Our Right to Privacy

A is a regular twenty something in his first job. He graduated last year and has been around for seven months at this company. But A has a "secret". He has a camera attached to his person at all times. It records everything.

This is the plotline of a movie I just watched called The Circle starring Emma Watson and Tom Hanks, in which a system is developed that potentially shares every aspect of your life-personal and professional with the world.

Let me press pause here for a second.

Imagine every email, every phone call, every photo, every video, every movie you ever watched-all of it available worldwide. How would you like that? Before I go any further let me add that I have a twitter, Facebook and Instagram account on which I am quite an active user. However there are certain tools that ensure that some privacy is given to me (although all my posts are set to Public on Facebook and Twitter), and I want to thank the sites for allowing me that.

Privacy is a very  important thing. It's like the clothes you wear. Without it, you're basically in your birthday suit all the time. 

Facebook gives us a platform to share and it's amazing to see posts from all your local and international friends and your family on it, but there's a dark side. Do you really want to broadcast your life- all of it-like that? The answer is obviously "Hell no!"There are some things that are too personal to be out there for your college mates to see. An individual has a right to privacy and without it they are nothing.  The first thought (and it's still in my head) that I had after watching The Circle was "I am deactivating my social media!" and I logged on to Facebook to do just that.

Truth be told were it not for this blog that so many of you wonderful people support, I would perhaps seriously get off social media.

I think it's time we thought about what it is we share with our friends. Only close people deserve to be in your private space. You might wanna check your posts' privacy. Perhaps it's time we got off social media coz let's face it- do we really care about what Fred thinks of our pyjamas?

I don't have anything else to say so I'll just wrap this up with a friendly suggestion- as it is said "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? " or "Who watches the watchmen?"

Because people are watching you know. Be careful and stay safe.

The Bilge Master

Babble

Tonight I want to talk. I want to talk about ice cream and cake. I want to talk about Diet Coke and tell you  about anime and hold your attention for a second about splitting the atom. I want to talk about the universe, of suns going nova and embryos being created. I want to talk about gender equality and gay pride.

I want to talk about anxiety and the blues, how they sneak up on you and take away your strength like leeches. I want to talk about The Witcher 3 and how mesmerizing it is. I want to talk about everything and nothing, about hypocrisy and faith and how 

sometimes these two go hand in hand.

I want to know what lies beyond and ahead of the horizon and why we strive to better ourselves. I want to know why 2+2 will always equal 4 and not 3.99999999. I want to challenge everything and accept it all at the same time. I am a timid boy with the heart of a rebel in him.

Most of all I want to know if Schrödinger's cat will still be alive if we don't feed it for ten days

The Bilge Master

Love and Hate

I

There is a thin line between love and hate

And I am on the precipice

Looking down I see a void

Looking up rain clouds darken the sky

Is this real?

Or is it just another one of those dreams?

Where you feel helpless and tied down

While the shadows of your demons

Haunt you time and again

As the sky growls and rain drenches you

II

I look down at my hate

I wish it would go away

I wish to step back from the precipice

But all I do is fall

I feel cold and lost in my misery

As from the ether Beelzebub rises

And beckons me into the void

III

I need to find love again

Love for the things I do

Love for music and other pursuits

They say life is not about the storm

But about dancing in the rain

And I wish someone would waltz with me

Until I see a rainbow

I want to believe Ed Sheeran

When he swears it will get easier

A day will dawn tomorrow

Bright and hopeful

I will step back from the void

I will be with every cell in my body

And hate will have no power over me

The Bilge Master

Sometimes- A Guest Post by Mary Katerine

The poem below has been written and sent to me all the way from Romania! Please welcome my friend Mary Katerine to the blog with three rousing cheers. She is studying medicine and we met in a reading group on Facebook

The Bilge Master

Sometimes

Sometimes
I miss the summer's night sky:
the scent of the moon,
the abundence of stars, 
the silence of the world,
perturbed only
by the crickets
and the breath
of my little brother and sister.
My bare feet on the ground;
their bare feet too;
the infinity of the moment.
I try to miss it
when life gets hard,
just to remember
that it existed.

(04.02.2018)