Nadia Williams

NadiaWilliams

  • Drivers, drains, and brains

    This was originally posted to my old blog in November 2016. My route to college includes a road with a Z bend: sharp right followed immediately by a sharp left. That exact section of road also has a number of recessed drains probably about twenty metres apart. Therefore, even cyclists who don’t believe in the…

    Read more

  • Say it with clothes

    This was originally posted on my old blog on 12 November 2016. As part of research for my Honours thesis I have looked into clothing as a form of communication. I’ve long suspected that what we wear speaks as loudly as our words, and it was a pleasure to see that confirmed in academia. Clothing…

    Read more

  • Let’s give more to men

    This was originally posted to my old blog on 21 June 2015. I’ve been bothered for a while with how we talk about sports. It’s rugby, and women’s rugby. Cricket, and women’s cricket. The assumption is built into this way of talking that there’s the real sport, then there’s the other version. Like the priceless…

    Read more

  • With “friends” like these…

    This was originally posted to my old blog on 20 June 2015. You are Facebook friends with Jack. You’ve never met in the flesh, you connected because you had a mutual friend, or maybe you got talking in a group you both belonged to and discovered you had mutual interests. One day, you open Facebook…

    Read more

  • France makes laws to push social responsibility, while US makes laws to screw the poor

    This was originally posted to my old blog on 22 May 2015. This morning I saw an article on my Facebook newsfeed: “It is now illegal in France for supermarkets to throw away food. They can donate it all to charities, or as animal feed.” Underneath, as usual, was a list of related articles. One…

    Read more

  • Control, again

    This was originally posted to my old blog on 18 May 2015. Ireland is set to vote in a referendum about same-sex marriage, and some other thing almost nobody can remember. It’s all about whether we should or shouldn’t allow people of the same gender to get married. The Yes side has dubbed it a…

    Read more

  • Atheism is not a choice

    Picture this: your colleague is in a wheelchair. She broke her back years ago, and is completely paralyzed from the waist down. There are some nasty people who claim she is not paralyzed after all, she can walk. You scoff at this: haven’t you seen with your own eyes how helpless she is? Hasn’t she…

    Read more

  • The nightmare is over

    This was originally posted on my old blog on 11 January 2015. A headline on one of the newspapers on the stand shouted as I walked into the shop: “THE NIGHTMARE IS OVER”. A glance confirmed my suspicion that it was about the Charlie Hebdo shootings and subsequent manhunt. I went into the shop, got…

    Read more

  • Parents are people, too

    This was originally posted on my old blog on 29 November 2014 I am continually astonished at how, around me, I see people fail to identify children as fellow human beings. Teachers and parents routinely talk to and treat under-eighteens in a way they would never, in their wildest dreams, dare to treat people the…

    Read more

  • Common Ground

    This was originally posted on my old blog on 29 November 2014. Yesterday I visited a dear, treasured friend who happens to be a devoted Christian. We had a lovely time, a fantastic chat, and most of all, something I’ve learned since my convictions changed from Christian faith, was confirmed yet again. Common ground is…

    Read more