What is happening in Burma at the moment brings images for me of the massacre in Rwanda the killing fields in Cambodia and the Holocaust. The Burmese government is using the cyclone as an opportunity to kill off their enemies. They are doing this by severely limiting international aid efforts. Killing is still killing it doesn’t matter how you do it the result will still be the same.

We can prevent this crime against humanity getting any worse than it has already. We should be giving the Burmese people aid whether there government likes it or not. The world has not had the courage in the past to prevent these massive man-made tragedies. Human beings are capable of incredibly brutal crimes on a massive scale. I believe human beings can be better than this. It is time we grow up as a race, and act with speed coverage, determination, and the will that we can do better.

Please for humanity sake, Don’t Let It Happen Again.

This morning I was asked to update the website of the Melbourne based Victims Of Chernobyl National Relief Fund. This organisation brings children that are from the irradiated area to give them a well needed holiday over seven weeks.

Unfortunately, the relief fund still needs several host families to look after children aged between 10 and 13 years of age.

If you are interested visit the website:
http://www.victimsofchernobyl.org.au/childrensvisit.php

I was watching 9 a.m. with David and Kim this morning. One of their segments was about whether or not to tell your child when they are diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. This set me thinking about when I was told that I had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

I wish to talk about parents telling their kids that they have been diagnosed with serious conditions, such as cancer, muscular dystrophy, autism and others.

It is an enormous shock to parents when their child receives a serious diagnosis. Many immediately think about how hard it will be to tell their children. Some parents wish to shield their child from the shock of the diagnosis and refuse to let them know. I believe it is the worst thing you can do to your child is not to tell them. Can you imagine how bad it would be to the undergoing treatment and not knowing what you are being treated for? Or be suffering painful symptoms and not knowing why?

Children are a lot tougher than their parents believe. Luckily my parents always kept my brother and I informed on everything that was going on medically. It was a very long time till we were diagnosed. My brother and I knew that something was wrong with us. We weren’t as strong as our friends. In under six basketball we couldn’t throw the ball through the hoop - or even halfway to the hoop. Every other boy and girl I knew my age could at least hit the ring. We weren’t diagnosed for another year.

When we finally were diagnosed our parents told us straight away. My brother and I were immensely relieved we finally knew what was wrong with us. When someone accused me of being weak or lazy I just told them - I have muscular dystrophy. I told all my classmates and they were all very understanding even at the age of eight. I told them it was a genetic disease that you can’t catch.

I believe it is always beneficial to tell your children, of all ages, what is going on. You may think it will be difficult, but children are tougher and smarter than many adults believe. Paediatric doctors and nurses are able to help parents explain a diagnosis at a level the child understands. One thing I’ve noticed (at least with muscular dystrophy) is the younger the child often the better they cope. I believe this might have something to do with young brains being more flexible and able to adapt to new circumstances. In many cases it will be easier to tell your children than it will be to tell the grandparents.

I got an interesting reply from an anonymous person to my post: Will the Olympic Games Be China’s Worst Nightmare?

There are two views of China’s current Olympic crisis and I thought it would only be fair to let the pro-China lobby have their say.

Here is their comment:

“The Chinese government is not the idiotic liar in all of this; its opposition is. The news has shown Tibetans being violent, going against what they’re supposed to believe in, which is peace.

Why protest against China making Tibet more developed? China has helped increase the numbers of tourists going to Tibet, and therefore, the economy has improved. If the Tibetans had to protest, they could just sit down and have a civilized talk. Tibetans had reporters removed from the scenes of violence so that the truth would not get out.

Even in ‘developed countries’, people are also killed during protests. Don’t even try to say you haven’t seen such examples about France, the US..and lots of others on TV. Would you call them accidents? Or are you saying that the governments of these countries are also as ignorant as you’re calling the Chinese? The police would be killed if they did not try to stop the activists. It’s not as if the Chinese are killing on purpose. The Tibetans are burning down shops and vehicles, for goodness’ sake!

China has spent a long time preparing for the Olympics. Why are the Tibetans only acting now if they’re so mad? Why do they need to bring politics into the Olympic Games?

Dali Lama? More like? Lie Lama

I don’t believe I’m wrong in saying you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. How much do you really know about China and Tibet? I’m quoting a previous comment I found on your profile kman Says:
‘August 2nd, 2007 at 4:58 pm
I don’t know why I am wasting my time writing this,but what gets me is your know all attitude to things you have absolutely no clue about.’”

And here is my reply:

“Thanks for your comment. It’s good to hear from people of differing opinions and I hope you leave many more comments in the future.

I am sure there are idiotic liars on all sides Chinese, Tibetan and Westerners. When I wrote this piece I was very careful not to express support for violent protest. The fact is China is in charge of Tibet and it is their responsibility to keep law and order. And you are right some people do die it in protests.

