Sunday, November 26, 2006

Lost to Live Together

Watching Lost has become very frustrating for me. Really, what's wrong with these people? They don't seem to care about arranging even some very basic model of society... although they are forced to live with each other on this island where you never know what's gonna happen next. You hardly know anything at all.

And here I go, switching my sympathy from Jack to John, then to Sawyer, then to Kate... And so on. Power politics, so exciting - as long as it is just a TV show and does not affect my own life of course.

Learning to live together is not easy, but that's the only way. Indeed, we are all just like passengers of an airplane crashed on an island in the middle of nowhere.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Killing Whom/What in the Name of Whom/What?

Killing Saddam Hussein, by hanging or any other way, is not gonna solve problems that Iraq is facing today. Nor will it be a sentence against all the dark period of his rule, as has been boldly proclaimed by Iraqi Prime minister. Death penalty as such, and also the method of execution, would rather entail giving new life to the norms and cultural patterns of that very dark period. Indeed, it would make the image of the martyr Saddam and the ghost of his rule more alive than ever - this time in the name of democracy, human rights and justice.

Perhaps Iraqi people should have the freedom to do what they see most compatible with their own sense of justice in this case. Why shouldn't they, after all the years of tyranny and oppression? Though this simple assumption should not stop criticism in the name of respect for their choice. Sensitivity does not have to entail silence. And not being silent does not have to entail violence.