Name: Jean Charles de Menezes
Age: 27
Cause of Death: 5 bullets to head and torso
Killers: Plainclothed Officers of the London Metropolitan Police
Crime: He was a man of South Asian appearance who, while wearing a heavy padded jacket, left a house in the shady London neighborhood of Brixton, leaped the turnstiles at the London Underground's Stockwell Station and ran onto a train less than a day after 4 terrorists botched an attempt to copy the criminal attacks of two weeks earlier.
That was his crime, word for word. You'll find it reported that way in every news source, wherever you look. Honestly, even I thought he was guilty of trying to blow something up. And one of the witnesses said he saw wires hanging out of de Menezes' jacket.
Only one thing bothered me. Another witness said the man looked "petrified" as he was hauled down and shot dead. "Petrified" is not an expression you associate with a terrorist. "He must have been terribly disappointed to have failed in his mission to kill innocents," we all thought, and moved on with our lives.
Now, the key points of this story, told the way they should be:
He was South Asian
No, he was Brazilian. Jackasses. And so what if he looked South Asian?
He was wearing a heavy padded jacket
This was London, England. He was Brazilian. He felt cold. I was in London in the summer of 2000. I had a jacket on most of the time. I still felt cold. Jackasses.
He left a house in Brixton
He was only an electrician. Forgive him for being forced to conduct business or even live in an area that deosn't measure up to your high standards. Jackasses.
He ran from the police
If you happen to be in a shady neighborhood, and are followed from that neighborhood by several casually dressed (remember, PLAINCLOTHED OFFICERS) people who suddenly yell at you to stop, what would you do? Turn around and chat with them? Jackasses.
He had wires hanging from his jacket
I only found one report of this... this means either that the so-called witness was a sensationalist who was looking for fame or that the man who had been murdered was an electrician. Jackasses.
Of course, this quiet, hard working young man will soon be forgotten. But his murder should not. It is one thing to be killed in cold blood by those who want to hurt you and do you harm. It is entirely another to be killed in cold blood by those who have sworn to protect you.
Remember Jean Charles de Menezes. He could have been you. You could have been him.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Narnia, Aslan, Tash, Foreigner
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
So I just finished reading The Chronicles of Narnia. I think it's safe to say I can add Clive Staples Lewis to the list of people who have actively tried to make me Christian. What is that now, three?
Anyway, after page after page of preaching and proselytizing, Aslan (ie God) meets Emeth (a Calormene warrior - one of the "bad guys" ) who had been worshipping Tash (the Devil, or some such representation) but was sincere in his worship and honestly wanted to do good. So they have the typical benevolent-god-meets-errant-but-all-in-all-good-creation conversation. "Fear not my son" etc etc. And then Clive Staples Lewis writes probably the most liberal passage in the entire 767 page tome, and I, shockingly (shockingly because I tend to disagree with things both liberal and conservative - and this is a liberal passage by a conservative writer), agree with it almost completely (see near the end of this posting for the point that prevented me from agreeing with it completely completely).
Anyway, for those of you who care enough to still be reading this post, here is the passage (from near the end of book #7, The Last Battle), as narrated by Emeth: "Then by reason of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, 'Lord, is it then true, as the ape (*Blogger's Note: The ape is a jackass) said, that thou and Tash are one?' The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, 'It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites - I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore, if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath's sake, it is by me he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dosts thou understand, Child?' I said, ' Lord, Thou knowest how much I understand.' (But I also said, for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days.' 'Beloved,' said the Glorious One,'unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek."
Notice how terrible Aslan's subject-verb agreement is? "If any man swear"... "though he know it not"... I suppose as God, you're allowed to mess with the language as you please. Though it could just be Harper Collins messing up... God knows. Haha.
My interpretation of the above is, briefly,
1. Keep your promises,
2. Search for truth, and
3. Be nice to people
and you'll be A-OK. I guess my only issue with it is that it seems almost relativistic and hippyesque... "Dude, your God's cool, as long as we can get high together... wooooow, pretty rainbowwwww." I think it's alright to be "cool" with other people's "God" as long as you sincerely try to understand them and see where they're coming from. But the "it's all good let's drink some beer" approach is a bit flippant. I think we should
1. Keep our promises,
2. Search for truth,
3. Be nice to people, and
4. Be aware that it's not ALL good .
Maybe C.S. Lewis feels that number 4 is covered in number 1, or something like that, but I wouldn't have minded if he had been more explicit. On the whole, the above passage didn't really fit in with the rampantly Christian hurrah that the rest of the book was. I was completely expecting Aslan to say something like, "Thou shouldst have looked harder for me, silly boy," but all he did was go, "Meh, Tash, me, whatever, as long as you're cool, dude."
