Suicide vs Terrorism

It was his prized possession, his to have
and to hold until its weight convinced him
to surrender it, of his own free will for he
knew who coveted what he no longer prized
and prepared to gift it to that dread entity
called Malak Al Mawt. Dread only in the sense
of that angel's supreme power over all living
organisms, for the Angel of Death held no
dread in his mind. And so it was that pilot
Zaharie Ahmad Shah conspired to generously
confer upon that angel not only his own but
the lives of 239 unaware others  who would 
never know that booking flight on Malaysia 
Airlines Flight MH370 was their passage to
the feared unknown, that bleak, brief and
harrowing route to darkness and oblivion.
Passengers imbued with the faith of the
expected not the unexpected but sharing a
faith with the suicidist so generously disposing
of their existence perhaps wanting company
on his way to martyrdom bringing a gift 
comprised of so many souls anticipating the
praise that would greet him as a purveyor
of souls to worship at the feet of the Almighty.
In the controversy over elements of the assumed
trajectory of events leading to the disappearance
of a jetliner soaring high above the clouds
and the vast isolated reaches of the Indian
Ocean that proved so tragic to a network of
grieving families traumatized by their
unspeakable loss, have authorities yet
determined this was an act of terrorism?

The Social Deviant

Could be, I suppose, you tend to be on a
scale of sociopathy around six at least or
perhaps your attitude can be attributed to
other causation, since you are, after all
let's face it: old. A little tinge of cynicism
burrows its way into your mind now and
again. I mean let's face it, everyone and I
surely do mean the entire world has been
transfixed with anticipation, the excitement
and admiration that true love elicits, but
evidently not you. What's that? true love
has nothing to do with it? It is the unbridled
fixation, the adulation that celebrity, that
royalty, even though they may be in fact
personal nonentities elicit in the enthusiasm
of onlookers, otherwise sane people who
cannot bring themselves to acknowledge
that the universal subconscious need among
us all to love and be loved in return is
everywhere and we ignore it to our peril.
But to lavish praise and attention on two
otherwise unremarkable people buoyed
by the fact that one is royal and the other
biracial is stiflingly boring for what is it
that elevates them above all others but
the consuming magnetism of a class
system outdated and stagnant. Worse
the propensity of the public at large to
embrace hollow status, imbuing it with
meaning when they and the institution that
so entrances them is but a shallow intrigue
to distinguish a supposed aristocracy from
pedestrian nothingness of everyone else.

Trading Lives For Profit

Conscience? Moral outrage? Finger-pointing
and indignation? Oh, it's there on fine display
with generous conscientious helpings of
sanctimonious rejection of a well-considered
reaction on the part of a collegial fellow
democracy to shield its population from the
viral and vicious antagonism that celebrates
mass murder as 'resistance' on delivery by a
designated terrorist group for whom strange
sympathy is evinced because its target is one
that stirs ancient recriminations against the
world's wandering tribe of exiles so recently
reconciled with its ancient homeland to the
unfortunate detriment of those who settled
there corrosively describing returning Jews 
as 'settlers' whose claim to heritage is
false and misleading in their campaign to
harness the world's deep-seated discontent
that too many Jews survived extermination.
Just as nature abhors a vacuum, when one
murderous totalitarian government evaporates
another rises, and so it is that Western Europe
has risen to the allure of investment and trade
reaping treasured benefits dealing with the
Iranian ayatollahs complacent that god has
entitled them to persecute their own and fund
armed emissaries globally to plot to kill.
That their target of note is the Jewish state
arming Hamas to destroy it with weapons
attained from the profits gained in European
investment and trade reflects the profound
irony of damning Israel's disproportionate
defence of its people in damning thunder.

Phenomenon

It is a mysterious malaise, one suffered by
many people around the globe, and appears
to be seasonal. It begins with a light-headed
feeling, and feverish trembling as though
anticipating some event with the power to
transform, accompanied by chills and
eccentric tics that seem inexplicable
when formerly stolid men and women
accustomed to living normal lives in
normal times and comporting themselves
in mature and intelligent ways suddenly
begin babbling incoherently about weather
and the conjunction of the seasons in an
entirely unreasonable manner bringing
somewhat oafish smiles to otherwise
stern faces and unbecoming giggles
emanating from the mouths of people
ordinarily restrained in temperament now
dashing hither and yon to 'nurseries' dedicated
not to the newborn but to the mercantile
trade in exotic plants and trees and shrubs
shovels and spades, pitchforks and seed,
fertilizers and garden ornaments. It is as
though the world has gone mad, and indeed
perhaps it has; overtaken by gardener's 
fever compelling them to feverishly
fill garden planters even in the rain.

