Ghosts Of Our Past

Recently, a lot of people I met asked me where was I and what was I doing on September 11, 2001. Here's what:

http://gforce-guru.blogspot.sg/2011/09/remembering-911.html

The most frightening ghosts could be the ghosts of our past. They have been known to haunt many in the history of mankind. A person could be blinded for the moment, take a short cut not realising that what they were doing then would one day become their past when they got back to the future just like when we get to the future, the current is our past. 

Evil spirit haunts and resides when one allows it and then you go to the dark side just like Anikin Skywalker. Wanting too much of a thing of earthly desires like power, money or sex can get you there. The dark side gets darker as you will soon experience unquenchable thirst. Thirst for more things, more power, more ruthlessness, etc. If you had killed a few people, a few more doesn't hurt does it? You get desensitised, you get numbed. Here's Linkin Park: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXYiU_JCYtU and Pink Floyd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpzxf_flm8M

Then I read about our National Conversation which is a good thing but they may have inadvertently left out the most important group - the drinkers. The drinkers are very important because they are the most intelligent, most knowledgeable and most honest people you will ever find in any conversation let alone a national one for they are the blokes that can provide answers and solutions to any problems after a few rounds of drinks.

In fact, they can see a problem even before it became one. They can tell you the beauty of the All Blacks, describe that sizzling dribble by Lionel Messi, discuss the economic situation of the USA, Europe, China, India, trying to save the world while having a few good shots. They are selfless, not to selfishly worry about their liver when they knew workers at  the beer factories needed their jobs. Anyway, as we age, what is preferable? Parkinson's or Alzheimer's? Definitely Parkinson. Better to spill half a peg of Scotch than to forget where you kept the bottle! 

Why fight over the Spratlys? China (Tsingtao), Vietnam (333), Indonesia (Bir Bintang), Philippines (San Miguel) can all catch up with so many beers to go around? Even Thailand (Chang) and Singapore (Tiger) can join in. "Ain't it foggy outside? All the planes have been grounded. Ain't the fire inside? Let's all go stand around it. Funny, I've been there and you've been here. And we ain't had no time to drink that beer." I'll be singing this as an anthem the moment I walk in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uta66QCksY

Everyone should try to watch two Clint Eastwood movies - Letters From Iwo Jima and Flags Of Our Fathers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51lo2dpaZ_g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKuym66LIr4

I have previously written about war-related articles:

http://gforce-guru.blogspot.sg/2010/04/war.html

http://gforce-guru.blogspot.sg/2010/10/hurt-locker.html

War's cause and effect is the effect of turning humans into ghosts. Ghastly and mindless destruction. Your duty is not to die for your country contrary to popular belief. Your duty is to let the other fellow die for his. What about personal wars? People are waging wars everyday. Ego wars, power wars, battle for supremacy, etc. 

In battle, it is easy to forget oneself once absorbed and consumed. There was a story about one-upmanship in the space race where the Americans spent millions to invent a pen that can be used to write when in space as previously the ink just would not flow down. The Russians? They just use a pencil. I remembered it was so impressive when the American Astronauts reached the moon but now the two greatest moon walkers Armstrong and Michael Jackson are both dead. The Russians gave us Cosmonauts then the Chinese Taikonauts. Even the Malaysians have their space Whatnots. Singapore may one day have our own Kiasunauts. Just do not go to the Sun at night thinking it is safer.

Wars are ugly and destructive and the only thing in life where nobody wins. There are many people out there who are facing different kinds of wars and these people have no choice for they may be suffering from an illness or facing other troubles not of their own choosing. You need to realise that everybody out there is fighting a personal battle, not with others but personal battles in life. You will need to look at yourself if you are battling with others. I'll understand if it were those arrogant, obnoxious few, those I'll describe with a four-lettered word - "Jerk!" who only feels in control when they are fighting others especially picking on others with lesser powers than they do. Why don't they pick on those who are their same size or position or their match? Otherwise, they enjoy making others fight. Why do man kill one another? The answer my friend is "Blowin In The Wind". Here's Bob Dylan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGO8snK98l0

That's "When The Children Cry". Listen to White Lion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUR86bnKLaI

Baltasar Gracian said: "Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island...to find one real friend in a lifetime is a good fortune. To keep him is a blessing!" 

Everybody has a past. Some may have unfortunately made drastic mistakes in life when they were young but when one has lived to a good age, you can't say that you have been unfortunate anymore. You ought to be wiser and if you were wiser, you should be able to see your past in future tense because in future, today is your past. What are you going to do about it?  First, seek to bury the ghosts of the past, then start to build on the current. Stop fighting and start building. Create and not destroy. The Chinese 7th lunar month would be over and the gates of Hades will be shut. Do not join them in going back down there. Do you think you have the power to decide your past now?

One day, I was having drinks with friends then I bumped into another few friends and they offered another couple more. It was way past dinner time so I stopped by somewhere and ordered a hot bowl of fragrant porridge. I shared a table with a lady with his Caucasian male friend. When I was about to start eating, I got a text from a friend so I flipped up my Blackberry, was reading the message and was replying halfway when the top heavy mobile phone fell straight into the porridge. My natural reaction was heroic as my instinct got the better of me and I dipped my hand right into the hot porridge to fish out the phone in a daring rescue.

As I was busy cleaning, I heard the couple discussing whether they should help me with a normal or wet tissue and finally they decide to part with a wet one. I apologised if I had spoiled their dinner and thanked them profusely saying it was the first time it happened and he said he hoped it does not happen again. I assured them once that it would not and that this happens to the best. Was it embarrassing? Well in a way but it was funny. How could this happen to a pro like me? I want to bury that ghost and bury that phone soon thus burying the ghost of our past. If there's something strange in the neighbourhood, who do you call? The Ghost busters!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyRqR56aCKc

Once there was this guy sitting in a bar alone staring at his beer. Along came a big guy who looks like a trouble maker from top to toe who came over to him, grabbed his beer and gulped it down without taking a breath and asked what he was going to do about it. He started crying and told the big bad guy it was the worst day of his life. "I'm a complete failure" he started. "I got fired by my boss today, I was walking to the parking lot when I found that my car got stolen and I do not have insurance. So I took a cab home but left my wallet in the cab. When I got home I found my wife with another man. When I slumped onto the sofa, even my own dog bit me. So I came to this bar alone trying to work up my courage to end it all. I got myself a beer, dropped a capsule in it and was watching the poison dissolved slowly and then you just showed up and drank the whole thing. What am I to do now? Anyway, enough about myself, how is your day going?