From Bruce's Burrow

Open Source Software and the State of the World

2006-09-07T20:05:00.000+10:00

Today I want to talk about open source software in connection with the 'them' and 'us' feeling that I believe is widely felt all over the world.

Initially you might think that these two topics have nothing to do with each other but hopefully by the end of this post you will understand that these two topics are actually connected in many complex ways.

Whether the 'us' mentioned previously refers to some European-style culture and 'them' to another culture with significantly different values OR the reverse position OR even between nations or peoples of more similar cultural style, the sense of a conflict in cultural values still remains. Does this feeling reflect reality? Yes, but the propaganda on all sides has, I believe, made the problem appear larger than it is. Terrorism is very real, but those who are the actual perpetrators are a small minority in any culture - most people just want to be able to get on with their lives, raise families in safety and make a reasonable living. These ordinary people also want a sense that others do not denigrate their cultures. This is not meant to imply that everyone must accept all values that a given culture embraces, but rather that any dialogue must be respectful in approach.

I believe that much of the distrust by non-European cultures towards cultures based on various European models is that the former feel that the latter devalue their cultures and maybe even wish to destroy them. In many cases this may be based on experiences when their lands were colonised by various European-style nations. This distrust can also exist between more similar cultures, such as between Japan and a number of her neighbours or minority language and cultural groups in various countries. The distrust may also be engendered by a feeling of being overwhelmed by various societal changes related to the push towards economic globalisation.

Imagine that you could get an office suite, Internet browser and other major software categories with all menus, help information and more in your local language. If your local language is a form of English, French, Spanish, Portuguese or Chinese this is most likely readily available even with commercial software, but if you speak Basque, Catalan, Vietnamese, Lao or some other language with a relatively small population profile then this is far less likely. Add to this the issue of many people not being able to afford computer software which can often lead to wholesale piracy of commercial software in an understood major language. With major commercial software, the creation of versions translated into less dominant languages would make little economic sense.

Consider now the relatively new class of software known as 'open source'. This includes many different types of software, including office suites, graphics programs, e-Mail clients, Internet browsers, games and even operating systems (eg. Linux). These are mostly available free of charge (in an executable form), but what makes them really special is that their source code is readily available for anyone who is interested. Most computer users will have absolutely no interest in that, but what it means is that the source code can be altered to, among other things, display the user interface in a different language. In fact, many open source programs are written in such a way that changing the displayed language is a relatively straightforward task.

I read somewhere that one of the worst things that can happen to a person is to lose their sense of identity. One such situation I can readily think of is that group of Aboriginal Australians generally known as the 'Stolen Generations' where Aboriginal children of mostly mixed racial descent were taken from their parents to be raised in a white environment and thus eventually fully assimilate into the predominantly European-based culture. Similarly where minority or non-dominant cultures and languages have been actively suppressed.

The availability of computer software in many non-dominant languages is a way for cultural groups to strengthen their identities, allowing their children to not only be involved in a wider world through the Internet, but to be able to do so via software which recognises their heritage and indeed celebrates it!

It would be naive to suggest that having software available in many different languages will solve all the problems related to cultural tensions between different groups of people. Where these clashes do cause people to feel that they are in real danger of having their own cultural identities crushed, perhaps having such software will help them to repair some of these feelings and allow them to move forward in the knowledge that their heritage can be seen and felt both by their own people, but also by a much larger world.

Many people can express themselves eloquently in their own language, but may appear far less confident when expressing themselves in another one. Now, using these multilingual tools, many different cultural groups can get their ideas out to a larger world on their own terms. Hopefully people gifted in their ability to translate from their own languages to more widely used ones will make the best of these ideas available to much larger audiences.

This after all is one of the main planks of the open source philosophy: To promote and celebrate freedom of expression in both the cultural and technological realms.

Office Software and Freedom of Choice

2006-08-16T22:32:00.000+10:00

This post is not just another attempt to slam companies such as Microsoft for abusing their monopoly or close-to-monopoly market positions. What I want to talk about here is the issue of real freedom of choice for computer users in how they are able to use the data that they create in the course of going about their daily lives. This data could well include word processing documents and spreadsheets.

There is a growing split in the computer software world between organisations that make the format of data stored by their products conform to open standards and those that insist on using proprietary data formats.

