» Prejudice

Prejudice is everywhere.. and worse out of the UK..
Long time lurker, so first post so be easy on me.

I have been with my current girlfriend for more than 3 years now and we are an odd pairing by conventional standards.

Me: White Her: Indian born and bred

In the UK the worst prejudice we get is the odd idiotic chav calling her a Paki (when she is not) or the odd sneer in the street from people. In social situations, people can let their guard down and reveal their perceptions of cultures and race and all which is mostly amusing more than anything. Explaining that no, not all Indians are muslims, not all worship cows and no, people do earn more than one penny a day in India. The UK, despite our self determination to bash it for what it is, is a reasonably tolerant place and I often think people have no clue of how severe racism is elsewhere.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, in India, her parents hate me as I am not of the same culture and have different values to them, but they have admitted that it is, basically not right for me to be with their daughter as I am white. Her parents disowned her a year or so ago over this, she has lost friends over this is well as being the subject of isolation and rumours in her home town as she is in their view a whore for being with a white man, despite our long term commitment to the relationship. Prejudice has its place in every corner of society in India. From someone at the airport angry at me and my girlfriend for messing “their culture” and the guy who told us that its not possible for Indians and white people to have children.. as if we are a different species!

And with this in mind, in India, you are judged by the fairness of your skin. Constant streams of Nivea “whitening formula” to make your skin two tones lighter run throughout the day on tv, on kids tv I should say. People virtually bow down to me in ‘respect’ in India, they will do anything for me, want my opinion on anything and everything and aspire to be ‘as successful as me’ when I am little more than a two bit solicitor. But with this perverse superior treatment I receive from normal customers (more wealthy than me I might add) you have this hideous system which judges everyone by the shade of their skin, and predetermines whether you are to be a cleaner, or a somebody. My girlfriend by her own admission got her job as a television presenter in a larger city on the basis that she is fair skinned and nothing more. They even said with glee "fantastic! you are the lightest with have interviewed all day!"

So its a bizarre mixture of prejudice that works for and against you at different intervals in India.

As much as I love it in India, working here, living here, prejudice is ingrained in every aspect of society.
(Sun 4th Apr 2010, 22:11, More)

» Redundant technology

Keep patching it up until it dies!!
I tend to always hang on to old technology - I used a walkman up until 2006 and that thing is still around the house and gets used from time to time for my old rave tapes from 1991. I love that thing.. its played more tapes than its manufacturers ever intended but I refuse to chuck something out that I still get use and pleasure from. Just use a walkman on the tube and check out people turning their noses up. They obviously never used 'hot' recording techniques on analogue tapes when making mixes and are busy in their DRM infested cold digital technology. Something is seriously amiss with the throw away technology that MP3s are...

I have some Technics speakers from 1982 - I acquired them in 1998 from an elderly but wealthy gentleman who was sorry to see them go. (His wife was disabled and they were often in her way). If he reads B3ta (and is still around!) he would know they are still in use today and still sound fantastic. I spent some time restoring the casing to remove small marks and although I could have bought some new ones for a little more than the cost of the repairs, it just makes no sense to replace what is perfectly working machinery.

My laptop is from 2004 - its had a new hard drive, ram, DVD write drive, new battery and a new charger - ALl ebay parts and spares costing £10 or thereabouts each but those repairs and upgrades lengthened the life of this laptop beyond its 6th birthday. With a little tweaking its running windows 7 fine and efficiently as well as Linux. Why would I replace it??

I once heard a techie guy say something very true - something is only obsolete if it no one has a use for it.
(Sun 7th Nov 2010, 12:26, More)