Russia-Ukraine war = more lessons to be learnt

 

What happens when a big, strong man is found beating up a weak man? Normally. passers-by or the friends of the weak man will push the big man away from hitting the poor small man, further. Looks like that’s the same case as with the Russian-Ukraine war going on now. The big man is Russia, the weak, small man, Ukraine, the passers-by and the friends are USA and the other NATO countries.

In the gone old days, USA was known to have its famous cowboy character and trigger-happy notions. Anyone, or any nations going out of line and causing the displeasure of the Americans would have to answer to strong arm manoeuvres and decisiveness of the Americans. The tragic outcomes of Egypt’s Saddam Hussein, Libya’s Gaddafi and Afghanistan’s Osama Bin Ladin are some examples, Perhaps, you can also add the bombings of Japanese Hiroshima and Nagasaki to those illustrations. It was the real policeman of the world, then. National leaders would run to America to report to the American leaders of any excessive martial or military problems that they cannot solve in their own lands. And the Americans would jump in straight away. 

Not anymore. They have got their fingers burnt in Vietnam, Afghanistan and other middle eastern countries. Thousands of their military men had died. They are now trying to be more patient, civilized, if you may, and unwilling to sacrifice their soldiers. That is why the hesitation in the Russian Ukraine war. Not only are they worried over their troops but also the citizens of Ukraine and Russia. So, they are going about using sanctions against Russia as the main weapon. Even an emergency meeting of NATO and other friendly countries just resulted in just a statement by American President Joe Biden that ‘NATO countries have never been more united’! He tried to make that statement look big! 

Anyway, it almost looks like an agreed-upon progression of psychological war by the Ukraine friendly countries is in headway, like, with threats of complete sanctions, trying to feed the Russian people what is ‘actually’ happening, through whatever means, and statements like ‘Ukraine is winning the war’. Maybe, ‘winning the war’ is true to a certain extent for now, as the Ukrainian fighters were able to prevent Russian soldiers for advancing further in certain areas, with the help of NATO armaments. USA’s President Joe Biden had also said, recently, that President Vladimir Putin is a ‘war criminal’ for the death of so many civilians. Suspected or expectant usage of chemical weaponry by the Russians  had also been mentioned. Surely, it is done to sway the opinion of the people of the world at large. 

Russia, on its part, is trying to portray to the people of its own nation and its friendly countries, that everything is normal within its homeland and just doing what it ought do in Ukraine after having been very patient for several years. Russia is afraid that, Ukraine, once part of the Russian Empire, is slowly moving its alliance to the NATO countries and will be untouchable once it becomes one of the members of NATO.

Physiological warfare or not, both by the Russians and the Ukrainians with their NATO friends, we only hope everything ends here without more bloodshed and tragic displacements and sufferings of human beings.

The oldest still surviving language of the world!

 

Didn’t know they had a day for mother tongue language – the International Mother Language Day, which fell on 21st February this year and of course will fall on that date and month every year. On googling, I found out that it was mooted by the United Nations in 1999 to recognize and promote multilingual diversity of the world.

They seem to have a day for everything. The other day, I had written a post in this blog, saluting the all-spicy chicken, and later discovered that they had a day for the chickens, too! How nice! How very nice! And now when I was feeling all proud for having Tamil, which is the oldest existing language in the world, as my mother tongue, I got to know through a Tamil TV channel in Malaysia, that there is a day for the mother tongue, too. The news reader, a young Tamil lady, was telling or rather conveying about sending of children of Tamil parents to Tamil schools that exist in Malaysia, so that the Tamil Language does not die of, as had many ancient languages, Sadly, she failed to mention that Tamil is the oldest language in the world, I, being a proud Malaysian of Tamil origin, who started his education in a Tamil school, felt deeply disappointed,

 Anyway, a little info about the language of the Tamilians, Historic engravements in ancient times show that Tamil language existed about 5000 years ago. It was found spoken  commonly around the Godavari River in Southern India.  Tamil is called as a Dravidian language as Tamils were one of the tribes of the Dravidian family, which existed in southern India in ancient times. Linguists say there are touches of the Tamil language in many other languages of the world. The language of the Tamils can be summed up as The Ancient Main International Language! 

