“Old-fashioned inexpensive retro toys, such as red rubber balls, simple building blocks, clay and crayons, that don’t cost so much and are usually hidden in the back shelves are generally healthier for children than the electronic educational toys that have fancier boxes and cost $89.99,” says Temple University developmental psychologist Kathy Hirsh-Pasek.
Shop smart!
Favorite author (of mine) turned social activist Arundhati Roy just wrote an article in the Guardian which I’m sure is going to stir up a whole new pot of controversy. I haven’t actually read through it yet. (It is incredibly long and dense.) I did skim the first few paragraphs, and sadly know so little about the current Indian political climate, terminology, history, etc that I probably need to read it with Wikipedia by my side. Enjoy these excerpts:
We’ve forfeited the rights to our own tragedies. As the carnage in Mumbai raged on, day after horrible day, our 24-hour news channels informed us that we were watching “India’s 9/11″. Like actors in a Bollywood rip-off of an old Hollywood film, we’re expected to play our parts and say our lines, even though we know it’s all been said and done before.
But November isn’t September, 2008 isn’t 2001, Pakistan isn’t Afghanistan and India isn’t America. So perhaps we should reclaim our tragedy and pick through the debris with our own brains and our own broken hearts so that we can arrive at our own conclusions.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 9-11, Arundhati Roy, Booker prize, Mumbai, terrorism, The God of Small Things
