Year: 2007

After Annapolis; Peace Or More Illegal Israeli Settlements?

On the heals of the Annapolis peace conference in which Israel and the Palestinians agreed to move forward on bringing peace to the region and launching talks on final status issues, which are supposed to end up with the establishment of an independent Palestinian state; Israel doesn’t seem to want to stop building illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land, and it has been revealed that money will be put aside to construct 740 new buildings next year.

The construction ministry’s proposed budget for 2008 includes 500 apartments for the Har Homa area in east Jerusalem, and 240 at Maale Adumim, just outside Jerusalem and one of Israel’s biggest West Bank settlements.

Despite calls to freeze all settlement activity, Israel insists it will continue to build.

That shows how much Israel is really “committed” to the peace process, and how it will do anything to undermine it and keep things going as they are with it taking more and more land from the Palestinians, tightening the siege around them even more and doing as it pleases with total disregard to Palestinian lives and rights.

The quartet, that is supposed to be pushing for peace; the United Nations, that useless puppet; and the whole world just sit around watching.

Of course in the end, the failure of any peace negotiations will be pinned on the Palestinians, as usual, and things will go on like they have been for years; until we approach the end of another US president’s term and they suddenly feel like leaving on a bright note: that they at least gave Middle East peace a shot.

I don’t know why we even bother let our hopes get lifted by these peace conferences, agreements, negotiations and crap anymore. It’s obvious that until Israel is held accountable for its actions just like Palestinians are, there will be no peace!

10 Forgotten Humanitarian Crises That Still Largely Exist

I just came across an article about ten humanitarian crises that should have gotten more coverage in the year 2007, but didn’t, and that have been more or less forgotten, even though they still largely exist.

–Colombia: Internal refugee crisis after four decades of civil conflict Large numbers of Colombians live in areas controlled by militia or guerrillas, with basic human rights under threat and unpredictable violence.
– Sri Lanka: The civil war between the government forces and the separatist Tamil Tigers, taking a horrendous civilian toll.
– Somalia: Violence and increasingly ferocious guerrilla style attacks surpassing even Darfur in its horror and hopelessness.
– Burma: High levels of malaria and HIV made unimaginably worse by the negligence of a regime that spent only 1.4 per cent of its budget on health care.
– Niger, West and East Africa and South Asia: Malnutrition leading to the deaths of five million children under the age of five.
– Chechnya: Torture, abduction, and wars leaving psychological and physical scars on the civilian population with large numbers of people suffering from high levels of anxiety, insomnia and depression.
– Zimbabwe: Inflation at 12,000 per cent, three million fleeing the country, 85 per cent unemployment, collapsed health care system, 3,000 people dying every week from HIV/Aids.
– Central African Republic: Hundreds of civilians executed and at least 100,000 people caught in the crossfire of rival armed groups, fled their villages and are hiding in forests and bush.
– Democratic Republic of Congo: Hundreds of thousands of homeless people hiding in the forest because their villages are no longer safe, scavenging food to stay alive, trying to dodge the rampant cholera, and in the case of women avoiding sexual violence.
– World: 500,000 people to be diagnosed with multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis this year. There have been no major advances in treatment of the disease since the 1960s.

[Source: 10 humanitarian crises forgotten (but not gone) – Belfast Telegraph]

IDF in Gaza: You are the law. You are God.

A quote by an IDF soldier that gives a clear picture of the Israeli forces’ illegal actions in Gaza and the state of mind that drives them.

“The best thing is that you’re not obliged to follow any laws or rules. You feel like you are the law. You are the law. You decide. It’s as if the moment you leave Israel and pass through the Erez Checkpoint into the Gaza Strip, you are the law. You are God.”

— Comment by one of the IDF soldiers interviewed by Israeli psychologist Nofer Ishai-Karen.

[Via: Lawrence of Cyberia]

Things You Should Never Include on a Resume

I just came across this really interesting list of the 25 things you should never include in your resume.

I agree with most of the list, but the top ten ones for me, in no particular order, are the following:

1. What You Hated About Your Last Job
2. What You Hated About Your Last Boss or Co-Workers
3. Irrelevant Job Experience
4. Lies About Job Experience
5. Lies About Educational Background
6. Negative Thoughts, Words or Ideas
7. Prejudices
8. Information About Your Family Members
9. Every Job You’ve Had Since You Were 16
10. Low GPAs

Read the details and the rest of the list here: 25 Things You Should Never Include on a Resume (HR World).

Peter Jackson On Board For The Hobbit

Great news came out today that Peter Jackson, director of the “Lord Of The Rings” trilogy, will be will taking part in the making of “The Hobbit,” the prequel to the great series, as well as a sequel to it, after settling disputes with New Line Cinema over LOTR residuals.