It's a nice thought though...
So I just finished reading The Chronicles of Narnia. I think it's safe to say I can add Clive Staples Lewis to the list of people who have actively tried to make me Christian. What is that now, three?
Anyway, after page after page of preaching and proselytizing, Aslan (ie God) meets Emeth (a Calormene warrior - one of the "bad guys" ) who had been worshipping Tash (the Devil, or some such representation) but was sincere in his worship and honestly wanted to do good. So they have the typical benevolent-god-meets-errant-but-all-in-all-good-creation conversation. "Fear not my son" etc etc. And then Clive Staples Lewis writes probably the most liberal passage in the entire 767 page tome, and I, shockingly (shockingly because I tend to disagree with things both liberal and conservative - and this is a liberal passage by a conservative writer), agree with it almost completely (see near the end of this posting for the point that prevented me from agreeing with it completely completely).
Anyway, for those of you who care enough to still be reading this post, here is the passage (from near the end of book #7, The Last Battle), as narrated by Emeth: "Then by reason of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, 'Lord, is it then true, as the ape (*Blogger's Note: The ape is a jackass) said, that thou and Tash are one?' The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, 'It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites - I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore, if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath's sake, it is by me he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dosts thou understand, Child?' I said, ' Lord, Thou knowest how much I understand.' (But I also said, for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days.' 'Beloved,' said the Glorious One,'unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek."
Notice how terrible Aslan's subject-verb agreement is? "If any man swear"... "though he know it not"... I suppose as God, you're allowed to mess with the language as you please. Though it could just be Harper Collins messing up... God knows. Haha.
My interpretation of the above is, briefly,
1. Keep your promises,
2. Search for truth, and
3. Be nice to people
and you'll be A-OK. I guess my only issue with it is that it seems almost relativistic and hippyesque... "Dude, your God's cool, as long as we can get high together... wooooow, pretty rainbowwwww." I think it's alright to be "cool" with other people's "God" as long as you sincerely try to understand them and see where they're coming from. But the "it's all good let's drink some beer" approach is a bit flippant. I think we should
1. Keep our promises,
2. Search for truth,
3. Be nice to people, and
4. Be aware that it's not ALL good .
Maybe C.S. Lewis feels that number 4 is covered in number 1, or something like that, but I wouldn't have minded if he had been more explicit. On the whole, the above passage didn't really fit in with the rampantly Christian hurrah that the rest of the book was. I was completely expecting Aslan to say something like, "Thou shouldst have looked harder for me, silly boy," but all he did was go, "Meh, Tash, me, whatever, as long as you're cool, dude."
It's a nice thought though...
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Only in America
Only in America...
- can you be pro-life and pro-war at the same time
- can an unemployed college graduate own two cars in good running condition (No link here, this was me a month ago)
- is eating considered a sport worthy of LIVE airtime on ESPN
- can you cheat on your wife, lie about it, get caught lying about it, then get away with it and even keep your wife because her political career is dependent on her affiliation to you
- can you sit in a fast food restaurant at a table near four burly, tattooed construction workers, watch them pick their teeth and listen to them discuss their children's potty training progress (No link again, this was me last week)
- does 100% fruit juice mean 15% fruit juice and 85% other crap (Take a trip to your nearest Wal-Mart and read the labels on the cartons)
- can donkeys with empty heads have their own radio shows AND a strong following
- will people tolerate mistakes like this
(To be fair, some of these, like the fruit juice thing for example, may be found in other countries too, but since I haven't really looked, I'm going to assume not.)
- can you be pro-life and pro-war at the same time
- can an unemployed college graduate own two cars in good running condition (No link here, this was me a month ago)
- is eating considered a sport worthy of LIVE airtime on ESPN
- can you cheat on your wife, lie about it, get caught lying about it, then get away with it and even keep your wife because her political career is dependent on her affiliation to you
- can you sit in a fast food restaurant at a table near four burly, tattooed construction workers, watch them pick their teeth and listen to them discuss their children's potty training progress (No link again, this was me last week)
- does 100% fruit juice mean 15% fruit juice and 85% other crap (Take a trip to your nearest Wal-Mart and read the labels on the cartons)
- can donkeys with empty heads have their own radio shows AND a strong following
- will people tolerate mistakes like this
(To be fair, some of these, like the fruit juice thing for example, may be found in other countries too, but since I haven't really looked, I'm going to assume not.)
