The Problem With Money - Part 1

This morning we woke up to the news that Michael Jackson had passed away. The reaction of many people seems to be that of "good riddance" or "who cares?", but Michael Jackson was a very high profile case of someone that has been chewed up by the record industry, completely screwed over and then spat out.

Many will say that he was very rich, and while this is clearly the case, no amount of money could undo the damage that was inflicted on him as a child. He was a complete basket case, far from normal in both a physical and emotional way. At the end of the day, in my mind Michael Jackson is just one of millions of people who have been exploited in order to make a profit.

We live in a world that allows people to die of starvation. We live in a world that allows people to work menial jobs and be paid 7 times less per day than people earn per hour in Australia on minimum wage. The money system is broken.

It simply sickens me that there aren't daily protests and that people aren't constantly on talk back radio complaining about how little big business cares for humanity. It should simply not be acceptable that people are allowed to be put behind profits. We should take a stand and say enough is enough.

This isn't going to be a long blog, but it will be a topic I will revisit in the future. In the mean time we need to ask the question "How can you allow people to suffer in the name of your own greed?"

Sex Education

This is probably a strange topic to start my blog with, but I had a discussion about it the other day, and want to share some of my thoughts.

We are living in a very sexualised world. From sexy images plastered all over advertising to the increasing ease of access of internet pornography. It is in our faces, and as adults we are equipt and prepared to deal with it. But I'm not sure we're dealing all that well when it comes to sex with younger teenagers and even Children.

Working at a boarding school I am constantly overhearing conversations where boys as young as twelve are objectifying women, speaking of the woman or girl as a collection of private parts and not an active young mind.

As they get older it gets worse. It sickens me every time I hear a boy talk about a girl that he has sex with as if it was an acheivement, another notch on the belt if you will. The question I ask is at what point did society say it was ok for them to have this attitude.

I think the problem is though that it is very clear. Sex has always been a very sexist patriachal adventure. Going back to biblical times, it was the woman cheating on her husband that was to be condemned and not the husband cheating on his wife. Prostitution has predominantly been males paying for females. In fact, from my little knowledge of history it really seems that in terms of females that always on some level they have been there to serve males sexually.

But in the second half of the 20th century, women have earned themselves a voice, standing up to their male oppressors. Women were suddenly allowed to enjoy sex, and take ownership of their sexuality and their sexual experience. Womens magazines flooded the shelves talking of g-spots and multiple orgasms. But somehow still I don't think the male attitude has changed.

So I come back to the topic of this blog: Sex Education. From what I can remember of my schooling, sex education in PDHPE was pretty much a lesson on how does my junk work, how does her junk work and how do I stop my junk from impregnating her junk. Personally I don't believe this is enough.

Sex Education has to be about more than the physical understanding of intercourse. I believe that sex education needs to be about understanding people and their sexuality. Children should be learning to communicate their feelings with the opposite sex (or someone of the same sex, as the case may be). They should be learning from experts on the subject of sex and all the emotions that go with it. They should be hearing from couples who maintain an intimate and active sex life. They should be hearing from homosexual couples about their way of life. First and foremost, they should be having these discussions with boys, girls and parents in the room!

As I continue to blog, you will quickly learn that I believe people need to sit and discuss with an open mind a lot more than they currently do for us to fix anything, and I especially think this for sex education. We need to realise that if the kids don't learn this stuff properly, they are definitely going to learn it from somewhere, and probably before they are 12. We need to remove sex from the taboo column before our children learn about sex from a porn star.

Introduction

After an extended discussion with my friend last night, I decided that I need to start a blog. I have too many detailed thoughts on too many issues to not share them with the world. I really do hope that people will read what I have to say and use the comments section to discuss and disect my thoughts.

I do admit openly that for many of the issues I will discuss, I have no special qualifications that make me an expert. I simply offer an opinion. An opinion that I have discussed ad nauseum with friends. An opinion that I am open to changing, if someone presents me with logic that convinces me of my error.

I accept all opinions openly and truly believe that open discussion is the only way we are going to develop as a society.

I hope you enjoy my musings, and I hope I don't get lazy and keep writing.

My first real post should be up in the next few days.