Christmas wishes.

Dear Father Christmas.

For Christmas- please could you remove the following words from internet handles of females across the universe: sexy, angel, cute and cat/kat(unless their birth name is in fact Kat or Katherine). If its not too much trouble- could you also inform the majority of them that they are neither sexy, nor cute. If they wish to pursue their angelic status could you please ask them to take a purity test. After this is done please make a list of all the girls that got over 98% pure, line them up and shoot them in the face to ensure they do in fact become Angels. Let's not kid, they cant have it both ways hey!?

Many thanks,

he came again...

today.
8 cards.

The Travel dude! Read post below !!! 

The travel dude.

Im finding that the only time I really bother to write in my blog is when im miffed about something. I guess blogs have become a new age catharsis of sorts. I assume people did this in the old days by keeping a diary of sorts, or getting drunk on the weekends and beating their wives. O_O
So....on to the latest rant.
Japan is a country that has to be experienced to be understood. A few weeks ago I was at a bar and was chatting to an English guy. Top guy. Even though he was an accountant !! Anyways, top guy- he'd been in Japan for a massive 2 weeks. During the conversation he was telling me how awesome Japan was and how much he loved it.

Now, im not one to diss all things Japanese...I love the place. Of course I do, otherwise I wouldnt have been here for the last 2 years. But, to start to understand the annoying little idiosyncrasies of this place you have to live here and immerse yourself in the cesspool of culture.

One aspect of Japanese culture( which is intrinsic to it's future demise IMHO) is the Bushido way. Lemme explain a bit. Im not talking about the noble samurai bollocks. Im talking about the Japanese thought that an aspect of life must be practiced and practiced and refined and refined until you die.
Im not kidding. My brain is wanting to splurge and explode all that i know about this topic onto the screen- but that may not be conducive to an educational read- so im attempting restraint. Apologies if it becomes a bit tough to follow at times.

Karate is a good example. Any bushi aspect is (Judo, Kendo, Kyudo etc) . All of these forms rely on constant and never ending practice. They take an aspect and continue to do it and continue to try to refine it.

Now, while you may say that this is a fantastic approach that many more western people should adopt- im going to say I agree with you to an extent. It DOES however have a MAJOR drawback. This drawback is innovation. If you are told to do "X" followed by "Y" followed by "Z" - you can never evolve. This is the problem Japanese fighters are experiencing in world karate tournaments at the moment. They are being beaten by more interesting "quirky"fighters. Of course- in all fairness the current world champ is a Japanese man- an incredibly unexciting fighter than has absolutely incredible technique. Now- let it be said im not arguing the effectiveness of this ritualistic routine. But- when the top 6 places in the world tournament are held by westerners....you know...theres something afoot.

Now- on to my main story.

The travel dude.
I have 7 cards on my desk. 7 business cards.
They belong to the travel dude who comes in here once a week and places a card on everyones desk. Why ? Well- its promotion obviously. You know, in case the teachers want to go somewhere. And then we can have his card for reference to call him up and book shit. But i have 7 cards.
See....this is what i meant when I mentioned ritual and the inability to innovate or improvise. He knows that this is part of his job. hand out cards to everyone. BUT- get this little catch. I have now taken to splaying out the cards on my desk. In FULL VIEW. Thats right- i line them up along the right hand edge of my desk. HE CAN SEE I HAVE HIS FUCKING CARD....BUT

BUT !!!!!!

Guess what.

:|

He give me another one !

He's not stupid (well- its arguable) But- he gives me another card. There is NO reason on God's green earth that he needs to give me one more card- but he does. Why ? Simply because thats the process he must undergo to be a "good worker". Never mind his free thinking "okay - this white dude has my card- i wont give him another one". That doesnt happen.

Now- this is a huge problem when ritual overtakes logic. But its an intrinsic Japanese problem that they arent wanting to address on account of the fact that "its our culture".

Its making me angry just thinking about it.
AAAAAAAAARGGGH !!

Hisashiburidesu !!!

That means long time no see.
Its been a while since i've written. And strangely enough it seems to be my gripes that motivate me to splurge my thinking all over the web- or more accurately all over this microfragment of a mega-cosm of electrical information.

The past week has seen a lot happen in my life. I wont go into detail about that now- but it was emotional. Things are back on track though.

So...why am i writing ?! Tough call. Im writing because of a disagreement i had with a friend of mine. Ive known this friend for 3 years. Getting close to 4 scarily enough. She lives in the US of A. Shes very attractive and exceptionally academically and artistically (and sportingly) talented. She has the ability to absorb unbelievable amounts of information in many many fields - languages and philosophy being most prevalent.

We have, in the past agreed and disagreed vehemently on many issues.

Yesterday, I received a mail from her containing a political cartoon. It pictured two vultures on a telephone wire overlooking a oversized dead rat with the head of (the likeness of) Yassir Arafat. The one vulture said to the other something along the lines of "Im not gonna touch it".

*sigh*

I wrote back and told her very honestly that i "dont appreciate this wonderfully drawn propaganist bullshit" and would appreciate if she not send me stuff like this again.

