GOOOOOAAALLLL!

I haven’t slept properly in a fortnight. By choice. Gladly at that too.  Why? Because 16 of Europe’s best footballing countries are competing over the next three weeks for the trophy and title of Europe’s football champion.

During my childhood, public television in Fiji would only irregularly rebroadcast old Football matches from Spanish La Liga at obscene hours of the night. In between infomercials and breakfast shows. Those measly offerings were all there was until the World Cup came around every 4 years. The World Cup meant staying up nights on end, glued to the screen with my Dad, watching France in 1998 lift the Cup at home, and Ronaldo (the Original one) tearing up the German defence in 2002.

A love of sports, albeit any sport — playing, watching, arguing– is one of the great commonalities of being human. Along with religion, music, and war and trade — sports is a global activity which crosses borders and has the power to unite as well as divide. It may be an old cliche but it is true that sport brings people together and transcends all the political issues around the world.

The great thing about it is its sheer unpredictability. You never know what will happen when the players step out onto the pitch, and what follows has given us some of the most incredible scenes and stories of all time.

These tournaments are about much more than simply the sport on show. Its about bringing communities together, building international relationships, and creating an unforgettable experience for all involved. It is not simply a celebration of the game, it is a celebration of food, ideals, culture, heritage, people; it is a celebration of life.

It was in Greece that sports were introduced formally, with the first Olympics being recorded in Olympia in 776BC. A lot has changed from then to now. Most prominently, we have migrated from being in the nude to team colours, logos and flags.  Yet the passion remains intact. It is the most passionate display you will see by a group of people anywhere and can be likened to the ancient pitched battles as two sides both loyal to their own homelands battled it out for supremacy.

Greece defeated Russia on Sunday to advance to the Quarter-Finals stage in the Euros against all odds. In a country battered with political and economic crisis, this brought such a rare cheer to those who have heard nothing but ominous news of late. Post match, thousands flocked to the city centre in Athens, waving Greek flags, lighting flares and setting off fireworks amid the din of hundreds of honking cars.

After a steady main course meal of grim news focused on the economy and disastrous weather events- its sport, that remains the shining light that gives us hope in otherwise dark times,  it gives us heroes to look up to and admire, and brings people from all walks together for one common cause.

 

– Dev 😀

Ten Years

On September 11, 2001, I was 9. We lived in Fiji at the time, and at about 5.00am that day, my Dad got a call from a family friend telling us to turn the TV on immediately. The second plane had just hit the tower, and the world was slowly coming to the realization that what was happening in New York was not an accident. As a kid, I could not even begin to fathom how big an event this was. Nor at the moment did I care. Back then, my only worry was the annoyance that my regular cartoon programming had been interrupted by this breaking news. 

Reflecting upon it now, 9/11 caught us all off guard. The Cold War had just ended, there was heavy optimism for the dotcom boom, and the dawn of the new millennium was filled with endless hope. 10 years later,  1,733 US soldiers, almost 400 British soldiers, and 28 Australian soldiers have been killed in and around Afghanistan.  Almost 4500 Americans, nearly 200 UK troops, and 139 from other countries have been killed in Iraq. Inaccurate estimates suggest that about 100,000 Iraqis  and 20,000 Afghans have died in the last ten years. Saddam Hussein is dead. Osama bin Laden is dead. Is the world a safer place as a result of these wars? It doesn’t feel that way. If anything, it feels worse. We’ve all gotten used to more ridiculous security screenings at airports, having to take off our shoes in airport security lineups and not being allowed to carry water or even a bloody comb in our carry-on luggage.

As we commemorate this tragic milestone, the media hype surrounding it is sickening. I personally don’t think the world needs constant visual reminders on every channel every second of the day. It’s not ‘honorable’ that the media constantly uses this tragedy as a yearly ratings heart-tugger.  It is an insult to the survivors, and to the families of the deceased. Each person should show remembrance of the day in their own way, without having to be visually force-fed devastating images and reliving the day.

Ten years. On this tenth anniversary of 9/11, I hope we can all remember the sacrifices so many have made in the name of terrorism and pray for a safer, peaceful tomorrow.

Dev :D.

Norway, Amy Winehouse & Society

Every update about the Norway attacks that has been coming in only seems more horrific.  So far at least 85 people, mostly teenagers, were shot dead while attending a youth camp for the ruling Labour party. Many ran into the water hoping to escape the gunman, who continued to fire at them in the water. At least 7 other victims were killed in central Oslo when buildings were bombed on Friday afternoon.

