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Friday January 24.2003 / 9:30 am E.S.T. World View - crime is definitely on the rise here in Trinidad. Not just because of what happened to me, but because we are already up to over 15 murders for the new year, a lot for such a small country. My little parlor where I stop for cigarettes at the bottom of my hill where I live, just got robbed 2 nights ago by men with machine guns. Everyone in the store was robbed as well. Fortunately no one was hurt in this incident. Insight Magazine has an article from late December discussing Trinidad's possible involvement in Terrorism. Tourism and travel are being affected after the UK issued a travel advisory. - "We believe Trinidad and Tobago to be one of a number of countries where there may be an increased terrorist threat. British nationals should exercise vigilance, particularly in public places frequented by foreigners such as hotels, restaurants and shopping malls ":: What about Saddam - I don't normally state much political opinion here, but with the growing threat of war with Iraq and the fact that this is dominating all the news channels, I figured I'd throw my 2 cents out. Saddam, by any means, needs to be removed from power. What I don't understand is why all the basis around Weapons of Mass Destruction, but that's all the Bush Admin and everyone discusses. Who cares, what is bothersome is that this man committed Genocide against the Kurds of northern Iraq. What about the fact that Iraq provides a safe haven for Terroists and is a known gateway for terrorism. Do we need more reason to get this guy out of there? He's a military dicticator down with ethnic cleansing. At least Fidel Castro has photos of Che G. around him, Saddam probably has a full gloss poster of Hitler on his closet door that he whacks off to. Now that said, do we send the boys and girls of the US and any willing allies that are left to hit the desert, deal with some possible chemical agents and a madman that doesn't mind if his own people die? ONLY as a very last resort!!! I remember reading an article, or watching a TV programme where there was consideration of paying Saddam to leave. What happened to that path as an option. It would piss off a lot of people and maybe encourage would be dictators everywhere to step up atrocities against their peeps. But economically, say we offer the guy a couple Billion dollars. It's way cheaper than actual war. It saves the lives of our military and the innocent Iraq civilians. It's a flat out business proposition. What, oh, he has principles and ethics and it would be selling out, he would never do it... uh, huh... a person who kills people in his own cabinet that oppose him is full of morals and ethics and loyalty to who? He gets to walk free, go buy an island in the tropics (not near here please) and retire to play golf, hit a strip club, parasail... whatever retired military dictators do. Then I guess none have, they all play it out to death. Anyhow, what he's not interested... ok, then $1 billion bounty to the first Iraqy who takes him out =) Just saying.... :: Last thought for the day. The last few nights while trying to sleep, I find myself thinking about the universe. First off, ever since I quit drinking, I take a while to fall asleep, anywhere from about 30 minutes to 3 hours, sometimes more. So I have a lot of thinking time in general. So, the last couple nights have been about the heavens and stars (ok a couple of Movie Stars, but that was really late), and I keep coming back to an issue I have with science and its theories. How can the Universe be infinite and support the Big Bang? The Big Bang supposes that the Universe was started as an explosion of highly condensed matter and is still expanding. That's nice, so the Big bang has a beginning and an edge where it is growing? That is the complete opposite of the definition of infinity which has no beginning or end. So which is it? I know basic question, I'm just now getting around to it.::
Saturday January 18.2003 / 4:45 pm E.S.T. An Opportunity For Reflection - well I had an opportunity to reflect on life and how precious it is last night. So all of you that I haven't emailed in a while, I do think of you and appreciate all of you! Anyhow, to make this brief, I got held up last night, a gun was pulled and I got the unpleasant opportunity of looking down the barrel from about 2 feet away, small thing, but still lethal. I then experienced the nasty business of having it pressed against the back of my head while I leaned up against the counter. There were two guys involved that came into the store I was in. The other guy got pushed out of the store by the proprietor and that freaked my assailant, he just reached in my front pocket and grabbed what I had. They weren't the most experienced of criminals, so all they got was my grocery list... but the gun thing was a wee unsettling. So I guess it was an opportunity to remember how precious and fleeting life is, to appreciate what I have and plan for the future, but live for today... or as a dear friend of mine says, "blah, blah, blah...":: Fresh Ink and Happy Thoughts - Although the week ended with a bit of drama, it was rocking other wise. I had a good week for new business and it looks like things may go well for the beginning of the year. And the best part of the week was me getting my tattoo finished. I had completed most of the outline a couple days after x-mas, so most of this session was shading. It was about a five hour session, and my arm was definitely getting tender near the end. It's a dancing Chinese dragon, which always reminds me of my youth, especially the Singapore days. Seemed like every parade had a dancing dragon, they were never scary, but there was always a fantastic rhythmic percussion accompaniment. There's wind and energy swirling all around the dragon, which has the original Chinese symbol in the center that I had done several years ago - #56, the character "Lu" from the book of the iChing, translates to "wanderer." But the representation is not just about wandering, but as a traveler, it can be a reminder that you have a choice with every new experience. I can walk in and share my views with others, but more importantly it's an opportunity to be a guest and have the option to learn the views of others and other cultures. This applies not just to geographical boundaries, but any new experience, everyone I meet. I can choose to learn something or not.::
Thursday January 9.2003 / 3:25 pm E.S.T. Well the holiday season was good. Took some time off from work and played a bit. Went to the beach, drove around the island, went spear fishing. Got myself a new tattoo for X-mas and took a break from non-drinking for New Years eve (old years night). Needless to say, tolerance gone, I was told I had a good time, memory was lacking. Still struggling with STAY or GO. Or at least WHEN? Hope everyone had a great holiday season.
APPLE has been busy and I'm drooling over a few new items that won't be owned by me any time soon. THERE.com is an interesting concept. Finally, a true Avatar based chat area. Still in Beta, haven't tried it yet though. ATI has introduced an affordable AGP card for the Mac and it can drive 2 monitors. "Threats over pending was on Irag" - even little old Trinidad gets dragged in to it, but if you read the article, you'll understand why it's so difficult to get very concerned for local impact. Jarod and Subway may be common place, but KFC might be breeding their own. Here are some photos from the last 30 days or so. ::
:: June 20, 2003 |
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