<![CDATA[SKETA OZ - Thoughts from Selina]]>

<![CDATA[SKETA OZ - Thoughts from Selina]]>Sun, 04 Oct 2026 05:07:28 +1000Weebly<![CDATA[2026 and the French revolution strikes, again]]>Sat, 03 Oct 2026 15:54:45 GMThttps://www.sketaoz.com/selinas_blog/2026-and-the-french-revolution-strikes-again

The state of chaos and rioting presently hitting France, defies belief.

A civilized, elegant country who we all believed would never, in a million years, fall prey to this level of horrid disrespect, upon fellow citizens. And it is happening not just north of Paris – Seine-Saint Denis area, but it is widespread – in places like Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse.

We see police having to shut down over 400 schools across France, to protect students not involved in this act of lunacy. But why should it have to come to this? Why should students be forced to demonstrate in such a violent manner?

I understand parents – students – teachers are angry over the continual problems of teacher shortages, long hours, dilapidated buildings and never-ending overcrowding of classrooms, but if schools, learning and history has taught us anything – then, we know this is not the way to go about the situation. Allowing this to happen, just teaches kids that it is okay to disrespect human beings - just to prove one’s point; that it is okay to set people on fire, throw acid on people and all the rest…if someone gets in the way; that it is okay to storm schools and burn down public property.

The state of France is dire, we all know it is. We see this as onlookers, from millions of miles away. We see families struggling with the freezing of wages, the price of fuel and goods, which is paralyzing the country – to no end. We see the nightmare budgets in place that allow no room for assistance for the growth of the very heart of the country – it’s schools.
Without schools, teachers and curriculums that address student issues – some of them like this – learning how not to riot and harm others – children will never learn. They do not learn such empathy from computers. Gaming teaches hostility and hatred for others. It shows students – teenagers like this, who are already in a compromised state of family existence, how they think they can take matters into their own hands – in the physical world. It is like handing a child a gun. They all learn from this and when times are hard and they see their families struggling to make ends meet, and they cannot learn in institutions without funding – kids rebel.

Then, Government sees the law of cause and effect in action – on the streets of France - on the faces of children and parents – in the very homes of families that hold up the country. These are the people that pay the price of government sitting on their laurels, not considering what is right for all.

It is fine for a government to sit in an office of plushness - where your entire lives are safe, without a care in the world, no worrying about how you will survive the week, on a paltry sum of nothing – because you are sheltered from everything. If you are ill – the best medical care will assist you, you want food – you don’t have to look in your wallet to see if there is enough money. You do not have to choose between paying a bill and a child’s birthday present, because your lives are always in surplus.

I cannot deny that struggle makes one appreciate all the good things in one’s life. It humbles you and gives you time to think about what is truly, important. Gratitude sits in your bones, and serves you lessons that allow you to see the bigger picture. But this? This is not a life - for these people. It is barely an existence.

You can’t make great things happen, if you are constantly denied the tools to create wonders – to create individuals, who will one day run the country - France.

This is not the 1800’s.

France is a developed country that knows right from wrong; whose people fought for freedoms long ago and won. There is a great history of brave citizens, pointing out societal imbalance and injustice. Government needs to look to those historical scenes of success - that taught France to accept nothing but the best, for its citizens – for its country. Revolution and rebellion should not have to be revisited to uphold civil liberties and economic freedoms. Those past altercations are what gave France its wings to fly, in the modern world.

This is what they fought for – what they shed blood for – what they died for.

Do not let their deaths be in vain. Surely France has learnt something in all that.

Your people deserve so much more…

]]><![CDATA[A species other than our own]]>Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:00:00 GMThttps://www.sketaoz.com/selinas_blog/a-species-other-than-our-own

We are all part of the one, continuous chain - life; one species no less important or more important than the next.

We all share the air we breathe, the water we drink and Mother Earth who shares her sustenance with us. Our lives are all finite, some more quickly than others, our time is equally as precious as the lives we choose to create.

Each species is bound by a unique language, culture, belief system that bonds a community whether you understand it or not - whether you speak it or not - whether it is human, animal, plant or not.

Yet, there is something ‘we’ all have in common and that is the circle of life; destroy that precious chain and we all suffer.

Find time for a species other than your own, learn its needs - there are no wants, no desires. It does not come calling to kill, destroy or possess you; it gives you love, pleasure or assists you through your life hood journey.

