It is Sunday. Do I get extra points for pointing that out, I wonder? Because I’ve seen too many people get paid for standing up in front of an audience and telling others the bleeding obvious. I’m good at that, and hitting ants with very very big mallets. Surely, but surely, there is an inroad to this industry?
I should be out running, right about now, but I did that yesterday. Using the aches in my legs as a barometer of sorts, I think I got it figured out just right. Would hate to be dragging myself to work tommorow. Besides, Sundays are for sleeping, is it not? Perhaps not literally. I packed instead. Books, CDs and DVDs, mostly. 5 boxes already.
Amidst all the packing I found something I saved over a year ago, but I didn’t quite know why.
The Guardian on 080705, when it was still in pre-Berliner form.
Now, today, looking at it again, I don’t think I’ll ever throw it away. A reminder of how far we’ve regressed in terms of cohesion and peace over the past few years; and also to ask myselt the question: what have I done about it?
I actually bought the Observer today. I hardly ever do. Except when there’s a sports supplement for that week. This week’s leading feature is about the Italian bribery scandal. I am reading David Callahan’s The Cheating Culture at the moment, and while the book discusses America and cheating, you can see how prevalent it is worldwide these days. Ever more in the world of sports: last month’s of the Observer’s Sport Monthly talked about Billy Bonds and his alleged steroid abuse. This week, Floyd Landis‘s Tour de France’s victory has come under scrutiny following his failure of a drug test. And then there’s this postsecret as well. There are quite a few sobering ones this week.
Did you know that in Islamic Law there is due recourse if you commit a crime such as stealing, if it was borne out of desperation? But it’s the hand chopping that gets most coverage. You know, of all the reasons why people cheat, the scariest one for me is the one where they have no reason except ‘because they can’.
Speaking of cheating, would you say this service is unethical? Or just a means to an end?
Reading newspapers is a painful experience these days; I even sometimes dim the volume on the TV when I can’t bear to watch the horror. Sometimes I ask myself why I still watch. Could it be what my friend calls, my innate obsession to always test my limits and boundaries? (Ah but you know, that is the healthiest of my repertoir of obsessions, perhaps because it is the one that gets the most run outs). Still, I know what the answer to that is. Ignorance, Idlan, is not bliss.
*****
On the subject of cheats, and this really leads in to the Irish International University fiasco too, [A little bird told me that someone quite famous is using a degree obtained from that institution to pass themselves off as an 'expert' of sorts; at the very least, declaring his status as a 'Doctor;] I once happened to make an acquaintance with someone who fabricated part of his past. In particular, said person claimed to have achieved certain things which made him the awe of a legion of adoring fans. But with me, I have evidence to refute every claim he ever made. I could, in the first instance make him fess up, by showing him what I have. Or, given that I am not that much for confrontation, I could show the evidence to his legion of fans.
At times, when his boasts annoyed me so much, I contemplated doing it for real. But in the end I didn’t. I sort of realised that what I resented was not his boasting, or his alleged achievement, but I envied the tone in which others spoke of him, and deep down inside, I think little Idlan also wanted to be revered in the same way. So I didn’t, I didn’t say a word; and since then I have forgotten much of what transpired, and what he was like. Until today, when I stumbled upon the evidence again. I am still imperfect enough to envy him and his legion of adoring fans; but last I heard he is actually getting qualified based on his own merit. Which really is good for him. The fact that I still have envy, that is not good for me.
And this reminded me of the case of Jeffrey Papows, former president of IBM subsidiary Lotus (as in, the much loved Lotus Notes, rather than Lotus the Car), somewhere near the turn of the century. It transpired that he falsified much of his military and educational background, but did that change the fact that he was an excellent leader, asked his colleagues at Lotus. (Papows subsequently resigned).
I’ve always said that a degree merely opens doors for you, but what you do once you step into the doorway has nothing with how many A’s and C’s you got. But you still need more A’s and less C’s to nudge the door open. Musing about the social costs of life-experience degrees, I was reminded of this own opinion of mine. Maybe what degree mills are doing is just helping people nudge that door open. So what’s wrong with that, I asked myself. Then I replied, maybe what’s wrong is that people employ people with degrees not merely because they have knowledge, but also because they have gone through a rigourous university experience. So maybe there, that is what is lacking in life experience degrees and its ilk.
Degrees send the signal that apart from knowing ‘stuff’, you worked to tight deadlines, you are able to read written instructions, you can perform under pressure. Besides, part of what you need to get the job done, you don’t quite know from the beginning. That’s okay, because your degree tells your employers that you are able to learn; and so when they train you, you will catch on pretty quick.
And you’ve not had any of that training if all you’ve done is send a check for a couple thousand pounds to get a piece of paper with your name on it.
*****
So loud was the effect of the news that the National Fatwa Council banned botox in Malaysia, that even the Guardian picked it up. And not a snippet, either. The basis for the banning, as my favourite scholar told my sister, was the ingredients of the treatment; but as with all rulings in Islam, there is leniency with regards to its usage in medicine should there be no other viable alternative.
Only the other day I was thinking about wrinkles, while watching a tv advert for Nivea Visage Q-10 Anti-Wrinkle cream. I know most people think wrinkles make them look old, but I’ve always loved the wrinkles on the people I love. I happened upon a picture of my late grandmother – the one who loved me unconditionally and never asked me to love her back, which really made me love her more, such is the workings of a human heart – and in that picture she was smiling, highlighting the wrinkles on her face.
I love the wrinkles on her face, and I’d say on my mum too but I don’t think she has any yet (we’ve given her a lot of gray hair instead) and I love the way my dad’s forehead wrinkles when he’s thinking hard. I think wrinkles add character. Age is an undeniable fact of life, and growing old sans wrinkles just makes you look a bit fake, to me at least. So if it were me, I’d ban anti-wrinkle crema too.
