The Jamjar

Endangered List: Rational thought

You may think climate change, over-population and avian bird 'flu are humanity's biggest threats of the 21st century: think again. The terrifying reality is the pig ignorance from the so called "Land of the Free" is the real cancer eating away at our future.

"A Gallup poll last year showed almost half of Americans believe that humans did not evolve but were created by God in their present form within the last 10,000 years.

Three of 10 Republican presidential candidates said in a recent debate that they did not believe in evolution."

Dinosaurs ride in Noah's Ark at US creation Museum

Sweet Jesus, Mary and Richard Dawkins: help us all.

Yellow Bike

Post Office pleasantries

Me: Hi, I'm here to pick up a parcel for Michelle Park.
Her: How do you spell your surname?
Me: Pea, Aay, Are, Kay. Park.
Her: Oh, right. Nice and easy *gets parcel* Do you have ID?
Me: Yes, I have my passport *shows*
Her: *looking at the passport* oh.. oh.. what a lovely passport photo. Doreen, look at this passport photo, isn't it lovely.
Doreen: Oh yes, very nice.
Her: Ooo you look like that actress..
Me: *eyebrows*
Her: Oh.. you do.. you look like.. oh.. what's her name.. oh you know the one..
Me: *head tilt*
Her: .. you know.. the one .. in the film.. who got really fat.. oh who was she..
Me: *furrow*
Her: the fat one with the big undies..
Me: I'll just take my parcel I think.

Blue Bike

Red Bike

Autumn

Mother's Day

I was intrigued the other day, when reading the Sydney Morning Herald online's headline "Japan opens baby drop-off box". I'm a bit annoyed with the way papers put up misleading or overly dramatic headlines to get me to click through to their stories and this article would probably be about how Japan had started an easier way for people to donate clothes and food for orphaned children or something. But for a change, this paper hadn't misled me, the drop box the article was about was *actually* for dropping off unwanted babies.

I thought it must be a joke at first - even though it was no longer April. As it dawned on me this wasn't a joke I was appalled at the idea of dumping babies at the hospital anonymously - like an unwanted puppy at the local RSPCA wasn't bad enough. Then as I read Japan wasn't the only country that had started such a scheme, I realised that there must be a genuine need.

"The baby drop-off, called "Crane's Cradle," was opened by the Catholic-run Jikei Hospital in the southern city of Kumamoto as a way to discourage abortions and the abandonment of infants in unsafe public places. The hospital described it as a parent's last resort."

The young girls, because I would imagine those who abandon newborns are most likely to be relatively young, must be so incredibly alone and afraid. Too afraid to reveal their pregnancy to many, if any, people because of cultural, religious and relationship restrictions within their family they feel they have no one to turn to. Bearing the stress of hiding their situation through the pregnancy then giving birth to their first child alone and afraid is a heartaching thought. Having a child is supposed to be a joyous, wonderful event within a family, and to think the girls are alone somewhere, with little or no support and often no idea what's happening, is not what any of us would ever want our own daughters to go through.

In this morning's Melbourne's The Age newspaper, there is a story about a newborn baby being left in a cardboard box outside Dandenong Hospital, wrapped in towels but "doing remarkably well" considering the cold Autumn morning. Stories like this crop up in the news from time to time - thank goodness in this story the mother left her newborn baby somewhere where the child could be found. Sometimes that's not the case and those stories where the mother's desparation and fear leads to devestatingly sad outcomes, don't need to be repeated.

We talk about a woman's right to choose. We talk about the right to life. We talk about options when we find ourselves with an unplanned pregnancy - about abortion, about adoption, about raising children alone, about trying our best for our children and for ourselves. Any one who has been involved with any woman who has had to face these choices know just how incredibly hard and personal these decisions are to make and, apart from the very graphic imagery the anti-abortionists have at hand on placards on the street corners by our hospitals, how very little information dealing with how to make these decisions, and then dealing with the consequences of those decisions is available to any of us, let alone unsupported, frightened pregnant girls.

I just hope that the mother of the wee baby girl dropped off at Dandenong feels strong enough in the next few days to let herself be known to hospital staff so they can help and support her with her recoverery from this traumatic event, and present solid options to make the best of the situation for herself, and her child.

Update: Boy dumped in Japan's unwanted baby box

Gender Genie

FOX has been saying it for years and now even teh internets think I'm a man - maybe it's true afterall. I'd spend some time contemplating this idea but I can't see my navel for my boobies!

You can check out the sex of your brain too if you like, mine was (you guessed it) male. I scored low on empathising and high on spacial concepts.

Live at Yours: Anika Moa

Anika Moa covering The Mint Chicks "Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!"

Open Letter to Tonight's Street Encounter

Dear Mr Guy-in-the-street,

Thank you for approaching me tonight. I'm sorry that I couldn't help your girlfriend, but I really didn't have any money on me. Your refusal to take my day-pass tram ticket that I offered was fair enough I suppose, some people are too proud and might consider that charity, though I think you'd find more success getting help on your quest at the main train station than on a side street off Brunswick.