My main issue was with the Chinese government telling us that the Dali Lama was behind the violent protests. It was just so convenient and the Chinese government have a long track record of dishonesty (think of the Tiananmen Square massacre and the Chinese government refusal to recognize it as such). It was just so obviously a lie.

There are several other reasons why I believe that Dali Lama wasn’t behind it. The Dali Lama is a champion of non-violent protest. He knows that non-violent protests work and that any form of violent protest is a complete waste of time and counter-productive.

Non-violent protest has been used many times to defeat totalitarian regimes. Think South Africa, India, Serbia, Russia and Poland. The violent protests in Tibet have most likely set the free Tibet movement back years.

Why protest against China making Tibet more developed?
I would assume that no one would protest about China helping Tibet. What people do protest against is the fact that China invaded Tibet. China continues to import vast numbers of ethnically Chinese people making Tibetans a minority in their own country.

Before I continue, I will tell you a bit about how we do things in the ‘developed world.’ Unfortunately, sometimes in this world violence is necessary. If a country is invading their neighbours or killing vast numbers of its own people an invasion might be necessary. Think about Germany after World War II. Germany was occupied, the Allies rebuilt the country, instituted a functioning government and economy. Then over a period of many years they left.

According to the Chinese government Tibet was ruled by a theocracy basically a Buddhist Iran. The Chinese have had years to rebuild the country create a functioning government and economy. Why are they still there?

In the developed world we have a little thing called the right of self-determination. All peoples have the right to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. It was this principle that allowed for the decolonisation of the developing world. After World War I this principle was used to split Europe into distinct cultural and language groups the way the people wished. This did more than anything to stop the near constant state of war that tore Europe apart in previous centuries. The Tibetan people want China to respect their rights.

It is not all bad news in China. China has the capacity to be one of the greatest nations on earth. They just need to respect the principles that help make the world a better place. The Chinese government needs to learn that not everyone will agree with them. Instead of attacking dissenting voices, trying to discredit them or going on the defensive they need to say: ‘You have the right to your opinion, but we respectfully disagree.’ Instead, we hear the Chinese government attacking one of the most respected leaders in the world - the Dali Lama. How do you feel when somebody verbally attacks someone you respect - you fight back.”

Yes I am reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. After Harry’s performance at the end of Order of the Phoenix I did not want to read about Harry Potter anymore. So it has been two years since I finished Phoenix.

For some reason it doesn’t seem like as much care has been put into this book as the others or maybe I’m just forgetful. JK Rowling is a very skilled novel writer. Her characterisation is excellent, the same can be said for plot, structure and imagination. Her writing skills on the other hand…

Rowling’s major weakness is when attributing dialogue. ‘Blah blah blah,’ said Hermione, [slyly, slowly, darkly, quickly, inquisitively, boldly, softly, loudly… pick one] you get the picture. This drives me completely round the fucking bend. If I see more than three of these misused adverbs on one page, I’m forced to put the book to one side and take 10 deep breaths.

I am not the only one who feels this way. What makes it so frustrating is every other part of Rowling’s storytelling is so strong that she could simply delete all the adverbs and make the story even stronger.

Hopefully, book 7 is better.

Slippery When Wet are now accepting entries to their 2008 short story competition. I have entered my own story and encourage others do the same. Winners will be published in a Slippery When Wet compilation. Entries close on Friday May 9th.

My story is a bloody funny one (not just according to me, but trust me it’s funny :) ) and is in its 5th draft. I can’t publish its name or an excerpt just in case one of the judges reads my blog.

From now on I will try to keep people informed of short story competitions that are accepting entries.

I’m so depressed. My brother says I’m pathetic at least I don’t need drugs to make me happy.

To top it all off I found out someone I like doesn’t like me. I am a likeable person. I am a great person to know. I am funny, humourous and I know how to tell a joke. I am Smart, intelligent and have a high IQ. I am also generally an all-round nice guy. What is there not to like?

At least there is one good thing about being depressed for me anyway, I know that later on today I will go into my manic phase. Actually, I’m probably already there.

Anyway, fuck you to all the people who don’t like me. Actually fuck everyone!

I wasn’t surprised when I heard on the news that parents will be punished for their kids not attending school. In New South Wales they have brought in new laws that will even jail parents. Apparently there is a truancy epidemic throughout Australia.

The thing is there is no way, short of locking teenagers up, that you can make them go to school. Most homes are not prisons and schools are not prisons, so how are you going to make your teenager attend school if they don’t want to?

You can only punish parents for things that they have control over such as enrolling their children in school. Punishing parents for truancy is a waste of money and time.

