opinios

The Chinese have a traditional teaching method that has developed over the last 5,000 years. Ba zhe shou jiao - that is, 'teaching by holding their hands'. The idea behind this method of teaching is that the child will happily continue to come back for more by carefully molding and shaping absolutely everything they do throughout their childhoods and adolescence. As a result of this careful molding and shaping however, the child does not learn how to be creative, the child does not learn how to think independently or creatively for themselves. To be totally honest, the child actually doesn't learn how to do ANYTHING!

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A few minor updates to the site, including a much-improved archive. Browsing past submissions to opinios is more intuitive and useful than before, with a direct link to the submission being the major improvement. I have been wanting to stick a graphic in the top right-hand corner for a while too.

So check out some of the earlier stuff if you haven't had a browse yet.

And if you haven't been following the discussion forum, some interesting topics are being thrown around, so register a user name and speak your mind!

i wonder if next time
she pass by
i don't just smile
and give my brothers high five
don't just dip my feet
but take a dive
forget the lines
and get myself
someone nice

Cameron writes: "I like the update to your website, it inspired me to send you some more pics :) These photos were taken last year when I was in East Timor for a short while, and I also have some recents shots taken around Sydney."

Sydney Snaps | Timor Tidbits

Ok, the submissions have been pouring in and I have some catch-up to do.

I have been trying to walk that fine line between staying informed (and angry) about the war in Iraq while not overloading on propaganda and useless but disturbing information related to it. It is probably a blessing that most of the news broadcasts in Japan are not bilingual as otherwise I would just sit glued to the TV screen in an unhealthy, perpetual mix of fascination and horror. Although the news web sites are certainly getting a solid number of hits from my browser.

But it is great to see other people not letting world events distract them from being creative and submitting stuff. I will get to them over the next few days, promise.

Incidentally, I know that the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan had suppressed any form of free expression, including paintings of living things, and that people were flogged or killed for possessing sculpture or portraiture. Islam has always had the belief that imagery is disrespectful to Allah, from the replacing of ornate Greek Orthodox murals in the Aya Sofia mosque in Istanbul with simple mosaics a thousand years ago, to the destruction of the Bamiyan buddha statues in Afghanistan only two years ago. However, Afghan creativity is very slowly starting to make an appearance on the web at places like the unfortunately-named Caca Kabul online gallery).

I started wondering whether Saddam's fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran included this suppression of creativity and whether we were going to see any stories like this after Iraq was "liberated".

It turns out however that there are loads of Iraqi painters, musicians and creative individuals out there, at places like iraqiart.com, and apparently Saddam himself has even written a few books according to this article. In fact it seems that the biggest threat to Baghdad's art collection being vanquished and its creative community being repressed is the current onslaught of American B-52 bombers.

I tried to search through the Koran for the phrase that Islamic fundamentalists interpret to mean art and music are sinful, and the closest I could come up with is this, when Mohammad is involved in confusing dialogue over how best to serve Allah (The Prophets 21:52 - 21:58):

When he said to his father and his people: What are these images to whose worship you cleave?
They said: We found our fathers worshipping them.
He said: Certainly you have been, (both) you and your fathers, in manifest error.
They said: Have you brought to us the truth, or are you one of the triflers?
He said: Nay! your Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, Who brought them into existence, and I am of those who bear witness to this: And, by Allah! I will certainly do something against your idols after you go away, turning back.
So he broke them into pieces, except the chief of them, that haply they may return to it.

It seems religious scripture can mean anything to anyone. Any comments, anyone?

The morning broke across Jimmy's face through a single rip in the curtains. A solitary ray of sunshine. He pulled on his clothes and crept downstairs to find some breakfast, and with an apple in hand, he stole out of the house, ambling across the parched lawn towards the bus stop. He stood next to the dry road awaiting the school bus and subsequent abuse, clutching the book of fairy tales to his chest like a shield.

Jeremy Pollard has submitted another round of photos, this time a selection of landscape shots from his travels to New Zealand. I swear if you look at the fisherman for long enough you can see him move; just a quick flick as he casts out another line while you're not watching...

Land of the Long White Cloud | Land of the Deep Blue Ocean

"Eventually the hills closed in on the road and forced us to make our path around their contours. The road climbed across them on gradually steeper and higher paths until we were among mountains. A sharp and terrifying drop lay to the right of the road and the bus driver, his blue-eyed good luck charms bobbing around him, decided that the best strategy was to drive in precisely the middle of the road until forced to one side by oncoming traffic."

Yaay, you can now write comments about individual submissions to opinios. Just click on the "comment" link at the bottom of the post and let the author know what you think of their work!

I have also modified the discussion forum so that you can register (I know, just what you need - another username and password!) Well it's not a requirement to post, but is handy for those wanting to prevent others from using their username. I'll let the two Nicks fight it out...