y.st./source/pages/en/weblog/2017/04-April/12.xhtml

<?php
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$xhtml = array(
	'title' => 'Finishing my coursework, just in time',
	'body' => <<<END
<section id="general">
	<h2>General news</h2>
	<p>
		My father wrote back asking about when would be good to meet up and discus their load to me.
		I explained that I had to decline the loan to better position myself for mental recovery, and they didn&apos;t press.
		They did offer to help me move my stuff to my new apartment by bike though, an offer my mother never made.
		My father accepts I don&apos;t want to burn fossil fuels, but my mother only tried to get me to allow them to &quot;help&quot; me via car.
		My mother knew I was against doing it by car, but they didn&apos;t care.
		Even not offering &quot;help&quot; at all would&apos;ve been better than trying to pressure me into having them drive my stuff over.
		In any case, my stuff&apos;s here now, so there&apos;s nothing for my father to help move.
		That&apos;s good news for me anyway.
		It means I don&apos;t have to decide whether to take them up on their offer.
	</p>
	<p>
		My <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a> still sings the tune of freedom and transparency.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="university">
	<h2>University life</h2>
	<p>
		I couldn&apos;t keep my mind on my coursework as much as I&apos;d like to have, and the conclusion of my <a href="/en/coursework/HIST1421/Politics_in_Athens_and_Sparta.xhtml">essay</a> was a total rush job.
		That said, for the length the essay was supposed to be, that conclusion isn&apos;t bad.
		It&apos;s just that I made the rest of the essay much longer than was assigned.
		Still, I should&apos;ve done better.
		I should&apos;ve kept on task.
		I&apos;ll try harder next week.
		Additionally, I wrote up my remaining discussion board posts for the week:
	</p>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			I guess democracy can be abused, but at the same time, lack of democracy <strong>*is itself*</strong> an abuse.
			When others rule over you, you don&apos;t have the freedom you deserve.
			I live in a democratic republic, which is similar to a democracy, but the people aren&apos;t able to represent ourselves.
			Popular opinion doesn&apos;t always win out, as was the case last time we elected a leader.
			The evil candidate got the popular vote, while the even more evil candidate actually won the election.
			In a horrid election, we got the worst option because the votes of the people weren&apos;t counted as equal.
			Furthermore, those that represent us are individuals.
			They can be (and often are) bribed.
			But if we represented ourselves, someone would have to bribe most of the populace, which would mean actually helping the majority, not greasing the palms of one person.
			Honestly, I have it better off than many in the world, but I&apos;m inclined to believe that real democracy would be a lot better than anything I&apos;ve seen so far.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			Good catch!
			I didn&apos;t notice that both &quot;demos&quot; and &quot;democracy&quot; begin the same.
			You&apos;re right, they likely share a root.
			The word &quot;demos&quot; does seem to be about grouping things in order to control them as you said.
			So does that apply to democracy as well?
			Does democracy group us to put us in our place in some way?
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			I understand what you&apos;re saying about high tuition.
			I&apos;m still paying off loans for tuition at my old university.
			It didn&apos;t really work out for me there either due to money troubles.
			The tuition here at University of the People, at only \$100 $a[USD] per course, is much more affordable.
			I have many more expenses than I did when I last attended school, and yet money isn&apos;t as much of a problem because University of the People makes education affordable.
		</p>
		<p>
			It&apos;s interesting how the word &quot;demos&quot; referred both to the land and the people.
			I think even today, we tie land and people together a lot.
			For example, if I talk about the United Kingdom, I could be referring to the people there, the land that the country itself occupies, or the United Kingdom&apos;s government.
			In many ways, these uses are often almost interchangeable, even, for lack of a better word.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			I hadn&apos;t thought about the demos as neighbourhoods, but I bet you&apos;re right.
			I was picturing Athens as being much larger than it actually was when I was reading about that meaning of the word &quot;demos&quot;.
			Athens is a single city.
			A tenth of the city would be a neighbourhood.
		</p>
		<p>
			Keeping foreigners and women away from political power is pretty racist and sexist.
			The situation has improved since then, but it&apos;s still far from perfect or balanced.
			I only hope we continue to even the playing field and continue reshaping our society into something better.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
</section>
END
);