A blog (short for Web Log) is a way of posting writings, thoughts or just plain inane ramblings to the web in a easy manner. It's easier to keep updated and as my site has proven troublesome to keep updated, I've employed a blog here to help keep things current.
Some of these "posts" may not be explicitly Christian - that is they may not be Bible studies :o) but all of them are written from my perspective as a Christian. It is , after all, part of what makes me... well, me.
Note that the blog pages are subject to a different licence to the rest of the site - see the bottom of the page for details.
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Human Rights vs Human Responsibility
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
There's been an interesting post on Slashdot (a regular visit for me) recently regarding the use of Blogs as spam.
When somebody commented that they like to see a Google feature that filters out blogs a discussion ensued which included some comments about how asking people not to blog was against human rights (free speech) and also the First Amendment of the US Bill of Rights.
The US Bill of Rights aside (like much of the web I am not American and have never read it so I can't really comment) as a human and a (very occasional) blogger I thought I'd comment on the idea that blogging is a human right (that of free speech).
Much seems to be made and held of certain (to use the US term) "inalienable" human rights we apprently have. These I am lead to believe include things like the right to life, freedom from tyrrany, freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of religion (or not accordingly).
The problem I see with this idea of human rights is that the idea is worthless on it's own. I can bang on to my heart's content about my freedom to life but if someone runs me over my "right" is worthless. Okay so governments can protect against such a thing but only in theory. They could enconse in law the right to life and punish my killer but that would not actually ensure I get my right to life.
Now if we talk about Human Responsibility in place of human rights then it starts to make more sense.
- Instead of a right to life we have the responsibility to protect and care for it.
- Instead of a right to freedom we have the reponsibility to allow it.
- Instead of a right to freedom of speech we have the responsibility to listen and engage in dialogue.
- Instead of a right to freedom of religion we have the responsibility to respect other's faith (or deliberate absence thereof) but live out our own.
- Instead of a right to blog we have a responsibility to blog respectfully.
- Instead of a right to have blgos exlcuded from our searches, we have a responsibility to exclude them (thus implying the search engines have a responsibility to give us this functionality, much as Google does with it's safe-searching facility now).
And human responsibility can be legislated for just as much (if not better than) human rights. Murder is the deliberate choice to avoid the responsibility to protect and care for life.
I am a Christian and throughout my life I have heard that the Bible promotes human rights. This is generally because of passages that speak of social care for the ostracised. But by my reading those passages refer to a responsibility on the part of those that have to aid those that have not. There is no mention of a widow or orhpan's "right" to be looked after. There is mention of the responsibility of the rest of us to do so. There is no mention of a mugged man's "right" to a Samritan's aid, there is mention of the responsibility of us all to help those in need.
One final big difference between human rights and human responsibility. It is possible to infringe on other people's human rights without realising or meaning it. It is almost impossible to ignore your human responsibility by accident - you have to mean to do so.
Cheers
C
Copyright Ryan P. Cartwright.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Second time parents
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Following my first time parents post in November, I am pleased to announce that we are now second time parents.
My daughter was born in May and is very healthy and beautiful.
When I posted the original stuff about how first time parents can be overwhelming for those around them, I figured that second time parents were less so. Now we have our little girl I am afraid this is wrong. I have a feeling that all those emotions that go with having a child - the inability to keep your mouth shut, the grins and the regular updating your colleagues of every new "advancement" the little one makes - are just as valid for a second child. In fact it's worse because now I find myself comparing "how he was at that age"!!
I imagine I must be very boring - if so why are you still here??
Cheers
C
Copyright Ryan P. Cartwright.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Broadband migration
I've been using Broadband (ADSL) for some time now and was quite happy with my 512K connection for a reasonable £25 per month.
I'd seen various adverts for £15 per month services but with few exceptions they were restrcited in some way. Either by the amount of traffic you could use or by the times you could use the service.
Anyway, I recently found PlusNET and discovered they now do a 2mb unlimited connection for £14.99 per month. Yes I did a second read of it when I saw it too. I migrated my service over and it went without a hitch, free setup too so I am now on (up to) four times the speed at just over half the cost. 15 quid is what I used to pay for my unlimited pat monthly dial-up for goodness sakes!
I've been using it amonth now and PlusNET have provided excellent service and customer support. As part of my work I deal with various broadband suppliers most days and I can say that PlusNEt is one of the best customer support services I have come across.
Anyway if you want to get in on the deal - which I have no reason to believe is temporary Click the banner below.
0 Okay confession time - if you sign up through that link I get a discount on my broadband but that's still only half the reason I am recommending it. The other half is to get people away from so-called value added services, that are just plain rip-off and restrictive. Plus Net are professional and friendly in their approach.
Cheers
C
Copyright Ryan P. Cartwright.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
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