Saturday 9 January 2010

Lindsay Lohan On Child Trafficking?

I'm not going to beat around the bush; I am a fan of Lindsay Lohan; have her movies, feel sorry for her that she has become such a train wreck. But this documentary takes the biscuit just a little. The girl looks like she has somehow woken up in India with no idea how she got there. The 0:56 mark is a look of fear, and Lindsay's advice on the subject of child trafficking?
It's not the parents who are in the wrong, it's not the children who are in the wrong, it's the traffickers who are in the wrong.
Genius.
Though it's nice to see Lindsay with worthwhile work again, and hopefully she will shed some light on the awful situation in India; maybe they could have clued her in just a little?

Friday 8 January 2010

Let It Snow


As temperatures reach -18c in parts of England this weekend, it can only be expected that certain groups of people begin the usual outcry of Global Warming. Papers have started documenting the chill with language such as "locked in" and "grim warning". As if this is it. Armageddon has come in the form of a soft blanket of snow.
People cleverly seem to forget that a hundred or so years ago, the Thames River itself used to freeze over during winter months; so much so that Londoners would then hold their daily markets on it. Children would ice skate and no doubt inspire those cheesy little Christmas cards we see today.
If this kind of extreme weather condition were to happen today there would be panic. Of course it would be our fault it had happened. We would be to blame for the sparkling scenery and the smiling snowmen on every corner. Our pollution has caused rain itself to freeze in the clouds! Damn, if only we had turned off our televisions instead of putting them on standby.

Wednesday 6 January 2010

Hungry Tiger.


Stress is supposedly one of the worst ways we as human beings can deal with a situation. To get angry, tense, start cursing things that to all intents and purposes can't hear you; (Like the heavy snow when you're wanting to be flying out of the country!!!). We've heard the warnings time and time again, that stress can cause premature wrinkles, grey hair and even premature death.
But can we really control an emotion that has been with us since we first invented the wheel?
Fright flight or fight. A tongue twister that incorporates what those little neurons in our brain buzz to us when we are faced with an unpleasant situation.
We either stick our heads in the sand so to speak and ignore what's happened; for a caveman this would be the equivalent of curling up in a ball if suddenly faced with a tiger. Secondly we have the choice of flight. A reaction which entails turning your back on a situation and leaving it as best you can; running as far away as you can from that tiger and pray it doesn't catch up. Lastly, there is fight. The response we all like to imagine we'd do. Face the predator down with our spear and fight to the death-a risky move nonetheless but a bold one with at least a small chance of success.

The fright flight or fight situation is caused by a rush of adrenaline. This adrenaline either gives you the ability to run slightly faster than usual, freeze on the spot, or fight a little harder than you normally could. In todays terms, this adrenaline is coursing through our veins a lot more than it should due to most peoples tendency to stress out at any available opportunity. Since the adrenaline is not being put to effective good use, it remains seething below the surface. If you think in terms of a students build up to exams, this adrenaline would remain pumping through the body for months at a time. What was once designed to be a help to us, is now a hindrance.
So should we relax and let things take it's course? Stop stressing over situations that are not hungry tigers? I don't think so. If my possibly cancelled flight is my ravenous tiger, than so be it. I just hope I don't run out of adrenaline if the tiger situation were ever to arise.