[171] Of unveiling of SpectruM and Mideast peace roadmap

I attended SpectruM unveiling ceremony last friday in front of the Media Union. There, I met up with Brent and Mirai, both are the in the race crew, directing visitors to the event area. I helped them a bit and later stayed with them for more than two hours, catching up things and so. I felt guilty for not helping them out for the spring rush. Nevertheless, it was great seeing them again, especially seeing Mirai the crazy Tokyo citizen who are living in the world full of Evas, Doraemon, Playstations, Honda, Toyota, Final Fantasy, Atari and of course Ultraman and Godzilla. I pity Brent for having to suffer a fate worse than death, being a roomie to a racist Japanese. Hey Mirai, I’m gonna kick you out of Asia.

Digressing…

The Spectrum is a two-seater Solar Car and it is long when compared to its predecessor, M-Pulse. Longer body means more solar panels and more energy to recharge the batteries. Furthermore, University of Michigan’s seventh generation solar car is the first car to have two seats in whole history of American Solar Challenge that will be held in July. Hope we will win this one. I hope Missouri Rolla will eat Wolverines’ dust. Another one bit the dust.

Apart from that, things are pretty grim right now and spring is spoilt by an almost routine, daily rain. Secondly, the bombing incident in Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Then it was the recent earthquake that shattered Algeria. Not to forget, the SARS and newly reemerging mad cow case in neighboring Canada is not going to die soon. As people thought it cannot get worse, Indonesia is finally cracking down on the Acheh rebels for good. And not to forget, Bush’s forest plan of which, essentially states that in order to prevent more forest fire, trees need to be cut down.

However, among the mist of destructions, one glimmer of hope came out from the most unexpected place. In the recent week, Bush has pushed for a peace road map for both the Palestinian and for the Israeli authority. I am not aware of the full detail but one of the objectives is to have the establishment of a legal Palestinian state no later than 2005, less than two years away.

Although I am skeptical of Bush plan’s success rate, Ariel Sharon latest words touched me. He said, “To keep 3.5 million people under occupation is bad for us and them” and “This can’t continue endlessly”. It is true that the occupation is bad for both of them and if the conflict continues on forever, it will destroy both parties. The logic is easy to see but hatred usually blankets rationality. It is amazing to hear that finally, somebody has gone out of the blanket and sees that the only path for both archenemies is peace.

Nevertheless, I see that hatred still clouds many people in the Knesset and in the Muslim world.

While Ariel Sharon wants to go down the path, some members of the Likud party are opposing peace proposal. Their primary reason for opposing is the key point that demands Israel to give up some keys areas. The opposing members claimed that by giving up these key areas, Israel’s security will be threatened. Though their claim might be true, they fail to see that Israel will be never not being threatened as long as the Intifada continues. Israel will only achieve peace through tolerance and trust, not through hatred and prejudice.

Despite this breakthrough, Ariel Sharon acceptance of the peace proposal rings a bell. In fact, it rings three bells. About three or four years ago, a peace proposal was being considered between the two foes under Clinton’s supervision. Everything was going great and peace was almost there until Yasser Arafat rendered the peace building to smoldering pieces. PLO’s rejection of Camp David peace proposal however was justified since Israel was simply giving the Palestinian an autonomy state instead of a sovereign state of Palestine. Other similar scenarios successfully led to peace and unfortunately, it also led to the assassination of Anwar Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin.

Yes, it is discouraging to see all attempts towards peace were dismantled and motivated by hatred that originates back to ancient times. Yet, it was hope that made all these attempts possible. And yet, hope is nothing but hope and all attempts will fail. The Palestinian and the Israeli need two other ingredients – a non-hating spice and a non-prejudice fire that will boil the water.

Although I hate Bush’s so-called foreign and environmental policy, I this time sincerely wish George Bush luck.

“This can’t continue endlessly”
– Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, refering to the struggle between the Israeli and the Palestinian in the light of Bush’s peace proposal. (I am not really Quote of the Day type of guy but Ariel Sharon’s words really touched me deeply.)

p/s – Al-Qaeda issued a statement against four countries, namely the United States, the United Kingdoms, Australia and – drum roll please – NORWAY. OMG, what HAVE Norway ever done? Oh, wait, it is an infidel country up in the Scandinavia. LOLROTF. I suspect the person whom wrote the message made a typo mistake – a really huge typo mistake.

p/s 2 – Brent, you are right. In this world, everybody has his (or her, I hate being have to not being a chauvanist. It makes life complicated.) own opinion and there are two groups – those who are right and those who are wrong. However, you are wrong about The Matrix: Reloaded being a great movie. I believe Morpheus sucks.

p/s 3 – old joke. It’s still not out yet.

p/s 4 – I’m officially legal…err…I mean 21.

p/s 5 – Israel is considering applying into the EU. And the EU is seriously considering it. Well, the world is a crazier place than I thought it was.