I have been watching Wimbledon and getting increasingly irritated by screaming female players. Many release ear-piercing shrieks when they hit the ball. The guys don’t do it – to their everlasting credit.
Now some enjoy hearing the women shriek – they find it somehow arousing. Well, I find it plain annoying. Mind you, there are other sports where people grunt and squeak. The shot putt and discus are two examples from track and field. Then there is weightlifting. Strangely, it is absent from boxing.
Imagine if it crept into women’s golf!
Apparently at least one female tennis player is ranking over 100 decibels. Do they play better as a result of screaming? I think not. However, some of the greats do scream - Serena Williams for one.
Here’s hoping they ban it. I like the sound of racquet on ball.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Smoke gets in your eyes ….
Not being a parent, I won’t enter the debate on the merits or lack of a so-called light smack. However, being a linguist, I will enter the debate on the wording of the so-called referendum coming up.
Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?
You would have to be pretty thick not to see that you can drive several truckloads of manure through this loaded wording.
Consider if you will, alternative versions:
Should a smack as part of bad parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?
Somewhat loaded the other way don’t you think?
So at least a more neutral version might have been selected
Should a smack as part of parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?
Well one could go on: but the wording as it stands is simply untenable.
Secondly, the information we have been given from the Elections people does not tell us the alternatives. Is don’t know included? Or is it a yes/no affair?
However, it does appear from the the elections website that it is simply a yes/no affair. A serious flaw.
Well, what we have in the end is $9,000,000 up in smoke.
Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?
You would have to be pretty thick not to see that you can drive several truckloads of manure through this loaded wording.
Consider if you will, alternative versions:
Should a smack as part of bad parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?
Somewhat loaded the other way don’t you think?
So at least a more neutral version might have been selected
Should a smack as part of parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?
Well one could go on: but the wording as it stands is simply untenable.
Secondly, the information we have been given from the Elections people does not tell us the alternatives. Is don’t know included? Or is it a yes/no affair?
However, it does appear from the the elections website that it is simply a yes/no affair. A serious flaw.
Well, what we have in the end is $9,000,000 up in smoke.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
I am on top of the world looking down on creation …..
I was sitting on the bus this morning and watching the world unfold in the same way it does every weekday morning. It was like watching a movie and I felt quite separated from it all – even seeing my own sitting on the bus as part of the movie. It was a delightful moment of detachment – of sheer objectivity. I couldn’t help but laugh and found it hard to wipe the smile off my face.
The question that came to me … where will this all be … 50 years from now? The fact is we tend to take life far too seriously. A lot of things are necessary but hardly any are important.
At their deeper levels many of the great world religions speak of the impermanence of things. Paul in 2nd Corinthians speaks of the “form of the world passing away”. Likewise, John in his second letter says “the world with its cravings is passing away”. The Buddha is reported to have taught the transitory nature of the world. I think both Paul and John’s words can be taken to mean not only a final passing away of the world but also a constant passing away at every level. Quantum physics points to the impermanent and uncertain nature of things at the micro-level. The positions of electron afterall can only be given as probabilities.
The problem then is being sucked in to the illusion of stability and permanence. Clinging to stuff that by its very nature cannot last. The challenge is (as always) to let go and let God. It is a call to transcend the world and see things for what they really are – necessary for the moment, but unimportant, in that they cannot last. Jesus put it this way… “you are in the world, but not of it … ”
May there be many more moments of detachment that bring a real belly-laugh in the midst of the “turmoil” of life.
The question that came to me … where will this all be … 50 years from now? The fact is we tend to take life far too seriously. A lot of things are necessary but hardly any are important.
At their deeper levels many of the great world religions speak of the impermanence of things. Paul in 2nd Corinthians speaks of the “form of the world passing away”. Likewise, John in his second letter says “the world with its cravings is passing away”. The Buddha is reported to have taught the transitory nature of the world. I think both Paul and John’s words can be taken to mean not only a final passing away of the world but also a constant passing away at every level. Quantum physics points to the impermanent and uncertain nature of things at the micro-level. The positions of electron afterall can only be given as probabilities.
