You know what they say about pictures, words and all that.
I could write a 2k essay with this one. But I suspect there’ll be some random idiot wanting to beat me to it. Any takers for bets on who it might be?
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OC: Special Focus on War
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August 10, 2006 9:42 pm
July 22, 2006 9:22 am
December 12, 2005 10:33 am
What is winter? Winter is when, on most weekends, I find a way to do what I usually want to do on a Saturday or Sunday, but not at home. Instead I escape to coffee houses or replace my otherwise rigid activities schedule and slate in ‘grocery shopping’ on Saturday afternoons instead of the more customary morning jaunt. Yes, I will find myself in the throng of the most heavy of Saturday shoppers, but a small price to pay, because as a super skint student of the Noughties, my house is freezing cold and being indoors is just not worth it. Rising energy prices mean that we turn our heating off for the most part of the day – works fine during weekdays when everyone is at uni; not as much fun during weekends. So until the heating comes back on as scheduled at 6pm, I’d rather be elsewhere doing other things, than lie under the covers and inevitably, fall asleep.
In attempts to be ‘culturally sensitive’ and ‘politically correct’, the Chronicles of Narnia movie has been lambasted as being ‘too Christian’; and the word Christmas has amazingly begun to disappear from greetings on both sides of the Atlantic. The ‘blame’ has conveniently been put at the feet of Jews and Muslims – apparently, we ‘may’ be offended by the festivities, beings as we don’t celebrate Christmas. Frankly, I couldn’t care less about Christmas – and I mean this in a totally non-Ebenezer Scrooge way. I am more than glad for the week off I get from university; which shall be spent watching Mary Poppins (for the umpteenth time) and Sound of Music (for the second time). It doesn’t offend me that Christians celebrate Christmas, even if the odd misguided greeting is sometimes thrown my way; in fact, it offends me more that more than 2 years after the fall of Saddam, Iraqis are still living in a climate of fear not much different from what they were promised to be liberated from. And yet, ironically, this real concern is mostly ignored – but the British and American governments are being ‘kind’ enough to consider the feelings of the people of other faiths when it comes to things we mostly don’t care about.
This weekend I took time to do two somewhat arguably Christmassy things – I watched the aforementioned Narnia movie, lovingly dubbed by Noi as The Lion, The Witch and The Gobok; and I went with my departmental colleagues to catch the play A Christmas Carol at the Dukes Theatre. There is a very strong Christian element in both performances, perhaps more in the former than in the latter, but I failed to be offended. Perhaps I have a high tolerance of such matters relative to others, but there are many a lesson one could learn from both stories. The theme ‘second chances’ are common: Edmund in Narnia, and Ebenezer in Victorian London. There is also the lesson that life is what you make of it – as Scrooge changes his future and that of Tiny Tim. There were also a few others, I suppose, except that I spent some part of the Narnia movie trying to compare how realistic the computer generated images were (not very at some parts, very at others); and some part of the play trying to see if I could see the props people from above the stage (I couldn’t). May I also add the observation that centaurs are very efficient creatures in battles – already part horse, they have both hands to wield two swords, and if a human mounted them, that is four swords to one unit. Also, the way the props were changed in between scenes during the play, I found novel and cleverly, never interfered with the show at all.
It’s sometimes hard to be offended when the values that these stories portray, are common to most religions. Even more so, how ironic is it, that the three faiths which people seem to think are at much loggerheads with each other, come from the same Abrahamic tradition?
What a difference a day makes
8 commentsI have just finished the fifth of the five cases to be solved on Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, which explains, in part, the lack of progress of this paper I am currently working on. The central theme to this final case, which follows on from allusions in the earlier cases, is one of corruption. In particular, the case centers around those in powers, fabricating evidence in order to make arguments swing their way, and for personal gain. In the end, of course, justice triumphs – our rookie lawyer bests the powers that be, corruption is uncovered and wrongs are put right. How I wish, upon wishes of wishes, that this is the way of the world today.
Already, conspiracy theorists are discussing the possibility of the thwarting of the mid-air bomb plots as a stage-up. Perhaps not as much to alleviate attention away from the happenings in the Middle East, but more to legitimise the ‘efforts’ of the US and its allies in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Iraq. Fear, as we all know, is a potent tool, but somehow I have faith in the British public and their common sense, more so than I do in the American public, I must admit. While they see that this is a major inconvenience, they are also aware that the British government may have brought this upon themselves. Depressingly, however, there is not much that can be done about it. If the world needs a poster montage for democracy gone wrong – this is it. Over the past few years, I have never heard louder shouts of ‘No’ from the masses, and yet, despite the fact that democracy is about vox populi, public demands are blatantly being ignored by those in power.
The failure of democracy
(The Independent front page, 210706)
Is there a possibility of fabrication? I have never put that niggling doubt in my mind to rest. If the US and its allies can singlehandedly control the wars of the world, what’s to stop them from staging anything? After all, it need not filter to the lower echelons – even the chief of police need not know about such an operation: all it needs is a tip-off from ‘someone’ for the police to do what they should, without knowing much else. What is scary, if as many believe, 9/11 and perhaps even 7/7 were government orchestrated, is the blatant disregard for the sanctity of human life – which we already see is evident in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Of course, this provides a catch22-esque situation: should no arrests be made, and the bombs were detonated, the police and the security services would be embroiled in yet another scandal. If arrests are made, conspiracy theorists have their day. Assuming that the police know no better, to err on the side of caution is perhaps the best way to go, what with public safety at heart. But it doesn’t negate the pressing issues at hand. What scares me is that Bush and Blair and all that conspire with them know very well the root causes of so-called ‘terrorism’, and what needs to be done to alleviate risk of terrorists threat, but they seem to be happy to do nothing about it, instead diverting the blame onto others.
What is the way forward? I don’t know. If, indeed, these plots are legit, and are made by disgruntled citizens of the world who are sick and tired of failed democracy; who see on a daily basis that lodging protests, writing petitions and going about the peaceful, diplomatic way don’t work because nobody in power listens; then my argument is – if you have a gripe with someone, go see to it with that person, and that person only. There is no point blowing a plane full of civilians (and the odd air ranger or whatever they call him) to make yourself heard. That just puts you on par with the Israelis bombing whole cities on the possibility of having a Hizbollah member living there – which he probably did : twenty years ago.
What a mockery this all makes, for the phrase: ” And Justice for All”.
*****
On a much lighter note, Lucy Mangan on the ‘intercepted calls’ in the tabloid phone tapping scandal.