This site will be moving to a new place
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Thursday, 30 July 09 - 08:42 PM (GMT +12:00) By John Dierckx in My Journal |
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More recently I have opened up a new home for the Renaissance Man and other blogs at http://johndierckx.wordpress.com.
For the terapad fans amongst you, this choice has none to do with not being content with terapad, which I still see as one of my favorite content management packages and have been using it with great pleasure and satisfaction for years now. The reason to shift is one of integration with other services like twitter and flickr, the ability to integrate it with posterous (www.posterous.com) which makes it possible to post via gmail when I see something of interest.
For regular visitors of this blog: let me first thank you for your interest and at times fantastic responses. I hope we can continue this on the new site at http://johndierckx.wordpress.com.
It is noted here that more than this site, the new blog site contains all I am putting out, so it also contains posts that I do on the following blog sites:
- Dierckx & Associates Ltd (http://dierckx.terapad.com)
- ARCIS Fraud Discovery & Exposure Centre (http://blog.arcisfdec.com)
- Expat Health 101 (http://expathealth101), the blog for Arcis Insurance (http://www.arcisinsurance.com)
All in all it makes my life a lot easier in that sense.
In the coming period however I will double up the most important posts and start copying some of the articles from here into my wordpress site under the heading "The Vault".
I look forward to seeing you there and continue the conversations.
John
A tormented European Intellectual or a concerned parent?
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Friday, 01 May 09 - 01:45 AM (GMT +12:00) By John Dierckx in My Journal |
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The Investigate Magazine (s) (http://www.investigatemagazine.com) of the past months have highlighted what every parent should be concerned about: how the state education systems of Western societies are failing miserably and contributing to the intellectual decline of Western nations. In his Eve’s Bite, Ian Wishart compellingly documents the social engineering of generations to the educational system. Having seen the output of current students when writing papers or reports I can not help but feeling a lot of sympathy for these feelings of failure.
I was made privy to several papers of University students made up quotes from copied and pasted using Google. Modern media appears to have become the standard and actual scholarly or scientific literature is something that is probably right for the makers of Discovery Channel or a few nerds, but not for the ‘normal’ student.
Knowledge based learning appears to have been replaced by social conditioning: no thought but which ones am actually allowed to have in there. Reasoning/arguing a particular perspective, viewpoint or position? Nah, “discussing” a subject in a paper is marginalized to blind and thoughtless quotation of a set of prescribed and one sided articles and books (approved literature) by “approved” authors.
Try to incorporate opposite views and you will hear the that is not going to bring me any points argument. Most of all I was struck about the way in which these prescribed views were presented in these papers: do they not teach the basic skill of writing a sentence anymore? This was almost like reading a collection of text messages or so you wish tweets. Now I am known to make the regular spelling error but this was like nothing ever saw before. Most of all I am truly worried to see that “thinking for yourself” appears to have actually been drilled out. Combine that with the erosion of parental roles, rights and responsibilities for the benefit of enhanced government control of the past nine years and it becomes apparent how much your child is in danger of becoming the next dumbed down puppet. It becomes apparent how much change and I mean dramatic change is needed.
I guess I can sympathize with Amy Brooke in her May 2009 column in Investigate Magazine:
“… Essentially we’re at war - essentially a kind of social war being waged by the mindless products of a rootless, destructive and immensely ignorant sector of society , including parents and their near barbaric offspring - indoctrinated with the grievances of overblown egos - or simply purposeless and adrift. What we’re now involved in is a social revolution against the very forces which traditionally stabilize Western society - an innate sober conservatism and the ultimate message of Christianity - stressing that man has obligations beyond those to himself or his mere tribe.
… This battleground encompasses our schools and their curricula, their anti religious - i.e. specifically their anti-Christian propaganda; the denigration of what he (Peter Hitchens in his book “The Abolition of Britain”) and the watering down of examinations to cover the attack on actual knowledge - and the decline of educational standards. All this in the name of spreading the gospel of a new society where everyone and everything is equal.”
