Just a personal update :)

January 2009 is over. The first month of 2009, which I intend to make an awesome year, has been up to par so far, and I'm fairly happy. Exams went well, I'm growing my profile as an MC or Host or Stage Manager, am starting to work in Dad's company more and all around progress in all fields. School reopens on the 8th, so I've got that long to relax before I get back to the University grind.

Unfortunately for me, earlier this month my hard drive was damaged by a dear friend of mine, and the data was unrecoverable and the hard drive was fried. My friend was deeply apologetic, and was sweet enough to reimburse me with a brand new hard drive with the same capacity. Albeit I lost all my data (AND MY MUSIC WTF!!!!) but she's really decent and I couldn't thank her enough. I went to the beach yesterday and gave my old hard drive a burial. The whole nine yards. Toy spade, rocks to mark the grave, sea shells to decorate and everything. T'was an awesome night.

Here is picture of above mentioned grave.


For reasons yet unexplained, the picture refuses to load the right way up, so you're gonna have to tilt your head to your right so see it from the angle that the picture was taken.

So that was yesterday. A lot of guests coming down in the next few days. My eldest brother will be leaving the UAE and heading back to USA for a few years. so we've got a bunch of folks goming down here from all around the place to see him off. My brother from Egypt, an aunt from India, my brother's in-laws, his friends etc etc. A flurry of activity around the house really, and February's probably going to be a busy busy month. A busy and crowded month. Bright side is I get to see the kids and that's always a good thing.

The fact that the kids have grown, means I will have to hide a lot of my stuff. Stuff that can be broken. Stuff that can be dangerous. Stuff that I only have one of and so can't share it with the kids. All these things will have to be hidden if I am to avoid any damages/losses to or of these items as well as to prevent fights amongst the kids.

the 26th of January is the Indian Republic Day, and on that night, I hosted a fashion show at the house of the Consil General of India. It was a part charity part university promortion fashion show, but it was a good one. Met a lot of interesting people there, including the Consul General of India Venu Rajamony, the Consul General of Britain, France, Guineau, China, South Korea, Thailand and many other dignitaries. Also met a fellow Tweeter PKGulati and his wife. Was nice to run into them.

I also took part in a little blogging experiment that T held, and submitted a guest post on the topic of change on his blog. If you haven't already read it, give it a read here.

Either way, that was January 2009 for me. Moving in to February in a couple of minutes or so. Let's keep it going, shall we?

M


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Boycott American Cars!

Ok that title was just to attract more visitors..


Either way, this post has been long overdue and I'm surprised that it took me so long to actually get to writing it. I will now speak of the atrocities in Gaza and the American sit-on-my-butt attitude towards Israeli genocide. BUT, before you draw conclusions, this is the first of two posts about the topic. The second topic shows the equally stupid non-helping Arab countries. So don't be that quick to draw your conclusions. On GFWMG I try to be as unbiased as possible.

THIS post however, is for those who want to help Gaza and anyone else oppressed by the American (Read: Bush) War Machine and the Bush Administration's foreign policies, that will soon be rendered obsolete once BO is in power. But just to be safe.

Whenever I spoke to anyone regarding Gaza, even though the conversation was full of heightened emotions and opinions, there was always this lingering aftertaste of helplessness. Sitting at our coffee shops, cafes, pool bars, bars (for a few), there was only that much bitching and moaning that one could do before you just ran out of excuses and this horrible feeling of dread would take over you as you realized that there really was nothing much you could do. And I'm sure we've all been through it, both pro-Palestinians and pro-Israeli (ie, in terms of pro-peace) people alike.

However, my brother mentioned this to me and at the time I did not think of it as much of a deal. On his saying, I did some research and it turns out there's a pretty decent way to make a difference. You know how everyone keeps rambling on about "Boycott *insert random country* Goods!" Well, that really does make a difference with regards to the American Economy. Let's start with a little background.

Want to help Gaza? Want Israel to stop it's atrocities? If you want to kill a snake (Being totally metaphorical here) cut off the head. The first country to recognise the State of Israel in 1948 was the United States Of America, under the leadership of Harry S. Truman. The country that gives the most in terms of foreign aid, both direct and indirect, military and non-military is the United States of America. What I'm trying to establish is, that if people were to apply decent amounts of pressure on the government of the USA, we would actually be able to take a step towards helping the people of Gaza.

Lemme give you some numbers. American fiscal aid to Israel began in 1948 itself with Harry Truman setting the bar. Every president since, the bar's only gone higher. Since WWII Israel has been the largest overall recipient of American aid.