Why should this concern the average computer user?

The reason this issue is important is that when proprietary data formats are preferred, the user is locked into having to continue using a given organisation's software. This can lead to complications on a number of fronts:

The software producer goes out of business - then there is no way to ensure that the data can be used anymore if the software becomes unusable for other reasons. For example, if software was written for Windows 3.1 or 95 it may not run correctly, if at all, under later versions of Windows. On the other hand, if you are lucky then the software will continue to run without problems.
The software producer changes the data format when a new version of their product is released. This is most often a reasonable state of affairs, but it can mean that older data needs to be reformatted for it to be used by the new version of the software. The software producer would normally include a method of data conversation in their upgraded software. You could upgrade if the newer version gives you additional benefits. This might be an expensive choice if continued software usage requires further payment.
In the above two cases, your needs may change and the software you have no longer meets your real requirements. What then?
What do you do if someone sends you a spreadsheet? If the data format is proprietary, such as with Excel xls files, then if you don't have a copy of Excel you have a major problem. Even if the sender had put the data in a text format like CSV there would be difficulties. Any embedded formulas would have been lost.

The answer to all the above problems is for software producers to use open standard data formats. This would mean, for example, that the received spreadsheet could be correctly viewed using an entirely different program from that which was used to create it. This other program would understand any embedded spreadsheet formulas and the opened spreadsheet would behave as its creator(s) intended.

Until fairly recently there have been few choices, particularly in the area of office software, which did not lock the user into the trap of proprietary data formats. The emphasis in this post is on office software because that where the locking-in of users to specific software publishers seems to be the most prevalent. By comparison, in the area of graphics software, most programs seem to be able read and write the data in many different open formats.

Now programs like OpenOffice and AbiWord are able to read and write various Microsoft office document formats, among other formats. Unfortunately neither product can use Microsoft VBA macros, but OpenOffice can preserve them in non-running format. On the positive side, the OpenOffice spreadsheet product, Calc, can use embedded formulas in Excel spreadsheets. At present the conversion procedures for the common Microsoft data formats are generally very good, but not perfect. This means, for example, that a Word document created or amended using OpenOffice may not look exactly the same when opened in Word itself. From what I have read, this sort of problem is far more likely to occur if the documents concerned are more complex. My office type documents tend to be relatively basic in format although I do use formulas in my spreadsheets and have written some VBA macros.

The move towards the goal of data being independent from the program which created it has now taken a major step forward with the creation of the Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) specification. This OASIS format is expected to become an industry standard for sharing documents. It has currently been adopted by the OpenOffice/StarOffice software suite and the AbiWord and KOffice developers are, as I understand it, in the process of adding OpenDocument support to their products. I suspect that as time goes on the OpenDocument standard formats will be generally accepted as the standard office document formats and more software developers will incorporate them in their products. Currently many government organisations around the world have adopted or are examining the adoption of these open standards.

If you don't have a need to exchange office documents with others in Microsoft data formats, I would urge you to seriously consider those products which store their data in non-proprietary formats. OpenOffice is as feature rich as any Microsoft Office product and not that different in day-to-day usage. AbiWord is significantly simpler than current versions of Word, but it has many if not all of the features that the average office software user requires. In addition, some of these alternate office programs are free to use and can be freely downloaded from the Internet.

All Colours of the Rainbow

2006-05-08T17:11:00.000+10:00

I decided to learn how to add colour to the headings of some of my blog posts. Once I had got my head around the necessary HTML I ran into a far more difficult issue...

What colours should I use and what, if any anything, would they add to the blog, other than just their actual colour?

So I looked at various colours which I might use:

White: Purity. Also symbolises death in some cultures.
Red: Communist or socialist politics.
Blue: Conservative politics.
Green: Islamic issues or environmental politics.
Orange: Ukrainian or Israeli political movements.
Pink: Gay, lesbian and transgendered issues.
Black: An absence of colour and a symbol of death in many cultures.
Purple: Hang on, I'm male... I can't use this one :-|
Yellow: Forget that. It hurts my eyes!

At that point I realised that this was a pointless exercise. OK, I'll use whatever colours I want to and bugger any additional symbolic baggage they may carry. Oh hell!, I'm starting to sound frighteningly post-modernist :-) (is there a cure?)

