Why is it Relevant?

Why is it even mentioned?

A SMH article (SMH link) describes the successful suit of a Muslim woman against her employer, a bar, for discrimination.

She sued because she was going to be forced to wear a tight uniform that was too revealing and made her feel "like a prostitute".

She won the case because the male staff were not made to change to a similarly humiliating uniform.

A couple of questions?

Why is it mentioned that she is Muslim? It has nothing to do with how she won the case. It was a case of sexual discrimination.

The wording makes it clear that a pivotal point was that the men didn't have to wear a similar uniform. Would it be OK if the men had to sleaze themselves for the job too? I suspect it would. Our community has lost its moral compass and the only way we can measure things are the woefully inadequate "consent" and "equal"

What is a Muslim woman doing serving alcohol in a bar anyway? This is why the mention of her religious background is weird. Good Muslims have nothing to do with alcohol.

Do we get to pick and choose which aspects of our religion we will sue others over and which we disregard when it suits us.

Should religious tolerance be extended to those who don't practice their faith consistently?

Some good questions there.
Probably some good answers somewhere.

But, I suspect, not to be found in the British law courts or with this particular Muslim woman.

Seeing past the devastation.

A friend sent some pictures of the devastation after Hurricane Ike, and there are some more here.

It's a reminder how vast are the forces that cycle around our planet.

But one thing that it is really difficult to see from the pictures is where events like this fit into the big picture of what is happening.

There is almost an apocalyptic fervour amongst environmentalists about climate change scenarios. And images like this can fuel the fire.

We seem to be getting more and more calamitous reports more and more often.

But what we need to remember is that this impression is being fueled as much by the contraction of the world into a global village, by the speed of modern communication, by the (advertising driven) drama and ratings push of the modern media and by the ubiquity of the home video camera.

That is, the disasters are brought home to us more vividly, more often than ever before, but we need to think carefully and study the cold data to get an idea of whether there really is anything different happening out there.

One little hint of how we need to look past the overwhelming imagery and reportage was a line in a caption at the bottom of one of the other photos I was sent. The photo showed the devastation in Galveston (I think) but then commented that Galveston was spared the level of devastation of the 1900 storm. http://www.1900storm.com/

While things are bad, and people need our help, and governments need to be ready and to assess their readiness, we need to be careful of the idea that this is the worst storm ever. We need to be careful of the impression that storms are getting worse.

In 100 years, looking back, we'll be able to confirm what was really happening with our weather.

Froth and Bubble

Looking for another thing, I discovered that Kevin Rudd was ranked number 10 out of 100 of the worlds leaders and revolutionaries on the Time 100. Time 100

That's weird. He hasn't been in office long enough to achieve anything. I live in Australia and nothing has changed appreciably yet.

I'm not bagging Kevin Rudd, it's too early to do that. But it's also too early to sing his praises.

When I read the blurb underneath, it went straight to his apology to the stolen generation. Now I know many indigenous Australians felt real joy at that apology, but it was just words. Nothing has changed yet. The intervention in the middle of Australia is still along the lines set up by the Howard Government. The health discrepancies are still wide etc.

I guess I'm just saying that it's sad when words are enough to propell someone to number 10 on the world stage. That you don't actually have had to do anything or achieve anything or change anything. I'm not saying he won't, I'm just saying he hasn't yet. It's way too early.

We love our froth and bubble, don't we.