Monday 28 March 2011

Dark Truth About White Terrorism

Just a couple of weeks back, I talked about natural calamities and as if all of it wasn't enough, we are hell bent on making this world a living hell. While terrorism has mainly been synonymous with Islam, not many people realize that the same when done wearing wearing suits earns you accolades. This type of white terrorism is what most of the first world countries specialize in and eventually make a habit out of. 

Lets go back just a decade. The 9/11 was the biggest inside job with Bush and co staging it. They just wanted a reason to invade Iraq and capture the oil wells. Bush invaded Iraq on the pretext of finding Saddam's weapons of mass destruction(WMD) even though everyone knew there was none. The movie Green Zone sheds some light on this topic and is a good watch as it doesn't over hype the U.S military like in most other cliched movies.

10 years later, its the same story yet again but with different actors. Its Obama now who has invaded Libya on the pretext of ending Gaddaffi's regime. Libya has one of the purest sources of oil and their main exports are to other European nations. So its the oil yet again thats doing the job of a carrot. The U.S have suddenly decided to take a step back and have announced that the power has been transferred to Britain. One can only assume that David Cameron pursuaded the queen to invite Obama to the Royal Bachelors party and luring him with the fact that his old buddy Snoop Dogg will be there as well.

If at all the U.S were really honest about their intentions, whatever happened to imposing a no fly zone over Egypt as well which faced a similar situation. No oil, no invasion. I have really lost all respect for the U.N and all those bodies that meet once in a while to bring about the so called peace. The biggest irony is that a person like Obama who actively initiated the war, received a Nobel prize for peace recently. People are quick to judge Muslims as terrorists for killing innocent people. But the men in suits have killed innocent countries and I believe its high time, the rest of the world stepped up and warned U.S to mind its own business and pick lint from its own shit.

While all this is said and done, the terrorists who are actually scheming to bring down a country by planting silly bombs and suicide bombers are not better either. My issue is never with a community or a country but the intention behind these destructive acts. I don't give a damn whether you are a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian or whether you are from U.S or India or Pakistan. Whether your motive behind killing people is as commercial as oil or as narrow minded as converting people to a particular religion, you are a terrorist.

I read a statement given by a leader of some Islamic body saying that Allah has punished Japan with earthquakes and tsunamis for supporting a country like U.S. These are the kind of things that make me detest the religional beliefs as these people are not only in a delusional state but also try to wipe out the sanity factor in others. If at all there is god, I really don't think he/she would be bothered about punishing some X country for supporting decisions of some Y country. #SuperLame

These two kinds of terrorists are not only incapable of thinking outside a cloud filled with stinking thoughts, but will manage to kill a lot of innocent people and contribute to ending this world with some help from natural calamities.

P.S - Amidst all this political/cultural/religional nonsense, I'm really happy that my life is back into my life and I'm very excited. People who know me well know what I'm talking about :-)


Monday 21 March 2011

Why Soooooooooo Viral?

Share it on Facebook, Tweet on Twitter, Digg it, Stumble on Stumbleupon, do whatever you like but make sure you pass it on. If at all there is any rich media content that makes you do this repeatedly, then it has successfully managed to become viral. Most of the times, its the videos that make the cut and before you know it, everyone on your friend list is sharing it, all your secret crushes are going bonkers over the guy in the video, your lecturer has caught you in the class watching it and even your granny is watching it on the new smartphone you gifted her. 


Offlate, there have been numerous such videos. I found this video recently and thought I'll share it with all of you. The main intention of a viral video like this is to make you speculate the fact whether it is true or not. In the most of the cases, the video keeps going out of focus or the camera keeps shaking at all the right moments and the message or brand is secretly hidden in it. These campaigns totally rely on the number of hits to measure the success and their main intention is not to induce buying, but to create awareness of the brand and spread the word around. While your conscious brain is concentrating on the content of the video, your subconscious is concentrating on the brand or product being used. Don't believe me? Think about it. Which brand comes to your mind when you think of Roger Federer's trick shot where he knocks the can off a guy's head? I rest my case !!!

P.S - The video is actually part true. It's a viral marketing stunt to promote the movie "Limitless" which appears at the 1:30 mark on the big screen.

Monday 14 March 2011

Unnatural Reactions To Natural Calamities

I'm not a firm believer of the 2012 story and the fact that the world is going to come to an end on Dec 21st. However instead of something huge happening all of a sudden, like it happens in one of those over hyped Hollywood movies, I do believe that some really ugly and uncomprehendable things are going to happen at totally random intervals.

