Senseless...

It is hard not to feel saddened with the plight of those businesses owners whose operations are disrupted. Who should compensate their losses. Countless people whose programs are disrupted, just because certain segments of the populace want to do things their way. Inconsiderate, incomprehensible...

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Seesaw

When I was little I used to see kids playing seesaw by the playgrounds. The ends of the seesaw normally are so worn out. The grass there are trampled upon all the times. Modern seesaw that I saw put enough asphalt around the area to maintain the nice looks.
What I hate most is when I have to oversee my little brothers playing seesaw. Once one is above the other tried very hard to rise as well. Using every means including reducing body weight by exhaling air out, kicking the ground to push him up even though that is out of the rule of the game, etc. Then, the game continued. One went up, the other went down, as both can't be up at the same time. As the overseer I suffered. My head has to be turned left and right and up and down, so that I can see where they are. How I was very happy and relieved when they eventually both got hungry and asked me to take them home.
Nakamora just listened. He knew his friend likes to ramble. He doesn't care whether Nakamora has any idea at all about he said...

It's Only Words?

Many English words have multiple meanings depending on the context in which they are used. Take 'plant' for example. It can mean an industrial plant. It can also mean biological plant - the tree that we plant.
See, we have just used another meaning of the word. It can be a noun, it can also be a verb.
When the context within which the word is spoken and the word is received is not the same, then mismatch in interpretation also arise. Because of that it is easy to label the same thing differently, depending on context defined by the user to justify the use of the label.
Take 'terrorists' or 'terrorism' as examples. Someone's terrorists are another warriors. Who is right, who is wrong? Or does that matter as long as everybody can live in peace and make the live of others matter.
From current events it appears that the lives of some people including their children are cheaper than others. Thus, the world stood in silence, helpless or hopeless, while bombs inflict countless damage - body and soul - to another fellow human. The real atrocities rage on, and somewhere else, another kind of war is going on. The 'war' on the right to use certain words and wordings...

Multidimensional Life...

One new year has just passed by. We are now well into the third day of 1430H. The new year 2009 is trailing close behind, and will be with us in no time.
From his new vocation Nakamora looked back. How many things now look different. How relationships and friendships change. How things that mattered before became reduced in significance. How things that were not very significant before became the center point. How similar concepts change in meaning in different context.
PESTELSS, that collection of dimensions representing the political, economic, societal, technological, environment, legislation, safety, and security spheres to him now has a new dimensions - a meta dimension, he would like to call it.
It takes on a new context and concept embodying life in general. Some remains just a thought in passing. Others could be practiced still.
Can the world prevent the senseless and cruel killings of the innocents.
Can the economic crises, if we can call it that, be cured.
Can the rise in social decadent among the youths and adults alike be arrested.
Can making the world better for everyone be the only motivation for pursuing technological progress, instead of for making better and more effective weapons.
Can the senseless and heartless exploitation of the environment be stopped.
and so on, and so on...

Democracy At Work...

It is hard not to write about it. After all this election scores so many firsts. For the sake of record, Nakamora put it down anyway.
Call it winds of change, a nightmare, a wake-up call, a glorious joy, or the beginning of a new landscape. The people has spoken, but the voice is different this time.
Five states fell out of the hand of the incumbent; the incumbent fails for the first time to secure the traditional 2/3 majority; scores of ministers and presidents of component parties lost the election; massive swing of votes to the opposition by all three main ethnic groups; the number of state capital cities under the once 'opposition' parties increased.
It was an unexpected and unprecedented avalanche. The political landscape definitely has changed. So as the habit of voters to seek alternative source of information, particularly in cyberspace such as blogs, as the mainstream traditional media was saturated with one side of the story and thus unable to accommodate other point of views.

General Election

It is nice to put on record some of the events of the past two weeks in summary. The country is having the 12th election since gaining independent 50 years ago. The 13 days allocated for campaigns ended just about 3 hours ago. It must have been adequate for the voting public to make decision and exercise their rights. In less than six hours polling booths are scheduled to open.
Flags, message banners and posters spring up almost everywhere. Driving on such heavily 'decorated' roads is an experience. The EC canceled the plan to use indelible inks just three days before the election. It caused several reactions. The spraying of the EC Chairman's home compound with red paint by dissatisfied people is said to be related to that decision.
I am going to vote anyway...

Flag Carnival

It is hard not to notice. It is even harder to ignore. Blue, green, not so blue flags and banners and buntings of other colors flood every major junctions. Make shift 'service centers' sprang up at major spots in residential and business areas. The 12th election is coming 8 March. A total of 222 parliamentary seats and a bit more than double of that state seats are at stake. Today is the nomination day. The parliament was dissolved ten days ago on 13 Feb.
But why would one want to ignore? Exercise the right. Vote, do not not vote.

'Freedom' - at a cost

Some freedom you can actually afford -- just pay for it. Freedom to talk on your mobile while driving-- just buy a hands free, or pay for the fine. So as the freedom to speed along the highways, just pay the fine...

Freedom, independence

There are many dimensions of freedom, independence. At times we tend to look at it only geo-politically. The very meaning of independence, I believe, is not to depend on anyone or any factor beyond our control to fulfill our needs and wants; and able to adequately control or manage factors that could badly influence or negatively affect our well-being.

Beyond the usually known meaning, we must extend it to also include independence of drug, mat rempit, bad culture, etc. We may not be able to totally eliminate these but as long as they do not sap away significant amount of energy and resources, they should be tolerable and taken as the unavoidable in life...

Rejoice

Sports, can be a cause for celebration and a unifying element. To some extent that is true. Iraq won the Asia Cup Football (soccer) and that throws the country into jubilation. There are also sad stories - the bombs. Against the background that we know of the country, the success is hard to imagine. Kudos.

Midyear 2006

Its midyear already.. It is proclaimed that the world is safer today than yesterday.. but how do we measure that degree of safety anyway? and safe to whom?