Egypt gets their revolution after 18 days. Emotional stuff.
Weekend Reader - links I loved
The view from Alexandria, Egypt, in more peaceful times.
Another week, another set of intense world events. I’ve been following the latest with Egypt all week, but have also been sharing my attention with Cyclone Yasi. It’s a strange old time.
But let’s look elsewhere for a moment:
The rules of aid blogging could easily be renamed ‘the rules of blogging,’ the points raised by Tales from the Hood are so good:
“Aid Blogging Rule #4: Don’t allow yourself to be called out. Your blog is your space where you set the rules of engagement. Only take on the issues that you want to take on. Not every idiotic or malicious comment deserves response. Pick your battles. You don’t have to argue with everybody.”
I’m not sure of the veracity of this post, but apparently Saatchi and Saatchi advertising giants have turned their ad genius to human rights in china with these Amnesty chop pencils. Interesting. - Selectism
Speaking of Human Rights, The Economist has a confronting article on rape in war time - the whole article is worth reading:
“As the reporting of rape has improved, the scale of the crime has become more horrifyingly apparent. And with the Bosnian war of the 1990s came the widespread recognition that rape has been used systematically as a weapon of war…”
I have been thinking about human connection, and this great talk by Bruce Feiler is another reminder of why it’s all about connection. Literally, all of it. When the worst strikes, all the world is noise apart from the people you are connected to. Also love his idea of the Council of Dads for his daughters.
Volkswagen have launched a new ad for the Superbowl (which I assume is a big deal, but not being American, the phenomenon escapes me a bit). But better than that is Penelope Trunk’s analysis of the ad as an anthem for Gen X.
As someone who has not spent much time with young children, or particularly watching television/film for children since I was one, I didn’t know there was such a gap in female characters for kids. Consider me alarmed:
While the percentage of female characters in children’s movies is just under 30 per cent, the percentage of female characters in crowd or group scenes is an even more pathetic 17 per cent.
The gorgeous love-interest or selfless mother or adorably ditzy sidekick might be female, but the hero and most of his friends, the villain and his lackeys, the soldiers or townspeople or ant colony population are not.- SMH (via Howling Clementine)
Have you heard Allen Ginsberg read his phenomenal poem Howl?
Travel photos from the 1950s are (unsurprisingly) awesome.
What I’ve been listening to this week: Josh Ritter.
Weekend Reader - links I loved
The return of my Weekend Reader has been derailed by the activities in Egypt. Very little else stacked up, in comparison, so I’ve kept it short and sweet. Enjoy.
Egypt:
I spent this morning watching the situation in Egypt unfold via Al Jazeera’s quality live coverage. The Guardian’s coverage is also good, but as for any Australian media outlets? Disappointing.
But wait a second - do you know what is happening? To catch up, this explanation of the situation in Egypt is great, and includes the latest developments.
Will Mubarak be forced to resign? Will this be Tunisia over again? How will governments react to such visible political unrest, courtesy of the internets (apart from blocking it)? The times, are they a changin’?
Want some visuals? This photo collection of Egypt’s Protests is excellent but WARNING - They are very, very graphic.
The rest:
Gen Y bashing is popular. Selfish, unmotivated, disconnected, self-absorbed, and unconcerned about the hard stuff are just some of the usual accusations. Which is all rubbish, of course. But it’s great to actually hear people like former PM Kevin Rudd coming out in support of Gen Y:
Everywhere I have been in Brisbane, I have seen Gen Y out there in droves. Out there doing all the grotty stuff. Cleaning mud and sludge out of peoples’ homes. Using high-pressure hoses. Putting themselves in the mud and running the risk of all sorts of infections as well. Out there distributing water and food.
How are your New Year’s Resolutions going? I made some of my own, and so far so good, but I know keeping them will be hard. Zen Habits’ take on the spiral of success might just help:
“In 2005 I was in a bad place in my life with so many changes I needed to make that it was utterly overwhelming and discouraging. Then I made one of the smartest decisions of my life…I chose just one habit. The other habits would come later.”
We’ve seen them all before, but as a vegetarian, they still fascinate me - what is really in Taco Bell “beef”. This PR crisis is not being managed particularly well, either.
This week Amazon’s ebook sales eclipsed paperback sales for the first time. Watch this space.