• Between 1948 - 2006 Israel has received more than$156 billion in Direct Financial Aid.
• Until 2003, Israel received a third of the annual US Foreign Aid Budget.
• The US also 'loaned' money to Israel, but waived them before repayments even began. The tally of waived loans only stands at $45 billion, up to 2003.
• During 1996 - 2006 Israel received more the $24 billion in Financial Military Aid from the USA.
• 50% of the USA's Foreign Military Financing (FMF) budget is directly allocated to Israel, who can spend more than 26% of that in buying weapons produced by Israeli arms manufacturers, keeping that percentage of money in their economy.
• In August of 2007 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the USA and Israel, guaranteeing them $30 billion over the next 10 years in military aid via the FMF.

I could go on about these facts. A lot of them are easily available over the internet, from reliable sources. One such source summarised it like this, "The Real Cost of US Aid to Israel: $3 Trillion."

I'd take that with a pinch of salt, but it's still quite a number.

Now it's safe to assume that poking and prodding at the American economy could cause ripples big enough to affect Israel.

Disclaimer: I understand that Barack Obama's term as President may not see the same support, and would hereby render this post obsolete, but these are the facts. If, in the coming months, you see no difference in American Foreign Policy towards Israel and the Middle East, I don't see why not.

Let's get straight to the point. 1 out of every 10 American jobs is directly linked to the automobile industry. If Detroit, America's autmobile manufacturing stronghold, were to fall, as many as 3 million jobs would be affected. Now while the number of jobs lost due to GM, Chrysler and Ford's deaths could be cancelled out by the aggressive capture of the market by Japanese giants Toyota, Nissan, Honda and even Hyundai, it is not the jobs that would kill the American Economy.

GM, Ford and Chrysler control about 40% of the global automobile industry, worth $450 billion, and control over 60% of the domestic market, worth roughly $300 billion. I'm going to say this part slowly. The size of the domestic US auto industry controlled by foreign brands is the same as the share controlled by American auto manufacturers in the global market. ie, American auto manufacturers sell enough cars overseas to counter balance money lost to the sales of foreign cars (ie imports) in the USA. If Detroit were to fall, this dynamic economic balance would die with it and the American economy would have a direct negative effect of roughly $450 billion. And when the entire cookie crumbles and all the bits have fallen off, the cascading effect of this fall could shave of well over a trillion dollars of the American GDP annually.

This void left by GM, Chrysler and Ford, will soon be filled by foreign manufacturers and more sooner than later, foreign companies will have the largest influence on American economy in history. Eventually, the American auto industry would sputter and die, expedited by the new found power for foreign brands in economy of scales, marking it as the most tragic event in US economic history.

NOW, while the result is assumption based on facts, it still is quite possible. If you really want to start trying to help people of Gaza or any other country oppressed by the American war machine, stop talking and start doing. Stop buying Ford Explorers. Stop purchasing Mustangs. No more 300Cs. No more Tahoes or Suburbans. Buy Japanese. Their airconditioners wont die out on you.


xx


M



Ps.
I don't want the USA to die off. Really. I want to go to Harvard. But I do want to put enough pressure on them, so that they stop directly helping the genocidists that sit in powerful places in the Israeli government. The next part of this series will show how some countries *cough*middleeasternoilrich*cough* sit back and do nothing save for talk. My next post will be on that. Look out for it.


Sources:

1. http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm
2. http://knol.google.com/k/mic-mac/the-financial-cost-of-american-support/1xmk75xoq251y/2#
3. What To Do With Detroit Is MoreA National Strategic Decision by A. D. Amar, Strategy & Policy Professor, Stillman School of Business.
   

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My relatively-glorious return!

After a long break, I'm finally done with my papers and am right back on track to getting a go from 2009.

I remember that during my mini-hiatus I had so many things to talk about on a personal level. However now that I'm actually here I can't seem to remember any of those things. I remember thinking to myself, 'Wow, that'll be awesome blog fodder.' But, alas, with age comes weakened memory and at 21 I'm having trouble keeping good post ideas in my mind. I think I'll pull an Al Pacino and carry a small yellow legal pad wherever I go, to record my thoughts. Hmm. Now that I mentioned it, I like the idea.

Now to find a nice tiny yellow legal pad.

