take it or leave it

March 25, 2009 at 8:40 pm (philosophy)
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while it is true that some may make wrong choices, or do something  wrong , and need a way to make things right again, when it comes to opportunities i don’t believe there is such thing as second chance.

as infants, parents protect us, and call the shots on our behalf. there is a certain moment, when they can’t anymore. or at least they shouldn’t. life and society are not perfectly organised, in order to make room for everyone. when you want to advance in your career, society doesn’t give you the <but of course, you deserve it, if not for anything else, for being such a cutie> card.  you have to work your own way to the top, trusting friends to support you, but only you to advance. and here opportunity comes into picture. a surprisingly good offer, if it is still good after a short closer look, has to be accepted. nobody waits for anybody to be ready. as i said, it’s always take it or leave it. there’s no such thing as reconsidering or changes of mind.

naturally, i don’t come to say one should toss a lifetime’s work away. there is a certain necessity for judgement, and thorough understanding of the offer. my point is that you simply cannot suppose that everyone will be there waiting for you. the only thing to be done is a quick balancing, so as to decide what is more important for you. not to mention, each time you turn down an opportunity, there will be, without doubt, someone there, eagerly waiting for you to leave it. to sum things up…any choice is better than no choice at all

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a thank you note for those who couldn’t care less

March 18, 2009 at 7:11 pm (my experiences)
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saturday i participated at the local biology contest, aiming for a top position in order to enter the national competition. however, it was nothing but another opportunity to convince myself of how little our education ministers or, better yet, system cares about students. to my way of thinking, the attitude authorities should have regarding us is something like <wow, so not all students are completely uninterested. what can we do to make them better, and to make more like them???> . and i’m not talking about us only, the biology competitors. i’m talking about all the students who give more than a crap about a certain subject, but are jerked around by this system.

but first things first. being summoned at half past eight at the venue of the exam, i arrived 15 minutes earlier, according to the education i have received about punctuality. what shocked me, and i still don’t know why, is that i found out there that we are allowed to enter the school only between 9 and 9.30….the reason for calling us almost an hour early? so that even those who are late can actually arrive on time. ok…so lesson number one: don’t try to do things right, since everyone around would make you wait for those who don’t care. to put it this way, the loser is that who comes on time. fair enough.

we eventually got into the exam classes. the teachers wouldn’t let us open any window, based on the fact that the door was already opened. needless to say, the door brought no sort of fresh air so we were all sweaty and nervous, and had to take repeatedly pauses. but, for what i was going to see for myself, this had just been the fun part. as i finished my paper, i went to the evaluators. i have to mention, the test was a simple choice type, so we were supposed to put the correct answers into a certain chart. the teachers than had a see through template, which was laid over our answer sheet. my surprise was of enormous proportions when i could only count ten correct choices, out of 70. even though i knew that couldn’t possibly be right, the evaluators had nothing but compassion to offer me, and a list of the correct answers. at a not too close look, i was able to spot that the template did not match that list. my exam was re-evaluated, the mark was way better.

i went home thinking that what had just happened was outrageous, but there was more! i found out from friends that the exact same thing had happened at 12th grade (i’m 11th). my first guess was that they had mixed up the two templates. but it seemed that their subjects had even more problems. the list of correct answers was, in fact, wrong. after changing some of it, though there were still students with good reasons for changing more, the answer was <we have already changed for you a quarter of these answers. what do you want? half? what you have by now it’s more than enough>.

so thank you, great system of teachers and education ministers and inspectors. thank you for not giving a damn about students who work themselves out, hoping to get to nationals. the subjects were the same all over the country – the lists of answers were different. even after announcing that the templates were wrong, there were cities who couldn’t care less, and continued to grade according to those wrong sheets.

why aren’t students interested in school anymore? it’s our generation’s fault too, i don’t argue here. but how are we supposed to enjoy school, when there are no teachers left to enjoy it with us?

 the whole idea we get from them is..<so…you still learn heh? it can’t turn out good for you>

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equality

March 11, 2009 at 6:24 pm (philosophy)
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so, i had this assignment in english class, to comment on the following quote:<<what makes equality such a difficult subject is that we only want it with our superiors>>(henry becque). the whole point seemed to be agreeing on the fact that indeed we do look for being equals with those above us, and oh, how lousy that made us feel. my only question here is…so what’s the problem?

i don’t believe people are born as equals. i don’t believe we ever are equals with anyone. some are born in europe or the u.s. , others in middle africa.  some come from higher social environments, some are mere some junkey’s kid. needless to say, i am convinced that we should, as humans, at least have equal rights. but we don’t.

in addition, we dare to grow up. from this point forward, we are done talking about any sort of equality – but again, i don’t really see the problem here. some are keen on math, others would rather fancy a good book. some may prefer to like nothing, others to like everything. to a certain extent, some may have no problem with having nothing, others want it all. so no, we are not at all equals.

moreover, as far as i’m concerned, i find no valuable argument for desiring equality with my inferiors. i do have, obviously, respect for them as individuals, but it seems to me that one should always look forward. the whole point in life is evolving, and that can only be done by moving from good to better, not the other way around. nevertheless, one should always take into account the fact that what goes around, comes around. we couldn’t have equaled our superiors if they hadn’t let us. likewise, though we should not agree to being equals with inferiors, we do have the moral obligation of allowing them to be with us, as long as they deserve it.

to put it briefly yes, we do want equality with our superiors. and that, from where i stand, is nothing but a way of improving.

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beauty and the beast

March 4, 2009 at 7:55 pm (disney quotes)
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yes, well, i still enjoy an old disney cartoon. not only they’re sooo fun to watch, they are also violence-free, sex-free, and any_other_stuff-free. i mean, nowadays a cartoon is no fun unless it has monsters and robots and killing – they have no message, nothing to teach (could anyone compare them to tom & jerry??).

however, this is exactly why disney sounds so appealing to me. needless to say i really fancy the plot, but recently i’ve been paying more attention to the songs – they are somehow a summarise of the characters’ personalities. the one i chose for this piece of writing is <<beauty and the beast>>. from the very beginning we hear the “little town song” – it’s both about the villagers and belle. while heading to the town, belle actually calls them little people, noticing how every day is like the one before. it didn’t really surprise me the similarities between their way of thinking and the one of people i know – they find belle strange, but only because she’s “nothing like the rest of us”. how come that it’s so easy to spot the odd one out, yet so difficult to see that perhaps it’s differences that makes someone greater than others. it’s rather considered “a pity and a sin, that she doesn’t fit in”. and while gaston – the ’91 bad-boy – plans to marry belle, she is in search for “so much more than they’ve got planned”. who’d have ever thought that a cartoon can be so deep-thinking?

furthermore,other songs are just as thought-provoking as the first one. “tale as old as time”, between romantic and plot-related lines offers a real guide line, let’s say: “bitter sweet and strange finding you can change, learning you were wrong”. also, the funny “be our guest” shows a great deal of imagination, mixing “pies and pudding on flambe” with the flatware that’s “entertaining”, and with the necessary by now piece of morality – “ah, those good old days when we were useful […] ten years we’ve been rusting […] needing exercise, a chance to use our skills”.

seems that back then it was seen as normally to teach children some moral values together with giving them a reason to laugh. why has this changed? i will continue in follow-up posts with more disney quotes.

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