Strange fruit

Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday

Southern trees bear a strange fruit, 
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, 
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. 

Pastoral scene of the gallant South, 
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh, 
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck, 
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop, 
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

What could drive people to commit such atrocities on another human being? Is it as simple as us-vs-them propelled by the mob mentality? Quite a number of lynchers in the American south during the segregation era were actually church-going members of the society; they even created memorabilia of the horrifying events. The lynchers of the mentally ill man accused of burning the Quran in Pakistan claimed that they were doing it in the name of Allah. Angry mobs killed African-looking men in Libya in retaliation to atrocities committed by African mercenaries in Ghaddafi's employ. If you are accused of practising witchcraft, don't think that not living in the dark ages or 18th century will save you; people accused of being witches in Africa are still being killed in this modern 21st century.

How does fear and hatred remove your moral brakes so totally that such heinous action can be deemed acceptable?

*contemplates*

Inspired by this article.

Honey coated poison

I have not read either authors. What can I say; I am shallow and only like to read happy stuff. But their philosophy (as described here) does gave me pause.

Well, I will have to go with Aldous Huxley on this one. The hedonist in me quivers in fear.

My life philosophy ...

Amazing solution ...

... to end gun violence.



Man, I'd vote for politicians like this.

Midweek sh*ts & giggles

Ah, the temptation wins for me to post severely tak senonoh stuff for some midweek indecent humour. *grin*

Some days you just can't win ...

Let's shimmy

I have a thing for 60's psychedelia-inspired music and soul music of that era. In this song, I get a beautiful combination of both in a single track.



Cover versions can bomb badly; just check out the covers made by most boy bands (*shudders at Westlife*) but this re-interpretation works beautifully.

The original song is this one by Velvet Underground.

Can't talk to a psycho ...

... like a normal human being. I love this song. Poe is awesome, 'nuff said.

 

Psychopath, sociopath. Tomayto, tomahto. *shrugs*

People who do this to me are dead in my flist. Dead I tell ya!

I am sure you know people that can be described beautifully using the above diagram. I doubt anyone has ever gone through life without entering the orbit of a sociopath. 

After all,

Right?

'tis the season to blow things up

Being a multicultural community, Malaysians of all ethnicities adopted the Chinese customs of playing with fireworks during the festive seasons. The Chinese believed that fireworks would be an awesome way to chase away demons and usher in good luck for the new year. As a child, I had delightful uncles who supplied my sister and I with all manners of bunga api and mercun to play with during Eid ul Fitr. I have even got the opportunity to see my cousin launch his meriam buluh (bamboo cannon) in a competition with the other kampung.

*Naz, you are evil for tempting me to get them pretteh explosives*

Hari raya is around the corner (another eleven days, not that I'm counting) and I am delighted to note that there aren't as many reports of children (and adults) losing eyesight/hearing/relevant body parts due to firework mishaps. Yes, boys and girls. Salts and metal oxides ignited at high temperature can be pretty to watch, but are also detrimental to your fragile flesh. Look up the gory pictures if you like.

Sixty seven years ago, Hiroshima and Nagasaki experienced a different sort of fireworks. It was not celebratory in nature and in fact, killed and maimed over 30% to 50% of the population of both cities. Little Boy and Fat Man left a nuclear calling card that reverberated until this day, as seen below.

Pretty gristly animation based on the story related by a Hiroshima survivor. Click at your own risk.

 

SAY NO TO ATOMIC BOMBS!

Of course some people would say that the Japanese army were pretty mean to other people as well. I have heard oral accounting of the horrible stuff they perpetrated in my country, not to mention stuff like the rape of Nanking, inhumane scientific experimentation, sexual slavery and so on. It is true that the Japanese army and government of the day were no innocent schoolboys.

But perpetrating atrocities on civilians are NEVER OKAY and this goes to all armed aggressors in any conflict. Once you start targeting civilians you have lost all your moral certitude and cost you the legitimacy of your struggle. Sadly, we never learn from history and continue to make this mistake over and over and over again. We abuse the free will granted to us by the Almighty and thought that we can impose our will on others on this Earth because of our military, political or economic supremacy.

The powers that be who stockpile nuclear weapons all say that they do so as a deterrent. To me it's like you have a loaded and primed gun that you point at each others' head, with your trembling finger on the trigger. Someone might sneeze and then where would we be?

Conventional weapons are horrible enough, okay?

Glassy eyed at the end of it

... and not in a good way. :p

The premise was very interesting; a young woman trained to be an assassin was betrayed and punished to work in a salt mine. How she got out of the salt mine and what happened next. The world building was very nicely done but something just kept niggling at the back of my head.

The character development. *snaps finger*

The assassin came off as a petulant girl at times; one would think that a year in the salt mine would have honed her personality to greater essentials. At the end of it, I think the characterisation is more of a self-projection of the author, but with cool scenario. It was acknowledged that the story was written when the author was sixteen; so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

The story was interesting but the plot development is rather wishy washy. Too much attention on personal angst and reading books, not enough on the King's Champion competition and the deaths of the competitors. Her whiny-ness made it kinda tough for me to buy that she's such an awesome assassin what can win easily cos she's been trained since she was 8. Two important male characters vying for her attention; shades of Twilight? I think if the characters were not imbued with so much contemporary teens' sulkiness (for all three characters), I may like this book better.

But that's just me.

There were hints of back story and apparently, e-novellas to expand the story are available. This is just Ms Maas' first book. Perhaps she'll be a stronger story teller in her subsequent novels.

Male protagonist(s): 2/5 stars
Female protagonist: 2.5/5 stars
Storyline: 3/5 stars
Pacing: 3/5 stars
Fun Factor: 2/5 stars
Repeat Reading Factor: 1/5 stars