Mothering dilemma: am I being a food Nazi?

I usually make DD’s school lunch. A couple of sandwiches, a piece of fresh fruit and something else – some cheese, dried fruit, a muffin, maybe some chocolate covered whatevers. Preferably something healthy but it doesn’t have to be macrobiotic Pritikin-inspired vegan goodness. It doesn’t even have to be vegetarian even though I am a vegetarian myself. DD had a run of liverwurst sandwiches because I felt it was something she should at least try.

DD has been dying to buy something at the canteen. Its a big thing for a not quite 5 year old Transition girl and last week I gave her enough change that she could buy a treat on top of whatever else was in her lunchbox. She bought noodles and an icy cup and still ate her sandwich and fruit so all was well.

So on Friday when I realised that I was not as organised as I had hoped and there wasn’t much that was interesting in the fridge AND it was the day after Payday, I though I would let Hanna buy her lunch. I have the list of canteen goodies here so we went through it. I did the great “You need to have a sandwich or roll and a piece of fruit” and we discussed the different fillings. So Hanna wanted an egg sandwich and fruit and cake. I was happy for her to spend up to $5 so she could add to that if she wished.

So I found an envelope, wrote her name on it, and wrote on it what we had decided on and put the money in. Before I kissed her goodbye I reminded her she needed to have a sandwich and a piece of fruit. You can’t do too much brainwashing about these things.
At school, she bowled up to the teacher [a different one than usual] and showed her the envelope as the teachers collect the lunch money. Now I made the assumption that there was some kind of order system. I should learn not to do that.

So fast forward to afterschool care and Hanna shows me a sticker she got out of a packet of Kettle chips. OK, she bought chips for the treat part of her lunch. I’m not going to fault that especially as I did exactly the same thing that day. First time in months but when the urge comes on for salt and vinegar chips, it needs to be followed.

So I ask her if she liked her sandwich and what kind of fruit she had. She didn’t have any.

Excuse me?

Yep, she didn’t have the carefully planned sandwich, the piece of fruit and everything else as extras. She bought a bag of chips and JUST a packet of chips.
Bloody hell. And it was the one day that the kids were not given their communication books back and I really, really wanted to ask about how the lunch system operates as obviously I’ve got it all wrong. So Hanna won’t be allowed to have bought lunches because she is too young to be responsible [and that's not her fault, she is just a kid] and I can’t trust what she orders. But I won’t have her eating crap food and running out of steam in the afternoons. That’s what happened to her Dad because his Mum thought that he was big enough to make his own breakfast and could be trusted with buying his lunch. The reality is that he rarely ate breakfast, used to buy lollies with his lunch money and run out of steam by mid-morning and couldn’t think because his brain did not have the right nutrients passing through it.

So I’ll be asking how the system works in great detail.

To top it off when I asked Hanna where her change was, knowing she should have had about $3.70, she went rushing over to the table and then came back all upset because her money had disappeared. My sweet naive young miss found out the hard way that you can’t leave money lying around. So she copped a mini-lecture on putting money away in her schoolbag.

Australia attacked from the air

Darwin remembers Japanese air raids anniversary. 19/02/2006. ABC News Online

It is a marked disappointment to me that so many Australians are completely unaware that Australia was bombed during WWII on the mainland and subjected to regular attack for at least 18 months. They are aware of the submarines in Sydney Harbour but the 243 people that died during the air raids by the Japanese on February 19, 1943 don’t seem to have penetrated the average Australian’s consciousness.
That is a very significant number of people to die in one day. Much greater than the number of Australians that died in Bali recently. Even significant natural disasters have had smaller death tolls.

Lest we forget or have we forgotten all too easily?

What’s a MILF like you doing oogling a young gay lad like that?

I watched Parkinson tonight and for the first time came across Will Young. I didn’t know his sexual orientation at that point as everyone in the UK knows it so it was a bit superfluous to mention it. But I guessed given the HOT looks passing from young Will to David of Little Britain fame. Jude Law without the sleaze meets George Michael’s smoulder meets the charm of Hugh Jackman.

Now Will, are you SURE you aren’t bi?

Muhammed cartoons – an opinion

It all started off when I posted an article about the Muhammed cartoons being reprinted in New Zealand newspapers last week. IT was then that I suddenly started to take an interest in the issue. Why were newspapers all over the world suddenly starting to take a stand? What was the story behind it?

