Sometimes music can explain the feeling of a country more than images and words. This little piece of inspiration about Obama by will.i.am is exactly that.
Inspired youth of the world unite, no longer tied to our computers, a hero has emerged to show us some mad skillz on the dancefloor. That's right. Enough of the discussion forums, crank this up and be the coolest mammajamma of any era.
The UN Human Rights Council was created to replace the hypocritical (Libya was past President), ineffective and discredited Human Rights Commission. History seems doomed to repeat itself as this spokesman for Human Rights Watch rightly notes in his tirade:
The response of the President says it all. He doesn't even know who is speaking, then feebly attempts to refer to the "UN Watch" while refusing to take any responsibility and threatening to strike dissent from the record. This is the UN, not China. This Council is a joke - whatever position you take on the Middle East conflict, the fact that it passes resolution after resolution condemning Israel while silent on Darfur, Chechnya, the Congo, Uganda and Tibet is shameful.
When I was working at the UN in Geneva (low staff morale would be an understatement), people would always ask why the bright young interns with fresh ideas wouldn't stay. This makes it pretty obvious. Diplomat's kids get cushy jobs, accountability is nonexistent and bureaucracy wins the day. The Secretary General is chosen for his unique lack of a spine (Ban Ki-Who?), while worthy candidates like Shashi Tharoor are left apologizing for organizational failures. But it's not just the UN, it's the member countries who function by nothing more than naked self-interest. Oh and in case nobody has noticed, there's a genocide taking place in Darfur.
I have not had the time t post something for a really long time... but i had to write something so that I would feel better... I had an accident yesterday while i was drving back from a job interview... it was very scary it was not my fault a stuipd pic up truck dude saw me coming but never waited to let me go.... i had the right of way and he thought he coould take a turn and go but i was to fast to stop and so i ram right into him headlog... and the BASTERD ran away after the accident!!!!!
I cried, called 911, tried to fig out if i was hurt, i was glad to be alive, i was not hurt,... so many people saw the accident, no one stopped, i as just misrible .... i parked my car on a service road, waited for 911 who finally came.... it felt like an eternity for them to come.... my car i have no idea if it will be ok....
I'm in shock! Jessica Mauboy just lost Australia Idol to Damien Leith. Damien is a really nice guy, I wouldn't mind listening to him sing from time to time. Actually neither of them have the talent of Bobbly Flynn. But this really should have been Jessica's moment.
Jessica comes from Alice Springs in the centre of Australia, and is half Aboriginal, half Indonesian. She is young, talented, down-to-earth, an amazing singer, and will be (is!) an incredible role model for young Australians. But it really would have been a further fantastic symbol for - and signal to Australia's long marginalised Aboriginal and remote communities, if one of their own had won the top award in this national version of the international phenomenon. As they interviewed her Nanna and cut to Darwin the Northern Territory where it seemed like at least half the town had turned out for the live cross (more like a U2 audience than a fan club) I was almost in tears.
While it's wonderful the Australian voting public are open to choosing an expat Irishman as their Idol, I can't help but wonder why they didn't choose such an obviously inspiring young woman.
In the midst of researching a paper I'm writing on Open Source movement, I came across Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's hilarious dancing bear video.
Now I see that he's quoted in legal documents from new Google employee Kai-Fu Lee saying he's going to 'F#$%ing kill Google,' after throwing a chair across the room:
Prior to joining Google, I set up a meeting on or about November 11, 2004 with Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer to discuss my planned departure....At some point in the conversation Mr. Ballmer said: "Just tell me it's not Google." I told him it was Google.
At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: "Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill Google." ....
Thanks to John Battelle for spreading the good word.
And this guy runs the biggest software company in the world? Think that billions of dollars and decisions affecting the global economic outlook are left to a bald dancing bear who throws chairs. Makes for a good media circus anyways...
Its been very hard to find time to write this semester, as its my last in concord. I am So excited to graduate but at the same time very scsred of whats going to happen after december as I have no clue where i am going or what I am doing.
