Author: Giles

The scandal of birth in Greece

90% of women with children who have given birth in Greece (at least the ones I meet) have had a Cesarian. Why is this?
1. Doctors get more money for it
2. Doctors can have a regular predictable schedule
Here are some tactics they use:
1. Scaring women and blackmailing them with – what if your baby dies stories.
2. Doctor sees woman in before due-date and says – hey where’s the baby – it’s late – aren’t you worried – I think we’d better induce it. Doctor gives woman drug (or maybe a placebo – this is pure conspiracy theory) to induce baby. Baby doesn’t come so doctor says – oh dear – we have to do a cesarian.
3. Creating a culture where that is the done thing because it is more convenient.
On top of that, they:
1. Make it difficult for fathers to accompany their partners during the birth – you have to make a fuss to be allowed in.
2. Take the baby away almost immediately it is born and put it, screaming in a room with loads of other babies, away from its mother in it during the crucial first day of its life. Mother’s breast milk then does not come and – oh mother has to buy formula milk.
3. Do not allow older children into the hospital to visit the mother/new child, because they have some strange infectious disease which adults apparently do not have.

Sexist Nursery Rhymes – sexism against men cont’d

Update – fill in my sexism against men survey here:
You’ve all heard of the feminist PC attacks on Nursery Rhymes. You might not have noticed a spate of overtly sexist nursery rhymes aimed at the guys. (This is a continuation of my post on Sexism against men). I came across this one for example – published by Marks and Spencer, (First Readers Series). The 3 little pigs – 2 brothers and a sister. The brothers screw up by building their houses out of straw, and the sister builds hers out of bricks. While the brothers are cowering in a corner, the sister then cooks up cauldron under the chimney. The big bad wolf is also male.
“Once upon a time there were three
little pigs who lived in the woods
There were two *brothers* and a *sister*
A big bad wolf [Male] lived in the woods
….
The third little pig walked on.
*She* saw a pile of bricks.
‘I’ll build a strong house with
bricks,’ said the third little pig…
…
*Her* brothers laughed at *her* for working so
hard. …
The very next day the big bad wolf
called at the house of straw. *He* was
dressed as an old woman
The first two little pigs were very scared. But the third little pig made a big fire under the chimney. Then *she* put a big pot of water on the fire….
Etc….”
Then there’s this one: the paper bag princess.
Princess Elizabeth was planning on marrying Prince Ronald, who was practically perfect. Then along came a dragon, who destroyed her kingdom, kidnapped Ronald, and burned all her clothes so that she had no choice but to wear a paper bag. She tracked down and outwitted the dragon. She challenged the dragon to burn forests with fire and to fly around the world. The dragon completes the tasks but after flying around the world a second time becomes tired and falls asleep. Elizabeth then saves Ronald. He didn’t even thank her and told her to come back to marry him when she looked more princessy. Then Elizabeth realized what a bum Ronald was, and went off to live her own life.
Here’s another one – perhaps the worst IMO. I’ve tried reading it to my daughter with the genders switched and it feels bad…:
What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails
That’s what little boys are made of !”
What are little girls made of?
“Sugar and spice and all things nice
That’s what little girls are made of!”

China Again

You only have to look at their bank notes to realise why they still get the Gold Medal for totalitarian politics. Who is on the front of the Yuan – you guessed it – mass-murderer, megalomaniac, worse than Hitler-and-Stalin-put-together-man who was responsible for the deaths of 70 million chinese and many more outside china – Mao Tse Tung. .
He also has his portrait in the heart of China – Tianenmen Square.
If you are in doubt about the kind of person China still looks up to as a mentor, please read Mao, the unknown story
The fact that one even has to point this out is truly incredible. Imagine if one had to point out that Pol Pot shouldn’t be on bank notes.
** Update – things are looking up. China issues new bank notes without Mao.

Pure

The way marketers use the word “pure” is very strange.
“Pure” presumably means – with nothing else added. So then what does it mean to say “100% pure fruit jam, with added sugar, gelatine etc…”? Or even “100% pure juice made from concentrate”.

Beijing Olympics

The Beijing Olympics are approaching but the repression, censorship and disinformation in China have not diminished. Chinese people I speak to in Europe are still so brainwashed that they think Mao Tse Tung was a great leader despite the fact that he was responsible for the deaths of more people than Hitler and Stalin put together. The Chinese record of supporting unscrupulous regimes like Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge and now Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan is appalling. China censors its press and internet, tramples on and tortures people right left and centre (e.g. Tibet) and gets away with it because of its growing economic power.
It’s difficult to know whether more can be done by staying away from Beijing 2008 or by attending and using it as an opportunity for change. Certainly business-as-usual shouldn’t be an option.

Artificial Artificial Intelligence

Here is a Cool new idea. I find the name a bit unpolitically correct but ….
“For software developers, the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service solves the problem of building applications that until now have not worked well because they lack human intelligence. Humans are much more effective than computers at solving some types of problems, like finding specific objects in pictures, evaluating beauty, or translating text. The Amazon Mechanical Turk web service gives developers a programmable interface to a network of humans to solve these kinds of problems and incorporate this human intelligence into their applications.”