The I found http://www.welt.de/z/plog/blog.php/the_free_west/the_free_wests_weblog/2006/02/04/the_cartoons–a_chronology

which gives the background to the whole affair. OK, so a newspaper decided to test some ground because an author couldn’t find an illustrator for a chilren’s book about Mohammed.

That didn’t sound entirely unreasonable to me so I went looking for the images. And found them.

http://epaper.jp.dk/30-09-2005/demo/JP_04-03.html

Here’s the post I typed for a discussion board I hang out on:

‘Like Jesus with an erect penis’ m

February 4 2006, 8:15 PM

I think that is the right comparison.

From what little I can see of the cartoons it smacks of religious and possibly racial vilification. We try not to do it about race.
Yes, I believe in freedom of speech but I think there is an obligation to show some respect.

I don’t have a problem with the newspaper publishing a cartoon depicting Mohammed as a test because they wanted to see why an author couldn’t get a book illustrated. I totally have problems with what the editorial desk chose to publish. I think they showed a complete lack of responsibility.

And they didn’t realise the potential effect? Salman Rushdie had a hell of a time and that was well BEFORE Sept 11. That’s not naive. It’s inflammatory.
Well done JP, you probably sold many copies of your newspaper and doubled your yearly profits in one hit.

That is not to say that I believe that Muslims have any right to bomb embassies and the like. Violence is completely wrong. I don’t believe Islam to be a violent faith per se and while people may point the finger at certain parts of the Koran, I can equally point the finger at parts of the Bible. A boycott while extreme to me is tolerable even if it was a single newspaper that is responsible. I’m a huge believer in using the power of the dollar against companies that offend and if need be, whole nations. Hit them where it really hurts – in the hip pocket. It does bring up interesting questions on how Muslims are perceived in Denmark and whether the cartoons reflect the opinions of the general public in Denmark, Europe and the entire Western world.
I’m actually quite pleased that the cartoons have not been published in the UK so far. I find that encouraging. I wonder whether Fairfax, which owns the papers in NZ that republished the cartoons, will publish them here in Australia. I will be watching the SMH and the Age.
And taking it to the UN? Well, if you can convince the UN to take it seriously and you have the resources to get it there, that is a perfectly legal and valid way of tackling the issue. Maybe it will get some people to think about the messages that these cartoons are giving out.

I know I personally hate Polynesian jokes told from outside the racial group that is the butt of the jokes. They just reinforce some awful stereotypes that I have fought throughout my life. They are hurtful and all they do is breed resentment. And those jokes are relatively mild, just annoying.

Humour is most definitely a weapon. Charlie Chaplin used it successfully against Hitler in “The Great Dictator”; pre-WWII anti-semitism used it. Anywhere where a group is persecuted, humour is used. If you want to denigrate a people, create a joke about them and spread it around.

—————————————————————————
By The Copenhagen Post
Caricatures of Mohammed are the same as portraits of Jesus with an erect penis, according to vice prime minister Bendt Bendtsen.

JP extra
Relaterede artikler

[Se alle]
Freedom of expression is important, but so is respect for other people, according to vice prime minister Bendt Bendtsen.

Bendtsen, the chairman of the conservative party and minister of economic and business affairs, said in an interview with daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten that freedom of speech was an important right, but it also carried with it an obligation to use good judgement.

Jyllands-Posten’s decision to publish 12 caricatures of Mohammed has created a row that has pitted Denmark against the Muslim world.

‘What Jyllands-Posten did is totally legal. I’ve got nothing against freedom of speech – it is important for us all – but if it can offend and hurt a lot of people, why use freedom of speech for that? This is about respecting other people’s cultures,’ Bendtsen said.

Bendtsen compared the 12 Jyllands-Posten caricatures of Mohammed to pictures of Jesus with an erect penis painted by Danish artist Jens Jørgen Thorsen.

‘I was deeply affected by them. I didn’t like them. Those are some of the same emotions,’ he said, pointing out that it was not unheard of for Danes to get upset over misused religious symbols: Two summers ago, a grocery store was forced to stop selling flip flops with pictures of Jesus after religious groups complained.

Bendtsen said Danish newspapers could possibly learn something from US newspapers, which tended not to try to push the limits of what was permissible.

‘In the US, freedom of expression is also important. At the same time, there is also a tradition of showing consideration for others,’ he said.