I am sure everyone of us is proud of his/her native language and desire to portray the beauty and the benefits of their own mother tongue. Sure, go ahead!

Territorial Whirlwind in Ukraine!

Will there be a Russian-Ukraine, a Russian-USA or a Russian-NATO war? 

Whichever nations they may be, the main question is will there be a war at the Russian Ukraine border.

Russia has equipped 100.000 troops at the border. And of course, with the armaments of war. It easily gives the signal and perception that an invasion of Ukraine is imminent.

The acclaimed savior of the world-democracy, the USA, is worried, is panicking. It is initially sending about 8500 troops of its own to the Ukraine border and also waiting for other NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization} countries to follow suit. So far, Britain, its strongest ally, has pledged its involvement militarily. France and Germany are trying mediation. Germany is in a great predicament. It is depending on Russia for almost all of its petroleum gas supply. New pipelines are being constructed at a drastic cost.  Showing of hostility to Russia will affect Germany critically, in terms of man, money and material.

Well, first, let us refresh our mind. Which are the NATO countries? There are 30 nations in NATO – Albania, Belgium. Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and USA.

A look at the map of the NATO countries with Russia will show that most of the nations in Europe are NATO countries. Russia has Belarus, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania among its immediate border nations. Belarus is its only ally and serves as a buffer. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have already left the once Soviet Republic or the Russian Empire, and have since joined NATO. And now Russia is afraid that Ukraine will also be absorbed into NATO, as Ukraine itself has been asking for it. This will make it one less buffer nation.

And so, Russia could not be blamed for equipping its man and armaments at the border with Ukraine, with the threat of entering Ukraine anytime. One of the criteria of being admitted into NATO is the applying nation should not have any disputes, especially of the military kind with its neighbors. So, there you are. Russian troops are there with the threat of invasion. How can NATO accept Ukraine when such is the situation? For its part, what Russia is asking seems reasonable. It wants promise from NATO not to admit Ukraine within its organization. We can see Russia has Belarus as its buffer. It also needs Ukraine. It is hoped the NATO countries see it that way. And get that agreement that says Russia should withdraw its troops from the border of Ukraine and NATO in turn should never admit Ukraine into NATO.

At the bottom of it all, It will be very much beneficial for Ukraine to stay non allied. NATO countries (especially USA) and Russia will compete with each other to be of economic value to Ukraine and to be in the good books of Ukraine! And that part of the world will be in peace!

 President Vladimir Putin and President Joe Biden, over to you!

 

Come to think of it.....

*Are you still writing 2021 instead 0f 2022? I do still. But it has lessened. Because, I pause before writing up the year! I hope in the month of February I need not pause anymore!

*Never be careless or absent minded with words and letters or even the spaces. Abnormalities like these (below) can happen!  

There was much noise and slaughter all around!

 "No, officer. I am a therapist. Not the rapist!"

Dear John,  .........I used to love you once. Now I  ate you.

Don't trust him. He is a ship in wolf's clothing'

The chairman thanked all thr bored members for standing up upon his entrance.

.....And she replied that his dress was also  ice.

The vessel to Tioman Island is cap sized now.

*The motivation words 'be positive' is very much unwelcome during these covid times.

* Often it made me wonder, while driving, in my home town, Taiping, in Malaysia, whether my eyesight was getting weaker or was there a mist in front of me. I am a diabetic. That was why this worry. When someone said it was misty out there it would make me  happy and relieved! Anyone out there in my position? 

Grasp that opportunity!

 

There is an old popular saying; Opportunity knocks but once on every man’s door. Checking on the websites, looks like there were several versions of it, since around 8 A.D by sayers and writers of various nationalities. It has since evolved into as it is being said now.

Opportunities should never be missed. But people do miss them. Here are some explanations on why they miss them and the funny aspects!

* Sometimes opportunity tries to break the door open but the occupant had made it too strong.

