Tin Tal Kaidas and Thekas

I've got another rehersal tonight for an upcomming festival and have just packed up my tabla. This reminded me that I did say I'd post some simple tabla Kaidas and Thekas etc on here so this is something simple that I start rehersing/playing with. You can vary the amount of times you play each segment, it's up to you. Enjoy.

Da Din Din Da - Da Din Din Da - Da Tin Tin Ta - Ta Din Din Da

Da Da TiRa KiTa - Da Da Tin Na - Ta Ta TiRa KiTa - Da Da Din Na

Da Da TiRa KiTa - Da Da TiRa KiTa - Da Da TiRa KiTa - Da Da Tin Na

Na Na TiRa KiTa -Na Na TiRa KiTa -Da Da TiRa KiTa - Da Da Din Na

Da Da TiRa KiTa - TiRa KiTa TiRa KiTa - Da Da TiRa KiTa - Da Da Tin Na

Na Na TiRa KiTa - TiRa KiTa TiRa KiTa - Na Na TiRa KiTa - Da Da Din Na

Da Din Din Da - Da Din Din Da - Da TiRa KiTa Ta - Ta Din Din Da

Da Din Din Da - Da Din Din Da - Da TiRa KiTa Ta - Ta TiRa KiTa Da

Da Din Din Da - Da Din Din Da - Da TiRa KiTa Ta - TiRa KiTa TaKa TaKa

KaTa TaKa Da _ - TiRa KiTa TaKa Da - _ TiRa KiTa TaKa - TiRa KiTa TaKa TiRa - KiTa TaKa TiRa KiTa

KaTa TaKa Ta _ - TiRa KiTa TaKa Ta - _ TiRa KiTa TaKa - TiRa KiTa TaKa TiRa - KiTa TaKa TiRa KiTa

TiRa KiTa TaKa TaKa - TiRa KiTa TaKa TaKa - TiRa KiTa TaKa TaKa - TiRa KiTa TaKa TaKa

Da Tin Tin Da - Tin Tin Da Da - Tin Tin Da Da - Tin Na Ka Ta

Ta Tin Tin Ta - Tin Tin Da Da - Tin Tin Da Da - Din Na Ka Ta

Da Tin Tin Da - Tin Tin Da Da - Tin Tin Da Da - TiRa KiTa Tin Na

Ta Tin Tin Ta - Tin Tin Da Da - Tin Tin Da Da - TiRa KiTa Din Na

These are some simple Kaidas, Thekas and a Rela all in Tin Tal.

To Pork or Not To Pork

I was really looking forward to seeing some adds appear this week in particular Australian magazines such as Marie Claire, Good Weekend, and Delicious about the Australian Pork Industry. Two magazines, The Australian Women's Weekly and Women's Day, have pledged to continue with the adds however. The adds are a unique attempt to illustrate the cruelty of the Australian Pork industry.

I’m vegan and proud of it!

This is a post for the Philosophy Blog War and you can vote for me HERE.

I’m vegan and proud of it!

I haven’t always been this way though. I used to be vegetarian and before that, when I depended on my parents for my daily meals, I ate meat and eggs. I’m often asked why I’m vegan, what on earth do I eat, and how I reconcile my views with the dominant western ideology of the necessity of meat eating.

Well, the primary reason I’m vegan is moral. I certainly know that it is not universally accepted that animals are moral agents but I believe they are. I’m certain that here in Australia our Government believes they are as cruelty to animals is against our laws. Before I became vegetarian my first job was in a chicken and pig abattoir so I know first hand the degree of cruelty and blatant torture that goes on behind closed doors. I’ve witnessed chickens being scalded and plucked alive and once I saw a chicken being eviscerated alive! I know of few people who would accept such cruelty. Animals are not just things to be exploited in any way what-so-ever just so we can have cheap meat, eggs, and milk.

Most people will respond to such a moral argument by stating that because the animal industry is so ingrained in our society, my ceasing involvement in the animal industry will have no noticeable effect on animal welfare issues. Is it a valid argument to claim that people can only be morally culpable if they commit perceptible harm? To this I have to turn to Jonathan Glover and what I’ll call ‘Glover’s Problem’. ‘Glover’s Problem’ is as follows:

Glover imagines that in a village, 100 people are about to eat lunch. Each has a bowl containing 100 beans. Suddenly, 100 hungry bandits swoop down on the village. Each bandit takes the contents of the bowl of one villager, eats it, and gallops off. Next week, the bandits plan to do it again, but one of their number is afflicted by doubts about whether it is right to steal from the poor. These doubts are set to rest by another of their number who proposes that each bandit, instead of eating the entire contents of the bowl of one villager, should take one bean from every villager's bowl. Since the loss of one bean cannot make a perceptible difference to any villager, no bandit will have harmed anyone. The bandits follow this plan, each taking a solitary bean from 100 bowls. The villagers are just as hungry as they were the previous week, but the bandits can all sleep well on their full stomachs, knowing that none of them has harmed anyone (Singer 1998:67).

Each of us, even though it may not be perceptible, is responsible for the collective damage we cause.

