Only Life
Monday, June 25, 2007
Only Life
Is there anyone who
Ever remembers
Changing their mind from
The paint on a sign
The road from my bed to the front door of my house takes about ten steps, or maybe a little more than that. I've never counted, but it never felt longer than twenty anyway. That is the road I take every morning, if I have to wake up early for school. It starts with the bed, and the first journey of the day begins. The destination is the front gate, or rather what lies beyond the front gate. Opening the wooden door and too lazy to find the correct key from the glass tray, I reach through the metal railings to obtain my prize. The newspapers, lying on the red door mat in a small untidy pile, left there by the hardworking paper boys - or men - that rides around on their overloaded motorbikes in the wee-hours of the morning. They usually arrive by the time I wake up, and that is where I get my daily source of information from around the world.
They say that being a Communications Studies student, you have to have a very wide grasp of what is happening in the world today. It's important to have the latest statistics and information at your fingertips, and it always makes it that much easier to write an essay about anything in the world. Sometimes, you won't even need to wonder if the numbers are completely accurate. Just come up with a number that is close enough, and people are going to believe whatever information that you provide. At least that is the kind of homework we have to do every morning, despite not being told what to do at all. Or it might be a kind of personal hobby of mine, to be updated once in a while about this world I am living in. However, there is something I do every morning that may not work for me if revealed to my teachers at school. I skip every section of the newspaper, and put my full attention only in LIFE!. Here's why.
Is there anyone who
Really recalls
Ever breaking rank at all,
For something someone yelled real loud one time
The title of the section says it all. The LIFE! section is - life. It is about our lives and how we are going to live it. Food reviews, movie reviews, music reviews, and everything you find in a Life section. That is the kind of information we get from there, and the kind of information that interests people. I used to be interested in the other sections too, simply because of the kind of news you get overseas and how informative they get. However, it has become a kind of norm to report only the negativity of the world, and seldom do you see news of a brave soldier in Iraq, the news of a heroic act or the likes. Everything is about war, is about politics, is about money, is about murders. Everything in our society that has got to do with anything but harmony and peace. Whatever goes on outside LIFE, have successfully put me off, totally.
I was reading an article online a few years ago, and I remember the man talking about the same kind of negativity we observe in other sections. First, the business section. It is about money, it is about finance. It is about what makes the world go round, and it is about what we call the "Root of Evil". It stirs the superficiality inside of us all, and sometimes you wonder if it really is that important to live in a mansion and own a yacht, when living as in the countryside with a small farm can be equally gratifying. The sports section is recreation, or what he called "A fluff". I've never been a very big sports fan, so that section is naturally skipped by myself. Next is the front page. The front page is the front page, it is what the publishers use to sell papers. Everything on the front page is in bold, highlighted, underlined and repeated over a dozen times with the most colorful pictures you can get in the highest resolution. That is the front page, and that is what goes against the heart of life - LIFE.
Oh, everyone believes
In how they think it ought to be
Oh, everyone believes
And they're not going easily
There are too many things featured in the other sections, that there are times when you start to wonder if you even want to know about these things. LIFE section isn't the greatest section of the newspaper in terms of its quality. I mean, nobody can read comic strips and celebrity quotes, and run a country successfully at the same time. That is also why the presidents of different countries are given newspapers every morning instead of comic books and graphic novels. LIFE section provides entertainment, and that is as far as it goes to tell you the truth. However, that is the only place in the newspaper that is not tainted by the filth of reality, or at least it is the more edible apple out of the basket of rotten ones.
It gets depressing in the other sections really, especially what happens after the front page. You read about some crazed militants in South Thailand bombing cars and buses, then you see trains in Taiwan colliding with each other. Days after days with depressing news like that, you start to wonder why they'd want to include such news in the morning paper, and expect people to start work or school with a smile on their faces. We see all those motivating posters stuck to the walls in offices and school corridors, encouraging people to start the day afresh and be energized. But then you walk down the corridors some more, and you find a stack of newspapers for you to read, with a bunch of people protesting on the streets, burning flags and flipping over cars. And it is only eight in the morning, with eight more hours to go till the end of the day. As if the morning dosage of depression isn't enough, the media feeds you at night with the evening news. This time, with moving pictures and sound.