I finished my papers yesterday, signing off with MGT-203: Operations Management. I must say that, that paper was the paper that went better than any of the others, which is interesting because it was one of the hardest. The hardest paper was MGT 204: Legal Environments in Business & Corporate Law. I'd rather not talk about that paper. ACC 201: Financial Management went much better than originally expected, so it's safe to say that I'm happy with the way my semester papers fared. Now if only I was actually happy with my University as well.

The first 15 days of 2009 have been ok to say the least. I've been recently cursed with a flurry of material losses and/or damages. At first, my cell phone lost all my messages. Soon after a friend of mine permanently damaged my external hard drive, frying all my data. I've sent that off to a data recovery service and will now hope and pray that it goes well. It makes for an interesting story though.

I walked in to the data recovery place and I met the person I spoke to on the phone. Helped him refresh his memory on my HDD and then he asked me for symptoms. "When you plugged it in, did it make a clicking sound," he asked with this gravely death-ish look on his face. "NO thank GOD," I responded enthusiastically happy that my HDD wasn't giving us the death rattle yet. "Oh good," said the service technician as he continued to jot down some more stuff. "However,' I said, "when I did plug it in, it began spinning and then it would stop and then it would spin again and then it would stop, and that cycle would continue. So it can't be that bad right? I mean it's spinning at least, with no noise."

The technician looked up at me through his ridiculously large numbered glasses and said, "That's actually worse."

At that point I believe I peed a little. "When that happens it means that the HDD detects a malfunction and shuts down. It makes data recovery much harder. I'd give it a 50% chance," he said as he looked at my HDD like it was a pet that was about to be diagonised with animal cancer.

And just today, my Xbox360 finally gave me what every Xbox360 owner dreads to see. It gave me the Red Circle of Doom. Alas, my trusty sidekick will now be taken to a service center and I pray that they can fix it. I *really* can't live without it. The PlayStation 3 just can't fill the void that would be left behind if it were to perish.

With the recent turn of events on my stuff, T advised me not to drive as well. I laughed, but now every time I look at the car I do find myself wondering if it's gonna die on me.

Anyway, the highlight of the year so far has been successful exams and that I love my paintball gun. I don't know why I just typed that in, but it couldn't be helped. I have two other blog posts in the writing. One on the American philosophy of, "People dying is cool, just so long as it ain't us. Or the Israelis." And the other one is on the true fact that there are Israeli support group with no money who do MORE for the Palestinian-Arab cause than the oil-rich corrupt bastard countries of the Middle East have. There are crappy people on both sides of the fence and I intend on busting both of them. While these articles may not be works of pure journalistic genius, I will try and polish them with a dirty napkin as much as I can. Bravo!

In other news, on T's urging I have gotten in touch with the local organizers of the Twestival and come Sunday I will be meeting with them to see what can be done and/or how I can help. Also, less than 2 months from now, I will be the Stage Manager for the annual Dubai Rock Challenge. It'll be my second time working for them, and I LOVE it.

Also, I've come to realize that I've blown off The Weekly Stupids for a LONG time and in fact, my last TWS post was on the 12th of December. That means I blew off FOUR updates, almost a month's worth. I am thoroughly ashamed of myself and will shoot myself through the roof of my mouth at first given opportunity. Starting tomorrow TWS will be back, better than ever. Tsk tsk tsk...

Well, that's about all I can think of saying right now. Over the next 4 days I have 3 posts to complete 2 of them more serious than the remaining third. So Imma take off for now and will talk to you guys later. Be good now children!


xx


M


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The Ballads of M: I can't think of a title for this..

This is something I've done in the past, and I can say without doubt that it's because I am naive and immature. But being another young adult with only a laptop and internet connection at his disposal, I know that this is my little bit in trying to help. I'd love to do more, and maybe one day I can and will be able to do more. Till then, I'm not going to stop writing.

Today, Israeli warplanes launched multiple aerial attacks across Palestinian lands and killed at least 155 people, wounding another 310.

I know that a LOT of people have Yahoo! as their homepage, but I wonder why I don't see that much of a reaction? I mean, apparently we're still human beings right? When India was attacked and a similar number of people were killed at the Taj and the Trident, remember the buzz? The Media attention? The public outcry? The political pressure on Pakistan to control their people?

I'm not saying that, what happened in India was a small deal, not at ALL. What I'm trying to say is that why is it that people who were SO shocked about the death and murder in India, why those SAME people don't have the same reactions to the terrorist actions of the Israeli army in Palestine? Whether it was a 20 year old waving an AK-47 or it was an Israeli pilot in an F-16, murder is MURDER.

