Time

Finishing the compact history of South Africa early this morning I trawled the books stored on my VRS for something new to read. Several weeks ago I downloaded Time magazine's 100 most influential people. It sounds interesting but I may not last the distance given that the first person mentioned is Beyonce. Why does the world have such a fascination with pop stars, actors, sports stars and the like rather than with ordinary people doing extraordinary things. No wonder our young fail to see what is good and correct in this world when their 'stars' are drug takers, wife beaters, constant divorcees and the like.  I am hoping that as I read closer to the last 10 people who are truly worth admiring and respecting have made the final few.

I have begun searching Amazon.com kindle books at least twice a week as often there are bargains of books I have on my 'to buy' list. I am sure everybody has times when they are attracted by books from a particular genre and buy several only to tire of the subject and move on. I counted up how many books I have unread on my kindle, more than I would like to admit. While this is to be my 'year of reading widely' from both the talking, kindle and real book options I find that my eyes often make reading in the evening impossible. As a result I have spent several evenings watching DVD's I borrowed from the school library. Two of these, 'Earth' and 'Water' are made in India and are based around the upheaval in their culture in 1947 when achieving independence from Britain. Much of what is portrayed is horrifying - child widows, suttee, racial and religious tensions, divisions of the country, misuse of the innocence of children, rape and pillage. Despite having such a huge population and customs so different from my own I am horrified at their treatment of women and children. Movies worth watching, not for the fainthearted.