The only restriction is that I probably won't use any colours which hurt my eyes when I'm sitting in front of my monitor at 3 o'clock in the morning!

Hang on! Black-on-Black is really hard to work with!!

;-b

We now have an Official Blog Song

2006-05-27T15:15:00.000+10:00

As a counterpoint to the generally serious topics covered in this blog, I have decided that it is time to come into line with such august institutions as football clubs and declare an official blog song.

The obvious choice is Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan.

And, yes I know that the lyrics of this song really have absolutely nothing to do with this blog's contents, but the song's name is just so perfect a fit that I couldn't resist.

Down in the Burrow

2006-05-24T22:26:00.000+10:00

Disclaimer: The author of this post is NOT a health professional

Have you ever felt that getting out of bed in the morning was one of the most difficult tasks possible? Not because it was cold, but rather that you could not face the idea of dealing with the world outside! That being in your bed was sort of womb-like and you were safe there?

If you can relate to that, then you most likely have experienced being in a depressed state of mind.

The reason that I said 'most likely' is that I'm not a health professional, just a fellow sufferer of depression.

The most important thing is to talk to someone like a friend, priest or health professional and get your feelings out in the open and where you can look at them more objectively. You really don't have to accept the well-meant advice of "get over it" or "snap out of it"! These comments may be well meant but for me, most of the time, they have been among the most unhelpful bits of advice I've ever been given. How can you snap out of a state when you don't even know what brought it on or if you do, you feel as though you have no control over the situation? Being depressed can feel like being wrapped up in a thick, unpleasant dark cloud, a sense of some combination of helplessness, fear and hopelessness.

These days I find coping with life generally easier, but the sense of fear and anxiety can easily descend given the 'right' circumstances. Each person has their own triggers that can take them into a sort of private hell, or at least some level of purgatory.

In my case, medication has helped give me some space to deal with my feelings and reactions to the outside world. Sometimes I worry that I'm going to be on them for the rest of my life, and this is something I really want to avoid. Worrying doesn't help, but being an obsessive 'worry wart' is one of the challenges I have to deal with :-} Some people find meditation and exercise help lift at least some of the dark cloud from their shoulders. Or a mixture of different approaches.

If you can, go and see a sympathetic health professional to at least get advice on your options of how to defeat those evil, incredibly negative feelings which can drag you down. Just talking to someone can often lighten your load considerably.

Try to treat yourself with respect, not to abuse your body, mind or spirit! You don't have to be perfect - being good enough is fine, and accepting help does not mean that you've lost something or are weak. Sometimes we just can't carry our loads all by ourselves.

The first steps towards a healthier mental state include admitting that there are problems in how well or badly you are coping with your life and the world around you. Having taken that first step you will hopefully eventually find that there are lots of blue skies and white fluffy clouds to see on the continuing journey that is life. And friendly, helpful people with whom to share your experiences.

If you find depression is an ongoing part of your life, take that first step forward into the sunshine, out of those dark clouds! You have nothing to lose but your chains.

A Blogging Wombat?

2006-05-08T04:15:00.000+10:00

Why a Blog?

Using a blog seems to me to be a great way for a person to reach the world and for others to give feedback and indeed contribute to ongoing discussions.

I want to use this blog to explore political and ethical ideas as reflected in the world in which we live.

I live in Australia and much of the focus of this blog will be on local issues. However, I am firmly of the opinion that most ethical and political ideas do not grow in isolation, so there will always be global parallels and consequences for local actions. Also, global issues will obviously have an impact on the local scene.

Why a Wombat?

Well, I am a wombat after all, so what else would you expect?

As I wrote in the 'About Me' sidebar, being what I am allows me to experience the world quite differently to how you day-walkers see it.

My aim with this blog is to:

See how the world looks from different points of view to those which are frequently seen.
Examine the roots of problems, not just the surface manifestations.
Look at the whys and wherefores of that sometimes overwhelming need for many of us to escape from the realities of the world into a womb-like, safe place. To hide our heads in the sand and not confront what is going on around us. The feeling of stop the world, I want to get off!.
Research the politics of inclusion and exclusion.
Consider how best, on both the personal and societal levels, to deal with what happens when (not if) the processes in the world finally catch up with us and grab us, if we're lucky, by the scruffs of our necks to face the day's dragons armed, maybe, with a butter knife. The optimist would say that one should grab life by the balls, not to let it happen the other way round. (For any woman reading this, I'm sure you understand what I'm getting at, despite the obvious anatomical differences)

Why Publish Now?

