Inspiration

As I'm lying here in bed, ill and feeling sorry for myself (true manflu style) I'm watching films. As many of us do when we are ill. But the story I watched was not one of fiction or of typical american film standards. Although it has a happy ending, it is one which is real and is continuing and gives me hope.

Freedom Writers Diary

Three words you should all look up, buy the book, watch the film, read the stories. Because it's real, and that's amazing. It shows the great difference that even one person can make in society, and the insights which young kids can have into a very complicated world that even adults struggle to understand.
So before you judge someone on their race, background, religion, sexuality or anything else, have a look at this. Because these people aren't so different from you at all, and it is only when you see that, that you will become a better person.

Peaceful Syria?

sorry, it's been a while.

Source

For 21 Months Syria has been in uprising, it has been fighting against itself and rebels and loyalists have gone head to head. UN says over 60,000 people have been killed - just imagine how many people have been hurt. And yet still the world isn't properly doing anything against it.

Assad has stepped up and has addressed the nation, still refusing to step down and to negotiate with those he calls 'rebels and terrorists', and is putting the blame on countries who have 'betrayed Syria'.
Many different countries have called for, and have backed, the idea of Assad stepping down, yet he is still refusing. Yet no real action has been taken by the international community, which AJE attributes to the fear of the Rebels unleashing sectarian revenge killings.

For an event which started happening in the Arab spring it is one which has been going on for the longest without any real decisive action happening on either side. It is apparent that Assad is most definitely a dictator who is refusing to relinquish any power, but it is also apparent that the international community is scared of interfering in case further events veer onto a course they cannot control, a course which will veer away from a pro-western community.

Yet Assad is also calling for peace within his country, how he is going to achieve this remains to be seen, however. In all likelihood his way will be one of aggression, fear, intimidation and military actions. So what is it going to take for the international community to step in?

This whole situation reminds me of an Eddie Izzard sketch where he talks about what he calls 'mass murdering fuckheads' (pardon the English). Where he comments on the fact that international communities tend not to interfere when dictators murder their own people, but only start acting when these nations start on their neighbours. 

So it will be an interesting one to watch as this continues to escalate into a greater and greater issue where more people keep killing each other. Me, personally, I don't think peace will come soon.

Olympic Madness

As the olympics further and are now nearing their closing stages, people will slowly have to return to the rest of the world. For a brief period everyone seems to have focused solely on the importance of individuals representing their countries,
In the olympics and in big sporting competitions rivalry and conflict between countries is seen as completely normal, necessary even, and encouraged.
Individuals carry the weight of whole countries on their shoulders and are representing the pride of a nation, shouted at by onlookers, both supportive and wishing for them to lose, to get a gold medal and make the people of their countries proud.
It seems strange that for a brief period millions of people all over the world feel awakened in them a sense of something so primal, so nationalistic, without even realising that really what they're feeling are similar feelings to all the conquerors of the past, the present and even the future. It's encouraged in everyone - people sit their children down in front of the TV; so they, too, can witness this tiny fragment of history and nationalistic pride.
Yet no one draws back to the real conflicts happening in the world, instead everyone chooses to escape, which brings the question - and just think about it - is it healthy?

Infinity vs Finiteness

Talking to someone very close to me I was told that they cannot cope with the ideas of finiteness vs infinity. The fact that something is either completely closed off with a beginning and an end or the idea that it is all open - there is no end to it, it's beyond space and time, freaks them out. Not only does it freak them out but causes them to hyperventilate and shut down.
To me this idea is astonishing, not only because so many questions in life are about mortality versus afterlife and how big space is, but also because I don't find either of those ideas worrying. To me, personally, I find it comforting to know that both sides could exist.

The idea of infinity is one that is as old as the thinkers; gods, afterlife, heaven, hell and even purgatory are all ideas of an eternal afterlife or, in case of the gods, eternal life. The idea that after we die there is somewhere without all earthly issues and worries is fantastic, eternal life in a way that we cannot even begin to fathom. We guess, we assume, but none of us really have a clue as to what would really be waiting for us on the other side. Personally I like to believe in the What Dreams May Come version of heaven, I think it's very beautiful and rather fantastic. If it exists, that is how I believe it would be, something personal, where you can be how and what you wish to be.
Personally I do not think a hell would truly exist if God was one that was truly benevolent, he would not be able to put his creations through such agony, surely. I do believe that purgatory exists, no fire, no joy just never-ending numbness.

However, if neither of those exist I don't have a problem with it. The idea that when we die we are completely done, finished, worm food is also something I find comforting. It gives me a feeling of satisfaction thinking about it that way, if we die we are dead. There is nothing left to worry about and there is no more of you. There is nothingness.
Certainly, it is strange to think about in a way that you will never again know that you have lived on this earth, you are in a way completely erased except for in the memories of the people still alive, in the stories they tell. Slowly all you will be, unless you were a mover or a shaker, is a name on a family tree - a distant relative long long ago. And that is satisfying. There is no wondering whether or not you will have to go through another life for all eternity, there is just the end.

Let me know your thoughts on this, I'd love to hear what you all think. Leave a comment or e-mail Isaab@live.nl

The True Meaning of Hip Hop?