MGM and New Line will co-finance and co-distribute the two films,

Stardust

A couple of days ago, I watched “Stardust“, featuring Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro and Sienna Miller.

I’d heard about the movie on TV a number of times, but there wasn’t much that pulled me in to see it. But then a friend at work told me he had seen it and that he actually liked it. So when I got the chance to see it, I was like: why not.

It turned out to actually be quite a nice movie, that I enjoyed. It’s sort of a light fairy tale about a young man who makes a promise to his beloved that he’ll retrieve a fallen star by venturing into the magical realm that lies beyond a wall on the borders of their small village, finding himself on a fantastic journey and adventure with stars, witches, pirates and more.

I really like fantasy movies like this one and “Big Fish” for example, and how they take you on this amazing ride through a wonderful world of magic and imagination.

It was good seeing Michelle Pfeiffer back in action, she was very good in this movie; and Robert De Niro was really funny.

I think it’s a nice movie worth seeing if you’re into the genre. I think I’d give it an overall score of:

StarStarStarStarNo Star

[More: Amazon, IMDB]

Childhood, Illness And Missing School

While doing some random surfing, I came across a list of the top 5 illnesses that cause kids to miss school.

These illnesses are as follows:

1. The Common Cold
2. The Stomach Flu
3. Ear Infection
4. Pink Eye
5. Sore Throat

The main two that I personally got hit with as a kid, and that kept me from going to school sometimes, were the common cold and sore throat.
Until I ruined it for myself, that is…

The thing is that after a few times of falling sick and not having to go to school, I found that the best solution to not go to school on those days when I just didn’t feel like it was to act like I’m sick.
So I’d fake coughing, sneezing, having a sore throat, fevers and whatever was necessary to get me out of going to school, and it worked like a charm. It was almost the perfect crime.
But the problem is that once my father left, and school had already started, I’d be up and about, perfectly healthy, jumping around, running, playing and having the time of my life.

Needless to say, everyone noticed that, it’s hard to stay discrete with all your fun and games at that age, so after a number of times of me doing it, and then getting myself caught in the act, a decision was taken…

The decision more or less went as follows: No matter how ill you are, you’re going to school. Even if you’re dying, you go to school and then come back home and die.

Of course, I’m exaggerating a bit, and of course I did get to stay at home when I was really sick, but my acting days were mainly over and I had to cope with going to school everyday whether I felt like it or not, well at least most of the times.

Randomly…

Randomly, out of nowhere, there was a big fat universe sitting around…
Randomly, this universe exploded and expanded into its current state…
Randomly, solar systems were created in which planets rotated around central stars…
Randomly, planet Earth was created with the characteristics we all know today…
Randomly, a single cell living entity came into being…
Randomly, this single cell evolved into many different, yet independently perfect species…
Randomly, these different species kept evolving to their current states today…
Randomly, one of these species became the human race…
Randomly, every single little organ, with every single tiny detail and every exact function was perfectioned and tuned in the human body…

And randomly, here I am writing this post…

What a wonderful world of coincidences…

Work: Job, Environment And Money

It’s evaluation period at work, that time of year when tension gets so thick sometimes it could be cut by a knife.

It’s also the time when a lot of people, depending on whether or not they get a raise or promotion, how much the raise ends up to be, or what that new position is, start thinking about their jobs, and if they should maybe consider moving to some other company.

Personally, I think there is a very simple equation to all this, which mainly consists of the balance between job, environment and financial satisfaction.

The main questions a person should ask himself are:

Job: Do I enjoy my job? Am I still learning new things in it? Am I gaining useful experience from it?

Environment: Do I like working in this company? Is it a healthy environment? Do I get along well with my colleagues?

Money: Am I comfortable with how much I’m getting paid for my job? Do I feel that I’m being compensated for my efforts? Is my salary advancing at a healthy pace?

Lucky are the ones who get to answer yes to all those questions; for the rest, it’s a game of balance between how many “yes”, “no”, “almost”, “barely” answers they give to those answers across the three areas.

For example: If you’re happy with your job and with the environment, then you can easily bring yourself to accept a salary that is a bit lower than what you wished for; and that applies in all directions.

Of course I’m not for a person staying in a job he hates just because they’re getting paid well, in fact I’m totally against that. But if the person’s job satisfaction is a bit less than perfect, but he’s very happy with his salary and the environment he’s working in, I think he could bring himself to hang on in there a little longer.

Personally, I’ve been applying this principle throughout my career, and up to now I’m very proud of how things have played out for me.

Work life isn’t all about the job, nor all about the money, nor is it about the environment; it’s a combination of all those to make up a whole experience, a big part of our life; and just like we do with life, we have to balance between all the different elements to get the most out of it for our future.