Solitary.

“The girl’s father is said to have married her off against her mother’s wishes to a close friend in order that he could pay off a debt…” (Young Saudi, BBC, Para-5)

Shocking words to hear when you’re living your life in a westernized house. Philosophers often ask, since we think in words, if we did not speak a language, how would we think? What is a language? The novel Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin is a series of essays that he wrote about a life of an African-American living in a westernized culture. The book was written in 1960, and some of the thoughts portrayed are shocking. Some experiences appalling. I highly suggest this book, it is a very good read with lots of useful information in it. Back to the focus; one of the essays which is called “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Than Tell me, What is it?” Speaks of the different thoughts on language. Whether language is a culture or not. I quote from the novel- “Language, incontestably, reveals the speaker. Language, also, far more dubiously, is meant to define the other-and, in this case, the other is refusing to be defined by a language that has never been able to recognize him. People evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances, or in order not to be submerged by a reality that they cannot articulate…” (Notes of a native son, Baldwin pg780)

Baldwin goes on to talk about language- “What joins all languages, and all men, is the necessity to confront life, in order not inconceivably to outwit death:The price for this is acceptance, and achievement, of one’s temporal identity…” These are great words that I believe truly define the philosophical meaning of language. Having a language could be defined the same way as having a spoken word. Baldwin also speaks of this “… It goes without saying, then, that language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power. It is the most vivid crucial key to identity.” Now, if we take the role of language in our society paralleled to having the ability to speak to the range public, speaking your mind and opinion freely, we realize that it is clearly a very very large aspect in our society. Not having the right to voice your opinion is the same as not having the right to know a language.

Injustices such as lack of freedom of speech happen around the world. Since I have experience, I will mention the Middle East, for example. The Baha’i faith being a new religion is one of the prime examples that has been shut down by the Iranian government simply due to their practice of religion. Just one example of this is, not too long ago, seven Baha’i’s were imprisoned, and still are awaiting their trial on the account of Espionage. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/17/AR2009021703011.html). For those of you who don’t know what Espionage means, it is basically a crime of withholding information or spying on a certain activity. This is absolutely ridiculous. I personally hate injustices, and when something like this happens I just want to punch the idiots in charge in the face. Official note to the Iranian government: No one falls for your bull shit, you are abusing your level of powers in the wrong way, and you will not be in power much longer. A government who tries to force a whole country to abide by a certain perspective will surely fall.

I also have this article on a Saudi Arabian girl (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/17/AR2009021703011.html) Her father married her to an older man whom she did not like, simply because her father wanted to pay off a debt. As the article says “The case prompted Saudi officials to say it would start regulating the marriages of young girls.” as if fathers there are not strict enough, from now on the government will start regulating the way young daughters get married. Now imagine Stephen Harper or Barrack Obama standing on the podium and announcing that from this day on no one is allowed to be any other religion than Christian and that young girls cannot be married to someone whom the government does not confine with.

This, in my opinion, is so ugly that I honestly cannot bare anymore. I hope to God that these ugly, monstrous, creatures whom they call their political parties, get taken off the edge of the world soon.
That’s my rant.
PEACE

(http://fahand.blogspot.com/)

Quarantine.

“The UN warned the outbreak might become a pandemic.” (BBC News)

“The United States stepped up preparations for a possible swine flu epidemic, and Canada confirmed its first cases on Sunday as researchers worked to determine how contagious the virus could be.” (CNN)

“n the United States, health officials declared a public health emergency on Sunday as they confirmed 20 cases of swine flu in the country and said they expected to see more as scientists probe the outbreak.”(CBC News)

As North America’s biggest news sources report, we could possibly be in danger. The “Swine Flu” as it’s known, is mainly caused through pig interaction. Swine Influenza is caused by Orthomyxoviruses endemic, mainly found in pigs. It’s uncommon that it develops in a human system, though when it does, it can cause some serious damage. There have been outbreaks in the past, namely the 1976 outbreak in the US that caused 25 % of the population to be vaccinated.

In all this dilemma, I can’t help but examine the situation and try to find a reason why something like this would happen. Perhaps it’s purpose is to show us that we need to unite as a people. We fight over nothing, kill over nothing. Life, which was beautiful in the past, has become worthless today. A simple number measured by another number. A man’s value depends on how much paper he has. Charts, facts, figures. We have become worthless. So I guess when a disease like this breaks out, the whole world has a reason to unite and fight against an external power. A power that’s not measured in dimes and pennies, but in lives. We realize how important each person is. The Mexican bank lent the Mexican government $ 225 000 000 dollars to help out. This covers medicine and more doc’s etc.

