Monday Moaning: Bound by Freedom!

Freedom Bound, Three Quarter Life. Bronze statue by Paige Bradley

Monday Moaning Bound by Freedom  

Freedom a word with an explanation that raises more questions then answers.

noun

1. the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint: He won his freedom after a retrial.
2. exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
3. the power to determine action without restraint.
4. political or national independence.

This was taken from the online dictionary Dictionary.com

So why did I choose to call the post “Bound by Freedom”?

Let us go over the explanations as found when you look up the word. The first one up is pretty simple. “The state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint:

He won his freedom after a retrial.”
After being released from a prison or just from custody is being set in freedom, it is one of the most simple ways to define the word and makes perfect sense so far. Not being bound in restraint or behind bars or in holding cell in what ever form. This kind of freedom was something slaves would have wanted most. And we these days cannot blame them for wanting that.
But what if I told you slavery still exists.

Did you know that many women are being held against their will, drugged up to do a job in prostitution. It is the most know kind of slavery we know today and is happening right under our noses. Rich men buying women for pleasure.
In some religions and countries it is still okay to pursue slavery of workers. Even after the ruling in the world to stop slavery, there are still people not gaining their freedom.
In this sense of the word and looking around we are free.

I will skip the second one and go straight to the third. “The power to determine action without restraint.”

We are the lucky ones,  that we can choose without restraints and act upon it. And still looking and keeping the law (we are to be well known with it) in our minds. It does come to think if the law is not keeping us back from being free in that way. Surely we should not kill others in a peaceful society, so why do we have the law and rules o tell us so?
It is an obvious bond or restraints we do not see as one. It is there and we know about it. In most cases it doesn’t hold us back in being free to act to our own decisions, just keeps us on track of not doing something to take someone else’s freedom.

That is how the law works or so I have been told. it keeps us from stealing people’s freedom or freedom of choice. Yet as mentioned above in some countries freedom of choice is but a fleeting dream. There people are told how to act, what to do and where they can go.

This conversation or opinion is widely spread and people do put it up for debate. Sometimes in other forms but is comes down to the ones who did not have the same freedom as we have this day. It comes down to fights and destruction which I dislike very much as the reason is often a bit off or just fabricated to approve their violence.

In a straight line with the law stands the political and national spirit and the kind of freedom it comes with. Independent politics do not really exist do they. These days we need friends and money form others in order to keep freedom a part of our life. It is this opinion that creates lots of conspiracy theories, but how much of those are false.
The best example I can think of that is sort of political and national is the buying of a sports club by a rich outsider as we so nicely call them. Or a factory to keep the peace and freedom alive of the supporters or workers. We need other countries in order to prosper. No country will ever be political independent.

We kind of see in Russia and how they are trying to reclaim a country and make them dependent again. On one side we can see how wrong it is to capture and take away political independence and have the freedom of those living their being compromised. Another idea as many have tried is to combine countries and making it a whole, have them work together to a single goal. Freedom and independence.

The idea does imply that when we work together we can make a whole new world, but that is but a dream of many and greed and some other  things like pride stand in the way. Yes wanting to be independent is one of them. It does cause conflict as we so often have seen. WWI, WWII and the Gulf war and as said the Russian conflict.

Now let us go back to the second. “Exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.”

In a way it is sort of like the above with the political entwining of other countries and politics. But it is how we see true freedom. It is what it is meant to be free. Independent in every way.

Yet we each and everyone choose not to be free or have that kind of freedom. We don’t want that as we won’t be able to function in a society that is free. ANd how strange is that.

Our true view on freedom is nothing like mentioned in the dictionary.

We are and have become dependent on external sources, control and regulation. The biggest of them all is money. It controls and regulate how we do business and every day things. It makes sure we do not eat to much or buy to much, unless we have the money to spend. It is an external source that drives us and makes us do what we do.

Without it we would not know what to do or even how to regulate our own life. People try and have a garden filled with vegetables and fruit but want to have meat to. So they have a pig running around and chickens for the few eggs. Still some of them rely on external sources like gas and electricity.

True enough we have bound ourselves by lots of external sources. Changing the true meaning of freedom. And it does beg to question if we are truly free. Even if we choose to be bound by freedom and everything else we need.

I will leave you with this idea and this opinion of mine. What do you think? Have we become to much dependent on everything external around us to be truly free? Should we use this given to combine every country as one, since we already need each other? Independence does stand against our nature of wanting to be and thus maybe even needing to be in groups.

