i woke up today and was grateful for being able to read.
i actually got an arabic copy of ”eat, pray, love” for sugar, and then was wondering how the translation read and if the arabic version was as good as the english one. one thought led to another and then to what all i take for granted.
the game plan is, sugar (who’s camping at my place for a couple of days) and i will *try* and wake up about half an hour earlier tomorrow and have breakfast at the beach - before we get to work. it’s not an impossible plan - except for the part where we will sacrifice 30 minutes of shut eye. from the way i expect things to happen, we *will* have breakfast at the beach, but will be about half an hour late for work.
which rocks too.
also, someone told me yesterday i am the white witch from tim burton’s alice in wonderland. which makes sense, because i too have vowed not to kill. that, and i love mixing potions to magically grow or shrink people.
loved the movie.
love, love, LOVED it. if you get past the hangup that the movie has nothing to do with the book, me thought the director kept true to the spirit of the characters. oh muchness.
on the downside - the mad hatter was too close to willy wonka; and i kept on seeing capt’n jack sparrow. with bits of narnia thrown in.
here’s a perfect end to this beautiful mornin:
Using a ring to bind someone you covet into your dark and twisted world? wow, just got the subtext there.Also, the apparently eager Beyonce wouldve made one badass nazgul
—
hang on.
i thought i was done for the day but then i saw this story on the royal f*ck-up:
A tour of the United States arranged by the State Department to improve ties to Pakistani legislators ended in a public relations fiasco when the members of the group refused to submit to extra airport screening in Washington… (hem’s note: you dont say)
Meetings with … top policy makers on Pakistan including … Richard C. Holbrooke, and visits to the Pentagon and the National Security Council, did not allay the anger the politicians said they felt at being asked to submit to a secondary screening on Sunday before boarding a flight to New Orleans. They declined to be screened and did not board the flight.
Pakistan is one of 14 mostly Muslim countries whose citizens must go through increased checks before they fly into the United States. The inclusion of Pakistan on the list was broadly criticized as an insult to a country that the United States calls an ally. (hem’ s note: though, one COULD say the americans want nothing (including clothes) to stand between them and their friends)
Senator Abbas Khan Afridi, said in an interview on Tuesday that before they were to board the flight for New Orleans, he and his colleagues were selected from a crowd of passengers at the airport and asked to stand aside. They were then asked to accept a full-body scan by a machine.
The American Embassy in Islamabad has been endowed with an extra $37 million by Congress to spend on exchange programs intended to show skeptical Pakistanis that the United States is a real ally, a country that wants to help, not hinder, Pakistan. (hem’s note: other than at airports where all of them may be “randomly selected” for extra screenings, security checks etc. But seriously yo. this is so completely fantastic)
here’s the best part in the story:
The State Department paid each of the participants $200 a day for accommodations and food during their stay in the United States.
If the American taxpayers wanted the money for the expenses refunded, he would be happy to do so, said Mr. Afridi, 40, who described himself as a major trader in cement, with businesses across Pakistan and in Afghanistan. “We can pay back the $200 a day, no problem,” he said.
Then, he drove off in his brand-new Hummer — an example of his affection for American autos.
Note to the US: if this guy can afford to drive a humve in pakiland (where petrol is more expensive than human blood), i dont think the US should be asking him for a refund. there are faux pas and then there are faux pas =)
what i dont understand, is why the american administration wants to woo the “skeptical pakistani” or change our opinion of the US foreign policies?
would i, as a common (wo)man ever accept the “sincerity” of US politicians or “their efforts to see pakisan succeed?” look at the following story and judge for yourself:
A United States-trained former colonel in Pakistan’s spy agency, [Col. Imam] spent 20 years running insurgents in and out of Afghanistan, () to fight the Soviet Army…
Once a promising protégé for the United States, he underwent Special Forces training at Fort Bragg, N.C., in 1974, learning in particular the use of explosives, and he went on to do a master parachutist course with the 82nd Airborne Division.
On his return to Pakistan, he taught insurgent tactics to the first Afghan students who fled the country’s Communist revolution in 1978, among them future resistance leaders Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ahmed Shah Masood. He then worked closely with the C.I.A. to train and support thousands of guerrilla fighters for the Afghan resistance against the Soviet Army throughout the 1980s.
Western officials say Colonel Imam has continued to train, recruit and finance the [taliban] insurgents [since]. Along with a number of other retired Pakistani intelligence officials, they say, he has helped the Taliban stage a remarkable comeback since 2006.
the US has had a history of establishing “strategic alliances” as and when it suits them; and eliminating the same partnerships when those “friends” cease to provide the “benefits”. remember OBL? saddam? i believe in modern literature the phenomenon is referred to as “OMG i’ve created a monster” (rinse and repeat).
on the subject of saddam. or less specifically, iraq. here’s another little gem:
Doctors in the Iraqi city of Fallujah are reporting a high level of birth defects, with some blaming weapons used by the US after the Iraq invasion. Now, the level of heart defects among newborn babies is said to be 13 times higher than in Europe.
[BBC's] correspondent saw children in the city who were suffering from paralysis or brain damage - and a photograph of one baby who was born with three heads. He adds that he heard many times that officials in Fallujah had warned women that they should not have children.
Doctors and parents believe the problem is the highly sophisticated weapons the US troops used in Fallujah six years ago.
to which here’s the official US rebuttal:
The US military says it is not aware of any official reports showing an increase in birth defects in the area.
well then, the ignorance settles it.
you may all go home now.
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