No English? No Problem!

Monday, September 06, 2004

According to this, I'm a grassroots leader. Enjoy guys. :)

http://www.talkingcock.com/html/games/handover.html

Most of you guys couldn't see the pix of the Flags and my room, so here goes again:


Flags

My Room, before:





And after:





Righteous Indignation



Russian school siege. French reporters kidnapped.

Recent headlines on 2 different terrorist activities that have once again shocked the civilised world. No different from the other strikes or threats that have been happening these few years.

No different?

The Russian School Siege happened a few days ago, when Chechen rebels took over a school in Russia in order to protest against Russian occupation in Chechenya. The rebels stormed a school on the first day, and held teachers, children and parents hostage in the school gymnasium in the stifling heat.

Finally, as Russian authorities were negotiating with the rebels, something happened. No one knows what was the spark, but the end result was that everything was launched into chaos. The rebels though police were shooting them, police thought the rebels were shooting hostage, and suddenly, it was every ass for itself.

Latest count is that 350 people were killed, and 400 more injured.

Now how do we play the blame game? The unknown who shot first and ruined all chances for negotiating the kids safely out of the school? Though negotiations were tense, they were relatively smooth, till something sparked it off, and in the midst of the chaos, no one knows exactly what was it, but suddenly everyone thought the other party was shooting at them, and then that was that.

The Chechen rebels who took the school children hostage? I don't know about you guys, but to take innocent children, to subject them to that kind of an ordeal, and to freely wave the threat of death over their young heads is to me a most despicable and heinous act. These kids have no idea why they are being treated like this, and many of them may suffer serious psychological trauma for the rest of their lives. Is the independence of the Chechen state worth the lives of innocents?

Or how about the Russian government? The little state of Chechenya has no material resources, and economically, is of no worth to the Russian economy at large. Yet for almost 200 years, the Russians have held on to this little state with an iron grip. Why? Because with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian terrorities shrank, as their former provinces broke away to declare independence. They're holding onto Chechenya because they don't want to lose 'face' by losing more land.

What is wrong with this world?

And then we have the kidnapping of 2 French reporters by terrorists. The reason for this is the recent ban of headscarves in French schools.

Now France has always prided itself on being a secular state, where religion doesn't take first lead. And recently, the French government instituted a ban on the prominent display of various religious items in schools. This includes Muslim headscarves, Christian crucifixes, and many others.

This has majorly pissed off many Muslims in the country. Although France has always been a secular state, it has been attracting many immigrants, who bring their own religious practices with them. The number of Muslims especially has been rising in the country. So naturally, the ban on headscarves was not to their liking. And to make it worse, the media focused especially on the ban of headscarves, because Islamic terrorists had already been in the news a lot. This is although Islam was not the only religion affected by the ban.

Now 2 French reporters have been kidnapped by what is suspected to be Muslim terrorists, who demand that the ban on headscarves in France be rescinded, or the 2 reporters will be beheaded.

Does anyone see the sheer insanity and pigheaded arrogance of this move?? Who are YOU to interfere with a country's sovereignty? Who are YOU to think you can command the nations of the world what YOU think they should do?

Understanding and sympathy for Islam was just starting to rise, when you BONEHEADS decided that it wasn't going fast enough for your liking, and that somehow you were chosen by God to carry out this heinous act on another man's life. Now because of your stupid arrogance, your misguided belief that somehow your religion makes you better than others, and therefore not subject to the laws of Earth, everything is back to square one.

WTF makes you think you can threaten people into doing what you want them to?

*Huff of Righteous Indignation*


Now for something lighter at heart:


Jamie Oliver Wannabe



Most of you know I'm a culinary disaster, and that most of my cooking comes straight out of the can and into the microwave. Well, today, I decided to try my hand again at cooking pasta on the stove this time, the same pasta that Yen made the last time she came to my house.

Preparing the ingredients, chopping the onions, were relatively easy. It only got disastrous when I started the stove.

Firstly, opened the heat too wide on the wrong stove. Once the gas came out, hellish tongues of fire burst out from the gas ring, threatening to singe my eyebrows off with their satanic fury. Once I managed to calm them down, I poured in the olive oil, and left it while I went to open the bottle of pasta waiting for me on the table.

Excuse me, I meant I tried like HELL to open the bottle of pasta on the table. I huffed, I puffed, and I cursed and swore at that stupid thing in 3 different languages but it stubbornly refused to open up for me.

And finally after I managed to open that bottle, ["Kono kuso boteru!!!"] I looked towards the stove and to my horror, small puffs of steam were already rising from the olive oil, meaning that it was way MORE hot than I wanted, and the area around it was already peppered with little droplets of oil that had splattered from the pan onto the stove.

I ran to the stove and threw the mince in, and snap crackle and POP POP POP POP. The mince actually got cooked in less than 5 seconds, which tells you just how hot it was. I threw in the onions, stirred it already and prayed to God that my lunch wouldn't get burnt and neither would my clothes.

Funnily enough, I actually managed to make a decent plate of pasta without blowing the house up. There's hope for me after all.

And if anyone wants the recipe:

1) Heat oil.
2) Throw mince in.
3) Throw pasta sauce in.
4) Throw onions in.
5) Throw baked beans in.
6) During steps 1-6, if oil gets too hot or food gets too burnt, lower heat.
7) Put pasta in rice cooker.
8) Pour in more water than you usually use for rice.
[PS cooking pasta in rice cooker actually works.]
9) When sauce and pasta are done, scoop into plate and eat.

Jamie Oliver Wannabe signing out.

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