* Many remain poor because when opportunity knocked on their doors but they were in the theatres.

* Thinking it was opportunity knocking, he opened the door. It was the bill collector!

* He did not hear opportunity knocking. He was fast asleep as usual.

 * When opportunity knocks, open the door fully. Don’t see through keyhole. You won’t find anything. Opportunity is invisible.

* When you feel that opportunity is just around the corner go meet it and lead it to your door.

* Maybe you can leave your door open always so that opportunity enters straight away into your house.

Well, you can make your own opportunity or wait for it to come. I am taking this opportunity  to leave!

Whither booster shots

 

 

Now they are saying a third shot of vaccine is needed to be immunized against the new mutilated covid 19 viruses.

At the beginning, they said it was a break through that they finally discovered a vaccine for the covid- 19 virus.  And they were saying all sorts of efficacies for the various vaccines -   95%, 90%, 75%, 52% and what not. Then, they said another shot of vaccine was needed to have real effect on the virus. And now they are saying yet another shot of vaccine is needed to efficiently create an antibody against the virus. A new virus now that they call it as Omicron. They call the new vaccine jab  as the booster shot.  I wonder how many booster shots we are going to have. Will it end here? I don’t think so, but I sincerely, hope so!

Why are they not improving on the vaccines that currently exist, instead of requesting for further vaccination? They may argue the booster shot is the improvisation. Okay, well and good, but pessimistically, speaking, I think there will be further pleading of getting more shots of other vaccines or ‘boosters’ with new names. I hope financial gains are not a consideration here.

Let’s wait and see! Fingers crossed!

The Taliban take their chance. Now or never.

 

Now or never! This seems to be the stance taken by the Taliban on seeing the American troops withdrawing from Afghanistan. It looks as though it was well planned earlier. Very well earlier! Otherwise, they could not taken the whole of Afghanistan at such a short period, without much resistance.

Actually, President Trump had the ball rolling on February 2020, in Doha, Qatar, when a peace deal and agreement on troop withdrawal was made with the Taliban. And, remember, the Taliban had insisted on a deadline of withdrawal by May 1, 2021. And President Trump did begin to withdraw the troops. Not all troops were withdrawn by May 2021. But credit to him, from 13,000, the number of troops remaining at the time of Biden was were 2,500. When President Joe Biden came into office, and later said he was withdrawing all the troops from Afghanistan, the media was wrongly accrediting him with the move – the decision to pull out the troops. That was Trump's triumph. Anyway, the Taliban were already well prepared since then,and were certain the final troop withdrawal was going to happen, and were waiting for it!

Poor Biden may have thought the Taliban will make some war moves in the way of conflicts and combats with the Afghanistan military. And American will, graciously, dispatch diplomats to mediate in the matter. But that was not to be. Biden did not realize that the Taliban would have, surely, thought of all these possibilities. And also failed to recognize that the Taliban would not have any of these. That was why he pulled the troops as he did, unintentionally, unknowingly but alarmingly, making the American supporters in Afghanistan running helter skelter, trying to get to the airport and leave their beloved land!

So there you are. Taliban are in full control of Afghanistan now. Only time will tell if this is for good or otherwise.

The world is in turmoil! Why?

 

What a disastrous situation the world is in now. It is in turmoil! Notwithstanding the atrocious, ravaging COVID- 19 pandemic that is creating a perplexing hair-pulling havoc to all the nations of the world, millions of the populace have to face the wrath of earth's other side – the ugly side! Draconian fires, typhoons and thunderstorms, devastating floods, landslides, earthquakes, unbearable heat waves! You name it , the world is providing them to us free! At the moment, the receivers of these unrequested and undesirable free offers are our comrades in Turkey, N.. America, N. Africa, Italy,Greece. India, China, Bangladesh, Iran. Haiti...the list goes on....My heart feels for them. I pray their sufferings and agony do not prolong.

Hopefully, we, human beings, do not add to these catastrophic calamities in the ways of mob rules, violent rallies and protests, skirmish battles and wars. 