This semester has been quite exciting in many ways, it started of with one of my good friends coming down and from South Carolina to go whitewater rafting. Yes I went whitewater rafting in WV on the new river. It was a lot of fun. We were on 3 - 5 class rappids. Lot of fun... but very very scary... I got thrown out of the raft once and my guide caught me. I did hurt my knee a bit with the adventure and was limping the rest of the two weeks... BUT it was worth it. I am so proud of myself to have done something adventerous! Will i do it again... maybe not... but I am glad i have done it once in my life....
The other interesting things - I am preparing for my senior exhihibition in full swing... I will have my juries end of October and will figure out if i can pull off a solo show which has never been dont in concord before. I hope i can. I am excited about it.
Every weekend a bunch of my friends get together and we have formed this club where we cook diferent cusins and watch different movies. Its been such a lot of fun :)
I am nervous about my graduate school application and finding a job.
On wednesday we are having Mendhi/Henna tatoo fundraiser for the Art society so i am really excited about that. I hope it goes off well.
ok there was something else that was exciting which i wanted to write by i have completely blancked out and have been staring at my mac like an idiot (girns) trying to fig out what it was... so when it dawns to me i shall write it... until then good bye!
Oh yes... I cut my hair almost half of what I had... if anyone knows me who is reading this update they would remember I had really really long hair.... well its gone... and frankly I love my short hair :) makes my head feel a lot lighter :).... no this was not what i was going to write I still dont remmeber the exciting news... i will write it later.... when i do remmeber...
It's interesting that a passing comment in the University of Regensburg (of all places) could incite such a backlash. When the Pope referred to an ancient Byzantine Emperor's quote linking Muhammad with evil, it set off a fury across the Muslim world very much like the fall-out from the infamous Danish cartoons.
Churches were attacked in the West Bank, there have been demonstrations, and the Pope reviled as another Hitler or Mussolini, despite his numerous apologies and calls for talks with Muslim envoys.
I don't support preaching intolerant messages, I don't support the US-backed Israeli policy in the Middle East (from 'security barriers' to bulldozing homes to the excessive use of force) and I definitely don't support the Pope or the Vatican. But why should Islam be immune to such attacks that can be launched at all other world religions? Christians and Jews are often criticized in less than flattering terms as infidels, crusaders or worse.
The way to fight such intolerant ideas is not to pretend they don't exist and ban these "taboo areas" from freedom of speech and the public domain, but to allow them to enter the free marketplace of ideas where they will be rightfully denounced, criticized and eventually discredited. This doesn't mean minimizing the offence taken, which is entirely justified and shouldn't be overlooked. But reason and peace must win the war over unchecked passion and violence. Just look at Martin Luther King, Gandhi or Nelson Mandela's struglle against apartheid - the hearts and minds of the world were won over by mass demonstrations, largely peaceful resistance and a patent sense of injustice.
Truth has nothing to fear. There are so many Muslim scholars are calling for exactly that - openness, reform, renewal and self-questioning. Indeed, if Islam is to be a religion of peace, it will win over hearts and minds by truth, reason and debate, not violent reprisals in the street.
The family, the hidden past, the 100 years of solitude, the passion. Great waves of feeling wash over the world, dormant embers are stirred up. Reason will forever be a slave to passion, love will chase you down wherever you go.
The beauty of fantasy is purity. The naked reality is complicated, messy, even ugly. To exist in a hypothetical, waiting in a transfixed dream-like purgatory, while outwardly reassuring, is to thirst for unquenchable satisfaction. Peeling off your salty past into purity. As turmoils of life perpetuate the illusive anomaly, drifting as we noiselessly fall. To a comforting, yet wanting place.
Where 100 years of solitude is, in a perverse way, rich and meaningful – comfortably numb, yet awakened by something deeper than exists. The greatest generosity towards the future consists in giving all to what is present.
Hard to believe, but it's almost two months since I arrived back in Australia. So what have I been up to?