To this one may validly state that I am just one out of the 100 bandits so 99 beans will still exist, however, in our increasingly global society one cannot know whether one is the first bandit or the 100th bandit. Even if I was the 80th bandit the villagers would still suffer. I may go into the supermarket and decide to purchase some pork chops and rationalise that I am not committing a moral offence because the pig would have died anyway and it’s likely that my not purchasing the pork chops and instead choosing TVP will cause no difference to the supermarket’s purchasing pork chops next week. This may be correct, however we will never know how many pork chops the supermarket, or pig farm pigs, need to sell to make it viable to purchase or produce more next week, and the same for TVP. Maybe I’m the deciding customer.

The meat industry is the world’s largest environmental hazard. It is the world’s largest consumer of water and the largest consumer of fossil fuels. Using just under ten kilograms of grain protein to produce one kilogram of meat protein is absurd. If we stoped feeding grain to animals used in the production of meat and instead made bread we would have enough grain to feed every person on earth with the equivalent of seven loaves of bread per day!

It takes 50 kilograms of water to produce one kilogram of wheat while it takes up to 50,000 kilograms of water to produce one kilogram of beef! Stop complaining of a drought Australia and become vegan, the whole world will be better off for it.

As for what I eat. Well being a vegan chef I find that question quite easy and I’ll even provide a simple recipe for you all to try.

Simon’s Asian Noodle Soup

• One 250 Gram packet of dried flat egg free noodles
• Five dried shitake mushrooms
• Half a cup of soy sauce
• Half a cup of mirin
• Half a handful of chopped shallots
• Two tablespoons of sugar

1. Boil the noodles until cooked, strain and rinse under cold water

2. Boil the mushrooms in half a cup of water

3. When mushrooms are softened remove from water, slice and put back in the pot with the soy sauce and mirin and cook for another five minutes

4. Add the sugar and stir well

5. Combine the cooked noodles with the sauce and sprinkle with shallots

Singer, P 1998, 'A Vegetarian Philosophy', in Griffiths, S & Wallace, J, Consuming Passions, Manchester, .pdf

We're Not Happy John!

You see, Australia is one of the countries that supports the Iraq war and I'm not ashamed to say that this is one of the reasons why I opted for dual citizenship when I became an Aussie. Our Prime Minister, John Howard, has long declared that we will leave Iraq when our 'job is done'.

Apparently, we went to Iraq to dispose of Saddam 'cause the blighter was creating a stockpile of nuclear and biological weapons to use against us. I know, isn't that a great word, us, just who is that exactly? I love Little John's alterity.

This morning, after the opposition Labor party hounded the little guy for over a week, John Howard has come out of his closet, or should we say 'walk in robe'? It'd have to be pretty large to keep all of those euphemisms and blatant lies in there! Anyhow, it would appear our job description has changed. Little John has said Australia will leave Iraq when democracy has been established. Was this our original objective? It would seem likely as there were no chemical or nuclear weapons found in Iraq.

Our Little John, it seems, has become a neo-colonialist who's aim is to take over other Nation States that the original colonialists failed in creating. Most people argue these days that Iraq was a strategic move to control oil. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, I just don't know.

What I am now certain of is that John Howard has become, always was, an ideologue. He seems convinced of the ideology of the Nation State and maintaining the Nation State, even when the Nation States in question were created by colonialists and not the citizens (a very democratic procedure indeed!).

Little John is definitely an ideologue when it comes to neo-liberal democracy. His 'coming out of the walk in robe' statement this morning shows him for all that he is. Little John wants to establish democracy in Iraq, undemocratically, for the sole purpose of getting what he, and the other neo-colonialists George Bush, Tony Blair etc. want.

Little John, stop harassing us University students for being ideologues when we mention Marx or apply the theory of orientalism to contemporary society. You are an ideologue yourself and what's worse is that your ideological actions are destroying the lives of thousands and your influence, however unfounded, is influencing millions of people who know no better.

Wake up little John! We all know your political career is drawing to an end so out with it. Come out of the closet John and let Australia know who you really are! I promise we wont treat you like Fraser.

Dead Vacuum

My vacuum cleaner just ran out of batteries. That's right, I use a battery powered vacuum cleaner and while it's charging up I thought I'd take the opportunity to write on my blog again (it has been a while!) You see I have an assignment due tomorrow and one every Friday now for the next six weeks and then two exams the week after that. I decided that today I'd clean my house before I started, something I don't usually do, and 'cause my vacuum has a flat battery and I haven't finished cleaning my house I couldn't start studying. So I've come on here to write 'till the damn things charged.

Back in the blogosphere

Just announcing that I'm back in the blogosphere! I've been snowed under with quite a heavy workload lately with assessment pouring out my ears. I even missed this weeks Philosophy Blog War! I hope everyone who's heading over to my University Papers page (link in sidebar) from here is liking what they see. There are around 70-80 of you per day and it seems that HST140 and PHI120 are the two most popular destinations with around 200 downloads each over the last three weeks. Hope I'm being of some help.

Simon.