‘Religion is a deeply personal thing for a lot of people. I felt offended by the pictures of Jesus. Nor was I too keen about the sandals either.’

Another part of the thread started to deal with the original newspaper’s apology.

My response:

Well, I find this apology hypocritical m

February 4 2006, 8:38 PM

but I would accept it.
At least some positive press has also arisen out of it.

But that also leads me to ask what positive press has been published in the countries that chose to print these cartoons.
In NZ Muslims are a definite minority. NZ is pretty tolerant as a whole but it is not perfect.

Here in Australia there are increasing numbers of Muslims especially in certain areas. There are areas with large numbers of Lebanese and Turks. Here in Darwin we have lots of Muslim Indonesians. Life has been much more difficult for them post 9/11 even though Darwin is very accepting of them. The Islamic community here fits in well with the general community and there are opportunities for people to visit the mosque. I certainly feel that I could approach the people at the Mosque if I wanted to find out something.
But I have never seen a feature article about successful Muslims in the news that actually includes mention of their faith.

In NZ there was [is?] a news programme about Polynesians that showed the kind of stories you never saw anywhere else. Biographical items, items about culture, success stories…it was the 30 minutes per week when I got to see people of my own ethnic background portrayed in a positive light. As opposed to the news which reinforced the poor, welfare dependent, badly educated, rugby playing, obese, unhealthy stereotype. The stereotype of Polynesians walking around with jandals on their feet. Nobody ever mentions its because jandals are frequently the only thing available that actually fit and that noone sells decent shoes big enough. Anyway, my brother used to live in Hamilton, and Mum and I would fly up to visit in the school holidays when I was a kid. We lived in a very white part of NZ with very few Maori and Polynesians – there were more Chinese – and Hamilton is very brown in comparison. There came a moment where I realised I was making value judgments on Polynesians based on their dress and colour AND I WAS THE SAME COLOUR AS THEM. Now I certainly had not been taught racist attitudes by my parents so I had absorbed some racist ideas from the dominant culture by sheer osmosis. And the media is very much part of that.

If a newspaper is going to reprint this stuff I think they are obliged to use it as a discussion point. Freedom of the Press/expression by itself as a reason is specious. This is a much deeper issue.

Well, that’s my rant. Hmm, I think this issue has hit a nerve LOL.

I somewhere asked one of my friends for her take on it. She is an American married to a Turkish Muslim who is now in the US Army and has done a stint in Iraq.

Here’s her post:

I haven’t read all of your comments but here is my take (m)

February 5 2006, 12:50 PM

We HAVE to reprint them so people can see what all the fuss is about: Bullshit. People can see these anywhere there is an internet cafe. There is no reason to reprint them.

Islam does not allow the characterization of ANY thing with a soul in art. Yes this rule has softened a bit over time, but you will never ever see a depiction of Mohammed bad or good drawn by a Muslim. In Ottoman tilework tiles with birds would be spilt in half (symbolizing that the bird was dead) and then tiled up next to one another. Christianity has long been celebrated in art and has no taboo against it. That is why it is different than having cartoons of Jesus and other prophets. So you cannot make the argument that A is ok so B is ok.

When the Okalahoma Federal building was bombed no one drew depictions of Jesus in a suicide vest or riding on a bomb laden donkey even though the people responsible were fundamentalist Christians. The characterization of Mohammed as a terrorist is the same as saying all muslims are terrorists. How would devout Jews feel about a depiction of a Jewish couple holding a baby pig at a bris? There is a difference between freedom of speech/press and slander. Slander is illegal and never appropriate.

I have the right to say that some muslims are terrorists and draw cartoons about it but I have no right to say that Mohammed and therfor all of his followers are terrorists. The last IMHO is slander.

Should this incident be an excuse to violent protest and the burning of Dutch embassies? Absolutely not, but the Muslim people do have the right to be heard. Muslim leaders have asked for these cartoons not to be reprinted and their request has not been granted. German officilas do not allow neo-nazi cartoons or sentiment to be published in their newspapers, but they did allow this. What is the difference? To me there shouldn’t be any. A newspaper has the right to sensor itself and sometimes must in order to be on the side of morality.

I’ve also heard the argument banded about that because certain Islamic newspapers publish anti-semittic (sp?) cartoons, that it is ok for these other newspapers to publish anti-Islamic cartoons. This is the same as saying, my neighbour beats his wife so its ok if I do too. Someone has to take the moral highground or we are all in danger.

