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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The Ballads of M: I wonder..

When no one's listening. When no one's there to see.

I wonder what you tell yourself.

Not your reactions no. When everything inside dies, and it's all quiet.

I wonder what you tell yourself.



M


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The Ballads of M: Pfffft..

Time, space and actions are condensed into a white speck.

It's atom's weight is still too much for the consequences to bear.


M


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The Ballads of M: I'm a J. On occasion.

You know what I realized? I'm not very.. arty. I can't write a poem with deep meanings. I can't paint a beautiful picture, rich with subtext. I can't quote famous artists and renaissance - era philosophers. I can't write a small paragraph on infinity or time and space. I can't woo a person with my deep thought and intellect. What does that make me? I've always thought I had the ability to express myself in a very detailed, well - worded and thoughtful manner, but there are times when I think of myself as a machine that only spits out what it's been programmed to read.

I recently did a test during one of my lectures back at University. It was during the only class that I actually enjoy, MGT 204: Legal Environments in Business. The test was about ethics and protocol and was used to define where your approach to life is logical and based on facts or emotional with hasty judgments.

There were 9 questions, each with 2 choices, and you had to pick one. Based on what you picked for those 9 questions, you were awarded either a 'J' grade or a 'C' grade. The questions were interesting and some of them tore at your conscience. Questions like, is it worse to be unfair or partial? Or, if you were ordered to do something by a superior that you knew would hurt a co-worker, would you do it? Or, is it worse to be honest and hurt someone, or lie to them and protect their feelings?

I answered all 9 questions. My score:

J: 8
C: 1

By an overwhelming majority, I was a J. What's a J? A J is a person who acts according to facts and has his moral and ethical priorities well defined. While a J keeps these priorities in mind, he will always look at the greater good or the bigger picture before making a decision. A J is someone who knows that if by doing the right thing, he or she will hurt someone, he or she will accept that eventuality and go ahead with it, prepared to face the consequences of his or her action.

Some of these questions really rattled my conscience and I had to pick carefully. Some of these questions I realized, as I picked the J answer, that it would be emotionally a hard thing to do for me, but that's what needs to be done. Because that's what was right. So I wasn't surprised when it turned out that I was... am.. a J.

However, the one question in which I got a 'C' grade apparently rendered a whole different interpretation. The question was:

What is worse?

1. Stealing something of value from someone for no reason.
2. Breaking a promise that you made to a friend.

The moment I saw this question on the screen, I knew right away that I was going to pick the second option. As it turned out, the second option was the 'C' grade.

After the test was over, the professor asked to see me in her office, and that's where she told me that the test was really a test to map out a person's thought patterns. Each answer holds a different interpretation based on the results of all the other answers. When she saw my results, she wanted to talk to me and show me the interpretation. What looked like a simple test, turned out to have a very complex answer matrix. While the test was barely a page long, the answer matrix was a 380 page book, listing out all possible combinations and their interpretations. According to my professor, while I believe in logic and fairness and have that sense of deciphering a situation into what's right and what's wrong, because I picked this option, it proved that there is an overwhelming part of my subconscious that picks emotionally, but it rarely overpowers my ability to keep my focus. The only time that it will overpower my logical decision making is when I know that I will overtly hurt a person or his or her feelings.

She said the weird thing about my answer key is that it contradicts the very base of a 'J' personality. Someone with this answer key is defined as, 'an individual who can compartmentalize emotions from situations but still allows them to be a minor contributing factor in his decision making process, hereby rendering himself unpredictable on occasion. His understanding of the ethics of a situation is what drives him or her to make a logical decision, yet, have the least ethical or moral collateral damage.'

So I'm a J. Sometimes.

I guess, at the end of it all, while I regret that the artistic side to me and my personality is as lively as a cadaver, I can take solace in the truth that when faced with an issue, at the very least I won't be unfair and emotional. I might not be artistic, but my strength lies in my ability to understand and decipher.

And well, to be quite honest, the one artistic capability that I do have is something that I am very grateful for.


xx


M




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The Ballads of M. Yaaaaaaaaay!

"After much deep and profound brain things inside my head, I've decided.." [end Madagascar rip - off] to start another weekly article that I will take out possibly every Tuesday. It's a little place for me to obsess about stuff that, while may not be important to others at all, might just bother me somewhat and is a nice little way for me to get it off my chest.

I guess I already had a 'Personal' label for that, but those can also be friend, family, University, work related stuff. To a certain extent, 'Rant' could also do the same. But some of my posts, like this one, can't be categorized all too well. I mean yeah, they're rants, and yeah, they're personal too, but they're also thought invoking. And more than just posting about it, I want people to read it and begin thinking about it themselves.

So maybe, this little thing will push me into a little more serious tone of writing my thoughts on opinions on (possibly) non-important matters that bother me. I call it:

The Ballads of M.


I don't know. I'll give it a shot. Maybe it'll work, maybe not. Orrite, on a more realistic note, I may NOT update EVERY Tuesday or on Tuesdays at all, but I'll see how far I can keep it up. If I can, then yay! If not, then maybe I'll figure something else out to make me a better writer.

Cheers!


xx


M




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