When a few Israelis were killed at the Narmin house in India and a baby ( "Baby Moshe" ) was orphaned, HOW many TV hours were dedicated to them? HOW many news channels aired their plight repeatedly? Again, I'm not saying that an Israeli's life is worthless (although I'm sure a lot of people would), but WHY not the same outcry when SO many MORE people are slaughtered in Palestine?

Where are the NDTV specials? Where is CNN's live covering? Where are the BBC? I'm not even gonna mention FOX news.

It is DISGUSTING to mention that the populace of this world has come to ignore the deaths of certain communities only because, it is now so common to hear of their deaths. Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghanis and even the Chechnyans earlier on.

It is DISGUSTING that the superpowers sit back and allow Israel to do as they see fit, but will threaten Pakistan with military action when India was attacked.

It is DISGUSTING that your average bloke can power up his TV or laptop and read the deaths of a hundred Palestinians and go, "Oh well," and then go on checking the football scores.

It is DISGUSTING that we sit here in our comfortable lives and care about the deaths that happened in India, or the 9/11 attacks or the London Tube attacks only because we know people there and because it "affects" us in a manner of speaking. But when we hear about the other deaths that don't affect us, we can read, comprehend and then continue to ignore.

It is DISGUSTING how people can care when supposedly superior races of humans are killed but then turn away when a supposedly inferior race is slaughtered in broad daylight.

It is DISGUSTING how some countries will defend the perpetrators of mass genocide.

How can an American or an Israeli now sit back and wonder why they really are hated so much. I don't hate every American or Israeli, because I don't want to stereotype. And because I know there are good people on all sides of a war. I know there are bad people in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan too.

But believe you me, it's not easy convincing yourself to remain focused, and not to hate.

M


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Could it be..?

Around mid-October, I heard this rumour and remember laughing it off as unlikely. I mean who would go through such lengths so as to block video hosting, P2P networks and torrents. At that point it seemed unlikely and, to be entirely frank, extremely risque. Can you imagine internet censorship to THAT degree?

Last week, there was a story spreading round (I mentioned even) that a ship had dropped anchor on a deep sea cable, severing lines and subsequently disrupting internet activity in the UAE. Now we all read and acknowledged said event, and understood why a lot of our internet based softwares and websites were acting up. I mentioned that even blogger was slow. By yesterday, all my internet speeds were back up to par.

With one small difference.

YouTube, the web's premier video hosting website, is no longer accessible. NO, it's not 'blocked' but you can no longer connect to their server. So all you end up seeing is a page that reads, "The connection to the server was reset while attempting to contact it." For a while I figured it was just the internet acting up. 5 days and regular internet later I wonder.. Could it be?

Limewire, one of the world's popular P2P networks, refuses to connect. Neither do any of my torrent files. Weird I thought. Internet was fine, so then why do these things refuse to connect. Allowing Etisalat the benefit of the doubt I rang them up to ask them if the internet issues were solved. A nice Pinoy lady responded in the affirmative. Internet was (supposedly) back to normal.

Total brain racking time! What is going on? YouTube, Limewire and torrents STILL not working. Somewhere inside me the conspiracy theorist woke up. I fired up a VPN to check something out.

Guess what I found....

YouTube, Limewire and torrents working JUST fine when the VPN was fired up, but not even connecting when I'm running my regular lines.

From this I will leave you to draw your own conclusions. If anyone has the same problems, or, is not having the same problems, do let me know.

Cheers!

M


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Long time coming..

How can this not make you smile?



At least SOMEONE got to do it..


M


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Argh. Argh. Argh. And just so I'm clear: Argh.

There's just one more day until the big elections in the US of A, and ideally I'd love to be sitting in my bedroom and watching live updates and cheering on the Dems. Unfortunately, I'm still here and I'll only be back in Dubai on the 7th. Shit.

Secondly, I love it when people make slips they don't realize. Iz ozzum.

I've come down with something terrible since my last post. It's an allergic reaction that has resulted in a full chest (of phlegm thengyooverymuch), sore throat, blocked sinuses, severe ear pain, runny eyes (and nose) and a LOT of cough, headaches and all around discomfort. My asthma's also acted up and I'm having a tough time breathing. Argh. I'd love to get bed rest, but being the last few days in India, we're all packing to get ready to go to Bombay and meeting people and stuff. Either way, this is the worst health I've been in, in a while, and I can't wait to get better.

Still I can't get around the fact that I won't be able to follow the elections live. When we leave to Bombay tomorrow, odds are I won't be able to get online until I hit Dubai.