It is numbing, not because of the number of people that died, but because it happened in a peaceful state, where such instances don’t occur, and the fact that there is seemingly no reason for the victims’ deaths.  In the next few days more details will emerge, but sense?  There won’t be any.

Nevertheless, when the world awoke the next morning, Norway wasn’t the main story.  Singer Amy Winehouse’s death was the news story making headlines all over the world. We are inclined to see the deaths of celebrities as more of a tragedy then those of civilians. The tragedy that took place in Norway is incomparable to the death of Amy Winehouse, but the majority of people seem to be more affected by the latter. I’m not surprised by Winehouse’s death. She’s been in the news for years more because of her drug addiction than her songs.  While there’s no doubt that she had talent and with her death comes wasted talent, why is everybody really concerned with someone who lived this careless lifestyle filled with drugs, misdemeanor & indecency over 92 innocent people who lost their lives at the hands of a terrorist?

In honesty, no one really cared about Amy Winehouse while she was alive or got up to her antics. But when she passed away, everyone suddenly was always a fan of her. It was the same thing with Michael Jackson’s death a few years ago. While he lived, he was condemned and humiliated by these same people who suddenly “always supported him” after his death.

Winehouse died from a suspected drug overdose. Ryan Dunn recently died from a drink driving incident. Even though it is sad to see young lives being lost, it is brought upon by their own actions. It’s terrible how we make a virtue of dying young, as if there’s glory in it. Not for the stupidity that it really is.

– Dev

Accio Childhood

A  month ago, I rushed to Chadstone to buy our tickets for the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I was muttering sighs & getting impatient as the heavy traffic slowed us down. Ten minutes of waiting felt like an eternity. I groped my bag and wished I had a Time-Turner.

Alas, it is time to grow up. This week marks the end of most of our childhoods. Because when the credits roll on Deathly Hallows Part 2, we will all be left with an unusual feeling inside. A realisation, that there is no more to look forward to. No more book launches, midnight premieres, trailers, and the fact that the goddam theme park is still halfway across the world.

My first encounter with Harry Potter occurred in 2002. I was given a VCD of Philospher’s Stone as a gift. Without any prior knowledge, I began the movie, and what followed, is one of the biggest impacts on my life. Even though the books began earlier, the movies began when I began school, and have continued until now, my second year of University. That’s well over half of my life, and for all that time, there’s always been something or the other to look forward to in the world of Potter. Even after the Deathly Hallows book was released, and the empty feeling that followed, there was still the movie to look forward to. Anything to delay the inevitable.

But that inevitable has come.

When most of the books were released, I was the almost the same age as Harry. In essence, I grew up with him. I could relate to him. Sure, my parents weren’t killed by the most evil dark wizard of all time. But weirdly enough, I could understand how he felt, despite how cheesy this sounds. We are the “Potter” generation, kids who used to be grade-schoolers when the books started coming out and who are now starting to head out into the real world with Hogwarts tucked away safely inside our memories.

There is no doubt that Harry Potter is a film franchise that will be recorded in textbooks (albeit in e-book formats) for decades to come . The series will be remembered for its advancements in CGI, special effects, storytelling, and the huge impact it’s had on the  film industry. ($6.5 billion already!) Whether you hated the books or loved them, there was no doubt that it got your attention. While Twilight & other fads will die out in time, Harry Potter will go down in history.

So, the final film is not the end. Because a fandom doesn’t die. We will now watch as our kids experience the same magic that we were cultivated by. And in the immortal words of J.K. Rowling, “Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.”

– Dev 🙂

People are Animals too

A couple of weeks ago, a report by the ABC’s Four Corners  sparked sudden outrage around Australia over the export of  Australian cattle to parts of the world without animal welfare protections. Within the matter of a few minutes, everyone seemed to have turned into a member of PETA, with over 30,000 people in the first night alone signing a petition to ban live exports to Indonesia.

A little background information first, the report on the show included graphic footage of cattle suffering prolonged deaths from cut throats in an Indonesian abattoir, and prompted Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig to suspend export to eleven abattoirs in question. The government also appointed an independent reviewer to investigate the live export supply chain.

Was this an over reaction though? No doubt that it was gruesome to watch, and no animal should suffer such an agonising death, but this begs the question, that if a whole country can go into upheaval for live cattle, why is it that we don’t fight for other significant causes, such as the violence in the Middle East, or human rights in Burma? Yet, as soon as this story broke, Twitter, Facebook, Newspapers and Radios all went into overdrive with people calling for immediate bans, and inquiry & an explanation.

