contradictions and contraindications

ive been reading with great interest the papers of late.. no, not for mawi (who broke his engagement july10th and is most emphatically NOT seeing anyone) or siti nurhaliza (who's FINALLY getting married with 25 million wedding dresses, the value of which could feed starving villages in africa for years) tho i wont deny it made for fun reading.

i was eager to read about what ive deemed to be the most expensive, painful and unnecessary puppet show of our time. israel is the ragged, torn doll and the the Hezbollah is the master puppeteer. strange analogy i know, but after ages of angst and distress, it occurred to me to sit up and see this for what it was - thanks to a wine-fulled discussion with two delightfully verbose old men.

This is the largest, THE most successful PR blitz ever, and Hezbollah is the star. feeding on israel's neverending desire for retribution and attention, the Hezbollah has managed to get on thier side the most unlikely of allies even if its merely opposite someone they hate more. hey, support is still support, for whatever reason its being dished out.

so as much the world has tried to retaliate against guerilla warfare, this particular guerilla gets nothing but sympathy and support - all handed on the proverbial israeli silver platter.

what israel shold have done, say my two old men, is play martyr properly. the two captured soldiers (who for the record ARE STILL ALIVE in comparison to hundreds of dead lebanese) should have been sacrificed for the cause they signed up for, and the tables would have been turned - the hezbollahs would have seemed to be the barbarians, and the poor israelites the heroes. admittedly not the best state of affairs to be in and certainly not one i agree with, but still preferable to the way things are now. and please, i dont mean to be discompassionate to the israeli sodiers, but with all due respect you dont sign up to the army on an immortality clause - especially not in israel.

anyhow, israel, obviously forgetting about the innocent civilans already dead, decide to dramatise this capture, thus starting off the most apathetic bloodshed recent years. i say this because of what it is, and the nature of the people who have died as a result. no one has really died for the sake of struggling nation, these ppl will never have their names on plaque or statue. they died because two armies, armed with nothing but the minds of annoyed, argumentative 3-year olds, just didnt know any better than to fight.

i suppose it is necessary for me to point out the irony in this all, this ridicolous game of tit for tat, is that both warring factions can eventually trace the roots of their dissent to a single source. The most laughable part of it all is that Uncle Sam has still no clue he's done it.

we are waiting for a resurrection. not of religious figure - no one is lured by spiritual salvation anymore, it is money that speaks today. we are waiting for a political and economic resurgence that will somehow restore balance to the terribly odd way we are tipped in one direction. we need a movement that is motivated by pure will to rise. above whom now seems immaterial. it should just be above teh complacency we have all settled into, chasing after a sense of false power. charity means nothing if it follows in the wake of a price to be paid. if charity for charity's sake is gone, then fire, unfortunately, needs to be fought with more fire.

the US speaks of their only real pride, their freedom of speech. of all the things in the land of the free i have seen, speech and thought is certainly not it.

mumbai madness?

I watched with a mixture of fury, distress and helplessness the footage yesterday on BBC and CNN on the blasts in Mumbai, trying in a crazed desperation to reach a cousin of mine who commutes, like millions of mumbai-ites do, on the west bound city trains.

as the hot, molten fury flowed through my youthful veins, i could do nothing but cry at the heartlessness of people, who would willingly kill thousands for a semblance of what they perceive as religious liberation and justice. These people think naught of the justice and fairness a widowed bride would be crying for, nor the searing pain of a mother for the son she lost.

but then the lava eventually hardens, and becomes fertile with thought - what these people are fighting for.

you see, as a race, we humans can be very manipulative. we have created languages to express ourselves, and used words in those languages to confuse each other. we say things we dont quite mean, and we often have different meaning for these words anyway.

so when we label such attacks as terrorsts attacks, we forget to think about the essence of what were arguing about - these people fight fo freedom and liberation. they are fighting to be acknowldged for who they are and the vlaues they stand for. it is not impotant what those values are, as we are naught to judge the virtue of one value over another. is the fact that they think its worthy enought fight for. is this not the most basic and fundamental of human desires? is this not what we all aim to do? bylines in newspapers, the grammies, report card day at school - all this is an answer to a simple desire to be known and acknowledged. and in that knowledge, to be free.

