Categories
Politics & government

[14] Of the angels and demons of war

“Another head hangs lowly, child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken

But you see it’s not me, it’s not my family
In your head, in your head, they are fighting
With their tanks, and their bombs
And their bombs, and their guns
In your head, in your head they are cryin’
In your head, in your head, Zombie, Zombie
In your head, what’s in your head Zombie

Another mother’s breaking heart is taking over
When the violence causes silence
We must be mistaken
It’s the same old theme since 1916
In your head, in your head they’re still fightin’
With their tanks, and their bombs
And their bombs, and their guns
In your head, in your head they are dyin’

In your head, in your head, Zombie, Zombie
In your head, what’s in your head Zombie “

Listening to certain music will certainly make me think of a unwanted situation. A situation where war is everywhere; peace is nothing but a vain hope.
War is humanity greatest enemy. It kills lives unnecessarily, without mercy, without a second thought. Nevertheless, human long history has been tainted with blood. The red cold blood.

Can you imagine a child, who knows nothing of the cruel world, hugging her dead father body in the middle of a crossfire between two different group with different ideology. Both sides keep on firing; the child keeps on begging her father to wake up, hoping that her father will open his eyes and bring safety to her. She will keeps on hoping haplessly in the middle of the battlefield. The war will continue on. The firing will not stop. Never, ever.
Will you cry? Will you be indifferent? Will you be moved to run toward that child and pull her over? Will you say to yourself, “It’s too bad but I have my own life to live”? Or will you stop the war?

I myself am not very sure what I would do in that situation, seeing a child in the middle of a war. Of course, I, right now, in Minnesota, in a comfortable friend’s house, in front of a state-of-the-art laptop, knowing that I am safe here, knowing nothing of the real pain of war, will say, “Stop the war!!! For pity sake, cease firing!!!”. That’s a typical peace loving human. A peace lover will say anything but I doubt that I will ever go into the fire zone, run to the child aid, risking my precious life. In my opinion, most of the typical peace lovers will join the anti-war rally in the middle of the street but will be reluctant to join the people who are in the battle zone. I, myself included. By saying this, I’m not denying that there is somebody out there that really has the courage to fight for peace. To them, my uttermost respect.

However, isn’t fighting for peace, with M-16, Ak, etc. is an act of war itself?

In order to save the child, we send a bomb to both sides, killing all, including the child that we are going to save.

Peace, to achieve peace, we commit the crime of war. To let peace prevail, we force peace onto war. Isn’t that an act of war itself?

Maybe, right now you are thinking that I’m a person that thinks this is a world that just consists of black and white. Grey area is a non-existence. Well, in a way, I’m including the whole colors of this ironic world. Peace and war, they are two different terms describing one, single thing. Peace and war, they co-exist with each other. They are symbiotic to each other. Peace and war, they are yin and yang. Omnipresent, ominous.

In a battlefield, two sides, one is a rebel group, fighting for their state’s independence for the oppressive central power. The other is the government force, trying to preserve the integrity of the state for being torn apart by the cruel rebel. A girl, weeping in front of a dead body, innocent. The rebel, fighting for the future of their children. The government, fighting to preserve peace. The child, innocent, just wanting a peaceful life.

Will we help stop the war?

Will we help the child without any regard for our live?

Will we sit back and think who is right and who is wrong first?

There is a reason for peace. There is a reason for war but the fight is not merely between good and evil. It’s a combination of both. No sides are purely a devil, purely a saint.

Categories
Books & printed materials

[13] Of Lord of the Rings

“Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in darkness bind them,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.

The Lord of the Rings.

I first read the book just before I was admitted into the University of Technology, Petronas in 2000. It took awhile for my poor eyes to read the end of the book for I was quite busy trying to adapt to my new lifestyle. Only when I was settling comfortably in Shah Alam did I managed to finish that great Tolkien work. The book truly change my ways of writing. I started to write by describing everything with beautiful words; my vocabulary was dramatically improved by leap and bound; my imagination was being lifted to the young blue sky. The Lord of the Rings is the one book that change my entire interest in literature. Before this, my mind was only focusing on sci-fi and nothing but sci-fi. After flipping more than 1000 pages of that dark green book, my heart was opened to other genres. I started to look around for good books instead of looking around just for good sci-fi. I have defended Lucas’ before and now, I shall stand firm like a wall for Tolkien’s.

The Lord of the Rings is not just another fantasy book where sword and magic rule the world. It’s more than that. It’s a book that shaped our lovable creatures – the drawves, the elven, the orcs, the goblins. Only one creature remains unknown, that is the Hobbits but with the movie running at the cinema, I bet that the hobbits will be made famous.
The Lord of the Rings is not just another book that is being published just because it is nice to see that book up on the shelf of a bookstore. It’s more than that. It’s a book that teaches us the meaning of friendship, honor and loyalty. It’s about responsibility.

In an ironic way, Lord of the Rings does reflect our life in a certain way. The book was written to reflect our life. The Fellowship of the Rings, the first part of the Lord of the Rings which is wrongly recognized as a trilogy, tells us the meaning of trust and friendship. A broken trust will end with a shattered friendship, just like what happened when Boromir of Dethenor tried to steal the One Ring from Frodo, the ring bearer.

Although Boromir greed was not caused by his own but was caused by his noble desire to help Gondor to defeat Mondor, he had broken his pledged to protect Frodo, from himself. Thus, the Company was ruined miserable, for a while at least.

