Questionable Ethics
When living overseas, in the midst of a different culture and different sets of ethics, you can quite easily find yourself in the midst of an activity that might be considered questionable. Such as buying DVDs... from the DVD man on the corner...who pirates them.
Upon first arriving to the Island, I couldn't find my way to the grocery store down the street let alone make it to a proper store that sold proper non-counterfeit versions of the entertainment product (I'm not exactly great with directions). So, rationalizing my purchase, I began to buy from our friendly neighborhood DVD man.
Recently, I was involved in a... confrontation of sorts... regarding an item which was not rightfully owned by the person who had it in possession. This incident, during which the person realized that they were in the wrong, prompted me to examine my own pile of not so rightly-owned items. I am very aware that some people reading this will probably roll their eyes and say that I'm making a big deal out of nothing - and what about all the bad ethics of the people who make movies in the first place? But to you, I simply say I cannot account for the people behind the DVD industry, I can only account for my own actions. So, to wrap this short story up, I took each one of my wrongly owned DVDs and made them unusable. Amazon.com digital copies, here I come!
Scratched, broken, cracked, microwaved, and no longer wrongfully owned DVDs.
Maybe Just a Little TMI
Today while discussing a story recently read with my students, one of my darlings piped up and said that kissing on the lips (shock, horror, gasp!) was "haram" - wrong or forbidden. She went on to say that it was "haram" for Muslims to kiss. Period.
I found this rather amusing and quipped, "What do you think your mother and father do? Shake hands?"
At which point my sweet little student's jaw dropped and her gaping mouth was accentuated by her bugging eyes. She then stated for her friends who were now listening, "My mom and dad have NEVER kissed!" I laughed while another student whispered that she had seen her mother and father kiss once while they thought no one was looking. The little girl who so adamantly affirmed her parents' chastity looked downright shocked to think of her parents committing such an unheard of act. I had to laugh but also wondered if I had just mistakenly crossed the invisible line between classroom discussion and discussion of the sacred. I think for that little girl, those few minutes contained just a little Too Much Information.
When living overseas, in the midst of a different culture and different sets of ethics, you can quite easily find yourself in the midst of an activity that might be considered questionable. Such as buying DVDs... from the DVD man on the corner...who pirates them.
Upon first arriving to the Island, I couldn't find my way to the grocery store down the street let alone make it to a proper store that sold proper non-counterfeit versions of the entertainment product (I'm not exactly great with directions). So, rationalizing my purchase, I began to buy from our friendly neighborhood DVD man.
Recently, I was involved in a... confrontation of sorts... regarding an item which was not rightfully owned by the person who had it in possession. This incident, during which the person realized that they were in the wrong, prompted me to examine my own pile of not so rightly-owned items. I am very aware that some people reading this will probably roll their eyes and say that I'm making a big deal out of nothing - and what about all the bad ethics of the people who make movies in the first place? But to you, I simply say I cannot account for the people behind the DVD industry, I can only account for my own actions. So, to wrap this short story up, I took each one of my wrongly owned DVDs and made them unusable. Amazon.com digital copies, here I come!
Scratched, broken, cracked, microwaved, and no longer wrongfully owned DVDs.
Maybe Just a Little TMI
Today while discussing a story recently read with my students, one of my darlings piped up and said that kissing on the lips (shock, horror, gasp!) was "haram" - wrong or forbidden. She went on to say that it was "haram" for Muslims to kiss. Period.
I found this rather amusing and quipped, "What do you think your mother and father do? Shake hands?"
At which point my sweet little student's jaw dropped and her gaping mouth was accentuated by her bugging eyes. She then stated for her friends who were now listening, "My mom and dad have NEVER kissed!" I laughed while another student whispered that she had seen her mother and father kiss once while they thought no one was looking. The little girl who so adamantly affirmed her parents' chastity looked downright shocked to think of her parents committing such an unheard of act. I had to laugh but also wondered if I had just mistakenly crossed the invisible line between classroom discussion and discussion of the sacred. I think for that little girl, those few minutes contained just a little Too Much Information.
At least you didn't ask the little girl, "Well, how do you think YOU got here?!" haha! oh dear.
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