Drunken Teenage Nights

We sat under the night sky, under the darkest blue bejewelled by starlight bright. Eyes blurry and souls free of worry, we drunk of our cups what tasted like gas and we spoke only that that was funny and airy and upsetting to our bellies, because in between our laughter, we farted and burped and threw up our victuals.

 

And neither yesterday nor tomorrow played in our minds, just dreams of pretty girls in plaid skirts. We spoke off Mary’s round derrière, off Jane’s fast protruding chest, off how Michael kissed Susan in the pantry, off how one day Cris will be with Grace and how Bob had heard Charlie say that Claire was such a babe.

 

And on that strangely dark night under witness of moon and stars alike, that strange beast that we call friendship, bound us tighter than any chain could ever effort, because though we sat, we stood one for all and indeed all for one, if stand at all could any one, let alone all of us.

 

We sat under the night sky and puffed on cured tobacco, sending silver smoke strings into the dark heavens to signal to the gods our content. Letting them know we dread nought except for that hour when the sun would rise and prayed for nought except that our cups never run dry.

 

And though silent outwardly, deep inside we doth sung, a song of the purest joy, that filled our hearts and made them beat faster and faster till we knew not what made us dizzy, the intoxicating elixir we consumed or the unadulterated bliss of drunken companionship.

 

Now, oft burdened with duty and obligation, I know what I  must have known then, before ambition and goal my mind annexed and made me regret those special nights, that those hours that seemed to pass us by, those minutes lost to drink and smoke, were time that could not have been better spent.

Silent Mind

I have only one voice,

It has been grossly misused,

For idle chatter and gossip.

 

I have only one mind,

In it I have conquered evil,

And brought peace to mankind.

 

Alas, the world can not hear my mind.

 

THE PROBLEM WITH DEMOCRACY

There is a fundamental flaw in democracy that sits right before our eyes and yet strangely out of our conscious. We all see it, but none dare grasp it, as if it is some viciousness that is beyond redemption and we must endure it as an inevitability, something we bare as a burden in exchange for the “righteousness” of the whole. Or perhaps an embarrassment, like an uncle whose homosexuality is never mentioned, hoping against hope that if ignored long enough it might go away. Perhaps it escapes you, him, them and gay Uncle Bob; Perhaps I alone see it, perhaps I am the little boy who sees the emperor’s nakedness.

 

I find it ironic that civilized societies that have not only taken up the eradication of the marginalization and/or subordination of the lesser, but have also made this a fundamental pillar of their justice, would champion, nigh, go into battle to promote a system that not only purposefully creates a minority, but also goes on to marginalize them. In the most polite layman talk, the central tenet of democracy is simply ‘the majority is right, screw the rest’.

 

I think I might need glasses, because I seem to be the only one who sees the massive white elephant in the room.

 

‘But man has a natural human right to elect who leads him’ you say, triggering a deep and hearty laugh from me, because you make it so easy; ‘…and how about the rights of the minority that the process has created, what happened to their right to be led by a leader of their choice, why has that been revoked for no other reason than the fact that they are fewer in numbers?’

 

There are no natural rights, no rights ordained by divine law and if they did exist the unjust right to choose would certainly not be one of them. The reality is that that which we mistake for or purposefully mask as natural right is nothing but the remnants of our liberties, those that where not sacrificed for the security of living in a society. The unwritten pact of a societal existence is that everyone should be free to do whatever he/she desires as long as it does not impact on the freedom of another.

 

We wrap these liberties in a divinious shroud, because once this social pact breaks down, society will collapse. We are afraid that the punishment we mute out to violators of this pact is not deterrence enough, so we place them in a higher power; we make belief that God himself decreed them and that the violation of them will lead to eternal damnation by hellfire, this very same reasoning gives us the notion of right and wrong and the concept of sin. But I digress.

 

It seems to me that if you and Gay Bob get to choose who leads me and what laws will govern me, because there are two of you and only one of me, that you are seriously impacting my freedom. Don’t get me wrong, the right to choose is a violation of this social pact, not because it installs a leader – that is unavoidable, leaders will arise in society whether democracy is in place or not – but because some get to have their choice fulfilled and others get to endure someone they actively acted against, because someone else’s choice is forced upon an individual who did not want it for no other reason than that he stands with a few; that is injustice. It would be fairer to have no one choose and let he with ability assume leadership through talent and natural endowment.

 

The injustice is made even greater considering, in the words of Will Durant, that the masses are easily misled and fickle, in layman words; they are stupid. Think about it; most stupid things are done in the safety of numbers, the more you are, the more likely you are to commit crime, it is called mob psychology, the bigger the crowd the more stupid it gets. Perhaps that is because there are more stupid people in the world; maybe that is why no one seems to comprehend the latent injustice in this supposedly just system or the fact that it is based on a hopelessly ridiculous, so ridiculous that it is laughable, ideology of the most popular being the most capable to lead (see Barrack and Hillary tickle a dead Greek).

