The American Troops are leaving Iraq- „We’re comming home“! These cries were heard throughout various Tv and radio stations as the news broke. They left as they came- in the dark of the night, days before they were scheduled to leave. As this historic moment takes place I’ve come to ask myself what is going through the heads of these young men. What do they feel? Are they joyous? Are they scared about the future? Did they ask themselves why they were fighting in the first place?
The war has caused some major media storm, it has split a country into pro- and cons- and has laid the foundations for various books and TV documentaries. All the while I think it is important to discuss pros and cons of every affair in today’s politics I’ve been shocked to see so many people condescend the soldiers fighting in this war. Surely, events which occurred in Abu Grahib and Guantanamo are not pleasant; they must be investigated and those responsible convicted- yet what about those thousands of honest men who risk their lives ever day? What did they feel when their own people turned against them?
Some of these men are young boys fresh out of high school who wanted to use their war money to go to college- many of these young, hopeful individuals have died. Sure, maybe they died for a war they weren’t meant to fight- but they did. Shouldn’t we honour their memory by remembering how brave they were instead of condescending them for invading another country?!
We humans have a great way of blaming those who really aren’t responsible- the soldiers didn’t make the decision to invade Iraq by themselves. They were serving their country as it was run by their leader- however qualified or unqualified he may have been. They were fighting for freedom, for the liberation of an oppressed people- and all we can do is harass them from our sofas.
Instead of complaining about their uselessness, maybe we should ask ourselves what we have done to fight for our beliefs. When was the last time you spoke out about injustice? When was the last time you got involved to fight for what you believe? I’m not suggesting that you join the armed forces, but rather you should take a cue from them! They fight for their country, their hope of freedom daily-yet when do we fight? Its time for us civilians to get up from that couch and make a difference. These boys are fighting for us- its time that we fight for ourselves!
No matter what your opinion on this war was, has been, is, we should all salute these brave young men who risk their life in the fight for a free, better world!
Montag, 23. August 2010
Sonntag, 15. August 2010
See no evil?
When we are born, we are born into a world that will shape out personality and our habits. Yet what do we bring into this world? Are we but a mere white sheet which will be splattered with the colours of our experiences or are we already an outline of what will happen?
People say, babies or the purest form of being- they are neither good nor evil. They become what society makes of them. We are what society makes of us. Or is it really that simple? Are we born free of any trace of evil or is there something in us that determins from day 1 who we will be?
Children who bite one another- are they simply a proudct of this world or is there something within them that makes them do things? When people purposefully inflict sadness and pain upon others do they do it because they were shaped into doing so by those around them?
When people say "They were a product of their surroundings" i believe its all talk. Can life really be as easy as saying "blame it on circumstance". We are who we are because we have what we are goign to be deep within ourselves. Surely, what we experience in our lives has some sort of effect on what we become, yet we have everythign we will be in life already within us.
When we are born, we are born with all the assets we will need for the future. Goodness and badness are embedded within ourselves and will surface. Dont blame circumstance, dont blame society- you are who you are.
People say, babies or the purest form of being- they are neither good nor evil. They become what society makes of them. We are what society makes of us. Or is it really that simple? Are we born free of any trace of evil or is there something in us that determins from day 1 who we will be?
Children who bite one another- are they simply a proudct of this world or is there something within them that makes them do things? When people purposefully inflict sadness and pain upon others do they do it because they were shaped into doing so by those around them?
When people say "They were a product of their surroundings" i believe its all talk. Can life really be as easy as saying "blame it on circumstance". We are who we are because we have what we are goign to be deep within ourselves. Surely, what we experience in our lives has some sort of effect on what we become, yet we have everythign we will be in life already within us.
When we are born, we are born with all the assets we will need for the future. Goodness and badness are embedded within ourselves and will surface. Dont blame circumstance, dont blame society- you are who you are.
Sonntag, 8. August 2010
Caricature du jour
Its Monday folks, and its once again time for some thoughts for your week! This week i've dedicated to caricatures- the ones we create of others and of ourselves.
This theme started when i stumbled upon a CV of some one who is campaigning for a seat on a committee this fall. having known this person for quite some time, im pretty abt at telling what her interests are and what her talents are. Under "languages" she listed that she spoke german, english, french and italian. I almost fell off my chair. The only thing the girl knows in french is "merci" and her italian ends somewhere with "espresso" and "pizza frutti di mare". She furthermore listed travel and photography as her hobbies- though i have my doubts about whether you can count the 2 hour drive home as "travel"?! Yet, whos going to contradict her CV? It was then that i started to wonder: When we write things about ourselves how far do we go? Let me be honest with you- i dont really like this girl. Nonetheless, if she had all the talents she lited, id have said nothing. But when people blatently pretend that they ca do things they cant it bothers me. Yet, dont we all do it?
