 | Before going to my regular posting please read the following. I colored the box yellow and purple as these are the colors of women's emancipation. If the sentence is carried out, Sakineh Ashtiani, 42, will be buried up to her chest, according to an Amnesty International report citing the Iranian penal code. The stones that will be hurled at her will be large enough to cause pain but not so large as to kill her immediately. |
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Back to normal transmission
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Those who return phone calls (and those who don't)
(The Death of the Answer)"There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it." - Oscar Wilde
"There are three types of people in life: those that can count and those that can't." - Anon
"There is only one thing in the world worse than being witty, and that is not being witty." - John Cleese playing James McNeill Whistler in the Monty Python Oscar Wilde Sketch
My beef today is about people who don't return calls or emails, despite having been left MESSAGES.HELLOOOO - we are still here. WE asked a question.
I suppose it is because we now have so many places where people CAN leave messages - cell phones. landlines/VoIP, email, social networking sites such as FaceBook - that people do not feel obliged to concern themselves with replying - one can always go to a FaceBook wall, to a Twitter tweet, to work out what one's friend is doing.
But for the old-fashioned, is it TOO much to ask that people respond to messages left, sent, transmitted ... whatever?
Everyone wants to be acknowledged.
I can give a million examples where calls or emails may as well been delivered to a void. But one will do, for obvious reasons.
Yesterday I phoned my rental agent in OZ. He wasn't there. I spoke to a colleague of his, and explained the situation - I had a couple of questions I needed answers to; I'd emailed them a week ago, and had received no answer. Not s a sausage!."Don't worry, Wayne will email you TODAY," came the reply.
Wayne didn't. So I called back the next OZ day. "Oh Wayne isn't feeling too well; I'm sure he'll answer when he gets better," said Trevor/Jason.
Now I'd put Wayne at 28, plus or minus a year. He's not terminally ill. He has a cold, well so Trevor/Jason had informed me. Poor baby! But the world must wait??? I'm not feeling so good myself! Still, let the world PAUSE, for Wayne.
Great.
Then there's social-friend-sort-of-people. One of my social-friend-sort-of-people called me last week and wanted to do brunch over the long (Independence Day) weekend. "I won't take no for an answer," she told me.
Let's call her X.Well with my oh-so-heavy-social-calendar, it was difficult, but I did manage to accommodate her. No brunches Saturday, Sunday or Monday. I made sure all slots were free for ... X might call.
She didn't.
So when the long weekend was over, I called her. I got her voice mail. "X's voice mailbox is full," the voice-robot said in voice-robot language.
Emails went unanswered.
I worried. Well not too much, but it was a consideration.
Eventually X called me. I explained that I'd tried calling her and was worried, as I couldn't leave a message, and the heat advisories on telly had told us to check on neighbors and the elderly. Well I didn't say the last bit as I didn't want to be shrieked at, but I wish I had.
"Oh," my social-friend-sort-of-person said, "I didn't want to talk to anyone. So I shut down my computer and phone."
My stand is that we should reasonably expect an acknowledgement that the initial message was received, within the next 12 hours if on the same continent, otherwise 24. That is, UNLESS there's some sort of auto-reply, indicating that the intended recipient is away.
But then as Oscar would have said,
"There are two types of people in this world: those who acknowledge us, and those who don't give a stuff."
My name is Kathleenwng and I approve this message.
4 comments:
Rude people suck.
Now where have I seen that before?
I have noticed that when people are self important and a legend in their own mind, they tend to ignore those they consider the 'little people' in their lives. Funny as they age and lose their importance, they are quicker to answer calls etc. Y'know, growing old has its rewards; you begin to see people for what they really are.
First I have to comment on this poor woman in Iran. This is just beyond heinous. Granted there are many cultures and different societies in this world that differ from things we believe or ways we behave in America.
HOWEVER, there comes a point where it becomes a different issue.
A Human Rights Issue, where despite whatever religious, cultural, or other dictates of human behavior, there is an undeniable RIGHT TO LIFE. I am not talking about abortion, I am talking about a right to life with dignity, safety, respect and value for each of our fellow humans.
Any country that abuses and bully's it's citizens like this should be boycotted by the rest of the world.
As for the rude people who can't communicate properly, phone or otherwise, I say screw em. Anyone who could be referred to as, at best, a "social-friend-sort-of-person" I would never wait for a commitment from. What kind of person is that? The supermarket checkout lady?
So she "vanted to be alone" then don't go inviting people out with you.
Dumb-and-selfish-sort-of-person is more like it.
Personally, I hate the telephone. There are only a select few privileged few that I will spend time on the phone with. If I have spent time on the phone with you then you are one of them, lol.
AH it's too bloody HOT!!!!!
I read that Sakineh is to be spared the stoning but will still be executed. Unbelievable!
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