9th of October, 2008 — 1 comment
The city is wet with rain and the once blue sky has turned a timid shade of grey. I do not mind. It is easier to be heavy of heart when the whole world feels heavy as well.
9th of October, 2008 — no comments
The back of her head was a mess. It looked the way dead bodies’ heads look like when they’re dragged out of the ocean in the movies; patches of skin uncovered among raggedy, brown hair. She was making a fuzz over the bottle depositor being full and beeping, quietly harassing the cashier, who was busy scanning groceries. Her two cohorts were hunched over, supporting themselves on the edge of the conveyor belt. Resigned and coming down.
As I was waiting for the cashier to finish scanning my groceries, I caught the tail-end of a heated verbal exchange between the cashier and some guy who had some kind of axe to grind. I don’t know what the rub was, but he was behaving in such a manner that the cashier ended up scolding him.
All the people usually preoccupied with keeping their eyes from meeting someone else’s took notice. There’s nothing like heated discourse between strangers to unite people who’d usually just mind their own business, avoiding glances, going about their day; whatever that entails.
The guy in front of me was busy bagging his groceries, but couldn’t resist muttering “Damn foreigners, oughta go back to Pakistan” under his breath. He was an older man from the north. Indignated, the Persian turned his attention to the old man, serving him a flustered lecture in geography and ethnicity.
I considered raising my voice, telling them both to go fuck themselves. It occured to me that they were bickering children, both ignorant and stupid. “Let’s just settle this right now; you’re picking a fight with an underpaid, overworked cashier -- as for you... you’re a racist. Luckily, you might find respite in the fact that you’re both idiots.” I never got that far.
They exchanged words for a few minutes before everything petered out and everyone went back to pretending they were alone in the store.
7th of October, 2008 — no comments
These people you glorify and canonize are not stars — they are moons, mirroring the flash of the cameras; they grow faint the further away from the flashing they get. True stars are brilliant glowing beings, always illuminated no matter where they are or who they're with; even in death they keep shining, and their glow will keep for centuries before they fade.
7th of October, 2008 — 2 comments
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
—Winston Churchill
There’s this misconception going around that you can insert democracy where’er there's need and — hey presto! — it’ll succeed, but isn’t that like trying to patch up a ruptured spleen with a band-aid?
Stand in the middle of a desert, drop a seed in the ground, stomp on it and exclaim “now, grow!” with thunderous enthusiasm. The soil is infertile, there’s no rain and it’s a damn hostile enviroment for anything but the most hardy of vegetation.
Democracy is not a staunch cactus (it does however have thorns). It is a delicate flower that refuses to bloom unless its environment is just right.
You can’t package and sell democracy. It’s not a five minute microwave dinner. It took hundreds of years, tremendous bloodshed, toil, tears and trial & error. The modern western democracies that exist today didn’t get the democratic ideal shoved down their throats by a third party. It happened naturally. This is how it has to happen in the future as well. In almost all cases where democracy grew forth the people decided it was needed. If you don’t have the people with you, you can’t do shit.
2nd of January, 2008 — no comments
I've heard the clamor of Church bells
I've heard the jangle of Christmas cheer
And the voice of my Grandmother saying I'm a free man.