Belief is a beautiful armor
That makes for the heaviest sword
Like punching underwater
You never can hit who you're trying for
I have an American friend whom I met over this internet movie forum. He is 22 years old, and he works part-time at this child-care home in America. The child-care home consists of children from single-parent families, and orphans as well. The single-parent would have their kids left in the child-care home when they go to work, and then pick them up after work at the end of the day. My friend got to know a girl named Alex, and she is a nine year old girl who made an impression on him. She was different from the other children running about, always being very composed and reserved - though never boastful.
One fine day, this friend of mine was talking to the people over at the forums once when he told us about it. He only just found out about the news, and he found out through the newspaper headlines that he read in the morning. Apparently, Alex was raped behind the school one day, and the culprit was caught. His neighbor, who is also his colleague at the child-care center, is actually the culprit's sister. The worst part is not even the fact that a nine year old girl was raped behind the school, or the fast that the news was plastered all over the papers and the evening news. The disturbing part really was the fact that the boy who raped the girl, wasn't even a middle-aged pervert who masturbates to internet porn all day long and spends his time behind bars, but a twelve year old child. That's, the disturbing part.
Some need the exhibition and
Some have to know they tried
It's the chemical weapon for the war
That's raging on inside
The media has lost its track a long time ago. There was a time when the media was the source of life and hope for people. In the World War II, the radio was the only source of information, because the factories were all shut down and newspapers were not being published anymore. So the people depended a lot on the media then, praying for a sign that may lead to the end of war, or instructions that were sent over the air waves to instruct the citizens on when to take shelter or move out of the city. The media was also the only source of hope for some families, who had their sons or fathers at war in some distant lands. Knowing the situation far away gives them that tad bit of hope, even if their loved ones might have already died in the battle. It gives them courage to move on, to survive. But when was the last time we turned on our radio to have our life depend on it?
The radio spurts out bad music almost twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Sandwiched between bad songs are advertisements encouraging you to purchase this or buy that, splurge your money this weekend and unleash the superficial and materialistic side of you. Half the news revolves around Paris Hilton, how her life is like inside the prison, when she will be released, how much she is going to be paid for the very first interview, so on and so forth. You start to wonder, what happened to the hope, what happened to the faith. What happened to those times when we tuned into the radio and smiled because they are playing "Wrapped Around the Finger". When?
Oh, everyone believes
From emptiness to everything
Oh, everyone believes
No one's going quietly
So, LIFE it is going to be. Reading through people's comments about movies and music, and that is as far as I go in the LIFE section anyway. Of course, there is the obituaries. But if reading about nine year old kids being raped is depressing, would you want to look at those black and white pictures of the old and dead? It's the colors that matter, and it has got to be the LIFE section. However narrow minded it may be, however self-constrained I may be, this is the protest from me to the media, that you guys have lost your innocence that you once possessed.
Of course, blood sells. Violence sells. Sex sells. Money is the root of everything these days, and people are not going to buy magazines or newspapers if they do not have any of the above. Radio frequencies with hope and faith have little of those, and are thus not marketable at all. I'd like to have a day with zero newspaper publishing, zero television broadcasting, and zero activities in the world. Just a day of peace, when people just sit around and talk about life all day long. Without the sound of the media blaring over the speakers, or the words that describe horrid crimes overseas stinging your eyes. Just that silence around the world, those soft murmurs you hear from the other side of the wall. It'd be nice, to have that once in a while.
Because things are too noisy, and we have all lost the heart of life - for ever.
