disappointment

i had a pretty difficult weekend, and things have not gotten much better today. in fact it has been one of those days when everything has gone wrong, and i have continually failed to meet expectations. in some cases this is my fault, and in other cases i believe the expectations have been just a tad beyond my reach, in a permanent kind of way.

so yeah, i'm really relating to julie's post on tears just now, though i don't have anywhere near as valid a reason for them as she does. and wondering how it is that you say to a person "i can't be what you want me to be, i don't even want to be that person; can't you accept me as i am?" it's not a very easy message to give in some circumstances, and the constant sense of disappointment all round is very wearying.


in other news, the waikato times decided to offer its readers a free 3-month subscription to the sunday star times. i've rung them to cancel it, because i know one of the reasons they will be doing this is to increase circulation numbers, thereby being able to keep existing advertisers (i hear their circulation numbers are decreasing rapidly) or perhaps to charge them more. in any case, i'm not interested in being part of a campaign to boost the circulation of a paper that hosts the rantings of michael lhaws. i've rung up and told them so. if any of you are subscribers to the waikato times, i'd ask that you consider doing the same.

i only read two paragraphs of his column in last sunday's paper, a rant against teenagers that seems to take a page out of nigel latta's book and expand it in an exponential fashion. it saddens me that there are people out there so filled with hatred and bitterness. or maybe he's just playing to his crowd, which is what he's being paid for. in either case, i don't want to be a party to it, even if i don't have to pay a cent towards this campaign.


moving on again, here is a press release regarding a piece of research to come out of victoria university showing that young muslims are doing well here compared to those living in the UK. which is all very well (and yes, really good to hear), but it reminds me of the research & articles which show that women in nz are doing so well compared to their counterparts overseas. of course when you compare women in nz to men in nz, there continues to be disparity in wages, leadership positions, relative poverty etc etc. the overseas comparison just becomes a barrier to progress because actual disparities are disappeared in all the good news about well we're apparently doing. this is why i'd like to see a comparison between young muslims in nz and non-muslims in nz. the results may be positive there as well, which would be great. but i think it's an important piece of information that is missing from the current press release.