Passion in the Moments

Hi I'm Rue, the artist and voice behind Passion in the Moments / E:thos Photographic. As you may have gathered in looking around the blog, I think a lot and share those thoughts with all and sundry (that is anyone who will listen!). This weekly posting is essentially an opportunity to share tid-bits, rants and observations that I have made in the course of the week that are not really worth writing a whole article about but are interesting nevertheless. These coupled with that odd picture I have taken that doesn't really fit in anywhere, news about what's going on @ E:thos and a review of something interesting, put together in one post makes up what I call Rue's Friday Fragments. There is humour, righteous indignation, sad truths and a little of me, so something for everyone...enjoy!

10. Picture of the week

Scotland

9. China staging its own peace prize

I do enjoy it when governments and well adults in general throw their dollies out of the pram and start to act worse than terrible 2 year olds! This can be seen in China's well childish behaviour in now setting up its own peace prize because they got vexed that the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded chose to honour Chinesse dissident Liu Xiaobo as this years laureate. Seriously! I just have no words! It is just as ridiculous as the group of Zimbabwean business men (who allegedly had the backing of the government) awarded the Zimbabwean LOSER of Big Brother Africa with a prize greater than the winner of the contest! What is the point of that? Honestly this is high level business and political child's play at its best!

8. NSPCC unofficial campaign

Many people this week responded to a campaign allegedly started by the NSPCC [National ] to change their Facebook (FB) profile picture to that of a cartoon character from their childhood in support of stopping abuse against children. Many people I know including myself did this and the fan page on FB for this campaign received 90 000 followers in the few days it was running. Sound good? I think so, people care about abused kids, that is definitely a good thing. The problem is the charity are not responsible for the campaign and didn't know anything about it. They released a statement to that effect but are grateful for the free publicity. The people responsible have not come forward and there are now rumours circulating that it was started by a paedophile ring trying to identify which FB uses are children. How? Well the call was to change your FB profile to a cartoon character from your childhood. I chose Jessica and Roger Rabbit but if I was ten I would have probably chosen sponge bob square pants or something of that nature... Here's hoping it was just a well wisher trying to raise awareness of this problem. Either way be extra vigilant in how your children befriend online. Personally I do not believe that a child under the age of 16 should have an FB account at all! Read the full news article here

7. 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence - A good start...

An acquaintance of facebook posted the following comment this week, 'a woman with no shoes working in a maize field in Ntcheu (Malawi) with her husband. The man was wearing wellington boots. It was raining too hard for me to take a picture...' This led to a long conversation about the realities of social culture having a huge impact on the behaviour and choices of people. My response was, ' I think the point here is that he didn't think. Certainly not more than think of himself...Having said that African men are not traditionally chivalrous but they are proud. Now having recently got a pair of boots I know they cost in the region of MWK2 000 which is steep for a poor family and I imagine having them is a symbol of some achievement financially so it does kinda make sense to me that the money they had to buy a pair was spent on the man. Is it right? No, but is it is a social culture attitude that needs to be addressed not just this guys one action. Other men do the same thing by only putting their name on the title deeds of their matrimonial home or not providing their wife with her own transportation or whatever. The message is that the man is more important and it is wrong but society and some law supports this attitude so yes it will take more than 16 days and a conversation on FB about boots to effect genuine change. That change also wont come if we simply give pple messages that this and that behaviour is wrong, we need to engage them in conversation and let them be part of the solution in changing this social culture once they are able to understand its failing...a huge task indeed...' So in a nut shell, it is great to have campaigns like 16 days of activism against gender violence but they are only a beginning, a starting point and in and of themselves not will change so there is much more to be done...

6. Dynamic Women change the world

I am a huge fan of Angelina Jolie! She is a very good actress but an even better parent and humanitarian which are two things that I think are the key to changing the world; investing in our children and looking beyond self and helping others. She is a UN Ambassador, mother of six, wife and professional, a very tall order but she seems to prioritise and make time for everything. Granted her early years were somewhat racy and not exemplary in any way but she has certainly turned her life around which is another thing that makes her a good role model, we always have a choice to change and to grow and to make a difference in the world and look outward where we were once introverted. See her in a recent interview with Larry King here where she talks about how she manages to do it all.

5. Obama compromises on tax

Its funny that Obama seems to be doing the back stroke on tax like the UK liberal democrat leader Nick Clegg is doing on tuition fees! Obama claims that his 'compromise' did not back track on campaign promises as his fellow Democrats feel he is...I wonder if Obama and Clegg got swimming lessons from the same political school of thought? Either way their parties are angry with them and you guessed it! Its the poor in their societies who will end up suffering the most!

4. Dealing with the recession
By now most people should be passing from stage four to or on stage five...what stage are you on?

3. Tuition Fees protests out of hand!
Really the students out burning things in the streets of London and behaving like football fans after a bad match are not inspiring me if this is the calibre of people who are actually going to attend university! Its not the first time this story has featured in my fragments because it just has not stopped and appears to be getting more violent by the week! Now that parliament has voted to increase the tuition fees there is pandemonium according to sky news footage I am viewing. Protesters are as I type smashing windows at the treasury building in London, are these people who actually have a level of education warranting tertiary education???? I am deeply disturbed by this behaviour.

2. The Art of Being Humane... Profile Feature: Disabled and destitute

Read the full story here

1. Song of the week

We are the world (New Haiti Version)

Spreading some love across the world this week, we are all made better people when we look beyond ourselves...

And that's it for this week folks! A day late but well worth waiting for I think! And remember you can get in touch by commenting or emailing me atethosphotographic@gmail.com