Posts
Good Luck, God Bless & Godspeed.
Posted: Friday, December 31, 2010 by LePhilozophe in
0
Been a while, hasn't it? Roundabout six months since my last update by my count; a considerable stretch by anyone's books, that. However, fret not, for the whys or whens aren't important; suffice it to say though that the enforced sabbatical was indeed a fruitful one.And contrary to popular belief and what appears to have been shamelessly contageous rumour-mongering on the part of decidedly idle minds with equally laxatated tongues, it was not i that was responsible for the provocation of the Icelandic volcano that ground the world's entire aero-transport system to a shuddering halt for all of two glorious weeks earlier this year. However much i would love to claim the credit as my own.
Which brings us quite smoothly to the purpose of this here post;- a candid look back at the Top 10 people and events that-in my view anyway- helped make the last 10 years the most gripping decade in living memory. And Lord Almighty was it ever an eventful one. Incidentally, our first entry happens to be none other than the chaos-in-a-cauldron created by none other than my volcanic lava from another mother- (our likeness is nothing short of striking)- the Icelandic heavyweight champion of the world, "The Big Easy".
10. Volcano disrupts picnic plans. How ol' Eyjafjallajökull (gesundheit) failed to clinch TIME magazine's much coveted 'person of the year' over Facebook head honcho, Zuckerberg is quite beyond my level of comprehension. For a fortnight the wheezy, old crocker set transportation back 120 years, forcing millions of travellers worldwide to find simpler, alternative means of getting to point "B"; with millions others deciding the effort was not worth leaving point "A" in the first place.
The continuous flow of lava and accompanying cataclysmic explosions set off a series of events incomparably much more impactful in their gravity and significance, and that deserved much more recognition;- recognition that was rather diverted to the heralding of the inventor of an online social media utility that makes it easier for people all around the world to "poke" each other. But just so we're tuned in on the same wavelength, my contention is not that Zuckerberg made TIME magazine's person of the year. It is simply that he made TIME magazine's person of the year for 2010. Capisce? Bene.
9. The Great Recession. The buzzword of which the average Joe really didn't know the exact definition nor technicalities concerning the economic phenomenon, but like the roll-off-the-tongue name of some venereal disease, simply knew that whatever it was, it wasn't good.
A financial crisis that claimed collapsed housing markets, stock markets crash, economic hardship, exponential unemployment figures and retrenchments, and slumped consumer confidence on a worldwide scale. It was the stuff of Steinbeck-esque lore, which in all honesty wasn't too far off the mark, as the crisis was being readily compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
8. The day the sky fell. One of those, "where were you when you heard?" events. I'd just ambled languidly into the dorm television room and turned on the telly just in time to see the second plane slice into the second tower and the instantaneous bright orange flash of the ensuing explosion. i remember wondering whether the guys at CNN had already made a computer animated representation of what had happened to the first plane, until the news anchor clarified that it was a second plane. And that it was live. And that this was real.
i remember the dorm room filling up slowly until it was packed to capacity, everyone watching in stunned silence; the occasional nervous murmur, comment or restless shifting of sneakers from the crowd breaking the silence the anchor had trouble filling. i remember going home to my appartment shortly afterward and spending the rest of that day, evening and night camped in front of the telly watching the events unravel, the towers come down, the people run,the smoke chase, the sirens wail. Little did we know that this numbing moment in time- on a decidedly curious date- would mark the beginning of the end of the world as we'd known it. Although come to think of it, i think we all had a pretty good idea where we were headed. Just that it was too terrifying to think about.
7. "It sounded like a train wreck". Before Boxing Day 2004, the last time most of us had come across the word "Tsunami" was probably in a geography textbook, back at highschool. And having witnessed the utter devastation, death and destruction that it had left in its wake, the irony became apparent afterward at how "by-the-book" the phenomenon had indeed been.
Human suffering has always been heart-wrenching to witness, but it somehow seems exponentially more so when it occurs around the festive season, as this one did. The first reports filtering through were of a massive earthquake of the magnitude of about 9.2 on the Richter scale, somewhere off the west coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. A few minutes later, the news came through that a tsunami alert had been issued. A little while went by before the first reports of a couple of hundred casualties were broken on the news. i remember thinking that, granted the loss of human life, a couple of hundred was thankfully small, considering the size of the earthquake and tidal wave the experts were bandying about. i couldn't have been more wrong. 230, 000 people perished in 14 countries; the single biggest disaster in recorded history.
