If you are looking for answers, you might as well close this review. I don't have the answers. I don't claim to know the solution. I don't go around saying Shanti. All I have are questions and a whole deal of them
I want to L.I.V.E
What might seem like just another attitude statement from an advertisement for teenagers has more relevance today than in any other time in History. The toll of 9/11 was finally put down as 2752. The number does not include the 10 Hijackers who crashed the two planes into the Twin Towers.
It is the deaths of those 10 people that disturbs me.. I cannot and will never understand what could have led those 10 to do what they did. They did not explicitly have any cause, they were educated young men who chose to kill themselves willingly. When some one like Osama Bin Laden becomes popular after planning and executing something like 9/11 there is something WRONG
What is happening in this world where man voluntarily destroys the one greatest gift that god has given to him?: HIS LIFE
Remember that it is one thing to place a bomb and then detonate it from a distance of 200 yards. It is an entirely different issue blowing yourselfwith it.
Ask yourself, is there anything on this planet for which you will willingly end your life
The answer will be a resounding NO
I can't think of any explanation for an Indonesian or a Turk to kill hundreds of his countrymen and in the process himself, and dying with the satisfaction of destroying a part of a British Bank or an American Fast Food Diner.
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The Islamic World:
It's the Palestinian issue more than anything else that irks the Muslims. Disgruntled voices are heard often voicing their opinions. But, What do these disgruntled voices add up to? A big ZERO.
Madness prevails and don't tell me it's otherwise. Where was the common sense when educated young men carried out something unimaginable voluntarily as it happened on that fateful day on September 11th. Where was the common sense when Paradise turned hell in Bali? Where was the common sense when young innocent Africans were killed in the bombing of the US Embassy?
Was it for Palestine?Tell me: Has the situation in Palestine become any better?
It's a vicious cycle. Israeli tanks enter the Gaza strip. Trying to kill one person soldiers kill people like you and I. A suicide bomber takes revenge for the death of his loved ones. The Israeli army retaliates. It goes on.
Worse still; there is a waiting list for people volunteering to be suicide bombers. Hamas does not have to go in search of them. It could be your teacher. It could be the young to be bride next door. It could be a lawyer. It could be a mother.
Paranoia as a result has crept into the Israeli system as they threaten to kill the very livelihood and the spirits of thousands of people with the completion of that hated fence. The Israeli's haven't made it easier by electing someone like Ariel Sharon to power. ( If you don't know about his actions in the 80's read it up. I don't know a person like him could have been allowed to enter the Rajghat.)
Islamic moderates need to come forward everywhere to take over, they are just not doing enough and its a fact. The events in Istanbul just showed that even Turkey, one of the few countries that has blended both Islam and modern ideas is not safe anymore.
The United States Of America
Mr. Bush has led us ( so eloquently) to believe that there are two worlds; the good and the bad. In true Texan style he has launched a war on terror. Tell me, how do you define a victory in this war?.How do you find out the war has ended? Can he declare victory in the war just cause there will be no further attacks on American Mainland?. Doesn't a strike on a crowded business centre in Nairobi mean a failure in this policy as much as one in downtown LA?
Frankly, people expect too much from the President of the United States of America. Like any other politician he wants to get re-elected. To get re-elected he has to please his voters and when the majority of his backers tend to be sympathetic to the Jews he will be sympathetic to the Jews.
I just don't like the US that has arisen post 9/11. It suddenly seems to be a bully. Yes, Saddam has been defeated but where are the weapons of mass destruction? Where is the oil heading? Great stories are shown that there are fire brigades running. But where the hell are those telephone lines. Contracts are handed out to Halliburton (on whose payroll is the vice president) and yet people have to wait for 3 hours for petrol.
Victory was claimed in Afghanistan with much jubilation and relief and yet the Taliban is being allowed to regroup from the Pakistani border. What is going to happen next? The warning signs from an already impotent Hamid Karzai are being ignored and the US might have to pay a heavy price again. But, I don't expect action to be taken till the US suffers a major loss. (That is my opinion. If you think otherwise, you are entitled to that.)
I keep asking myself. How could a nation with its roots as diverse as that of the US. Welcoming people with open arms from all corners of the earth irrespective of their age, sex, color and race and with ideals that represent the best that man can be inspire as much hatred as it does today?
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I would have submitted this review a long time back but I did not cause I didn't know how to end it. I still don't..
There are still so many things to say. I keep asking myself. Have I looked at things too superficially? Did I say what has been pricking me all these days? Do I have more to say?
Yet I know one thing. Just like I did, you will close this review and put the things in the back of your head. It will all come out when something tragic occurs. Then the questions will resurface again. Answers will be searched for and more and more people will take stages claiming they know the answer.
And as I think about it I just get the feeling that people (especially children) of different cultures and faiths should be made to interact more. Be it the people from Boston or Baghdad; Lahore or Lucknow.It won't be the solution to every problem( heck it might not solve anything) but then it would be a start and I think at some point of time we would find there are so many things to talk about even without us understanding each other perfectly.
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Don't we react the same way when some one close dies? Don't we all feel the same pain when some innocent child is killed just because it happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Don't we feel the same anger when we feel that we have been wronged? Don't we feel the same pride when we accomplish something?
Don't we all feel the same sensation when a spoon of our favorite ice cream tickles our taste buds? Don't we feel the same way when we have to stand and give an impromptu speech in front of hundreds of people?
Don't our hearts beat faster in the same way when we hear those three little words for the first time from our special someone?
No matter the frustrations, no matter the bitterness, no matter the tears don't we just wan't to L.I.V.E?
Maybe then you and I will see that we aren't really that different after all
