Hello there! Well it has been a while. I read once it was bad form to apologise for not having posted for some time, but I think in this case I feel like some sort of acknowledgment of my absence is warranted.
It has been a 'busy' few months, although I do dislike using the word 'busy'. Busy doesn't tell us very much, does it? It is like 'fine'; an empty word that describes the status quo and adds no real value to a sentence. It is there as a social nicety, which is something I suppose. 'What has been keeping you busy?' has been my go-to question of late, rather than 'what do you do?'. It makes for a more interesting conversation.
Occasionally, I include a twist and amend it with 'what has been keeping you busy mentally?'
In my case, it has been a couple of months of growing up. Mentally, I have been devoting a lot of time to issues around gender, access to opportunity and diversity across decision making places. I've also been thinking a lot about unconscious bias, how that plays a role in our society and how we can move past it...
Big issues, big questions. Too much for one blog post perhaps.
So instead, let me pepper you with some links to say hello again, and hopefully the next update will not be so far away.
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I was recently alerted to this wonderful website: 'Into the Middle of Things', where Australians from around the country are interviewed about their life. The first one I saw was below and it is a beautiful few minutes with Abe, a Sudanese-Brisbane lad:
Born in a Sudanese jail in the midst of a civil war, Abe escaped a possible future as a child soldier and managed to make it to Australia as a refugee with his seven brothers and sisters. The secret emotional and mental toll of this is still catching up with him today.
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Shonda Rhimes is an awesome strong black woman and is doing some cool things with the various TV series she writes.
"I get asked a lot by reporters and tweeters why I am so invested in 'diversity' on television," Rhimes said, according to Medium's text of her speech. "'Why is it so important to have diversity on TV?' they say. I really hate the word 'diversity.' It suggests something other. ... As if there is something unusual about telling stories involving women and people of color and LGBTQ characters on TV."
Rhimes offered an alternative to the term "diversity," saying she'd rather describe what she's doing as "normalizing."
"I am making TV look like the world looks. Women, people of color, LGBTQ people equal way more than 50% of the population. Which means it ain't out of the ordinary. I am making the world of television look normal," she said.
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Some awesome women learning to be engineers in remote areas in the Philippines. LOVE IT.
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Did n bit of a run down on various topics with the Triple J Hack crew for the Friday night Shake Up. What are your thoughts on some of these issues? Listen to the podcast here. Also did some radio in Arabic! Check it by clicking here.
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Loving this insta: Did I ever tell you I really used to love drawing cartoons?
90s Superboy cover for DC's Convergence! :)
A photo posted by babsdraws (@babsdraws) on Jan 14, 2015 at 6:06pm PST
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So anyway, what has been keeping YOU busy mentally?