Tag: Libya

Unintended use

Charlie Chaplin uses lamp post for support, ladder for weapon and shoes for breakfast.

When it comes to everyday use of common objects, there is no end.

Here is my Top Ten:

– shopping cart as walker

– golf cart as janitorial vehicle

– hand dryer as hair dryer

– food freezer as mortuary (Libya)

– ammunition case as tool box

– garage as start-up lab

– drawer handle as beer-bottle opener

– shopping bag as rain gear

– milk carton as Halloween helmet (Missing Person)

– nature as ash tray

In Thailand, we saw crocodiles crawling in the streets.

Quite an unintended use of surface street. My condolences to the 506 flood victims’ families.

Sand bag Body bag

A Thai monk needs to lay more sandbags to stem the flow of water, while Libyan fighters can now lay down their guns since the Colonel was finally in the bag, body bag.

One country exports rice, the other oil.

Back in 1997, Thailand’s rising real estate bubble nearly took down neighboring Asian Tigers with it. This time, its rising waters will surely drive up the price of rice.  No one can yet predict oil price in light of the latest development in Libya.  But oil consortium already committed to the tune of $100 Billion to modernize Iraqi facilities.

While monks in Thailand have always taken up a still posture, young fighters were on their Westward move, hanging  tight to guns on wheel.

Hot sand in the desert versus wet rice  in the Mekong.

In Thailand, a Thai-American was jailed for speaking against Royalty.

In Libya, NATO’s jet fighters rained down  2-Billion dollars worth of bombs.

God must have a sense of irony for granting rain and shine on the good and the evil.

Next time, when they celebrate water festival in Thailand, I am sure some people will have  flashbacks.

But in future Libya, those young fighters can always look back with pride, because for them, to stay alive isn’t enough. They need to become “Colonels” in their own rights. Their turn at resolving the Oedipus complex. But that’s what history is made of: old wine in new skin. I happened to spot Cher’s image on a magazine cover, right next to Kardashian’s. There is nothing new under the Sun . The water will recede in the East, and fighting subside in Mid-East.

By then, we, with our attention deficit, will have moved on. Living in Internet time and on borrowed time. Living with higher price of rice and rising price of oil.  Sand bag & Body bag.

Twice the romance

For almost a century, we have gotten used to Hollywood‘s sunset scenes of the Pacific (they could even make Skid Row desirable).

Now, fiction is trumped by recent discovery of a two-sun planet.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/215013/20110916/planet-two-suns-star-wars-kepler-16-b-tatooine-seti.htm

Sunset scenes will need to be re-cut. Twice the work. But also, twice the romance.

As evolving species, we will adapt, both to adversity and austerity. Just eating in.

You might resent the new acronym (PIIGs), but wait until you have to go without pork (like in China in the time of inflation).

The Chinese are stepping up to the plate by offering to stabilize the Euro zone currency. with condition.

They failed to mention the arm shipments to Libya during Gaddafi‘s time (perhaps, already a market-economy exchange on that deal).

With every earth-altering discovery like that planet with two suns, we need to re-examine our assumptions.

What if we can also discover alternate energy out there? What if we can alter our attitude toward consumption and community?

Why would the damn vehicle always have to seat 4 people in “bowling alone” era (how about sidecar motorcycles; after all, Henry Ford was just tying two motorbikes together to make his first 4-wheeler, all in black, of course). As of this edit, Toyota concept EV is doing just that: three-seater enclosed vehicle.

What defines “hip” and romance (Gaga , the mermaid on wheels, w/ a “bad romance”).

What if we were given another shot at life, with our current macro-economic vantage point? (the rogue trader is doing it again, this time in the tune of 2 Billion).

Planet Bollywood.

Las Vegas in Macau.

Ford auto assembly plants mushrooming along China’s Eastern coasts.

We only transplant and replicate what works.

A tweaking here, a tweaking there. Not an overhaul. Not a paradigm shift.

Until, it’s in our face, at planetary level.

Two suns.

A discovery that should silence both Galileo and Copernicus .

Before we know it, we will adapt and take the two sunsets for granted. We will long for thrice the romance, two off-line, and one line.

Enlightenment turns entitlement again.

Turn off the telescope and turn on the microscope to look inside. We will find the thing called desire. And it’s unquenchable, and our last frontier to be conquered.

The happiest moment might not be a  Hollywood sunset. The happiest moment lies in our selective memory, wired in our deepest part of the brain. There, you will find twice the romance. More than provided by the two-sun planet’s. It’s a remarkable discovery nevertheless. Go NASA!

What’s eating the man up inside

Instead of more career choices, he now faces 20 choices of jeans.

People are debating about a gender-free society (painting nail polish on his son’s toes).

When he finally got his tie collection under control, they went “business casual” on him (Steve Ballmer couldn’t cope with this).

Even though it says “Facebook”, most people just post a long-shot photo of themselves.

The financial crisis is now a film treatment i.e. we can now objectify the pain with some distance in between since. Money crisis, job crisis, health crisis, environmental crisis, security crisis and even marital crisis.

That’s what’s eating the man up inside.

Still he rises to the occasion. He is after all our 21st-century man. Armed with I-pod and I-pad, he can be a Spartan against the invading army of machines (see my other blog on “machine and me”).