It seems teenagers (not to mention the parents of binge drinking truant teenagers) are the new refugees or the new black if you take my meaning. They are now being targeted for under age binge drinking as well. This is another thing that parents have very little control over. You can prevent your teenager getting alcohol. You can lock up your wine and spirits. But you are not going to prevent your kid from jumping out the window and going down to the local park where their friends at having a binge drinking session. One of your child’s acquaintances is bound to have an irresponsible older brother who will go to the bottle shop on a teenager’s request.

In an attempt to limit underage binge drinking the government is releasing a series of graphic ads, similar to the anti-smoking campaign. I believe this approach will be counter-productive as it will act as an advertisement raising awareness of binge drinking - it will become even cooler than it was before. Some people have even suggested raising the drinking age to 21. This idea is incredibly stupid. All it will do is vastly increase the number of people who drink under age. An underage drinking culture will become entrenched and teenagers will have even greater access to alcohol. Just compare this to the effect that prohibition had on the USA.

I don’t really know what the solution is to both these problems. I just know that blaming parents isn’t the answer. Parenting is one of the hardest things that someone will ever do. Maybe one idea is: to receive the baby bonus a first-time parent must complete a parenting course.

I would love to hear what others have to say, see you in the comments.

There is consternation in the feminist movement - women just don’t seem to have caught up to men yet. This shows up most in the field of sports and mostly in the Olympics. I’m talking about things like - men play baseball and girls play softball. In swimming women do 800 m men do 1500 m. The women’s race walk is only 20 km compared to separate 20 km and 50 km events for men. In the tennis finals only the men play to five sets. Only men do ski jump.

All this sort of crap is so early last century. It is 2008, I honestly thought all this sort of stuff would be fixed up in the future - now it is the future and what are they going to do about it? Oh, women don’t have the stamina - what do you call having a baby dickhhead? Oh, but women don’t look pretty when they’re sweaty - you don’t call a fit shiny women hot?

It is time for male and female sportspeople to put a stop to this sexism. The signal it sends to young women is that they are the lesser sex. Many prepubescent girls cannot throw a ball as far as boys the same age even though there is no physical or anatomical difference. In our society women equals weak. Don’t deny you know it’s true - even I call my brother a girl when he is being a whingeing little prick. Girls are given the impression that they are physically weak, emotionally weak, lack stamina and are in need of protection by a man. If a women even has a hint that any of these things are true it may negatively affect them all the way through their life. They are going to get bullied by the boss that doesn’t want to give them a pay rise. They will not complain when someone is rude or abusive. They will be unable to defend themselves when set upon by a male assailant.

In this world it doesn’t really matter how big you are or how strong you are, it’s what you do with what you are given. I know what it’s like to be physically weak in a harsh world I’ve always been much weaker* than all of my friends. Once when I was about seven an idiot who was much stronger, bigger and older than me picked a fight - so I bit him and he ran off crying.

Women are slightly smaller and maybe just a little bit weaker than men, but there is no conceivable reason for the sexist way women are treated by the International Olympic Committee and many other sporting bodies.

It is after the year 2000 I wish the world would feel like really is a new millennium.

* If you are new to my site: I have muscular dystrophy and went into an electric wheelchair only a few years after this incident. I could barely walk let alone fight.

There are multiple things that are giving me the shits at the moment. But the one thing that really tops it off is the Olympic movement. They have done nothing, at least nothing visible in the media, to shame China for their actions in Tibet. Instead protesters get hit hard for their actions against a do nothing Olympic movement.

When I talk about China’s actions in Tibet I am not talking about the violent actions stopping the violent protests. It is the lies that they spread about the Tibetan people and especially the Dali Lama. I fail to believe that someone who has dedicated their life to peace would orchestrate violent protests against the relatively innocent Chinese civilians. If the Dali Lama had organised the protests, they would have been peaceful and on a much larger scale.

I think the Chinese leadership, to a certain degree, believe their own lies - this has to be born of ignorance. The Chinese forget that virtually every world leader has met the Dali Lama and a sizable percentage of the world’s people have actually heard his voice in person. That is why the Chinese lies are so ridiculous. I laughed the first time I heard the Chinese government spokesman accuse the Dali Lama of these crimes. They just look like idiots.

The instant a Chinese leader meets the Dali Lama their whole policy towards Tibet will change. And maybe they know it. Could this be why they’ve refused to meet him for so long? Maybe they just want to save face in that ancient Asian tradition.

I wonder what will happen during the Olympic Games. Will rebellious Chinese students try to protest again - this time with the Chinese government being handcuffed - unable to act because an Olympic games is happening? Maybe Taiwan will unilaterally declare independence. The Olympic Games could either be the greatest thing for China or maybe their worst nightmare. I’m kind of hoping for the nightmare.