Carmen Cubana

I just read an article about education in Indonesia.

According to this article, in a social studies text for first-grade primary school students, one of the questions consisted of the image of a woman holding a small child (an infant?) in her hands. The multiple-choice answers made available were (A) domestic helper (B) father (C) mother. One of the students picked (A) and was penalized for giving the 'wrong' answer, as the 'correct' answer was supposed to be (C).

The story made me think of a number of issues.

Is a domestic helper a form of mother substitution available to kids in general these days?
Prior to starting primary school-level education, I spent a lot of my time at home with my sister, neighbours and domestic helpers. My parents were both working at the time, and I do not recall any moment when I thought a two-income household arrangement is 'weird' or 'unnatural'. Social studies lessons at school didn't do much to change my view on the arrangement; I merely and secretly envied my friends for having their non-working mum pick them up at the end of a day's lessons, ready to whisk them off for a lunch in a fancy restaurant somewhere around town.
So yes, a domestic helper is somehow a form of mother substitution available to kids nowadays. Other forms of substitution I have observed are grandparents, extended family (uncle/auntie), neighbours and childcare services.

Why was 'father' the only non-female option included on the list?
This would be a bone of contention if the kid grew up only with his/her father as sole parent in the family. A lot of things can happen for this circumstance to take place (death and divorce to name a few), and I'm not into entertaining my thoughts for too long on this question.
Oh, and by the way, when I was three I wanted to grow up to be a father... so much for gender roles assignation.

Why does the correct answer have to be 'mother'? is this some sort of gendered political correctness on a female's role to the public eye?
Mothers killing their offsprings bring on a greater public display of outrage when compared to child homicides done by the father. Isn't a woman supposed to be more caring about her offsprings more than her male counterpart? Does that mean a father has less onus in ensuring his offsprings turn out alright in all walks of life? (Just some thoughts I had.)

I don't have a hobby of making life difficult for others, but there are moments when I feel compelled to have some disregard on the concept of political correctness. These are one of those moments. After all, creativity exists to question our way of doing, and consequently our reason of being.

Have a good day ^__^

(moving)

I have entertained the idea of moving in with Anne and Mag for over a year by now.
Deciding whether I would actually move away from my current residence into a new one took some time to make; once the decision had been made, the move is relatively straightforward.

The move is about to start today, and at the moment I'm waiting for my friends to come and lend me some muscle power. I'll keep you posted ^__^

(spices and endorphins)

Spices and good food can make you high.

Today I had dinner with Anne, Mag and KY... in a Malay/Indonesian restaurant (one of the two reputedly original Southeast Asian cuisine restaurants in Europe.) As it is located in SoHo, we have passed through it many times before, but tonight's dinner was our first taste of this restaurant. The spices are tastefully mixed without giving much concession to there-might-be-too-much-spices culinary suspicions, and all of us enjoyed our meal. Highlights of the night were kangkung belacan (staple veg dish), sambal kambing (interesting with a hot/zingy aftertaste) and ayam mas derwaji (leave no sauce unlapped.)

We got high after the meal and kept on laughing on what seemed to be funny... arguing on how the combined sounds of elephant and monkey would be, afterlife shopping, the jelly fish man event tomorrow, and how good our next-table neigbours' food look like - mussels! The thing was, we didn't order any house wine to go with the dishes (despite Anne's initial persistence.) It was the right thing to do because I honestly don't think spices, mutton and red wine would mix. And even without any alcohol, we managed to stay high throughout the night...

Is there a strong, direct correlation between eating/ingesting certain spices and subsequent release of endorphins?
I want to find out more about this :))

In the meantime, we folks will be staying clear of alcohol and sticking to spiced Southeast Asian fares. The food does us good when it comes to keeping our bottomless appetite satiated ^__^

Take care!

(sumo suits)

This post may come across as 'totally random' to you, but anyway...

On Saturday, I was walking across the Paternoster Square when I came across a group of young men and women doing something that resembles a race. The notable difference was they were getting themselves into sumo suits only to be rolled away by their teammates to a certain line.

As hilarious as it was, here are the pictures:








Have a good day :))

Street: the Nylon Book of Global Style

I came across this book at a museum today.

It reminds me of a less extreme, more global version of Fruits. It makes me want to hop to Copenhagen, Berlin and Tokyo (the cities I haven't been to... twice.) It makes me want to go to a Denim exhibition in Paris (yes, yes...) It makes me happy to read that London was listed first in this book - even before Paris! It also makes me want to come to Melbourne again. To be hand-picked and listed as one of the world's more creative fashion cities is no small feat for a provincial city of four million. The city changed my attitude towards fashion. And no, we don't need an Opera House in our little backyard to do the job.

I guess that's one reason why I love Melbourne so much ^__^

(blip)

A simple message to somebody: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :D
(We'll work on the list later...)

Erm, that's all. Gotta rush for course induction at 10:30. Take care!