Disclaimer: Somewhere on this blog are multiple grammatical mistakes, spelling errors and obscure Star Wars references.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

She calls it quits. (I'm not sure, is that right?)

Once again, I find my news on the Yahoo! homepage. Laziness consumes us all. Who needs a newspaper anymore. I mean, you need TWO hands to use it. The mouse only needs two fingers.

Either way coming to the point of this here post. Cindy Sheehan has called it in and she is quitting doing what she did best (i.e. pissing off both Democrats & Republicans. Oh, and standing against the war) and is going back to her family in California. For those of you who don't really know who Cindy Sheehan is go here (A little Wiki-knowledge should help).

The brave story of a war-mom has come to an end amid allegations of her being an attention whore, a sadist, a demoralizer, and someone went as far as to call her a traitor. How original. To be completely fair she had her share of both support and criticism. I'd like to think that the, "Bring the troops home!" campaign was benefitted tremendously by Mrs. Sheehan.

I've two points to make for this post. Number one: Conformism. Once again, someone who tried not to go with the tide has been beached like a sperm whale. Everyone said let's bomb them some more, she said let's bring them all home before more people die. But now due to the lack of care for something out of the ordinary, Cindy Sheehan stopped her protest. Her words, "Good-bye America ... you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can't make you be that country unless you want it." Sad innit. A country that conformed to what a few wanted. Now they look down upon even their own. Here is something Mrs. Sheehan said about her struggle and how helpless she felt. These words drive my point home.

"Casey (Cindy Sheehan's son) did indeed die for nothing ... killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think."


Another great example of Conformity. I wish she retired earlier, I'd have mentioned her in my older post.

My second point: How stupid is the average American anyway? Well obviously, my words seem very harsh, and I'm pretty sure very offensive. But hey, don't tell me it never occurred to you before. I mean for a country that has seen numerous amounts of people who have gone great lengths for such minor details, THIS protest drew crowds yes, but resulted in absolutely effing nothing.

In the USA, we've seen people hold protests for homeless animals, sick children, a bear stuck in a condo (Yes I saw it on TV) and many other comparatively small things. Not that I'm saying that it's wrong but where are the Vietnam-esque protests against the mass genocide that is Iraq and Afghanistan? If they care about the Vietnamese so much, why are Arabs and Middle Easterners so different.

Really, has the average American ideal changed so much since the late 60s that now a war that's going terribly wrong is not even cared about, and even less, objected or protested by it's people. The very people who are the family of the troops that fight this savage and absolutely pointless war.

xx

M

Monday, May 28, 2007

Conformism

Conformism is a funny concept. In some ways it can even contradict itself.

As I sit here thinking about what to write about this topic I see myself running out of many ideas. What I've realised is that Conformism is not really something that you can label someone with. You can't always call someone a conformist. Although in many situations it is possible to label someone like that, but in my opinion it can be easily mislabeled.

An example as simple as in iPod. I know many people who've bought the iPod because, "they needed an mp3 / movie player and the iPod is the best." Now someone who probably hasn't much technical knowledge and decided to buy the iPod, because either everyone he knows has one or has praised it as the most awesome thing that's ever happened to them, CAN be labeled as a conformist. But somebody else, a tech-savvy fellow, can NOT be labeled one, due to his superior knowledge and whatnot.

Conformity is defined by sociologists as behavior that matches group or peer expectations. But conformity can not be limited to social and private lives. A more drastic example of conformity can be seen in politics. In general, political conformity is encouraged by jailing opposition leaders and silencing or getting rid of nonconformist ideas. In fact, the most extreme example of conformity can be seen in Germany during WWII. The citizens of Nazi Germany were like droids that conformed to their Fuhrer.

Conformity comes in many different shapes and sizes too. Like a group leader faced with a choice, A or B. Both seem fair but some prefer B over A. However the group leader chose A. So even though many people prefer B they won't speak out and they'll conform over what the group leader has decided. Take Iraq for example. America invaded Iraq. Many Americans died, and even more Iraqis were slaughtered. The war was a disaster. And I'm sure that many of Bush's close advisers had warned him against it. Yet, they chose to keep quiet and accept Bush's decision without arguing their stand. That is conformity as well. Although to a much larger and different scale when compared to what we see everyday.

And about what we see everyday. Of course people are going to conform. Has anyone wondered why the, weirdos, geeks, goths, punks, agnostics, etc etc are all looked at distinctively in a crowd. Simply because they don't conform. Anyone who is different from what is the norm is looked upon in puzzlement if not disgust. So why shouldn't people conform? If not for the sake of want, they do it for the sake of not being looked down upon.

Conformity for many is a shelter from the unknown and from the harsh looks and words. From those who don't seek it, it is what makes them different from all the others. They don't conform. They don't need to. Rather they don't want to. I'm not surprised people conform. And I don't think anyone should be. As for the people who don't conform, they oughta be looked at in awe rather than in puzzlement.

Simply put: It takes more balls to be different from all the rest that it does to be the same. So stop mocking and start appreciating.

xx

M

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Axis of Evil : Maz Jobrani


Came across Maz Jobrani, an Iranian-American Comic on Youtube. A friend of mine suggested it.

Hilarious! Another step towards breaking stereotypes.

xx

M

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Another war story...

You know what I noticed during my latest excursion to Magrudy's the other day? I noticed that if you walk into the fiction section of any bookstore (not just Magrudy's) most of the books are war based. To play Devil's Advocate, a lot of those are my favys. Robert Ludlum's especially. Unfortunately there were aisles of books about covert warfare, espionage, terrorism, lunatics hell bent on blowing up the world etc etc. But very few on peace.