There have been quite a few natural calamities in recent times. The Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004(this was the time we all learnt a new word, but still don't know the wise guy who put a T and made it silent as well), The Eykjafjallajokull (thank you Wiki for the spelling) volcano in Iceland last year along with a massive earthquake in Haiti and the big freeze in UK, the cyclones in Australia just last month and the most recent Tsunami in Japan.




If at all one were to look for a common factor among all these events, it would be the unpredictability. In spite of being so technically advanced, we have failed on numerous occasions to take preemptive action and save people. Everytime we switch on the news during any of these times, we see the bureaucrats advising people to stay in a safe place and also rallying troupes to carry out evacuation. When they can actually predict the speed, direction and carry out a potential disaster analysis after a cyclone or Tsunami has hit, I really wonder why they cant do it before actually getting hit, and save us of all the trouble. The intensity of such a natural calamity is always measured in number dead people. Just makes you wonder whether the countries are actually competing with each other by portraying that they are helpless, just to get some pity sex.

The worst part about these is the aftermath. Not with the destruction, not with millions worth losses, not with the number of people dead but with the numerous 'relief fund' scams. I remember @kevinpp24 and @piersmorgan tweeting a link repeatedly through which you could contribute to the cyclone victims in Australia. But even they were not aware that it was a scam and someone just gobbled up all the money.

Its really heart wrenching to see the most hard working country in the world go through all of this. I believe everyone has a soft corner for Japan for the simple fact they have become the world's third biggest economy within 60 years after they got nuked in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Just makes you question the existence of god or any other super power even more. Frankly, none of explanations with god or karma makes sense in these situations. We as humans have to understand that natural calamities do happen and no prayers are ever going to stop them.

P.S - For all you gadget freaks, I'm sorry that the Japan disaster overshadowed the iPad 2 launch. 

Monday 7 March 2011

"All that we see is all that we think about"

I've fallen off the taxpaying wagon, yet again. Even though there is a chuckle inside me for not paying tax, there is a frown as well because my bank balance is going south. I sit in my room and have strategically placed everything within  my arm's reach, right from food to drink and beer to its proud counterpart, the beer belly. These days have been pretty good as I have had a lot of time on my hands to just relax and unwind, but I'm sure the tipping point for this is just around the corner. While all my efforts to turn myself  into the sarcastic "House" by watching him have gone in vain, I've definitely stumbled upon some really good soundtracks. Before you continue reading this post, I urge you to play the below video, keep the sound to a soothing level and just enjoy the music.


This song actually made me look and think about things that I had not wondered much about. All that we see is all that we think about is true on so many different levels. There is no doubt that we worry about or get influenced by things that we see and experience in our day to day lives.

We curse the government and everyone involved when our cars hit the potholes or skid off a slippery surface or just about anytime when the roads are bad. How often do we think about those workers who get the asphalt ready and mix it with gravel and ultimately get the road repaired overnight. We forget that there was even a pothole in that place as we no longer get "ditched". We take overnight buses to travel to far off places but forget to even thank the drivers who have taken us safely to our destinations. Its a fact that people who work during the nights(negate the call centre blokes) and sleep during daytime have totally changed their biological clocks and are only going to affect their health in the long run.


We take interest in the quality of drinking water or environmental conditions only when someone dies. We hardly think about people under the poverty line until and unless some viral video or campaign comes out. None of us even bothered about Egypt or Libya before Mubarak or Gaddafi  came under the hammer. 

Keeping the world news aside, even on the personal front we always try to play to our strengths and bask in them rather than exploring our weaknesses and digging deep inside ourselves, thus creating a barrier between what we want to see and project ourself as and what we don't even want to tickle. The latter is always considered as a sleeping, fire breathing dragon and we are always scared to wake it up. But then again during some situations, this dragon not only wakes up but starts breathing fire from all possible orifices and thats when we crumble and thats when we fail the acid test.

Thus, I honestly believe that we should spare some time to think about things that we do not do often or explore things that are totally outside our comfort zones. Not only will we be more thankful for the lives we are leading instead of saying "why is everything happening to only me", but we will also be able to grow as a person and bring about a change.


P.S - I know I know, its been one of those philosophical, preaching, aka #KillMeNow kinda posts, but I cant help it. Someone get me back on the payroll, and I promise to stop writing on these kind of topics (wink).