 

Whatever the reason, democracy has been championed so severely that it has become blasphemous to question it. It has become so ingrained in our culture that it has settled somewhere within our subconscious as something natural, like breathing and eating. In the process it has grown larger than its intent; democracy, like other forms of government (yes, there are others) is meant to be a means not an end. The end should always be the happiness of all the people.

 

 

The Lie

Everything else was filed in his subconscious, that radio hum and that something else. All he heard was the reason he called, that soothing and beguiling voice, that calming and enthralling influence. Like petals, light and airy, her words fell, voicing an excuse in a blanket of ‘baby’s.

 

‘Baby, I am taking a walk, baby, can not talk right now, baby, I will call you when I get home, baby…’

 

His itch scratched he retired to bed. With a smile on his face his conscious bade him farewell, with his eyes closed his subconscious came to play. A walk in the middle of the night? So how come you heard the radio play? That something else was bated breath and all those ‘baby’s were uttered in guile.

 

With a start he awoke, bruised and battered where the petals fell.

An Evening Jog

I have never had use for vanity, until one day upon rising, where once there was sinew and firmness, I beheld a protuberance on my belly, soft and flubby, that my age and beer had bequeathed.

 

New found narcissism considered, the sun like Nero is merciless, setting this Christian a-burning while it fiddles in the African sky. So it is under the soothing of the night heavens that I launched my battle of the bulge to reclaim from lipids and fats my self esteem.

 

The confrontation was brutal; the pitiless road put musket fire in my lungs and raped every muscle, fibre and tendon in my legs, until, like a matador waving a red flag to distract a rampaging bull, my mind took flight to save me from failing.

 

While my feet ate up the tarmac, I flew to my child hood, then on to my first time, my love and hate, fantasy of riches, super hero dreams, thoughts of my future, nostalgia, sadness and joy; all welcomed distractions, until my mind pondered an Austrian fiend with arched eyebrows and a malevolence so vile that my thoughts augmented instead of lessening my physical disquiet.

 

Then and there, weary from the pounding I was taking from my trot and burdened by the reality that the devil lives in Austria, a miracle came to pass. The stars sensing my disillusionment beckoned my attention and put on a show for me of spectacle and grandeur, they shimmered and radiated, they glittered and flittered and they wrestled the monster Fritzl form my mind and like they did for the three wise men and the shepherds they guided me to my haven in cerebral peace.

Like Lambs for Slaughter

 

I find myself at risk of plunging this blog into monotony, because once again, this time by proceedings in Asia, I have been forced to revisit the topic of global warming and its effects.

In the wake of the Myanmar disaster it has occurred to me, in retrospect, that I might have appeared insensitive or appeared to trivialise the effects of global warming in my earlier posts (see covenient truth and convenient truth; the sequel). I would like to assure you that it was never my intention or goal. Indeed My heart goes out to the family and friends of the over 45,000 victims (over 15,000 dead and 30,000 displaced) of the latest manifestation of nature’s wrath.

It is important and indeed considered good technique in problem solving, to set emotions aside when analysing a problem. It is that technique that might have appeared to be insensitive or trivialising of the effects of global warming and in that same breathe it is that same technique I will employ now to analyse the human race’s greatest challenge yet.

There are two things that can not be denied. One is that global warming is happening, fuelled by human industrial and agricultural activity. There is no doubt that the human race (not the planet) faces one of its greatest menaces in global warming and its effects.

The second is that since global warming passed from being a theory whispered by stuffy foresighted but oft ignored scientist to a biting reality, we have come no closer to effecting or even devising an efficient strategy to combat it. The cutbacks in our energy largesse and emissions championed by most environmentalists are simply not a solution, because they ignore the primary root of the problem, our expansive human population.

There is a latent irony in the strategy of cutbacks that dooms it to failure in the long term. The cutbacks will provide temporary relieve from global warming and its effects and in essence recreate the environment that led us to prosper and grow in numbers in the first place and we will do exactly that. This increase in numbers will mean more industrial and agricultural activities, which will mean more emissions (enough to offset the cutbacks), which in turn will put us right back where we started; in the frying pan.

I do reserve hope, although un-rooted in reality, that a combination of energy and emissions cutbacks coupled with a world wide effort to check population growth will provide a lasting solution. But the reality is there is no way to put in place global policies to check population growth and even if you could we are all ready too many to begin with.

The real solution lies tantalisingly close, but just out of reach. The human population has to shed some weight. The answer is obvious, but there is no way to effect it outside of finding a new habitable planet and moving half the population to it.

The sad reality remains that we might suffer a few more of these disasters as our planet attempts to cull our numbers for us and we will be powerless to do anything about it, short of postponing the problem for future generations. The planet is serving us up like lambs for slaughter.

 

One True Hate

They say there is one true love for everyone,

That leaves a lot of room for hate.

I would rather one true hate for everyone,

So that we could love all the rest.

CONVENIENT TRUTH, the sequel.