BUT, I had a really good time here surprisingly enough. Pune, Bombay, Mahableshwar. All'o'that.

Either way, this is M signing off (I think) until I (probably) land in Dubai.




Oh. I just remembered. My laptop's in for servicing in Dubai and I still haven't got the call that it's completed.



Poop.



Oh well. Desktop.



Meh.


xx


M




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GOBAMAGO!!!!

Everyone's heard of LOLcats. From one of their branches, I present:

LOLPolitics...


I scoured the website to bring you some of their funniest shit. Most of 'em are anti-McCain, but there are a few that were just WAY cool..

:D

[Forgive the terrible formatting.. Wasn't able to outsmart Blogger's not so great picture upload thing... :( ]







































































































































xx



M




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List of Celebrities supporting Barack Obama

A quick list of some celebrities supporting BO and his campaign. They're hyperlinked to whatever page I could find which would be relevant. Meh.

1. Oprah Winfrey
2. Halle Berry
3. Robert De Niro
4. Matt Damon
5. George Clooney
6. Kal Penn
7. Al Gore
8. Bill Clinton
9. Hillary Clinton
10. John Edwards
11. Scarlet Johannsen
12. Caroline Kennedy
13. Ed Norton
14. Will Smith
15. Rob Reiner
16. Laurence Fishburne
17. Warren Buffet
    
18. Sharon Stone
    (around this point I got bored of looking for links... so.. Just read..)
    
19. Stephen Colbert
    
20. Jessica Biel
21. Pete Wentz
22. Chris Rock
23. Kareem Abdul Jabbar
24. The Black Eyed Peas
25. Jamie Foxx
26. Kanye West
27. Ashley Judd
28. Jennifer Lopez
29. Anne Hathaway
30. Charlize Theron
31. Ron Meyer
32. Jessica Alba
33. Michael Jordan
34. Morgan Freeman
35. Eddie Murphy
36. Jon Bon Jovi
37. Goo Goo Dolls
38. Danny Devito
39. Steven Speilberg
40. Tom Hanks
41. Denzel Washington [DUH!]
42. Tauqeer Jamadar
    
43. Ben Stiller
44. Barbara Streisand
45. Brad Grey
46. Richard Cook
47. Jennifer Garner [ ;-) ]

While this list is not conclusive it's merely a reminder to showcase Obama's popularity with the folks of the US of A.

Suck on THAT McCain.



M




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BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT! GFWMG goes official BO - backing!

So I've always been rooting for Obama, ever since his name cropped up on the American political scene. I've listened to a lot of his stuff and it surprises me as to why I didn't write anything about him or his campaign earlier. Either way, I was inspired to write this post after watching Barack Obama's speech at Denver, Colorado, today where he positively destroyed the Republican campaign and the $700bn bailout plan that they backed.

My brother was very skeptical (surprise surprise) about Obama's chances at winning the election this year. He was all, 'oh they wouldn't let him on, republican corporate backing, race etc etc' but even HE said it tonight. HE said that McCain just lost (yes. LOST) the elections. Obama has always been known to have a silver tongue but today at Colorado he positively sealed his campaign.

The Lower House rejected the $700bn bailout plan 228-205, resulting in urgent warnings from President Bush (and congressional leaders) that the economy could cannonball into recession. Well, I don't blame him he did f*** up the economy. Only 5 weeks now till election day and the Republicans had about two thirds of their party rejecting the very bill that they backed. The Bush Administration piled on the pleas to the lawmakers to let it pass, but still, no cigar. No one is going to take such a huge risk to the economy and with only 5 weeks till election day.

The man on the street says, 'why should our money be given to the big corporations?' McCain has promised, I believe, around $700,000 worth of tax cuts to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and, in his words, 'not a dime of relief for the average American. So why should the American people suffer?'

Damn. BO is gonna be a bad-ass President. Let's just hope that the American people make the RIGHT choice this time around. Third time's a charm I says!

_______


Come what may, this post is to announce that GFWMG is now OFFICIALLY (from my end) a blog supporting Obama-Biden '08. While I don't have their official backing, they have mine. I'll do whatever I can to help their campaign. Albeit I'm halfway across the world, but hey you never know!

I have 2 widgets on the sidebar that should keep us all updated on a decently-regular basis. They're official widgets from Obama for America so I'm guessing they've got stuff. Henceforth, I will be posting any new developements of and about BO's campaign on this here blog.

WATCH THIS SPACE!


