Eye for an eye is never the solution!

With the armed conflict escalating once again in the Middle East, it makes me wonder when will this ever come into an end?

To be honest, I'm not much of an expert in the history of Middle East conflicts, but it sickens me to the utmost degree whenever I hear or read about the ongoing conflicts. Like many of you, I also like to speculate what would end this prolonged, inhumane, and catastrophic crisis. It is in my opinion, and that of many others, that an eye for an eye is never the solution! This method of conflict solving is what has been played out since the inauguration of the State of Israel. What has it gotten us this far? It has only served to pit nation against nation in a perpetual cycle of bloody confrontations, with devastating loss of lives, broken dreams, shattered families, and a deepening of hate. What we need at least to mitigate the current conflict is to let the inhabitants of Middle East realise what the future holds for them, their children and love ones if the bloodshed is to let lose and continue without bound. It is a bleak future and one which has no end in sight.

What we need is a drastic change in the ways of thinking for the leaders, one which would alter their best-adopted strategy of retaliation, assasination and total destruction. Instead of an eye for an eye, a strategy which always resulted in bloodshed and the loss of lives, they should accept each other's differences and move on. Since Israel is clearly on the top of the food chain, Palestine and other Arab states, including Iran, should realize the losing battle, accept their losses and move on. What they should do is to educate their young, further the intellectual development of their countrymen so they would one day be able to stand against this formidable tyranny. When that day comes they would proceed, with utmost precaution, the show of force, in the forms of international trade, development of superior technologies and human resources, which would out compete and stifle Israeli counterparts. This would be the ultimate form of revenge and retaliation over the sacrifice of their people under the oppressing regime.

On the other hand, what Israel should do is accept its neighbor as is and treat them as actual human beings, provide them with food, shelter, water and work. It's utlimate goal should be to provide the Palestinian refugees with a sense of hope, security, and fulfillment. Only through a sense of hope could the existence of extremist ideology amongst the Palestinians be reduced. Mutual understanding is a must to rebuild the long lost relationship between rival nations. Israel should also look at this as an investment of the potential tens of thousands of would-be consumers, buying necessities from Israel which could lead to a potentially boost on the economical wellbeing of the entire nation. Don't think that the Palestinians would never buy necessities made from Israel, people often do amazing things when situation became desparate. If you look from an economical point of view, Israel's current stance would only result in a continuing deterioration of its economic control and viable returns over the entire region.

I know my spectulation is far-fetched, simple minded, naive, ridiculous and improbable to succeed, but eventually it will come to a time where this would be the only solution!

Good ol' corporate greed

Found The Corporation on Google Video and just want to share with everyone.



Good ol' corporate greed. You ask who suffers? Of course, people at the very bottom of the food chain and the working class. We're all in this together! Now, enjoy.

Oil politics and the future of Middle East

Oil politics is nothing new. It has been analyzed relentlessly and repeatedly by scientists, political analysts and government officials. This is not a new topic but its awareness has been in a steady increase thanks to the increase in costs of crude oil, the tumbling market of SUV and the political mindgames Middle Eastern countries play. So, how exactly are we, as the citizen of the Earth, going to be affected by the outcome of this oil politic?

The steady increase of price in crude oil has a pronounced impact on our everyday lives. Whether it's a few cents more at the gas pump, or a slight bump in the prices of goods and services we purchase, our judgement and behaviour are unconsciously being shaped by the true driving force behind our economy - crude oil. You may not agree with me that every move you make is somehow tied with the price of oil. But think about this, how willing are you to drive if the gas pump price escalates to tenfolds of what is now? For the public transit commuters or others (i.e. cyclists and other oil independent individuals), what you don't realize is almost every single item you use is a derivative of crude oil. Household items like a plastic container, a piece of rubber band, or even the cloth you wear are all either completely or contains parts which derived from crude oil. We are all parts of a society which nurishes, links and strives from the oil economy. A world without crude oil will be one without hopes and dreams, and a lack of developement of every kind.

The oil producing countries of Middle East and other major oil suppliers knew our reliance on oil and they exploited it with every ways imaginable. Since they've been given the birthrights to own and operate on the oil currency, they have many distinct advantages which no other First World countries have. Oil provides them with significant leverage when it comes to international trade, negotiation of goods and services, and international politics, where they've all grown to become major players since the 70's. Nowadays, these oil producing countries are even more powerful and can easily manipulate and control of the price of oil in their favor. With the increasing demands of oil from developing countries like China and India further straining the supply, it's only a matter of time before we hit the end of oil (or the next major oil crisis). When that happens, only nations with a huge oil reserve would prevail, and countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Zenezuela will lose their leverage on the international arena. Eventually, it will be a free-for-all for everyone else.