So although many people are dying a suffering death, I guess my point is that I would rather die in unification rather than isolation.

Aeon.

Your worlds filled with insanity, our humanity, has turned itself into profanity
Fanity, all I ask for is a little itty bitty, I just wanna live in a peace filled city
As the B.I.G. man said himself, mo money mo problem, solve em, you cant desolve em
Think quick and act quicker, problems cant be solved usin’ liquor, take these lyrics and put em on Flickr
Cuz my knowledge is an art, all these lyrics come from the heart, and i can start, whenever you want me to.
Test me, your shit don’t caress me, ask who the best? me. Cuz ive been blessed B, and every year
im voted best dressed see.
Challenge me and I’ll leave you stressed, locked up all depressed, I am above the rest.
Alrights thats enough with the self grattitude, second thought, ill never stop havin this attitude
Im so high you cant put me on a latitude.
So like I promised, my lyrics always make you think, so let me allow you to forget to blink
Reveal this message, the reason I’m writin this is so you can learn, Im gonna make you yearn
Our world is filled with ego, take a look in perspectives like the eagle, these lyrics should be illegal.
Dont look at your world in one manner, burn you daily planner, and live your life, they say sometimes you get stronger by being on strife, now im not sayin take a knife and kill your wife, all im sayin is make a change, because you can take your life and exchange, because there is no range.

Artisticality.

Video Of The Week:

K-OS’s video: 4 3 2 1

Chorus:
4 3 2 1 what were fighting for 3 2 1
I don’t know what for 3 2 1
what were fighting for 3 2 1
i don’t know what for, for, for,

Hook:
Clap your hands everybody
don’t act like you never saw that
just clap your hands everybody
and everybody clap your hands
Clap your hands everybody
don’t act like you never saw that
just clap your hands everybody
and everybody clap your hands

Verse 1:
You say hello I say goodbye
don’t leave me high off clothes to dry
feels so good when your bye my side
check my done depth playin’ my role like were fly yea whatever
I thought together would toughen the leather
and never pull put the pleasure under pressure
but it seems all that glitters is gold
baby you sold your soul for the golden goose
but the truth is aslong as i keep ryhming
eyes keep shining soul stays divine
I remember ‘96 we used to dance
i had two pairs of pants but you had that glance
yo we used to hang out in the park and juct chill
now we swing swords in the dark and act ill
doesn’t really matter i got to go
peace the maistros that rock fo sho we did it

Chorus(x1)

Verse 2:
Guess whos back but never left it all
with a brand new pencil and a crystal ball
let it fall
sometime break down the wall
you can’t give what you have to recieve it all
its the truth
full proof
but fools need proof
so I slide to the side and I act uncool
But its just an act
cause i might react
to those who never held a mic that fed back
listen its just a day in the life
of a man living in the dark on headlights
wake up to dealin
village raised the villan
I wirte raps well I watch myself on the ceiling
4321 its the countdown
I roll like a laserbeam through the downtown
mind over matter maintain the glow
piece to metric LJ (era) oooh..

Chorus(x1)

Hook:
Clap your hands everybody
don’t act like you never saw that
just clap your hands everybody
and everybody clap your hands
Clap your hands everybody
don’t act like you never saw that
just clap your hands everybody
and everybody clap your hands

Luxuriouse Bliss.

Alright, so here it is. The World’s top 100 companies. These guys are huge monsters, a couple of them combined have more net profit than a whole country. With some of these companies, the average income is around $100/minute. I don’t know about you, but at my job right now I make a little less than $6000 an hour. Regardless, most people hate on these guys simply because of the amount of dough they rake in. To me, sure I’m a little jelouse and wouldn’t mind matching my clothes with my super car every morning, but I think they really deserve it. They work hard, and who ever has minds like these men do, please go ahead and start AND run you’re own business and become like them. That’s a challenge. To get back to statistics, These are the top 100 company revenues. Let’s keep in mind that revenues are not to be associated with gross income, revenue is the total amount taken from all the stores, similar to net income. The actual profit made by the monsters is to the right. I find it amusing that certain companies, not mentioning any names of course (Ford and General Motors) actually take in negative money. Yes that’s right, their income is NEGATIVE. That means for every car they sell, they are losing money. I work with commission, so it would be funny for my boss to ask me to try not to sell since turning away customers would actually make the company more profit. GM lost close to $39 mill this year, I found that absolutely hysterical. Mr. Rick Wagoner; how on earth do you manage to lose 39 million dollars. I’ve heard of profit going down [-3.9%] but how do you manage to lose around -21% in profit. They raked in $182 million, when you do the math, that means for every dollar’s worth of cars they sold, they actually lost 21 cents. Businesses these days, I think a monkey could manage these guys better. So I’m talking smack, so I’ll give you my solution. If you were smart, you would manage cars to what the economy is in need of. Instead of putting sync and 4.2 Liter engines in your cars, try lowering the gases. Recently I was doing some car shopping, the quote I got from a GM dealer was that their cheapest car was around 28 grand after taxes (That’s a 2009). Ridiculous. In comparison, companies like Toyota and Honda make excellent engines and their cheapest cars start at $13,995(www.toyota.ca www.honda.ca) Smarten up, Cheapen your cars. The one good thing they have going for them is the exterior of their cars-built strong or “Tough”. Work on your engines, work on the interiors, and stop focusing the company targets on 70 year old single women with no children. Oh, and truck people. Make some everyday people cars. A little more earth friendly. A little more Japanese and German-Whoops, did I just say that?

