You Will Die at Age 73 |
73 You're pretty average when it comes to how you live... And how you'll die as well. |
Thursday, March 31, 2005
2044 - A year of Mourning
Monday, March 28, 2005
More cheap fun
I know the mere thought of this is enough to sicken those of you who know me in person, but in the name of cheap fun:
And as if that wasn't enough:
| Your Stripper Name is: Red |
And as if that wasn't enough:
| Your Porn Star Name is: Jason Jizzy |
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Cheap fun
| You scored as Existentialism. Your life is guided by the concept of Existentialism: You choose the meaning and purpose of your life. “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” “It is up to you to give [life] a meaning.” --Jean-Paul Sartre “It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the Truth.” --Blaise Pascal
What philosophy do you follow? (v1.01) created with QuizFarm.com |
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Hotel Rwanda
I saw "Hotel Rwanda" last week, and it was one of the best movies I've ever seen. Great story, great acting all round.
For those of you who've lived in a cave the past few months, the movie is about the civil war in Rwanda in 1994, when hundreds of thousands were killed in various horrible ways. The movie is based on the true story of hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, who opened his Belgian-owned hotel to refugees and managed to save more than a thousand lives at great personal risk to himself and his family.
There are many interesting aspects to the story. One is how the hotel manager applies all of his "people skills" to bribe, trick and flatter his way around the dangerous militias, army units and madmen threatening the refugees he is hiding. It is a miracle how he is able to convince the aggressors time and time again that it is really in their best interest to leave him alone, and how he manages to put himself in a position where he can be of value to them in the future. Businessmen and politicians alike would do well to study the psychology of this movie.
There are also some interesting political aspects. Although the movie makes some sweeping simplifications as to the historical roots of Rwanda's ethnic conflicts it also shows the many contradictions in that country's society. Rwanda has a clear majority of "Hutus" and a minority of "Tutsis". To many, this division seemed artificial and they mingled freely with each other. Indeed, Rusesabagina is a hutu, but he is married to a tutsi. At the same time, there is a strong hutu militia, with deep popular support, who wants to do away with all tutsis - which is what they attempted to do. In addition they killed thousands of moderate hutus.
The international society is duly criticized in the movie. There was a small contingency of UN soldiers in the country at the time, but they had little equipment and even less authority. When the going got tough they were evacuated. It tells you something about their desperation that they were actually rescued by FRENCH troops. In a surely historical moment in cinema and world history, the French are hailed as heroes upon their arrival at Hotel Rwanda. The cheering goes on for about two minutes, before it becomes clear that the French are merely there to evacuate the UN, thereafter to flee, in normal French fashion, without engaging in any military action as such.
Parallels have been made between Rwanda and the ongoing civil war in Darfur, Sudan, and while the scope is currently much smaller in Sudan I think the case can be made that the west should act in a much stronger way than they have so far. I won't go further into this here, as I have some thoughts on the more general subject of interventions which I will share with you in a post whenever I can find the inspiration for it (don't hold your breath).
As always, there is lots more to be said, but instead of ruining the movie for you I'll just ask you to go see it. As with Der Untergang you won't be disappointed, and probably you'll be quite a bit wiser.
For those of you who've lived in a cave the past few months, the movie is about the civil war in Rwanda in 1994, when hundreds of thousands were killed in various horrible ways. The movie is based on the true story of hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, who opened his Belgian-owned hotel to refugees and managed to save more than a thousand lives at great personal risk to himself and his family.
There are many interesting aspects to the story. One is how the hotel manager applies all of his "people skills" to bribe, trick and flatter his way around the dangerous militias, army units and madmen threatening the refugees he is hiding. It is a miracle how he is able to convince the aggressors time and time again that it is really in their best interest to leave him alone, and how he manages to put himself in a position where he can be of value to them in the future. Businessmen and politicians alike would do well to study the psychology of this movie.
There are also some interesting political aspects. Although the movie makes some sweeping simplifications as to the historical roots of Rwanda's ethnic conflicts it also shows the many contradictions in that country's society. Rwanda has a clear majority of "Hutus" and a minority of "Tutsis". To many, this division seemed artificial and they mingled freely with each other. Indeed, Rusesabagina is a hutu, but he is married to a tutsi. At the same time, there is a strong hutu militia, with deep popular support, who wants to do away with all tutsis - which is what they attempted to do. In addition they killed thousands of moderate hutus.
