Manpajeongshikjigok

"Calmness of Ten Thousand Waves"

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Does anybody else find it hilarious that China's national channel is called CCTV?

Who do you suppose is responsible?

What the Bleep is "Greening"?!

Apparently its Environment Day, or something of the sort. To show that we know of the existence of words such as bio-diversity (who cares what it means, its essentially PC to heart anything-diversity this century), what do we do? We launch a bio-diversity train.

 That's right: for the environment this year, we decide to burden our systems with yet one more non-essential, fully air-conditioned, carbon-fuel-guzzling juggernaut. For the children, of course. Because there's things we want to tell them, and though this is the century of travelling without needing to physically relocate, especially for knowledge dissemination, our Science and Technology Dept. considers a Train (jeez, does that word evoke a coal-dusted, Dickensian era for anyone else?)the absolutely most environmentally friendly way to do it.

 So of course, now when they argue again for the necessity of digging for coal in those last few 'no-go' areas of imaginary Indian forest reserves, there will be yet another reason clamouring for 'essential energy needs'. Happy Environment Day, children, and I hope you're paying attention.

 Everytime I hear the word "greening" (used to evoke an image of blinding white teeth in dark brown faces, and wierd accents. Yeah, I know) I remember this story about a Sikh LI battalion somewhere in Assam that had a very demanding CO. Though the place, being Assam, was never particularly parched or anything, for some reason the grass in the place was always drying and brown. The CO took this as signs of laziness and neglect (you know how the army is about spit-polished, spanking shined appearances) and was always on their cases to do something about it.

 Those poor dutiful (ex-peasant?) Sikh LI fellows diligently tried all they could think of, but no amount of vehement watering, weeding, turfing and love and attention seemed to have any effect. Things came to a head with the impending visit of a higher officer, and the COs ultimatum that he didn't care how, but by the time of the visit, a couple of days later, the grass had better be green or else.

 Well, its not for nothing that Surds have their whole rep of doing the impossible (or is that the unthinkable), for lo and behold, the day of the visit dawned on the greenest grass that little valley had ever seen. The visit went very well, and everybody noticed and complimented the lovely green grass.

When it was all over, the CO called some of his fellows over, very well pleased with the success of the whole thing. "Well done, fellows, I knew you could do it if you put your minds to it," He boomed, "So how'd you manage it then?"

 "Well, sir," one of the fellows snapped to attention, all puffed with pleasure, "like you said, it took some doing, but once we put our minds to it, it was only a matter of time. Though it was a bit of a close call, we weren't sure we'd be able to pull it off in time."

 "What do you mean?" asked the officer.

 "Well, first there was mixing just the right shade of green, and then we had to paint all of the grass in time for it to dry before the visit. Just thank the heavens it hasn't rained these last two days."

What a quaere fellow...

Queen (and Richard Dadd, or should that be the other way around? In the true way of madness, I'll show it how I came by it)- The Fairy Fellers Master Stroke

Still Spectating - Old School Style

60 Years of Parliament: Time to Quit?

Whether or not it has served its purpose over the last sixty years (both from perspectives of exalted idealism and pragmatic functionality), it has certainly outlived any use we might have had for it. The constitution of India is a piece of paper (or many pieces, after all we've done to it this last half century or so)all well and good for when it was written by a bunch of well meaning, optimistic folk from THE LAST CENTURY, IF NOT MILLENNIUM. They certainly did the best job possible keeping the technological constraints of their age in mind : when it wasn't possible to communicate from one end of this vast country to another in real time, the best solution for consensus was representation. So you picked a person you considered suitable for the job, and sent them far far way (a long time ago?) to some Xanadu (pronounced Dilli keeping in mind the various phonetic limitations of all the folks inhabiting this glorious land) and hoped, blind, for the next four years, that they were still alive and well, and doing a good job of voting for you as you would have voted for yourself on the issues that would determine how you were allowed to live your lives. Oh glorious age of blissful naivete and unblemished optimism and faith in the moral superiority of the chosen. Anyway, thanks to the lack of tech, most of them lived and died blissfully unaware of what was being done in their names [ah guiltless ignorance!]. Point is, it is now perfectly possible, and even feasible, to rule by plebiscite. Isn't it time to gently push this doddering mammoth from another era into the gigantic hole it has so thoughtfully dug for itself over the last sixty years and well and truly bury it. Mitti pa. I don't know about you, but I would rather pay my tax money (if and when I pay my taxes) to millions of young (or not) employable youth qualified for their jobs as technicians, linguists, statisticians or what have you (the whole army of folks that would be required to run a well oiled digital democracy by plebiscite) than paying for the privileged lifestyles of the current owners of this country, whose only qualifications for the job often end up being greater greed for the job and more ruthlessness than their opponents. Why am I paying to support, feed, clothe and send abroad first class with huge retinues these self-serving, short-sighted ossified folks none of whose policy decisions I agree with? For that matter, why are you? Plus have you noticed how its all feudalistic hereditary dynastic bull anyway? When you start identifying the folks in parliament one by one, its eerily reminiscent of a declining Mughal court or something - this one's nephew, and that one's daughter-in-law, or his grandson's wife's aunt's something or the other (the one's that married those industrialists).

Dior - Secret Garden - Inez and Vinoodh and Depeche Mode

What Can I Say

That hasn't already been said by him and her?

Caetano Veloso - Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar 1983

Why is one born too late for all the good things in life?!

Though if gossip is to be believed, he was at this point, while still married to his first wife, seeing a fourteen year old girl who became his second wife when she turned 17 in 1986. Really cool lady, divorced now, of course, but she's like a super hot-shot music and movie producer in Brazil. Produced two of the biggest domestic box-office hits ever.