Fortune 500

Rank Company Revenues Profits
($ Millions) ($ Millions)
1 Wal-Mart Stores 378,799.0 12,731.0
2 Exxon Mobil 372,824.0 40,610.0
3 Chevron 210,783.0 18,688.0
4 General Motors 182,347.0 -38,732.0
5 ConocoPhillips 178,558.0 11,891.0
6 General Electric 176,656.0 22,208.0
7 Ford Motor 172,468.0 -2,723.0
8 Citigroup 159,229.0 3,617.0
9 Bank of America Corp. 119,190.0 14,982.0
10 AT&T 118,928.0 11,951.0
11 Berkshire Hathaway 118,245.0 13,213.0
12 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. 116,353.0 15,365.0
13 American International Group 110,064.0 6,200.0
14 Hewlett-Packard 104,286.0 7,264.0
15 International Business Machines 98,786.0 10,418.0
16 Valero Energy 96,758.0 5,234.0
17 Verizon Communications 93,775.0 5,521.0
18 McKesson 93,574.0 913.0
19 Cardinal Health 88,363.9 1,931.1
20 Goldman Sachs Group 87,968.0 11,599.0
21 Morgan Stanley 87,879.0 3,209.0
22 Home Depot 84,740.0 4,395.0
23 Procter & Gamble 76,476.0 10,340.0
24 CVS Caremark 76,329.5 2,637.0
25 UnitedHealth Group 75,431.0 4,654.0
26 Kroger 70,234.7 1,180.5
27 Boeing 66,387.0 4,074.0
28 AmerisourceBergen 66,074.3 469.2
29 Costco Wholesale 64,400.2 1,082.8
30 Merrill Lynch 64,217.0 -7,777.0
31 Target 63,367.0 2,849.0
32 State Farm Insurance Cos. 61,611.6 5,463.7
33 WellPoint 61,134.3 3,345.4
34 Dell 61,133.0 2,947.0
35 Johnson & Johnson 61,095.0 10,576.0
36 Marathon Oil 60,044.0 3,956.0
37 Lehman Brothers Holdings 59,003.0 4,192.0
38 Wachovia Corp. 55,528.0 6,312.0
39 United Technologies 54,759.0 4,224.0
40 Walgreen 53,762.0 2,041.3
41 Wells Fargo 53,593.0 8,057.0
42 Dow Chemical 53,513.0 2,887.0
43 MetLife 53,150.0 4,317.0
44 Microsoft 51,122.0 14,065.0
45 Sears Holdings 50,703.0 826.0
46 United Parcel Service 49,692.0 382.0
47 Pfizer 48,418.0 8,144.0
48 Lowe’s 48,283.0 2,809.0
49 Time Warner 46,615.0 4,387.0
50 Caterpillar 44,958.0 3,541.0
51 Medco Health Solutions 44,506.2 912.0
52 Archer Daniels Midland 44,018.0 2,162.0
53 Fannie Mae 43,355.0 -2,050.0
54 Freddie Mac 43,104.0 -3,094.0
55 Safeway 42,286.0 888.4
56 Sunoco 42,101.0 891.0
57 Lockheed Martin 41,862.0 3,033.0
58 Sprint Nextel 40,146.0 -29,580.0
59 PepsiCo 39,474.0 5,658.0
60 Intel 38,334.0 6,976.0
61 Altria Group 38,051.0 9,786.0
62 Supervalu 37,406.0 452.0
63 Kraft Foods 37,241.0 2,590.0
64 Allstate 36,769.0 4,636.0
65 Motorola 36,622.0 -49.0
66 Best Buy 35,934.0 1,377.0
67 Walt Disney 35,882.0 4,687.0
68 FedEx 35,214.0 2,016.0
69 Ingram Micro 35,047.1 275.9
70 Sysco 35,042.1 1,001.1
71 Cisco Systems 34,922.0 7,333.0
72 Johnson Controls 34,678.0 1,252.0
73 Honeywell International 34,589.0 2,444.0
74 Prudential Financial 34,401.0 3,704.0
75 American Express 32,316.0 4,012.0
76 Northrop Grumman 32,032.0 1,790.0
77 Hess 31,924.0 1,832.0
78 GMAC 31,490.0 -2,332.0
79 Comcast 30,895.0 2,587.0
80 Alcoa 30,748.0 2,564.0
81 DuPont 30,653.0 2,988.0
82 New York Life Insurance 29,279.6 1,141.8
83 Coca-Cola 28,857.0 5,981.0
84 News Corp. 28,655.0 3,426.0
85 Aetna 27,599.6 1,831.0
86 TIAA-CREF 27,526.0 1,438.8
87 General Dynamics 27,294.0 2,072.0
88 Tyson Foods 26,900.0 268.0
89 HCA 26,858.0 874.0
90 Enterprise GP Holdings 26,713.8 109.0
91 Macy’s 26,340.0 893.0
92 Delphi 26,160.0 -3,065.0
93 Travelers Cos. 26,017.0 4,601.0
94 Liberty Mutual Insurance Group 25,961.0 1,518.0
95 Hartford Financial Services 25,916.0 2,949.0
96 Abbott Laboratories 25,914.2 3,606.3
97 Washington Mutual 25,531.0 -67.0
98 Humana 25,290.0 833.7
99 Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance 25,268.2 722.0
100 3M 24,462.0 4,096.0