The international society is duly criticized in the movie. There was a small contingency of UN soldiers in the country at the time, but they had little equipment and even less authority. When the going got tough they were evacuated. It tells you something about their desperation that they were actually rescued by FRENCH troops. In a surely historical moment in cinema and world history, the French are hailed as heroes upon their arrival at Hotel Rwanda. The cheering goes on for about two minutes, before it becomes clear that the French are merely there to evacuate the UN, thereafter to flee, in normal French fashion, without engaging in any military action as such.
Parallels have been made between Rwanda and the ongoing civil war in Darfur, Sudan, and while the scope is currently much smaller in Sudan I think the case can be made that the west should act in a much stronger way than they have so far. I won't go further into this here, as I have some thoughts on the more general subject of interventions which I will share with you in a post whenever I can find the inspiration for it (don't hold your breath).
As always, there is lots more to be said, but instead of ruining the movie for you I'll just ask you to go see it. As with Der Untergang you won't be disappointed, and probably you'll be quite a bit wiser.
Wednesday, March 2, 2005
Treat a soldier
Dear readers (that means both of you!)
Please take a moment to consider my request. Regardless of what you feel about the war in Iraq, there are thousands of men and women in uniform over there doing one helluva job. They deserve our support. I therefore hope you can spare a few minutes, and hopefully a few dollars too, at this site: AnySoldier. If you don't want to go through the hassle of buying and shipping stuff yourself, you can also buy prepacked stuff here. In fact if you're not in the US, I recommend this latter option. With the laughably cheap US dollar and the generally lower prices in America, your money will probably buy more stuff that way.
Note: This operation is legit, they were featured on CNN today.
Please take a moment to consider my request. Regardless of what you feel about the war in Iraq, there are thousands of men and women in uniform over there doing one helluva job. They deserve our support. I therefore hope you can spare a few minutes, and hopefully a few dollars too, at this site: AnySoldier. If you don't want to go through the hassle of buying and shipping stuff yourself, you can also buy prepacked stuff here. In fact if you're not in the US, I recommend this latter option. With the laughably cheap US dollar and the generally lower prices in America, your money will probably buy more stuff that way.
Note: This operation is legit, they were featured on CNN today.
Der Untergang
Right... I know I haven't updated in ages, but some of us have a LIFE, capiche?
Anyways... today's topic: MOVIES! I watch quite a few, and since they're an easy topic to write about, from now on I shall bore/enlighten you with my take on them.
Last week I went and saw one of the best movies ever: Der Untergang (The Downfall). Yanks, please don't be intimidated by having to read subtitles and listen to Krauttalk, nor by the lack of Hollywood stars and ridiculous plot twists. This movie is probably the best you will see all year.
The topic is the final days of Hitler, hunkered down in his Berlin bunker in late April 1945. The Russians are closing in, the city itself is under attack, and all but the most fervent believers understand that the end is near. There are so many things one could comment on... the cast is brilliant, especially Bruno Ganz, who plays Hitler. He makes the man come alive without ever seeming too theatrical. He also gets the Austrian accent very well. The rest of the cast is great too, there is none of the overacting or simplification so often seen in movies about this period.
The film was criticized (especially in Germany, where they naturally tend to be very sensitive about this stuff) for portraying Hitler as "too human" and some said it could give people "sympathy" for him. My opinon is that no one can watch this movie and come away thinking Hitler was anything but stark raving mad, but it IS true that we are treated to something much more complex than the usual Hollywood cardboard figure of pure evil. This, however makes the movie both more realistic and much more educational. Think about it: How could a man achieve this kind of power and following if he spent his entire life just shouting and bullying? By showing Hitler as a human being and as someone capable of personal charm and consideration for the well-being of his subordinates, the movie also lets you understand how Germany could fall under the spell of this madman.
Another interesting thing is the conflict between the Nazis and the professional German military. These two camps were deeply suspicious of each other. The Nazis never trusted the generals to be sufficiently loyal to Der Führer and to the cause, while the generals despised the Nazis as opportunists and politicians with no knowledge of warfare and no sympathy for the ultimate fate of the common soldier. Their problem was that they had all sworn an oath of allegiance to Hitler personally, and thus most of them found it unacceptable to surrender to the Russians even though they strongly urged Hitler to do so.
