Please sign

http://www.allout.org/en/petition/eddy

Do please sign this petition. To be deported would work against this man's basic human rights.

Criminal?

Have I committed some crime against post-feminism or perhaps more accurately money-obsession? Each time I tell a Recruitment Agency that I want to work part-time, I'm received with negative-filled surprise - 'why do you want to work part-time' loosely translated, you do realise that part-time means less money. Another recruitment agent asked whether my husband would support me?! What kind of question is that. Perhaps designed to force me into full-time work just in case I offended each stage of the feminist movement.

At present I am without work. I intend to find work and earn enough to survive (just about) either with or without my husband. I'm quite capable of living a fairly frugal existence - my sense of achievement doesn't depend on how much money I've wasted in a department store, how many debts I've chalked up in clothes shops or how many hours I've spent receiving a massage (which is counterbalanced by how stressed I was prior to said massage due to amount of hours I work).

Assuming you can survive and expect to manage your own existence, surely the amount of hours you work should be your decision and yours alone. Surely a person shouldn't feel that they have committed some hideous crime against the social world just because they choose to seek a part-time role.

In our house, much like many other male - female couple mixed households, the majority of the domestic tasks fall to me. I've patriarchy to thank for that. I'm more fortunate than most, when my now husband worked less hours and I actually had a job, the tasks were roughly split down the middle (give or take a little in his favour) but now he works full-time and since I voluntarily waved goodbye to my job in the last round of local government shake-ups, all I do is fiddle with my Degree and carry out all the household tasks (including those that relate to the domestic side of part-time child care). No reward anticipated for juggling these, there are many that juggle a huge amount of daily tasks - working mums spring to mind here.

I actually think that life is meant for living not for rushing around like a blue arse fly, achieving much but simultaneously suffering from stress, constant headaches and putting your order in for a knackered and early grave.

Assuming you financially manage your own pathway through life, working less is a good thing and sod those who effin disagree with me. Next time a recruitment agency or indeed anyone else asks me why I want to work part-time I will either A: contravene my own anti-violence moral stance or B: produce a pre-prepared red card from my handbag or C: ask them why they want to know before offering an answer.