It's kind of saddening isn't it. I mean can you imagine that a decent majority of reader's of fiction novels read about some terrorist or organisation planning to take over the world, or, steal an old Russian Nuclear warhead, or, sink thousands of shipping vessels to destroy the economy world over etc etc etc.

Why don't people write about a lawyer-turned-politician who pens down one of the world's most influential peace treaties. Or, a humanitarian worker in Africa that's able to bring peace to some warring factions. Or, a religious leader in Philippine who's able to get the rebels and the government to come to a ceasefire, standstill and eventually a final and resting peace. Or even a local police officer in some county in California who's able to stop two neighbors, a Republican and a pious Muslim, to stop arguing and get along. Simple stuff even.

I've never seen books like those. Which could totally be my fault entirely and it could be that such books exist but I've never seen them. And I'd like to think that I'm a voracious reader. Either way, it'd be nice to see a book that focused on an individual or party that was a forerunner in world peace and/or did something to make the world a more peaceful place.

To be fair to the war books, the bad guys weren't ALWAYS Arabs or Muslims. Many a times they were Europeans or Far Eastern or Russian/Eastern European. But there was ONE thing that ALL the books had in common. At least one, if not the only, good guy of the book was from....... (no prize for guessing the right answer) the USA. Very Gung-ho very Americanised very Hollywoodised.* coughtypicalcough*

War is easy. Anyone can do it. It's the peace thing that's hard to do. Try writing books about a peace treaty that worked out. Oh, and it has to be a fiction novel. Hope I'm not asking too much.

xx

M

Monday, May 21, 2007

One down. 7 to go. Waiting.

One paper down. English Paper 3, Media, is all and over. No more talking about advertisements or magazines or anything. And tomorrow once I'm done with Desk Study, won't be doing anything like this again. Hopefully forever too.

Last two days have been terribly weird. Cant seem to get my mind into my books. Something or the other keeps cropping up and I keep faltering from what I started to do. I have a few guests staying at my place and they're probably what distracts me sometimes. Although other things always have the tendency to hit you when you least expect it, and when they do it seems to slow everything down.

Yearrgh. I feel helpless at times. For many different things, for different reasons. Like, for example, my Scholarship. I submitted my completed application a week ago and I was informed that if I do get the scholarship, or am even considered for it I wont be informed until mid-August. It's mid-May now and that's a good three months away. If I DO find out earlier it only means that I've been rejected and that they're giving me Financial Aid instead. Financial Aid isn't bad, its a good 50% off the tuition fee, but it feels like charity. Not only is the Scholarship 75 - 100% off the tuition fee, but it also feels earned rather than given. Now that my application's in, there's nothing that I can do but wait and hope they don't contact me until August. And during those three months I'm gonna kill myself thinking about the progress.

I guess a person feels most helpless when he's done everything he possibly could and now all he can do is pray, hope and wait. That's how it is I guess. Most people don't prepare to have to wait for the result. Everyone wants it NOW! I've done my bit, so what do I get? Unfortunately that's what you're left with and if you don't have faith and patience you're in for a hard time. Probably the worst thing about patience is that if you've done everything you can, and all you have to do is wait, you won't know anything about the issue anymore, until they give you the final result.

It's like someone showing you all three parts of the Matrix and telling you that you're gonna have to sit and look at all 3 DVD covers for the collective runtime of the movie. You can't actually WATCH the movie. When that's done, we'll just tell you that Neo dies in the end along with Trinity and peace is restored. You're not privy to know how it happens or what happens. Just that it happened.

Got Patience?


xx

M

Monday, May 14, 2007

Blues...

It has been a ridiculously long time since I updated my blog and to be honest I'm quite ashamed of that. My alibis are exam blues, university blues and scholarship blues.. and reds and greens..

Since my last update, I've FINALLY applied for the Chancellor's Scholarship submitting all my completed forms and recommendation letters and certificates and whatnot. I was informed that they now want my final A Level grades as well before they finally tell me whether or not I scored that Scholarship. Added pressure. I had resigned to the fact that I've already been accepted to University and that I can apply for the Scholarship without my A Level grades. 'Tis sadly not so. They want my final grades before they give me a final thumbs up. Or a thumbs. Those of you who have brownie points with Allah, please pray for the former. If I score it, you all get a free lunch from me. :P

Since my last update, I've finally started to get somewhat serious with my studies, albeit I had ignored it earlier and even mentioned before that I had stopped bothering about my grades. I started cracking Unit 6 in Core Mathematics 4 section by section. I've finished the entire 6A unit. Today I plan to finish 6B and also go through the important points that I need to keep in mind for English Paper 3 that's on this coming Thursday. Maybe I can score those grades. Then maybe I can grab that Scholarship. *turning on the confidence*

Since my last update, a lot changed in the personal world of yours truly. Some stuff that was earlier in doubt has now been, unfortunately, confirmed. So big loss, but I guess that goes for both sides. I've also realized that all good things DO arrive eventually. Ya just have to wait for them, patiently. Patiently; that's the key word. Be confident there too. Good things happen to good people. You'll get what's coming.

Anyway, I know this isn't enough to make up for all the lost days that I left this world uncared for, but something IS, in fact, better than nothing, and a slow start is better than none at all.

Sometimes I'm too philosophical for my own good. Maybe I oughta meet a professional

xx

M