A trilogy in seven parts.....hypno's latest efforts

duchy

China-Suppose the other side is showing kids what a repressive government is like is the best way of ensuring they won't want one and may encourage them to think about what living in a democracy brings to them and what their responsibilities to living in one is. Travel to me is the great mind broadener but like I said that's the other side. It isn't a black and white issue-Chev makes some good points too.

MS is going well -got nearly £100 due at the end of the month from one company alone -and £30 arrived this week from them too. Odds and sods -mainly £20's and £30's due from other companies too so quite a nice little earner.

Just off for a free facial as they are doing a Mary Kay promotion opposite then off to pick up DS's new glasses as he wrecked the frames of the other ones Grrrr then back home to work a shift for that TV and internet company. Worked last night as a shift swop so actually have tomorrow off-woo-hoo can't remember the last free Sunday I had. Plan to spend the day tidying and gardening-my life is sooooo exciting

pandapaws

Good post Chev.

£1200?! Can you not just take her to the Golden Palace for dinner instead?

shaun40400

thought this house was baby proof :rolleyes:
wrong little bwugger is faster and smaller than me!!!!!!!!!!!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

edit aggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh will you sit still

Yorkielass

Hi Hypno :wave: been away for a week, combined a holiday with a wedding of some close friends as it was a long way away so would have been a lot of petrol to get there and back, and with a hotel etc etc - managed to get a deal on a cottage, borrowed maps from the library for free, self catered, and used our National Trust (a wedding present) and English Heritage (got with Tesco clubcard deals) to go in lots of places for free so a good MSE holiday :j - now back and have another week off work so lots of decluttering, sorting and money making to do - I'm going to try with dooyoo and am going to make a grid to colour in with my money making as I'm worried I'm loosing interest in it and need a boost as I need to build up some savings.

hypno06

Chev - point taken.

DD will be travelling to a school in China, and working with the school children, not doing the whole tourist thing. This is a school she has been involved with for many months, forming links, and working with the children there.

She will therefore be able to see for herself differences that so far she is only able to hear about from other people, see on the news, or read in the newspapers.

She will be 15 - able to start to formulate her own opinions about fairness or unfairness in the world, and will be able to perhaps make her own changes about what she boycotts or supports in her adulthood, and what she is able to teach her children based on first hand experience.

At a similar age, I spent a lot of time in Saudi Arabia - somewhere that also has a great deal of controversy surrounding the way they treat people, particularly women. By seeing it and experiencing it for myself, I was able to truly answer my own questions - when I read about things in the news or see things on the television - or hear other people making assumptions about the country, I can call on my own little bit of real knowledge to enter the discussion, or make my own judgement of the situation.

Yes, chev, I am an intelligent person, my intelligence is brought about by life experiences in part - if you do not give anyone the chance to have those life experiences, you are allowing them to make assumptions. Assumptions can be dangerous, ignorant and offensive. I do not want that from my children.

Agree with it, or don't. If she gets the chance of doing this trip, she will go. We will work hard to get her there, recession or no recession - I believe, as anyone who reads my diary will know, that it does not matter how much we are in financial difficulty, if you want something, you can get it by good old fashioned hard work. No different to the school inviting DS to take part in a series of ski races that results in him going to Norway - that cost the same amount of money for a week......and did he learn about any different culture? Well, no, apart from learning that a tin of baked beans out there cost £2..........

Sorry, I hope I haven't offended anyone.....

Karmacat

Wow ... thats made me think. I remember the sanctions on South Africa - blacks I spoke to then were in favour of them, they were already having such a bad time over there, the sanctions didn't make much difference to them. Economic sanctions against China, as chev points out, are impossible in today's world. If we impose our own mini *social* sanctions on China, what does that do? I think it makes it worse for the people of China - China has seemed to modernise in a way that no other country has done, they've modernised economically but not socially or politically. They need that social contact, I think, I think .....

And as for us, and the effect on Westerners who travel to China. I understand Chev's outrage at conditions in China, I really do - I did a lot of political work over the years, I've experienced that level of passion. Genuine economic intertwining is what really stops wars... but what promotes peace and development? People. Would I rather the teenagers of today travelled and met people from other cultures in their *own* land, or see others as "incomers", "minorities", when actually they're majorities? I think I'd rather have them travel.

I never travelled as far as Saudi Arabia, let alone China, as a schoolchild - but when I was 14 I went on a school cruise, which included Portugal - and Portugal was still a military dictatorship in those days. Education and awareness was very different in those days, but I am very, very glad I went.

hypno06

Nowhere is perfect.......some places less so than others. Fake goods, arranged marriages, hyper inflation, eviction from properties, repression and opression - wherever you are in the world, you can find some of that, including the so called "civilised" countries - are the UK and the US, for example able to stand up and say that they treat people fairly, that they are not corrupt in some way? - look at the difference in the way New Orleans was shown after Hurricane Katrina (compared with the "tourist image) - how black people were treated, and continue to be treated there. Perhaps not in the same league as South Africa in the past, but have we really come so far in our progress, I'm not so sure.

Karmacat

My God, thats true, Katrina ..... you look at Obama and think its all fine in the US now, and then you think of Katrina, so recent..... its just underneath the surface everywhere .....

hypno06

and would it stop me going to visit New Orleans, if I got the chance? No, I would just make sure I got to see the "real" New Orleans, not the one that I had an image of a few years ago.

OliveOyl_2

Just to shove my tuppence in

My parents couln't afford to send me on any school trips abroad (not counting a day trip to France). But those who went had as much fun as they would have had if they'd gone for a week in Dover. Their memories were ALL of bun fights and misbehaving teachers, and generally having fun. The one thing it was NOT was educational. :rotfl:

DD's trip sounds a different kettle of fish.

And I hate the regime in China too so I'm with Chev on that.