Don't kill me, brother.

 I've been involved in so many arguments the past two weeks, via personal conversations, e-mails, blogs, notes and some other kind of communication resources, that I could hardly handle the overwhelming amount of information that I was getting and sending. All of that display of interaction, back and forth, has been originated due to the recent Arab-Israeli conflict, specifically, the carnage in the Gaza Strip. My concern has been, is, and will be, the so called "collateral damage" or civilian casualties. I simply call it "unfortunate-innocent-civilian-killings-mostly-women-and-children". To me, the picture can't be clearer. The Israelis are using this carnage to get the favors of the voters. We have to remember that israeli elections are coming soon and apparently the motto is: "The more arabs killed, the more powerful we are", kind of thing. That's the only conclusion I drew, given that the israeli army is arguably the fourth most powerful army in the world and Israel boasts about having the best intelligence agency in the world (Mossad) so, why don't they send a commando operation to kill the real enemy, meaning the Hamas leaders? It's obvious that an operation like that wouldn't make enough noise in order to take that action as political propaganda, and that's where I really feel that life isn't worth it. How is it possible that a political force can kill hundreds of innocent people only for propaganda purposes? I really want to believe that all of that is just an enormous creation of my sick mind; but sadly, everything points to that conclusion, otherwise, what's the reason of bombing one of the most populated areas in the whole world? There's no way to be "precise" in such conditions. Let's be clear, I have no reason to be against the israelis, as a matter of fact, there are a lot of israelis against the actions in Gaza, but evidently, they're not publicly noted, it's not convenient that kind of information; but, the israeli leaders have proven throughout the years, that if they respected the UN when they granted them the state status, why not respect them with the other 100 plus resolutions the UN has declared against Israel? too convenient, isn't it?

To me, there's no way out. The israelis apparently are not seeing that right now, they are creating, nurturing, developing terrorists, created because of the brutality of their actions. At this very moment, a palestinian boy is giving birth a revenge wish that maybe he or she didn't have until now; or maybe, a little boy wasn't so sure to become a martyr until now and eventually, we'll have to wait until terrorist attacks start in Israel, and we all are going to condemn the palestinians and the "game" will start all over again and again and again.

 People, with violence we don't achieve peace, that's a fact. If we keep bombing each other, whether with home-made rockets or with sophisticated weaponry, whether with a fanatic wrapped with TNT or with State terrorism, we're not going to achieve anything but more violence. Is that too hard to understand? or are too many interests involved, enough to make us forget the lives of innocent people? If that's the case, damn! we are wrong, very wrong.

The brain and the drawer.

I was telling a friend the other day a story. I told him that if someone asks you to search for, let's say, a spoon, in a kitchen, but one of the drawers is closed, you start a frantic search and there's no spoon around. You search every drawer and space in the kitchen and nothing. However, there's this drawer that is sealed. You come back and say that there's no spoon in the kitchen. My question is, is it possible to really guarantee that there is no spoon in that kitchen in spite of that sealed drawer? What if the spoon is in that drawer? That's what I think about the brain. 

How can we really guarantee there are no psychic abilities or, that they really are factual? How can we really guarantee certain phenomena we don't understand and pretend to attribute them to other sources or unexplainable ones? And the most sensible of all the facts everyone doubts: how can we guarantee that God exists? Because of the miracles He's done throughout the millennia? Because of our comfort when we pray or the fact that we feel accompanied when we're with "Him"? How can we guarantee such things and engage in war based in arguably "Sacred texts" and murder millions of people in "His" name? Among other things we don't have a logical explanation and we create dozen of explanations in order to satisfy our intellectual curiosity, which is good, but in the moment they become the motto for murder or other extremist behavior, then the problem shows up. What if the explanations of all those things are hidden in that sealed drawer? Which, very likely, is the brain.

Let's get things straight; I'm not pretending to explain the whole truth, how could I. That is our own responsibility. What I'm trying to state is that we have to be more open and accept things that happen around us in a more critical way and see them from a different perspective.

