Beach Football

We brought Littletree’s soccer ball to Indonesia, which has been a great success! Littletree recently discovered a love of playing football (apt, as she was born on a soccer field), and she’s been getting some great practice in on the beach in the evenings.

Not only is football Littletree’s latest sport du Jour, the other kids love playing as well; we’ve gotten some great games happening, with locals as well.

And, as it turns out, football is the main sport on the island, with local teams setting up beach-side games every day in the hour before sunset. The only thing they miss is a proper soccer ball; the games being played with cheap plastic kiddie balls, so Littletree’s proper ball is like gold here.

Gili Air island is incredibly safe, the small local population have an agreement that there will be no crime on the island so as to keep a good reputation with the tourists. Apparently, if any of the locals are caught stealing, they are beaten up and kicked off the island. I feel totally safe to leave my handbag on the beach while I swim, or have my computer on our balcony… but that soccer ball! We can’t leave it unattended for a second!

Every wandering hawker passing by trying to sell sarongs or trinkets or pineapples gets big-eyed when they spot it; we’ve had dozens of offers to trade for it - a king’s ransom in hand-carved Balinese necklaces and batik sundresses. It gets snaffled up every time we turn around, but we always find it in use, not to far up the beach, and the locals always hand it back again cheerfully when we point out that it belongs to Littletree :)

(I wrote this post last week some time, and I thought it published… but - yay for slow, erratic internet – seems it didn’t work, so I’m re-trying again!)

Making Decisions in Seven Easy Steps – Nuffnang Blogger Challenge

Regular readers might have noticed the new ads I have on my blog the past couple of months – they’re hosted by Nuffnang and so far I’m super in love with them; it’s a great blogging community and they have great support.

As it turns out this month they are holding The Nuffnang Christmas Blogger Challenge, which is:

Pick out the best blog post you wrote in 2010, and write a blog post which links to that post and explains why it’s your favourite.

The prize for this is an Apple iPad, which would be SUPER AWESOME to win. My first computer was an Apple: an Apple IIe to be precise. It was possibly the best computer ever made. But now there’s an iPad out there and I would so dearly LOVE to win one, not only because it’s really cool, but because early next year we’ll be going on a round-the-world trip to Argentina for the next World Rainbow Gathering, then to Israel for Littletree’s 8th birthday, then to India, because it’s Litteltree’s big dream to go to India, and if I had an iPad it would be so much easier to keep up with blogging along the way.

But the challenge… to pick out the best blog post from 2010. Whoa. I have 110 blog posts so far this year – it took a couple of hours to read through them all and select the contenders for best post. Another few hours were spent in whittling it down to a short list of 10 posts. I ummed and ahhhed for ages.

Should it be Of Rainbows and Sunsets, which has awesome pictures and encapsulates my life and my blog quite well, or should it be Surprise Flower, which is short and sweet? Should I go for something funny, like When Life Gives you Bananas or what about something that showcases Littetree’s cuteness and intellect, like The Question of Invention? And don’t forget midwifery-related posts like Beautiful Birthing.

Stuck in a conundrum, I decided to go about this in a rational, scientific way. Obviously the solution would be to build a Decide-A-Tron like the computer they made in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to find the golden ticket.

So I got out all my tools and set to work to build the ultimate machine! Unfortunately, just like the computer in the movie, it failed to yield the correct answer.

Perhaps I wasn’t being scientific enough. I tried to concoct a super elixir that would give me infinite wisdom

Still undecided, it seemed I needed to be more methodical, so I went for the Tibetan Deduction Technique demonstrated by Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks

It turns out (as would have been evident to anyone who knows me), I never managed to hit the bottle at all.

I realised that since this is about my favourite post, I would have to delve into how I really feel about it, tuning in to the heart rather than the head, so I had a sitting with a Tarot-reader…

I now know that there is a tall, dark stranger and an Apple iPad in my future, but as to which blog post is best, I was still in the fog. Clearly, I needed to connect with my own inner being. I sat in deep meditation and asked a pendulum…

The final answer still not coming to me, I went to my Guru and Master… Littletree. She just laughed at me, and finally we went with my best blog post for 2010: Faerie Shoes.

I love this post because it’s a little humorous, it has nice pictures, and in one brief snip gives a neat look into my life and what my blog is about. And it’s the post that’s gonna win me the competition, which will be the best Christmas present ever! Best of all, we’ve decided to celebrate Christmas this year, so it will be extra excellent to have a cool present under the tree.

So, everyone, tell me what you think; how do you go about making tough decisions?

The Great Firewall of China is Coming to Australia!

You might notice my blog was blacked out when it first loads – I’m participating in the Great Australian Internet Blackout, which is protesting against the Australian government’s plan to introduce a mandatory internet filter.