we label these fighters as terrorists when they fight for liberation, but revere them as statesmen when they succeeed. perhaps it is oversimplifying things a little bit - i would never put Nelson Mandela, the MOST famous freedom fighter of our time, on the same page as the people who committed these massacres - but it is fine discerning line that separates the two that I am worried about. Nelson Mandela used the force of his presence and Gandhi used the force of the guilt he inspired. I have nothing but respect for these two leaders, but it is important we see that the essence of what they fought for is the same. it is only the manner in which they did it, and how specific their end goal was. Castro did what he did becasue he wanted Cuba - what did Osama really want? Do we really know, and do we really care?

and even then, all this can be turned into a matter of mistaken perception. we all know what the IRA did, and we all shudder in memory of their modus operandi. But some branches of the United States government refused to label members of the IRA terrorists, despite the violent methods used againt Britain.

I am not saying these terrorsts are correct in thier actions, nor am i in support of all this mayhem. its just that the value judgement we have made, the 'political expense' of dealing with the terrorists' laments, has resulted in a human cost we can never put a price tag on.

these people are figting in indignation of something they dont have - why are none of us finding out what that is?

is there life post world cup?

In football years, a month is almost an eternity. 60 something games spread across 30 odd nights (actually very early morning, as my eye bags will stand to testify) to some people has been like a whole lifetime.

and now, its all over... the italians are probably still dancing on their cars - albeit being some insane time of the night where they are but hell its their damn turn to stay awake - but when the pasta sauce as it eventually must, run out and the music stops to play, what then? the next few days is spent in recovery mode - regaining sleep, regaining normal eating patterns, and switching back to Malaysian time instead of working on European Standard time, as we all have been forced to adhere to. But, when the body is whole and the mind is normal, what then with the spirit which is weak?

discussions across the baord, held during fervent half time moments and the split seconds before extra time kicks in, registers a worrying sense of denial marking the end of the season. blank looks, random squeals and unintelligible grunts are the replies i most often receive, and anything lucid i hear is described in far too much profanity to be repeated in print.

i worry for the fate of our people. sleep deprivation was a manageable fault... as was of several other things frustrated women all over the world chose to hold back as punishment (home cooked meals la get your brain outta the gutter). But living without the World Cup? Is that even life worth living? After teasing us for a whole month, inviting us into the sunny green fields of stadiums across germany, sitting amidst the thronging crowds, cheering for the spirit of a truly poetic game, will fate be so cruel as to snatch it all away, leaving us to the cold desolate future with no football?

the mind wonders/wanders. ah but not too far, august brings in yet another soccer season to be cherished, and our sleepless nights stand heed to go on. resulting, as it usually does, in the raging, ecstatic bodies of yet another nationality, dancing merrily in the streets. on a bus this time, perhaps.

erm...

friends, friendsters, countrymen, lend me your ears... or eyes, i suppose.

for someone in the communications business i've admittedly picked on this whole blog thing rather late in the day, but as the old adage says, better delayed than never. (obviously the guy that came up with this wasnt rushing for a meeting he'd look better missing with a nice excuse than showing up late with no excuse for)

to be honest the only real reason I'm doing this is because a certain englishmen very rightly pointed out that this was, beyond a shadow of post modernist doubt, THE best personal marketing tool available today. my obvious reaction of "huh?" was soon followed by a very large and very bright lighbulb moment, so here I am. Of course, the "create blog" button on friendster ( what I consider the undisputed largest online pick-up joint EVER) was the get go sign i was looking for.

couple of things that need considering...
a) due to long nails, sleepy eyes, disillusioned brain etc my spelling MAY not be up to par as expected of someone of my calibre. please make do - the brain can actually decipher the words so let not the ego dispute it.
b) i ramble - deal with it. at least you know I'll make it a fun ride.
c) uh... thats it.

au revoir - till I blog again soon.