[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]This isn’t going to be a long post today. I feel a bit thrown by daylight savings, to tell you the truth. I love the light-in-the-evening thing, but it makes it really very hard to get up in the early morning to practise at the moment. I’m sitting typing this feeling slightly jet-lagged, and drinking umpteen cups of tea.

The other day I got sent an email that was anti-Muslim. One of those forwarded things. First off, the facts were wrong (and when I pointed this put to the person who sent it to me, they copped it on the chin, and corrected themselves. Good on them.) – but its not the first time this has happened. I then went to have a bit of a surf around the internet, and I found all sorts of hateful things – anti-Christian, anti-Catholic, anti-Aboriginal, anti-right wing, anti-gay, anti-open-minded….. it’s all out there. It’s horrible, actually.

I spend so long teaching children not to see differences. So does every other teacher I know. It doesn’t matter the skin-colour/ height / freckles / religion / clothes (insert what you want here) of the person next to you. They are your friend. They are kind, like you. They need kindness, like you. The Timorese say “We all eat from the same bowl of rice.”

All children I see are taught this in primary school. When does it change? And actually, why does it have to change?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]