Tuesday, 29. August 2006, 20:39:25
war, politics
People tell me that this blog gets worse and worse, post by post.
Less and less political and thoughtful posts are emitted by my destroyed brain.
I tell you people. It's not my fault.
How can I be political and all when those suckers don't even start a new war or a terrorist attack or something?
Gee, man! I can't work like this. A whole two weeks without any bombing or dead children or kidnaps or planes going boom... I hope they just went on vacations or you're gonna see many more "Sold and Fuckenful" episodes.
PS: I hope my cynicism is apparent.
Kisses between your second and third eye. image credit
Monday, 14. August 2006, 15:17:49
war, politics
UN finally ended (?) this match. Most say that it was late to whistle the end. You'll hardly find anyone to deny that, but there may be many views on how much late UN was. 2 days? 1 week? 1 month? ... Well, I will totally disagree with any such opinion because I simply believe that the used metric is wrong. In my opinion in this occasion time should not be measured in multiples of seconds but rather on several other quantities. So here is how much late I believe UN was:
( Israel: )
Civilian toll: 40 dead, unknown (to me) number of wounded, about 500.000 uprooted civilians, unknown (to me) cost of damages.
Military toll: 114 soldiers.
( Lebanon: )
Civilian toll: 1.200 dead, 3.700 wounded, more than 900.000 uprooted Lebanese civilians and a destroyed country (moderate estimations raise the damage cost to 6$ billion).
Military toll: About 500 Hezbollah soldiers.
I leave the conversion of the above quantities in seconds to any physicist that wants to take the challenge.
PS 1: Numbers taken from this (Greek) article.
PS 2: Haven't heard anything about the Israeli soldiers whose kidnapping started this all. Have you?
Tuesday, 8. August 2006, 20:30:18
war, politics
All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers...Each one owes infinitely more to the human race than to the particular country in which he was born.
Francois Fenelon
Have any doubts? Yes?! OK, I'll give you a second chance before start yelling...
Still doubts? OK, you asked for it.
If you are not French then you most probably owe your life to a French man. Mr. Louis Pasteur, for if it wasn't for him you'd be probably dead due to some infection caused by bacteria too little to be seen but too deadly to be left on your surgeon's blade.
The previous argument must cover everyone but French (whom I already hear bragging about). So, in case you are a French woman then you most probably owe your life to a Greek (we have some people to brag about too) Mr. George Papanikolaou who invented a test known as Pap smear used for the detection and prevention of cervical cancer. If you are a French man (in which case last sentence was all Greek to you) just take that you probably owe the life of the woman that you love to this Greek.
Yet, the reason I'm proving (yet another time) Mr. Francois Fenelon is not to show you my knowledge breadth (I tried hard to come up with those three names) or to brag about famous Greeks of French.
The real reason is to ask a hypothetical question. Let's say that me, you, or someone we both love is dying from cancer. That horrible thing that makes your body go crazy and hurts like all the hell you can imagine plus more...Now, what if the mind that would come up with a cure for cancer is a Lebanese or an Israeli or an Iraqi or a USA kid-soldier and is dying right now in that war down there in Middle East?
I have an answer. The Cancered-one is also a Cancelled-one.
(Dedicated to all those who consider the shut-the-fucking-wars-down-and-stick-the-guns-in-the-asses-of-those-profiting-from-them opinions childish).
Image Credit.
Thursday, 3. August 2006, 19:14:20
politics, war
That was said between the teeth of a friend of mine. It was just after he saw some of the usual images of killed kids in Lebanon.
I'm sure that many other people around the world said the same thing. It's not that weird if you come to think that Israel VS All Arabs is a match that is on our TVs for decades now. And it's not that weird if you think that Israel has all the US support and lots of fancy weapons to blow up things and people while Arabs seem to fight with whatever they can get (I'm not referring to the militaristic Arab organizations). So, the constant image is a bully-boy state that goes on terrorizing the people that had lived where they had lived for zillion years before them. And -that's the most important one- poor people. On one hand you have a fully armed soldier and on the other a poor kid throwing rocks (at least when it's still alive). No need to ask who wins your sympathy. (In fact if it wasn't for all the fuss created about the Islamist terrorism after the 9/11 you would be 100% for the little boy - whether you'd be right or not is a different issue that won't be examined here - whether I'd go for the boy is also a different than my current issue).
So, the mental image is about wealthy Jews that kill Arabs. Correct? Well mental images are really powerful because it's not what you see but the thoughts that are being evoked by that. A common one is: all Jews are wealthy killers...well, hellooooo! You just forgot rule number one. Do not fucken generalize.