I’ve always found it a little strange when people who do eat meat get passionate about animal cruelty. Of course I don’t condone torture of animals, but it doesn’t matter whether the cattle is killed in Australia or in Indonesia, despite the method used to kill, at the end of the day, it is still murder. If anything, this story really showed a lot about what people power can do. Literally overnight, laws were changed, and an entire industry was put to a hold. So just think, if we use this people power to other causes, so many gains can be made. However, people  who do protest against more worldly issues such as abolitionism or genocide, are unheard, or labelled crazies. But when it came to cattle, it became almost inhumane to be anything but horrified.

Feeling sorry about something and standing up for it are two very different things. Because its one thing tweeting your anger, or posting an ironic status update on Facebook, then going out of your way to do stop it from happening.

– Dev 🙂

Hardin Texas, Mass Graves or Mass Hoax?

Woke up this morning and as I was preparing to almost get ready to go to school when the Morning News Show tells me that a mass grave containing up to 30 mutilated bodies (including children) has been found in Hardin Texas.

I shouldn’t say I was excited to see how this story unfolded, but it definitely stood out from the frivolous mix of dietry tips, YouTube videos and political squabble that constitute the bulk of morning show news.
Throughout the day I found myself surfing back and forth between the latest articles in relation to this story that I may collate it into some sort of blog, as verily it’s been a long time since this humble author has written something.

See guys I’m thinking about you 🙂

The reported graves, containing “bodies too mutilated to recognise”, were reported on what was a Monday afternoon in, U.S. time, by an anonymous tipster. The way this author learnt his English dictates that, by tipster, the news channels were referring to either a garbage man or someone conducting an excavation in the surrounding area; as ideal a story this would have made I was wrong. As the story greater unfolded a second report of the graves was made the next morning with the “tipster” revealing herself as a psychic. The psychic described the location in surprising detail akin to somebody who had actually been in the residence. It was this great familiarity of the location of the reported graves that spurred local authorities to conduct excavations on the residence.

After blood was found on the porch of the residence and “an odor” emanating from somewhere around the house officials pursued a search. Authorities from Liberty County quickly obtained a warrant and had the residence of Mr and Mrs Bankson (both “long-haul drivers”) crawling with officials, cadaver dogs and the consequent media circus which included dozens of reporters and two news choppers. After a long day of excavation, authorities released (after declaration by a judge) that there was no evidence of the mass graves reported by the psychic.

Captain Evans, of the team on the site had this to say: “With the assistance of various agencies out here at the scene we were able to search the premises after the arrival of a search warrant, and we have no indication that there are in fact any bodies located in the residence, the shed, or any property here at the scene.”

As it stands Joe Bankson states that he “hasn’t killed anybody” and although he “had a lot of friends” he never helped bury anyone for them. Currently Joe’s daughter and fiancee are living on the property and the blood found on the porch was from an incident where the fiancee attempted suicide. Reports are circulating that Joe’s son has been convicted of sex offence, however he has been “away from this place for at least a year“. As for the anonymous tipster, Gena Bankson says she believes she knows her identity and has said she is “mentally unstable”.

So, in the end it seems this wild goose-chase was just another day in the world of crazy news. However it would put many a young bloggers’ minds to rest if eventually the “psychic” was identified and questioned as to her methods and motives.

-MustardSpork

Stopping all stations. Except when it rains. Or doesn’t.

In our modern day & age, technology is widely used and spreading, almost as fast as a Japanese bullet train. Not in all manners though, as Melbourne’s public transport woes hit all time lows. If that were possible.

Metlink, the body which controls trains, buses & trams in Melbourne, showed in their 2010 Annual Report that “…74% of Melbournians use public transport to get to work, school or leisure activities.” That results to more than 3 million people using the network. There’s no doubt that a city carrying such mass numbers on its public transport network needs a stable & effective service.

Yet, that is anything but the case. Delayed trains, random cancellations and unscheduled stops are a normality. And that is just when the weather is fine. In extreme heat, the infrastructure fails, with tracks literally extending. In winter, rain and hail cause something or the other to go wrong. Disruptions. Packed trains with no limits to the number of people that can get into a carriage. All this has been experienced by all who use the network.

Melbourne’s public transport has been Privatised since the ’90s. The consistent problems & resulting complaints caused the State Government to not renew Connex’s contract in 2009, and instead opted to go with the Hong Kong backed and owned MTR Corporation, or Metro Trains. The change in companies however,  have not stopped the delays, disruptions & complaints. If anything, they have increased. Melbourne has enjoyed great population growth in recent years and hence, reliance on public transport is ever increasing. Metro Trains has become somewhat of a mockery among social networking sites, with numerous Pages on Facebook and statuses & tweets of peoples’ bad experiences a daily sight.

