It's a new year, with a new timetable, (some) new teachers, new routine, new expectations, new hopes and (for me) a dark new beginning. It's nice and bright and shiny for most of you lucky people who don't really have to regret not studying hard enough for promos or not being consistent in lectures and tutorials and revision. 'Cos you probably don't have the darned R Paper.

Well, to be honest, the regret doesn't affect me as much as it would have say, a year ago or the years before that (duh.) . I think that as each year progresses with me making more mistakes than the average Joe, or Jane (since we live in an equal world which leads me to another story. I'll elaborate later), I sort of mature and come to terms with regret; which is usually me just blaming everything/everyone else apart from myself. This self-sustaining denial is very useful for a person in my situation which is, you may ask, someone who more or less screws up the golden opportunities handed to him by procrastinating and being an insanely lazy moron.

Oh, wait. I think I forgot to mention that this year brings to us the All New Principal. I have my doubts, as all humans would with something totally alien and new to them, something they haven't experienced; imagine World Peace (without "bomb-laden" Middle-Easterners - since Arab is NOT Persian/Iranian//Egyptian/Yemenese/Turkish/ Indonesian) and President Bush. I guess I should let him "ease in" into the VJ culture(?)/routine/lifestyle and then, and ONLY then, critically judge him. But it has been such a challenge especially given his "short and sharp" introduction this morning. More about that as life goes on/time goes by.

On to us living in a equal world. A statement from the sagely MR Desmond Ng has inspired this entry. He asked why girls get to see us topless in public while they get to hide theirs.

"We have nipples too!" commented Mr Ng.

Why is it that women get to wear power suits in the office whilst men can't wear pencil dresses? (ha-ha! what a sight that would be). What is with the stereotyping of men? What do I think when a woman wears teeshirt and jeans? Well, she's a woman. But what would you think if a man wore a tight flowery tee with tight threequarters and carried a shimmery tote bag? You'd think he's less of a man.

Why do they also save women and children first in emergencies? Okay, children is a given, but what happens to the equality of man and women in times of crisis. Isn't it insulting to the female gender if we, masochistic egomaniacs of men, decide that women are less able to save themselves when the ferry capsizes or when a building gets hit by a plane, or two (of course suspected to be under the control of 3 kamikaze Muslim/Middle-Eastern Hijackers)?

To explain my sustained cynicism on the "Middle-Eastern" stereotypes and situation is the recent news on Saddam Hussein's recent execution. The totally insensitive timing of the execution was bound to cause distress and, undoubtedly, added chaos in the already chaotic atmosphere in and around Iraq. How the Iraqi and American officials could overlook this dreadfully obvious backlash is really questionable. It can't be that America got some intelligence that Eidil Adha (a MAJOR celebration for all Muslims around the world) would not happen this year. Actually, it could be that since the American government seems to believe all the god-damned bullshit they call intelligence that they receive.

Fueling my anger with the US govt is the fact that about 12,000 CIVILIANS - meaning unarmed men, women and children - have been killed. Who the fuck gets to have an excursion to Iraq, or any other country for that matter, bring trained killers with sophisticated killing gadgets and decide that they can, directly or indirectly cause at least 12,000 deaths of harmless people who didn't choose to be stuck in all this questionably-inspired extra-curricular activities? And that's only the civilians. What about the men and women who volunteered to fight for their country? How can anyone have the heart to lead them into battle (from the comfort of their plush thrones of power) under false pretenses, knowing that there will be great losses, especially since even "one death is too many in a war that should never have happened"? Who also should be allowed the chance to chase their own desires under the expense of the very people who put them into their oh-so-powerful offices?

I say off with their heads, these people who get to do such inhuman and vile acts of evil worldly influence.

And welcome back to school.


afzal