For instance here are some points picked from the economics section of Kiriakatiki Eleftherotypia (a major Greek newspaper) of July the 30th 2006, pp. 10: (about the effects of the war on Israel) "The already high unemployment rate, which equals 9-10% and 20% in some Northern regions of Israel, may further rise while there is a great social gap (1/3 of the population is considered officially poor) that doesn't seem to bother the formerly "social revolutionist" Defense Minister Amir Peretz."
Look at these numbers again. 10% - 20%, 1/3 ?! Excuse me but those numbers are third world numbers in a first world country that pays a lot for having one of the best war machines around. Officially poor means really poor. No bullshiting and whining for paying the rent and such soft things. We talk hard rock. We talk about not having money to get food. So, no. The ignited thought of wealthy Jews doesn't seem correct. Consequently the "fucken Jews" swear is totally erroneous.
Not all Israelis want this war. In fact, I believe that very few Israelis want this war (who'd want to get a Hezbollah rocket on his/her apartment?). Yet, this war goes on and in my humble opinion it is them, the Israel civilians, that can put an end to it and see a solution out of the whole crisis. Here are some that seem to hold a view entirely different from the Israel government. Why not trying out such proposals or any other peaceful proposals when what has long been Israel's official line got only more coffins?
I don't know. If you have anything better to offer, go ahead.
Tuesday, 1. August 2006, 20:13:22
war
Normally here it would be yet another post about life in space or August or sex or some other funny human activity but the last days from all the words in the world only one comes to my mind.
Qana.
If it doesn't ring any bells just google it.
PS: Have a nice month (easy to understand whom is excluded from that wish).
Monday, 24. July 2006, 20:28:39
politics, war
Preface + help needed:
I need help from someone very far away from Greece. You see internet as a data stream flows mainly through shielded cables. They won’t do the job. I need a wireless link for this. A heavy wireless international data link, something that starts with a huge telecom dish, goes up to a satellite and then back down on Earth. I’m particularly interested in the going-up session as I hope this data stream to get away from Earth and start an unthinkable journey into space. That’s because I want it to reach an Alien civilization, being hopefully decoded and get my message delivered. So if there is anyone out there in Australia or Japan reading this, then possibly I have my message traveling. So, to the furthest readers of this: BIG THANKS. I owe you. If you come by Greece I’ll pay back in coffees, touring and local meals.
My message to the unknown Alien Friend:
Hallo my friend. It would be easier for me if I knew your name. Yet, this is impossible so I’ll just name you Q, after an imaginary friend I’d made up during my adolescence. I hope that’s OK with you.
The reason I’m writing this letter is a deep depression I get lately when I hear the news of my planet. I really don’t know where to start. I can’t put thousands Earth years of history in a letter so you should read this in conjuction with other leaking information from my planet.
So dear Q, I’m a human. I’m a male and I’ve been alive for about the past 30 years. Current year is 2006 but I’m sure you’ll have better ways to determine that.
For almost all my life I lived in a small country called Greece (it’s about the center of the planet if you are facing a large continent called Africa). I state my country because countries together with nations have played a central role in human history. You see, humans are divided into nations according to historical, linguistic and racial common traits. Nations usually constitute countries. Countries are mainly legal entities, that is commonly held agreements between people. My country for example, is considered to own a certain amount of terrain and sea water and has boundaries that separate it from the neighboring countries. You can imagine that countries are like cells that may have numerous relations between each other. They may cooperate or fight wars for example.
Another important characteristic is our economic system. This is another commonly held agreement that maps material objects to imaginary ideas that can be numbered and counted obeying in mathematical rules. The current way that this mapping is done goes under the name Capitalism and it’s major rule is that when a material is in high demand its price (the imaginary number that is mapped onto the material) increases. The whole system is based on exchanging priced things for quantized metrics called money. Another rule is that almost everything (even things that themselves are not material) has a price. Those current mapping rules are in great extend responsible for creating huge imbalances among humans and countries. You see as a human or a country or any imaginary entity you too are also mapped to a price (I think it’s called a value in that case). If you are smart enough (and ruthless enough) you may increase your collected money. The more money you have, the more things that you can later buy and the more power you have. You see, having a lot of money scales you higher than people that have less money (they are called poor and you are called rich). That’s because you possess something that they may desperately need because without money you can hardly get what you need to survive as a human (food and shelter for example). Pay attention to this characteristic Q. There have been wise humans that devoted their lives to prove that its inherent deficiencies cause more trouble than the eye can see.
Another common human trait is the belief of a higher intractable and powerful being called God. Certain sets of beliefs about this being constitute what is known as religions which usually have a very strong relation with the nations I was telling you before. Hinduism, Christianism, the Muslim religion are a few current common popular religions. A common belief among almost every religion is that God loves humans meaning that He wants the human race to survive and thrive.
