...or that's how it feels at the moment anyway. I'm taking a day off with one bastard of a tooth ache.
The pain aside, it's been an educational day. For example, I discoered that I was able to book an apointment with a university dentist (free for student union members), but failed to secure one with a private dentist (that cost so much that anyone who is willing to pay that must be in very real pain). I'm not sure whether to see this a triump of a well fare society or as a sign that private dentists are clearly struggling with too much work and are in acute need of expensive holidays.
Either way, I'm in pain so it's difficult to ponder about sociopolitical issues without ultimately ending up feeling very sorry for myself. So instead I'm just munching on painkillers and trying not to think about the tooth, the tooth, the tooooooth. Bastard!
Well, at least I don't have to go to work today. I suppose tooth ache is almost worth it. In fact, I think that a dental appointment is a great metaphor for a day in the office: you go in all innocent and expecting a nice leasurely visit. This all changes when the dentist tells you that your teeth are fine, there's JUST ONE LITTLE THING that needs fixing. And before you know it, you are practically choking on a mouthfull of what can only be described as weapons of mass destruction. When you leave the surgery you feel violated, insulted, and you are in even more pain than you were on your way there. I'm telling you, if you haven't felt like that after a day in your office then you are probably not doing your work properly (and/or you are an executive of the company).
Right off to the dentist then. Let the fun begin!
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Friday, March 24, 2006
Holidays, vol 3.
Yeehaa! Four more working days and we're off to Mexico! Can hardly wait...
That was my contribution to lighten the spirits of the blog after the more serious posts by a certain Xinola. Just to quickly summarize the past week: Being really busy shuttling around Southern England and the infamous road to hell - the M25 aka the world's largest parking lot.
The London ringroad (or orbital if you wish) is indeed one of those places you realise that there must be something wrong with the picture when you're sitting there, sniffing the exhaust fumes of about one and half million other vehicles and wondering" why am I doing this?". So nothing new really, just work and accumulating frustration and stress of which not all travelling related.
But holidays. There's definitely something to look forward to. Just about the only thing I really want to do for the first few days is to stare the underwater world through the mask and empty my mind of all mundane and utterly boring work related issues I've been carrying with me for the last couple of weeks 24/7.
For now, that's all I have to say really. Or maybe I should throw a challenge up in the air. Mick and jULES - the world is holding its breath - we need to hear from you and quick! Maybe a little sauna related column with a twist, anyone?
Right. I'm off for a while but hopefully someone responds to my cry in the wind, who knows...
P.S. This man should be awarded the next Nobel prize. Which category, who cares! Just admire the way he's mastered Wife Beater, the lager....
That was my contribution to lighten the spirits of the blog after the more serious posts by a certain Xinola. Just to quickly summarize the past week: Being really busy shuttling around Southern England and the infamous road to hell - the M25 aka the world's largest parking lot.
The London ringroad (or orbital if you wish) is indeed one of those places you realise that there must be something wrong with the picture when you're sitting there, sniffing the exhaust fumes of about one and half million other vehicles and wondering" why am I doing this?". So nothing new really, just work and accumulating frustration and stress of which not all travelling related.
But holidays. There's definitely something to look forward to. Just about the only thing I really want to do for the first few days is to stare the underwater world through the mask and empty my mind of all mundane and utterly boring work related issues I've been carrying with me for the last couple of weeks 24/7.
For now, that's all I have to say really. Or maybe I should throw a challenge up in the air. Mick and jULES - the world is holding its breath - we need to hear from you and quick! Maybe a little sauna related column with a twist, anyone?
Right. I'm off for a while but hopefully someone responds to my cry in the wind, who knows...
P.S. This man should be awarded the next Nobel prize. Which category, who cares! Just admire the way he's mastered Wife Beater, the lager....
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Rebelliousness with Dignity, part 2
Here are the images I did not manage to include yesterday.
http://galeria.ezln.org.mx/
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Rebelliousness with Dignity, part 1
These are some images from the EZLN travelling around Mexico.
