thom yorke has new album, indepedent but intrinsically influenced by radiohead, which is alarmingly good and full of good samples.
and about the continuation of the conflict in mid-east. it's just exacerbated by us/uk involvement. im so sick of it, but i cant imagine how the people living there feel about it. it makes absolutely no sense that israel invades lebanon! it really is all starting to collapse and a matter of time before it spreads to most inhabited places, i.e. pakistan-india, amerikkka, etc. we all know that it was from the decree of us/uk, that it is a way to sink their teeth in the region. and we've royally skrewd it up for the next couple centuries. who's keen idea was it put a jewish 'homeland' by bulldozing present day inhabitants, at the expense of another minority? and i;ve already had my fill of listening to bizarre anti-semitic conversations for the week. i tend to take the zero-tolerance view on hierarchies of power and perpetuating inequalities that only serve to spawn and rebirth global capitalism and to squeeze the last drop of black gold. it is truly gruesome and unforgivable. so basically, coming from the latest chummy talk between bush and blair at G8, us outsourced 'reconstruction' of afghanistan to canada and its trans-national corporations, and iraq to uk TNCs, so that it could be more focused at the wheel of tarnation in israel-lebanon-syria. ah, but at least now we can say the un will be on board, gagged and bound!
it is all reminiscent of the situation in sri lanka - conflict with no end in sight. the more i learn about it the more complex it is. it is not clear-cut in terms of buddhists v. tamil hindus v. tamil muslims/et al. nor about 2 sides fighting each other for a scrap of (the best) land in north and east. there are viable ways to end the conflict if each side is willing to go through processes of demilitarisation, but there is no commitment on either side and there is too much money/power at stake. (you think western patriarchy is bad - take a glimpse at south asian schoolboy patriarchical mentality). and just last week, we saw a major general of ltte admitted to a prominent hospital in colombo (where there is a ban on admitting ltte members into south). meanwhile, the former bitch president, chandrika, helped get the main ltte fellow's daughter a visa in order for her to study in uk. what kind of reasoning is that??? so the government is working hand in hand with ltte, at the expense of poor civilians caught in cross-fire. absolutely mad! neither gov't or ltte is serious about peace talks, ceasefire etc - they are the face of the same side of the coin.
life otherwise on this island paradise is fairly tame - truly tropical and lovely, but sweltering! such friendly, smiling people. the best food in the world, and such different landscapes. i recently shifted to subletting a room in a posh apartment with a semi-gay/metrosexual intellectual property lawyer, who currently works on building up conflict-areas' livelihoods. nice fellow, a bit erratic, very sociable and a parade of men, women and beasts coming through each evening to fawn over him. a bit surreal change from the other residence, which served to prop up the ltte. i've been learning to cook sri lankan and to speak tamil....