What takes a hundred thousand
Children in the sand
Belief can
Belief can
What puts the folded flag
Inside his mothers hand
Belief can
Belief can
Is there anyone who
Ever remembers
Changing their mind from
The paint on a sign
The road from my bed to the front door of my house takes about ten steps, or maybe a little more than that. I've never counted, but it never felt longer than twenty anyway. That is the road I take every morning, if I have to wake up early for school. It starts with the bed, and the first journey of the day begins. The destination is the front gate, or rather what lies beyond the front gate. Opening the wooden door and too lazy to find the correct key from the glass tray, I reach through the metal railings to obtain my prize. The newspapers, lying on the red door mat in a small untidy pile, left there by the hardworking paper boys - or men - that rides around on their overloaded motorbikes in the wee-hours of the morning. They usually arrive by the time I wake up, and that is where I get my daily source of information from around the world.
They say that being a Communications Studies student, you have to have a very wide grasp of what is happening in the world today. It's important to have the latest statistics and information at your fingertips, and it always makes it that much easier to write an essay about anything in the world. Sometimes, you won't even need to wonder if the numbers are completely accurate. Just come up with a number that is close enough, and people are going to believe whatever information that you provide. At least that is the kind of homework we have to do every morning, despite not being told what to do at all. Or it might be a kind of personal hobby of mine, to be updated once in a while about this world I am living in. However, there is something I do every morning that may not work for me if revealed to my teachers at school. I skip every section of the newspaper, and put my full attention only in LIFE!. Here's why.
Is there anyone who
Really recalls
Ever breaking rank at all,
For something someone yelled real loud one time
The title of the section says it all. The LIFE! section is - life. It is about our lives and how we are going to live it. Food reviews, movie reviews, music reviews, and everything you find in a Life section. That is the kind of information we get from there, and the kind of information that interests people. I used to be interested in the other sections too, simply because of the kind of news you get overseas and how informative they get. However, it has become a kind of norm to report only the negativity of the world, and seldom do you see news of a brave soldier in Iraq, the news of a heroic act or the likes. Everything is about war, is about politics, is about money, is about murders. Everything in our society that has got to do with anything but harmony and peace. Whatever goes on outside LIFE, have successfully put me off, totally.
I was reading an article online a few years ago, and I remember the man talking about the same kind of negativity we observe in other sections. First, the business section. It is about money, it is about finance. It is about what makes the world go round, and it is about what we call the "Root of Evil". It stirs the superficiality inside of us all, and sometimes you wonder if it really is that important to live in a mansion and own a yacht, when living as in the countryside with a small farm can be equally gratifying. The sports section is recreation, or what he called "A fluff". I've never been a very big sports fan, so that section is naturally skipped by myself. Next is the front page. The front page is the front page, it is what the publishers use to sell papers. Everything on the front page is in bold, highlighted, underlined and repeated over a dozen times with the most colorful pictures you can get in the highest resolution. That is the front page, and that is what goes against the heart of life - LIFE.
Oh, everyone believes
In how they think it ought to be
Oh, everyone believes
And they're not going easily
There are too many things featured in the other sections, that there are times when you start to wonder if you even want to know about these things. LIFE section isn't the greatest section of the newspaper in terms of its quality. I mean, nobody can read comic strips and celebrity quotes, and run a country successfully at the same time. That is also why the presidents of different countries are given newspapers every morning instead of comic books and graphic novels. LIFE section provides entertainment, and that is as far as it goes to tell you the truth. However, that is the only place in the newspaper that is not tainted by the filth of reality, or at least it is the more edible apple out of the basket of rotten ones.
It gets depressing in the other sections really, especially what happens after the front page. You read about some crazed militants in South Thailand bombing cars and buses, then you see trains in Taiwan colliding with each other. Days after days with depressing news like that, you start to wonder why they'd want to include such news in the morning paper, and expect people to start work or school with a smile on their faces. We see all those motivating posters stuck to the walls in offices and school corridors, encouraging people to start the day afresh and be energized. But then you walk down the corridors some more, and you find a stack of newspapers for you to read, with a bunch of people protesting on the streets, burning flags and flipping over cars. And it is only eight in the morning, with eight more hours to go till the end of the day. As if the morning dosage of depression isn't enough, the media feeds you at night with the evening news. This time, with moving pictures and sound.
