Feb

24

Can We Talk Here?

February 24, 2008 | By: UbuntuLinuxHelp | Leave a Comment
Posted in Experiences

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I was surfing today and came across this cryptic post:

"Ubuntu joke
Actually I think it's a pretty funny one, not intending to be disrespectful against anyone.
Wonder what this is all about? Read more."

The above post is found here: http://blog.eikke.com/index.php/ikke/2007/03/29/ubuntu_joke

Naturally I followed the "read more" link to find this:

"Within the Ubuntu community we have the Code of Conduct to define acceptable behaviour, and – in my opinion – the community is better for it. Recently there was a ‘joke’ posted to the Ubuntu-UK mailing list, which one member responded to describing it as breaching the Code of Conduct. Unfortunately Caroline did not explain her reasoning, but nonetheless a minor flame war heated discussion was triggered."

The above is here: http://schwuk.com/articles/2007/3/29/anonymous-cowards

Curious as to what the offensive joke was, I clicked to read this:

"A man was riding his motorcycle along a beach when suddenly the sky clouded above his head and, in a booming voice, the Lord said: 'Because you have TRIED to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish.'

The biker pulled over and said: 'Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can ride over any time I want.'

The Lord said, 'Your request is materialistic, think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking; the supports required to reach the bottom of the Pacific and the concrete and steel it would take!

'It will nearly exhaust several natural resources. I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of something that could possibly help mankind.'

The biker thought about it for a long time. Finally, he said, 'Lord, I wish that I and all men could understand women; I want to know how she feels inside, what she's thinking when she gives me the silent treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says nothing's wrong, and how I can make a woman truly happy.' The Lord replied: 'You want two lanes or four on that bridge?' "

at this link: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-uk/2007-March/003698.html

I told this joke to a couple of the women here (even though it's not a very good joke) and they found it funny. One even said, while chuckling "...and don't you forget it! If men are too stupid to figure that out, go for a drive. Hee hee hee..."

I don't see the problem because the punch line says to me:

"Relationship problems are very complex, and if you cannot take the time and understand the woman you love, you cannot possibly expect an outsider to give you personal advice."

I read one of the responses from "Caroline" saying:

"I'll happily leave the planet. If you cannot see the difference between blog posts and sexist jokes on public mailing lists then more fool you."

Found here: http://secretlondon.livejournal.com/158846.html?thread=269438#t269438

So really, I don't understand how this "Caroline" person could think this was negative. It actually was a good lesson, telling people they have to work at understanding others and work at understand what makes the people in their lives most happy; that it's not handed to them on a platter. Besides, as to the joke being described in that post as "...sexist...", who says God is a man? What makes people think this is true? For all we know God may be a woman!

There are about as many different perspectives as there are people. While I don't know many of the details of the issue above, I fail to see how one individual's silly responses could be construed to reflect on an entire Ubuntu related community. Especially when the perspective seemed (to me at least) to be a little misguided. In my opinion "Caroline" should rejoin.

I think one positive component of the Ubuntu community is that we are all able to work together despite our differences in religion, politics, language, race... Do I need to go one listing them? I wish the leaders of all our countries could work as well together as this community. We really are "Ubuntu", "Humanity to others" or "I am what I am because of who we all are."

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