Dark Light.

As the city flashes tonight, i sit and stare at this blank paper
look up, smile, and fake’er
take a moment to snap, rattaa tat tat,
homie you cant rap, yea that was a slap
take these lyrics as a tuturial,
wrap up your none sense and have a memorial
cuz when i rap im smooth like a morning oriole.
Yo im tellin’ myself im takin’ this life for granted,
took a thousand out the bank and spent it, now im left franted
i need someone to grant it.
See my lyrics aint delivery, they’re like delisio
and when im gone you gonn’ miss me yo.
I sit there and tell myself to hit left hit right
its my time to fight, ima spark the night, i gotta shine tonight.
See problem is all raps about smackin a bitch, threats to kill over a snitch
this damn systems got a glitch, all annoys me like an itch.
Sporadic, be different and you’ll be abnormadic
ill be rich and you’ll live your life like a nomadic.
Purpose of my words is to make you think
have you so hypnotized you’ll forget to blink
tattoo my name on the chest and ill call u ink
homie i can be your shrink, psychological
shits illogical

thousandwords.

It’s been a little while since I last updated my post, I’ve been busy with life. I recently found some abstract pictures I had taken in the past and thought it would be nice to throw them on my blog. Most of them are photoshoped (in case you were wondering). I think every picture can describe a thousand words, and those thousand words can be different for every person. That is the beauty of photography, same angle-different perspectives. Here’s a challenge: Try and think of a well describing abstract name for each of the pictures, you can comment on them with the names you’ve thought of.

Break.

Why don’t we take a break from world issues and problems with our world, and just have fun for a night. To start off with, I love youtube. I think it’s above there with the creation of light and phones by Mr. Bell. You can find priceless stuff on it. I was introduced to this guy by a co-worker of mine, I think he’s hilarious. His name is Demitry Martin, he is a young guy (young being 36), who does not add interesting figures to his comedy act, but he adds comedy to his interesting figures. He really gets you thinking. He is an interesting character, he got into New York Law school but after the first two years, he dropped out. It’s not that he couldn’t do it, he just did not want to. Which brings an interesting thought to my mind, at what point do you sit down with yourself and look at your past, think about your future, and ask yourself “Is this where I want to be with my life”. Regardless, time for some fun.
Check him out.

Dedicate.

I’d like to dedicate this post to a special time in our history. If you haven’t noticed from my past posts, it is clear in my opinion that the world is at a time of distress and failure. Economies, head figures, systems are starting to fail. Now, in our history, we can argue that this has happened before and the economy rebuilds itself. It is important to take a moment and recognize that we are living in the most critical time in our history, and perhaps our future. We are the link between the past generations, and the generations to come. Our decisions today shape our tomorrow.

