daze

there i was in coffee@ having a nice relaxing coffee watching the world go by (oh alright i was ogling the ladies walking by). in-between sips and ogles i was glancing through one of the free sheets that festoon the coffee house. in the middle of one was a free year planner (well cheap calendar); one part of the planner was a listing of the various world and international days.
boy are there a lot of them, and most of them are so so worthy.

the year starts off with world braille day (january 4th) and finishes with international human solidarity day on december 20th.
if those two didn’t get you excited how about world religion day (january 20th)? or maybe international mother language day (february 21st) (a day when we all speak our mother tongues – well for me that is pretty much every day…) perhaps world water day (march 22nd) is more your speed? let us not forget may has world asthma day quickly followed by red cross crescent day. june and july don’t want to get left behind so they have world blood donor day, world oceans day, world population day and world youth day (among others).
and so it goes for the rest of the year when you can have international literacy day, international day of peace, world sight day, world food day, world diabetes day, universal children’s day.
phew that is a lot of days.
some even get whole weeks such as walk to school, national vegetarian week, recycle now week and national adoption week. national allergy week doesn’t quite make a full week – it maybe they all come out in spots mondays and tuesdays are concerned.
some get months there is a go veggie month (because a week isn’t really enough) and black history month.
as if that wasn’t enough 2008 will not only see liverpool as city of culture but will also see the international year of planet earth.
double phew.

all of the days are worthy, some more so than others. several seem to clash with similarly themed days. i am sure that there is a sensible reason why there is a black aids awareness day and a world aids day, but from the outside it seems divisive and could imply that that aids is more a problem for one section of society than another.
why the need for a world water day, an ocean day and a day about desertification and drought. why not bring all these pressing issues together and make a bigger (ahem) splash about the problems that we may face over drinking water shortages, the rising of the oceans, and the pollution of waterways?
why the need for a day to eliminate racial discrimination and a day for tolerance. well we know why there is a need to highlight the problems around racism and the lack of tolerance, but are they not part of the same problem? can they really be highlighted by a day in the calendar that no one pays attention to?
why a literacy day, a book day, a book and copyright day. again similar sorts of aims, make it all one day.

the probable reason for all the days is because it gives some administrator somewhere something to do, it creates work for fundraisers – much better to be a sponsor of a “day” than just a normal everyday sponsor. it isn’t that the day gets covered and the general public can go “oh never thought of that! what a good idea…” it is more that the various organizations involved can point to something that they have achieved in tangible terms. it gives the various experts in the field a pleasant junket where they can clap each other on the back in nice settings.

so i want to get in on the act. i want to start a series of days. it worked with international speak like a pirate day, so it must be able to work with other ones.
my first few days include:
international sits in the armchair snoring day.
international wear marigold gloves day.
world walk backwards day.
world do nothing much on monday day.
international sing celine dion hits day (i know i know but the canadians deserve something…)
world swear like a trooper day.
world day of no days.
national free pole dance day.
(feel free to contribute your own, but remember truth can be funnier then fiction as 2008 is also the year of the potato.)

if you want to find out more about the various days and the good work that is attached to them get on over to the united nations website (www.un.org) and check them out.

putting aside all sarcastic quips and cynical commentary make 2008 a year when you did something of which you can say: in my own little way i made a difference.