Obama - Biden '08



M




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Ugh..

I don't really read the papers all that much, but I tend to watch more news on TV because dad likes to. So I catch on a lot of things and two things that happened in the last 30 days shocked me to such an extent where I found it hard to believe that people could consciously do this to themselves and their country.


"Impeach the President?"

Yes. That's right. Pakistan (Read: Asif Zardari & Nawaz Sharif) are pushing for the impeachment of President General Parvez Musharraf. What utter nobs. Parvez Musharraf is, with the possible exception of General Zia ul Haq, the best head of state that a country like Pakistan has ever had. He has brought Pakistan out of debt and has done so much good for his country. Yet the fanatical zealots that can't see further than their own bellies (or penises) want him out of power. These people were smart enough to force him to retire as head of the army. If Musharraf was still the head of the army the opposition had less than a snowball's chance in hell to make him quit or have him impeached.

It's odd how a man who has given his entire life to first defending his country and then leading it from some of it's worst economical times to a certain amount of stability, is being thrown out by the very people who he swore to defend. That's why sometimes the Pakistani attitude disgusts me. Arrogance, greed, zeal. How can these men be SO selfish? What will Asif Zardari or Nawaz Sharif gain from having Musharraf impeached? While Sharif was in power, Pakistan was, economically, pathetic. Once Musharraf came into the picture he brought Pakistan a lot of economical stability. Zardari is not particularly well known. His popular nickname, "Mr. Ten Percent," ought to speak for himself. He's also been accused of conspiring in murder. But yeah, who cares about that in Pakistan?

I realize what I'm saying is EXTREMELY offensive to Pakistanis, but it's about time you guys read this and understood that you guys are LETTING your country be fed to the dogs of greed. Pakistan needs military rule. That is the only way you can keep the zealots in check.


"Vote of Trust"

By far the biggest (and most embarrassing) drama that I ever witnessed in Indian Parliament was the recent fiasco with the Vote of Confidence that was held for the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Indian Parliament is the single, most largest gathering of goons, hoodlums, local thugs, uneducated bullies and out of work actors that I have seen.

India is touted as the, "largest true democracy in the world." What a load of crap. All you need to do is take one good look at our Members of Parliament and realize what a big fat load of cowcrap it is.

The opposition just wants to be in power. These are people who couldn't give a flying fart whether or not the Indian population starves or not. And while Manmohan Singh is actually trying to further progress in the country, these immature thugs can't seem to focus on anything else but their own wants. A few hours before the actual vote, the opposition brought in wads of cash and started waiving it around. Mind you, this was broadcast all over the world on television. A bunch of MPs, dressed in old shirts and pants waving wads of cash claiming it to be bribe money. Ugh. What an embarrassment. After seeing that I was not particularly proud of being Indian. Not with these kind of people representing us in Parliament.

The Indian Parliament is just one giant fish market, with "MPs" yelling across the hall to one another, and in many cases throwing shoes or trading punches. Most of them are uneducated for the most bit.

Simply put, the Indian Parliament is a big fat joke and is a disgrace to politicians in India. Well, I guess by majority, most politicians in India ARE jokes.



Stupid Indian Subcontinent....


M

Another venture! (This one's gonna piss people off!)

For the third time, I have started a new blog, and this time it's probably a lot more controversial than anything else that I've done so far.

Either way, after a series of events I decided to do it and will follow through with it.

I'm not gonna announce the address just yet, I need to sort some stuff out, but be sure that within the next week or so I will have something for you to get either very excited about or pretty pissed off over.


Cheers!



M

I rest my case..

I've blogged this video before, but I just HAVE to do it again. This time with subtitles.



That's all I have to say to ANY redneck smartmouthing the Middle East or Muslims in general..


M

And then Americans wonder why they're hated...

Youtube is useful for so many different things. Funny clips, comedies, parodies, vlogs, movie trailers, music videos. Even American Military blowhards and all around morons.

So the US military man decides to taunt the children for a bottle of water, or so it seems, for over a mile or two. In the end the child doesn't get the bottle either way. Now, maybe (JUST maybe), the children were chasing the truck for "fun" because, yes, that does happen. Children in rural areas are known to chase vehicles for fun.

But yeah, I don't believe that either.

Ya know what I want to see? I want to see me in a truck driving through an American town. Maybe I'll wave a few cheeseburgers. Let's see how the fat American youth chases me. If they could at all. Or maybe I'll drive through and wave welfare checks?