In our state schools here in New Zealand nobody should be first, you don’t try to win a race, you “participate” and there is no room for first prizes. Individual study ad quiet concentration is replaced by group learning and discussion. In the meantime the lowering of the standards have lead to a decline in output of people that actually don’t have some of the most basic skills to develop as a human being: adequate levels of reading and writing and language skills, basic maths and science skills. The other day, and this is not the first time it happened, my four year old comes home with a picture he made. It was sad to see how a teacher can screw up such an effort by making spelling errors in a basic sentence. The boy had been asked what the teacher should write under his picture ended up with the following sentence:
“The sun is shinning today.”
Wouldn’t it be great if our children were actually taught the basics instead of all these ideology based social engineering programs in which the basics are replaced by mind manipulation and lowered standards for basic skills?
I recently had a great talk with Dr Jay Olivier (http://www.olivierlex.com), someone with a passion for teaching.
He passionately told me about his views on education I realized how incredible it would be for the system to have such driven and knowledgable individuals teach our future generations. At the same time I realized that he would most likely end up being one of those few genuinly knowledgable teachers left, who will have to deal with the “ignorance is bliss” culture of that system. On 14 April he tweeted “Promoting an Exclusive Education Programme in Christchurch, NZ” which most likely will have looked like swearing in church for some.
Count me in Jay! There is nothing wrong with exclusivity for those that do want to break free of the masses and get the best our of themselves. Can we please start with a course in “Thinking for yourself” or “Evaluating what you read and hear” and “basic report and paper writing” as I think they would be a good start to create what they used to call Triple C graduates when I was a student: competent, critical and creative: able to think independently without losing sight for the interconnected and interdependent state and nature of things and affairs and with room for a personal opinion even if it did not accord with that of your professor, that is if you could substantiate your views in a convincing way.
I am now thinking that someone we know would sigh and say: “John you are a tormented European intellectual that does not want to be helped.” I guess I am starting to understand what “help” may very well mean: join in with the ignorance and call it being relaxed. “She’ll be right mate, sweet as…” In my humble tormented European intellectual opinion, our children are not going to be right at all if things don’t change rapidly and besides that as a parent (yes I refuse to use the word caregiver to describe my role) I think we can substantially contribute in providing a broader scope to what is being taught at primary, high schools, polytechs and universities all within our options and means. Ever since I went on from high school to study music and after that law, I have started to realize the importance of having two parents that opened my world by having books available in the house on any imaginable subject.
While there may have been difficulties with paying the bills at times, there was always room to expand the already impressive collection of books. I remember the days well where I would enjoy reading about the lives and times of the great painters like Van Gogh, Rembrandt van Rijn, Cezanne, Gaugin, great figures of history like Leonardo da Vinci, Gandhi, Napoleon, Lincoln, Washington, and well the lost could go on forever. It must have been in these younger years that I developed that hunger for new knowledge and understanding. Having a primary school where such an approach was highly stimulated only enhanced this experience. And no we were not are equal, and because of that those that needed extra assistance in certain areas were actually identified and assisted by teachers as well as classmates. Yes there was competition bit at the same time there was a sense of helping out each other since lowering the standard was not an option.
I remember well my warm welcome as a twelve year old at the Greek embassy because I needed to write about Greece. No set rules on what you were to write, but go and read or go and talk to the people themselves, and where better to do that than the embassy. Or, my Wednesday afternoons spent in the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam where with the help of the then Museum librarian I wrote my own first paper on the history and developments of ships and combined with a a number of relevant books at home about the same subject. And just for the record, I was not an exception, that was the way it was done, that was the norm. Groups were based on achievement levels and while there were group lessons, there was a lot of quiet and concentrated time where you worked on your assignments and where the teacher was available to help out with questions, whether it was reading, writing, maths, science, history arts and crafts or religion.
I think I had a good wake up call, and will need to take more responsibilities myself, meaning extra time for the children and stimulating them to be the best they can be at all times an do whatever it takes to ensure that they can think for themselves. In the tradition of my parents that will mean connecting my children with history, the full scope of present and with that hopefully the future, and raising children that are hungry to learn and experience and most of all that can actally think for themselves and develop their own understanding of things.