When we write things about ourselves, we tend to exaggerate the positive and tone down the negative. Being good at organizing turns into "planning expert" and restlessness turns into "great motivation". Why do we feel the need to impress people on paper when we know that once they meet us in person, they will likely realize it was bluff? Surely, no one wants to write on their CV "I may be unmotivated at times and between 12 and 3 im not really into hard work" and thats not what im campaigning for. Shouldnt we all be honest with ourselves, first and foremost? Instead of creating these uber images of ourselves, shouldnt we just love the person we are? Worst of all- couldnt we risk loosing ourselves amidst all the images we so carefully create?
Worse than the caricatures we create of ourselves are the caricatures we create of others. They may be people we arent very fond of, they may be our family, they may be our lovers- It continues to baffle me why we insist on making them into something they are not. Shy people thus become "arrogant", funny people become "obscene" and slim people become "anorexic". WHY? Why do we make people into something they aren`t? Maybe its our own securites which force us to find flaws in the people around us to make it more bearable for ourselves. Maybe all we're really trying to do is bring down the people around us because they appear to be doing so much better than ourselves. The grass is always greener on the other side, after all. On the other hand maybe its also envy. We envy the quiet person next to us because we're loud. We envy the funny people because we dont even get the jokes in the morning papers. We envy the skinny ones because for us, standing in front of the mirror is a fight- every day. In order to stop making people into things they're not, we first need to identify why we do so: are we envious or are we simply scared? Are we doing it because we feel of lesser value or because we want what they have?
When we create caricatures of ourselves and of those around us, we ultimately seek to compensate for something. We hide our own insecurities and self-percieved flaws behind images we've build to distract others. The only problem is that these caricatures can fall apart faster than a sandcaslte. If we pretend to be something we're not, it will always come out. It might take years- it may only take a day. At the end of it all, shouldnt we be loved and appreciated for being who we really are and not for something we pretend to be? How can somebody love us if they think we're a spanish opera diva when really we're a music teacher from New Jersey?
We all have strenghts and we all have weaknesses- maybe its time we stopped hiding them and came clean.
This theme started when i stumbled upon a CV of some one who is campaigning for a seat on a committee this fall. having known this person for quite some time, im pretty abt at telling what her interests are and what her talents are. Under "languages" she listed that she spoke german, english, french and italian. I almost fell off my chair. The only thing the girl knows in french is "merci" and her italian ends somewhere with "espresso" and "pizza frutti di mare". She furthermore listed travel and photography as her hobbies- though i have my doubts about whether you can count the 2 hour drive home as "travel"?! Yet, whos going to contradict her CV? It was then that i started to wonder: When we write things about ourselves how far do we go? Let me be honest with you- i dont really like this girl. Nonetheless, if she had all the talents she lited, id have said nothing. But when people blatently pretend that they ca do things they cant it bothers me. Yet, dont we all do it?
When we write things about ourselves, we tend to exaggerate the positive and tone down the negative. Being good at organizing turns into "planning expert" and restlessness turns into "great motivation". Why do we feel the need to impress people on paper when we know that once they meet us in person, they will likely realize it was bluff? Surely, no one wants to write on their CV "I may be unmotivated at times and between 12 and 3 im not really into hard work" and thats not what im campaigning for. Shouldnt we all be honest with ourselves, first and foremost? Instead of creating these uber images of ourselves, shouldnt we just love the person we are? Worst of all- couldnt we risk loosing ourselves amidst all the images we so carefully create?
Worse than the caricatures we create of ourselves are the caricatures we create of others. They may be people we arent very fond of, they may be our family, they may be our lovers- It continues to baffle me why we insist on making them into something they are not. Shy people thus become "arrogant", funny people become "obscene" and slim people become "anorexic". WHY? Why do we make people into something they aren`t? Maybe its our own securites which force us to find flaws in the people around us to make it more bearable for ourselves. Maybe all we're really trying to do is bring down the people around us because they appear to be doing so much better than ourselves. The grass is always greener on the other side, after all. On the other hand maybe its also envy. We envy the quiet person next to us because we're loud. We envy the funny people because we dont even get the jokes in the morning papers. We envy the skinny ones because for us, standing in front of the mirror is a fight- every day. In order to stop making people into things they're not, we first need to identify why we do so: are we envious or are we simply scared? Are we doing it because we feel of lesser value or because we want what they have?