I believe that our planet is in, or rapidly approaching, a major state of crisis in both the moral and environmental senses. This dire situation is at least partly reflected in the worldwide political mess we are in at present. I don't pretend to have any overwhelming answers, but I have many ideas I'd like to share with you here, which perhaps could make a difference.

When I talk about ethical or moral stances I mean these to be understood in the broadest terms. Not for me the narrow view of the conservative Christian Right, but rather a view of a world where all people, and indeed all creatures, are treated with respect and valued for their own sakes. Not merely as some economic pawn or tool to be pushed about, used or manipulated by whatever powers exist without any real concern as to their welfare, both materially and spiritually. (however that is defined)

With these ideas in mind I will begin, and hopefully continue, this ongoing quest for knowledge and understanding on how to encourage a better world for all life on this small blue-green planet of ours!

Interior <--> Exterior

2007-11-18T20:07:00.000+11:00

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.

Groucho Marx

When I started this blog my vision was that anything I posted here would be in response to occurrences in the world which I was observing.

Imagine my surprise when I realised that much of what I had written more recently was more focused on my interior life - depression, spiritual issues and the like.

I think that heading into my late 50's has much to do with this, together with the growing list of death and serious illness among the parents of friends and family - the realisation of one's own mortality.

One can react to this state of mind in different ways. I seem to move between the 'Waiting for Godot' and the 'Carpe Diem' positions - the fatalistic wait for the inevitable personal end and
that which draws strength from the new experiences each day brings!

The 'trick' is to shift one's focus from the former to the latter approach... :-)

In the Burrow, but not down

2007-02-06T17:59:00.000+11:00

After some time away I'm back onboard, nose to the grindstone and all that sort of thing. I'm in the burrow, but not down!

I've been consulting a psychotherapist for about 6 months, mainly dealing with depression-related issues. Now, for the first time in quite a few years I'm feeling that I'm getting my life on track. Please note the words I used - absolutely nothing passive here! I'm getting into the pilot's seat and taking charge of how I live my life. It's taken many years to get here, but at long last I can see a real improvement in my overall state of mind. I now have a real feeling of being in charge and having some sense of where I'm going...

Onward and Upward!!

Reflections on 'The Days of Awe'

2006-10-15T22:05:00.000+10:00

This weekend marks the end of the Jewish High Holydays, also known as the 'Days of Awe'. This post is an account of my personal feelings about these very significant festivals and does not necessarily resemble traditional Jewish practise or ideas.

First off, I am basically a secular Jew, but with a spiritual twist. I am not particularly fond of going to any synagogue, whatever its religious orientation, and do not observe religious traditions in any formal sense. On the other hand, my basic moral code is generally in accord with many common Jewish ideas and I do, when possible, enjoy taking part in family-style celebrations of various religious festivals.

There are a number of different holydays observed during this period, but I will concentrate on just two of them: The New Year (Rosh Hashanna) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).

This time of year is a time of reflection on where ones life has gone during the previous year and where it is heading. A time to make decisions on directions and relationships with other people and, if one believes, the Divine. I use the term Divine here rather than God because I am not sure what it is that I am referring to; only that I believe in some power (or powers) which have a reality beyond that of each person and indeed of the physical world.

Rosh Hashanna starts this period and is concerned, not surprisingly for a New Year festival, with the idea of renewal (Tikkun Olam - literally 'repairing the world'). This concept of renewal is often interpreted by the less traditional as a call to look after our planet's ecology in all its manifestations. The more traditional interpretation refers primarily to spiritual renewal, but these different views are not necessarily inconsistent. The sense of renewal can be seen in the round challah (bread) which is part of the festival meal, in the eating of apples dipped in honey and of honey cake - the idea of a sweet new year to come!

