make a space here to write anything I want

Is she alright?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrasah#Misuse_of_the_word

‘Madrasas are basically a centre of Islamic learning. Post-9/11, the Madrasas are perceived as a place of radical revivalism among the Western countries. The word madrasah literally means “school” and does not imply a political or religious affiliation, radical or otherwise. In post 9/11 United States political contexts, however, the word has often been used to define Islamic schools – in the negative context of anti-Americanism and radical extremism.

It is important to note here that there have been negative connotations applied to the word by news reports in Europe and the United States, in which madrasahs are often incorrectly implied to be Islamic religious schools. Madrasahs are simply schools, with a variety of curricula, and are not all religious. Although early Madrasahs were founded primarily to gain “knowledge of God” they also taught other subjects including mathematics and poetry. For example, in the Ottoman Empire, “Madrasah’s had seven categories of sciences that were taught, such as: styles of writing, oral sciences like the Arabic language, grammar, rhetoric, and history and intellectual sciences, such as logic.” This is similar to the Western world, in which universities began as institutions of the Catholic church.

The Yale Center for the Study of Globalization examined bias in United States newspaper coverage of Pakistan since the September 11, 2001 attacks, and found the term has come to contain a loaded political meaning:

“When articles mentioned ‘madrassas,’ readers were led to infer that all schools so-named are anti-American, anti-Western, pro-terrorist centers having less to do with teaching basic literacy and more to do with political indoctrination.”’

I did not know this!

or has 43things been getting less intuitive and user-friendly? I couldn’t find where to give up on a goal, until after marking it completed without meaning to (and not being able to change it back), I realised it was under “delete”. Why would it make sense for it to be under delete?!

so I’m not getting emails and notifications. Why are you locked out of your email account Ira? I hear you ask. It’s because I’m stupid, gentle reader. I changed the password to something so good, I promptly forgot it. It was so good, it defeated even me. It was all because of this.

I should be able to get back into my account in 3 or 4 days, Google willing.

I hope you’re having a great day – I wish you a wonderful year full of love, warmth and cheer ahead! :)

I wish you a wonderful birthday and year ahead, full of love, peace and good books :) Are you still doing any podcasts these days? I miss hearing your lovely radio voice :)

a lineupper or a sidezoomer?

sorry for being late replying to comments and messages – been having a lot on my mind, so was away for a few day, and still trying to catch up :)

These lines mentioned by Anne Lamott in an interview I read recently led me to William Blake’s poem The Little Black Boy – from reading about him on Wikipedia, he really sounds like someone I’d like (rather like Anne Lamott in fact :) ). Must look up more of his work when I have time, especially Songs of Innocence and of Experience (reminds me of the Langley Schools Music Project album). Love most of his paintings I can see on his Wikipedia page, especially this one :)

Why do you have to make 43things all web 2.0 like everything else? It was perfectly fine before! [sigh]