world on fire

really beautiful . . . . .

http://www.worldonfire.ca

yeah i know it's an old theme, but still . . . every time i come across such a thing, i promise myself that i will contribute something . . . anything, in any small way possible. but then, i put it off, make excuses to myself saying that i have a long life ahead and can do it later. i'm just afraid that i'm gonna keep delaying it forever.

anyway, back to the video at hand, it starts by assigning a cost of $150,000 to a $15 production and ends with "so that is where all the money went". it does a superb job at comparing how valuable things that we disregard as mundane can be at another point on the globe. we really ought to appreciate every little thing that we possess - if not for what it means to us, then atleast for what it could mean to one of 'them'. (i guess this discrimination that i just made is justifiable)

reminds me of this saying "if you cannot have 2/3rds of a day for yourself, then you're a slave". i vividly remember this because my brother, who dabbles at art and created admirable pieces from the time i was 10, had once painted this faceless person in shackles and wrote this quote below it and hung it up on the wall of our room. so, i got to see that everyday for a long long time and it turned out to be one of those things that just got indelibly etched into my mind.

makes me laugh at the audacious claims made by people that slavery has ended in the modern world. not even by a looooooooong shot. no number of charitable organizations with volunteers working round the clock can hope to put even a little dent into this monster called poverty. not even by a looo ooooo oong shot. there's one way - and one way alone - of putting an end to this sadness once and for all, and you all will spit fire in my face if i say what it is . . .

thank you, sarah!! you look breath-takingly gorgeous!!

neo-ambivalence

am·biv·a·lence [ăm-bĭvə'-lən(t)s]
n.
the coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings towards the same object/person


neo-ambivalence
n.
the coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings towards closely related objects/events

sample usage: "the recent terrorist bombings in one of the world's most populous cities evoked a natural feeling of sadness, but a statement issued by a minister to the media evoked laughter, changing my feelings to neo-ambivalence"

from the news . . .
> the home minister told reporters that authorities had some information an attack
> was coming, "but place and time was not known"

i don't know whether these people make a conscious attempt at being stupid or whether it is a gift they possess by birth. every news source carried this quote from him. what i fail to understand is the point of that statement. what good is any information about an attack without the place or time? how can that be called 'information' in the first place?

i guess i have to coin another word for "the coexistence of pity and sympathetic laughter towards a nutcase holding an important position in the government who doesn't know what to, and what not to say to the press"