Posts by Deborah
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
__Treasury is the natural home of the pendant.__
Surely you mean the natural home of the pedant.
Yes, I did. But I'm holding out for the possibility they like pendants too ...
-
why should a host community be required to change? as long as it makes people welcome, then the migrant group has little to complain about.
Ouch! Kymlicka to you too, sunshine!!
Because over time, the 'host' community itself changes. And indeed, there are some trivial ways in which host communties ought to change. Sikh turbans and motorcycle helmets? Forcing everyone to have a holiday on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Christmas day, even if those days mean absolutely nothing to, say, Hindus?
Russell's point is useful.... that over time, the second generation of immigrants merges, and creates something new with the host culture. In that sense, I'm inclined to say 'tough luck' to the first generation migrants (so no Sikh turban / helmets for them!), and simply wait for the new generation.
But... there has been a series of cases of honour killings and forced marriages amongst Pakistani migrants to Britain (which I have mostly become aare of through Butterflies and Wheels. It's not enough to put the first generation into a box over there, and wait for integration to happen. The host community needs to find some way of working with the migrant community, or in some case, atrocities happen.
Hmmm... a bit of a screed - but I think I will just go with my first reaction. I'm in the process of writing a more thoughtful piece over at my place.
-
Like this on Kiwiblog today.
-
Macadamia and Glaced Citrus Tart
Shortcrust pastry
300g chopped glaced peel
3 tablespoons Grand Marnier (Cointreau will do)
Grated rind of 1 orange
150g soft butter
125g almond meal
125g castor sugar
3 eggs
200g unsalted MACADAMIA NUTS
Extra caster sugarMacerate peel and rind in Grand Marnier. Line tart mould (small, about 20cm diameter) with pastry. Dust with extra caster sugar.
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Add almond meal. Add the glaced fruit.
Pour into the tart shell and put MACADAMIA NUTS on top. Push them down into the mix.
Bake at 190 Celsius for about 40 minutes.
Best served warm, but not hot, with lightly whipped cream.
-
Joe Wylie said:
Ever tried to intervene in a public situation where someone vulnerable is being beaten? The common reaction seems to be to be told to eff and mind your own effing business. Usually, IMHE of such things, it's the victim who's the most indignant, even if she (usually a she) has been screaming call the jacks only moments earlier.
Well, yes. And yes, adults will react that way. But the particular issue we are trying to deal with here is violence towards children, and the indignant person is likely to be the adult who is suddenly being held responsible for his or her behaviour.
Mikaere Curtis said:for violence to thrive, it has to have a benign environment
And every time we turn away and try not to see the violence, so that we don't have to deal with it, we contribute to that benign environment.
For a few years now, we have been seeing ads on TV, urging us to intervene when a drunken friend wants to get into a car and drive. People who intervene are glorified, in the ads, as heros and legends, and bloody good mates.
About time to extend that attitude to looking after children, don't you think?
I have made this point elsewhere but I think it's worth repeating: we will know that this nation is ready to do something about the appalling violence wreaked on children when an All Black donates his player of the match award to a campaign to stop child abuse.
-
There's a recent article about Virginia Woolf and her servant problems here, in the Telegraph. I picked it up off Arts and Letters Daily.
-
that should of course read Antigone, not Agamemnon, duh.
Lucky you corrected that yourself, Don. Otherwise the rest of us would have been sitting around saying, "Gosh. That Don Christie can't be very well educated. Fancy not knowing your Antigone from your Agamemnon." ;-)
-
now that my life has descended into a nightmare of sleep-deprivation, endless screaming, projectile-defecation, and other practices normally prohibited by the Geneva convention.
Yes, parenthood is quite gruelling.
We have been there. All of it. But we had projectile vomiting too. Right across the kitchen - very impressive.
It passes. It all passes. These days, butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.
Hang in there. It will get better. Initially at 6 weeks. Then better again at 3 months. Then again at 9 months, and every three months thereafter.
However, at this stage we can't vouch for what happens after the age of 9 (years, that is).
-
The day after she turned two, our first born got up, looked me in the eye and said, "No mummy. No nappies today. Today I wear purple knickers."
"Right," I thought. "Good. Whatever."
First born child, academic parents, 'though not firsties ourselves, lots and lots and lots of one on one adult attention. Her language use was, and still is, remarkable.
She had a few tantrums around age two and a half, but nothing too bad, and we would just put her in her room, and she would rage for a minute or two, then put herself into bed and go to sleep.
We thought we were wonderful parents.
Our younger daughters promptly disabused us of that notion. Their language development was slowish (fair enough for second born twins), their behaviour was much more robust, they are far more inclined to do what they damn well want instead of trying to fit in with us, and once they are set on doing something, it can be very hard, not to say impossible, to deflect them.
This is why second children exist - to remind their parents that there are no blank slates, and at most we can modify and moderate, not make our children who they are.
We learned one other very useful lesson. Whenever our children do something naughty, we attribute it to 'just the way they are'. But when they do something wonderful, we attribute it to our superior moral virtue.
-
He's beautiful. Congratulations to you and Jen.