He can text, chew gum and walk at the same time.

He shows up at the gym at first light.

Talks to no one in particular (men are not chatty, although they don’t mind leaving you a voice mail).

He is the opposite of Barbara Streisand (in a Star is Born). He wants to conquer, but frustrated because the Colosseum is now packed with competition: foreigners inshore and BRICS that chip away business, machines with intelligent softwares that cut down work load, material sciences that lessen the heavy lifting, women in NFL, ESPN, NASCAR, Air Force commanding (Libya), and worst of, advances in bio-med which prolong life (he can’t die, just get eaten up inside).

So, the rise of the rest (no offense, but I can’t help noticing Indian faces on TV, from PBS to CNN). There are discussions about “outsourcing blog”, a logical extension of what is digitized can be outsourced.

Obama, during his state visit to Britain, even commented on the rise of China and India. Something to do with “America leadership is now” (instead of passe).

Luckily, there is a phenomenon called “middle-income trap”, which kept countries like Malaysia and Thailand at bay, for a while.

What’s eating up the man inside? He hit the ceiling. Too soon and too fast (at least previous generation of boomers got a good run, starting from 1950 until now). He couldn’t cope with role reversal ( Palin’s husband Todd holding the baby at press conference to denounce rumors of cheating “look, he has been home watching the kids all along).

So our man goes target-shooting. At least, it gives him something/someone to focus on.

The rest, the rise of the rest, are hard to pin down.

He can’t quite put his finger on it. The phenomenon is once called Future Shock is here now.

It’s like Bush hearing the news on 9/11 morning, in a state of shock and stillness in that Elementary classroom (incidentally, he got another shock when a recent ball player followed an out-of-bound ball to get within inches).

The doctor can’t tell what’s eating the man up inside. He wants more tests done.

He wants to put on the white glove. More trips to the pharmacy. More waiting. Agitating. That’s what eating the man up inside. He is inherently impatient. The business of “the beginning of the end” sidelines him (CIA officers tend to die within their first year of retirement).

Like America, our man wants action, heroism, around the clock (24-hours like Jack Bauer).

Unfortunately, the rules have changed. It’s time for drones not drills, nation building not “terminating”. He can’t “be back”. He has to father one more. He can’t even be put and stay in jail. The Supreme Court says “No”, you can’t double up prisoners. Triple up on the outside is their business. But not inside.

So the unwanted prisoners in California got off early and easy (whoops, per computer errors). All dressed up, and no place to go.

21-century man scratches his head. He doesn’t understand the rationale behind 20 choices of jeans, while there are only a few career choices (being a nurse or a teacher has traditionally fallen under the domains of female and gay, while construction of new home or soldiering are both winding down). Maybe he should start painting his toe nails. And accept the fact that we are moving toward a gender-free society. Eat, pray and love. Text, chew gum and walk. 21st-century walking man walks on by.

Delayed recriprocity

The National Cherry Blossom Parade in the Nation’s Capital.  Washington Monument with cherry blossom in the foreground: picture perfect.

Newly arrived immigrants learned that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French (who coincidentally lead the Libyan incursion this time), and cherry trees, gifts from the government of Japan (twice, before and after WWII).

And so it goes, like the world map sold here, always with the US in the middle as hub of the global world. Everybody came from somewhere else. Hence, the US is involved in everyone’s affairs, often at the exclusion and expenses of its own e.g. (loan to Libyan Central Bank, no tax to GE and a lot of aid to Pakistan, cash to Afghans). Incidentally, it’s Lady Bird who planted those cherry trees the second time around, while her husband was complaining about his forced choice for a war abroad (Vietnam) over his pet project (Great Society) at home.

This time, Washington is more careful when asked by the French to join in a foreign incursion. Limited engagement, and no boots on the ground (Lybia).

Everyone feels like there are two stories competing: Japan’s radiation level and French-led Libya‘s no-fly zone (two huge stories which drove Terry Jones completely mad for attention! I’m gonna burn more Korans if you don’t send a camera crew).

This Saturday, as the nation celebrates Spring time (kids on daddy’s shoulders for a better view of high-school cheer leaders etc…_), let’s be reminded that long ago, the mayor of Tokyo was extending a nice gesture by sending a lasting State-to-State gift to adorn this nation.

My first impression of Washington was formed from those pictures of the Cherry Blossom Parade, including that shot of cherry branches in the foreground with the monument in the background. It’s enduring and eternal (nature’s intangible beauty vs man’s concrete monument).

Now, it’s Japan that needs Washington to reciprocate as it failed to contain its nuclear power plants. There isn’t enough room to store contaminated water. So the Pacific once again becomes dumping ground for oil. Mother Nature takes it all in. And every Spring, she shows us once again the rhythm of life – Spring eternal. Without knowing its future, Japan by a small gesture, initiated a virtuous cycle. I am sure leaders in Washington won’t forget to help victims of the quake as they enjoy the Parade adorned by and centered around those trees , gifts from quakeland. If you can lend money to Libya, you can certainly spare some change for the elderly who are now in line to get instant noodle at high-school-turned-refugee-shelters in Sendai. Delayed reciprocity.