Farewell Little Nikon 

Oh how I valued its presence in my
life. It has been my constant companion.
Wherever I go, there it goes as well for
without it I would be lost. It enhances my
memory with its companionable presence
ensuring that what I regard with awe and
great admiration will never be forgotten.
If inanimate objects could have souls, its
was a companion to my own. It was a solace
providing me with an extension of my
own memory which can fail, but its ...
never! Imagine how devastating to lose
its presence and purpose. A delicate thing
it was, susceptible to harm though my
instincts had always been to protect it.
Alas, though it had never failed me, I
have failed that priceless instrument of
vibrant memory recall. Never again will
it colourfully and with breathtaking detail
document that which delights me and
which it faithfully stores for future recall.
Through an inadvertent and too-frequent
lapse my attention wandered leaving that
technological wonder to collide with an
immovable, unforgiving surface and its
prowess in capturing images to delight me
is no more. My fond memory of its 
faithful collaboration with those areas
of my life that matter will recall its value
but that too is sadly destined to fade.

Have a Good Day!

It has the potential to plunge one into a fuming
deep funk, all the news that is unfit to print
which inundates us daily, hourly and !this
just in! !!Breaking News!! when you read that
the morally unsalvageable UNSC has condemned 
Israel for taking desperate steps to protect its 
citizens from the malevolence of a terrorist 
group manipulating people it has steeped in 
misery to aid it in infiltration and chaos, when 
the DRC is battling a renewed outbreak of 
dread Ebola, when the Syrian regime has 
succeeded in taking yet more gains back 
from the rebels it names as terrorists fit only 
for slaughter which it obligingly does, when 
vile Islamist clerics preach to their faithful 
that universal Sharia is but a few years' 
distance, when areas of the world are coping 
with drought, floods, wildfires and crop failures
when totalitarian regimes prey on their captive
populations causing massive migration and 
privation. But rescue is at hand because it 
has been a beautiful day, warm and sunny
breezy and balming to the tired soul resting 
within you, when you hied yourself off to the 
spring woods for a leisurely stroll among 
the newly-leafed trees and took huge pleasure 
in seeing spring wildflowers in bloom, when 
a stranger alerted you that your credit card 
still sat in the cash machine and other strangers 
invited you to precede them in the checkout
because you had only one purchase, and they 
so pacifically smiled and so of course did you.

The Incumbent

Well of course I didn't vote for him, the man's
politics was not my brand, although it most
certainly was my husband's for few matters
divided us as did our choice of politics. No
matter, the politician I derided and spoke so
scathingly of revealed himself as he took up
the reigns of office and though utterly lacking
in charisma I soon discovered the breadth of
his intelligence, love of country, fairness and
decency rare among those of his breed and
decided when the next election came around
he had my vote, this man who shirked the
limelight, but never failed to enact policies
I applauded. Two terms at the helm gave him
the opportunity to give shape to a preferred
timely grooming of a nation whose economy
and values he greatly enhanced even while the
man himself bored the electorate. At the polls
that followed another man took his place and
another party won, its leader young, handsome
the scion of a previous leader, who promised
much and delivered nothing yet garnered
praise to match his conceit. All that his
esteemed predecessor had gained reversed
by a vain, inexperienced man lacking the
cognitive capacity to delve deeply into the roots
of problems, but quick to smile ingratiatingly
leaving admirers with the impression that he
had governing talents to place their trust in.
He stumbles his way through his mandate
secure in his own impression he can do no 
wrong though countless of his decisions are 
plainly ill-considered, placing the country in 
a distinct disadvantage on every level. And 
though I am glad I never voted for this imbecile
it offers faint balm to the wounds he zealously 
confers on the nation. A twist on that reliable 
old adage: You can please some of the people 
all of the time. Simply put, the qualities of
arrogance and stupidity has its defenders.