We, humans also consider ourselves good with our hands and minds. We are experiencing a rapid technological evolution if you consider the universe time scale. In just 2000-3000 Earth years not only have we beaten every other competitor species but we evolved ways to alter our environment, communicate through radio waves, compute huge arithmetic calculations and even land onto another space object (that was Earth satellite planet called Moon). We are also close to landing on other planets and even change our genetic code, our own bodies’ evolutionary programming code. Some claim that this whole thing was due to two fingers placed opposite the other ones, called thumbs. If that’s true then you can say that sometimes little things make big differences.
We, humans also love thinking and governing. That’s why we have derived several systems to decide on what’s to be done. The one considered as best conforming with our free thinking trait is called democracy and I’m proud to say that it was invented in my country almost 2500 years before now. It’s basic form is simple. Each human has a vote to choose among many proposed solutions to a problem and he/she may propose his/her solutions. The solution that gets the most votes is being chosen. Several later editions have adjusted that system to the ever increasing number of humans or so they say at least. Anyway, democracy is a system that gets many toasts but is equally often abused.
It is impossible for me to provide you with a better bird’s eye view of our societies. Many more people would be needed for that and even more experts. Yet, I tried to give you an objective idea of some things that I consider key components of our civilization.
Yet, the real reason I’m writing this letter to you dear Q is not to describe our civilization but to describe my own nightmares. Nightmares that consist of you coming here on my planet and find nothing but a burnt place. You see Q, yes, we can burn the whole planet. We can burn it down more than once. It’s technology that armed us with such powerful weapons that can do the job but it’s not technology that may lead us to such an end. I’m not sure I can make you understand this. It’s more difficult than describing our nations and economic system and all. I’ll just provide you with two stories that may help you.
The first one is about the first use of our most powerful weapons till now. The nuclear bomb. It was just before the end of the so called second World War (or WWII). One of the participating (and winner) countries was United States of America (USA). (Just look behind Greece at the Northern hemisphere half to see where it resides.) One of the countries that finally lost the war was Japan (looks like a strip of land that got unstuck from the big continent half Earth Northeast from Greece). In the August of 1945 the losing alliance was falling apart. Japan was about to surrender and the end of war was bringing up the question of what country would be the most powerful in the world. At that time USA and USSR (almost everything for half Earth Northeastern of Greece) were the only real competitors. USA had been frantically designing and building the first nuclear bombs while USSR was bound to catch up. The losing alliance was said to also try for nuclear weapons but it was later proved that they had no hope. So, to cut the story short let’s say that Japan was attacked with two USA nuclear bombs. At the 6th and 9th of August 1945, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two major Japanese cities, were burnt down in seconds and more than 119000 human beings that happened to be Japanese were instantly dead. More than 135000 died soon afterwards from radiation and some are still dying. To get the magnitude of the number let me say to you that 9 months and uncountable love is needed to produce one single new human being. Bad tongues claim that the whole massacre was totally unnecessary but was used to show that USA had the lethal technology and had the balls to use it. Soon after that USSR and a dozen other countries had it too and they still have.
The second story is unraveling now. Another country called Israel (pass the sea going southeastern from Greece and when you hit terrain stop – that’s more or less where this is) had problems with what is commonly referred to as a terrorist organization. This is a very vague term to describe. Suffice it to say that most of these organizations are bunches of people that try to get power by not commonly accepted and certainly not democratic means (even by killing people and planting bombs). So, it was said that two Israel soldiers were kidnapped by such an organization so Israel started to bomb a neighboring country were these terrorists were said to reside. This country is called Lebanon. After a dozen days of bombing Lebanon is ruined and hundreds of Lebanese people (not belonging to the terrorist group) are dead. Numerous humans of tender age (called kids and are definitely not terrorists) have been among the dead or are awfully injured. The other countries of Earth are just trying to get their people from there and don’t seem to do anything to stop this craziness.
Unfortunately dear Q, those two stories aren’t exceptions but the norm. That’s the kernel around which human history revolves for at least the past 2500 years. There is no page in any history book that is not painted with human blood shed by humans. The reasons are also more or less the same. Money, religions, nations, power, power, power. We are so in love with power. We try to control our existence, our everyday lives, the people we know, our future, the whole universe. We want so badly to live forever that we are like a donkey that’s chasing a carrot hanging in front of its head and it doesn’t see the cliff. And we are so good in finding excuses for every mistake we continue to do. Our interpretation of a possibly inexistent God that seems to avert his eyes from us is a helluva justifying wild card. We have killed, raped, tortured, oppressed, blessed our guns in his name and we didn’t even stop to call him an ever loving God. Our madness blinds us from seeing things that are just in front of our eyes. We have enough natural resources and technology to provide every human being on Earth with everything he/she needs to survive but we put our minds and hands to work to build weapons, needless products that destroy our planet (but keep Capitalism alive), “smart” systems to take over power and tones of crap. We got greedy dear Q. So greedy that we have been eating ourselves for ages and we won’t notice until Greed will be all that is left from us.