6.Yes. I Think We Just Did. A very tiny, minute and infinitesimal (really, it was that small) part of me felt somewhat sorry for both Hillary Clinton and John McCain during the course of that presidential election of 2008. Because it must have been slowly becoming apparent to them that they weren't just running against a juggernaut of a candidate supported by most of the Democratic and, as we would later find out, the majority of the American electorate; but, by all accounts they were indeed running against the entire world. From the bustling streets of Kinshasa to the teeming coffeehouses of Budapest, there was but one name on everyone's lips;- "Barack Obama". Let's face it, the public has always loved the underdog in ANY race or matchup, let alone a presidential one for that matter;- but what was special about Obama's race was its ludicrosity. Its implausibility. Its improbability. Its IMPOSSIBILITY. Until ofcourse, he made it possible. And won it.
If just the mere candidate matchups themselves weren't enough to draw you into this most intriguing of races (a former First Lady, a septagenarian Vietnam vet and a wet-behind-the-ears lawyer with an African name), then the soap-opera of events that plagued it throughout its course definitely would have. From videos of sermons of former controversial pastors coming out of the woodwork; to "mis-spoken" speeches flowered with dramatic descriptions of non-existent memories of coming under fire on a Bosnian runway; to a campaign volunteer making up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter “B” scratched on her face in an apparent "politically inspired" attack, this was without a doubt a race like no other in history. And lest it be forgotten, its culmination afforded us a chance to witness a moment we never thought we'd experience in our lifetime. And on that day- visas, greencards, nationalities and trade barriers aside- one would have been forgiven for thinking that the whole world just might get along afterall.
5. T.I.A One thing about underdogs is that it's not only a pleasure to see them succeed in the face of adversity and pre-perceived challenges, but to see them succeed WELL makes that support all the more worth it. Such was the story of the first ever football Word Cup on African soil. The usual "it can't be done", "they're not ready to host such an event", "it's too dangerous, tourists risk their lives by going there" and all sorts of condescending remarks and negative commentary were flying around on the eve of the most watched tournament in the world.
And ofcourse, as we all now know, the biggest humble pie in history was also served to all doubters by the end of a most magnificent showcase of The Beautiful Game. This time, it WAS for Africa, and no amount of negativity was going to steal the Mother continent's moment in the spotlight away from her..
4. "Long live the King. The King is Dead." From the very first time you saw him donned in a slanted black fedora, shimmering silver glove, ankle-length black trousers, sparkling white socks and an open, fluttering shirt; to the moment his glittering coffin was wheeled away from his own tributary memorial service, you knew you were privileged to have lived to witness a magnificent human being use his God-given talents to all of his ability.
Misunderstood, adored, persecuted and inspiring, Michael Jackson truly encapsulated the star we'd all grown up with, and for whatever you might've thought of him, the King of Pop he surely was.
3.The day the universe shook-We thought we'd witnessed the worst of Mother Nature just six years earlier with the devastation of the Tsunami, but she surprised us when she reared her ugly side once again early in 2010- this time in Haiti. An earthquake, 7.1 on the Richter scale razed nearly all buildings on the Caribbean island to the ground, killing more than 200, 000 people and leaving millions homeless.
Although the miraculous stories of people being pulled out of the rubble alive, days (and in some cases weeks) after the quake hit served to give the rescuers and waiting family members wisps of hope, the overall picture was a bleak one at best. Entire families, neighborhoods and communities had been wiped out as Haiti experienced the second worst natural disaster in recent memory.
2.A true heroine & an addict for freedom- The fight for freedom has borne many faces throughout the history of man;- from David to Joan of Arc, from Martin Luther King to Ghandi; and from Lumumba to Mandela, the rights of the meek, disadvantaged and oppressed have been fearlessly spoken for by heroes who put their personal safety aside for the greater good of their people. In 2010, the face of freedom belonged to the Burmese heroine.
Kept under house arrest for years by a brutal and oppressive regime after her party , the National League for Democracy won a landslide election in 1990, her non-violent protest for freedom and democracy for all the people of Burma, and those everywhere searching for that most basic of rights, saw Aung San Suu Kyi finally released.
1.And in my # 1 Moment of the Decade; The Chilean Miners. Sometimes, all you need is a feel good story to garner a better perspective on the challenges you face in your own life. The story of 33 Chilean miners trapped 2,000 ft underground for more than two months before being rescued presented that perspective in all its powerful resonance.
