Since Last Time

Posted by: ann on: 31 October 2009

• In: BON JOVI | racism | thoughts
• 8 Comments

WE ARE GOING TO SEE

 

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Since I have an obvious dislike of getting up in the dark, I have acquired a new clock radio and light – it’s  real cool!   You set the time for when you want it to wake you, a low light comes on half-an-hour earlier and by the time the radio comes on, the shock of being roused so obtrusively is counteracted by the room bathed in a soft light.   I can also put the light on when I go to bed, read for a little while and the light dims to darkness just about the time the book is falling out of my hands. 

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I recorded and now watched The Event: How Racist Are You? – unfortunately my sky+ didn’t catch the end when Jane Elliot herself was interviewed.   Her motive has been to expose and rid the world of racism, but it didn’t work on this group of British lab rats, a mix of whites and ethnic minorities.   She has been doing this experiment in schools since the 1960’s, dividing a class into two groups;  blue eyes and brown eyes.    The blue-eyed group were separated for a couple of hours in a less comfortable room during which time she tries to convince the brown-eyed group that the blues are inferior and should be treated like second-class citizens.   The blues are then invited to join the browns who are encouraged to put them down.   The idea was for people who were unlikely to have ever experienced discrimination or been overlooked and ignored, or been stopped indiscriminately to see how it feels and to learn from it.

Initially some of the volunteers had sussed the exercise, refused to participate and left, escorted out the building.  Jane Elliot thought they were latent racists; the reverse was true; they didn’t want words put into their mouths, to be made to abuse a group because they were told to by someone else when they didn’t feel that way.     Once the remaining guinea pigs were settled, debate began and opinions bounced around, but some were so entrenched they totally lost the plot and lessons were not learnt that day.  Her tactic  was to bully; her intention was good; her experiment failed – at least with the Brits.     One  white man thought he was discriminated against because he was tubby, a woman because she was old, totally missing the point.   One elderly lady did admit she was uncomfortable with the different races in the country today and noticed how different it was from her childhoold, but said that her children had no problem with it.     I was disappointed the experiment did not work on this occasion but sadly I’m not surprised. 

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The trick or treaters are out in force tonight – hope they are all done knocking on ol’ ma annie’s door before  X-Factor.  Yes, I know I moan about the show and if the twins are not voted off tonight I shall be sorely tempted to switch off, but not  this weekend, not when  my ab fab fav rock star Jon  Bon Jovi is on the show

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They say little things please little minds… well the little things in question are olives.   I have posted pics here of the olives growing in my garden.   I should have taken pics of the grapes too, but my little vine was not evergreen and I’ve just replaced it with jasmine.

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For some reason I can’t open blogger today!   No probs with wordpress or other sites or hotmail etc. just blogger!  Am I the only one?

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