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kerrymunroe

Listed below are comments made by kerrymunroe between Thursday, 7th May 2009 and Monday, 29th June 2009.

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Raw emotion of dolphin kills 02:00am on 29 Jun 2009 I have two issues with using culture as an excuse.
The first is if you are going to say we have been doing hundreds of years and is a part of traditional ways of life, then live that traditional life and only conduct the hunt with traditional means. No motor boats, no nylon nets, floats, no modern weapons.

A tradition doesn't make it right. If the Aztec culture was alive today, would society allow daily human sacrifices on the basis of tradition? Culture is often a burden of ignorance.It is often just as bad as consumerism and modern materialism.
The Pom influence 09:12am on 27 Jun 2009 Its funny the recent death of Michael Jackson brought back my memories of growing up in Australia. My dad is Canadian from "British" Columbia. My Mom is Australian from Perth. As a youth I lived in Perth and Melbourne. We returned to Vancouver in my late teens. I agree with the blogs comments as to the English influence in Australia.On a different track, I was confused as a youth by the general dislike of the US but yet love of everything American. When Michale Jackson was at his height in the 80's, my high school in Melbourne, there was a Michale Jackson dance competition, and all the boys wore shoulder padded leather jackets.I was also amused when the Australians entered the Iraq war. Yet Canada too carries the Queen on its money, yet has a much cooler relationship with the US. I also wonder why so little Canadian news is reported on this BBC web site and yet Australia still is "molly coddled" by it. Australia is a confused place, in many ways lost to the world and suffering from small island mentality.
First related death 01:23am on 15 Jun 2009 The H1N1 continues to be the most followed case of flu in human history. Yet we still seem to be in the dark to many details. This really exposes humans lack of foresight and knowledge limit. But what I find troubling is the medias constant coverage and search for bad news is really just fear mongering. The world over, hospitals are full of people sick from a myriad of diseases. Many die of unknown sickness and because the "dots" haven't been connected a possible "pandemic" passes with out being noticed. Mr Fergus Walshe's confident photo in the top corner appears to one of a antagonist and not a journalist. But then again, if his assignment is to keep the masses in a unwarranted state of fear, he is succeeding.
Conflict of party and private lifestyles 1:25pm on 10 Jun 2009 With out freedom of the press, there is nothing to stop corruption. It will occur at all levels of government. The higher up, the worse it will be. The Chinese government has been very clever to transform its image into an 'angel of light'. But really it is the opposite.Thousands of corrupt officials have everything to lose and nothing to gain from a free press. My comment is really on human nature, naturally selfish and inclined to do bad. As flawed as human governments are, a free press and independent judiciary will provide some improvement.
Today's generation of young people 1:32pm on 03 Jun 2009 First I want to qualify my remarks by saying that I have lived in China and studied Chinese for six years. I find it quite amusing to read the naive comments of Chinese nationals who feel the western media picks on them. They must come to realize that the world media picks on the whole world. If there is a western politician that make a mistake he is sure to be hounded (e.g. recent Italian president and his fondness of young women). On a national scale, unpopular parties aren't just voted out but verbally torn to pieces in the media. The Chinese people must realize that the propaganda, denial and lies of the Chinese government is not to the benefit the people but to protect and benefit corrupt government officials. All government of this world are bad. But they get even worse when a free media is not present to keep the politicians and bureaucrats in control. When the worlds media witnesses a "Great" nation (China) murdering its people and then China denies it, what do you think the media is going to do? Close their eyes? Smell the coffee (tea) comrads!! What the rest of the world wants China to do is start to look inward at itself and see its faults so that it can correct itself. They don't want China to be a big child that sits in the world playground and cries "Why is everyone picking on me??" Grow up.
A case of stolen identity 4:12pm on 07 May 2009 I have lived in China now for over five years. China as many know is in catch up mode. In this catch up process the Chinese (in fact I feel most of Asia) put huge pressure on their children to perform and in the process steals their childhood. I have taught in several cram schools and the poor kids starting from preschool age attend classes often 6 days a week until late in the evening.They study English, violin, math, chess,piano,Japanese. (I am talking one student doing all these extra studies). Lately I have heard local parents complaining about the teachers because they let their students fall asleep in class and only teach the kids that sit in the front row. They do this because they know the students will do better at the cram schools. I find it quite amusing to be at the local train station at 9:30 to 10 at night and find most of the people are primary and secondary students coming home. Who drives them to do this? Their parents who have just recently come out of poverty. What has this created? Millions of kids with very good memories, and good at passing tests. But often they get to 30 and haven't worked a day in their lives, do not know how to have fun (never experienced it, other than a video games), and the opposite to their parents goals, are not very well rounded but emotionally stunted adults. The kids cant cook, hang a picture, change a tire, iron a shirt. On the plus side some parents get some big face. True the west has it own massive problems from being too liberal, but seeing both sides first hand, I think China has created the bigger monster. They have so many people, have such a distorted education system, not enough jobs to go around, backed up with a culture hobbled by "big face", there are not enough diplomas in the world to fix it. In many ways I feel sorry for China, they got going too late in the game, they have missed the boat and there will never be another one to pull into port.

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