This basically means that Australia will join countries such as China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, which impose centralised Internet censorship. The internet filter will force internet service providers to block access to a website blacklist or “Restricted Content” (RC), created by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). However this list is confidential and not available to the public.

And might I point out that *this* website – my blog, is blocked in China.

While Communications minister Stephen Conroy thinks the filter will "the risk of Australians being inadvertently exposed to RC-rated material when they are online", the lists have been widely criticised for being too broad in scope.

What’s more, trials of the filter were largely considered to be ineffective. Yet, the government is still spending millions of dollars on this plot to rob Australians of their right to freedom of information.

Ostensibly, Conroy insists that the net-filter is for blocking out child pornography, and sites that would endanger our children, but the reality is that the RC list also includes sites that contain “politically sensitive” information, like pro-euthanasia sites.

Does this remind anyone else of the Aussie government’s plan to rob Australian women of the right to choose where they give birth?

Will this mean in the near future pro-homebirth sites will also be blocked? after all, the proposed maternity care laws state that anyone inciting a woman to homebirth would be illegal. What about websites about freebirthing, or unschooling, or natural healing. What about freedom of speech. What about freedom of THOUGHT!?

you can read more about the internet censorship here:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/internet-filter-protesters-set-to-fade-websites-to-black-on-australia-day/story-e6frfro0-1225821477370

http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/12/21/the-swift-takedown-of-stephenconroy-com-au/

http://www.prisonplanet.com/australia-to-enforce-mandatory-chinese-style-internet-censorship.html

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24568137-2862,00.html

Hole in the Wall

People often ask how unschooling works, and the main questions are generally centred around two things - how can children socialise if they're not in school, and how can they learn if they're not being taught.

The socialising question is one for another post, but anyone who knows my child, or even reads my blog would see that it's really a non-issue. Humans are social creatures, and children are born socialising. I don't see any reason to stifle that natural impulse by putting them in school ;)

As to learning, it's really about the same answer. Humans are born with a deep thirst for knowledge, and a profound ability for learning. The best thing we can do is to get out of the way. Children learn such a phenomenal amount of stuff - without being taught - before they ever get near a school.

One resource that I always want to point people to is Sugata Mitra's talk about the Hole-In-The-Wall project on the TED site. It's a fascinating video - a little long, and the best bits start maybe 7 minutes in, but the synopsis is that Mitra set up Internet computers in remote villages in India, where the children had virtually no schooling and no instruction in English, and left it alone. In very short time, the children not only taught themselves to use a computer and browse the Internet, they taught themselves English.

When Mitra came back to one village to check on the project, the first thing these children, who had previously had no exposure to English, said to him was, "we need a faster processor and a better mouse".

"We found that six to thirteen year olds can self instruct in a connected environment, irrespective of anything that we could measure."

"It was a demonstration of what a group of children can do without adult intervention."

"Primary education can happen on it's own."

"Learning is a self-organising system."

Essentially I believe that this kind of learning can happen all the time, with all children. My aim is to raise my child with love and respect, supporting her to follow her own learning. But mostly we're just having a lot of fun :)

Queensland's ailing education system

In my happy travels around the Internet, I came upon this article in the Queensland Courier Mail.

THE Bligh Government has sent out an SOS over the state's ailing education system after admitting the model it has overseen for more than a decade is not working.
Premier Anna Bligh yesterday announced an education specialist from Victoria would conduct a wide-ranging review into Queensland's increasingly poor academic performance.
Queensland Year 4 students finished last in science and seventh in maths out of Australia's eight states and territories in an international mathematics and science study, it was revealed on Tuesday.
Even students from Russia and the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan performed better...

The article goes on, and feel free to read the full article (here) but I thought the first part was interesting to have a look at.

First of all; yeah the Queensland education system isn't working. Duh. They actually tried out this failing system for over a decade. which basically means a whole generation of kids were "educated" under a system that even the government says is crap.

Next point; Queensland, students finished 8th and 7th out of eight states in science and maths respectively. At face value, that sounds pretty bad, but does anyone else see the irony here?

If you're going to rate anything on a scale of first to last, then *someone* has to be last. If Queensland actually manages to get their kids to ace their tests next year, then some other state will be last. It's never ending. And it's EXACTLY the same scoring system they apply to students in the classes. No matter how fantastic the children are, there's always going to be one kid who's "the worst".

One might have hoped the government might employ someone intelligent enough to see that and simply stop the whole ranking system. Home schooling anyone?

And lastly, "Even students from Russia and the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan performed better."

Racism anyone? Classism?
It makes me so pissed off, I can't even say anything about that. It speaks for itself really.

It's Been A Long Time

We're back in Thailand! China was great and the rainbow gathering was fantastic, but it feels good to be 'home' in Bangkok.

Sorry that I didn't post for so long, but I did warn you all that I'd be mostly incommunicado while in China - no Internet at the rainbow gathering; we were in the jungle on top of a mountain, and in any case, Blogger is blocked in China (annoyingly, half of the Internet is blocked) so I couldn't post.

