National Sorry Day

National Sorry Day has been marked by the Australians to remember the govt's removal of aboriginal children from their families. From my understanding, it was more of a law that the govt enforced to perform an ethnic cleansing on the aboriginal children that were of mixed race and have their blackness bred out. Yep, quite inhuman and heart-breaking. Today, it brought back all the memories when I watched the movie "Rabbit Proof Fence"; one of the saddest true story ever.

It was very powerful to see how three young girls were so determined and courageous yet so young and vulnerable. It's a true story so that's a killer in itself. Imagine, they walked across Australia to reunite with their family.I learned everything about the Aboriginals after this movie. I just wanted to know everything and if anything, they are Australia's lost generation. Thanks to the Europeans! *heavy sarcasm*.

Imagine, kids were kidnapped, taken away from their families by force to a place where they don't know anyone, they're not allowed to speak their native language... It is nothing less than a monstrous crime.

My heart goes out to the Aborginals just the way it does for the Native Indians in the US.

Saddam in Underwear

You know; I've always hated what Saddam did to his people but then again, those who think they did the Iraqis a great big favor by ousting Saddam are nothing but savages too.

Doesn't this violate the Geneva Conventions or can we bend rules depending on who we're dealing with?The US military claim that they are aggressively investigating this matter.

Please! they say he is closely monitored 24/7 in his cell.. does this mean security is so poor that individuals in there can take pictures? Why cover up? it's so damn obvious that someone working in there, either a military officer or whoever is the one who took the photos.

I just hate it so much when they complicate what really happened and go on about "aggressively" investigating bullsh*t.

Pap Smear Outrage? This happened in NY

It's quite shocking how Jacobi Medical Center has failed to inform over 300 women about their abnormal test results. Flunking a cancer screening test is no joke. How can people be sloppy like that when the results can be a matter of life and death?

This is like saying "I put my heart in your hand" and you simply drop it as if it doesn't matter. I also think the medical center is pathetically negligent in the sense to assign ONE worker to sift through all the test results.

There were just under 20,000 pap tests done and over 5,000 resulted in abnormality. Isn't this in itself alarming that the test should be taken a lot more seriously?

I wonder how credible other medical centers/hospitals are!

Rasta Man Undercover

This afternoonSitting aloneA small park between 33rd & 34th st by Broadway st & 6th Av. There's this little park right in the center of traffic. I order a coffee and sit by myself,

Trying to enjoy all the chaos around me. Few mins later a fair african american asks if he can sit in the empty seat next to me.
I said "yeah sure"
He goes "how many languages do you speak?"
I said "I speak two and understand another two"
He goes "what would u call a person who speaks 4 languages?"
I go "quadlingual"
he goes "and 3 languages?"
I go "tri-lingual?"
he goes "and 2 languages?"
I go "bi-lingual"
he goes "and one language?"
I go "ummm, I don't know, mono-lingual?"
He goes "no, American".

I giggled and then asked him where he was from, he said he was American.To my surprize, he spoke arabic and said he can speak better hebrew. He explained he has an egyptian friend who is married to an Israeli woman. He then whispers something. I couldn't hear him...He whispered again,I still couldnt hear...Then the 3rd time, I hear him saying "do you want a bag of weed?"

I smiled and said "does it look like I need to smoke up?" I smiled and said "no, thank you". The guy seemed too proper and decent although he was dressed in his Jamaican style with his long dreadlocks.

Was he an under cover cop trying to set me up? What if I had said yes just for the fun of it?Would I have been arrested/deported? damn...Just wondering!

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I must be losing touch with the world of movies because I never heard of this movie up till yesterday. Two of my friends came over and suggested we rent it out... so we did.

The story is not sophisticated at all but the way it was filmed; that was super-powerful and I loved the antiqueness of the cinematography.Initially, I was thinking, a screwed up love story with science fiction in it? I hate science fiction BUT this one was an exception. The chemistry between Jim and Kate was intense whether they're falling in love with one another or wanting to kill the other.

It was funny, emotional, dramatic and somehow confusing at the start of the movie, nevertheless, I loved the connection between Jim and Kate. I loved the idea how they decided to erase their memory to get over their dysfunctional relationship.