Enough is enough. We have had it our way for all too long. Now God seems to be having it his way!

Football Players Are Weaklings

Do you know something? We have seen, in our lifetime, many sports and the players in them, soccer or football, as it is fondly called, amongst them. Football players are the weakest of the lot! These assertions are proved by all the competitive football games that you see now. Just one prod will see a player drop down on the field shrieking and turning over and over, assumably,in pain!

Pity them! Even the gravity of the field seems to have something to do with it. It is very evident near the goal posts. A mere nudge near the goalmouth area seem to make a player fly down and roll over a few yards, a few times, crying out in pain! Often their pain seems to be so intense that they will cover up their faces with their hands. ( hoping to be awarded with a penalty kick, of course!) Strangely,   the pain seem to be lasting only a short time!. After the refree had taken action  against their opponents, to their advantage, they will be up and about, and running more earnestly!. What a blessed game football is! Quick healing of pain! Ha ha! Sonetimes it is irritating, Ah, well, depending on which team you  support!

If you don’t believe me just watch a football game that interests you, especially, a professional or an international one. You will know what I mean!

The games that covid- 19 vaccines play - in my nation!

 

It gives us the impression that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is reserved for front liners (the people of the medical sectors) and for the important uniformed personnel, as well as, for pregnant ladies. So, naturally, it is strongly considered to be safe and efficient. Its efficacy is already stated to be 95%. Recently, the vaccine, Moderna has also been allowed to make its advent into Malaysia. The government has given the go ahead to the private sector medical companies, and it has also been favorably paired along with Pfizer as a vaccine of repute, and reserved for, you know who!  Men with money. Sorry, but that is the impression I get watching the TV news and the discussions.

As for AstraZeneca vaccine which, unfortunately, has a black mark of producing blood clots, though, once in a few hundred thousand persons, the vaccine has been pin marked to be given to old timers above 60 years old, like me, the reason being given is that it is safe for us.  And, maybe, because they thought we won’t be living very long to tell the tales! The blood clot tales! Ha ha! Its efficacy rate is said to be 70%.  I, too, naturally, thought I would be given that AstraZeneca vaccine, when I was called up to be vaccinated, recently. And when I was waiting for my turn to be injected my first dose, a nurse came to the other old timer, a Malay man, sitting the standard  1 meter away from me, and told him that he would be injected with the Sinovac vaccine from China and whether it was okay with him. (He nodded his head. It was okay with him!) And, only then, did I know that it was Sinovac for me, with an efficacy rate of 51% ! You see, all the other nurses whom I talked to earlier said they did not know what vaccine that I would be injected with was. My, my! They were being frightfully careful!  Lest they said it was Pfizer and I ended up with Sinovac. Anyway, I ended up with Sinovac. Ha! Ha! Yeah, never mind. How long would I live even if I was given that Pfizer vaccine? Another half a century? The most, if everything goes well in the way of good health, I will roll along for another30 years, God willing.  Sour grape, am I? (smiling).

Our government is caring. And smart as well!

The crust and crux of Hindu wedding.

Friends, there had been a big delay in any new post from me because I had been greatly occupied by a happy event – the marriage of my first son. I am sure you are also happy to get this news and will naturally understand the lapse.

Though the wedding occurred on Sunday, 24 October 2010, this being an Indian wedding, a lot of cultural and traditional events had been in order. Firstly, the boy’s side - that is us – had to go to the girl’s house and rightly ask the girl’s parents for the girl’s hands. Mind you, this after knowing that the boy and girl had already been meeting very often for the past two years now and were inseparable. Oh, okay. Liked each other! The event is called ‘nichiyam’.

Then there is the ‘parisam’ where the boy’s family, along with a few close relatives and neighborly friends go to the girl’s house with ‘tambalams’ (trays) of several types of offerings like various type of fruits, sweets, cakes, candies, etc. We took 21 ‘tambalams’.