On the work front, I'm starting to feel properly settled into GetUp. Sometimes it feels like our small full-time team of three is in a David vs Goliath battle against the rest of the world, which some days is stressful and bit overwhelming. On the other hand, sometimes it feels like we're winning. On Monday, the government dropped it's proposed changes to the Migration Act, which would have meant all refugees arriving by boat in Australia would be processed 'offshore', in another small Pacific country called Nauru. This was after a concerted campaign by community groups, much involving GetUp - our petition attracted 100,000 online signatures, and to drive the message home we hired a skywriter and wrote "Vote No" in the sky above Parliament House. Fun and effective - it was on every evening news.
I'm also getting into the Sydney groove. While there was an insane hail storm the other day, the weather here is generally beautiful - 24 degrees celcius tomorrow and that's the middle of winter. A bit different to grey London and artic Toronto! The first week I was here Alex came to visit and we also went north to a beach town called Noosa. Other than that, I've made the requisite trips to Bondi Beach, the Opera House and made myself comfortable on Sunday in many a Surry Hills cafe. Often, joined by Rohan who coincidently turned out to live directly behind my house. Which I'm sharing with a bunch of lovely people from Spain, Australia, New Zealand, and the Czech Republic.
Missing many people around the world, but looking forward to you visiting.
(Yep this update is really long... but worth reading...!)
After the most horrifying B'day last weekend my cousin - Avni and her best friend Suresh decided to cheer me up by inviting me to spend a weekend in Mumbai to celebrate it again. I wanted to go out partying, dancing and basically have a good night life in Mumbai.
And it was the most amazing 2 days ever. I had the best time of my life :) On saturday evening I met up with Avni after a day of shopping cloth with my mom for my show in december. I was so tired, and Avni had a bad day as her boss as usual had troubled Avni a lot the whole day... and so the three of us meet up after at 9 for dinner, at Swati which is completely packed with people that we famished hungry souls cannot wait so decide to walk a block to Kamat which is about to close... perfect timing! And its just 10 in the nite... we order a ton of food... Suresh has a huge appetite... and surprisingly Avni does too... we literally are kicked out of the restaurant at 10.30 reluctantly we move on to go to Chawpati beach for a stroll, coz its to late to go clubbing and neither of us have any energy left.
So we walk for an hour or so on the beach and talk, Suresh has this unique sense of humor, that I am constantly laughing and cannot stop. Finally my cheeks and head starts hurting laughing so hard. We get tired of walking so decide to go to Coffee Cafe De across the street and order lot of coffee and lounge around until 1 am, talking of all random things which dont necessarily make sense. We talking about how bad Karan Johars movies are :P and why I feel John Abraham is hot.. and why according to Suresh I need to get examined as he completely hates John Abraham... which is natural coz he is straight ;) (Suresh do not kick me j/k). And to top it all, Suresh says I remind him of some actress out of a Karan Johar movie, big eyes, and big earrings which apparently both he and Avni had brought for me as a B'day present which were really bigger then a bracelet))... We had the most random discussions, on the definition of classics, how art and science got along, why I was studying art and political science, that I looked like a hippie... (coz of Suresh's big earrings)... What string physics was, (which apparently I have still not figured out)... and that Suresh is studying black holes and string theory and at some point of time long long long way in the future.... the black hole thats in the center of the universe is going to gobble us all... so I have plenty of time to make the most of my life :P.... and all other odd conversations. The three of us part away at 1 am barely able to walk, and high on coffee and laughter.