So, for the next half-century, battles will be fought over this important nature resource - crude oil. They will be fought in the name of politics or economic reform. There'll be full-blown, bloody warfare. Battles will be fought on the acquisition of valuable oil fields, on the development of new refinery processes and, finally, on the continuous production of a stable supply.

It is not too late to wake up!

Trotting on the danger zone

With the blogosphere on the rise, it has become increasingly popular and easy to blog online. At any moment, it is estimated that at least one blog is created every second. People often signed on to blog their discontent, to voice their activism, to be heard, to meet new friends, or just to be a part of the blogosphere. What they often don't realize is everything they say or do is open to public scrutiny, thanks to the powerful online search engine and its communities. These people often risk their identities, families, or jobs to voice out their political discontent, environmental activism, or alternate religious viewpoints.

So, it comes to how far are you willing to go. How far are you willing to trot on the danger zone? There will always be Big Brother watching whether you like it or not! It's the ultimate reality of the blogosphere. Nobody is safe! Always watch your back!

Another zombie blog in the making?

Is my blog turning into another zombie blog?

Only time will tell. But, from what it looks so far, it has been a zombie blog for the past few months.

So, what is a zombie blog you ask? A zombie blog is not merely one which dedicates its entire content to the description and/or the proliferation of zombies, nor is it a fanpage dedicating to rocker Rob Zombie. A zombie blog, simply put, is an online blog which has ceased to receive its regular updates, or it is so secluded that it never receives any meaningful hits. This is analogous to a stopped heartbeat. Since a weblog will never be taken down unless it contains obscene, nude, or explicit contents or if the service provider (i.e. blogger.com, in my case) got taken down, this halt in heartbeat simply translates into a zombie blog.

There are many possible ways a weblog could turn into a zombie blog. By far the most popular way is the-heat-of-the-moment. Under this method, a blog usually starts out with many frequent updates, but the updates eventually cease to exist either because the author loses interests or he/she finds it particular difficult to come up with something worth writting (i.e. he /she encounters a writer's block). Many of the wannabe bloggers eventually succumb to this method because it looks deceptively easy at first being a blogger. From the first look of it, blogging to an average person seemed easy enough and could be pursued as a regular hobby. However, as time passes by, it becomes increasingly difficult to update the blog. Interruption usually arises because of family, education, work, relationship, personal, and/or political matters which supersedes one's Internet habits.

Another devastating factor which contributes to the raise of zombie blogs is the loss of interest in blogging. Thanks to the amazing online visitor tracking technology (i.e. Site Meter, eXTReMe Tracking, and StatCounter, etc.) available to bloggers. We're now able to track, with extreme precision, on who, when, what, how a visit comes about to our webpages. This technology provides us with a comfort zone of knowing that the contents we wrote are read by the occasional visitors. We no longer have to wait for a visitor's comment to know that our blogs had a viewer. Through the tracking technology, we become instantly elated each time a visitor or two "stumbled" upon our weblogs. On the other hand, we become agitated and disappointed when there's no single hit few days in a roll. Our emotions ride up and down like a rollercoaster each time we reviewed the tracking results, but eventually it comes to a point where a few hits are no longer enough to keep us excited and going. Our blogs then turns into another zombie blog.

So, there're many ways to turn a blog into a heartless, inactive, zombie weblog. It all depends on how you reach it.

What I intend to do is to revive my blog. What about you?

One bloody, red paperclip

Yes, you've probably heard it a thousand times, it's still all over the news and, yes, like some of you I'm getting sick and tired of hearing it day by day.

So, what exactly am I talking about? Apparently, this guy traded from a harmless, simple, red paperclip to an astounding, single-family, house at Kipling, Saskatchewan, Canada. He did this through a sequence of trades with the intention of always trading for something more than the former item. You may say he could be a marketing genius because he devised and flawlessly executed one hell of an ambitious plan. You may say he's definitely a genius because the plan worked, but the reason it worked ultimately revolves around the other person who traded for something less. This was especially true at the end when the face value of the items he traded easily exceeded 10 or 100 times that of the former items. Without these people who made the serious sacrifices he would have never had gotten to where he is at today.

So, what it comes down to is this. Now, with his fame and fortune, it is up to him to honour the people who brought him to what he is today. If I were him, I would at least give royalty to those whom traded something for less, especially after the earnings I would have made from publishing a book.

Now, where's my paperclip? Maybe I could turn it into something!