As the NYT article states, The Day After Tomorrow may be badly-needed publicity for environmentalists to get the message out about global warming and about the terrible environmental policies that the Bush administration has adopted. Considering that the MPAA with anti-piracy and cracking down on illegal movie distribution, has Holly turned over a new stone?
Hollywood has always been known to saturate its pictures to theh point of incredibility. It's Hollywood in its natural state: hyperboles galore, special effects without substance, and outlandash ideas that are seldomly true.
Tomorrow is no different. With catastrophic natrual disasters that occur a million times the normal speed (eg. a sudden temperature drop to -150 degrees F occurs a volume of air in seconds that would take several tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years to occur). Giant tidal waves sweep the western and eastern seaboard by melting glaciers is downright ridiculous. A catastropic heat buildup (on top of the cold air at the equatorial perimeter mind you!) must occur to scorching levels, or have some massive microwave bomb that is detonated in the polar regions of the earth. Even I, a Caltech graduate, would have difficulty inventing such poor science, let alone bother to watch such mind-dumbing pieces of 'work.'
So why would anyone want to watch this movie in the first place? There is nothing redeeming about this movie aside from the computer graphic effects that are used in this movie. But then we have many other motion pictures that uses these special effects liberally: the Marvel Comic adaptation to movies, Pixar animations, the list goes on and on. A typical American would not watch this movie on the environment -- it has no message or substance behind its layers of special effects compared to other better movies out there. Only environmentalists and movie critics would have any real interest ; the former to justify their ideas and cause, the latter, to follow their stalwart routine in sitting through every single movie, no matter how bad it is. As the result, the message would only reach a few.
Hollywood has never held any reason to depict reality, true stories, or even novels accurately, let alone voice any political stances. Hollywood is out to make money. That is the bottom line. This movie is no different. Whatever message about the environment, if any, that the movie attempts expose its viewers to is washed away by waves and waves of the real reason this movie was made: the visual effects that is supposed to captivate the viewer's eye -- not the the supposedly alarmist stance on global warming and bad environmental policies. Any attempts at message broadcasting by Hollywood eventually gets lost in the furor in earning salt.
Move along, Hollywood. Let the real experts on storytelling talk about the environment and global warming.
20040527
20040526
The Iraq Failure in a Sentence
As I read more and more about the Iraqi quagmire that Bush has gotten us into, I try to think of a reason why, after a 13 months, there is no noticable progress towards instating a secure Iraqi government, despite what the Bush administration tries to tell to the Americans, more or less until this past Monday (click on title link for the relevant article to start out). After much article reading, much commentary reading, and much quote reading, I came up with this sentence to sum everything up, as of today:
Democracy cannot be exported without a grass roots movement.
As many people may remember, one of Bush's policies after invading Iraq was to 'export' democracy into a new land by properly breaking up the land, planting the seeds of democracy, cultivating democracy as it germinates and flourishes, and reaping the ripe fruit that democracy would eventually bear, whether it would be by the hands of the Iraqis, the Middle East, or the hands of the American government/corporation is up to debate. Such is also the fruit. But, as anyone who is remotely familiar with horticulture, planting and taking care a grandiose and expensive plant is not an easy or simple job, especially in its early stages. As animals and pests nibble away at, and eventually kill, young saplings, even with the careful attention of a gardner, the small sprouts of democracy in Iraq are constantly devoured by Iraqi counsel assinations and sabotage to the Iraqi infrastructure.
While the Bush administration has decidedly pinned these attacks on Al Queda and other Islamic terrorists and the US armed forces crack down on Iraqi resistance, there has been little motivation and action, aside from the US government and the members of the Iraqi counsel, that show any resolve in establishing and maintaining a type of democracy or government in Iraq.
The assassination of the head of the Iraqi counsel is the latest example. The event occurred in headline print on all major media, yet there is little to report in the aftermath as to who was behind the assassination and what progress or arrests have been made. Bush and his lackeys (seemingly all-too-conveniently) decided to pin the deed on the shady 'terrorist' character without concrete proof, and, after a week, there is hardly any progress in attempting to track down the organization and the network, nor is there any relenting in the assassination attempts that followed on Sunday. The lack of witnesses and informants to give reliable and breakthrough information on insurgent activity is a forboding sign that the citizens surrounding the government are not be giving the 'grass-roots' support for the new democracy -- the fence, if you will, that keeps the animals out of the garden.