With Yom Kippur, the main idea is to spend the day in a contemplative state, traditionally enhanced by fasting. The aim of this contemplation is to reflect upon ones relationship to fellow humans, the rest of the physical world and to the Divine. There is no concept of absolution, even if a person is totally contrite in their repentance. Each person MUST repair any problems with other people by themselves. On this day we are encouraged to admit our own shortcomings, not least to ourselves. The next step is, traditionally, to ask the Divine to help give one the strength and courage to face and negotiate issues with others and to help restore ones personal spiritual balance.

This is one of the things that I really love about Judaism: the idea that each individual is totally responsible for their own fate and that each of us must, in our own ways, work at our lives; tending them as a good gardener looks after their plants. This work involves, among other actions, fixing problems when they happen, apologising to others when we mistreat them and above all respecting the world around us. There is no intermediary between the individual and the Divine - it is a direct conversation. I believe that if we harm another person we also slight the Divine by this action. However, only we ourselves can right any wrongs we have inflicted on others; only those aggrieved by our actions can offer forgiveness, not the Divine or some agent of the Divine.

In a secular approach we should reappraise the way we live, our relationships to all around us and try to live a good, responsible life dealing fairly with all people we meet. If we approach this period of the year with a more religious mindset, the goal could be for each of us to live a more righteous life in the sight of the Divine.

The beauty of these ideas is that they transcend any particular religious tradition and can help each of us to work, in our own ways, at renewing the world in all its aspects.

I wish you and yours a healthy and peaceful year and the inner strength to achieve what you wish for yourself and others.

War! What is it good for? Absolutely Nothing!

2006-05-09T01:00:00.000+10:00

On the 25th of April each year we in Australia and New Zealand commemorate ANZAC Day to honour those men and women who have served their countries in conflicts overseas, and to remember the sacrifice of those who died in the course of those conflicts.

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they sound the fife lowly?
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered ye down?
Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play the "Floors O' The Forest"?

from Eric Bogle's song No Man's Land

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

from Laurence Binyon's poem For the Fallen

From the veldt of South Africa, to Gallipoli, to the deserts of North Africa and the Middle-East, to the trenches in Flanders' fields, to the jungles of New Guinea and South-East Asia.

There may have been good reason for the mainly young men who went (and still go) to those foreign places and fight, but with hindsight I wonder how often their sacrifices really made any difference in the long term. This is said not to denigrate their bravery and sacrifice, but rather to question the political processes that lead to various nations and peoples going to war, whether declared or not!

Sure, World War II makes lots of sense with Hitler's Germany set to overrun all of Europe and enslave its diverse peoples. Likewise for Japan in the Asia/Pacific area.

Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam? The Yellow Peril and the Domino Theory!

World War I? Tired old empires, soon to disappear or disintegrate, flexing their aging muscles to increase their power both within Europe and abroad!

Who other than students of history and those old enough to have heard old diggers' stories or who lived through those times in either military or civilian roles, really remembers the passions engendered by the issues of those days!

For me, those times were the late 1960s and early 1970s. The main political issues were the war in Vietnam, conscription to serve overseas, the Domino Theory and the Vietnam Moratorium marches in our major cities.

Certainly many of us who opposed the Australian presence in Vietnam were naive in our attitude to the Vietnamese communists, but the South Vietnamese leadership seemed to almost uniformly be a bunch of brutal thugs. Did we really want to help support that type of government?

And now 30 or so years on, Vietnam is an important trading partner in our region and many of our citizens travel there for enjoyable and cheap holidays. Some of these travellers are former service personnel who served there, but many more are too young to have any personal memories of that time of conflict. I wonder whether these young ones understand or even care about the sacrifices those service men and women made on behalf of their country at that time.

For whichever conflict you can think of there is so much death, so much suffering! All the issues sound so important when the time comes to go to war, but years later who knows or even cares about them?

And so far I've only mentioned the military personnel, but in every conflict there will always be many civilians injured or killed. Often young children or women, maybe the victims of rape or of discarded land mines. At some time in the future this cycle of war then peace, then more war which has continued from time immemorial must be broken. Human beings are not stupid, but seem frequently to miss opportunities to change these and other ancient, but destructive patterns of behaviour.

It is becoming apparent to me that we have to find how to make war a distant memory sooner rather than later, or all humankind will have to face the reality of the destruction of our modern ways of life. War is but one factor, environmental degradation another. All nations and peoples will need to work together to ensure that our world remains fit for habitation, for every type of creature. Cooperation, not belligerence will need to be our catch-cry.

