Bull Wrestling
So, anyway, my back is feeling moderately better. You know its good to have a life like mine when I am sick or injured, I can lounge about the house, sleeping reading and taking it easy. I can't sit for too long because of the pain, but ho hum; it gets me moving which gets me feeling better. I intend to go for a walk today, insha Allah, maybe go and have some coffee and read a novel.
I can now sleep on both sides, and it doesn't hurt too much to roll over! Dragging my body out of bed this morning only really took about three minutes. Tomorrow, who knows? I may leap out of bed, drop kick my dresser over, jog a full marathon, wrestle a bull into submission and be cleaned up and nicely dressed for dinner at seven.
I have still been feeling and extraordinary feeling of constriction. you when you have to wear a shirt with a high, tight collar and a tie on a hot and humid day? All day long you are are pulling at it, twisting it out of shape, itching and trying to let air inside. That is kind of how I feel. Plus due to some error in my postal service - read: substandard - I am without money for the rest of the week and most likely, weekend. Which is a terrible inconvenience, as there is a very good possibility that my rent cheque and auto insurance payments will bounce.
I love Newfoundland and I love the people, but never, ever, ever, should anyone ever have to do any sort of business here. Service here is unconscionably slow; unabashedly slow! This is a "No Substitutions" culture, where if its not offered on the menu, then you can't order it; literally and metaphorically speaking. Due to a certain geographic isolation and cultural stubborness, opportunities for self determination of wealth and entrepeneurship are over-looked or quickly crushed. Any criticism to the current way of business is often seen as an attack on Newfoundland culture and is met with resounding bitter cries; "If you don't like it, then you don't have to be here!".
I am here because I really, really appreciate the attitudes of the people, their friendliness and, yes, more often than not, their pace. Perhaps its a catch-22; if Newfoundlanders adopted free enterprise, welcoming a fast paced 24hour seven days a week business environment, then many of the traits which make it so unique will be lost and forgotten.
Pigeons
I like pigeons. Its always been my dream to have a pigeon loft and race them.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Monday, February 5, 2007
Injured Back
My back is killing me. My lower back feels like red hot pokers are being stabbed into them. The pain is radiating all the way through and into the front, and to be completely honest, it feels like I have been kicked in the stones! The only comfortable positions are laying on my left side or standing and walking slowly.
This morning I hauled myself out of bed early for prayer, and it took me nearly ten minutes to get out of bed and down the hall, now I have to get up that much earlier to get to my prayer on time.
The pain is localised around my sacroiliac joint, which tends to get inflammed from shovelling snow with tiny shovels, and lifting weights too aggressively.
Insha Allah this will only last a week or two and I will be back to normal very soon. It's tantamount I am in good shape before my trip.
This morning I hauled myself out of bed early for prayer, and it took me nearly ten minutes to get out of bed and down the hall, now I have to get up that much earlier to get to my prayer on time.
The pain is localised around my sacroiliac joint, which tends to get inflammed from shovelling snow with tiny shovels, and lifting weights too aggressively.
Insha Allah this will only last a week or two and I will be back to normal very soon. It's tantamount I am in good shape before my trip.
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Giving Up the Flat.
I have been thinking all night about it, and I will give up my apartment here in St.John's before I go to Africa.
What clinched it really, was that I was browsing wikitravel and everytime I thought about ending my adventures in one country, out of curiosity I would check out all the neighbouring countries; effectively extending my travels by weeks, possibly months. The way I reckon, it would not hang over my head to think of all my stuff in an empty apartment, and to be completely honest I have been known to change my mind really quickly, which means I could decide to do just about anything. Its really quite true that if you are not careful then your belongings begin to own you. Yes, its better if I just put all my junk in storage here.
Plus, I would have that much more money for travelling.
Its worth it to have all my stuff packed and ready to go, that way if I decide to have it moved somewhere then all I have to do is call my storage company. When and if I decide to return, its never really hard to get apartments.
I have been thinking about living for a while back in the prairies. Although I really love it here; its so beautiful and the people are great (except right now, the people in the flat below me are having a tremendous row), I just feel isolated. I thought I would like the isolation, but right now, I am finding it a little constrictive. I want to eventually settle in a rural area or small town, but because of being on an island, many services and goods I have been accustomed to are extremely difficult to obtain. Plus its very expensive to leave here as well. Most plane tickets are double what you often find in other cities. We shall see, insha Allah.
