused to take it and then became disagreeable and unteachable.
A sad end however.
A nice family and you wouldn't wish the loss of a child on anyone.

Christmas seems to have started early here. Even last week, the Sally-Anne Santas were ho-ho-ho-ing outside of Shoppers' Drug Mart, all the shops seem to have the continual Christmas music loop, and some already have cinnamon surround-smell.

Out there in the world at large, attacks on girls in Afghanistan continue unabated. Where is the world's outrage when school girls yet again have battery acid thrown at them?

Afghan MP Shukria Barakzai is subjected to men screaming, 'kill her!' when she stands up to speak. She continually receives personal threats but refuses to abandon the fight for women's rights. But who cares? She's just a woman, just one of the majority gender.

In another story, the Guardian tells us that New Zealand has lost its greatest reforming Prime Minister ever, Helen Clark, and although she has been in power for ten years, the suggestion is that whilst,

"As the late Sir Edmund Hillary said of her: "She's always off climbing something, doing something exciting and I think that New Zealanders admire that." "

That also,

"But there were some things about Helen they never felt comfortable with. Her deep voice, her wardrobe of serviceable trouser suits, and her childless marriage to sociologist Peter Davis all brought their share of snide media comment. This didn't seem to bother her much; she was no emotional chin wobbler. But as one media commentator pointed out: "Bossy women aren't much liked or trusted in New Zealand." "

In Myanmar, a comedian was given a 45 year gaol sentence for delivering aid to people who needed it - the intended recipients in fact.

Lastly, and back to the woman-related, the F-Word reports that clitoris is a word banned from Google's safe search section. Not so penis however. Odd that. Penis envy? Not so much.
I did of course, have to google it, and there were certainly links that came up, but read the article.