I am so darn sick of American ideology and their attempts at, 'Globalization,' (read: Americanization). These people always claim how their country is an example of how democracy works best.

Sure.

YOURS was the country that put Dubya in the office.


Twice.


This was a response to the above video by another Yank.





Yeah. I commented on his video. I want to know what his response is going to be. Maybe I'll link him to this.


Oh and, ReconByFireOIF (his Youtube username), if you DO read this and STILL wonder why most people hate your guts, you're a lot more naive than I gave you credit for.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

*shrugs*


M

Iraq Body Count

Ever since the Iraq war began 6 years ago, the number of civilian losses have always been both a matter of dispute and shame.

I stumbled upon this website a few years ago and since have kept returning ever so often to keep track and to keep myself updated on Iraqi issues. This wonderful website is run by volunteers who painstakingly keep track of the dead and try to identify and list them. However, with the growing capacity of the website, and unfortunately the dead, the site is crumbling under the fiscal burden imposed on it and so need donations to keep going.

I added a Web Counter that the site developed onto my blog and it shows the latest estimates of dead civilians. The counter is on the right and is updated frequently. The numbers will shock you.

I could not donate any money myself, as I own no credit card nor bank account, but I think that what this site is doing is something very noble in today's world and I'm gonna try and help them get their funding in any way possible.


One hell of a job guys. Keep it up.


Iraq Body Count.


xx


M

Now see THIS is interesting..

I found this VERY interesting piece of statistics on BBC's international website in this article. Have a gander for yourself:

DEADLY ATTACKS IN ISRAEL

4 Feb 2008: One dies, Dimona suicide bombing

29 Apr 2007: Three die, Eilat suicide bombing

17 Apr 2006: Nine die, 40 wounded, suicide bombing near old bus station in Tel Aviv

30 Mar 2006: Four die, Kedumim suicide bombing

29 Dec 2005: Thee die, suicide bombing near Tulkarm

5 Dec 2005: Five die, Netanya suicide bombing

26 Oct 2005: Six die, Hadera market suicide bombing

12 July 2005: Two die, Netanya suicide bombing

25 Feb 2005: Five die, 50 hurt, suicide bombing outside Tel Aviv nightclub

13 Jan 2005: Six die, suicide bombing at Karni crossing

Now what's interesting you ask? I answer:

1. The most number of people dead in any attack is nine, the daily average in Palestine
2. The attacks number in 10, not including yesterday's.
3. And they're spread out over 4 years.
4. Now it's on an international news page.
5. lol, wtf....

M

8 Israelis massacred in Seminary

..was one of the major headlines on CNN today.

Wow. 8. Eight. That's one more than 7. But not quite 9.

(Funny it took the death of 8 Israelis to make me want to blog all over again)

Coming back to the topic of hand, WHY does the death of 8 Israelis make the headlines on CNN? I mean, people die (read: get killed) all the time don't they? Palestine, Iraq, Chechnya, Kashmir, Sudan, etc. So why is the demise of 8 Israelis, shot to death by a rampant terrorist at a Seminary, SUCH a big deal?

How come CNN doesn't cover the DAILY massacre of the Palestinians by those Israeli bombers? I think that's important. More than eight people were killed everyday. Were their demises not headline worthy for CNN?


Shame.



Oh and, my condolences and all to the families of the 8 Israelis killed.


M

The Kingdom

From a moviegoer's point of view, this movie is going to be KICK BUTT. I'm really psyched to see it. Interesting enough story line, mixed with a heavy dose of adrenaline and the nice garnish of controversy, and there you have it, The Kingdom.

From what I've read on some critic pages, the best actor is Ashraf Barhom, who plays the Saudi Colonel Al-Ghazi. He whoops Jamie Foxx's butt. Pwnd. From what I've seen I'd like to think that he's one of the plus points of this movie.

And, contrary to popular belief the movie was not shot in Saudi. It was mainly shot in Phoenix, Arizona. And here's the kicker for us, Emiratis and Expatriates alike. The movie was also shot in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates!! As for how controversial the movie is going to be, I'm gonna wait until AFTER I've seen it. After which I shall, depending on the movie, tear the movie apart, or, set it on a pedestal.

Enjoy the Trailer! Oh, and the song is, 'Bullet the Blue Sky' by U2. The song was from their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, and it's a shoutout against the then-American policies towards South America. Bono was well involved in it, hence the band dedicated a song to it.




Can't wait!


M

Terrorism has no religion. Part 2

Hey readers.

