getting back into blogging

as i've said every time i take a break from blogging, it's really hard to get back into it once you've been away. i don't know why - it's not like there haven't been events happening that make me upset or angry, or even happy or contemplative. it's just that i stop composing thoughts around those events to put in writing. or the need to share those thoughts just doesn't seem so strong.

there have, as i've said, been plenty of things. the ports of auckland dispute has been hugely depressing, and i really feel for the workers who have been denied the ability to work or to bargain effectively because of a management intent on achieving a pre-determined outcome. what is truly hilarious in a tragic kind of way is the number of people on over-inflated salaries who complain about how much port workers are getting paid. i just can't figure out the disconnect in these people's minds - that they can justify their own large salary in their heads even though they aren't really working any harder than workers at the bottom end of the scale holding 2 or 3 jobs just to get by. and there's no evidence that port workers are getting paid more than the job deserves. but no, such people are happy for others to have to live on less while continuing to push for large pay rises for themselves. i find that kind of thinking contemptible.

another of the things making me sad of late is the whole tragedy in toulouse. i couldn't watch, i don't know how the parents and community lived through the experience of those poor children being shot. i don't even know how the murderer justified it in his head - just because children are suffering in another part of the world doesn't make it in any way right to go out and kill innocent people in another country. the motives of the gunman, from the little i've read, are political rather than religious. they would have to be, because there is no way that his religion would allow the murder of innocents, and specifically not children. it's all too awful, and my condolences go to the families who have suffered.

on another topic altogether, i watched the film rendition on saturday night. it was a pretty harrowing watch, and while i disagree with some aspects of the film, it's one that should be seen. meryl streep was brilliant as she usually is, and i'm increasingly becoming a fan of jake gyllenhaal. but i really found the performances of the "north african" actors to be really strong. the movie is based on a real case which turns out to be even sadder than the film.

i've put up a couple of posts at the hand mirror - one on the hunger games which i saw over the weekend, and the second about the changed driving rules. re the hunger games, i can't decide whether i liked the movie or not. i liked the way it was shot, it was certainly true to the book. but i don't think it portrayed strongly enough the underlying theme of exploitation, and the strong social commentary of the books.