Is War a link to Peace?

Do all peace signs and peace movements resemble war; are we not aware that fighting in war is a fight for peace? There are numerous questions that come to mind when one thinks of the passage, extracted from the book 1984 by George Orwell, “War is peace”. This passage triggers uncertainties regarding the idea that peace is not able to subsist in our world. If war, the thing that most people dread, is a link to peace then aren’t we living in a world bombarded with peace? If the higher authorities think that brainwashing the public into telling them that “war is peace” then they are most certainly concealing their strategies away from the masses. Obviously, a government akin to the one in 1984 mainly focuses on keeping their people appointed towards a certain aggressor, far from themselves, to annihilate the idea of rebellion and keep it far from one’s ability to think about. War usually injects hatred in one’s mind towards the aggressor, and the hatred obtained stands as a fundamental element that keeps masses not only incapable of rebellion but also unified. Moreover, this passage is marked by physiological manipulation as the masses are being subjected to the idea that war is something for their own benefit while being coerced subliminally to believe in this ideology. However, in reality war is something for the Party’s own benefit in order to maintain stability and the so-called “peace” in their society. Evidently, Orwell is conveying the message that humans have a diabolical instinct wherein they tend to prioritize their wants before others, thinking of only the benefits THEY will gain yet not taking into consideration the aftermath even if the outcome is a total catastrophe for the majority but themselves. Simply put greed has stained the human flesh!

Catastrophic Disparities

Chile Vs. Haiti

I know that Chile is a much bigger quake than Haiti but according to the media, Haiti wins the attention! They’re pointing our attention to a much less severe earthquake. The picture illustrates the media’s perception that is reflected upon the majority of the world. However, reality states a rather different view; the Chile quake was actually much more severe than the one that occurred in Haiti. But somehow all our attention is pointed towards Haiti and the aftermath that the earthquake brought along. Currently a very few people are concerned with the death toll and the aftermath disasters that the 8.8 earthquake brought along to Chile. In fact people are more concerned about the earthquake’s aftermath regarding the shift of the earth’s axis or whatever.  Media, media, media you attention-grabbing slithery sly poisonous snake, with the poison you inject you’ve got the whole publics’ attention, don't you?

From Paris with a Bias

Please note that the following entry contains spoilers.
I am quite sure that a several of you guys have watched the movie From Paris with Love. I personally liked the movie and John Travolta was hilarious; I was cracking up the whole time. However, it conveyed a major misconception that people outside of the Middle East would view it as reality.

Basically the movie revolves around a team of two American operatives for the CIA, working in Paris. Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays the role of James Reece, a personal aide to the American Ambassador of Paris and an under-cover operative for the CIA. He had an ideal life in the city of romance with his French girlfriend up until he discovered the horrid truth. John Travolta plays the role of Charlie Wax, a special agent with a humorous, daring, and an upfront persona. Wax has been sent to Paris to partner up with James to stop a terrorist attack. During their quest to “stop all evil” and bring in peace, James confront a bunch of complications and emotional hindrance associated with his love life. He discovers that his French girlfriend is a Muslim terrorist and she was using him to arrange terrorist attacks. This was very devastating for him to bear. Wax seemed to have no emotions toward James’s emotional distress as evident in the following quote said by Wax “that happened to me once in Cairo and twice in Beirut”. In the preceding quote Wax was referring to the fact that among the Arab women he gave his heart to, in those two Middle Eastern cities, he eventually discovered their true identity, "undercover terrorists". They mentioned the name of those two Middle Eastern cities, in the preceding quote, with the aim of presenting the audience with the misconception that only Muslim women and/or women from the Middle East are terrorists.

I find that the interrogation of suicide bombers conveyed a major misunderstanding of Islam as well. The following is a quote said by a Muslim suicide bomber during her interrogation “I want to do this because my faith [Islam] requires me to do it”. So if I were an outsider that had no idea about Islam, besides the misconceptions the media present us with, I would digest this quote in a different manner unlike a person who is well-informed of Islam. Showing that a committed Muslim must become a suicide bomber was just bogus.

Another thing I found attention-grabbing was the various locations around Paris the movie covered. It showed both the beautiful, peaceful and romantic side of Paris and the “Parisian underworld” that most of us never saw in movies. I have been in Paris a couple of times and I never thought it had this whole criminal world. It was a new angle of Paris, for a certain audience. We, the audience, always saw Paris as the epitome of an idealistic place, whether it was in movies or novels it was all the same Paris we were used to.

The movie in general was pleasant to watch and it wasn’t the typical action/romantic movie. The ending was very much unexpected. For those of you who haven’t watched the movie I recommend you to watch.

Gossip Girl settles in Kuwait!!

For those of you whom haven't heard about “Gossip Girl Kuwait” it is basically a Facebook group created by a high school girl that appears to be anonymous. It was revealed that she wrote under the name of a fake Facebook account that inevitably got hacked, hoping that they might unveil her true identity to stop the gossip from leaking to the public. She writes about the latest gossip that has been going on in high schools around Kuwait. Posting the latest gossip in the form of a list, she would include the person’s full name, their school and a comment about this particular person. The comments she includes are basically “the gossip” and they’re marked by absolute harshness and cruelty. “The gossip” is not only severe but it’s also a bunch of made-up scandals; it’s extremely offensive and insulting to the victims of those rumors. I find it completely foolish and immature to spread ruthless scandals to the public that are all untrue. The scandals spread widely all over Kuwait that even though I had no Facebook account I still received “the gossip” she posted on her group as a broadcast in my Blackberry. It’s really obvious that this girl is an avid fan of the hit TV series Gossip Girl. Is it not fascinating how a TV series led this girl to start her own replica of a gossip blog, yet in her case it’s a Facebook group! While she chuckles on her own, thinking that the peoples’ grudge will not get her, she is actually destroying the reputation of many. How big of an impact did a single TV series have on, literally, the majority of Kuwait’s adolescents? Quite big is what I have to say! Link