You know, it strikes me that I haven’t seen any article during my casual surfing sessions around the topic deal with the prohibition of drawing Mohammed and what that is all about. Why didn’t JP actually look at the reason why they couldn’t find an illustrator for the children’s books? I have to ask how something so obvious could have been excluded. Is Western society becoming that blinkered and intolerant that it can forget to ask what should have been a basic inquiry?

This issue is so much deeper than the issue of democracy and freedom of expression. Why aren’t the words “responsibility”, “integrity” and “inquiry” being heard? Not to mention “tolerance”.

For something that last week I didn’t give a hoot about, this issue is bugging me bigtime.

If someone was asked to describe you in one word, what would they use?

The women on my cyber playgroup did just that today and this is how they describe yours truly. A real ego boost. I have to admit that I really like the Beatnik one.

Responses

1. Perceptive – Suedoh on Feb 3, 3:42 PM




2. Unorthodox – Cara on Feb 3, 3:42 PM




3. Intellegient nt – Funda on Feb 3, 3:48 PM




4. Earthy – Gina on Feb 3, 3:52 PM




5. Beatnik – Suedoh on Feb 3, 3:53 PM




6. thought-provoking – Suedoh on Feb 3, 4:02 PM




7. Bright. nt – vickie.l.s on Feb 3, 4:04 PM




8. Worldly. (as in knows lots about many things) – Dawn on Feb 3, 4:14 PM




9. Naturally intelligent – Christenator on Feb 3, 4:19 PM




10. Smart (nt) – Deedee on Feb 3, 4:23 PM




11. Independent – Kathy Samrock on Feb 3, 4:24 PM




12. Inquisitive nt – Holly on Feb 3, 4:33 PM




13. Adventurous (nt) – Susan (mommytomegs) on Feb 3, 4:34 PM




14. Adventurous – Jennifer Rook on Feb 3, 5:48 PM




15. Open Minded nt – Malia on Feb 3, 11:08 PM




16. Spontaneous!nt – Steph on Feb 4, 2:31 AM




17. intelligent and generous…n/t – Lynn on Feb 4, 5:51 AM

var tcdacmd=”cc=EDU; dt”;

Start of a new era

My babies are no longer babies.

DS, 3 months short of his second birthday, had his first trip up to the big room. And he’s wearing jocks rather than nappies. He hasn’t quite mastered the concept of telling everyone in advance when he is going to do something although he does do it sometimes. Pretty good for a little fella. In the meantime I get to hear “jocks” instead of “penis”, and he does a bolt whenever I want to put a nappy on him. He thinks its funny. OK, I think it is too unless it is the great getting ready chaos time in the mornings.

DD, 2 months short of her 5th birthday, started school this morning. Real school. Primary School. Complete with school uniform. She looks so cute with her hat on.

She’s not even nervous. She is massively excited  because I bought her a pink Barbie pencil case and since it was a teacher’s only day yesterday and we were home together, we labelled everything that could be labelled. If she doesn’t know how to spell her surname by the end of the day I will be very surprised.

Me, I’m the one that’s worrying. The alarm clock was set for 0615h. The trial run yesterday showed that we do need almost 2 hours to get everyone ready to leave the house.

There’s a post-it note by the front door so that DD remembers to take her lunchbox.

I’ve made a week’s worth of snacks for school lunches and now I have to dream up interesting sandwich fillings. Today’s effort? Cheese and vegemite, and Peanut butter and honey. Not very original LOL.

I’ve told her several times that she has to go to afterschool care which thankfully is in her classroom. Methinks I’ll scoot out of here a trifle earlier than usual.

My babies are growing up. One of my work colleagues assures me that I don’t look any older than I did last Friday. I’m glad he said that.

Watching Kinglake…

The MIL lives here so I hope the wind drops and the rains fall…

Fires bear down on Vic townships. 27/01/2006. ABC News Online

The one Boxing Day sport worth watching…

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2005.. Home
and you can even watch it using Google Earth.

Fighting the war against…Barbie

I have a 4 year old daughter that I have tried to raise in a reasonably gender-neutral kind of way. I’ve read the feminist tomes and I own more than a few dealing with the chestnuts of body image. I have made sure that the little bit of TV she does watch is good old Aunty [Australian Broadcasting Corporation] because there are no ads and they make an effort to have good children’s TV programming.