This brings me to another point, where again the movie gives us what some would see as an "excuse" for the Nazis, but which I think is just a necessary fact for understanding history: The Nazis' belief in what they were doing. You cannot possibly understand history if your image of the Nazis is that they were simply a bunch of bullies hellbent on global destruction. They waged war for a reason. For sure, there were plenty of opportunists who just grabbed at power, and one could probably say a lot about the psychological aspects of many of the people involved. But there was also the ideological aspect - people who truly believed that they were doing something right. When they were hunkering down in that bunker, it wasn't just because they refused to accept a military loss, it was because they actually thought that Nazi Germany was the last defense against what they called "the Asian hordes" - Russian communists. When Mrs Goebbels, in one of the most heart-wrenching scenes of the film actually poisons her six children it's not because she hates kids; it's because she truly believes that the world of tomorrow - one without National Socialism - is worse than death. It is only if we understand the nature and the strength of their beliefs that we can hope to truly comprehend this regime and this period in history.
On a side note, I also think this message is important in today's world, where we're facing a different ideological enemy - Islamofascism. As with the Nazis, we're mainly dealing with people with a twisted ideology, an uncertain grasp of reality and an absolute belief in the justness of their cause. As with the Nazis, a negotiated peace - a compromise - is impossible, because their ideas and their ultimate goals are incompatible with modern liberal civilization.
Anyways... there's lots more to be said about this movie, but I won't spoil it for you. Just go and see it. You certainly won't be disappointed, and quite probably you'll be a lot wiser.
Anyways... today's topic: MOVIES! I watch quite a few, and since they're an easy topic to write about, from now on I shall bore/enlighten you with my take on them.
Last week I went and saw one of the best movies ever: Der Untergang (The Downfall). Yanks, please don't be intimidated by having to read subtitles and listen to Krauttalk, nor by the lack of Hollywood stars and ridiculous plot twists. This movie is probably the best you will see all year.
The topic is the final days of Hitler, hunkered down in his Berlin bunker in late April 1945. The Russians are closing in, the city itself is under attack, and all but the most fervent believers understand that the end is near. There are so many things one could comment on... the cast is brilliant, especially Bruno Ganz, who plays Hitler. He makes the man come alive without ever seeming too theatrical. He also gets the Austrian accent very well. The rest of the cast is great too, there is none of the overacting or simplification so often seen in movies about this period.
The film was criticized (especially in Germany, where they naturally tend to be very sensitive about this stuff) for portraying Hitler as "too human" and some said it could give people "sympathy" for him. My opinon is that no one can watch this movie and come away thinking Hitler was anything but stark raving mad, but it IS true that we are treated to something much more complex than the usual Hollywood cardboard figure of pure evil. This, however makes the movie both more realistic and much more educational. Think about it: How could a man achieve this kind of power and following if he spent his entire life just shouting and bullying? By showing Hitler as a human being and as someone capable of personal charm and consideration for the well-being of his subordinates, the movie also lets you understand how Germany could fall under the spell of this madman.
Another interesting thing is the conflict between the Nazis and the professional German military. These two camps were deeply suspicious of each other. The Nazis never trusted the generals to be sufficiently loyal to Der Führer and to the cause, while the generals despised the Nazis as opportunists and politicians with no knowledge of warfare and no sympathy for the ultimate fate of the common soldier. Their problem was that they had all sworn an oath of allegiance to Hitler personally, and thus most of them found it unacceptable to surrender to the Russians even though they strongly urged Hitler to do so.
This brings me to another point, where again the movie gives us what some would see as an "excuse" for the Nazis, but which I think is just a necessary fact for understanding history: The Nazis' belief in what they were doing. You cannot possibly understand history if your image of the Nazis is that they were simply a bunch of bullies hellbent on global destruction. They waged war for a reason. For sure, there were plenty of opportunists who just grabbed at power, and one could probably say a lot about the psychological aspects of many of the people involved. But there was also the ideological aspect - people who truly believed that they were doing something right. When they were hunkering down in that bunker, it wasn't just because they refused to accept a military loss, it was because they actually thought that Nazi Germany was the last defense against what they called "the Asian hordes" - Russian communists. When Mrs Goebbels, in one of the most heart-wrenching scenes of the film actually poisons her six children it's not because she hates kids; it's because she truly believes that the world of tomorrow - one without National Socialism - is worse than death. It is only if we understand the nature and the strength of their beliefs that we can hope to truly comprehend this regime and this period in history.
On a side note, I also think this message is important in today's world, where we're facing a different ideological enemy - Islamofascism. As with the Nazis, we're mainly dealing with people with a twisted ideology, an uncertain grasp of reality and an absolute belief in the justness of their cause. As with the Nazis, a negotiated peace - a compromise - is impossible, because their ideas and their ultimate goals are incompatible with modern liberal civilization.
Anyways... there's lots more to be said about this movie, but I won't spoil it for you. Just go and see it. You certainly won't be disappointed, and quite probably you'll be a lot wiser.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