Granted there is an Iraqi military and police force, but they are at best only a dusty facade to a condemned building. The are outnumbered, poorly equipped and trained, and have been shown to be unreliable when needed, as was the case during the Fallujah and the Sadr conflict and the insurgency attack on a police station not too long ago.
The grass-roots failure has not always been there and was, in fact, strongest when the US first invaded Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein. As news footage showed at the time, Iraqis were enthusiastic and vocal at the onset of Hussein's fall from power. Unfortunately, the many poor military and political decisions made by Bush's Cabinet and his appointed representative (Paul Bremmer) to Iraq have worn Iraqi patience and has caused them to sympathize with Coalition opponents in the face of the short-term uncertain economic and political status for their country.
Unless the Administration can make an about-face and start making drastic changes in its approaches to Iraq, the Iraqi support for the new government will be forever lost, if it has not been already. Without citizens and grass-root support for the new government, whether for the current counsel, for the interim government post-June 30, or the permanent government next year, the fragile government will lose its footing and will eventually give way to an alternative form of government that the United States did not set out to establish in the first place. The US, to maintain the democracy that they plant in Iraq, must stay in and operate with the Iraqi government, like it did in Berlin and Japan after World War II and in South Korea. If not, Iraq may revert to a state of political instability and anti-American sentiment like those of Vietnam and Haiti during the Vietnam War and the 1990s respectively, but on a grander scale.
Democracy cannot be exported without a grass roots movement.
As many people may remember, one of Bush's policies after invading Iraq was to 'export' democracy into a new land by properly breaking up the land, planting the seeds of democracy, cultivating democracy as it germinates and flourishes, and reaping the ripe fruit that democracy would eventually bear, whether it would be by the hands of the Iraqis, the Middle East, or the hands of the American government/corporation is up to debate. Such is also the fruit. But, as anyone who is remotely familiar with horticulture, planting and taking care a grandiose and expensive plant is not an easy or simple job, especially in its early stages. As animals and pests nibble away at, and eventually kill, young saplings, even with the careful attention of a gardner, the small sprouts of democracy in Iraq are constantly devoured by Iraqi counsel assinations and sabotage to the Iraqi infrastructure.
While the Bush administration has decidedly pinned these attacks on Al Queda and other Islamic terrorists and the US armed forces crack down on Iraqi resistance, there has been little motivation and action, aside from the US government and the members of the Iraqi counsel, that show any resolve in establishing and maintaining a type of democracy or government in Iraq.
The assassination of the head of the Iraqi counsel is the latest example. The event occurred in headline print on all major media, yet there is little to report in the aftermath as to who was behind the assassination and what progress or arrests have been made. Bush and his lackeys (seemingly all-too-conveniently) decided to pin the deed on the shady 'terrorist' character without concrete proof, and, after a week, there is hardly any progress in attempting to track down the organization and the network, nor is there any relenting in the assassination attempts that followed on Sunday. The lack of witnesses and informants to give reliable and breakthrough information on insurgent activity is a forboding sign that the citizens surrounding the government are not be giving the 'grass-roots' support for the new democracy -- the fence, if you will, that keeps the animals out of the garden.
Granted there is an Iraqi military and police force, but they are at best only a dusty facade to a condemned building. The are outnumbered, poorly equipped and trained, and have been shown to be unreliable when needed, as was the case during the Fallujah and the Sadr conflict and the insurgency attack on a police station not too long ago.
The grass-roots failure has not always been there and was, in fact, strongest when the US first invaded Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein. As news footage showed at the time, Iraqis were enthusiastic and vocal at the onset of Hussein's fall from power. Unfortunately, the many poor military and political decisions made by Bush's Cabinet and his appointed representative (Paul Bremmer) to Iraq have worn Iraqi patience and has caused them to sympathize with Coalition opponents in the face of the short-term uncertain economic and political status for their country.
Unless the Administration can make an about-face and start making drastic changes in its approaches to Iraq, the Iraqi support for the new government will be forever lost, if it has not been already. Without citizens and grass-root support for the new government, whether for the current counsel, for the interim government post-June 30, or the permanent government next year, the fragile government will lose its footing and will eventually give way to an alternative form of government that the United States did not set out to establish in the first place. The US, to maintain the democracy that they plant in Iraq, must stay in and operate with the Iraqi government, like it did in Berlin and Japan after World War II and in South Korea. If not, Iraq may revert to a state of political instability and anti-American sentiment like those of Vietnam and Haiti during the Vietnam War and the 1990s respectively, but on a grander scale.
