Various

[flexibeast]

Various bits'n'pieces:

• i've taken on the task of putting together the Bi-Victoria newsletter. To do so i'm using Scribus, a marvellous desktop publishing program that i believe deserves to be as highly-regarded as Firefox as a fine example of FOSS. Originally developed for Linux, it's now available for Mac OS X and Windows as well.


• Tomorrow night i'm starting training to be a volunteer tutor in English as a second language. Our local community centre sent out a pamphlet seeking volunteers, and i jumped at the chance, since it's something i've wanted to do for a while. Further, the program co-ordinator is trying to set me up with a Colombian migrant as my first client, which would be great: it may be a chance for me to improve my Spanish skills whilst improving my client's English skills. :-)


• It's hardly surprising that in a capitalist society, the most common perspective on nature involves it being a hotbed of competition: Tennyson's "Nature, red in tooth and claw". Not that this view has gone completely unchallenged, of course: Kropotkin wrote about co-operation in nature, and i seem to recall that Stephen Jay Gould wrote an essay describing how Darwin and Kropotkin's ideas about the 'nature of nature' were influenced by the environments they were observing. But in any event, there are an increasing number of examples that demonstrate that co-operation is just as much a fact of nature of competition, such as this.


• This is fascinating, suggesting as it does that we can actually become healthier merely by believing that we're actually healthy. It may sound unlikely, but i used to swim 8km a week, in addition to cycling everywhere (going to uni, doing shopping, visiting friends, etc.) i remember thinking at the time, "Hmm, i do feel better, but at least some of that is because i feel like i'm 'Doing the right thing' by exercising, demonstrating that i'm not 'lazy'." Since then, i've often wondered how much of the benefits of exercise are due to having the weight of society's condemnation of those who aren't fit lifted from one's shoulders.


• i was encouraged to learn that a group of British Jews has called for more open debate on Israel - more specifically, Israeli foreign policy¹. i have witnessed Israeli Jews being described as 'anti-Semitic' and 'self-loathers' for daring to criticise the actions of the Israeli government towards Palestinians. In such a context, it's difficult to imagine having, for example, a civilised discussion about the implications of the phrase "Israel's right to exist". And in response, the Board of Deputies of British Jews has suggested that the newly-formed IJV group listen, not to the British Jewish community in general, but the institutions of that community, as though they're the same thing, and as though those institutions aren't the reason for the formation of this new group.


• Finally, a tongue-in-cheek field guide to Iraq provides a wonderfully concise description of US (and therefore Australian :-P ) foreign policy in the Middle East.

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1. Update, 7.3.2007: A number of Jewish Australians are also supporting the campaign.
 

Comments

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...maybe I should re-join Bi-Vic.

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

i didn't realise you'd left . . . . ? Or did you tell me, and i've (embarrassingly) forgotten?

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

I didn't resign, but am not on the list.

Then again, I didn't pay, either.

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. i myself have not rejoined the list, as i already have enough to keep my occupied without joining a medium-volume list as well. :-) i have been a financial member in the past, but am not so currently; i suspect that will change in the near future.

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

:::nods::

It looks like they are now more than a small group of closetted folks :-)