It degenerated from there- but im gonna take a quick time-out to explain my thinking.

I'm not pro-Palestine. I'm not pro-Israel. Im not a supporter (nor have i ever been) a supporter of Arafat, yet I have never been a supporter of the Israeli administration. I want to remain objective as I obtain more and more information about this situation.
My friends and i spoke about it last night- if you're from America, you're largely (generalisation of course) sympathetic to the Israeli cause, and if you're from Europe you're largely sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. If you're from South Africa however, it depends what colour you are.
The South African government (which is black) is in strong support of the Palestinian cause. As are a large majority of the educated black population on account of the association and empathy of the struggle. (If you dont know what im talking about - get a dictionary and see "apartheid")
If you're white however you are likely to either BE Jewish, have Jewish friends, or have Jewish family. So- no guesses where your sympathy lies there.
My mothers grandfather was Lithuanian Jewish. My moms cousins are Jewish. My mom and my dads best friends are Jewish. Two of my ex-gf's are Jewish.

However, i dont feel the need to sypathise JUST because of this. Neither do i feel I should be for or against one side in any entirity. I am not a fence sitter, I am an information collector.

Now...back to the picture.

The reply she gave me was: "you dont appreciate snide political cartoons? Or are you ACTUALLY MOURNING the deceased?"

Weeeell....i wrote back my thinking:

LOVE snide political cartoons ! I hate facist propaganda !

www.madamandeve.com (or www.madamandeve.co.za ) if you wanna see good political satire.

Satire is welcomed. Picturing a man that spent fighting for his country's independence and freedom as a dead rat not even edible by vultures isnt satire babes- i know you're much smarter than this. dont wanna talk about this anymore- sorry

I did NOT say that what he did in his past was right(or that it was wrong). I didnt put a value judgement on it at all. But, the difference in the terms terrorist and freedom fighter is solely dependent on who wins the battle. South African boers fighting the English- terrorists. Americans fighting the British for independence. Those guys were terrorists. NELSON MANDELA !!! Possibly the worlds most loved and influencial political figurehead....TERRORIST ! (I love good ol' Madiba - just making a point that he was once regarded by the SA government AND america as a terrorist). Now there is a difference (its not being denied) between fighting against soldiers and crashing a plane full of people into the WTC. (Arafat thought so aswell- and on many occasion denounced terrorism and acts of atrocity against civilians)
With that said....
Satire....do you know what it is !? Satire is funny. AND smart. It is. There is nothing "funny", there is no humour in this cartoon. This is the kind of cartoon the nazis would have drawn in WW2 if some jewish figure head had drawn !! That is propaganda !! ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda ).

Anyways, i got really long and emotive response from my friend. the opening line of which was:

"Brindley don't make this personal, although it is probably far more personal for me than it could ever be for you, "you are much smarter than this" i'd say the same to you if it wasn't for the fact that i don't equate politics with smarts for most part, especially when it comes to my friends. "

How can one NOT equate politics with smarts ?!?! I guess thats why GW is president for four more years !

Surely thats the fundamentals of it ?! You are smart enough to make INFORMED and EDUCATED decisions. Maybe i was misunderstanding the comment.

The next few paragraphs were about how she deplores terrorism and how he murdered and killed innocent civilians (he did???) . As well as how he turned to terrorism (he did???) when he "rejected peace in 2000".

Anyways- again- i must state....im not supporting or adding ANY value judgement to his decisions. Whether he did reject peace or not is not relevant to the portrayal of him as a rat. SIMPLY (and this is my point) SIMPLY for the fact that this cartoon makes no point, offers no humour, gives no information and offers no angle other than the artist's (and sender's ) opinion that he is a dead rat not suit for vulture consumption.

She went on to say that she can understand why i as a south african support him- but cant understand WHY. Well, as stated- I dont. And as stated - the SA govn does because of its particular fight.

She also went on to say she rejects him because shes a "JEW" in big bold font.

So ?

I hate him because he hates me ? Im sure its not only Christian doctrine that preaches "love thy enemy". I don't buy her being Jewish as a valid reason to a: spread hate, b: spread ignorance and c: form an opinion.

I didnt reply to the email- and wont reply simply for the fact that she will automatically (being her character) take it as an opposing stance and attempt to "prove" me wrong. I dont care t get into a political argument with a friend. BUT- it highlights an interesting point Chris Rock (i think) brought up he said (and im paraphrasing here).

"If you're a republican- youre an idiot. If you're a democrat you're an idiot. If you resign yourself to one party (or style of thinking- ed.) before you hear what the dude has to say- you're an idiot. Why dont you just listen to everything- let it swirl around in your head and then make a decision?!"

Im not saying she didnt do this- im just saying that the argument she put forward then ended off with an emotive and personal issue rather than her previously stated premises.

anywho....enough ranting on my part. Its a saying- never discuss politics and religion with your friends. Im gonna try abide by it- and just discuss it with myself on my damn blog !

So there.