When we create caricatures of ourselves and of those around us, we ultimately seek to compensate for something. We hide our own insecurities and self-percieved flaws behind images we've build to distract others. The only problem is that these caricatures can fall apart faster than a sandcaslte. If we pretend to be something we're not, it will always come out. It might take years- it may only take a day. At the end of it all, shouldnt we be loved and appreciated for being who we really are and not for something we pretend to be? How can somebody love us if they think we're a spanish opera diva when really we're a music teacher from New Jersey?
We all have strenghts and we all have weaknesses- maybe its time we stopped hiding them and came clean.
Montag, 2. August 2010
Around the world in 30 days
Yours truly is back from her holiday and ready to spice up the rest of your summer with some mind dynamite!
Travelling the world is supposed to widen your horizon and to introduce you to various cultural aspects of the place, which you’re visiting. For me, travelling is more than just discovering. Its about immersing yourself in something unknown and to come out of the experience with an open heart and mind.
To my great dismay, many people seem to travel only to criticize. Just recently, I spent my lunch at an Ice Cream parlour in the U.S, only to hear the people behind me (nationality omitted) complain about “all the fat people”. Various studies have shown, that U.S citizens are, infact, heavier built than Europeans. This is no hidden fact, its widely known. So someone explain to me WHY you travel to the U.S and then complain about the fat people there? You’re in an ice cream parlour-you’re bound to run into some heaver people… My day got even weirder when the same people who complained about heavier built individuals ordered a super sundae which is intended for 6 people, at ate it…there were two of them.
There are other moments, like when people travelling to the middle east complain about seeing only veiled women- you knew this before hand! Why do you travel to a place you already have misconceiving about? Sure, sometimes you have to travel to places you’re not fond of- but why discern them immediately?
Throughout my time abroad, there was something, which irked me even more. “Urgh, our steak house at home is so much better!” I detest people who travel only to insist that everything is better at home. Please explain to me why you travel at all if home is so great?!? Sure enough, there are restaurants, which really don’t hit home, such as the “super trendy” steakhouse in New York City that served their filet mignon butterfly style, but there are so many great things to discover while travelling that you turn a blind eye on if you compare everything to home.
Travelling means seeing places- not picking them apart. What’s the point in stepping on the airplane if you’ve shut down your open-mindedness already? At the end its all about being open to new possibilities. Travel means seeing new things or rediscovering things you already knew.
Open your heart, free your mind and discover.
Travelling the world is supposed to widen your horizon and to introduce you to various cultural aspects of the place, which you’re visiting. For me, travelling is more than just discovering. Its about immersing yourself in something unknown and to come out of the experience with an open heart and mind.
To my great dismay, many people seem to travel only to criticize. Just recently, I spent my lunch at an Ice Cream parlour in the U.S, only to hear the people behind me (nationality omitted) complain about “all the fat people”. Various studies have shown, that U.S citizens are, infact, heavier built than Europeans. This is no hidden fact, its widely known. So someone explain to me WHY you travel to the U.S and then complain about the fat people there? You’re in an ice cream parlour-you’re bound to run into some heaver people… My day got even weirder when the same people who complained about heavier built individuals ordered a super sundae which is intended for 6 people, at ate it…there were two of them.
There are other moments, like when people travelling to the middle east complain about seeing only veiled women- you knew this before hand! Why do you travel to a place you already have misconceiving about? Sure, sometimes you have to travel to places you’re not fond of- but why discern them immediately?
Throughout my time abroad, there was something, which irked me even more. “Urgh, our steak house at home is so much better!” I detest people who travel only to insist that everything is better at home. Please explain to me why you travel at all if home is so great?!? Sure enough, there are restaurants, which really don’t hit home, such as the “super trendy” steakhouse in New York City that served their filet mignon butterfly style, but there are so many great things to discover while travelling that you turn a blind eye on if you compare everything to home.
Travelling means seeing places- not picking them apart. What’s the point in stepping on the airplane if you’ve shut down your open-mindedness already? At the end its all about being open to new possibilities. Travel means seeing new things or rediscovering things you already knew.
Open your heart, free your mind and discover.
Abonnieren
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