Political Agenda

Wheeeeeeeeew. Got to catch my breath, as I have been all over the place today! From literature lecture, to chemistry woes (and finding out I have an assignment due tomorrow!) and planning out the next couple months, year, couple years, my life?

I joined the hiking club today, so I'll be going to Lake District for a weekend in a couple of weeks. Mental note: buy hiking boots and raincoat. I also found a trip for international students to Blackpool next weekend, as well as a town dinner and ceremony for international students (a special invite from the mayor!) For my own sake, let me recap all the things I've gotten myself into: belly dancing, floor hockey intramurals (which apparently is indoor field hockey with big heavy sticks and I have no shin guards :S), hiking club, international students club, RAG Morocco Hitch, JSoc, ultimate frisbee, debate society, Student Advisor for Leodis, and I think those are the only commitments I've made... yikes. Also working on getting another job (Leodis subwarden, or working on campus), and of course doing my homework!


Now to assume a more serious tone, I'd like to address an issue that concerns me personally. We've all heard Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's allegations that the holocaust never happened. As if that isn't bad enough, apparently he's changed his mind, as his stance is now a criticism of how the genocide of 6 million Jews overshadows the death of 60 million in WWII. Although I, and surely any other moral human being, completely recognize the atrocities of war, I have trouble understanding how a president can credibly change his argument in this manner because he is now implicitly acknowledging that the Holocaust occured. I'd expect this from an ignoramus, but not from a president. I'm sorry but someone of this caliber of intelligence is not fit to govern a country, nor to localize the development of nuclear weapons...

Further, I quote from a news source (http://ws.giyus.org/points/point?id=271):

"The Holocaust disturbs us so deeply because it demonstrates that none of the things we associate with the advancement of civilization--peace, prosperity, industrialization, education, technological achievement--free us from the dark side of the human soul. Just as there is evil in the heart of every man, there is evil at the heart of even the most "civilized" human society. It is a humbling recognition. Man and society are both capable of the most appallingly depraved behavior. Only in the case of society, it occurs on an industrial scale."

After reading Conrad's "The Secret Agent", a novel on war and revolution, and considering that Orwell's 1984 is one of my favourite novels, and of course, Fight Club, I am absolutely disturbed by the ineptitude, ignorance, and incompetence of too many global figures of authority. And when you add the uselessness of the UN and Kofi Annan, George Bush, the inappropriateness of Tony Blair's wife, it's just too tragic to ask what our world has come to.

Sheesh! Peace luvs.