It is arguable in many people’s opinions to claim that history repeats itself. We go on through day, our children read in their textbooks about the cruelty and injustices that we failed to recognize in our past. We wake up in the morning, and the average person most likely reads their newspaper and coffee before going to their daily jobs, repeating their daily routine. But the factor that has and is still bringing our world down is input. We fail to recognize problems and address them. The Holocaust was a time in our past where we let six million people of our own species be killed, by our own species, for no other reason than a different belief. To this day we regret our lack of input, but the question must be asked; if the exact same thing were to repeat itself, would we ignore it or would we quickly act against it? This question is simply answered by our current actions. We choose to ignore. The Head figure for the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad decides to take a vacation and visit a tribute to the United States of America, go to one of their top universities and claim to millions of people that the Holocaust did not exist. And yet we go on through our lives, perhaps we choose to throw a heckle or two, but yet we do not address the issue.

So you’re probably wondering where I’m getting with this. You’re also probably wondering why I have a picture of 7 people on the top of this post. Well let’s simplify things. The Baha’i faith, a recent religion, was found in 1844 in Iran. The Baha’is simply believe in world peace and unity. You’re probably saying to yourself ‘well there are millions of people in the world who want the same thing, but is it possible?’ Well ask yourself this question; as our society advances and people along with science grow, do our beliefs and religions need not to grow as well? Our society is like a maturing person, the more it grows, the more it learns about it’s outer world. The parent, whose role it is to educate and nurture the child, cannot teach him about subjects such as political manners, the world, the child’s future etc. This is simply because the child is not ready for these lessons and would not register any of them into his mind. Now, as the child grows and matures, it is educated and begins to learn lessons. This can be either by experience or on it’s own. The more the child grows, the more the parent can teach the child. Our world is the same way, the more we grow and advance as a society, the more advanced our beliefs NEED to be. Therefore, the world at this time is in need of a new religion that can restore world order. These are some of the Baha’is beliefs in a nutshell.

In many parts of the world, it is hard to practice beliefs, religions and voices. In Iran, the Baha’is are being tortured and killed simply for their beliefs and practicing their religion. I will not go on too long about this since below I have attached a link that is perhaps a stepping stone, or a pillar, to raising awareness on our situation today. Personally speaking, I have lost an uncle due to the Iranian government’s views on allowing the people of it’s nation to practice beliefs and voice opinions. My uncle was martyred due to practicing the Baha’i faith. Perhaps it is time for a propaganda to voice the minority’s voice. Which is exactly what one of my favorite actors, Mr. Rainn Wilson has done in the following article:

Rainn Wilson\'s voice on the Baha\'is of Iran

Also, there is a very interesting interview with Mr. Wilson attached below:

Interview with Rainn regarding Baha\'is

Swagger.

A-milli, A-milli, A-milli.

Lil wayne, where to begin with the little gangster? His words dont make sense, he’s smaller than my arm, he goes on and on in his songs about absoloutly nothing, he’s offensive to women, and yet I really cannot stop listening to him. When “The Carter III” came out, I was one of the first people to get it and put it on repeat in my car. I publicized it, and thought it was most likely one of the greatest CD’s I have ever listened to. The guy is an excellent artist, but he’s also an excellent entrepreneur. He sells his music and his product the same way Wendy’s and McD’s sell their burgers everyday. He has a total of 21 published albums, take a wild guess how many songs that is.  He’s been in movies such as Baller blockin, Who’s Your Caddy?, The Fast and the furious etc. He’s been a few commercials for monster companies such as Nike and Gatorade.

Born in poverty in the ghetto streets of New Orleans, Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. started his phenominal characteristics in highschool plays. When Weezy was eleven years old, he met Brian Williams owner of Cash Money Records. Wayne would record his raps on William’s answering machine so he could go back and see how he did. Eventually, Williams signed Lil’ Wayne. This is where his reign began. He dropped school when he was fourteen years old, but went back to earn his high school degree.

Lil’Wayne has had some phenomenal songs that have been hit records. These would include Mr.Carter, Amillie, Lollipop etc. He helps with the making of his beats, that’s why he can rap to it so well. These are all his mainstream stuff, if you do some research, you’ll be able to find some of his real stuff-his freestyles and underground mixes are a lot better than his mainstream.
Many of his career goals have been met, but Wayne recently reached a point in his career he thought he would never reach. He was nominated and awarded Best Rap Album of the Year at the Grammy’s! This definitely gives our good ol’ friend, the little G’, something to brag about.

The song he performed solo was no other than Amillie, a great song but I have grown out of it. One of the more memorable performances of the night for me was the mix he contributed to with Kanye, M.I.A, Jay Z and T.I. with the song “Swagger Like Us”. Here’s the video, the quality isnt that good, but enjoy.