As it is written:

They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

from Isaiah 2:4

Amen! Thus endeth the lesson...

Toss a few more Snags on the Barbie

2006-05-26T23:30:00.000+10:00

As you probably already know, we wombats are herbivorous. Our diet mainly consists of a variety of grasses, herbs, roots, fungi and barks.

I make mention of this here only because a few days ago an old friend dropped into the 'Burrow' for a chat. You know how it is when old friends get together: some of your favourite beverage, a lot of talk and maybe something to eat.

Now, you've got to understand that this bloke (let's call him Fred) likes nothing better for a meal than a few beers, some barbecued sausages with a liberal helping of tomato sauce (US: ketchup), and a plate of chips (US: fries).

Having to cope with the smell of meat cooking is not something your average herbivore wants anything to do with. While I am by nature a vegetarian, it is also something I strongly support on moral grounds. I'm not vegan myself, but can clearly see, from an ethical point of view, what attracts people to that lifestyle.

I told Fred that we would have to go out to eat later on, because I did not have anything available at home to feed him that he would enjoy. He, of course, knew this but it's sort of like a ritual we go through when he visits. Maybe he thinks that one day I will decide to eat meat - yeah, when hell freezes over! The things we put up with for the sake of an old friend. ;-)

Having worked out our mealtime arrangements, we started to discuss various unimportant topics. However, a bit later on we started talking about the moral issues associated with using any products that come from an animal source. The following is a record of our discussion.

The Sausagic Dialogue

Bruce:
Towards the end of the first post here, A Blogging Wombat, I introduced the concept of all creatures being treated with respect and being valued for their own sakes.

a view of a world where all people, and indeed all creatures, are treated with respect and valued for their own sakes. Not merely as some economic pawn or tool to be pushed about, used or manipulated by whatever powers exist without any real concern as to their welfare, both materially and spiritually

I want to continue from that point and expand on some of the ideas implied by that statement. Since your beloved sausages were the starting point for this conversation, let's just look at the case of animals raised primarily for their meat to be used for human consumption. How does that strike you?

Fred:
That seems very reasonable. Hopefully this 'limitation' will make our discussion here more focused. Ok, over to you.

Bruce:
I obviously don't eat meat, so I am in the morally easier position of not having to deal with issues of raising animals for eventual slaughter. You, however, old friend, are now in the hotseat! I'd like you to explain how you can justify, what in my mind is the brutal treatment of animals, since they can obviously see what is happening to others of their kind. They can see that young animals disappear not long after weaning and that older animals disappear from the farm on a regular basis too. I mean, the whole idea of a cow giving birth, feeding the calf, then that calf being taken off for slaughter is in no way natural for cattle. The cow, if free to do what she wished would feed the calf for a while, naturally wean it, teach it some basic skills and then let it go off to do whatever young cattle do naturally. At some stage this process obviously involves the production of more calves, and the cycle goes on. So basically I have a problem with the whole concept of raising animals for their meat.

Fred:
You're not making my job easy are you? I strongly believe that food animals need to be looked after humanely by the farmer. Apart from any other welfare issues this means that the animals must be adequately defended against both disease and attack by predators. The quality of their 'housing' needs should also be of major importance. I will not even try to defend the practice of battery farming where too many animals are kept in enclosures that are too small for them to move about in and stretch.

OK, my basic position is that I want to have meat available for me to eat. However I believe that there are moral limits on how this meat can be justifiably produced. These relate primarily to how well the farmer cares for the animals being raised and also that slaughtering processes should be such that the animal is as untraumatised as possible.

I believe that you would regard these concerns as mere window dressing, and that the whole enterprise of meat production is extremely undesirable from a moral point of view.

Bruce:
I agree with your assessment of the state of play. As you say, I believe that it is morally impossible to justify the whole process of human beings eating meat from domestic animals. The hunting of wild creatures for food is another totally different topic from a moral viewpoint, at least for hunter-gatherer societies. It is the deliberate breeding of animals specifically for their meat production that is what concerns me most.

