Thursday, December 04, 2008

A quick personal update as I havnt done one for a while

Im still in Doha, still swamped with work, things here have gone from surreal to Dadaistic

I veer on a daily basis from Elation to thoughts of packing it all in and heading home it been 2 years and 2 months here in this sandy town,

Doha is expanding at what seems to be a exponential rate with the good things and bad that go with it


Good


There are things to do – Concerts, Jazz, Galleries & Museums have opened – this is infinitely better.

I have moved up in the company – I have a team (my old team infact) im involved with a number of exciting company projects, and I relish the challenge.


Bad

With the increase in population comes an epic increase in traffic – what was a 20 min commute now takes over an hour


Corporate bureaucracy is now at an all time high, Overtime from august still not paid, Qatarisation is now in full flow, I believe things are now traveling backwards. God bless western HR & Finance departments – you are gods people do not understand how good they have it.


Personally im getting back into creativity, im going to start printing again, I bought a screen, photo masque chemicals, inks & a squeegee. First project Christmas cards. Then personal calling cards the question of where to buy lazer printable OHP paper in Doha rears its ugly head :/

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Here Here Neil Gaiman, i agree whole heartedly - always defend free speech, no matter how offensive i think something is i will always defend someones right to say what they want to say.

I am increacingly concerned about the turning tide of freedom in britan, having re-read V for Vendetta its getting awfully precient. the increacing big brotherification of the place i call home is now scaring me. I work for an organisation that gives voices to the voiceless in a country with a terible human rights record, i find it hard to reconsile the two on a daily basis. i by virtue of my skin colour and the nationality of my passports i am garaunteed rights but i see headlines that make my skin crawl. maybe i should get used to dichotomy.

i echo Neils sentiments as well "
(And let it be understood that I think that child pornography, and the exploitation of actual children for porn or for sex is utterly wrong and bad, because actual children are being directly harmed. And also that I think that prosecuting as child pornographers a 16 and 17 year old who were legally able to have sex, because they took a sexual photograph of themselves and emailed it to themselves is utterly, insanely wrong, and a nice example of the law as blunt instrument.) "


http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/12/why-defend-freedom-of-icky-speech.html