I stay with Avni and both of us are chatting till almost sunrise and then we decide to sleep a little so that we have some energy for anther night of partying :)
Avni and I wake up at 10 and try to have breakfast, our search goes on for the tea which is hiding somewhere in Avnis kitchen, and warming up a few other snaks to eat before we go for shopping. Both of us are famished as usual when we leave for shopping so we go get some lunch first. And then walk down Colaba and start shopping, I have a ton of things I need to buy for my friends in US, and I wanted to buy a skirt and a really cool belt.. and some other odds and ends :) After bargaining heavily and walking for almost 4 hours we finish most of the shopping and reach Barista another coffee shop to take a break before we move on, and the fun begins, I realise I forgot my specks in the restaurant we had lunch which was and the other end of Collaba where we had started walking... so back we are after a coffee... walking down again to get my specks. I am so relieved when I find out they are still live and kicking :) Then we go to Fashion street, we are supposed to meet Suresh at 7 sharp ;) which is an overstatement considering we are girls :P... and we are busy shopping for skirts and earings and other goodies until 7 :P and obviously we dont expect Suresh to reach Pizza exp. by 7 so we go home change and are above to leave when Suresh calls... apparently he thought I would be a good influence on Avni and we would actually be on time... which we are not... finally we reach pizza exp at 8 have dinner till 9.30... he has this smug look on his face... which says something is cooking so Avni and I needle him to tell us what he has been up to...after a lot of cajoling he says... his guide/prof/boss wants him to come to work in the night... which completely ruins our partying plans... both of us are really disappointed but we continue eating and then dinner is almost over when we have to decide what to do. Anvi and I cajole him and convince him that the partying idea was something we had decided to do years ago. So he decides to come with us for a while partying... the smug look has still not left his face so he says... i have something else to tell u :P most of the Disco's are meant for couples entries and we are a odd lot... 2 girls and a guy :) so we are like OH... and he is like well lets go check it out and see what happens. So we decide to take a cab to one of the night clubs. And our adventure begins....after a lot of asking cab drivers to take us to our destination and a lot of them saying no.. finally there is a guy who says yes... so we jump in... he starts driving. And while driving starts talking of random things... and then says for 3 hrs i have been waiting for a ride and now i get one which is for 13 bucks... so i am going to go a bit round and take u. We are like ok... and then we realise he has taken us to a completely opposite direction.. and we are like we understand you want the money but we never told u to take us here... and he is like no u did... and we are like ok drop us here... we get odd and thats when it strikes me and Suresh that the driver was completely drunk.... what a nightmare! we could have got killed... it was so scary... so then we get into another cab. This dude.. has a white Gandhi cap and big mustache and the 3 of us are so hysterical and laughing with what happened previously that we are very high with excitement and talking so much... after it dies down a bit the taxi driver... looks at Suresh, and asks him in pure (shudha) hindi..."Till which grade have you learnt hindi"? Suresh looks at him and says 10th. And we all are wondering, is he also drunk? Or is those types which give lecture to young people and ask us to remember our culture and tradition and that we should be ashamed of our selves that we speak english when we can speak hindi... but then he moves on to saying ok I am going to tell you a poem, give me the meaning of it... by now both me and Avni have covered our mouths, Suresh who is sitting next to the driver has to answer him... and both of us are looking outside the windows trying not to laugh to hard... its so funny looking at Suresh trying to tackle the meaning of the poem. Suresh desp. needs help and looks back at us but all he can see is two giggling girls... :) We finally reach our destination and both of is jump out of the cab and leave Suresh to answer the driver... and burst out laughing coz we cannot take it anymore... its just to much for us to bare... and Suresh walks up to us after a few min. looking completely dazed... and is like... what were you thinking... i needed help and all u girls could do is giggle away! But Suresh, then says he got an explanation from the cab driver, apparently the driver was testing us to see how cultured we were... and as Suresh used his logic to deduct the meanings of the poem we passed his test. It seems this driver tests youngsters and he himself is well read and learnt a lot of hindi poems. He had a book by Kabir with him under his seat.
