Hurricane Katrina
DrBeast:
Hey there folks
I'm finally back from my prolonged, boring vacations, and since I finally have Internet access again I promptly checked to see if anyone at the forums I visit was struck by Katrina. I hope Reg is doing OK now, she did escape with her most valuable possession after all: her life.
Being a greek and living in Greece, I'm baffled at the least by what happened over there. The (supposedly) super-power of this planet failed to respond to a natural disaster that struck its home plains? The irony of it is overwhelming, but damn it, it's not ironic at all to the thousands that are suffering right now (the dead are devoid of emotions after all, it's the living that carry the burden of their loss). Just a few months ago, the greeks responded in a way that awed many to the tsunami disaster: the fund raising by us, the common citizens, was unparalleled in our history. Will we do the same now? I honestly don't know. Yes, there are people suffering again, but...in the USA?!? The "superpower"?! I'll be honest with you: we greeks don't harvest the warmest feelings about Bush and the U.S. government, but we still have hearts and feelings. I'm sure we'll do our part in helping a fellow human out. I just hope and pray your president has suffered a big enough blow to his ego that he'll sharpen up from now on and stop playing the Universal Cop.
ZephyrZodiac:
Quote from: witch on 2005 September 12, 07:50:32
Quote from: Duck-y-Speak on 2005 September 12, 02:58:28
(Since you can only have one child, there's more sexism in baby gender preferance. Idiots, now China has TONS of bachelors. ::))
Oddly enough, I've been thinking this about India as well, especially since pre-birth ultrasound - many female babies have been aborted in India. What happens next generation? So many males, so few females. Hopefully that would give females more power, though I read science fiction story which proposed the opposite - that women were guarded, precious and traded as a marketable commodity instead. Oh well, no change there then.
It also possibly explains the numbers of young men being shipped out of their home countries illegally! If their families can afford the thousands they pay to the people smugglers, it can't purely be for economic reasons that they do this, but if there aren't enough young women in their village to go round then too many young men are likely to get into trouble fighting over them! Seems like these countries need to stamp down hard on any kind of gender selection, just as we do in the west - not just because it's sexist and immoral, but because it's also dangerous to stability! And maybe the law should be changed, so parents are allowed one son with no financial help, or two daughters with financial assistance for the second! (Just until the balance of the sexes has been normalised, anyway!)
veilchen:
Wow, what a lot I had to read :D.
Judecat, unfortunately the income disparity is still very real. Just by 'googleing' it, you can come up with numerous articles about it, not to mention the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Let me state this so my intentions are entirely clear: I don't want better treatment for women, I want equal treatment. I am glad that you did not have to experience that, but sadly, the lower the income ladder, the more unbalanced the income.
Prostitution is legal where I come from, down to a Union and a Pension Plan, although pimping is not. A very sensible attitude, it decriminalizes the women and gives them the power to deal with those who wish to exploit them. If the profession (after all, the worlds oldest) is freely chosen, fine, it is after all a demand driven profession. If it is chosen because of dire circumstances, threats, intimidation, or to pay for substances the prostitute is addicted to, that is completely different. Whatever you do in your life should at least give you some personal satisfaction, it should be something you want to do, not something you have to do. Many are in this unenviable position, with almost no way out.
I know all about Baltimore and 'Hon". I almost laughed myself silly when I was driving down the parkway (Gladys Spencer Highway?) and saw the sign: "Welcome to Baltimore, Hon." That can't be beat.
The sad thing is that women are more than capable of holding their own intellectually, if only they were empowered to do so. If you read the statistics (here I go again with the statistics), the more educated the women of a country are, the lower the birth-rate, female poverty, and many other ills plagueing the human race. Note: I am not a man-hating 'fem-nazi'; I like men, I go out with men, I value everyones friendship, regardless of gender. All I want is equal treatment, I don't want anything taken away from the male population, I want women to catch up.
ZephyrZodiac:
The interessting thing is, the human race is in a position now where it could virtually do without men, apart from keeping a few super-studs and those with high quality genes! It hasn't yet reached the stage where it could do without women!
DuckSpeak:
Quote from: witch on 2005 September 12, 07:50:32
Quote from: Duck-y-Speak on 2005 September 12, 02:58:28
(Since you can only have one child, there's more sexism in baby gender preferance. Idiots, now China has TONS of bachelors. ::))
Oddly enough, I've been thinking this about India as well, especially since pre-birth ultrasound - many female babies have been aborted in India. What happens next generation? So many males, so few females. Hopefully that would give females more power, though I read science fiction story which proposed the opposite - that women were guarded, precious and traded as a marketable commodity instead. Oh well, no change there then.
That reminds me, there are actually countries in which 50% of marriages result from abductions/kidnappings - I believe this was Kirghystan. Absolutely disgusting.
ZZ I definitly have to agree with you there, affirmative action is a good thing to have. ;) The illegal "shipping" happens the other way too, rich Chinese, etc can "import" women from the poorer South-Asian countries.
Canadians don't use "Hon" very much but flaming for it is just silly, just look at the tone of the word. Actually where I used to live long time ago there was a word quite similar so I can relate - though in that case it wouldn't make sense in "Welcome to Baltimore, Hon." I would have thought it was a joke.
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