Clarity
A bit closer to India
Posted 1 Dec 2008
Events, People, Places | Leave a Comment
In wake of the recent attacks on Mumbai, I found myself more concerned than I expected over the welfare of the victims, and especially of the local Indians. Not typically callous to or ignorant of woes and tragedies that befall my fellow humans around the world, but I was certainly more drawn to the news stories, to the many posts and to the general press coverage than anticipated.
Since those attacks, I have pondered the reasons for this. I think it must be because of chickenmonkeydog. As you may know, we have a readership that includes a number of individuals in or from India and Pakistan. And through their comments on this site and on their respective blogs, I have come to know more about and be more interested in India, Pakistan and the people in that corner of the world. No, I didn’t ignore it beforehand – one of my closest friend in the UK is a native Indian – but it certainly wasn’t in my ‘Top Corners of the World’.
Something similar happened years ago when I began to work with Survivors Fund, an organisation dedicated to assisting survivors of the Rwandan genocide. Suddenly, Africa became much more than a geographic location with places and peoples of the world. It became very human, a place filled with personal stories, personal histories, personal tragedies and, of course, personal futures.
With so many demands on our attention (family, friends, jobs, the economy in today’s market, homelands, etc.), it’s easy to overlook much of what is going on in the world. I don’t say this as a criticism, but more of a statement of practical reality. (The street riots in Jos, Nigeria, have barely made the news in the wake of the assault on Mumbai.)
The internet has given us the ability not only to learn about the comings and goings of people and places around world, but also to connect and interact with those with whom we might otherwise never have crossed paths. And that can only be a good thing.
Warning: Confusing Warning Signs Ahead!
Posted 27 Nov 2008
Events, Language, Places, Signs | 3 Comments
The Cliffs of Moher are amazing and breath-taking. Where the Atlantic ocean hits Ireland, these cliffs provide one of Ireland’s most popular tourist attractions.
To cope with the hundreds of thousands of visitors that come each year, the cliff edge has been protected by a wall and warning signs abound of the dangers.
Visitors to the cliffs are admonished to avoid karate-kicking the wall blocking access to the cliff edge.
Come close to read the small text explaining what the extreme danger is, only to realize the warning indicates that the cliff you now are standing on is “Extremely Unstable”.
Hopefully you readers can provide some thoughts on what this last warning sign might mean. Please help!
Glad I’m not from a swing state (Part II)
Posted 19 Nov 2008
Events, The Little Things | Leave a Comment
Following on from my previous post about absentee voting in the recent US presidential election, I thought it would make sense to follow that up with some of the details about the delivery of the absentee ballot. It came via email – which is brilliant – but I do wonder about the system as a whole given the second email that I received from the Cook County Absentee Department.
Read email containing details of absentee ballot.
And so that you can see that I am not making this up, I’ve also produced a screenshot of my Yahoo email inbox which shows the arrival of the two emails in question:
Glad I’m not from a swing state
Posted 18 Nov 2008
Events, The Little Things | 2 Comments
I have been dying to write this post since I first received the emails, but I didn’t want to jeopardise my ability to vote in the recent US presidential elections. As a voter registered in Illinois, my vote – whichever way I cast it – would certainly not have delivered the state’s electoral college votes to Barack Obama, nor would they have taken them away from him. Illinois was his home state and that Illinois would vote for him was a foregone conclusion.
That said, you can imagine my concern when I first received an email about the status of my absentee ballot.
Review the first email.
The somewhat suspect email was followed five minutes later by an only slightly less suspect email.
In the end, I did get a ballot sent to me via email (that story will be tomorrow’s post) and I did post it off and I presume it was counted properly. But I just wonder how the conversation at the Cook County Absentee Ballot Office was on that afternoon when the first emails were sent.
Clerk: Ok, boss, I’ve sent that email about the absentee voting process to all the registered absentee voters.
Supervisor: Great! Oh … Did you make sure to proof read it – and to send it from an official email address?
Clerk: Um … do you think that’s important?
Supervisor: Yes. Very. Are you saying you didn’t send it from our official email address?
Clerk: Um …
Supervisor: Well, in that case, proof read the draft first, and then re-send it, but from our official email address. And don’t mention the first email – if we ignore it, perhaps everyone else will too.
Honestly, I feel like the two emails I was sent were part of one of those brain-teasers: how many mistakes can you spot? So, how many can you spot?
We’re not saying your words are demonic, but …
Posted 6 Nov 2008
We passed a milestone this week in our online conversations with you. And when we logged into the admin section of chickenmonkeydog on Monday, we were shocked to find the following statistic:
Fortunately, this isn’t a religious blog or we would really be worried.
P.S. As we are a wee bit suspicious (especially after our worrying incident at the bus stop), could you please add more comments so we can move on from this ominous number. Yes, this is a direct plea for comments. Any comments. All comments. Comments please!