I have never felt so much restlessness before in my life.
What clinched it really, was that I was browsing wikitravel and everytime I thought about ending my adventures in one country, out of curiosity I would check out all the neighbouring countries; effectively extending my travels by weeks, possibly months. The way I reckon, it would not hang over my head to think of all my stuff in an empty apartment, and to be completely honest I have been known to change my mind really quickly, which means I could decide to do just about anything. Its really quite true that if you are not careful then your belongings begin to own you. Yes, its better if I just put all my junk in storage here.
Plus, I would have that much more money for travelling.
Its worth it to have all my stuff packed and ready to go, that way if I decide to have it moved somewhere then all I have to do is call my storage company. When and if I decide to return, its never really hard to get apartments.
I have been thinking about living for a while back in the prairies. Although I really love it here; its so beautiful and the people are great (except right now, the people in the flat below me are having a tremendous row), I just feel isolated. I thought I would like the isolation, but right now, I am finding it a little constrictive. I want to eventually settle in a rural area or small town, but because of being on an island, many services and goods I have been accustomed to are extremely difficult to obtain. Plus its very expensive to leave here as well. Most plane tickets are double what you often find in other cities. We shall see, insha Allah.
I have never felt so much restlessness before in my life.
The Big Lie
We hear a lot rubbish from all our respective governments. I have always found it crucial to listen to my instinct when I am trying to discern whether or not someone is lying to my face; which leads me to this point. There is a political ideologue device, that many say was started by Hitler and his fascist regime, but I tend to believe has longer, deeper and more insidious roots.
Its called the theory of the Big Lie. It states that if government or those in power tell a lie so big, so expansive, so stunningly contrary to what is actually happening, people will be so confused and struck dumb, they will tend to believe it.
These Big Lies are usually supported by a lot of flash, glitz, hollering, fist-shaking and spear-rattling.
People are natural followers, only the exceptional among us have enough sense to think critical at all times.
Combine this with the manufactured consent corporate advertising cleverly creates and, BAM!; you got yourself a happy little worker drone who not only believes the lie, but wants it and accepts it and loves it. One who doesn't complain when their natural birth rights: freedom from oppression and slavery, clean and healthy water and food, or the ability to live where they want and do whatever job they want; are taken away!
I kid you not brothers and sisters; we live under corporate fascism.
A large multinational, Bechtel (an engineering and "development" company), following government assisted privitisation schemes, privitized all the water in the Bolivian municipality of Cochabamba. The people of Bolivia had to purchase all their water from that company, or faces punitive fines from the government. Bechtel even laid claim to rain. People caught collecting rainwater in buckets where arrested and fined. The people of course got really ticked off, and rebelled, reclaiming the use of their water.
And today in Iraq, the "rebuilding" is heading by two or three multinationals. Haliburton being at the forefront, being awarded contracts in excess of $20 billion dollars US. Of course, there will never, ever be a "reconstruction" under US and coalition auspices, I can guarantee that. Corporate interests have too much at stake to lose money because of peace and stability. Remember, corporations only make money off peoples ignorance, pain and suffering, and the sole purpose of the corporation is to make money.
And today I read this, and thought to myself, "Wow. What a big lie." Which prompted me to write this blog. And I am seeing that in many cases, even if a large section of a population doesn't believe the lie, it still doesn't matter, because as long as the government asserts it, then it must be true. The government and corporations tell us what is the truth.
But, seriously, when I was growing up we always joked about the "yellow snow"; but this is ridiculous. Rank, multi-coloured snow? And they say it has nothing to do with industry waste and pollution, and that its safe? I dare anyone to say that and prove it by having a big frosty snowcone of the stuff.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us and keep us. Ameen
Its called the theory of the Big Lie. It states that if government or those in power tell a lie so big, so expansive, so stunningly contrary to what is actually happening, people will be so confused and struck dumb, they will tend to believe it.
These Big Lies are usually supported by a lot of flash, glitz, hollering, fist-shaking and spear-rattling.