Anwyas... we are so freaked out with both the incidences that we keep laughing all the way to Redlight Pub whch was supposed to be our destination. And ask luck would have it, it was booked for a private party so we could not get in. The only choice we had was to go to Insomnia Taj, so we walk there not daring to take another taxi...and are relived when the butler does not stop us as we are not couples... so we walk in merrily and go into the disco... its loud and interesting.. coz as soon as we enter there is this random guy who is the only one dancing in the middle of the floor and the rest are so creped out that not one is dancing... we get a drink and wait thinking more people will join in and that we will join in when others do... but it gets more creepier and the guy seems to be desperate and definitely drunk! The music is horrible and we dont like it so then Avni comes up with a brainwave of going to a third place which is close by so we leave, and walk to the third place and realise that its closed on sunday and mondays!!!!! Our luck was going drastically wrong and suresh thought it was the big earrings i was wearing that had to do with the bad luck ;))
So we reluctantly go back to Insomia... (Insomania as we called it from then on) and decided we would have a good time no matter what! But the creepy thing was when we got back there were a lot more people dancing but it was so guy and lesbo... all guys with guys and all girls with girls... AHHH! so aggravating... and we were the only 3 people who seemed to be odd in the whole lot. But then we decided come what may we would have fun... so we did :)At 12 in the night I was supposed to meet two long lost cousins of mine so they finally arrived and so Suresh, me and Avni parted away and Avni and I went off with my other set of cousins to a pastry shop near by and had a delicious Baileys Chocolate mouse cakes.... yummy!!!! i had an ok time with these cousins as they seemed more interested in talking to their girl friends then meeting me... so i was a bit irritated.... coz the were supposed to have come to meet me... and they bumped into these two girls in the cake shop.
But apart from that slight hitch we all had a wonderful time... Avni, Suresh and me... lots of fun and adventurous experience which we will always remember :) So i finally had the party that I was looking for... just wish it was on my bday! Oh well.... better luck next time :) Oh what a weekend it was!
I had an interesting week, I am preparing for my senior show in December and my theme is Ajanta and Ellora caves in India. They are architectural ruins made in almost the 1st and 2nd Centaury BC. Anways, I decided to go visit them and as per my profs. wishes and try to paint them on the spot.
I thought it was going to be fun and easy, but i was so very wrong. I leant a few important lessons this week, first one its very very hard to paint outdoors. Especially in a historical monument. I was so disturbed with constant attention, of people and visitors who kept poking their head in my sketch book it made me feel so uncomfortable and nervous. I was an amusement (for them) as much as they were an amusement to me. Inspite of trying to avoid and ignore them i could not help being disturbed. Some really curious ladies also poked me and asked me so many questions. I was so fed up. The weather was horrible, lots of rain so everything was wet, mucky, and full of mosquitoes. My foot is full of bites and its kind of swollen. I realized i could not force myself to paint. What ever i did if i was not in the mood i could not paint it. I tried so hard but it did not work out... finally i succumbed to taking lots of photos and am back to paint them all at home. I might have given up really early, or I did the right thing i have no idea, but yes i did learn quit a bit from this experience. I guess i dont have much time to do everything i want to in the visit back home... and also it was very hard to stay with my mom for the last one week, she was getting extremely agitated as she did not have anything to do. And my mother is a very active i must say over active person. Without work she might as well kill herself. She stayed with me for a week and did complain a bit, but tried to be very patient but could not hold on.... so with all that around me i just could not paint. But at least i tried! I know what to expect next time i decide to do something like this... I need to pack loads of patience along with all my bag and baggage when I go to paint outside next time!
Bangkok. Pulsating paradox. Noisy Zen. Buddhist monks in the ultimate red light city. Traffic temples. Modernity and globalization to the point of excess. Khao San Road backpackers madness, ubermalls, thai 'massage', tuk-tuk daredevils, redlighters battle nightmarket pirates for supremacy amidst ancient temples. Long live the mighty king Bhumibol, 60 years in, billboards more Mao than Mao.
But scratch deep beneath the grit and smoke. Spiritual beauty. I am farang, hear me roar. Conspicuous consumer.
Koh Samui. Spa, cleansing, peace. Full circle from original isolated beaches to beach resorts to nightraves and back to health sanctuary. White beaches. Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance on the backroads. Enfin.
Cairns. Soulless drunken brit orgy. Tourism gone mad but no yanks down under. 'Irish' pubs, 'euro'trash clubs, back to an 18 year olds rebellious paradise. But beyond the madness there is a reef, living, breathing, wondrous in the world. Ancient sea turtles, laughing clownfish, pink cucumbers, splendiferous corals and oblivious sharks.
Cape Tribulation. Wow. Reef meets rainforest in unique moment in time. More tree species than Europe and North America. Humid huts by white sands. Cairns' anti-Christ. Escape.
Whitsunday Islands. Struggling against a tourist crusade, tranquil beauty remains. For now. Snorkelling paradise.
