tangent

I am very disturbed by the media and their use of posting videos and pictures of large people sans head/face. It leads me to believe that some media big cheese said "Go out there and just take pictures of fat people" and I doubt that the people in the images are ever informed that their picture was taken. Can you imagine just turning on the news and suddenly there's your butt or stomach or torso up there on tv along with a report on obesity? That would be horrifying. It reeks of old school objectification and discrimination (Lookit the darkies!). I don't see how so many people find it ok. And chopping off the head of the person is not doing anything to save their privacy. If anything, it makes it more objectifying and de-humanizing. Those fat bodies don't have faces. They aren't people. They don't have feelings. They are just fat bodies for you to look at, jeer at, and judge.

It just makes me mad and grumpy.

I got into a heated argument with an ex-boyfriend once about whether or not large people should pay more for an airplane seat - much like the carry-on baggage requirements. He thought there should be a seat that large people sit in to see if they will fit or need to pay for an extra ticket. I would be horrified. I understand that airplanes are cramped as it is and sitting next to a large person can make it even more cramped, but forcing a human being to be measured and fitted like baggage in front of the public is just horrible. He was claiming that it should be like luggage - you pay more for your luggage to fly if it is oversized or overweight. And I agree that the option should be available for a larger person to purchase the second seat at a discounted price if their size doesn't permit them to sit comfortably in a standard sized seat, but the airlines are in the people transport business - not the baggage transport business. If they treat large persons more and more like baggage (as if they don't treat everyone like sardines anyway), they will lose customers - and not just large bodied customers.

That's all I got. I'm not sure if any of it made sense, but it was something to take my mind off the fact that Kiko is sick...

Declaration of Independence

BBC article: Recognition for new Kosovo grows

I think this is kind of exciting. Getting to see a new country trying to birth itself. Takes balls to suddenly declare independence. I think in a way the US had it easier in that we had the entire Atlantic Ocean between us and the mother land, and the rest of the North American continent to get lost in if need be. Kosovo doesn't have that giant barrier between it and Serbia. Much like Quebec. Quebec tried to do it in more of a democratic way which I think was one of the reasons it failed to formally split. Kosovo just said "We're independent."

It's exciting! I wonder if this'll spur on the Basque...

I wonder, too, if this will end up happening to Iraq. There are so many distinctly different ethnicities and religions in Iraq that I wonder if it would be beneficial for them to split into their own countries. But does drawing an imaginary line on a map really end all of the in-fighting and anger and hatred? I don't know. How does that work?

At the last potluck dinner we had for the MEM, I was discussing with Ravi the states of India. Most of them have their own different language and culture. Ravi was questioning why there were different states in the US because we all speak the same language mostly and have very similar cultures. I was at a bit of a loss. I wasn't sure. Would we get along any worse or better if we weren't separated by state lines? Or are the states really just part of an arbitrary hierarchy - just a way to split it up for better chain of command?