One of my most embarrassing coughing moments must have been at university. It was at a Land Law lecture in Houldsworth LT A (wow..I still remember!) and I was sitting a few rows from the front. While everyone was frantically taking down notes, I was doing that AND coughing. And there came that wave of coughs that got me started for about a minute non-stop. I was certain that the people around me were clearly annoyed. Because I remember this chap sitting in front of me, covering his ear with one hand and taking down notes with the other. Not that I could help it, mate! It must have been the same flu bout when another one of those momentous coughing bouts came on at a tutorial. I just got off my seat, ran out of the seminar room and starting coughing my lungs out. For coughing out loud!!!
And guess what? That particular flu came on after I took a flu vaccination. What's wrong with the NHS?!
Back to 4 July 2005. The most productive thing I did today, despite having a cough, was to set a test paper. (how exciting!)
I am going to use a new phrase: cataclysmic social typhoon.
Nope. Nothing to do with coughing out loud. I'm just thinking about how, within a century, the roles and responsibilities of man and woman have changed. Just over a hundred years ago, responsibility was on the man to bring home the dole and all the woman did was to stay home, look after the kids and remain silent. Today, this remains pretty much the structure of society but this time round, the woman is louder and delivers kicks and punches.
This, I think, is the result of the two World Wars in the 20th century. When the men were drafted into the army and marched into battlefields, the women back home had to rise to the occassion and take on the roles which the men once held. Working in the factories, bringing home the dole PLUS bringing up the kids. There you go - the beginnings of girl power. That resulted in the cataclysmic social typhoon of the 20th century. From that point on, the role and mindset of women changed. That's why we see women these days welding much power in places everywhere. It is no doubt that men still hold power in many places but women are in places and positions where no women could have imagined 100 years ago - CEOs, politicians, professionals.
Just think how far feminist movements of the late 19th century and 20th century have progressed - the Sufferagettes, for example. I bet they would be real proud to see that their cause for equal political rights has made so much progress in areas beyond their reach back then.
Before I get accused of being a female chauvanist, I have something to say. I don't think God created women to be suppressed and crushed by men. That never was God's original intention in Eden. But it was after The Fall that women became subject to men. That's because Adam blamed Eve for causing him to eat the forbidden fruit. (I'm here to say this to Adam,"Hey, as the man, why didn't you take better care and watch over Eve so that she wouldn't have had that chance to be tempted by the Serpent?" :p) I believe that God created Eve out of Adam's bones (ribs) for this - so that the woman is his equal (God could have taken the bones from Adam's feet, not the side, his ribs), so that he can protect the woman with his arm and close enough to his heart for him to love.
Oh, really, I'm coughing out loud now!
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