The reason I have such an extreme love for hip hop is because the message that lies in true hip hop. This message is that of equality. Not west coast versus east coast but the message before that. The message that it does not matter who you are or where you are from - everybody is equal, everyone was created equally and that is all that truly matters.

It is something which speaks to me, I am the kind of person who has big issues with unfair and unjust treatment of people. It is something which I absolutely can not stand and something that makes me truly angry and even upset. I personally can not understand that people would treat other people in such a way that they are denied their human rights. Denied the freedom. That they are denied everything that they believe in just because one person does not agree with the ideas.

That denial of personal beliefs and the pushing of someone else's ideas onto other people is disgusting. That is the only way that I can describe my emotions. I know that, in a way, I am doing exactly that which I have just describe by writing this, and yet - at the same time - I am also doing the opposite. It's a paradox.

Without those we would not be able to live our lives the way we do. I believe that there is beauty in the paradoxes of the world - they are things we should treasure. But that is for another day.

For me one of the songs which brings this message of true hip hop across is 'The Show Must Go On' by none other than Lupe Fiasco.

"So, no matter what you been through, no matter what you into, no matter what you see when you look outside your window. Brown grass or green grass, picket fence or barbed wire, never ever put them down you just lift your arms higher. Lift them 'til your arms tired, let 'em know you're here. Struggling, surviving. That you gon' persevere."

Not only does that quote from the lyrics point out the importance of equality but also shows the importance of fighting for what you believe for. Everybody should have that right, and if you don't get it you should do something about that. Live in the spirit of Hip Hop.
Equality above anything else, and if it doesn't exist for you - make it.

Conflict gold?

Well Well Well, haven't I been ignoring you. Ever so sorry, I have been in my home country and running around like a crazy person for the past couple of weeks.

Soooo... Let's treat the issue of Conflict Gold..
You may well have heard of conflict diamonds, but not of conflict gold. It's a similar principle with a different commodity.

In certain corrupted African countries, gold is being mined and the profit is used to fund their corrupt governments and conflicts.

 Hence, why it is called Conflict Gold. Now, this in principle means that it is banned from the markets. All gold has to have a registered point of origin, and if it is from these places it should not be used... However, with this come massive ethical issues. 

What are you on about?

Well... Often the gold mining is the only form of income for this remote areas, despite the workers only being paid a pittance. If you take away this income from the people, they won't have anything and they will be far worse off than if they mined the gold. 

They would not be able to afford food, clothes, school, transport etc. And thus the whole community would diminish back to a poorer state. And if you think about that, that isn't fair either, finally there is a way for these areas to flourish, at least a little bit, in developing countries.  When so much of what we do is about trying to help these developing countries, it doesn't seem right to take this away from the people living there.

And then you go back to the flipside:

The gold is funding conflicts, conflicts are bad and often have child soldiers involved in them. The governments are corrupt and totalitarian, so why on earth should we support a government that does such things? 

And that is exactly the question we face now, what matters more? Helping the people and their communities grow, or preventing the governments from funding their conflicts?

Human Nature?

So I was looking at the local newspapers from where I used to live online and I came across this. What is it? It's an article, in Dutch, about how the opposition for the remembrance day tomorrow. Why? Two Jewish groups and a bunch of locals are angry because the German soldiers who are buried there are to be remembered and honoured too.  They have declared that doing this would disrespect the memory of the Dutch people that passed and that it would blur the line between the occupying forces and the occupied during the second world war.

So they're making a gross generalisation that every single German soldier in the second world war agreed one hundred percent with the occupation and with Hitler's methods and beliefs. And have declared that the death of these people is not sacrilege but good. Something which I cannot understand and which disgusts me utterly.

Fair enough, a lot of the misdoings  that occurred are things which cannot be forgiven - however, I do not, even for a second, believe that every single soldier was doing the things that they wanted to do.

Harry Patch, a first world war survivor, who has since passed, remembered the German soldiers on the English remembrance day - he visited the German cemetery and respected the dead. I think that takes a great deal of courage and demands a huge amount of respect.

These protests, on the other hand, do not. I think they are infuriating and disgusting. The people who are buried there still had families, many of whom will not have agreed with what was happening, and deserve a little respect. They were doing what they were required to do by the law at the time.

But do not mistake what I am saying here, I am not saying that what happened during the first world war is forgiveable, a great deal of atrocities happened. I am, however, attempting to say that not everyone believed what they were told and not everyone was 100% bad just because they were forced to do the things they did. There are many psychological theories about human nature that explain why the soldiers were able to do what they did.

And also remember that a large part of the death and work camps was run by the inmates themselves, they also sorted out the weak from the strong, the men from the women, children and elderly. Why? Because they thought it might help them survive or perhaps because they felt it was better for them to do it than the Germans that were working in the camps - not many survived to explain why. And those who did die are still remembered, respected and loved by any family that survived and by the millions - perhaps even billions of people - that remember the atrocities that occurred under Hitler's rule in Germany. Just because they did those jobs does not make them inhumane.

I hope I have explained myself clearly enough, I may not have done and you may misconstrue what I am saying, and if that is the case - please do send me a message. I would love to explain myself further to try and get you to understand my point of view (no, not trying to get you to agree, just to understand).