The Zapatista Army for National Liberation are making the 'Another Campaing' in this year of federal elections in the country. In case you are completely alien to the nasty Mexican politics, the Zapatistas are travelling to the different corners of Mexico talking to and with the people in order to generate some consciousness about the pejorative social conditions (as well as political and economic) of the majority of the Mexicans. This, obviously, affects more the lower classes and the indigenous people of Mexico. As a figure, 60 per cent of the Mexican population live under the line of poverty, meaning that they live under impoverished conditions even within the Mexican standards. If you want more information about this I recommend you to read, but not to rely, on the reports from Mexican governmental agencies. I say this because they have invented a way of measuring poverty which has failed to reflect the facts. I also encourage you to read more the work of Julio Bolvitnik, a Chilean academic who has dedicated his life to develop an all-inclusive humane way to measure poverty in Mexico and Latin America.
The Zapatistas main aim is to fight the ill neoliberalism that the Mexican government has been uncapable of challenge for the sake of the Mexicans present and future. Of course the USA has a big role in impeding the little opposition the Mexican state could have over the neoliberalism which is anyway unstopable. Other aim of the EZLN is to unite more people with their already 12 year official struggle for recognition and rights for racial and social inequality and therefore to gain equality in the country. Their proposal can be found in the website:
http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/especiales/2/
What the nasty politicians of Mexico do, is to destroy each others' (already bad) reputation; try to co-opt voters; and generally lie to the people with fake campaings about the good things they will never do for the progress of the country and its people.
I'll return with the images later because this computer does not allow me to do so...
The Xinola, reporting far away from the land of the rebels, will return before night falls.
The Zapatista Army for National Liberation are making the 'Another Campaing' in this year of federal elections in the country. In case you are completely alien to the nasty Mexican politics, the Zapatistas are travelling to the different corners of Mexico talking to and with the people in order to generate some consciousness about the pejorative social conditions (as well as political and economic) of the majority of the Mexicans. This, obviously, affects more the lower classes and the indigenous people of Mexico. As a figure, 60 per cent of the Mexican population live under the line of poverty, meaning that they live under impoverished conditions even within the Mexican standards. If you want more information about this I recommend you to read, but not to rely, on the reports from Mexican governmental agencies. I say this because they have invented a way of measuring poverty which has failed to reflect the facts. I also encourage you to read more the work of Julio Bolvitnik, a Chilean academic who has dedicated his life to develop an all-inclusive humane way to measure poverty in Mexico and Latin America.
The Zapatistas main aim is to fight the ill neoliberalism that the Mexican government has been uncapable of challenge for the sake of the Mexicans present and future. Of course the USA has a big role in impeding the little opposition the Mexican state could have over the neoliberalism which is anyway unstopable. Other aim of the EZLN is to unite more people with their already 12 year official struggle for recognition and rights for racial and social inequality and therefore to gain equality in the country. Their proposal can be found in the website:
http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/especiales/2/
What the nasty politicians of Mexico do, is to destroy each others' (already bad) reputation; try to co-opt voters; and generally lie to the people with fake campaings about the good things they will never do for the progress of the country and its people.
I'll return with the images later because this computer does not allow me to do so...
The Xinola, reporting far away from the land of the rebels, will return before night falls.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Bodyish Art
The first image was taken during this weekend in Venezuela
For matter of space I had to choose between two images taken in Helsinki in 2002
For more intallations see: http://www.spencertunick.com
For matter of space I had to choose between two images taken in Helsinki in 2002
For more intallations see: http://www.spencertunick.com
Friday, March 17, 2006
Ethical Dilemma
Today I was giving a seminar and ask to the students to help me with an ethical problem I have with my work. In summary my problem regards the anonymity of one important character in my research. This is a politically and economically powerful man from my particular researched town, and he who holds a public office at the federal level. I do preserve the anonymity of all my informants, but he has not been my informant and he is constantly criticized as the exploiter of the town. Many comments and suggestions were provided during the seminar, however one of them said exactly what I have done:
"Keep the anonymity of the good people and give the names of the evil ones" (maybe not exactly in these words, but that was the idea).
Obviously that was said just for the laugh, but yet it shows our basic desires to do that constantly instead of following ethical codes that sometimes are far fetched.
This is something so common in people's lives or do you disagree?