Back to smoking again
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Monday, 13 April 09 - 01:49 AM (GMT +12:00) By John Dierckx in My Journal |
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I tried and failed.
Cold Turkey: John Stopped Smoking Day 4
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Wednesday, 18 March 09 - 06:25 AM (GMT +12:00) By John Dierckx in My Journal |
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I am now three days into this stop smoking adventure and can but say that it is so far hard. It has not been the first time so I knew what was coming to me but at the same time cold turkey is quite something else. I am not going to say it is not that bad cause well you know, it is. No bull, it is bl...y hard work hanging in there and staying productive.
In the past days, especially when things were rough I have been looking around for helpful information. I stopped doing that: what a waste of time. I guess the stop smoking industry has become equally lucrative as the tobacco industry. And with that, I have so far not found any useful information about cold turkey stopping like me. If you
have any good sites let me know because by now: what seemed to be the most obvious way - just stop - seems like the least obvious way. Oh but wait: that does not generate revenues of course and it does not keep some otherwise jobless help/quit liner of the street (the blessings of a left wing Clark government for the previous 9 years: a country stuffed up with semi jobs all in an attempt to manipulate the employment figures).
I am not sure whether it is more difficult than with the chewing gum, the patches, the pills or even the Alan Carr book. In fact I don't care. I guess it is more something of setting your mind to it and dealing with the shit that comes with that. Moreover, the setting the mind is the easy part, the keeping that mindset is the hard part because of what (in my instance) seems to come with stopping:
- being distracted and having a hard time concentrating
- a screwed up digestive system that does not seem to know what it wants
- stomach and muscle cramps
- considerable mood swings
- sleeping difficulties (this is the second night in a row I woke up soaking wet dreaming about smoking a cigarette)
It is under such circumstances of course very easy to fool yourself into thinking "is it really all worth this shit" and it is even easier to fool yourself into thinking that it is not and trick yourself again into these reasons why quitting is not an option any longer or at least not for now. So today I told myself: legions have done it without all the bullshit patches, rescue teams, chewing gum and books, they just did it. Now it is my turn, if only because it is ridiculous to see how the stop smoking campaigns have turned into an industry itself. My best motivator: my children. My worst enemy: an incredibly slow internet connection that is seriously pissing me off.
I must say that already the coughing appears to be less than before and also: whilst on the first day it seemed like impossible to even think about the possibility to wake up without having a cigarette first or not having a cigarette after diner, those moments are already easier. My wife and children may not entirely agree on that however (ggg).
Even after three days I seem to notice that I start smelling more which if you have young children could also be a bad thing at times and deep breading seems to come more easy and naturally.
7 am now and since I had another sleepless night time for a coffee.
PS my wife just woke up and asked me about last night which was spent semi-awake. Another good thing apparently: you do not look as sick and grey as on other previous attempts. Hmm
Cold Turkey: John's Stop Smoking Journal
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Sunday, 15 March 09 - 11:08 AM (GMT +12:00) By John Dierckx in My Journal |
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In the past years I have on several occasions tried to stop smoking. I have tried chewing gum, patches, pills, an Ian Carr book and several other "proven methods" that have so far never had more result than me stopping smoking for at best 3 weeks.
In the past period I got somewhat pissed off about how long it takes to get over a cold and how I woke up every morning coughing like I was an olds man. It is an alarming experience when your seven year old says: John can cou finally stop smoking cause it will kill you.
So this morning I smoked my hopefully last cigarette, and since all these prove methods have not worked I thought I might as well give cold turkey a go.
At the same time I thought by making this part of my journal, I have an extra backstop to persist since it has now become part of the public domain. Since I am only 3.5 hours going nothing to report yet except for that coffee without a cigarette is different.
No casualties (yet) so nothing exciting but than that this probably tenth attempt is now official.I will keep you posted. Wish me luck.
Any tips and cheers are welcome of course.
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