The ultimate tale of adversity, pain, helplessness, perseverance, hope and triumph played out on screens across the world as the rescue mission saw each miner make his way up the narrow shaft in the claustrophobic, yet appropriately named "Phoenix" capsule, the world holding its breath tentatively as each second ticked torturously by. They were nameless miners from the other side of the world, but they represented humanity's perpetual quest to survive, no matter what the circumstance.
Happy New Year everyone! Let's hope the coming decade is even half as exciting as the last one was. Good Luck, God Bless and Godspeed.
Which brings us quite smoothly to the purpose of this here post;- a candid look back at the Top 10 people and events that-in my view anyway- helped make the last 10 years the most gripping decade in living memory. And Lord Almighty was it ever an eventful one. Incidentally, our first entry happens to be none other than the chaos-in-a-cauldron created by none other than my volcanic lava from another mother- (our likeness is nothing short of striking)- the Icelandic heavyweight champion of the world, "The Big Easy".
10. Volcano disrupts picnic plans. How ol' Eyjafjallajökull (gesundheit) failed to clinch TIME magazine's much coveted 'person of the year' over Facebook head honcho, Zuckerberg is quite beyond my level of comprehension. For a fortnight the wheezy, old crocker set transportation back 120 years, forcing millions of travellers worldwide to find simpler, alternative means of getting to point "B"; with millions others deciding the effort was not worth leaving point "A" in the first place.
The continuous flow of lava and accompanying cataclysmic explosions set off a series of events incomparably much more impactful in their gravity and significance, and that deserved much more recognition;- recognition that was rather diverted to the heralding of the inventor of an online social media utility that makes it easier for people all around the world to "poke" each other. But just so we're tuned in on the same wavelength, my contention is not that Zuckerberg made TIME magazine's person of the year. It is simply that he made TIME magazine's person of the year for 2010. Capisce? Bene.
9. The Great Recession. The buzzword of which the average Joe really didn't know the exact definition nor technicalities concerning the economic phenomenon, but like the roll-off-the-tongue name of some venereal disease, simply knew that whatever it was, it wasn't good.
A financial crisis that claimed collapsed housing markets, stock markets crash, economic hardship, exponential unemployment figures and retrenchments, and slumped consumer confidence on a worldwide scale. It was the stuff of Steinbeck-esque lore, which in all honesty wasn't too far off the mark, as the crisis was being readily compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
8. The day the sky fell. One of those, "where were you when you heard?" events. I'd just ambled languidly into the dorm television room and turned on the telly just in time to see the second plane slice into the second tower and the instantaneous bright orange flash of the ensuing explosion. i remember wondering whether the guys at CNN had already made a computer animated representation of what had happened to the first plane, until the news anchor clarified that it was a second plane. And that it was live. And that this was real.
i remember the dorm room filling up slowly until it was packed to capacity, everyone watching in stunned silence; the occasional nervous murmur, comment or restless shifting of sneakers from the crowd breaking the silence the anchor had trouble filling. i remember going home to my appartment shortly afterward and spending the rest of that day, evening and night camped in front of the telly watching the events unravel, the towers come down, the people run,the smoke chase, the sirens wail. Little did we know that this numbing moment in time- on a decidedly curious date- would mark the beginning of the end of the world as we'd known it. Although come to think of it, i think we all had a pretty good idea where we were headed. Just that it was too terrifying to think about.
7. "It sounded like a train wreck". Before Boxing Day 2004, the last time most of us had come across the word "Tsunami" was probably in a geography textbook, back at highschool. And having witnessed the utter devastation, death and destruction that it had left in its wake, the irony became apparent afterward at how "by-the-book" the phenomenon had indeed been.
Human suffering has always been heart-wrenching to witness, but it somehow seems exponentially more so when it occurs around the festive season, as this one did. The first reports filtering through were of a massive earthquake of the magnitude of about 9.2 on the Richter scale, somewhere off the west coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. A few minutes later, the news came through that a tsunami alert had been issued. A little while went by before the first reports of a couple of hundred casualties were broken on the news. i remember thinking that, granted the loss of human life, a couple of hundred was thankfully small, considering the size of the earthquake and tidal wave the experts were bandying about. i couldn't have been more wrong. 230, 000 people perished in 14 countries; the single biggest disaster in recorded history.
6.Yes. I Think We Just Did. A very tiny, minute and infinitesimal (really, it was that small) part of me felt somewhat sorry for both Hillary Clinton and John McCain during the course of that presidential election of 2008. Because it must have been slowly becoming apparent to them that they weren't just running against a juggernaut of a candidate supported by most of the Democratic and, as we would later find out, the majority of the American electorate; but, by all accounts they were indeed running against the entire world. From the bustling streets of Kinshasa to the teeming coffeehouses of Budapest, there was but one name on everyone's lips;- "Barack Obama". Let's face it, the public has always loved the underdog in ANY race or matchup, let alone a presidential one for that matter;- but what was special about Obama's race was its ludicrosity. Its implausibility. Its improbability. Its IMPOSSIBILITY. Until ofcourse, he made it possible. And won it.