Best Wishes
Ranting Crow

Monday Moaning: Modern Slavery!

Monday Moaning Modern Slavery

Yeah the title is a big word and an awful word at that, but the truth is that even in our modern time it is something of every day. Maybe not as visible as it once was or under a different name it is manifesting itself.

We know of our ancestors, who used different tribes or simple poor people as slaves to their dirty work. Getting shot if they were of no value, not they had much value they still got sold if money was to be made of them. Whether we look in The United States or Europe and even Asia had here share of slavery. Captured enemies on a slave ship or just captured men from another continent. It was or is behind us.

Or so we do like to think, because in many countries slavery is still happening, but we do not see it as such. Soon as we think people get paid it isn’t slavery anymore. Though that is not true either, think simple like season workers who work under assumption of getting paid but money is not yet paid, Work another day than maybe you get paid. And they do so under minimum wage. And if you have worked for 2 weeks you want some compensation.

Child labour we still see it in Asia and the Middle east, it is just another form of modern day slavery. Sweatshops and let us face it, we all heard of them once in the news, where women work under cruel conditions for a small wager. Don’t think slavery is gone just because it has a different name.

People have been fighting to get rid of slavery and even now those in most western countries who do not hold on to the concept are still being seen as slave drivers. Upholding the term and stating you are slaves though you come from a free country is preaching slavery as well. It is slavery in form of words, holding a grip on those who never even heard of or participated in the act. Using it as a snare to suffocate people is slavery in a new form. What did not happen to us is by all means not an excuse to use it as retaliation because our ancestors have done so.

To think that the entire world was part of enslaving people would make us sick in the stomach.

Now let us rewind a little and add a new part in the story.

Women have been formed by what men always have believed as to be the truth. The free fought image we see today in Western countries is not what it always have been. It was dictated by men and though the women have fought for voting rights and more equality, the era of women fights is not over. If one talks slavery one can easily go as far as to say that women were enslaved at home, doing the birthing and cleaning and cooking. It was the overall picture sketched by men.

Not forgetting though that without women we would not have won the war, it was them who worked hard making bullets and shells and god knows what else to keep the troops well armed.

It took them years to get some rights and now we are wishing for more women to reach the top of companies. Another aspect of today’s society that is being dominated and still is being shaped by men as we speak. And why would I even bring this up in a post about modern day slavery. Well I am getting to that.

In the higher ranks of companies in seats of CEO or the likes we do like seeing more women so the company can represent the average of their targeted consumers. But truth is that a lot of women do not get to the top due to some rules and manners of men. In order to make it to the top one needs to commit a long time to the company. This goes for men and women, there is just a slight difference and that is that women do and can get pregnant. It is a rule that men made that a break or hiatus due to giving birth is not good for a career as you have to leave the company and miss some rulings.

Another reason where men are different in reaching the higher up ranks is that when asked both if they are ready for the job, a guy is most likely to say, ready 24/7 as for a woman might say sure okay. It is where us men kind of go misinterpret and think she is not sure or does not want to give it her all. So the man is chosen.

Let us get back to modern day slavery with this short thing in mind about why we see so little women at the top. There have been some studies for this. I personally think it is bullshit. I honestly think a woman could still make a career after having had a hiatus. They are smart intelligent humans after all.

So the new idea of Facebook and Apple is to pay women to freeze in some eggs so they can focus on becoming men and reach the top. Sure it is an interesting proposal. Well over ten thousand dollars to freeze them in and then the average of a thousand dollar a week or month to keep them frozen in storage. Holing a carrot in front of a nose and hope they will bite and work. And getting a bonus every month on top of a salary, it sounds really good.

But what if you still get pregnant? Gone is your bonus, gone is your change of a career, gone is your job. I mean frozen eggs so you can become more of a men and devote life to a company is no guarantee. You still will be having sex, like a man. Except unlike a man you can still get pregnant. To force or better to hold that carrot in front of someone is just the same as slavery in my eyes.

It takes away the essence of being a woman. Cold calculated thoughts and ideas that need an answer. A answer that is just as cold and calculated, just like a man would make and have been making for many years. There is no emotion involved here. Emotion that make a woman a woman.

Studies have said that a board with more than 30% being a woman changes for the better of their consumers/customers. So just getting 1 or 2 women on the board against 10 men is not making a difference but rather creating men out of these women. Women who chose to throw everything out the door just to get a bonus and a change are just as calculated as men already are. Will they be any different from the men when in the boardroom, most likely the answer would be, no.

