It is hard to stay angry with my kids when watching This Is Us.

Had a relaxing weekend.  I had intended to catch up on work on Saturday but my wife had wanted to go to Aldeburgh.  She told me this on Friday, so on Saturday morning when I wanted to go for a bike ride, she convinced me not to.  We did not travel there in the end, and I got to have a bike ride with my son.  We rode to his school and back.  I had issues keeping up with him there, but he was running out of energy on the ride back and that part of the cycle was a lot more relaxed.

We did go for a drive afterwards and went to Heybridge Basin where we had been a few years ago, but it was crowded, so we left.  We ended up having lunch at a drive through McDonalds instead but we did go for a walk.  It was lovely going for a walk with my wife, though the children did bicker a bit.

This morning, the kids were mean to me.  I am sure that they have a different perspective on this.  So I was glad to go to work, and did not really want to return.  But I had to iron their clothes so did return.  So I returned.  And I was in a bad mood, but watching This Is Us cured me.  Watching how  the characters in it interacted and the stories made it hard to stay angry with the kids.

Anyway, am watching it with my wife and daughter.  And laughing and having to deal with how dusty things are.

Freedom of speech and acting on Fake News

Extinction rebellion have acted to peacefully protest against the Murdoch empire, and in doing so have also disrupted the distribution of papers from the Telegraph and the Mail stables.  As some of you may be aware, I do not read The Sun, and I despise The Daily Mail and I boycott both.  However, I also disagree with actions taken to prevent the distribution of these papers.  

Many feel that this action is justifiable, but to them, I ask, is it acceptable if left wing voices are silenced in a similar manner?

I used to read the Morning Star (I do not have time to read the paper version now) and while I disagreed with it at times, it was a voice of the left.  A question I would ask those who have supported the Extinction Rebellion newspaper protest is if they would consider a similar act by groups like Britain First or UKIP to be acceptable, or would they consider this to be an act to limit freedom of speech.  

Is Britain First right to act in a peaceful manner to try to restrict the freedom or worship that we enjoy in our nation? 

Trump has stated that he wanted to act to infringe the rights of Social Media in an attempt to prevent them commenting on his tweets.  He also has commented on infringing it in other ways in the past.  Is that acceptable?

I have come across those who feel that freedom of speech from those with left wing views should be limited.  If that is not correct, how is it moral to limit the freedom of the right wing media to express their views.    

Kinder, Gentler Politics and social media

I have been involved in a particularly abusive argument on Twitter.  It seemed to involve the creation of fake accounts to harass the other, and it appears that one side has ‘won’ as the other has made their account private.

I use Twitter for several reasons and one of them is to learn about the views others hold and to debate.  Sadly, some engage in abuse.  It can be hard to remember who started what at times, but for those on the left, like me, I think it is important to remember the message from Michelle Obama and Jeremy Corbyn, which is in essence, not to descend into abuse.

Sadly many in the UK have not followed this, as seen with the abuse that people like Rachel Riley and Emma Barnett have experienced.

I do not justify any abuse, but I cannot recall many politicians on the right calling for civil behaviour.  One was John McCain, but after he turned on Trump, I am not sure that many on the right of US politics respect him any more.  But those on the left have called for civility.

Ultimately people are won over by being civil to them, not by being abusive.  And anyone who wishes to change views needs to remember that.  

The all clear

All is well.  We have been given the all clear.  I got the message by text in the morning but it came too late for me to cycle to work so I worked from home instead.  So I am back to work talking to and if needed, seeing patients, and the same for my wife.

Isolation, again

We are in isolation again.  This morning my wife woke with a persistent cough and so we went for testing in Ipswich again.  She has rested for a lot of the day, but her cough improved once she had her swab.  She loved me having mine!

I had locked myself out of my work laptop last week and did not have time to correct this matter then, so I had to have that fixed before I was able to work from home.  And that took time.  Using my mobile to make calls, and my headphones to preserve patient anonymity I was able to see my call lengths easier, and many take longer than ten minutes now.  When I started in quarantine many months ago, the issues we had to deal with her so much easier.  Now they are back to the usual complexity along with additional diagnostic uncertainty due to COVID meaning we are not assessing all face to face.

Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Segregation

Can anyone tell me if the following are examples of cultural appropriation?

Chicken Tikka Masala.
The Hello Kitty video by Avril Lavigne.
Stuffed crust pizza’s.
People who appear not to be black wearing dreadlocks & Bantu knots.
The use of henna by those with no visible ancestry from the Arabian Peninsula, Indian subcontinent.
Near and Middle East, Carthage, other parts of North Africa or the Horn of Africa.
The Jai Ho music video by The Pussycat dolls.
Eating Haggis on Burns night if you have no Scottish heritage.
Wearing a Kimono if you have no Japanese heritage.
Eminem, Vanilla Ice, Iggy Azalea, UB40 & Madness.
The use of Tartan by those without significant Scottish ancestry.
The video for Romeo by Basement Jaxx.
Dressing as another ethnicity for a fancy dress party.
Drinking Guinness if you have no Irish heritage.
Someone with no South Asian heritage wearing a bindi (or anything like it).
Having an opinion on liking a dish if you are not from the ethnic group it is from.

I do think that trying to trademark certain names, such as Kimono is unacceptable.  Issues like Jamie Oliver using a name for food that has been inspired by dishes like paella are a grey area along with food inspired by a nation.  But he is not wrong to use such foods in the creation of new dishes.    

It may be best to prevent offence if we segregate different communities to prevent cultures mixing.  But that is what people like the BNP want, and I like how the society I live in has been, and continues to be influenced it’s multicultural history.

But, I would like to know what is and what is not cultural appropriation and I welcome comments about what people think on this matter.

Bank holiday Monday

We relaxed today.  I went into work to do some telephone work.  In my drive to get fitter, I took a slight detour and I think that my fitness levels may be improving.  After work when home I found that my wife was not as well as she had hoped.  She rested, I ironed and helped her prepare some food that she had cooked.  But I forgot to do it properly.  Fortunately she and my son helped salvage the food.

I also got to go for a walk with my daughter as well as watching Star Wars Rebels with my son.  He loves watching the Simpsons but took time to not watch that and instead spend some time with me.  Rebels is a kids cartoon, but there was a reason cited in one of the episodes we watched as to why stormtroopers cannot shoot properly.  And we had a slight disagreement about how The Clone Wars ended.  I was right, but he will not accept that. All in all, it was a good end to the weekend, so long as my wife is better tomorrow.