The problem then is being sucked in to the illusion of stability and permanence. Clinging to stuff that by its very nature cannot last. The challenge is (as always) to let go and let God. It is a call to transcend the world and see things for what they really are – necessary for the moment, but unimportant, in that they cannot last. Jesus put it this way… “you are in the world, but not of it … ”
May there be many more moments of detachment that bring a real belly-laugh in the midst of the “turmoil” of life.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
When you walk through the storm ….
It was a relay executed through the most horrendous of Wellington storms – that relay I spoke of just yesterday…
Thousands have texted me. Tens of thousands have emailed. They want to see the team that won the great Ekiden walk relay and sealed the New Zealand Championships. It was, I must confess a glorious combination of youth and experience as you can plainly see. It was a team that combined all the greatest human attributes: speed, courage, tenacity, canniness, beauty , a common sense of decency and an enormous appetite for subway sandwiches:
The story of this glorious relay shall the good person teach his son or daughter;
whiles any speaks
So you see it is true after all!!
Some things that happened for the first time seem to be happening again ….
Diseases that have happened before are happening again. Only now in the early 21st century, they are named and monitored. They scientifically assessed. Their DNA is stripped naked. Data is amassed and analysed. Statistics are produced. Panic-ridden parameters are presented. Infectious vectors are plotted. It is Swine flu - the second coming. Its algorithm has been plotted. This time the flu has been named and shamed. A massive illusion of control has been created. The question remains: in what way is this flu any worse than the myriad of flues (or is it flus) that have past our way in years gone by? Yes, there have been exceptions (1918). But there seems to be nothing about this current strain that is causing people to die in their droves. Indeed, aside from Mexico, the death rate is surprisingly low for a flu pandemic.
One has to ask: what other agendas are at work? What regulatory controls and surveillance mechanisms will arise to further empower the increased governance of ordinary folk? I am not usually inclined towards conspiracy theory. But, you know sometimes I wonder ….
And the drug companies – could this be big bucks or what? Now guys how shall we ditch that maasive stockplie of Tamiflu?
One has to ask: what other agendas are at work? What regulatory controls and surveillance mechanisms will arise to further empower the increased governance of ordinary folk? I am not usually inclined towards conspiracy theory. But, you know sometimes I wonder ….
And the drug companies – could this be big bucks or what? Now guys how shall we ditch that maasive stockplie of Tamiflu?
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Walking my baby back home ....torn between two lovers!!!
It was the National Race Walking Road Relay Championship. It was the Ekiden Relay held in Lower Hutt on May 24th. Yours truly was in the winning team: Racewalking Auckland (A Team). Chuffed was I to get a lovely medal. Chuffed also was my Mum in the Rest Home to see her boy-child (one of two) finally achieving something in his athletic career. She did really break into a chorus of “Walking my baby back home…”
The relay was held on a sublimely awful Wellington day. Planes had been turned back at the Airport. Our team barely arrived in-tacked in the capital to lay their all on the line for the dear old club.
However I did walk twice that day - for i am a walker with multiple personalities.
At 10 am I donned the blue uniform of Racewalking Auckland and did my thing over 7.2 km.
Later, I donned the black uniform of my beloved Calliope and did my thing again over 5 km.
The relay was held on a sublimely awful Wellington day. Planes had been turned back at the Airport. Our team barely arrived in-tacked in the capital to lay their all on the line for the dear old club.
However I did walk twice that day - for i am a walker with multiple personalities.
At 10 am I donned the blue uniform of Racewalking Auckland and did my thing over 7.2 km.
Later, I donned the black uniform of my beloved Calliope and did my thing again over 5 km.
By the finish I was indeed a spent force.
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