On an everyday basis we meet good, not so good and few evil persons. Maybe among the evil ones there will be some with mental problems who are not aware of the damage they may cause to others, but the hell, they still hurt others without giving a shit. Among those we have the psychotic people.
That is the case of one of my colleagues here, who belongs now to those called 'the weird ones'. In my working place, they do call those who are mad, bad, twisted as weird. Is that fair? Does that actually make justice to their acts and the consequences? I really don't think so, and along with me there are many more who agree, but still just live with the consciousness of calling them weird people and never inviting them to their social gatherings. Yeah, right. Meanwhile, the 'weirdos' remain around causing damage.
On the other hand, damage, deviance is much needed. I am not claiming that I want a perfect environment which does not exist anywhere. Who would we talk about? Laugh about? Those are needed, so we rather suffer under their tyranic evilness than not.
Amazingly, when we see them in the corridor or passing by the offices, we say hi, and we even respond to few favors every now and then. That is my case with one particular 'weird person', who is an older unscrupulous woman. She is my boss, and just patronizes me at leisure and bores me most of the time. Although she is an old person and has gained some wisdom through her life, she has also gained many vices which surely were encouraged by her earlier peers and colleagues who never ever told her off.
You see, all this is a fucking sick social vicious circle in which few or none stands for the best of the rest. This happens commonly here in the UK. Only in individual cases one may stand for its own rights, claim to the offender and so on. As well, in extreme cases the group will stand for the problem against the 'weird' if s/he has cause way too much damage, but just until then.
There should not be much hope on the rational capabilities of human beings, which is what I see as the problem in places like here. We should also think that someone is actually evil, twisted and/or emotionally tormented and therefore fully incapable of seeing what is best for itself and the rest. For this, there are so many infinite examples which I cannot put here. Freaking ethical codes.
"Keep the anonymity of the good people and give the names of the evil ones" (maybe not exactly in these words, but that was the idea).
Obviously that was said just for the laugh, but yet it shows our basic desires to do that constantly instead of following ethical codes that sometimes are far fetched.
This is something so common in people's lives or do you disagree?
On an everyday basis we meet good, not so good and few evil persons. Maybe among the evil ones there will be some with mental problems who are not aware of the damage they may cause to others, but the hell, they still hurt others without giving a shit. Among those we have the psychotic people.
That is the case of one of my colleagues here, who belongs now to those called 'the weird ones'. In my working place, they do call those who are mad, bad, twisted as weird. Is that fair? Does that actually make justice to their acts and the consequences? I really don't think so, and along with me there are many more who agree, but still just live with the consciousness of calling them weird people and never inviting them to their social gatherings. Yeah, right. Meanwhile, the 'weirdos' remain around causing damage.
On the other hand, damage, deviance is much needed. I am not claiming that I want a perfect environment which does not exist anywhere. Who would we talk about? Laugh about? Those are needed, so we rather suffer under their tyranic evilness than not.
Amazingly, when we see them in the corridor or passing by the offices, we say hi, and we even respond to few favors every now and then. That is my case with one particular 'weird person', who is an older unscrupulous woman. She is my boss, and just patronizes me at leisure and bores me most of the time. Although she is an old person and has gained some wisdom through her life, she has also gained many vices which surely were encouraged by her earlier peers and colleagues who never ever told her off.
You see, all this is a fucking sick social vicious circle in which few or none stands for the best of the rest. This happens commonly here in the UK. Only in individual cases one may stand for its own rights, claim to the offender and so on. As well, in extreme cases the group will stand for the problem against the 'weird' if s/he has cause way too much damage, but just until then.
There should not be much hope on the rational capabilities of human beings, which is what I see as the problem in places like here. We should also think that someone is actually evil, twisted and/or emotionally tormented and therefore fully incapable of seeing what is best for itself and the rest. For this, there are so many infinite examples which I cannot put here. Freaking ethical codes.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Arghhh!
Laziness, the ultimate vice. This is the category under which I'm willing to place myself regarding blog updates. On the other hand, I've been busier than ever at work and to return to the ever-popular topic of job-bashing, today I thought of letting some steam out again.
