Month: June 2006

Crime And Redemption

A couple of days ago, I was watching “A History of Violence” featuring Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris and Maria Bello, and it got me thinking about crime and redemption, which actually also reminds me of the movie “Redemption” featuring Jamie Foxx, which is based on the true story of Stan “Tookie” Williams.

I’m actually a bit torn between my thoughts on this, and haven’t reached a satisfactory conclusion.
I mean, if a person commits a crime or even leads a life full of it, but then realizes how wrong he was and tries to move on and build a new clean life for himself. How do we treat that person?

Jail is after all a correctional institution, but what if that person has already found out he was wrong, felt guilt and sorriness for it and is correcting himself? Do we still need to send him to jail?

On the other hand, what about the people who suffered from that person’s crimes? Don’t they deserve to see him punished? Don’t they need to feel protected by the law? Doesn’t the government need to send a clear message to other criminals out there? Isn’t it only fair?

But is it fair then for people to brand the person as a criminal for the rest of his life and not give him a chance to rebuild it and become a better individual?
I think by doing that we’re only pushing them to remain criminals, as we don’t give them any option to be anything else.

We all make mistakes, ranging from the smallest to the biggest, but a lot of us realize their mistakes, maybe get punished for them and then take care not to do them again; so we shouldn’t be marked with our mistakes forever.

I guess in the end, the law should be upheld, and criminals should be punished no matter what, but after they do their time, we should make sure that they’re really set free, not just physically but in every way, and that we give them all the options to rebuild their lives and get fully re-integrated in the society.

links for 2006-06-29

Three Years Of Subzero Blue

Three years ago, on a day just like today, unbearable heat wave included, I wrote my first entry in the blog that was to become Subzero Blue.

Before that, I had played around with and tested several blog platforms, posting a few random entries, but not knowing what to make out of the whole blogging thingie and what particular subject I wanted to blog about.
It wasn’t until June 29th 2003 that I committed to a blog and said that I would start writing on it and just go with the flow of what I feel like writing about at the moment.

It started out on blogspot, and then was generously hosted by Houssein (Thanks always), and then I got it a hosting account of it’s own.

When I started blogging, the blog was more of a place for me to make fun of life and the world around me, somewhere I could be sarcastic about it all. Then at some period of time it became a bit like a diary detailing my everyday life. After that I started adding more and more topics and discussing more and more issues and well here I am today talking about a variety of things from world news to music to technology to cinema to life to Tunisia, and more.

As for the blog’s design, it has evolved over the years, from a crappy default template on Blogger or Movable Type, to this design that I keep tweaking lightly here and there, every now and then. It feels really comfortable for me, and even though I get urges to have a full re-design sometimes, I’m not sure I’ll ever really do it anytime soon.

I never expected the blog would have the success it had or that I would end up meeting so many interesting people through it, being interviewed by mainstream media, attending the World Summit on Information Society, taking part in the Global Voices Summit and more.
It’s just all so overwhelmingly amazing…

So what next?
I don’t know really. I don’t know how much longer this will last or what other directions it will go into.
Blogging isn’t a means to an end for me; I don’t blog because I want to get somewhere, I blog because I feel like it and because it makes me feel better.
So all I know is that I’ll keep going with the flow of ideas in my head, and that I will keep on blogging as long as I still feel passionate about it all.

I would like to truly thank the readers and commentors of this blog for sharing this experience with me and enriching it. Your support is much appreciated. You rock.

Looking forward to another year of Subzero Blue…

links for 2006-06-28

V for Vendetta

I finally got to watch “V for Vendetta” this weekend, and I have to say I just loved it.

I heard the following quote in the trailer that I saw a few months ago, and ever since then I’ve been dying to see the movie.

“People shouldn’t be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

The movie is by the Wachowski brothers, the duo behind the Matrix, was directed by James McTeigue and features Hugo Weaving (as V, doing a great job “talking”, reminding us of Agent Smith) and Natalie Portman.
The movie is based on the popular graphic novel by Alan Moore, “V For Vendetta“, but it seems he didn’t really like it.

The story takes place in a dark future that is very reminiscant of George Orwell’s “1984”; after years of various wars, England is under “big brother” Chancellor Adam Sutler, whose party uses force and fear to run the nation.

Under this rule: people are living in constant fear; minorities and political dissenters are rounded up and removed; artistic and unacceptable religious works were confiscated. Cameras and microphones are littered throughout the land, and the people are perpetually sedated through the governmentally controlled media.

Taking inspiration from Guy Fawkes, the 17th century co-conspirator of a failed attempt to blow up Parliament on November 5, 1605, V dons a Fawkes mask and costume and sets off to wake the masses by destroying the symbols of their oppressors, literally and figuratively.

The reviews I read about this movie were mixed, and it amazes me why.
Some people say it encourages terrorism, although I don’t think it does.
The idea of the movie is simply that radical and drastic events often need to occur in order to shake people out of their state of indifference in order to bring about real change.

Of course use of force is never a good thing that anyone should promote, but sometimes and in certain conditions it remains as the only option.

Personally, I enjoyed the movie, both story-wise and artistically, and I truly recommend it to everyone.

My score for it would be: 8.5/10.

links for 2006-06-23

Foot In Mouth

Have you ever been in a position where you think about something, and in your head it sounds really funny and cool, but then you say it and it comes out all wrong and makes you sound like a stuck up arrogant asshole?
Well that happened to me at work yesterday!
And it felt like shit!

To make things worse, one of my co-workers kiddingly jumped on it and kept amplifying it, only making it even shittier, and making me feel guilty as hell, even though I never meant anything bad from it.

I hate situations like that, and well even though I hope the people around me know me well enough to realize that I’d never mean something in a bad way like that, but still it bugs the hell out of me.

There’s this old saying in Tunisia that tells us to turn our tongues in our mouths several times before saying something, meaning that we should think about things well enough before talking.

But the problem is that sometimes, the way you meant to say something and the way it comes out are very different.

William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

Last night, I watched the movie adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, directed by Michael Radford, featuring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes.

I read “The Merchant Of Venice” a long time ago, back when I was in school, I think, and I remember really liking it.
And as the guy I rent movies from is a big fan of Jeremy Irons and Al Pacino, he’s been pushing me to see this movie adaptation of it ever since he knew me. I heard the movie didn’t do that well, but eventually I gave in and rented it.

Now, I can see why it didn’t do that well; it’s not your usual commercial, popcorn movie.
The movie is a serious work of cinema that does its best to stick to the spirit of the play, recreating a decadent renaissance Venice with its fitting set of characters and places, not to mention the strict use of Shakespearean language.

I was impressed the most by Al Pacino’s performance in the role of Shylock, he did a great job, and really brought the character to life. You understand and feel sorry for him yet you hate him at the same time, and Al Pacino carries it perfectly.

I’m usually not really into movie adaptations of old plays or literary pieces, as they mostly turn out a bit boring, but this one was worth watching, because it was pretty well done and again because of Al Pacino’s performance.

My overall score for this movie would be: 6.5/10.

links for 2006-06-21