‘Parisam’ is the time when the actual wedding date and time would be confirmed and the dreadful (bonanza for some) dowry, respectfully referred in Tamil as ‘seerr’ (sounds as in seek), would be discussed. You guessed it! There was no mention of it by me. I am not a dowry seeker. My troupe got the wind of it and they did not bring it up either. Of course, if the girl’s side wants to feel respectful by offering something, I have got no objection. They did not mention it either. By the way, before any of you got the wrong idea, dowry is some sort of gift that the girl’s family gives to the boy’s family. It could be land, property, house, furniture, vehicle or even cash in kind. A big debate can be got out of this dowry thing!

The girl’s side had arranged for the ‘parisam’ to be held in a temple as their house could not accommodate big crowds, which we were. This we accepted. We, especially me, are not the picky and fussy type. Thank you.

The ‘parisam’ over, three days before the wedding day, ‘nalunggu’ and ‘kaal oondrudhal’ were done. ‘Nalunggu’ is where the bridegroom sits cross-legged outside the house, normally in the porch and three to nine female relatives and friends offer prayers in front of him with various prayer items. The prayer items are circled around his seated body, from head to toe, often touching his shoulders and knees. The items include an oval shaped flour grinding stone, quite heavy. One can’t help laughing when sometimes the bridegroom ducks his head involuntarily when the stone is above his head during the circular movement. Vibuthy (prayer ash), crimson coloured powder and yellowish powder moisture are slightly stroked up on his forehead cheeks and hands.

‘Kaal oondrudhal’ is basically standing up about a five to six feet bamboo pole on the land in front of the house. If no land is available it is planted in a big vase. While planting or inserting the bamboo at least three or five women should hold it. Of course, prayers are made while doing it.

Then comes the big day, the wedding day. Preparation is huge; ordering the printing of wedding cards, writing up the names and distributing the cards, buying the wedding apparels and ornaments, arranging for the tents, video and cameramen, decorations…phew! Just mentioning them is so tiring!

Okay, friends. Everything is all over now! From now on I will try my best to put up a post as often as I can. Thanks for being with me.

Updated…

Oh, I still haven’t told you about the pinnacle of the wedding, the ceremony that matters most, the tying of the 'thali' around the bride’s (ponnu’s) neck by the bridegroom (mappillai)!  Thali is, basically, several cotton strings twisted together into a wire size thickness of yellow string. The thali has to be in the Indian auspicious color of yellow and will be prepared with turmeric or saffron.  A small, oval-shaped (intricately structured and depicting symbols of the Gods) piece of gold is strung on the thali in the center. After the priest had chanted and hymned several rituals and mantras, in front a small fire burning on mango sticks, intermittently, fed by suitably-liquefied ghee by the priest, he gives the thali, laid on a tray with a peeled coconut and other smaller holy items like betel leaves, betel nuts and bananas,  to a close relative, to be shown to the congregation, individually, to get their blessings, which they do by hovering their opened and over turned palms over the tray with the thali, just for a second.  Phew! That was long! And, indeed, an Hindu wedding ceremony also takes very long - almost two hours. I am married and had been a very close witness to the weddings of my two sons, not mentioning the dozens of weddings that I have attended and I still don’t know which rituals come first and their purposes! Just telling you how complicating and long the Hindu rituals and the traditional procedures can be. That seems to be the reason why the priests are an integral part of Hindu traditions, prayers and festivals. What I know is that the fire is there as a witness to the wedding. Remember fire can enlighten as well as annihilate!

Well, let’s come back to my son’s wedding matter. After all said and done - ha ha, I mean after the hymns of rituals and the ritualistic  tasks that the bride and groom were asked to utter and do, my son was given the ritualistically blessed thali to tie around the neck of the ‘ponnu’ who was sitting beside him. And he gladly did, accompanied by the traditional, doom, doom, doom music that was always played when the thali was being tied. Dry saffron rice were thrown by the people sitting or standing in front, over the couples’ heads as a show of blessings, as is the custom. 

End of the main ceremony. Ceremonies of different sorts start……..!

What names you must not give your business!

 Found in my home town of Taiping in Malaysia. 

1. Gives you the wrong impression!

    

2.   Choose carefully!

3.  Too silent!