"Movie Spoiler" Do not read further if you have not watched it:

I have my own weird interpretation of the movie. I think Kate chose to erase her memory because she couldn't help but love Jim even through they had a dysfunctional depressing relationship. Jim didn't want to erase his memory but as a form of vengeance, he decided to do the same. What's touching about the movie is how Jim would fight the erasing process; the way he would chase Kate in his thought process; how he would come up with ideas in his sleep to escape the erasing process. That was just incredibly powerful.

The ending was beautiful and it says one thing to me that when two are connected; it doesn't matter what they go through, how chaotic their relationship is or how they hurt one another because there is this invisible force that they cannot fight which would bring them together. Sounds dreamy like but it makes a great deal of sense to me.

No no, it's not about "would you erase me?", it's more about "could you erase me?".

Evil Media

Evidently, the media in the West is controlled by large corporations and governments. When the news is filtered down to an ordinary person; he/she is only fed with nonsense. Yes, there are alternative news sources that cover a fairly good spectrum of dimensions from a religious ideology, environmental ideology, political ideology, social justice ideology and so on, however, that again is biased to some degree. I suppose objectivity will always be in question which therefore means that news is no longer objective.

Every source is biased in one way or another. Historically, the bias was different to today's bias. Today's bias is corporate/business bias. I yearn for people to just turn off their TV's and access the internet for world news. It's time for that kind of a change, for people to know and CARE about the world outside their range of sight. It surprises me how people have been trapped in a media trance in THIS day and age. The game of politics has blinded people to only understand the allegedly "win-lose positions" as opposed to settling down for peace, justice and existence for all.

I wish there was a way to promote alternative media sources with other people ESPECIALLY those who refuse to see the other side of the coin. I find it very distressing how the objective of the media is to psychologically feed the viewers with mental-drugs so they get hooked onto them, depend on them and actually believe in them influencing their thought process, their emotions and judgment.

It's just one of those days: my rambling.

Statue of Liberty

I learned something new today about the statue of liberty. As a matter of fact; many things. France gifted the US with the statue of liberty. She is the goddess of liberty representing many things.

The seven spikes on the crown of her head represents the seven seas/continents. On one arm, she holds a torch, on the other arm a tablet engraved in roman numericals the date of independence.Very cool.

On a weird front, I heard that an Omani guy who was a Harvard student ended up with the wrong crowd (a gang of African Americans) and he along with the others were responsible for planting a bomb on the statue of liberty. How bizarre! an Omani? he was arrested, expelled from Harvard and returned to Oman.

The Power of Western Media

Evidently, the media in the West is controlled by large corporations and governments. When the news is filtered down to an ordinary person; he/she is only fed with nonsense. Yes, there are alternative news sources that cover a fairly good spectrum of dimensions from a religious ideology, environmental ideology, political ideology, social justice ideology and so on, however, that again is biased to some degree.

I suppose objectivity will always be in question which therefore means that news is no longer objective. Every source is biased in one way or another. Historically, the bias was different to today's bias. Today's bias is corporate/business bias.

I yearn for people to just turn off their TV's and access the internet for world news. It's time for that kind of a change, for people to know and CARE about the world outside their range of sight. It surprises me how people have been trapped in a media trance in THIS day and age. The game of politics has blinded people to only understand the allegedly “win-lose positions” as opposed to settling down for peace, justice and existence for all. I wish there was a way to promote alternative media sources with other people ESPECIALLY those who refuse to see the other side of the coin.

I find it very distressing how the objective of the media is to psychologically feed the viewers with mental-drugs so they get hooked onto them, depend on them and actually believe in them influencing their thought process, their emotions and judgment.

It’s just one of those days: my rambling.

The Interpreter

I watched this movie today and I'm still not sure whether I loved it or just kinda liked it. Perhaps it's the psychological thriller that I enjoyed the most. Nicole is a UN interpreter and Sean is a Federal Agent.It is about power, brutal genocide in Africa, mysterious alliances, vengeance etc.. Kidman's performance was great although the accent was really unnecessary. I felt like the strength of her character was weakened by the accent.But one thing I loved about this movie was when she said: "Vengeance is a lazy form of grief".

It's realistic and it relays the importance of favoring political diplomacy and compassion when dealing with bodies of violence.