To me is very significant the fact that the brain is still unknown in many aspects. The science has been able to walk on the moon and send satellites to planets that our bare eyes can't see. However, we can't fully understand our own brain; roughly 1,500 grams of neurons encapsulated in our skulls.

We have to remember that 500 years ago, nobody knew why we jumped and fall again. It was a mystery. Now, who argues about the Law of Gravity? I can foresee that 500 years from now, a lot of our "current mysteries" would be solved and not only that, they would be part of our systems, as the Law of Gravity is now for us.

People, let's accept other points of views as they come, let's be skeptical about things, let's analyze and think,; and above all, don't hurt people based on our beliefs or based in facts we really don't understand.

Remember, there is still a sealed drawer and maybe, the spoon is in there.

Love.

It isn't over.

Perfect. Barack Hussein Obama won the presidential race. It is a big accomplishment for a country where around 40 years ago, black people couldn't share buses, classrooms and bathrooms. However, the fact that our elect president is black doesn't mean that racism isn't still operative as a very dangerous and idiotic virus, still living in our midst.

The way I see it is that everything was aligned in order to grant that victory (Thank God, Allah, Buda, Krsna or whatever deity you want to attach the feat), meaning, John McCain was totally suicidal with his campaign, he's 72 and his health is not at its top, on top of that he chose the worst partner he could find. It was more than obvious he would lose. On the contrary, Barack Obama is a young, extremely intelligent, articulated and educated man, with an efficient campaign, among other virtues…hello? However, we can't forget that 49 million people voted for John McCain, that's scary. That means that half of the adult voting population of this country don't know what MaCain/Palin meant, are profoundly racist or a little of both (Unfortunately, I think the last option is the one). Is very intriguing to me the fact that many people I know is still doubting of what would come. To be honest, I also have my doubts, but not for Obama, not for his team, but for the "Man behind the curtain", for the complex net interwoven around a figure as the president of United States and the fact that if you don't follow certain "rules", you become disposable and are going to be, very likely, push out of the game; if you believe that thought too far-fetched, ask JFK.

Let's see what's going to happen; only time will tell. But what's for sure, neither racism nor ignorance is near to be over, unfortunately.

Let's keep observing, analyzing and thinking. Please, let's think.

Ungrateful mediocre.

"After 45 years, former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr posted a video clip on his website telling fans that any mail sent to him after Oct. 20 will not be read or answered. "It's going to be tossed," he says. "I'm warning you with peace and love, I have too much to do. So no more fan mail, Thank you. And no objects to be signed. Nothing".

This is the ultimate statement of one of the most mediocre musicians ever.

I've never been a Ringo fan; I think he's a mediocre drummer with a lot of luck and timing (not necessarily musical timing, by the way). He's only merit was being part of The Beatles, that's it. Actually, during he's work as The Beatles drummer; "ghost drummers" recorded a lot of tracks in their records and besides that, to be honest, I don't think he's made any contribution to the modern drumming. However, that's my personal opinion, I'm entitled to it and it's material for another blog. But the fact of the matter is that the audience, the crowds all over the world, the general public, the fans, are the ones which placed Ringo Starr where he is now, including his millions, that's an undeniable fact. But, at this time, he takes the luxury to deny all that and the simplest task of an artist, which is at least respond mails or sign objects, he's now tired of it. 

Ringo, let me remind you something: because of those fans you're now rejecting, you are where you shouldn't be now, if we really conclude our positions thanks to our talents and values per se. You can't be that ungrateful with life and worse of all, lose your memory in such a way. It's sad, very sad.

I used to say, when a lot of my friends (if not all of them) got angry because of my aversion against Ringo, that even though he's such a mediocre musician, maybe he was a nice person. I was totally wrong.

You're such a loser, buddy; in spite of your millions and your arguably place in music history.