This blog is an Elephant Journal-free zone

Tags

Bullying, cyber-harassment, cyber-stalking, Elephant Journal, harassment, Racism, sleazy, Waylon Lewis

Feel free to download this badge and display it on your own blog!

*steps up on soap box*

For more reasons than I can count, I’ve never been a fan of Elephant Journal or it’s so-called Editors.

Personally, I can’t understand why that site has a high readership (so they say) when for the most part, the quality of the articles is low. There are exceptions, but not too many.

On top of that, the site often objectifies women and uses sleazy headlines to create controversy and drive comments. Any time someone makes this criticism, the response is always “what do you mean?” or worse – some form of personal attack.

My first inkling that Elephant Journal even existed was when Waylon Lewis set me up in a ridiculous article designed to goad me into making comment. Oh, it wasn’t that harsh, but the intent was there. That resulted in my first ever guest post over on Linda’s blog: “I don’t know how old yoga is and neither do you” (part 1 and part 2).

Even then, I realised something was off in Elephant Journal-land and I didn’t want to play the game. So I didn’t post my reply on Waylon’s site – Linda and I did it our way instead.

Mostly, I simply ignore Elephant Journal. I don’t read it. It’s not in my RSS and I never go there unless someone I know asks me to look at a specific article (usually in disbelief/outrage at its contents).

So why am I writing this post?

It’s because Waylon’s latest bad behaviour caused a yogi named Chelsea to write this post:

Sometimes it is Not “All Good”: How Yoga Teaches Me to Speak My Truth

I urge you to read Chelsea’s post and the reader comments, and then make up your own mind.

Oh, and while Chelsea doesn’t link to it in her post, this is the follow up piece by Waylon that is nothing more than a nasty and unnecessary personal attack on her. (Web archive of the article is here).

This is far from the first and probably won’t be the last of Waylon’s very bad manners and poor behaviour. And in case you’re wondering, yes, there’s way more to this story than my initial contact and Chelsea’s story than I’m saying. But those aren’t my stories to tell.

Of course, there’s a lot of crap going on in this world and if we paid attention to it all we’d probably explode.

But sometimes you’ve gotta make a stand. Well, I do anyway. Once I saw a guy smacking his girlfriend around and I went over and intervened (not thinking of my own safety). It’s just how I’m wired.

Importantly: how will people get it through their thick skulls that certain actions and behaviours aren’t okay with others unless someone (or multiple someones) speaks up?

So this is me speaking up. In this particular instance, I didn’t feel like it was okay to passively sit by and not get involved.

Hence the “This blog is an Elephant Journal-free zone” badge I’ve just created and that will now be proudly displayed on the right hand side column of this blog for as long as I write it, linking back to this post.

I also invite anyone who also feels the same way to post it on your own blog.

More on this debacle from others:

• From Chelsea: Yoga for All People: An Open Letter to “W”
• From Linda: Enough’s enough
• From Nathan: Elephant Journal’s Got Issues

~ Svasti

P.S. Waylon if you’re reading this, feel free to make however many attacks you like against me. Publish derogatory blog posts, write rude and obnoxious things about me. I don’t care. You can’t touch me. I’m not changing my mind about you unless you show a significant turn-around in the way you behave and the way that Elephant Journal operates. Until then, this blog will always and forever be an Elephant Journal-free zone.

*jumps down from soap box and skips off into happier territory*

People watching, Chapter 2

Tags

Bali, Bali Bombers, Bigotry, Compassion, Death penality, Execution, Minority groups, People watching, Prayers, Racism, Xenophobia

So… several weeks ago I get in a cab when the bus system’s let me down once again. That’ll be a $20 trip thanks very much!

I tell the very dark-skinned, heavily accented Indian driver where I’m going.

Seriously and without a trace of irony he says: Oh that’s a very dangerous part of town, there are a lot of black people there!

Really, I say looking him squarely in his deep brown eyes, I don’t see that as a problem.

He looks surprised, waits a beat, then asks me where my husband is. What husband, I say. He starts flirting with me.

*****

Today I jump on the train. The first seat I sit in is opposite a scruffy looking man, who looks terribly excited that I’m about to sit next to him. A nanosecond of deliberation later and I decide to sit there anyway. That’s until I realise I’m surrounded by a reasonable collection of half-empty food containers he’s sprawled everywhere. Sorry mate…

Looking for an empty seat I move to the next carriage. My brief but peaceful reverie is interrupted as I listen to a deaf man abusing an impeccably dressed Sikh. Apparently he was ‘looking at him funny’ – who knows if that’s the case? The deaf man mumbles his enraged insults whilst the Sikh silently watches, waiting for his tormentor to get off the train.

*****

Don’t you love it when a member of one minority group gives hell to another?

At what point does xenophobia become dangerous?

*****

Speaking of minority groups, around 200 people (80-odd Australians) were killed and around 200 injured in the 2002 Bali Bombings. Five years later, and I am sickened all over again when the perpetually unrepentant bombers are executed.

Australians have reacted with typically mixed emotions – some celebrated, others think it makes no difference. No one can judge the reactions of another. There have been suggestions that somehow the deaths of the bombers will be a deterrent to others considering similar heinous acts. Um… tell that to a suicide bomber already.

Perhaps its controversial, but I’m opposed to the death penalty no matter who we’re killing…

My heart bled and still bleeds for all those who were killed and injured in that horrible event. I feel the pain of the beautiful Balinese people, as they had kin who were taken and have suffered financially for many years from the resulting downturn in tourism. And my heart bleeds also for those who planned this act of hatred against other human beings.

And so when I learned the news of their deaths, I prayed.

• For those taken, for those left behind. Those who have suffered from this incident. For them I wish for closure and healing.
• For the families of the bombers, may they not feel the need to seek revenge.
• And for the executed men, that their energy bodies are purified in the after-death state. That they finally understand they are no different from those they have killed. That they release hatred and fear. And that they take a better re-birth, free from the samskaras that plauged them in this lifetime.

Om Tryambakam Yajamahe
Sugandhim Pushtivardhanam
Urvarukamiva Bandhanan
Mrityor Mukshiya Maamritat
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

(We Meditate on the Three-eyed reality
Which permeates and nourishes all like a fragrance
May we be liberated from death for the sake of immortality
Even as the cucumber is severed from bondage to the creeper
Om, Peace, Peace, Peace)
~Mahamrityunjaya Mantra

~Svasti