People are natural followers, only the exceptional among us have enough sense to think critical at all times.
Combine this with the manufactured consent corporate advertising cleverly creates and, BAM!; you got yourself a happy little worker drone who not only believes the lie, but wants it and accepts it and loves it. One who doesn't complain when their natural birth rights: freedom from oppression and slavery, clean and healthy water and food, or the ability to live where they want and do whatever job they want; are taken away!
I kid you not brothers and sisters; we live under corporate fascism.
A large multinational, Bechtel (an engineering and "development" company), following government assisted privitisation schemes, privitized all the water in the Bolivian municipality of Cochabamba. The people of Bolivia had to purchase all their water from that company, or faces punitive fines from the government. Bechtel even laid claim to rain. People caught collecting rainwater in buckets where arrested and fined. The people of course got really ticked off, and rebelled, reclaiming the use of their water.
And today in Iraq, the "rebuilding" is heading by two or three multinationals. Haliburton being at the forefront, being awarded contracts in excess of $20 billion dollars US. Of course, there will never, ever be a "reconstruction" under US and coalition auspices, I can guarantee that. Corporate interests have too much at stake to lose money because of peace and stability. Remember, corporations only make money off peoples ignorance, pain and suffering, and the sole purpose of the corporation is to make money.
And today I read this, and thought to myself, "Wow. What a big lie." Which prompted me to write this blog. And I am seeing that in many cases, even if a large section of a population doesn't believe the lie, it still doesn't matter, because as long as the government asserts it, then it must be true. The government and corporations tell us what is the truth.
But, seriously, when I was growing up we always joked about the "yellow snow"; but this is ridiculous. Rank, multi-coloured snow? And they say it has nothing to do with industry waste and pollution, and that its safe? I dare anyone to say that and prove it by having a big frosty snowcone of the stuff.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us and keep us. Ameen
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Maybe Work; and Commentary
Finding Work, yo!
Still so little work! Well, the snow has stopped and the day looks nice, so I must head out and drum up a little business. Sloth is a sin, and I haven't been trying as hard as I should to get work! Idle hands and all that...
I am also about to embark on a intensive phsyical training schedule, to prepare myself for my travels. Long morning jogs in the snow, I have weights here in my apartment, and I have to be constantly on them, and of course kickboxing training in the evenings. I haven't found a good wrestling school here, and I refuse to take really traditional judo or jiujitsu because they often insist you bow deeply. Sorry, chumps, I ain't bowing to NO ONE or NO THING but Allah SWT!
Being physically fit is tantamount to proper adventure travel. Doing so much walking, running, hiking you need endurance. You need to be limber and flexible. In my travels I have slept in train and bus stations, rocky shelters, cramped rooms and hostel bunks, picnic tables (I spent a memorable night in Jasper and was visited by a bear); with more nights under the stars I can remember, more nights on planes, trains, buses, and cars than I can remember. And I didn't mind it because I was always very physically fit.
Anyway...I have discovered a cool new web resource called Tiddlywiki. I have been spending all last night trying to figure it out and I am sure I will spend a lot of time on it today. for some reason I am fascinated by it, I even dreamed about it last night. If anybody is familiar with it, please contact me, I would love, insha Allah, to get some more insight about it!
Commentary
I was reading that our minister of foreign affairs, Peter McKay, made a trip to the middle east. Here is the article.
For those who don't wish to read the article in its entirety, here is an excerpt which sets the tone.
"The checkpoints and closure regime enforced by Israel is more than inconvenient; all too often, it is deadly. On Friday, as MacKay met with President Abbas in Amman, Israeli soldiers at the Hawara checkpoint outside of the West Bank city of Nablus refused the Israeli-issued permits of a patient returning from liver surgery in Palestinian East Jerusalem. The soldiers forced Tayseer Al Qaisi out of the car and ordered him to walk across the checkpoint. Al Qaisi, a father of eight, was weakened critically by the surgery and collapsed only a few hundred feet into the checkpoint. As reported by David Chater of Al Jazeera International, a Palestinian ambulance was prevented from entering the area for two hours. Mr Al Qaisi died while waiting for help."
