America!

Safely in the states and have had many opportunities to observe the native American in their natural habitat... bah, whom am I kidding? Truthfully spent much of my time here surrounded by family members with their own sense of ... odd-wierdyness that one can expect and appreciate only in family. Needless to say that family matters are not suitable for broadcast into the ether's of the world wide web so I'll have to fall back onto a few thoughts that have crystallized themselves during my few brief trips the much talked about and widely publicized United States of America.

Firstly I must comment that it is oddly surreal to visit someplace that through countless movies, TV shows, news broadcasts and even for that matter books! Driving through historic backdrops all along the Interstate 95, and passing by all manner of iconic buildings from 'THE' White house (I have seen other white houses and they were okay I guess) to the Poe museum... err...Edgar Allen Poe ... the Raven... anyone? Anyway either from a real sense or implanted media suggestion, the US feels more historic than any place I've visited up north in Canada. Not only that but over all the impression is of a more... veteran people... if that makes sense.

The people in America (at least the north east side I've visited) seem to have a feel of a people that have lived through troubled times and are the more experienced and a bit hardened because of it. Again it's just a general impression as compared to Canadians en masse, my home country does have a more peaceful and dare I say ... bland history in comparison to our southern neighbors, but can that account for the slight difference in atmosphere one experiences in a country? Having neither the scholarly background nor the inclination to really study this further (as with so many other thoughts) I'll just leave the observation out there and make of it what you will.

Besides the proliferation of flags (seriously I believe there must be a flag makers lobby doing some thorough work in the states), one can't help but notice the nature of media and advertisements in comparison the Canada's. While one can hear about it in such movies as Bowling for Columbine it doesn't really have the same impact as watching an hour of network television and being bombarded with a decidedly more aggressive and oddly mind numbing series of advertisements. While probably Canadian ads are more subtle about it, one can't help but notice the common threads among ads which seem to be; material goods can make you happy (enlightened even - as one ad proclaimed), debt is okay if you can buy what you want, unless you buy _____ you will stay a loser. Amid the early days of the Iraq war I once attended a meeting of supposed communists (meh, had nothing else to do) anyway the speaker there described the American need for consumerism and it's growing and unreasonable demand for resources as a symptom of an unviable economic model and the reason for the imperialistic invasion of Iraq. To put it a bit more simply, those greedy Americans are so fat and hungry that they need to hog as many resources as they can to satisfy an ever increasing appetite. At the time I neither agreed or disagreed with the idea, though experiencing the daily onslaught of propaganda, I can't help but consider it valid.

People have to buy things, lots of things, to keep this economy going... if one considers North America as a self reliant entity then this isn't necessarily a bad condition. However given that most of the world hasn't the luxury of even a fraction of the material goods forced upon consumers and in some cases can't even receive the basic necessities of housing, water and food... something is definitely very, very wrong here.

I think it is dawning on many people in the country, however I'm not sure that there is any quick recourse to take. One can be aware of the absurdity of the system, doing something about it is another matter altogether... actually it's for that same reason that I find the 'reality' documentaries done about the 'system' such as, the corporation and Darwin's Nightmare so depressing, both films (and many others like them) expose and decry the injustice of the system and how it is contributing to the suffering of the common man... yet gives no real way out of the situation. It is like walking up to someone and explaining how horrid and hopeless their situation is - then walking away while smiling and patting oneself on the back for a job well done.

In any event I highly doubt any form of radicalism is the answer (as much fun as protesting might be). A real fundamental change of our system of beliefs and economics are required, either from a grassroots or top down approach - though personally I find the former much more likely, yet without strong leadership doomed to failure.

This post has gotten a bit too wordy and preachy, next one will definitely be on a more frivolous topic - less depressing and easier to sleep after writing. To all a good night, and I wish that all may find the answers to the questions that plague one mind - or at least a suitable compromise.

Tis been a stressful day to say the least, but it's almost over, actually what truly amazes me is that I've probably finished more posts in the past few days than in the previous months! Well it is a new year and things are finally getting interesting-er (I am aware of the abhorrent grammar).
Taking well deserved... err actually just taking a break from the current scenario to visit some relatives and have some fun. Though it does involve crossing the border and as a darker skinned individual, one can't be too careful. Especially as my passport was a tad late in arriving so have to travel just before the restriction with and return somehow... worst case scenario will be exiled from Canada and will have to work as an illegal in the states. Meh, I guess there are worse fates, as an illegal I wouldn't have to pay taxes and there is apparently a huge community of illegal workers that I can just join... I wonder if they're union? Anyway whatever happens one way or the other will make for an interesting tale... just hope they have internet access in Guantanamo (very bad joke... sigh, very bad).