If just the mere candidate matchups themselves weren't enough to draw you into this most intriguing of races (a former First Lady, a septagenarian Vietnam vet and a wet-behind-the-ears lawyer with an African name), then the soap-opera of events that plagued it throughout its course definitely would have. From videos of sermons of former controversial pastors coming out of the woodwork; to "mis-spoken" speeches flowered with dramatic descriptions of non-existent memories of coming under fire on a Bosnian runway; to a campaign volunteer making up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter “B” scratched on her face in an apparent "politically inspired" attack, this was without a doubt a race like no other in history. And lest it be forgotten, its culmination afforded us a chance to witness a moment we never thought we'd experience in our lifetime. And on that day- visas, greencards, nationalities and trade barriers aside- one would have been forgiven for thinking that the whole world just might get along afterall.
5. T.I.A One thing about underdogs is that it's not only a pleasure to see them succeed in the face of adversity and pre-perceived challenges, but to see them succeed WELL makes that support all the more worth it. Such was the story of the first ever football Word Cup on African soil. The usual "it can't be done", "they're not ready to host such an event", "it's too dangerous, tourists risk their lives by going there" and all sorts of condescending remarks and negative commentary were flying around on the eve of the most watched tournament in the world.
And ofcourse, as we all now know, the biggest humble pie in history was also served to all doubters by the end of a most magnificent showcase of The Beautiful Game. This time, it WAS for Africa, and no amount of negativity was going to steal the Mother continent's moment in the spotlight away from her..
4. "Long live the King. The King is Dead." From the very first time you saw him donned in a slanted black fedora, shimmering silver glove, ankle-length black trousers, sparkling white socks and an open, fluttering shirt; to the moment his glittering coffin was wheeled away from his own tributary memorial service, you knew you were privileged to have lived to witness a magnificent human being use his God-given talents to all of his ability.
Misunderstood, adored, persecuted and inspiring, Michael Jackson truly encapsulated the star we'd all grown up with, and for whatever you might've thought of him, the King of Pop he surely was.
3.The day the universe shook-We thought we'd witnessed the worst of Mother Nature just six years earlier with the devastation of the Tsunami, but she surprised us when she reared her ugly side once again early in 2010- this time in Haiti. An earthquake, 7.1 on the Richter scale razed nearly all buildings on the Caribbean island to the ground, killing more than 200, 000 people and leaving millions homeless.
Although the miraculous stories of people being pulled out of the rubble alive, days (and in some cases weeks) after the quake hit served to give the rescuers and waiting family members wisps of hope, the overall picture was a bleak one at best. Entire families, neighborhoods and communities had been wiped out as Haiti experienced the second worst natural disaster in recent memory.
2.A true heroine & an addict for freedom- The fight for freedom has borne many faces throughout the history of man;- from David to Joan of Arc, from Martin Luther King to Ghandi; and from Lumumba to Mandela, the rights of the meek, disadvantaged and oppressed have been fearlessly spoken for by heroes who put their personal safety aside for the greater good of their people. In 2010, the face of freedom belonged to the Burmese heroine.
Kept under house arrest for years by a brutal and oppressive regime after her party , the National League for Democracy won a landslide election in 1990, her non-violent protest for freedom and democracy for all the people of Burma, and those everywhere searching for that most basic of rights, saw Aung San Suu Kyi finally released.
1.And in my # 1 Moment of the Decade; The Chilean Miners. Sometimes, all you need is a feel good story to garner a better perspective on the challenges you face in your own life. The story of 33 Chilean miners trapped 2,000 ft underground for more than two months before being rescued presented that perspective in all its powerful resonance.
The ultimate tale of adversity, pain, helplessness, perseverance, hope and triumph played out on screens across the world as the rescue mission saw each miner make his way up the narrow shaft in the claustrophobic, yet appropriately named "Phoenix" capsule, the world holding its breath tentatively as each second ticked torturously by. They were nameless miners from the other side of the world, but they represented humanity's perpetual quest to survive, no matter what the circumstance.
Happy New Year everyone! Let's hope the coming decade is even half as exciting as the last one was. Good Luck, God Bless and Godspeed.