As a result she still has no idea what the McDonalds arches represent. I’m actually quite proud of that. Her idea of fast food is “fish and chips” and pizza which comes from the locally owned Chinese takeaway in the next suburb.

She also has a mother who has refused to buy any US owned products unless absolutely desperate ever since President Bush started building up momentum towards an invasion of Iraq. And given that her mother has some mighty obsessional traits, that has meant a huge boost to the Australian owned economy.
So when Hanna suddenly started coming home from childcare with “I love Barbie” scrawled over her delightful drawings…well, what do you do? Apart from fervently hope that it is a stage she will outgrow sooner not later.
And the hot fashion trend amongst the 4 year old set is…Barbie pink. What is really funny is that Hanna actually suits that colour. She looks fantastic in pink. Pity there is so much of it around.

Well, she isn’t going to ever get a Barbie from me. She’s not going to get any Mattel products from me. Family were warned years ago not to do the Barbie thing. The rank commercialism of a product that tells you how to play, promotes consumerism [Barbie and her credit card], fails to recognise ethnic diversity [ever seen an Asian Barbie?] and reinforces the white dominant culture and the priviledge that goes with it If one does slip past I will be getting her a Feral Cheryl doll and the Barbie will be banished to Dad’s place although the wheelie bin would be preferred. What is it with little girl’s fascination with blonde haired plastic with big tits and unrealistically long legs? It’s not as though Barbie looks like my olive skinned part Polynesian girl with her muscular athletic frame. Barbie doesn’t even look like her best friend Shirlee who is of Indian descent and even darker than Hanna. She also looks great in pink and is also Barbie obsessed.
I did get her a somewhat Barbie-ish doll for Christmas. Yes, it has blonde hair. Yes it comes complete with cool boat and dolphin rescue sling for the wonderfully talented vet on board. The body shape is much more realistic. Good enough to satisfy Hanna. It also has some of the profit going towards the RSPCA. Suits me.

I have given in with the Barbie videos. They are not too bad if you go for saccharin-sweet pink fantasy adventure . As long as they are hire only from the video shop. If she wants a DVD then she can have Mulan instead when she actually wants me to buy one.

Marking time

Its 2:27 am and I’m attempting to write in the important dates for 2006 on my new calendar. It’s rather nice transferring those dates that can be transferred and putting reminder notes in to watch out for various local events. And the kid in me has an opportunity to come out because this calendar has stickers. Lots of glorious stickers. Particularly since I got wise and bought extras AND there were a few left over from 2005.

These stickers are relevant to our life. I have over 60 “Sports” stickers but I need every one. Even with preschoolers. Even if we don’t do the kindergym thing next year there will be something to replace it. I will be sailing again so I need to be able to mark in those Topper Challenges. I need to add the ex-DH because I need him to babysit. We may not live together anymore but I’m dreaming if I think I don’t need to know his yoga and sea kayaking timetable. Then there are the “Dr”, “Dentist”, “Vet” and “Car Maintenance” stickers. The scary ones that cost money. Did I mention “Birthday”?
And there is a batch of new ones too: “Meeting”, “Service/Delivery”, “Hair Appointment”.

The school related ones.
And there is “volunteer”. At last a calendar with a sense of community mindedness.
“Dad’s Time” gets added to “Mom’s Time”.

And it puts a month over two pages. I love those big squares. I don’t need pretty pictures, I need organisation.

So what is this Wonder Calendar?

It is the More Times Moms Family Organizer Calendar from More Time Moms.

Yes, its Canadian. Yes, I ordered it from Canada because I couldn’t find a decent Australasian calendar with the features I love. I initially got this as a Flylady [www.flylady.net] package. She moved onto her own calendar.I love this one. I use this one. We all use this one – the stars on the last one were great motivation for a dry bed from a certain 4 year old.

It has pride of place in the one spot where everyone is guaranteed to read it. No, not the fridge. The toilet.

Anyway, time to end this post. I can hear a rather loud “MAAAA-MAAAA” coming closer and closer. Patrick is awake and out of bed again and I can hear him say “Juice”. The cold he has is a real bugger. Time to make sure that the Meister is not creating havoc in the kitchen and that the fridge door stays closed. He can open that fridge and look at its contents for hours…

But that’s fodder for another post…