Lord of the Rings teaches us the meaning of courage in the mist of a lost. A daughter of a fallen king rushed to defend his father from the deadly Sauron’s, forgetting the danger that lurks at every corner outside the gate of a great city. Sam Gamgee rushed into the Orcs fortress alone to save Frodo although he has the knowledge of failure he will face. It teaches us the meaning of true friendship.

Lord of the Rings teaches us no matter how small we are, responsibility must be carried out regardless of the consequences. Frodo, despite being a small and timid hobbit, volunteered to carry the burden of a ring bearer while others quarrel against each other.

The Lord of the Rings. It’s not just another classic…

Have you seen Boromir the Tall,
He is at grieve and I tarry…

— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.

Categories
Sci-fi

[12] Of space elevator

I had my Chemistry 130 final exam just now. I wasn’t hard after all. I should have concentrated on Calculus instead of Chemistry. Well, hope I’ll get an A for my Chemistry.

I haven’t sleep since last night. I’m still awake but slowly losing my consciousness to oblivion. I wonder if I’ll miss my Friday prayer. Today may well be the last day of Ramadhan and the possibility of tomorrow being announced as first Syawal is an acceptable assumption but being the person I am, I don’t really care about it. Back in Malaysia, I have never been excited about First Syawal. To me, it’s just another normal day with some celebration that I don’t really care much. The only thing about it is getting a few hundred Ringgit from my parents and wearing my Baju Melayu.

I am falling into the abyss of slumberland. I won’t allow myself to fall into the abyss alone. I will try my best to drag you with me.

Have you ever heard the term “Space Elevator”?

It was first introduced to the world by a Russian scientist back in the 60s (I think). It’s a fantastic method of transportation to space but has been ignored and regarded by the world community as science fiction. Space Elevator is, much as the name suggested, an elevator. A huge elevator, with a ground base on Earth, connected to a synchronous satellite orbiting the planet. The main reason that make the idea is not feasible at the moment is because of the connector. The connector that needs to be built must be strong enough to withstand against any gust of wind and more importantly, the stress exerted on it. At the present time, there is no such material that is strong enough to make the construction of the Elevator possible. While the connector is an integral part in the construction of the Elevator, the ground base will be the main attraction of activities. The ground base will act as a station, much as a railways station. The ground base must be built on a highland near the equator in order to make full use of the Earth’s magnetic field. (This part, which is starting to go into advanced Physics, it is too complicated for me. Therefore, I will not try to explain it further.) The rationale behind building the Elevator on a highland is that the connector that needs to be built will be shorter, thus cutting down cost dramatically.

Meanwhile, the synchronous satellite will act as a another station in space. This satellite may serve dual purpose. One, as a railways station and two, as a space station. With this dual ability, the need to build many space stations such as the Skylab, Mir and the ISS will be eliminated.

Although the building of the Elevator will consume billions of dollars, the long-term benefits far exceed the cost and the liability of the construction. Imagine, a near 100% efficient kind of transportation that use little electricity to be operated, a vehicle where its energy source comes mostly from kinetic and potential energy and, limitless inter-space traffic… Space will be ours for certain.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke wrote a critically acclaimed book about the Elevator. The title of the book is The Fountain of Paradise. Read it. It’s a good layman introduction to Space Elevator.

Zzzzzzz…

Categories
Personal

[11] Of I love Ann Abor

Hockey again…

Malaysia 0 – 1 South Africa.

So near yet so far… All we need was another pathetic point but we ended up with the fraze of beating up India and losing to both Argentina and South Africa the spoilers. Just like Ohio State. The Wolverines almost for certain will get the Rose Bowl for the Big Ten but there must be a spoiler. Sigh…Life is harsh. For the Citrus Bowl, we are against Tennessee. Louisiana, which was expect to meet us in the Citrus Bowl will be up against Illinois in the Sugar Bowl. Louisiana upsetted somebody else. Another spoiler in the SEC.

On other note, I accidentally created a link to somebody else’s site. I’m still looking which line in the source code to be deleted in order to not let my visitors being forced to visit some unrelated sites. Maybe it’s because of the new tracker’s code that I’ve added to my code. Maybe I should try to find another free tracker.

I bought a bus ticket to Minneapolis today. It cost me about USD 143. I could have bought it online but instead, I decided that I needed the walking exercise. So, I walked for the Michigan Union to East Huron. Nice. As I walked through the city, I finally realize how beautiful Ann Arbor is. Before this, I thought Ann Arbor is beautiful just because of the greens in the North Campus and the romantic buildings in the Central Campus. Today, I found out why Ann Arbor is called Ann Arbor. The Main St. is marvelous, I would say it is comparable to Madison’s State St. Of course Ann Arbor don’t have the Capitol replica on a hill like Madison does but still, the mere sight of the heart of Ann Arbor is breathtaking.

It’s a hidden beauty.

I’m starting to fall in love with the town. I would hate the day when I’ll graduate from this University. No wonder my uncle don’t want to come back to Malaysia. No wonder he chooses to live in Ann Arbor. No wonder people have been saying that Ann Arbor is the best place for many to do their college year. You can go to M.I.T. or even Princeton but you’ll find that only Michigan and a few others offer the intellectual atmosphere to its apex, with a life. M.I.T. doesn’t have a stadium but Michigan does. Princeton has many Noble Prize winners but so does Michigan.

Plus, the city is not too minute and not too monstrous. It’s just nice. I love it here.

Categories
Sports

[10] Of Malaysia 1 – 2 Argentina

Hockey (it’s field hockey for you American…)

Malaysia lost to Argentina with the final tally of 2 to 1. Now, Malaysia will need to at least fight for a draw against South Africa. Pray.