I am very dismayed about the foreign policy Canada has adopted as of late. Canada has been matching US foreign policy so closely that our interests seem nearly indistinguishable.
However, Canadian politics are under reported, leaving many of our citizens with the impression of maintenance, a 'business-as-usual' attitude.
The fault is also one of media concentration. The major news outlets with the widest distribution in Canada are owned by two major companies. CanWest Global Corporation and BellCanada. The CBC, a supposed "public" media corporation, is controlled indirectly by similar interests and membership in partisan lobby groups.
CanWest Global is owned by the Asper family, who has strong ties to neo-liberal and conservative politics in Canada and "israel".
BellCanada is effectively controlled by the Thomson Corporation, a shadowy multinational with interests in transport, information, commodities and basically anything that makes money.
I abashedly admit my ignorance regarding partisan business practise within Canada, mostly because of my upbringing which instilled a sense of complacency and complicity. And also because of under reporting. This is something I, insha Allah, will attempt to correct.
Still so little work! Well, the snow has stopped and the day looks nice, so I must head out and drum up a little business. Sloth is a sin, and I haven't been trying as hard as I should to get work! Idle hands and all that...
I am also about to embark on a intensive phsyical training schedule, to prepare myself for my travels. Long morning jogs in the snow, I have weights here in my apartment, and I have to be constantly on them, and of course kickboxing training in the evenings. I haven't found a good wrestling school here, and I refuse to take really traditional judo or jiujitsu because they often insist you bow deeply. Sorry, chumps, I ain't bowing to NO ONE or NO THING but Allah SWT!
Being physically fit is tantamount to proper adventure travel. Doing so much walking, running, hiking you need endurance. You need to be limber and flexible. In my travels I have slept in train and bus stations, rocky shelters, cramped rooms and hostel bunks, picnic tables (I spent a memorable night in Jasper and was visited by a bear); with more nights under the stars I can remember, more nights on planes, trains, buses, and cars than I can remember. And I didn't mind it because I was always very physically fit.
Anyway...I have discovered a cool new web resource called Tiddlywiki. I have been spending all last night trying to figure it out and I am sure I will spend a lot of time on it today. for some reason I am fascinated by it, I even dreamed about it last night. If anybody is familiar with it, please contact me, I would love, insha Allah, to get some more insight about it!
Commentary
I was reading that our minister of foreign affairs, Peter McKay, made a trip to the middle east. Here is the article.
For those who don't wish to read the article in its entirety, here is an excerpt which sets the tone.
"The checkpoints and closure regime enforced by Israel is more than inconvenient; all too often, it is deadly. On Friday, as MacKay met with President Abbas in Amman, Israeli soldiers at the Hawara checkpoint outside of the West Bank city of Nablus refused the Israeli-issued permits of a patient returning from liver surgery in Palestinian East Jerusalem. The soldiers forced Tayseer Al Qaisi out of the car and ordered him to walk across the checkpoint. Al Qaisi, a father of eight, was weakened critically by the surgery and collapsed only a few hundred feet into the checkpoint. As reported by David Chater of Al Jazeera International, a Palestinian ambulance was prevented from entering the area for two hours. Mr Al Qaisi died while waiting for help."
I am very dismayed about the foreign policy Canada has adopted as of late. Canada has been matching US foreign policy so closely that our interests seem nearly indistinguishable.
However, Canadian politics are under reported, leaving many of our citizens with the impression of maintenance, a 'business-as-usual' attitude.
The fault is also one of media concentration. The major news outlets with the widest distribution in Canada are owned by two major companies. CanWest Global Corporation and BellCanada. The CBC, a supposed "public" media corporation, is controlled indirectly by similar interests and membership in partisan lobby groups.
CanWest Global is owned by the Asper family, who has strong ties to neo-liberal and conservative politics in Canada and "israel".
BellCanada is effectively controlled by the Thomson Corporation, a shadowy multinational with interests in transport, information, commodities and basically anything that makes money.
I abashedly admit my ignorance regarding partisan business practise within Canada, mostly because of my upbringing which instilled a sense of complacency and complicity. And also because of under reporting. This is something I, insha Allah, will attempt to correct.
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