Repaying that kindness with equal reciprocity, helping out that species when the sea of life becomes turbulent is the least we can do.

~ Sketa

]]><![CDATA[Complexities]]>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 14:00:00 GMThttps://www.sketaoz.com/selinas_blog/complexities

Life can be most trialling in every sense of the word - it picks and chooses our direction, delivers us conditions and adherences to which we must prove ourselves and declare ourselves worthy in the eyes of others.

One should not have to do so, but again the world is not fair, and the universe delivers us lessons and exams for which we must do well and pass with 💯 clarity - to enable us to grow into the best versions of ourselves.

Never regret experiencing both sides of the emotional coin 🪙 Heads or tails… you always win…you learn, become stronger and more resilient, and so much more aware of life’s complexities.

Love ❤️ Sketa

]]><![CDATA[It is all art]]>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 20:40:03 GMThttps://www.sketaoz.com/selinas_blog/it-is-all-art

Someone once said...
I don't understand.
Everyone is becoming
~an artist ~

Ah... because being an artist has no barriers for expression.
It is all art.
...all an inner voice
needing to get out, into the world...

Whether or not the onlooker understands,
agrees or believes it to be art
- is irrelevant.

The act of expression - is the act of living.
breathing and finding one's
way through life

- without having to explain
oneself to a myriad of onlookers.

What is seen in the art does
not have to be interpreted;

it does not have to be a
major statement

- just a statement that says,

"I was here - I matter.
~ take me or leave me"

"I don't care."

Love ❤ Sketa

]]><![CDATA[Trying to do right, in a world of so much wrong.]]>Mon, 13 Jul 2026 07:54:32 GMThttps://www.sketaoz.com/selinas_blog/trying-to-do-right-in-a-world-of-so-much-wrong

I always thought that if one stayed strong and abided by one’s inner core being – one’s righteous conscience to treat all living beings as they would want to be treated, my world – my life and ultimately those who exist within my circle of influence, would always remain safe, protected and spared from the calamity of life, unscrupulous dealings and situations that can invade one’s life – that change it at a moment’s notice, to the benefit of the takers.

One’s integrity and honour to do right by others – one’s honesty to tell the truth in any situation – one’s belief that the process of natural order and balance would always exist in the great scheme of things…I thought. And the world would eventually reward you for your kindness, love and efforts to go the extra mile – would be seen favorably by the God’s and rewarded for what it is – due care and consideration for others.

A hard lesson to learn at my age, but one that still persists, to evade me.

I do not know, why I believe the world is ultimately – at its core – filled with goodness – an unlimited supply of positivity that will always ‘be’ – so long as one chooses to believe. Rose-tinted glasses some might say…

But does believing always have to ‘be’ – as a miracle?
Is belief only believable if it inhabits a fantasy world and never the world in which we exist?

Does belief in the goodness of others only prevail, if one has goodness in one’s soul – in one’s innate set of character traits? Do those traits not exist in others?

Are those traits always seen as disposable, unworthy, and not to be given one’s time, because they no longer apply to the world ~ the society, in which we live?
Have values – honour of one’s being become that disposable that only preservation of self comes at the expense and downfall of others?

We teach our children to look out for others; to consider their feelings; to be kind; do not use harsh words with one another; to always tell the truth – but something happens around the teen years…

Children grow up – they leave their fantasy world behind, where everything is safe, untouchable, filled with the belief of and in - friends – real or imaginary who are always there for them to make them feel better; a fantasy world where anything is possible; where dreams feel so real, so believable, you wish it would never end.

What a wonderful escape it is, but one that begs the question – if the fantasy world exists as kindness, love, doing good by others, telling the truth and where dreams come true, because you could believe – is the world in which we live as adults (where we know right from wrong) where we aspire to become the very best versions of ourselves, even possible?

If human beings can only tell the truth in the fantasy world – only there, love with entire heart – only there, have compassion for others; only there, see true honour of self – to never harm another living being…

Is the world chasing something ethereal…something unachievable?

Are true compassion, kindness, truth, trust and honour only fantasy - a myth, a tale, a storybook fable we tell our kids, because we know the world is not like that?

We know the world lies; it cheats; it steals; it kills; it hates.

It does not believe.

Why not?

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