Why is this, though? Why is it that a city which is billed as one of the most livable cities on the planet have such horrid public transport? The main problem, lies with the infrastructure. Melbourne’s railway infrastructure is ancient, with some drivers calling it “…space-age technology on caveman infrastructure.”

Yelling “Sack Metro!” won’t do anything though. It doesn’t matter who provides the service. It doesn’t matter who the Premier is. To improve the whole system we need a massive massive expansion and complete overhaul of the infrastructure. Simple enough, right? Only catch is that we don’t have a spare trillion dollars to do the job.

Head of the Public Transport Research Group in Monash University, Graham Currie, noted that “…Our railways are over a hundred years old, they’ve never been designed for this many trains, and as a result they get harder to run reliably. The system is now operated on the basis that is must be able to frequently recover from failure.”

Melbourne is also one of the few major cities in the world that doesn’t have a rail link connecting its International Airport to the CBD. The idea was first suggested in the 1960’s and has been on and off ever since. We risk losing business opportunities & tourism because of this.

The government needs to do more than simply dumping shiny, technologically advanced multi-million dollar pieces of metal on our tracks if it doesn’t improve the other outstanding problems that we have. We need infrastructure that will suit to the conditions & support the stable operation of these trains.

For now anyway, we must deal with the possibility that wherever we go, we will be unfashionably late.

-Dev 🙂

Jumps Racing? Because a Hurdles Race with Humans Dying Would be Unethical

In recent years no horse race has been consistently mired in controversy as profoundly as jumps racing.

Why so, do you ask?

Unlike its sister equestrian sports standard racing and polo; jumps racing could be considered the less successful of the 3 humans-replaced-by-horses sports. For those out of the know jumps racing can be crudely compared to a hurdles race for horses, only with a significantly higher likelihood of dying.

Jump season is currently in and races are being held all over the country; leaving injured horses and protests in season’s wake.

The town of Warrnambool, as a particular Victorian example, uses the races as its star attraction in the town’s May Festival. Admittedly the event regularly draws big crowds to the town and has become somewhat of a tourist attraction.

Animal rights activists want the event cancelled and despite some promises racing officials haven’t budged on the topic. Every time a race is held someone’s horse has an injury, occasionally so serious the horse needs to be put down, sometimes I wonder whether the spectators come for the thrill of the race or to see horses fall over.

Just yesterday, supporters of jumps racing were dealt a major blow at the main race in the star attraction event at Warrnambool May Festival after, having lost its rider, a stray horse jumped the spectator fence and into a crowd of people. (human) Injuries stand at 7 from the crowd, including a young girl whose collar bone was broken by the horse. As for the horses, of the 8 that started the race only 2 finished.

Unlike earlier this week, no horses had to be put down due to serious injury. Still, if we were to run a community athletics and 6 of the competitors in one race couldn’t finish the race alarm bells would be ringing.

Personally I don’t think that Jumps Racing should be continued, but I understand that another event of equal influence and pulling power must be introduced to fill the void. Because to take this event away from Warrnambool is to take a way a major attraction to the town and take away a major contribution to their tourist industry; which we know could have further consequences in the future.

So, before bringing down the Jumps Races we need present the people of Warrnambool with another option that can help their tourist industry in the same way that Jumps Races does.

– MustardSpork

P.S. here’s the video footage of the race I mentioned;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCYSvqFwSUw&feature=

Osama’s death a victory, or barely consolation?

Osama Bin Laden was killed earlier this week. The shootout happened 60 kilometers from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, in a town called Abbotabad. Intelligence agencies had been tracking him for months, though they received confirmation of his whereabouts recently. He was holed up in a massive, fortified mansion with concrete walls that were up to 12-feet thick in places, surrounded by his family members.

As the news broke, social networking websites went into overdrive, conspiracy theories were rehashed, television channels stopped all programming to turn to the breaking news, thousands gathered outside the White House in celebration, and the world itself seemed to have stopped, which, ironically was reminiscent of September the 11th, 2001.

Now, the question that arises: 10 years, 2 wars, 919,967 deaths, and $1,188,263,000,000 later, was it worth it?

The simple answer is no. No doubt that this is a morale booster for the general public, but will this affect the terrorist movement? We do not know. This may or may not be a blow to them. That answer, depends on how relevant Osama was to Al-Qaeda in his present state. He was a frail, 54 year old man, and for all we know, had taken a back seat in the operations of Al-Qaeda.