What apple and Facebook are doing is nothing more than modern day slavery. Holding out a carrot and having women do their bidding.

And I am not even considering men who become the stay at home dads so the wife can make a career, those men still stand a better change in getting their function back when they want to go back to work. In correlation to women who have to step down most of the time.

We men haven’t changed, we still think we can manage women, we still believe or do create their image as we see fit. How stupid are we. That modern day slavery is just being re-invented.

And I haven’t even talked about modern day human trafficking and exploiting of women. Something that needs to stop. It comes with abuse and that is never right. Hitting women or depicting women as useless or just good for one thing is still very much going on in almost a third of the world. Woman being nothing more than an object. It has to stop.

Best Wishes
Ranting Crow

Ranting Saint

Most of the black Pete on the boat and in TV series are done by Dutch celebrities.

I am a little lost with things going on here in this small country. Now we do have a history that is not entirely fair to all kinds of people. But face the fact that in most countries history has stories of wrong doing. Why am I starting a rant like that, well because of the different thinking of many people.

Now you still do not know what it is I am talking about. Let me get started then. It is a tradition for as long as I can remember and so does my parents and even granny. A tradition held every year at December 5^th. A saint walking the streets and roof tops on a white horse. Interested, it is our story of Sinterklaas (sɪnt ‘nikola’s), the good holy man or for short, The sint (saint). It is a is a big happening with that saint steaming in on a steamboat from Spain. Docking in a harbour and have a parade with his black Pete, 300 and this year even 700 dancing and doing acrobatics. Scattering candy through the sky for kids to catch. Yeah he is coming half way down November and goes back on the 6h of December after delivering al his presents to the children.

Now I am sure you have noticed one word in there that is causing all the commotion. Even the UN had something to say about it. As an elder I cannot understand that it is the people age 20 to 50 who are making the most commotion. And I mean the coloured amongst us. Why do I think they are wrong, well for one they came to this country knowing about our tradition and all that time they agreed and now they are against it because it is associated according to them with slavery. If we were that bad why come live in our country. Makes me angry to hear thing like that

Second it is a kids  celebration, children of the youngest age who still believe this holy man exists. They don’t see a black Pete being used as a slave. They see a happy go lucky and smiling black Pete. Dancing, giving candy, doing tricks. Why would someone who has been living here half there lives decide to take that away from children. I have known coloured people from Africa and other countries who laughed and told some to have hired them because they o not need make-up.

Now a small community who feel they are being discriminated by that parade say that people should turn their back to the parade. Those painted black Pete and the our good holy man. Wait isn’t that the same as discriminating. Aren’t you discriminating a tradition a belief that has been around since well past 1800. And for years it has been celebrated in our old Dutch territories as well. Aruba, Bonaire and Suriname among others.

Lots of people come and look at the good holy man and his little helpers come to shore. This was 2010 Photo made by Merjenburgh

I say keep your hands of traditions for children. If you really hated it that much maybe you shouldn’t have come life in such an ugly country.
Apparently we are ugly people and am I a person who finds slavery as normal according to them. Well sorry if only they looked into it more instead just looking at heir own side of a coin.

More information can be found here: Sinterklaas

Note that nobody really knows any more where the celebrations originated from, somehow things have been lost and thus many different stories go around.. the one that stands for me it is a children’s celebration and that should stay. Cause age 4 has no idea what slavery is or even discrimination. They getting candy from a black person. That person sneaks in their homes Through the chimney (why they are black) to leave presents. How can a black person like that, be bad in their eyes It is a debate that is only getting worse. But what is the next thing we take away from children. Should they become like us old people. Bitter and miserable all the time. Complaining about everything that is not of this day and age. Like maybe Santa Claus. No They need a smile if only once or twice a year. After all we use those two to tell our children to be nice all year round or else they will get nothing.

I will be there on the 16th celebrating, having fun. Watching 700 of them Black Pete smile and cheer. And be cheered by the children waiting in the cold, hoping for a hand full of candy. And at night before put there shoe near the fire place (central heating system) with a carrot and straw for the horse or a nice drawing and the next morning run of to find chocolate or a small toy in it. Happy days. A few days not thinking of the bad but seeing children smile. Just a shame of all those police for the extra security.

Best wishes
Ranting Crow