Every day events take place around the world, some worthy of international attention and 24 hour news coverage, others maybe a glance from a passing stranger. Most of the time we can ignore the terrible things happening around us, one can hear about people dying in some country half a world away and briefly think sadly about it, yet that is all it is. It also seems that from safe distance one can even justify death for the sake of ‘a greater good’… I’d better stop this part here, as the temptation to be sidetracked into a different topic is too strong. I’ll continue with thoughts about our proximity to tragedy and it’s effects, as the old saying goes it’s hard when something hits close to home.

Although I can’t help but ask why? Should it matter how close we are to something to care? Or even why should we be affected because of how close we are to it?

Let’s take an example of death. I’m often reminded of a song by (in my opinion) an extremely underrated and misunderstood musician:

“The death of one is tragedy, the death of millions is just a statistic”

Honestly it is the truth, we can easily shrug off a headline from a newspaper declaring rising death tolls it some country we haven’t even heard of, though one can be absolutely devastated by the death of someone close. The simplest explanation is that we care most about who we know, family and friends, yet to varying degrees as interpersonal relationships are - What does hell does that mean?!

Can one feel loss as strongly for a faceless stranger half a world away, compared to a close loved one? Conversely could one be as nonchalant is the situation were reversed? Either scenario would probably make for a pretty unhealthy individual, either paralysed by emotional suffering or cold heartedly indifferent.

All above situations seem distasteful for some reason… I guess I’d like to think that it isn’t because of shallowness that people use degrees of separation to feel anything about the death of someone. Perhaps it is just a way of surviving in a world where death is a part of life, or it could be that when we are faced with the passing of someone close we are reminded of own lack of power to prevent it. There doesn’t seem to be anything we can do when someone dies in front of us… actually that’s not exactly true I suppose.

There is always prayer, I don’t think it matters what form it takes and it really is much, but spending a moment of ones life to acknowledge the passing of another is something precious. It does seem like a small thing but the more I think about it, there really is nothing more valuable to give than a moment of life, to offer peaceful rest, enlightenment, safe journey to the next incarnation or any other wish for a life ended.

I guess I could try to expand more, but really… life’s too short, and one can either understand or question the meaning in the previous paragraph – either is fine with me.

Bootwhistle
(originally created October 9th 2005... and just finished)
Concepts, ideas, philosophy, drunk-talk... sweet beautiful drunk talk [pop culture reference #48293, see Simpsons] all are expressions of thought, and much of it is unoriginal. People have been thinking for well over... hmm, correction, some people have been thinking for most of human history, about life, existence, science and shiny objects.
Thought in and of itself is unfortunately as useful as a roast turkey at a vegetarian thanksgiving (shudder). At this point I could give a few quotes that seem to illustrate this point but I think the turkey thing does a damn good job of it... anyway hmm, perhaps paralleling to Hamlet would better illustrate whatever point I think I'm making (lest one think too highly of me, Hamlet is probably the only Shakespeare play I've read - it can be paralleled to almost anything including toast!).
Anyway in Hamlet there were various characters and each composed of varying degrees of reason vs passion, logic vs impulse, yin vs yang, crips vs bloods etc. etc. Our hero Hamlet (or Hammy as called by his friends - who die most horribly) had an overabundance of reason which hindered any action he should have taken to seek vengeance for the murder of his father. The villain ... I actually forget his name, Hamlet's uncle now king -guy (unking-guy) is ruled by passion as apparently evidenced by his murderous tendencies. As the play progresses various characters die most horribly including our hero and the unking-guy, till only the more balanced people are left. This includes the noble Horatio who as it turns out has a balance between the desires of passion and the processes of reason.
So let's see... I guess the moral of the story is be balance between your desires and constraint, if one thinks too much about everything nothing will be accomplished and if you act without thinking then the consequences could be most ... unpleasant.
Of course finding the balance might be a bit tricky as one must cross either side of the line to know where things stand... and usually quite a few times. Whether or not that actually makes any sense for others to decide. Right now I think I'll go to sleep - not sure if that's the passion or the reason talking, but who gives a [expletive deleted] anyway?