Belief is a beautiful armor
That makes for the heaviest sword
Like punching underwater
You never can hit who you're trying for
I have an American friend whom I met over this internet movie forum. He is 22 years old, and he works part-time at this child-care home in America. The child-care home consists of children from single-parent families, and orphans as well. The single-parent would have their kids left in the child-care home when they go to work, and then pick them up after work at the end of the day. My friend got to know a girl named Alex, and she is a nine year old girl who made an impression on him. She was different from the other children running about, always being very composed and reserved - though never boastful.
One fine day, this friend of mine was talking to the people over at the forums once when he told us about it. He only just found out about the news, and he found out through the newspaper headlines that he read in the morning. Apparently, Alex was raped behind the school one day, and the culprit was caught. His neighbor, who is also his colleague at the child-care center, is actually the culprit's sister. The worst part is not even the fact that a nine year old girl was raped behind the school, or the fast that the news was plastered all over the papers and the evening news. The disturbing part really was the fact that the boy who raped the girl, wasn't even a middle-aged pervert who masturbates to internet porn all day long and spends his time behind bars, but a twelve year old child. That's, the disturbing part.
Some need the exhibition and
Some have to know they tried
It's the chemical weapon for the war
That's raging on inside
The media has lost its track a long time ago. There was a time when the media was the source of life and hope for people. In the World War II, the radio was the only source of information, because the factories were all shut down and newspapers were not being published anymore. So the people depended a lot on the media then, praying for a sign that may lead to the end of war, or instructions that were sent over the air waves to instruct the citizens on when to take shelter or move out of the city. The media was also the only source of hope for some families, who had their sons or fathers at war in some distant lands. Knowing the situation far away gives them that tad bit of hope, even if their loved ones might have already died in the battle. It gives them courage to move on, to survive. But when was the last time we turned on our radio to have our life depend on it?
The radio spurts out bad music almost twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Sandwiched between bad songs are advertisements encouraging you to purchase this or buy that, splurge your money this weekend and unleash the superficial and materialistic side of you. Half the news revolves around Paris Hilton, how her life is like inside the prison, when she will be released, how much she is going to be paid for the very first interview, so on and so forth. You start to wonder, what happened to the hope, what happened to the faith. What happened to those times when we tuned into the radio and smiled because they are playing "Wrapped Around the Finger". When?
Oh, everyone believes
From emptiness to everything
Oh, everyone believes
No one's going quietly
So, LIFE it is going to be. Reading through people's comments about movies and music, and that is as far as I go in the LIFE section anyway. Of course, there is the obituaries. But if reading about nine year old kids being raped is depressing, would you want to look at those black and white pictures of the old and dead? It's the colors that matter, and it has got to be the LIFE section. However narrow minded it may be, however self-constrained I may be, this is the protest from me to the media, that you guys have lost your innocence that you once possessed.
Of course, blood sells. Violence sells. Sex sells. Money is the root of everything these days, and people are not going to buy magazines or newspapers if they do not have any of the above. Radio frequencies with hope and faith have little of those, and are thus not marketable at all. I'd like to have a day with zero newspaper publishing, zero television broadcasting, and zero activities in the world. Just a day of peace, when people just sit around and talk about life all day long. Without the sound of the media blaring over the speakers, or the words that describe horrid crimes overseas stinging your eyes. Just that silence around the world, those soft murmurs you hear from the other side of the wall. It'd be nice, to have that once in a while.
Because things are too noisy, and we have all lost the heart of life - for ever.
What takes a hundred thousand
Children in the sand
Belief can
Belief can
What puts the folded flag
Inside his mothers hand
Belief can
Belief can
This entry was posted
on Monday, June 25, 2007 at 6:10 PM.
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