I feel really bad for not being able to help in a more fiscal manner. I empathise that your girlfriend having lost her wallet just when she has to go to Ballarat. I really hope her father gets better soon. I'm also pretty impressed at the change in her appearance since she approached me last Tuesday for money for the same trip - she was tall and blonde then but seems to have become smaller and brunette in the past week - that's girls these days for you - always changing their looks. Her mum was sick then too wasn't she? Such bad luck to hit one family so badly.

You took my inability to help in your stride, and I appreciate that. It is more than I can say for a man who had talked to me not five minutes before our conversation, who claimed I was "very Madonna" because I wasn't carrying change; I'm not enirely sure what he meant by that. Or the gentleman a few days ago who called me a "mole" for not giving him a $2 coin. Moles don't have pockets and therefore, never carry change so his description of me was very assute.

Ballarat must be a lovely place because it seems like every second person I speak to in the street these days wants to go there. It's such a shame that so many people who need to go there have lost their wallets right at the time that their families need them back home in Ballarat - crazy coincidence. I also think that someone needs to test the water or investigate the numbger of powerlines because there seems to be a lot of sudden illness in the area as well. But that's life for you: it never rains but it pours.

I wish you well in your search for the sum total of your trip and hope you reach your goal with speed. I'm not sure that you realise that your encounter with me lasts a lot longer than you think. Sometimes, after being approached in the street and not being in a position to help, makes me dwell so long on the fact that the lingering thoughts can turn a mediocre day into a bad one. I realise that's kind of selfish for me because it's not like *my* girlfriend needs a ticket to Ballarat that I can't provide without asking strangers in the street - I'm quite a lonesome, singular person without any ties to Ballarat whatsoever, so really I suppose, I don't understand.

Although I hate to dwell, it is a shame you didn't take the tram ticket I offered. You could have traveled to the main terminal and probably had more success with the fine people at Southern Cross Station in getting your girlfriend safely home to the bossom of her sickly family in Ballarat.

God speed, as he must. Best regards,
Michelle.

24HR Flickr

Holga happiness

Rainy Day Cafe

50 Steps to Happiness

1. Visit the National Gallery of Victoria's gift shop and look at all the Lomo cameras - spend quite a bit of time examining all the different types behind the glass of their locked case.
2. Look and look and look and make sure you can't see a Holga, before going up to the counter and asking the attendant if they have Holgas in stock.
3. Look crestfallen when she suggests they don't have any.
4. Look hopeful when she asks her colleague to confirm that they don't have any.
5. Look happy when he informs you that all the Holga stock has been sent to the Ian Potter Centre.
6. Listen carefully as he gives you instructions on how to get to the Ian Potter Centre.
7. Go to the Ian Potter Centre toot sweet.
8. Visit the Ian Potter Centre's gift shop and look at all the Lomo cameras - spend quite a bit of time examining all the different types behind the glass of their locked case.
9. Look and look and look and make sure you can't see a Holga, before going up to the counter and asking the attendant if they have Holgas in stock.
10. Look hopeful as she suggests their January order had just arrived 2 months late from overseas.
11. Look crestfallen when she suggests they don't have any that didn't go out in preorders.
12. Look happy when she informs you there might *might* be a couple left upstairs.
13. Pace nervously as you wait for her to come back from the upstairs storeroom.
14. Pace.
15. Pace.
16. Look extremely happy when you see her coming back with a medium-sized, brightly coloured box with "Holga" printed on the side.
17. Barely contain your squealiness as she opens the box to make sure it contains all the items it should contain.
18. Squeal when you see the Holga.
19. Gladly pay for the Holga Starter Pack as she puts it into an Ian Potter Centre carry bag for you.
20. Carry it proudly all the way to Cafe Five for coffee with Eroica.
21. Order a latte.
22. Take a seat
23. Examine every item in the box on the table.
24. Thank the waitress for your latte.
25. Take as much space as you need.
26. Examine the camera.
27. Feel happy.
28. Examine the black tape.
29. Sip your latte.
30. Examine the batteries.
31. Feel happy.
32. Examine the film.
33. Feel happy.
34. Examine the Holga book
35. Feel happy.
36. Put everything back into it's Holga box.
37. Drink your latte.
38. Feel happy.
39. Don't make the low-brow joke "lucky Happy".
40. Have your friend Fox buy the same box of camera goodness from the same place the next day.
41. Shoot two rolls of film with your Holga over the next couple of weeks.
42. Take one roll to a camera developing store on Elizabeth Street.
43. Wait impatiently for the photos to be developed.
44. Be slightly disappointed at how dull and bad your photos are.
45. Take the second roll of film to LabX in St Kilda.
46. Wait impatiently for the photos to be developed.
47. Explode with happiness when you realise that the processing is soo..much..better at LabX and you have a pack of BEAUTIFUL photos.
48. Get all excited about blutacking the photo prints onto the loungeroom wall.
49. Load up your camera with more film and keep taking photos and going to LabX and having a serious crush on the serendipitous nature of the photographic process of toy cameras.
50. Repeat step 49 over and over.

Jungle Chair