A few note about the previous post, first of all it was amazingly difficult to find the right picture and even then I'm not totally satisfied with the one I chose. Seriously, using Google image finder to find examples of faith turned up weird and confusing results from crosses (of course) to dogs and for some odd reason a rotting turnip... meh, go figure. Speaking of interesting Google search results, I've heard that when one used to type 'I love Jews' in the search engine, Google would helpfully suggest 'Did you mean: I love Jesus'. Of course once informed the correction was removed and people could once again safely proclaim their Judaic love... okay that was bad, but damn well funny.
As for the subject of the post itself, the matter should really have treatment in an essay with actual editing and research but of course given the uhm... budget, yes budget, I have to work with, it will suffice to have an inaccurate and grammar mistake ridden post in an out of the way blog. As a bit of clarification, by the end of the post it may seem that I draw a line between religious faith and faith in humanity - that is by no means the case! Actually some of the people most devoted to humanity were highly spiritual, off the top of my head Gandhi and Mother Theresa are prime examples. Of course on the flip side (is flip side a real phrase?) a religious person isn't necessarily devoted to their fellow man... but to be fair there does seem to be a higher percentage among the religious... oh well, thoughts for another blog post. Sometimes the hardest part of blogging is actually stopping short of creating a incomprehensible mess, though it is fun to write at least. Anyway as much sense as this paragraph makes let's move on to a few random musings.... or not, I'm tired and will save that for another day. So in conclusion, always remember to pack a towel.

Ah first post of the new year, actually had a couple of entries on in the draft stages but unfortunately an inappropriately timed reload click erased any trace of written wordyness - it's a word look it up. So after much procrastination finally getting around to retyping a particularly good entry (at least in my humble and oft irrelevant opinion), so without further ado feel free to scroll a bit down, and read the newest post - Faith.

Faith, it can mean almost anything to anyone. everyone has their interpretations - mostly in terms of religion though to be clear (and sound smarterer) as Websters defines it:

Faith: 3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs

Though for the purpose of this post, let's look one of the other definitions 1 a : allegiance to duty or a person [] (2) complete trust. That is to say the faith that we put in others, a belief in the heart of humankind if you will.
I'm not sure why but I think the idea of having faith in humanity is a bit overshadowed by religion... probably better marketing. It just seems to me that having faith in a religion tends to be a lot easier, for example: would someone find it easier to put faith in an all powerful Deity of whom one will never expect any accounting for action or inaction as their will is unknowable and therefore infallible. Conversely can one put faith in the fallible, downtrodden often selfish and usually ignorant fellow mortals that populate this small planet in such great numbers?

I can only speak for myself, and my response would be that placing my faith in religion is a lot easier than putting my faith in my fellow man (and woman... heck, guinea pigs as well). Of course the level of faith I'm considering here is at the level of devotion... sure it's easy to say "hey man I have faith you'll return my CD's later", but can one find it easy to take humanity as a whole and proclaim faith that as a race, no as a species we will be able to make the best of the world given to us?
One only has to turn on news or if your old skool a newspaper, to glimpse the world's problems; disparity between rich and poor, pollution, senseless wars, genocide, racial hatred spanning generation and reality TV. If your faith is in a higher power, one could possibly chalk it all up to 'god's will' or something, though for faith in humanity it gets a little difficult... because we know ordinary people just like us are behind the decisions affecting the world and instead of seeing ourselves in others we try to separate 'us' from 'them'. To make a distinction about people just to put ourselves on a higher level only serves to illustrate how truly unworthy we are to claim superiority. Of course we do it all the time, it is an almost subconscious trait... even America bashing (though extremely popular and fun) only serves to undermine the faith one can put in their fellow man (I'm using 'man' as inclusive to all genders/trans genders... so there!).
Hmm, I guess what it really boils down to is my new interpretation of faith and how I perceive it now. While I have nothing but the utmost respect for people who devote their faith to religion, I reserve my admiration for those who can devote their faith to the ordinary and weak humanity. As for myself, currently have yet to find my faith in either... though I'm looking and hoping for the strength to put my faith in the latter.