Fred:
I have thought about this issue before and have come to the conclusion that the central difference between us is that stated in Genesis 1:26

God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

To me this sort of mindset creates a hierarchy with humankind at the top and other creatures below this. This hierarchy has previously been used to justify cruel exploitation and even the extinction of many species - I strongly reject this behaviour. I believe that with this superior position comes the responsibility to look after and ensure the long term healthiness of the world in which we all live.

This hierarchical arrangement is a very ancient part of human existence and is not going to go away. I think the trick here is to respect, within reason, that different people look at the world in different ways and that all people need to accept that this is the way things are.

Bruce:
I see what you're getting at, but can't agree with your interpretation. You believe that to have dominion over all creatures means that humankind is entitled to exploit the resouces they represent. You do however state that with this power comes responsibility for looking after the welfare of these creatures. I'm sure that they would really appreciate that distinction, given that you still want to kill some of them :-|

So it seems that it all really comes down to a difference in fundamental beliefs, not bridgeable by pure logic.

Fred:
Given this reality, those of us who do consume products which require the death of other creatures owe an obligation to them. We must ensure that all these creatures, bred to give us products derived from their dead bodies, are treated with dignity in life and slaughtered in ways that minimise the trauma they suffer.

What we've got here is a failure to communicate

2006-09-22T23:15:00.000+10:00

I recently received this picture from someone who I had perceived as a person with strongly held opinions but with an open mind, not blinded by prejudice. I am now not quite so sure about that perception of lack of prejudice.

I realise that the picture is meant to be a joke, a parody of the online dating services that many of us will have seen at some time or other. I am by no means a killjoy, but this sort of parody, based on ridiculing ethnic or religious ideas, behaviour or stereotypes can often be incredibly demeaning in its attitude towards the targeted group(s). I believe that this one oversteps the bounds of 'reasonableness'.

Here the 'cartoonist' shows the idea that the Moslem male regards women as less than human in status, on par with valued animals, maybe even hinting at a sexual side of this attitude, invoking the stereotypical jokes about Arab men and camels, etc. Then there is the mocking of the idea of Moslem women covering themselves with the garment called the burqa. Whether any of us agree with the wearing of this garment or not is irrelevant. For a significant number of Moslem women this is what they wish to wear. The covering garment may not necessarily be as totally encompassing as the burqa, but rather a variant such as the hajib, or head scarf. The list of ideas mocked is greater than this, but I think that by now you will understand what it is that I am concerned about.

I wonder, for example, what the reaction would be to a similar web page targeting Jews. It might have a heading of "Diamond Joe's Blackhat Dating Service" with a photograph or caricature of a certain widely known Australian Jewish ultra-orthodox religious identity. Instead of the women in burquas we could have pictures of unattractive women with large noses wearing ill-fitting wigs, etc. This web page would exhibit a range of ethnic/religious stereotypes in the same way as the one which I received - Shades of the virulently anti-Semitic cartoons in Julius Streicher's newspaper, 'Der Sturmer', during the Nazi period in Germany.

The creators of such cartoons or writings are very clear what it is that they want to communicate - ideas which foster ethnic & religious intolerance. For the rest of us, I think we often overlook the serious implications of the ethnic joke, wanting to only see the 'funny' bits. This is not good enough! If ordinary people do not want to encourage intolerance and hatred between various groups then now is the time for them to take a stand. All of us who are offended by racism must clearly stand up and say to others that racism is never OK, regardless of what form it takes. Here I am including all manifestations of racism, not just that of 'Westerners' showing lack of respect for other ways of looking at the world. I am offended by many actions of groups like the Taliban in the same way that I am offended by people in this country abusing Moslem women who wear the hijab. The attitudes are similar - total lack of respect for the rights and beliefs of others, and the idea that it is OK to ridicule, marginalise or commit violent acts against 'them', the 'other', the 'not us'.

The 'them' and 'us' attitude that such material fosters is something that all decent people should become aware of and thus be able to counter in whatever community they live. This can be through comments made to friends about the lack of desirability of such material as the web page I have displayed here. It can also be voiced in the political sphere by not supporting organisations which by their policies encourage these divisive attitudes - at home or abroad!

As for my perception of the person who sent this web page to me, I hope that they have acted from a position of 'seeing the whole thing as a joke', not perceiving the darker aspects of such material.