As we have already seen by the general American public the death of the man responsible for September 11 has brought a final closure to people who, in some way or another, were connected to the bombings. However, there are also probably a lot of people whose lives have been forever changed by Osama bin Laden in parts of the Balkans, Afghanistan, Africa and many other places who would have liked to see this man go on trial and be held officially accountable for things. Talk had already emerged months back on the internet, back when the topic was dead cold; concerning his current medical and physical state, could Osama actually be put on trial; obviously now we know the answer.

We are to understand that initial attempts to capture Osama were made, or at least thought of, but to the intricate nature of the operation these plans were not carried out. Whether troops had notified Pakistani authorities of such a mammoth act and what Pakistan’s actual involvement in all of this was; still remains to be seen.

I would say “what remains of Al-Qaeda” or something like that, but the fact remains that general structure of the terrorist organization remains very intact with sub-branches existing in Africa, the Arab Penninsula and the Mesopotamia region. With his deteriorating physical state, many operation heads were put into place to fill Osama’s extremely influential boots. The cold reality that Osama’s death has probably not done anything to stop the organization is already being acknowledged. Rather, travel warnings are being issued and ambassadors to and from “Pro-Western” countries are feeling a bit hot under the collar; under fear of retaliation groups in just about every part of the globe.

Could the killing of this influential man actually have woken a bigger giant?

For just about everyone on the planet; let’s hope not, but just to keep things safe how about we let the man die with dignity? For all the extremely terrible things he’s done (not disregarding that fact in the slightest) we should still give the man the proper burial and not stay up all night chanting “USA” and discriminating against just about every person with a beard or headscarf.

The celebrations, I feel are not justifiable.  Australia’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, stated “..I welcome the death of Osama Bin Laden, I welcome this news.”

No.

No man’s death should be a cause for celebration. Especially one that himself found celebration from the death of other people. This is what distinguishes us from them.

With all the natural disasters, violence in the middle-east, economic downturn, Osama’s death brought a sense of victory for the general public. Even though this sounds cynical and disgusting, it was indeed a moral boost for the world, that progress was being made in the war against terror. There is no doubt that Bin Laden’s legacy will remain for a long time, however, there has been retribution, despite it being delayed, and with that comes an odd sense of vindication. Satisfaction.

A “failinguni” joint project 😀

Deadly Smart Phones

WARNING!! Excessive smart phone use has been proven to slow down brain cells in perfectly healthy humans. Reaction time and general alertness are known to decrease, yet phone usage has increased dramatically. 4.5 out of 5 smart phone users have become slaves to their smart phones who are in turn acting on behalf of a bigger badder capitalist corporation that seeks to dominate the globe by means of zombie invasion!

Okay, so this is definitely not the attitude that we should be taking when approaching the vast amount of statistics there are relating smart phones to various ailments.

Just the other week on the T.V. some bunch of researchers thought they needed to add there 2 cents worth about the issue on whether excessive smart phone use causes brain cancer.

I’m only going to be talking about a few cases, but here’s some things that accordingly smart phones can cause:

– Brain cancer
– Down there cancer
– Other cancers
– Impotence
– Harming unborn babies

– Arthritis in one or more digits
– Premature wrinkles
– Get you stalked
– Passively be the cause for you getting run over

The list goes on I’m sure; what I want to convey is that as widely farfetched as some of these claims might sound some also pertain, in the slightest, to something true.

The point I’m weakly trying to make is that as the presence of new technology and gadgets increases, new problems and dangers will also come into our lives that probably our parents and grandparents didn’t have to worry about. Whereas our ancestors were probably making sure they didn’t get the black plague, raided by vikings or swallowed up in the industrial revolution; our generation has a completely different set of other problems to attend to like sustainability, radiation from mini devices like mobiles and fluorine in our water and toothpaste.

Take the good things out of these surveys and take heed to the warnings; but don’t get paranoid over them. If we keep bringing devices like smartphones into our lives, we also need to accept that they have some consequences and they should be used appropriately.  It’s definitely a good idea to try and minimise our usage of smart phones, keep them at a distance when were not using them, don’t use them while crossing the road or driving and don’t have them near our heads if were using them as alarms.

So as always, take the middle path when it comes to things like this. Don’t get depressed about imminent radiation or paranoid about killer smart phones. However don’t take warnings, studies and surveys too lightly.

Exercise caution wherever you can.

– MustardSpork