I've been thinking about this for days but just haven't had time to write... but this will be another post of news that I either like or dislike.
First the news that I believe will affect the most people. I can say loads of positive and negative things about the European Union - and I tend to bring up more negative stuff - but this is really, really stupid. It is, of course, the proposal that women should be ensured money for staying home the first six weeks after giving birth.
This new directive is part of proposals first unveiled in October 2008 but the decision still hasn't been made. The point of the directive is to give mothers a longer and better paid maternity leave just after a baby is born.
Now, don't get me wrong here. It's great that parents are home taking care of their newborn kids. I do strongly believe that kids should have good parents (which is a good reason to allow any reasonable person to adopt children, no matter who they're fucking). But mothers are not necessarily better parents than fathers. So why limit this parental leave to mothers? Why force women to stay at home? This may be better than the current situation in many countries, but it would be a downfall for Sweden. And if we aim at a more equal sitation, why make laws that inhibit that? Why not just write a law about parental leave, rather than maternal?
In some cases, I do believe that we have to use the law to encourage people to make decisions that are good for the society. Like the two months of parental leave that can only be used by fathers, a directive in Sweden that shouldn't be needed since fathers should take their responsiblity (and how could anyone -not- want to be home with their kids?), but since fathers only take 22% of the parental leave, directives like thate one are apparently needed. However, the new EU directive implies that women are more suited for taking care of kids, and excludes fathers from the little family. Why not just make it a non-specified parental leave? Mothers will still take the majority of the parental leave, but at least fathers and maybe even non-biological mothers in lesbian relationships would have the chance to stay home with their little baby. Why limit people? Equality standards that were out of date in the 1950's won't ever help the baby.
From that, let's switch to something good! This is a funny news post, I have a very random way of selecting news... But this is something that made me happy, it's somehow reassuring that people do non-profit actions to gain and spread information.
Latvia suffered a lot from the recent recession, and the unemployment rate at 23%, is the highest in the European Union. Banks and companies have asked the government for help. Now there's a hacker, believed to be a man and calling himself Neo, who's been downloading data from loads of companies and banks, and who is now slowly leaking this information to news sites. Depressingly, he's found that bank managers have not taken the salary cuts they've promised to take, and companies have paid bonuses but at the same time asking the government for economical support. This isn't good at all, but the lovely thing about this is someone investing a lot of time and effort in finding this information and spreading it, so that everyone gets access to it. I'm impressed.
Another man taking a fight for a good cause - a man who should not have been given the Nobel Peace Prize, although he's taking many important fights - is Barack Obama, who is now trying to change the policy that openly homosexual men are not allowed in the American army. I didn't even know they have that policy! But apparently homosexual men aren't even allowed to mention their sexual preferences. That's. simply. ridiculous.
Someone else had a fight a couple of days ago. A killer whale named Tilikum killed a 'trainer' in Florida. Of course I'm not happy about someone's death. But wtf, killer whales belong in the ocean, not in a pool making performances. Leave them alone.
First the news that I believe will affect the most people. I can say loads of positive and negative things about the European Union - and I tend to bring up more negative stuff - but this is really, really stupid. It is, of course, the proposal that women should be ensured money for staying home the first six weeks after giving birth.
This new directive is part of proposals first unveiled in October 2008 but the decision still hasn't been made. The point of the directive is to give mothers a longer and better paid maternity leave just after a baby is born.
Now, don't get me wrong here. It's great that parents are home taking care of their newborn kids. I do strongly believe that kids should have good parents (which is a good reason to allow any reasonable person to adopt children, no matter who they're fucking). But mothers are not necessarily better parents than fathers. So why limit this parental leave to mothers? Why force women to stay at home? This may be better than the current situation in many countries, but it would be a downfall for Sweden. And if we aim at a more equal sitation, why make laws that inhibit that? Why not just write a law about parental leave, rather than maternal?
In some cases, I do believe that we have to use the law to encourage people to make decisions that are good for the society. Like the two months of parental leave that can only be used by fathers, a directive in Sweden that shouldn't be needed since fathers should take their responsiblity (and how could anyone -not- want to be home with their kids?), but since fathers only take 22% of the parental leave, directives like thate one are apparently needed. However, the new EU directive implies that women are more suited for taking care of kids, and excludes fathers from the little family. Why not just make it a non-specified parental leave? Mothers will still take the majority of the parental leave, but at least fathers and maybe even non-biological mothers in lesbian relationships would have the chance to stay home with their little baby. Why limit people? Equality standards that were out of date in the 1950's won't ever help the baby.
From that, let's switch to something good! This is a funny news post, I have a very random way of selecting news... But this is something that made me happy, it's somehow reassuring that people do non-profit actions to gain and spread information.
Latvia suffered a lot from the recent recession, and the unemployment rate at 23%, is the highest in the European Union. Banks and companies have asked the government for help. Now there's a hacker, believed to be a man and calling himself Neo, who's been downloading data from loads of companies and banks, and who is now slowly leaking this information to news sites. Depressingly, he's found that bank managers have not taken the salary cuts they've promised to take, and companies have paid bonuses but at the same time asking the government for economical support. This isn't good at all, but the lovely thing about this is someone investing a lot of time and effort in finding this information and spreading it, so that everyone gets access to it. I'm impressed.
Another man taking a fight for a good cause - a man who should not have been given the Nobel Peace Prize, although he's taking many important fights - is Barack Obama, who is now trying to change the policy that openly homosexual men are not allowed in the American army. I didn't even know they have that policy! But apparently homosexual men aren't even allowed to mention their sexual preferences. That's. simply. ridiculous.
Someone else had a fight a couple of days ago. A killer whale named Tilikum killed a 'trainer' in Florida. Of course I'm not happy about someone's death. But wtf, killer whales belong in the ocean, not in a pool making performances. Leave them alone.
3 mars 2010 kl. 10:24
This post is just WIN :D!