After writing my last post I felt compelled to find the video because words could not express that message. Well I found it but unfortunately can't embed the video here.

So I decided to let you be able to download this video. Right click on the link below and click "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" (depending on what browser you're using). Download it and watch it on any media player. For the non - tech savvy, download the VLC Media player from the internet first.

The Kidnapping

Terrorism, indeed, has no faith or religion. Please leave comments about the video and the situation at hand. Much appreciated.

xx

M

Terrorism has no religion

Last night for reasons unknown, I stayed up till around 4:30 am after returning home at about 11:45pm. I watched, 'Snatch' on MBC2 again, and following that I saw what was possibly one of THE most pointless movies ever, Waterworld. That took a good 3 or so hours and that's probably what kept me up for so long. In fact at 4:30am when I DID go to bed, that damn movie was still going on. And I'm glad I didn't stay awake to find out what happens. That movie sucks. Kevin Costner should stick to producing. Or anything BUT acting.

Either way, terrible acting notwithstanding, during that time, I saw a very interesting advertisement. Well it wasn't an advertisement per se, it was more of a publicity video of sorts. It was a video about the war in Iraq, but not between the Americans and the Iraqis but rather between the warring sects of Sunnis and Shi'ites.

The video was well shot. It started with POV (Point of View) shot of a man with a cloth masked over his face being hustled somewhere by loud men yelling at him in Arabic. Finally, when the mask comes off, the hostage is facing one of his captors, a man clad in army fatigues, a black vest and a black balaclava, sporting an AK-47. The POV shot stops and then the camera pans out and you see the hostage strapped into a chair with 3 such men around him, one in front and 2 behind.

Simultaneously after this, the director plays a flashback in black and white. A busy Iraqi marketplace. Families and people on their daily hustle and bustle minding their own business, doing their own thing etc etc. Focus on, we see our hostage with his family. He has a beautiful wife and two lovely children around 6 and 8 years old. A boy and a girl respectively. Quite the family picture.

Scene changes back to the present: The captor smashes the butt of his AK - 47 into the hostages face, and asks just one question:

" Enta Sunni walla' Shi'e ? "

Translated: " Are you Sunni or Shi'ite? "

Once again the camera pans back to the marketplace where this near perfect family goes about buying groceries and meeting familiar faces. Suddenly, there's a disturbance as an old BMW swerves dangerously into the market place.

Camera pans back to the hostage scenario. Captor hits Hostage again. Again he asks, "Enta Sunni walla' Shi'ie?"

Four men burst into the marketplace brandishing AK - 47s and firing wildly into the air and at random stalls. People duck and fall everywhere to try and avoid getting shot. Mothers grab their children while men try to cover their entire families.

Another hit to the face. "ENTA SUNNI WALLA' SHI'E?!"

The family in the marketplace gets dispersed, the father fell away from his family near the feet of one of the gunmen. The gunmen continued their rampage for some time. Finally when they felt they did enough they grabbed some men, shoving one into the back seat and another into the trunk, before flooring the pedal of the old BMW and zooming out of there.

Another hit. Followed by another. "ENTA.... ENTA SUNNI WALLA' SHI'E??!"

Slowly, people in the marketplace stood up. The sounds of frantic mothers and scared children are commonplace. Men are yelling at everyone, asking if anyone's hurt, has anyone been shot.

Hit. Hit. Hit. "SUNNI WALLA' SHI'E??!!!"

The mother of the family stands up and does a quick head count. She's fine, her two children are fine. Where's her husband? She remembers the gunmen snatched some people. Then she remembers her husband falling at one of the gunmens feet.

The hostage was thrown out of his chair onto his knees. The butt and his face were acquainted once again. "Enta.. Enta ajibni.. Enta Sunni? Ow, Enta Shi'e?" (You.. you answer me. You Sunni? or You Shi'ite?)

The mother gets frantic as the reality of the situation dawns upon her. Four masked gunmen drove into the marketplace and after a wild rampage took to captives. One of them was her husband. She begins yelling in disbelief. Her children huddle at her feet.

The gunman moves away from the bloodied face of the husband and father. He points the rifle to his forehead.

"Enta Sunni walla' Shi'ie. SUNNI WALLA SHI'E!??!?!"

Through bloody eyes, the husband looks at the gunman.

"Iraqi," comes the response.


Fade away.


*Bang*



The message appears. It was simple and concise. No explanations were necessary.


Al IrHab. La Deena Laha.

Terrorism. It has no religion.


xx

M