 

Bob is an eco-warrior with no equal. He drives a hybrid car, he recycles, he saves energy, he does everything that is recommended by the green revolution that is sweeping the globe. Bob would like to drive big and fast cars, he would love to leave his TV on the whole night, but that would be hazardous to the planet. So he sacrifices a little so the planet can be saved. Bob won’t stop until he saves the planet.

 

Bob, if he was to stand alone, would have a carbon footprint smaller than most. Unfortunately, Bob does not stand alone; you see our Bob is married with 5 children and one on the way. If only Bob knew that all the sacrifices he has taken are negated 6 times over by the fact that he is responsible for burdening the planet with 6 more carbon footprints, probably most if not all lacking Bob’s commitment to go to war for the planet, perhaps he would realise the futility of his battles.

 

The problem with the planet, the key to defeating global warming does not lie in the small sacrifices championed by the green revolution. Driving hybrid vehicles and reducing electricity consumption will not save the species; it will only delay the inevitable global warming. It is time we faced the real problem, our run away population.

 

It seems to me that we have one of two options.

 

The unrealistic option is to reduce the human population or check its growth.

Short of a catastrophe a couple of rungs lower than the biblical flood, there is little hope that the planet’s runaway population will be brought under control. The reality remains that the human race has to be trimmed to be better accommodated by the earth’s resources, but in reality the opposite is happening. Not only do we have no hope in reducing our numbers, we are also failing miserably to check our growth. The global population is expanding at an alarming rate.

 

The more realistic option is to do nothing!

Even if we did have the capacity to trim our numbers, how would we decide who is to go? Fortunately for us, we don’t have to decide; we can leave nature to handle that for us through natural selection. The idea is to let global warming take its course and trim our population for us and hope that a few of us adapt fast enough to survive in the new environment to propagate the species.

 

Yes, let poor old Bob drive that big gas guzzler, let him fall asleep in front of his TV without worrying about the damage he has inflicted on the planet, let us all buy sunscreen and wait it out, let’s do nada, zilch! Our options can not get more convenient than that.

A CONVENIENT TRUTH

 

Al and his ilk will have us believe that this great, green rock that we ride so ungratefully round the sun is in some type of imminent danger. It is the rising temperature, they say, human activity is knocking mother earth to her knees.

 

Now, I don’t contest that human industrial and agricultural activity is pumping more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere and as a result skyrocketing the earth’s fever; what I don’t get is how that kills the planet.

 

The reality is that temperature change is nothing new to the planet. The earth is in constant flux, a flux generated by a wonderfully complex symbiotic relationship where changes in the planet are both a result and cause of changes in its organisms; both nudge and prompt each other to change in a complicated chicken and egg dance. The planet’s atmosphere is influenced by its organisms to behave like a schizophrenic kitchen electronic that swings from thinking it is a freezer to an oven and these changes in turn force its organisms to change and adapt to the new environments or die. The planet is obviously in oven mood right now (prompted by human activity) and no doubt will one day swing back to freezer mood. The question is ‘will we still be here, will we adapt or die?’

 

The planet is not in any danger; we are! This great seemingly selfless fight to save the planet, this great go green movement that is sweeping the globe is in reality a great selfish fight for self preservation. We are not fighting to save our planet, as Al would have us believe, we are fighting to save ourselves.

 

Up to date, no species has adapted better to its environment than man has and as a result no species has had a greater influence on the environment. Our successes in adaptation have led our numbers to skyrocket. The real reason why there is a strain on our natural resources is because we are simply too many (there, I have said it). The more people there are on the planet, the greater the need for industrial and agricultural activities to accommodate them which in turn leads to more greenhouse gasses. In short; because of our great success in influencing our environment, we have managed to poison it against us. Our activity is causing the environment to change to one which is not conducive to human life to check our growth (true to our symbiotic dance with mother earth).

 

The green movement, championed by people like Al, have attempted to stop this change. This is their strategy, this is how we save the planet; by arresting its natural process, by attempting to stop or slow down its flux, a flux that we prompted. Cutback on industrial and agricultural pollution, lower greenhouse emissions and then maybe we can arrest the warming. But there within lies the sweetest irony.

 

If our fight is successful, we would have, once again, managed quite successfully to influence our environment; we would have made it, once again, more conducive for our existence. A conducive environment means we will prosper even better which in turn will mean that our numbers, the size of our population, will only get bigger and we will be right back where we started. More numbers mean more agricultural and industrial activity (the increase in numbers will offset our cutbacks), which in turn means more greenhouse gasses which means planet earth goes into oven mood.

 

Yes, the great irony of the green movement is the more we succeed, the more we fail.

Where does happiness reside?

In sun filled days of my youth

The far and distant place where I grew up

In melodies of beautiful tunes

Flickering in and out of my conscious mind

In careless hours spent with my siblings

In a feverish daze curled up in my mother’s arms

My own childhood laughter

In a place I refuse to let go

It is in the memory of yesterday

But only in the hope for tomorrow

In the bliss of ignorance

Coz there is none in knowing it all

I now know where happiness resides

Only in my nostalgic mind.