Looking Around

Merry Christmas!

I suppose he thought he was being funny and/or clever but that is the direction that the PC gurus are forcing on the rest of us.  If we keep going this way, then indeed the politically correct wish 20 years from now (or whenever they succeed) will be along the lines of happy whatever-it-is-you’re-happy-about … to avoid "offending" anybody by being more specific about your happyness wish.  After all, one day, someone will claim that "happy holidays" is an "offense" to those who wish to keep working during that time.  Some people don’t celebrate holidays. how dare we presume that they wish to go on holiday.  Then, 50 years on, happy whatever-it-is-you’re-happy-about may being politically incorrect too, since it "offends" those who don’t celebrate happiness, who choose not to be happy…

the other sad thing about that guy’s comment was that people in developing countries like Malaysia need to copy everything blindly from "the West" in order to become developed… will write more on this silliness in the future.

Here’s a list of "5 headlines you won’t see" in the Info Tech industry anytime soon.  For those who are lazy to click on the link to read the original posting, here are the headlines:

- Techfolk Stop Using Acronyms
- Software Now Easy-to-Use
- People Surfing Web Less at Work
- Web Home to Less Dancing Bologna
- Technology Makes People’s Lives Less Stressful

(a rough measure of one’s IT savvyness is the amount of laughter the above generated - with top honors going to you if you are ROFL - but minus a few points if you don’t understand what ROFL means)

Seriously, though, let’s zoom in on that last point, "Technology Makes People’s Lives Less Stressful".  Technology is an enabler.  Fire is also an enabler.  And you can burn yourself with it.  The book "Margin" makes some good points on stepping back from overload.

Has the following ever happened to you before?  You hear all kinds of wonderful things about a new movie.  You go watch the movie.  You are disappointed.  Congratulations - you have fallen into the expectation trap!  You had overly high expectations and you were disappointed.

Expectations can work in other ways, though.  "Maria full of grace" was a movie that I expected to try to do certain things, but which pleasantly surprised me by going beyond my expectations.  "So, yeah, an impoverished girl smuggles drugs - so, yeah, the movie will try to make the viewers sympathize with her - how could they make a whole movie out of that?" - that was how I felt before watching the movie.  Given my expectations, I wasn’t keen to watch it, but then a friend told me how wonderful Catalina Sandino Moreno was in the movie so I went ahead and watched it.

This movie is a model of flowing and gripping story-telling that evokes sympathy better than or as well as any other such movie I can think of.  This is no easy task in a world that is largely immune to the sufferings of others, and of the very poor especially.  It paints a very compelling picture of human weakness and strength, yearnings, struggles, and decision making in a complex and maddening world.  It also delicately and skillfully touches on the world of many an immigrant, and many an immigrant community.  It does all this without being preachy or melodramatic or falling into other such traps.

And my friend was right - Catalina Sandino Morena indeed does a nice job, with several delightful scenes.