Monday, July 04, 2005
Me > Queen, Britney and Indian Songs
I'm sure you've heard "I Want To Break Free" by Queen (lyrics). If you haven't, go listen to it now. And then come back to finish reading this entry. A long time ago, when I was a wee lad still in school (or what you foreigners call HIGH school), so 8, 9 years ago, a friend of mine and I came up with a Weird Al caliber parody of this song. And, for lack of anything better to write this Sunday afternoon, I present to you the first verse of the song closet environmentalist (and flaming homosexual) Freddy Mercury really meant to write:
I Want To Plant Tree
I want to plant tree
I want to plant tree
I want to plant tree in the ground
It'll be so safe and sound for meee-o
I’ve got to plant tree
Gardeners, Gardeners, I want to plant tree...
I'm sure it goes on. I just don't know how.
And, since this isn't really long enough to be a respectable blog entry yet, here's another of my patented (well, not really, but if you're going to use this for personal gain you better pay me something... in cash, a visit doesn't count) parodies. This was written by me (that's why it's MINE, you see) when I was supposed to be studying for my Mechanics I final (which may explain why I got a low B in the course). The original song is, wait for it, "Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears (lyrics):
Problem One More Time
Oh baby baby, how was I supposed to guess
My method wasn't right
Oh baby baby, I shouldn't have found the stress
The question asked for height
Show me moments of inertia
Tell me baby
Coz I need to solve for resultant force
Mechanics I is killing me
And I
I must confess
I hate machines
When I see plane trusses I lose my mind
Sine or cosiiiine?
Work that problem one more time.
*Note: With clever manipulation of the syntax and some ingenious modifications to obscure binary algorithms, I was able to change the I in Mechanics I to a II and thus use the same song for my Mechanics II course as well.
Alright, fine, just one more. And this is only a two liner. And it's in Urdu/Hindi as well. But don't worry. I'll translate for you illiterate types.
The song is called "Sandese" meaning "Messages" and is from the Indian movie Border apparently, released in 1997 according to my sources (some website or the other). The first two lines were despicably distorted (again several years ago) in honor of one of my school friends who we liked to pretend was obese (even though he was probably just somewhat stocky, you know, well built, a healthy man if you will). The name of the song was altered to "Samose." A samosa is a small fried turnover of South Asian origin filled with seasoned vegetables or meat. And the original lines of the song:
Sandese aate hain
Humein tarpaate hain
which translate roughly (and most elegantly) to:
Messages come.
They make us restless/anxious.
were improved to read as follows:
Samose aate hain
Hum inhe khaate hain
which translate exactly (and most elegantly) to:
Small fried turnovers of South Asian origin filled with seasoned vegetables or meat come.
We eat them.
Hey, in the Third World, to amuse yourself, you do what you have to do.
I Want To Plant Tree
I want to plant tree
I want to plant tree
I want to plant tree in the ground
It'll be so safe and sound for meee-o
I’ve got to plant tree
Gardeners, Gardeners, I want to plant tree...
I'm sure it goes on. I just don't know how.
And, since this isn't really long enough to be a respectable blog entry yet, here's another of my patented (well, not really, but if you're going to use this for personal gain you better pay me something... in cash, a visit doesn't count) parodies. This was written by me (that's why it's MINE, you see) when I was supposed to be studying for my Mechanics I final (which may explain why I got a low B in the course). The original song is, wait for it, "Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears (lyrics):
Problem One More Time
Oh baby baby, how was I supposed to guess
My method wasn't right
Oh baby baby, I shouldn't have found the stress
The question asked for height
Show me moments of inertia
Tell me baby
Coz I need to solve for resultant force
Mechanics I is killing me
And I
I must confess
I hate machines
When I see plane trusses I lose my mind
Sine or cosiiiine?
Work that problem one more time.
*Note: With clever manipulation of the syntax and some ingenious modifications to obscure binary algorithms, I was able to change the I in Mechanics I to a II and thus use the same song for my Mechanics II course as well.
Alright, fine, just one more. And this is only a two liner. And it's in Urdu/Hindi as well. But don't worry. I'll translate for you illiterate types.
The song is called "Sandese" meaning "Messages" and is from the Indian movie Border apparently, released in 1997 according to my sources (some website or the other). The first two lines were despicably distorted (again several years ago) in honor of one of my school friends who we liked to pretend was obese (even though he was probably just somewhat stocky, you know, well built, a healthy man if you will). The name of the song was altered to "Samose." A samosa is a small fried turnover of South Asian origin filled with seasoned vegetables or meat. And the original lines of the song:
Sandese aate hain
Humein tarpaate hain
which translate roughly (and most elegantly) to:
Messages come.
They make us restless/anxious.
were improved to read as follows:
Samose aate hain
Hum inhe khaate hain
which translate exactly (and most elegantly) to:
Small fried turnovers of South Asian origin filled with seasoned vegetables or meat come.
We eat them.
Hey, in the Third World, to amuse yourself, you do what you have to do.
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