Dear Q there is something wrong with us humans. Last days you can smell it in the air. It may be that Greece is so close to Lebanon and it’s summer. You see in summer a certain wind blows in my country and to several other countries around. In my country we call it “Livas” cause it comes from Libya, (south from Greece over the sea) but this summer I think it blows from the nearby Lebanon and I could swear I can smell human blood in it. I swear that I smell human nonsense, stupidity and evilness. I swear that I smell something burning and in my dreams I see the Earth on fire. A small fire right there on Lebanon that sets off to suck the entire planet.
It’s those nightmares that make me sweat and jump off my bed dear Q. I feel so alone, so fleeting that I need to send out a message in a bottle for reasons I don’t fully understand.
…
Dear Q, thank you for reading this. I hope that my letter will get to you together with many more documents which may help you to avoid our mistakes.
Have peace, unity and freedom.
24 July 2006 (Current Earth Calendar)
Athens City – Greece Country,
Europe Continent,
Earth – third planet from the star Sun
Galaxy:
Approximate Universe Age 13.7 +/- 0.2 billion years
Approximate Earth Age 4.55 billion years (+/- 1%)PS (2006-08-09): Big thanks to souls from Australia and Tasmania who probably made this transmission possible.
Friday, 26. May 2006, 21:56:43
Greece, war, politics
It's one of those times that I don't know what to write. Which point of view to adopt. How to stand against the wind.
This Tuesday (May 23) a Greek and a Turkish F-16 fighters collided above the southern Aegean island of Karpathos. The Greek one was chasing the Turkish one away from the Greek FIR. From what I heard the Turkish was one of three planes that entered the Greek FIR without previous notice towards Greece and they were heading towards northern Crete. Among them there was one photographic (aka spying) plane. Turkish planes had registered their courses to NATO. Two Greek fighters got up to chase them back to Turkey which happens dosens times per day. Yet, this one was different. Two planes down - one pilot (the Greek one) considered dead. Turk was lucky. Got out early, alive and kicking.
Information said that the Greek pilot managed to eject so a big search and rescue effort begun but till now nothing was found. So, he is considered dead.
I really don't know how to feel. I try not to be overly patriotic and all this (fascists and "patriots" can't hide their joy under their sadness for this incident - of course, it means votes in the next elections). Yet, I feel like shit. All the week I was hoping and hoping that they find our pilot alive. That at last I would hear one of those stupid inhuman TV presenters say "the pilot was found in bad condition but he will make it". But, no...
So, what am I left with? Questions. Dozens of them. Who the fuck ordered a flight above Crete? Who the fuck in NATO considered that this would be OK with Greeks (he might have thought that -what the hell- I went to Crete, swum, had sex, got drunk like a pig and took some pictures, so why not them) ? What the fuck happened up there? Why the fuck is all this Aegean shit air battles are going on? Who the fuck runs Turkey (I mean, you could say that Greece is governed partly by the prime minister, partly by USA, most partly by big money, partly by illuminati etc, but who the fuck runs Turkey? How can it's prime minister be all kind and friendship and all and then you see Turkish planes all over?) ? If that's a power game between politicians and generals over there why don't they play somewhere else and leave pilots alive ? How the fuck can a country that wants to be in EU behave like this (I don't think there are similar incidents with Italy or between UK and France) and how the fuck can Greece (well apart from USA) be the only country that supports Turkey in EU? And most of all, why? WHY? You know. Fuck it all. I mean, we, the people over here and over there are just pawns. I don't know who is right about Aegean. Maybe for every sneaky thing their state does we do a similar one (although I find it hard to believe). Maybe it's all a game set up by fucking generals, politicians and BIG money. Yet, why should a young man loose his life? Why should his kids be orphan?
If nobody is going to explain to me at least explain to those people that may be next. Both Greeks and Turks. Yes, you fucking army man, you big money man and you rotten politician man. All of you that you'll never fight but directly or indirectly will sent others to fight for you. Next time you order a fucking stupid flight to get you higher in the rank explain to the pilot why they might really end up burned up on the Aegean seabed. Maybe then, they'll tell you where to put your ambitions, your photos and your planes.
The pilot was Group Captain Kostas Iliakis and maybe this time we (the ordinary Greeks) shouldn't leave the task of remembering him to fascists that will add his name to their lists for their own shity purposes.
PS: Greek Prime Minister, K. Karamanlis, proposed that the parliament should adopt his two kids. That's a good idea Mr. Karamanlis but you, who know more than me, try to make sure that this won't happen again.
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