Noosa. Melbourne's oceanfront. Europosh, French obsession, cafes, parks and beach culture. Surfing virgins devour breakers, stanDing. Fraser Island, UNESCO's baby, the beach is the road, the park is the island, the tide is god and the dingo reigns supreme. Babies beware.
Brisbane. Brisvegas. Brisneyland. Brizzie. Either nouveau posh or alternative music buffs. Festival lights. So glitzy. Big city noise hurts deaf ears.
So after 8 days in Sydney, here's a couple of quick thoughts as the Wimbledon (11 PM) and World Cup (5 AM, pre-game at 3) finals are starting soon - gotta love those timezones. Off to Queensland tomorrow for off the beaten track beaches, surfing, diving and rainforests.
Best o' Sydney
1) Beaches: Big, brash and sunny, this city's salvation lie in its beaches. Bondi, Bronte, Coogee and Watson's Bay served up incredible surfing waves and spectacular views. Best beaches I've ever seen and the easy-going culture that goes along with it is distinctly Sydney.
2) Lingo: New additions to the Aussie dictionary:
Fair dinkum (Really? or Damn straight)
Strewth (Nice. or Word, for the homies)
Chuck a ewie (sp?): Pull a U-turn
Milk bar: Convenience store
Justice Gooner (after six tries, this is all the girl behind the bar could offer to my desperate pleas for a bloody pint, who is this famed judge you ask? Beats me, but after pointing out sizes for midis, pots and schooners, I determined her strange vernacular to mean Just a Schooner?)
3) Harbour and Opera House: Explains the confident attitude - amazing landmarks and they know it. Saw a weird Ausified contemporary Romeo and Juliet at the Opera House, with cricket bats, local lingo and everything, somehow pulled it off. Opera House was 14 years and about 11 times over budget, but worth every penny, esp considering it was built in the 60s. Amazing.
Worst:
1) If Melbourne is continental Europe, Sydney is something different. OK, I admit my bias here, I loved Melbourne's city, cafes, shops and culture so I found Sydney to be more like London or North America with fewer nice cafes, less of a music/arts scene and more of the characterless massive bars and pubs for sportsfans, and some harbourfront development is right out of Florida. But hey, beaches and landmarks and the people still make the city great.
2) Rough and tumble folk. Almost got in a fight whilst playing pool with some scary looking biker dudes challenging for the table, got out OK but made mental note to avoid drunk bikers in seedy pubs.
3) Public transport: Buses run by different companies than trains and monorail (Sydney shares this distinction with no one else but Springfield for your Simpsons buffs). So passes are transferable, buses don't arrive on regularly or on time, and there a NO MAPS of bus routes at any stops. One last example of Sydney's transport logic: there's a traffic problem on this road, so they build a mutli-million dollar tunnel to replace it, except they charge 14 bucks a time to pay for it. So nobody takes the tunnel and makes traffic worse and accidents increase. Genius.
Only hours from the beautiful game we've all been waiting for in a very emotional tournament, so Forza Italia for the storybook ending!
We had an interesting discussion on child abuse today in my sociology class, when my prof. was telling us the that every state in the US had different laws on child abuse.
As a child growing up in India was quite different from i can imagine growing up in US. According to US policies, if a teacher hits a student then its child abuse. I think that should be a law passed in India. Most of the Indian school teachers hit their students with rulers, or slap them, besides reprimanding them and scolding them in front of all the peers. This has had a very negative impact on a kid. I personally felt abused when i was in school. The teachers used to humiliate me in front of all my classmates, they used to tell me I was good for nothing, I did not like that. I was very angry with them. Also many teachers used to be biased against some students, and if you were not part of that group to bad. Its had such a negative impact on my life that it haunts me even after leaving school 10 yrs. back.
We talk about abuse when its at the worst possible level, we talk about it only when a child is sexually assaulted, physically harmed, but we never talk about mental and verbal abuse. I hate the educational system in India, and its left me with such bitter memories that I dont want to be a part of it anymore, and one of the reasons is being abused by the system.