20040525
First Post -- A Little Bit About Me, and How I Tick
Thus is the birth of my second attempt at blogging. Yeah, I know. The first blog never existed, but can be found here.
I'll attempt to follow up with semi-regular blogging, though I would have preferred if I could have been able to get this blog to work with my website at http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~kev, but I suppose I'll have to deal with the blogspot.com domain until I can figure out how to get sftp access to the www.ugcs domain.
Just for those who may just so happen to stumble across this blog (unlikely) and who do not personally know me, I am a first-going-on-second year graduate student at Case Western Reserve University persuing a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering. I was a student at the California Institute of Technology, where I graduated with a degree concentration/option in Electrical Engineering. In hindsight, I was a more or less a computer junkie, with a side of science and engineering geekiness. In the last year, however, I have been considerably interested in current/world events and politics, mostly concerned with George W. Bush's incompetent handlings of his office and all possible affairs, excluding what I view to be severely pro-business and ultra-right-wing conservative issues.
If I ever do talk about politics (which may become frequent, as I am very unsatisfied with the current administration), my viewpoints are and will be mainly based from what I read from the Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, the New York Times, and the occasional viewing of national news broadcasts from NBC, ABC, and NPR and the reading/viewing of BBC News. I consider this to be a large amount of reading for information and viewpoints given the small amount of time I have aside from classes and my Master's Thesis. I may mis-quote or be completely out of line. If I ever do, I'll blame it on my somewhat frazzled memory and the limited scope in the reading material I go through every day. Please kindly point out my mistakes or voice any disagreements, and we'll go from there.
Hopefully, this blog will not be strictly political and will have personal entries as well.
Until later,
Q (aka. chaos4ever)
P.S. Just as an aside: The Hawken blog's discussion to national and international issues of politics, healthcare, civil rights, and just about everything else you can think of, was a notably valiant attempt, though it is today reduced the personal opinions and input of the original founder. I regret not taking part in such discussions even though I was invited to contribute to the blog -- half of it being that I was a very 'bitter' senior that had a questionable chance of graduating from Caltech, and the other half being that I did not believe that I was informed enough to participate in such a passionate discussion of many issues. Apologies to Nitin, if he ever stumbles across this entry.
I'll attempt to follow up with semi-regular blogging, though I would have preferred if I could have been able to get this blog to work with my website at http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~kev, but I suppose I'll have to deal with the blogspot.com domain until I can figure out how to get sftp access to the www.ugcs domain.
Just for those who may just so happen to stumble across this blog (unlikely) and who do not personally know me, I am a first-going-on-second year graduate student at Case Western Reserve University persuing a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering. I was a student at the California Institute of Technology, where I graduated with a degree concentration/option in Electrical Engineering. In hindsight, I was a more or less a computer junkie, with a side of science and engineering geekiness. In the last year, however, I have been considerably interested in current/world events and politics, mostly concerned with George W. Bush's incompetent handlings of his office and all possible affairs, excluding what I view to be severely pro-business and ultra-right-wing conservative issues.
If I ever do talk about politics (which may become frequent, as I am very unsatisfied with the current administration), my viewpoints are and will be mainly based from what I read from the Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, the New York Times, and the occasional viewing of national news broadcasts from NBC, ABC, and NPR and the reading/viewing of BBC News. I consider this to be a large amount of reading for information and viewpoints given the small amount of time I have aside from classes and my Master's Thesis. I may mis-quote or be completely out of line. If I ever do, I'll blame it on my somewhat frazzled memory and the limited scope in the reading material I go through every day. Please kindly point out my mistakes or voice any disagreements, and we'll go from there.
Hopefully, this blog will not be strictly political and will have personal entries as well.
Until later,
Q (aka. chaos4ever)
P.S. Just as an aside: The Hawken blog's discussion to national and international issues of politics, healthcare, civil rights, and just about everything else you can think of, was a notably valiant attempt, though it is today reduced the personal opinions and input of the original founder. I regret not taking part in such discussions even though I was invited to contribute to the blog -- half of it being that I was a very 'bitter' senior that had a questionable chance of graduating from Caltech, and the other half being that I did not believe that I was informed enough to participate in such a passionate discussion of many issues. Apologies to Nitin, if he ever stumbles across this entry.
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