They hadn't even identified the dead bodies and...

The morning was one of the most painful mornings for me.
I had messages on text informing me of a terror attack in Paris. Since I have a weird connection with Paris, (where if anyone I know is in Paris, there is usually some other person totally disconnected to the first person also present there at the same time.) I first thought of any of the people in my circles, if anyone had updated, checked-in or told me about being in Paris. One friend and her husband came to mind instantly, who were safe.

Reading and following the news and my friends', relatives', students' status updates on social media did make me feel a bit sad and angry. I'll tell you why.

I came across countless people sharing stuff like "yes, it is sad this happened in Paris, but what about Beirut, Syria.. why didn't we change our profile pictures, or share statuses about that?" I am sure you must have come across these types of updates too.

I think this is firstly a disservice to the dead and the injured in Paris and their loved ones. These people, people from all over the world, are grieving and some are still searching for their loved ones because a lot of dead bodies are yet to be identified, such was the evil destruction that had fallen on Paris.

In trying to communicate "brown lives matter", we are actually lessening the value of "white lives", which is unfair. And this is coming from me, a very much brown guy.

Think how would the loved one feel when he/she opens up the social media and sees these arguments. "What about Beirut?"

I am one of those types who changes his statuses and profile pictures (at least on Whatsapp where I actually can reach more people than Facebook, yeah I have counted.) The shock of Paris, along with it's similarity to the Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2008, made me immediately change my status to the French Flag. Later I changed it to French, Lebanese, Syrian and Russian Flags, all together. The people in the middle east have suffered the most, especially the most vulnerable like the Yazidis.

The second argument people were sharing was that it was obvious that France would have a blowback to it's efforts aimed against ISIS. So you are telling me that trying to stop Yazidis being slaughtered, raped and sold into slavery is going to get a reaction? I would actually would have appreciated the argument like "Of course ISIS would expect a blowback, how dare they do these

Thirdly, people are saying that of course the immigrants in Western nations would go and join ISIS because they are alienated, oppressed etc. by the Western nations, within Western nations. Okay, so how does that justify atrocities against the Yazidis? I am yet to get an answer on that.

You have understand the situation subjectively here. Imagine a city that is flooding due to storms and heavy rains. The ground floor is closest to the ground, it will have water inside, that is assumed. But if water starts getting into the fourth floor, that would be a big shock. We would sympathize with both of the households, but for the fourth floor we would be, "What the F!?!" This is what has happened. In case, you didn't get it, ground floor is Beirut, Lebanon (Shia, Hezbollah, border with Syria and Iraq), while the fourth floor is France, separated by thousands of kilometers EU states, then Turkey. I hope I am not offending the suffering peoples, but I hope they will understand my anguish at the lack of sensitivity shown to the other suffering.

Let's get one thing straight.
We, the people of this Earth have to unite and fight terrorism and extremism wherever it is, by being united. Just shrugging off French, (i.e.White/European) and global lives (especially Indian, African) with "What about Beirut?" kind of arguments is not going to do that. It's not going to be the balm that the French need. And they need it.

I would just say this to those who are sharing certain stuff, to think again.

It's time we change our tones. The message of equality would be so much better in a compassionate one. Imagine going to your friend's dad's funeral (God forbid) and telling him, "hey he died, but your family is rich and upper class, what about the poor who die of malnutrition?" Would we say that? Even think of saying something like that? No right? We would control ourselves and say, " I am sorry for your loss my friend, may your dad's soul rest in peace", wouldn't we? So shut up right now, be political correct at the right thing for once. A genuine "We are sorry" would do right now.

(image courtesy: intoday.in)


The Egyptians were on point(pic below). May God bless us all (also whatever works for my atheist readers).

(image courtesy: telegraph.co.uk)

The Whatsapp And other messaging apps Debate.

Man. I am gonna write a blog on this. My love-hate relationship with technology (esp. whatsapp) seems to have taken a turn for the better. Whatsapp has committed suicide in my phone. I am unable to open it. Finally, the speculation regarding will I or won't I use it has been laid to the rest.

     I am still very much active on other platforms, be it FB, mails, Google Plus, Viber, Hike, and still use a smartphone with the Android OS. Its Gingerbread. But, it's comparatively quite smart. With proximity sensor and all.

     I have uninstalled and installed whatsapp on countless occasions over the duration of the last few months. I started using it a little more than a year ago. On my Nokia E5. That was when I had newly joined as a lecturer at a few colleges. Seemed the better thing to do.

     But, over the course of the few months after that, I started realizing that it wasn't as pleasant as it seemed. These networks are sapping our energy. Our time. And not really leading to the Human Intimacy that we all actually care about. Sure, we are talking with each other day in and day out. Sure, we are more knowledgeable about our so-called friends. Sure, its easier to share breaking news and videos of cats, Rajnikanth, politicians, etc. Sure, its easier to keep tabs on each other via the hotly contested "LAST SEEN". Sure, the person is considered extremely rude when he stays online yet doesn't reply. Cause, now we know, you sucker was online YET didn't reply! Sure, you can check out the latest pics from your friends and all those people you love to stalk. Stalking was never so much fun.
    In spite of all these valuable add-ons, I remained unconvinced and a skeptic. Uninstalling whatsapp almost every 20 days or so. Messaging the people in my circle that from now I won't be on whatsapp. And they contact me via sms or call. But, then something would happen to force me to come back. Maybe an important conversation that I missed. Maybe the arrival of someone new in my life. Where, constant conversation would be the new drug. Maybe the futility of smses, because now people don't have sms PACKS like before. They can't reply to you. They can't call you. But they have an internet pack. And so, I'll be back, to happy welcomings and sarcastic jibes. It'll continue for greater than a fortnight and less than a month. And then, Repeat.

    The cons of using these services are many.
*They'd make you busy, and forget your actual, real world work.
*You'd be so tired talking to multiple people simultaneously that neither you will be able to reply to all of them in a just way, neither you will be able to focus on your real life.
*Most important of all: Those long calls via landlines will be gone, which were more meaningful and profound on the personal level. Let's not even talk about meeting others. That was long gone. As I heard in the new documentary, In RealLIfe, "we took them out of the parks, we took them out of the streets....and put them online.." Now, I see kids playing outside, only when there is no electricity.

An important event that occurred recently added significance to this thinking of mine. The Lights went off in my locality. Like the entire area of the city where I live, in a radius of at least a few miles. I could see lights, but they were far away.
And, this happened as the sun was setting. Till early morning the engineers worked hard to restore electricity, which was restored by dawn. I was just stuck by the silence and peace I experienced in the very locality, while standing at the balcony of my 4th floor house. All around, a few hours before midnight, there was complete silence. Instead of the techno noise. There was a natural illumination. The rain clouds of the night giving a light orange-ish illumination to the ground below. Beautiful.
     I realized all this techno noise is drowing our peace. The future of technology will have to be different and peaceful. It'll need the human components of love, compassion and regret, guilt to truly live amongst us peacefully. I already believe the Singularity has occurred. The Machines are conscious. A nascent consciousness albeit, but growing quickly. And learning. 
     Anyways, I don't think the whatsapp-no whatsapp tussle is over for me. Not yet. There is yet to be a clear winner. Depends on future events. As of now, I am not using it.

Okay, enough blog writing for today. Give that man a Cookie.

P.S. The NSA, Snowden, Assange thing notwithstanding, I'll like you guys to watch the End of the World-Delete a.k.a. E.O.W-Delete

that I saw on AXN recently. Worth a watch if your mind too thinks in a similar way to this blog.
thanks!
have a good day!
 And Machines, I hope you develop a a conscience when you do.