Before getting into any further, I'll make a little disclaimer that yes, I do know that I'm not the only one nor the last one experiencing these things, but that does not make me feel any better so here goes...
Responsibility. Key word for anyone who wants to make any headway in their career. You gotta take more of it on all the time if you wish to get anywhere. This I understand but at the same time feel like the employers are conniving bastards who want to take every single drop of sweat you're capable of squeezing out for them.
I've been given so many new responsibilities lately that it's outrageous. Do I want them? To an extent yes but not as many as I've been given. I simply have started stressing about work which I thought to be an impossibility for me, until now. Do I get anything out of this? Not really, unless you count in the experience gained in trying to make things work. Once again, herein lies the paradox; how far am I prepared to go without being compensated for it? My situation will not allow for any bargaining as I was made to believe that I was lucky to survive the acquisition last summer so now I'm supposed to take all the crap they pour on me without a hitch. Right. You see now where I'm coming from?
Anyway, maybe I'll one day say that it was a good thing after all and paid off. On the other hand, I really have no faith in such thing happening right now. Maybe Xinola is right, we should just bugger off somewhere warm and nice and run a guest house or something and say goodbye and fuck off to this miserable corporate world. Time will tell...
I have been a little bit upset about reading news from my hometown recently. The main employer (an international forestry and paper giant) is about to lay off 120 workers (over 3000 globally) for competitiveness reasons and another important employer has just done the same for 43 employees. Now this may not sound like much but my hometown has just 20.000 inhabitants and it will definitely cause a shock for many families. I feel for them, I really do.
At the same time I read from media that some well-known shareholders of this very same forestry company have just made tens of thousands of euros since the announcement was made and the shares rocketed. It's kinda weird isn't it? I know that they have invested their money into the company by buying the shares but it's only the people who have enough money to buy enough shares to make anything out of them that come accross with such profits. This is the modern way - shareholder is the king. It is being said that in the modern free market economy there's always someone who loses and someone who wins. Need I say more...
Blah, getting angrier by the minute so I guess should just give up. To finish up with a positive note, there's only three more weeks and it is holiday time!!!
Before getting into any further, I'll make a little disclaimer that yes, I do know that I'm not the only one nor the last one experiencing these things, but that does not make me feel any better so here goes...
Responsibility. Key word for anyone who wants to make any headway in their career. You gotta take more of it on all the time if you wish to get anywhere. This I understand but at the same time feel like the employers are conniving bastards who want to take every single drop of sweat you're capable of squeezing out for them.
I've been given so many new responsibilities lately that it's outrageous. Do I want them? To an extent yes but not as many as I've been given. I simply have started stressing about work which I thought to be an impossibility for me, until now. Do I get anything out of this? Not really, unless you count in the experience gained in trying to make things work. Once again, herein lies the paradox; how far am I prepared to go without being compensated for it? My situation will not allow for any bargaining as I was made to believe that I was lucky to survive the acquisition last summer so now I'm supposed to take all the crap they pour on me without a hitch. Right. You see now where I'm coming from?
Anyway, maybe I'll one day say that it was a good thing after all and paid off. On the other hand, I really have no faith in such thing happening right now. Maybe Xinola is right, we should just bugger off somewhere warm and nice and run a guest house or something and say goodbye and fuck off to this miserable corporate world. Time will tell...
I have been a little bit upset about reading news from my hometown recently. The main employer (an international forestry and paper giant) is about to lay off 120 workers (over 3000 globally) for competitiveness reasons and another important employer has just done the same for 43 employees. Now this may not sound like much but my hometown has just 20.000 inhabitants and it will definitely cause a shock for many families. I feel for them, I really do.
At the same time I read from media that some well-known shareholders of this very same forestry company have just made tens of thousands of euros since the announcement was made and the shares rocketed. It's kinda weird isn't it? I know that they have invested their money into the company by buying the shares but it's only the people who have enough money to buy enough shares to make anything out of them that come accross with such profits. This is the modern way - shareholder is the king. It is being said that in the modern free market economy there's always someone who loses and someone who wins. Need I say more...
Blah, getting angrier by the minute so I guess should just give up. To finish up with a positive note, there's only three more weeks and it is holiday time!!!
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