21:53 - 01/31/2011
Who is the terrorist?
The past three months have been quite eventful, dear diary, both personally and globally.
I was afraid to write about the job situation, in case I jinxed it. It seemed that each of the other opportunities and interviews I wrote about previously were snuffed out as soon as I blogged about them . Superstitious - I know. I did eventually start a new job in December, but it has been a rollercoaster, with the three of us hired to do the project being allowed to work and then being sent home for weeks at a time. Frustrating. One of the partners in the project is insistent that they want outside expertise - us - to do the analysis of the data while the other partner, whose site is where we are working, wants to use their own personnel. Withholding basic work tools is the least of the barriers we have faced. The politics have been really nasty at times and I'm not willing to guess how long we, as the pawns, are going to be able to do the work we have been asked to do. There are still very few real jobs being posted for this city. Each of my co-workers has been unemployed for one or two years, as have many of their peers. Make the best of what there is I guess.
At least I am almost caught up on my bills though and that is something. My Dad went out of his way to ensure I had gas service and electricity over the winter. He says he'll just deduct it from my share of the inheritance. I'm fine with that, although I hate taking money from anyone for any reason. I was worried that using convection heaters in the 30 below C weather we get in winter would be too dangerous if I was out of the house working long hours. It seemed wiser to accept the help rather than lose my home to fire or something else.
My oldest son has moved back in with me, almost exactly a year after my youngest moved to the US to be with his wife and children. My oldest son brings his two children over to stay on weekends, so it is almost like old times again. I forgot how noisy those times were though, and it is taking some time to get used to it again.
Two new grandbabies were added to my brood since last I wrote. I now have ten or fifteen altogether, depending on whether one includes the ready-made grand-children from the girls' previous relationships. Their children are all keepers, as far as I am concerned, so I claim the fifteen as my own altogether.
November saw the arrival of number two son's second baby. A boy. He had to be delivered by caesarean section, so I spent a couple of nights doing a sleepover with my four year old grand-daughter, while Mom recuperated in hospital. It was delightful. She started dance classes in September, so I was regaled by a combination of tap and ballet performances. We spent a few hours on Youtube just watching the Russian Ballet troupe dance Swan Lake and the Nutcracker. More hours were spent watching those Disney princess movies. I have to admit I felt I had a saccharine overdose by the end of the visit, but it kept my granddaughter's mind off worrying about her Mom. She loved the new little guy, but it was her Mom who really mattered to her sense of safety.
Spent several days looking after number four son's two and four year old children as well. One boy, one girl and a different energy altogether. I never sat down, because they are very physically active. No need for formal exercise during those days. More Disney movies, but more action oriented. I really liked the Frog Princess and Ratatouille. The music, you know. The trip to their home is about an hour by bus added into the 10 hour work day, so I was wiped out by the end of the day. Happy times nonetheless.
Number three son's baby daughter was born this month - two weeks ago. Thick, dark, curly hair, just like her Dad's. Just like her Dad too, a voracious appetite. I don't recall being able to put him down without him crying during the first three months of his life. Just carried him around in a Snugli all the time. She has my son wrapped around her little fingers already. It is cute to watch.
Globally, the Wikileaks affair has been interesting, hasn't it. I sometimes wonder if the leak wasn't really set up by the US government. You see, first of all, all that information has been readily available in various news sources as it happened - one just needs to watch more than CNN or Fox to find it. I get e-newspapers from all over the world and the only piece of info I hadn't seen was that Ghadaffi's companion was a blond. I don't read gossip magazines, you see. The only difference with the Wikileaks is that all the information was in one very large bundle all together. I was flummoxed when I heard Canadian and US pundits and politicians calling Mr Assange a traitor, given that he is Australian. Even more disturbing was when some of them called for his assassination. At least the idiot who called for his death in our city has been investigated for inciting to murder. If this had been an American or Canadian citizen releasing this type of information from someplace else, like the Middle East, they would have been lionized, made the rounds of talk shows and ended up writing a best seller. They likely would also been encouraged to run for or be appointed to public office, wouldn't they? It is interesting to me that the information that has been released has had such a destabilising effect on the Middle East. It is almost identical to the CIA operations that were undertaken in Central America a few decades ago, just through a different technique, eh? My one hope is that the Western countries don't intervene in Egypt now like they did in Iraq in the late 1970's when they forced Saddam Hussein to be accepted as the continuing leader of Iraq against the best interests of it's citizens, in order to balance off the power of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini. Hosni Mubarak and his supporters are just as despotic as Hussein's regime. They should not be used to counter the balance of power that Iran again holds in the Middle East. Does it need another round of 9/11, times ten, to convince western governments of that. "Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it".
Sometimes I wonder if this isn't all a distraction to divert our own citizens' scrutiny of what is going on in our own countries and what our politicians are doing in our name.
I'll add links tomorrow dear diary, but now I need to go to bed. One of my co-workers shared their lung infection with me and I need to sleep so I can function tomorrow. Good night.
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