I did see all the comments everyone left, expressing concern about us with my extended silence, especially with the earthquake in Sichuan and all; I feel so touched, thank you. And I did try to send a quick post from my email... but clearly that didn't work. Oh well.

Anyway, I just finished downloading, cropping, rotating and renaming all our photos - over 200 of them, and I shall write a nice long post or maybe two about our adventures in the next day.

Meanwhile; enjoy this lovely snap of Littletree in Bangkok, eating worms wrapped in seaweed, the night we left for China...

Pass-over Passover

Passover is coming on Saturday night, and everyone is busy preparing. The main point of the holiday is to remember how Moses busted the Jews out of Egypt. (They tried to kill us, we won; let's eat!)

The main way we remember, is by not eating leavened bread, because when the Jews escaped from the Pharaoh, they didn't have time to let their bread rise. Not only did they wander lost in the desert for ages, they didn't even have good Pita!

So, here we are, thousands of years after making this miraculous escape, and we keep eating Matzoh, so as to remember it. Let's be perfectly honest; matzoh is horrible stuff. it's like the driest, most flavourless, revolting, dry, tasteless, dehydrated, dry cracker you've ever eaten. Did I mention it's also dry and has no taste?

Okay, I get it, there's a religious significance, and during the Seder (the long feast we eat on the opening night of Passover, where we read this long story about how the Jews escaped Egypt), we're supposed to eat several pieces. But does it have to be the only bread-product we eat all week?

Haven't the Jewish people suffered enough?!

Anyway, I digress; the thing I wanted to talk about, is the extent Jews have to go to, in order to make sure they don't eat anything leavened.

You have to clean out all your cupboards, and throw away anything that contains Hametz; wheat, rye, barley, oats or spelt (and just for good measure, also corn and rice), and anything that might be fermented. So after you've thrown away all your food, you have to clean the whole kitchen really well, just to make sure no crumbs remain, and then boil all your dishes in a deep vat for a long time, to make sure no traces remain.

If you can imagine the enormity of this job, consider that supermarkets and food manufacturers also must comply; they have to throw away all their stocks of food, and clean their machinery, under the observation of a rabbi.

Of course, no one is really doing this. Most secular Jews are doing a somewhat half-assed job, by putting all their hametz food into one cupboard, high up, and pretending it's not there.

The big food manufacturers, and all the supermarkets, have a deal with this one Arab family. They leave all the food in it's place, but shut the doors on it till after Passover, and they sell it to this Arab family. Who knows how much for. Then at the end of the week, they buy it all back again. So for the week, nothing has changed, the food is all still in it's place, life goes on, but legally the food is owned by the Arabs, and therefore, it's all Kosher.

Lately this has gone one step further, with websites like this one offering to buy people's hametz from them, and then sell it back after a week. Of course, all the food stays in your pantry at home, and I don't think anyone checks if you have a little nibble while no one's looking.

It is just another way in which the Jews go to extraordinary lengths to circumvent Jewish law and still remain Kosher.

Online again :)

Finally!

We got our internet connection back on yesterday afternoon. I feel like throwing a party.
For those who missed it, I did mention our woes with a nasty neighbour and a pair of wire-cutters that resulted in the loss of our phone line.

Naomi's antics only got worse; she unilaterally demarcated an area of the garden we share as "hers" and shouted abuse at us for crossing the line into "her" area. Without any warning, of course. We had no idea that garden paths that we had previously been free to use (not to mention the steps down to the pool) were now out-of-bounds.

anytime we approach her, she starts shouting abuse; swearing in front of the children, and basically being horrid. We've tried talking to her calmly and civilly; she's not interested in any discussion or negotiations.

Though the landlord and the real estate agent were both telling her to re-connect our phone line, she flat-out refused. The landlord agreed to have the phone company come out and install a separate line for us, for which we had to wait 2 weeks. And of course, when they finally got out here, it turned out they can't do it without first having a contractor dig a trench for the cables.

Our landlord ended up coming here from Sydney to sort out the mess. Naomi showed herself in true form; dug herself into quite a deep hole, and showed herself to be very childish and petty, not to mention caught herself out in several lies.

The landlord told her off for cutting our phone line, and insisted that she has no right to do so and must leave the connection as it is until we can find a better solution. She grumbled and complained, but since the Landlord was basically saying that if we can't work it out, then he will evict the lot of us and start with fresh tenants, she caved.

So the landlord went and re-connected our phone line! only we still didn't have internet. There was a big hassle with the service provider, and it took another week to get it back online. I'll bitch about Blitz, the ISP from hell later.

For now, we're online again, Purple can work from home, which is a huge stress of us, and we are connected to the outside world :) Ironically, He leaves for Israel tomorrow.