Spyproof

Unless you live under a rock in the jungle you must have heard by now about the leak of classified documents from National Security Agency regarding a program called PRISM. The person behind this exposure, and ex C.I.A. employee and employee of various N.S.A. private contractors seems to have quite a bit to say regarding the matter. Since it's a topic that was buzzing all over the place, and covered by professional reporters I'll stay away from repeating details, and I'll stick to some questions that sprouted in my mind and that no one else seems to ask.
Obama, the "saviour" jumped out quickly trying to explain to the masses that regarding phone-calls, the program records only caller and receiver phone numbers and duration of the phone call. No content. The reason to do this,in the first place: the same old chewed leitmotif about terrorism. "To catch the bad guys". My question is; If you deny the capture of phone call content, how in the name of hell are you going to explain to us the method to label a person as being a threat? Cause he made a phone call? He has a phone number? Or terrorist only call at a certain hour? See my point? You'll get absolutely nothing just by creating a log of phone calls. And as such I call bullshit on Obama and his acolytes.
Second; if this program is so "innocent" why was it kept a secret and when that secret surfaces, the person responsible for that is labelled "traitor" and "a threat to democracy". As someone said, why say "if you don't have something to hide you shouldn't be bothered by the government looking at your stuff" when on the same principle, if government doesn't have anything to hide, classified documents should not exist.
Third; they've been saying that PRISM doesn't target U.S. citizens or U.S. territory. So I guess screw the rest. If I call someone in the U.S., I'm a target. If I use any of U.S. based companies services (Apple, Google, Microsoft) I'm a target because at the end of the day, it is inevitable that my e-mail, VoIP and so on would go through one of those companies' servers and infrastructure.
Reading into the matter and seeing different positions people take, it is mind boggling the stupidity, ignorance, the amount of shit they can eat, and at the same time posing superior attitudes like the common man is incapable to understand how wholesome and good the "services" they provide are. "We don't tell you about secret programs cause you are not wielding sufficient intellect to understand.

So that's my rant. And the truth is this or any amount of press coverage won't change things. So when governments are using this sort of tactics, I find refuge in the deepest, darkest and the safest corners of the internet, where powers like this have no influence. And if it comes to worst, I still have my rock in the jungle to live under.    


Photo: digitalart

Racism, xenophobia and free speech.

So I am asked when can a person be "labelled" as racist, xenophobic and so on, and when it is a matter of freedom of speech. The solution to this question resides mostly in the question itself. You have freedom of speech when you speak. Either from the perspective of a joke or even personal beliefs, speaking in a certain way about a race or nation will most of the time fall under free speech. The exception to this "rule" is the role the person exercising the right of free speech fulfils. To give an example, a joke a saw recently went like this:
"Q: What is the difference between Hitler and Usain Bolt?
 A: Usain Bolt can finish a race"
Funny or not, it is for you to decide. If I repeat that  joke, it is an issue of how my interlocutor takes it. But it is in a wide way, a free speech. Now,if that joke is repeated by a country's president,there is an issue. What gives me the right to hide behind "free speech" while a president cannot? The very function and responsibilities we undertook at some point in our life.
Take note, the content of free speech isn't meant to be liked by ALL the people. The term itself offers this premise. Any offence taken by someone exposed to the described pattern of free speech, is the responsibility of the offence-taker. Judging a person for conflicting your views and even worse,acting on that judgement,in the lack of absolute truth, shows nothing else but daunting immaturity.  
Free speech turns into racism and xenophobia swiftly when a person, no matter who they are, perform actions on these personal beliefs. When it is no longer a speech, but actions, physical under form of violence or written, passed as "laws", then it is clear how to label the person at hand.
Another important part of this is the minority. A lot of people live under the impression, and it is a false one at best, that a person or a group of people that are usually the target of racist and xenophobic content cannot be themselves racist or xenophobes. Slavery is as racist as a person being attacked because they're "white in the wrong neighbourhood". Antisemitism is as racial and national sickening as it is demolishing Palestinian houses to make room for Jewish residential buildings.
And that's that. Just a small glimpse of a very wide and content broad subject. At the end of the day, this post, along with many others, have no other purpose than to put in perspective how you can be a better person. What is a "better person"? Well,
that is a story for another time.

The true democracy?

When it comes to elections, and democracy, U.S. likes to pose as a flag carrier, showing and screaming left and right that they are by far the leading expert.
Well, it really isn't. While having only 2 parties and thus candidates upsets some of you, it doesn't upset me. In the end they are politicians and having only 2 choices means that you have less options for choosing bad. The problem that I have with the U.S. election system is that in no way they actually take notice of the majority's vote. And here is why: especially if you're not familiar with their system.
In U.S. you become president based on electoral votes. This is a number assigned to each state and furthermore divided in the state's districts. To win you need to gather 270 of these "points".Now: states as Alaska, D.C., Delaware,both Carolinas and few others have only 3 votes. While California has 55.So if someone is elected in California, the opposing runner can win the 5 mentioned above, plus Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, and Washington, and the first candidate will still win. So that is 1 state casting other 12 into nothingness.And so,a person can become president in the U.S. winning in about 20-25% of the states. I know what you're thinking. some states have more people, such as New York having way more than Oregon for example.Yes, it is true, but what happens if not all go to vote. Well, if we take the example from above of California vs the 12, California can have 1 person voting in each district while all the other states have a 100% poll presence. California will still win.
A poorly designed structure, that the citizen have embraced and lived with for years and years. They do not question the application and implication and so they silently vote not for a president but for their vote to mean nothing. The whole charade and drum chorus is for nothing else than bathing the population's brain into muddy politic schemes. So when it comes to elections, I dare to say that even the current U.S. arch-enemy, Iran, is more democratic.

Again

Missed me? Most likely not.
Ages might have passed and with them my silence passed as my true word. Found to be in a place where what I have to say seems obnoxious or redundant I came to consider that silence is golden. In all, a great man knows when to talk, the greatest knows when to be silent. By no means am I the greatest man to ever live but surely that doesn't limit me in following a good teaching.
So what have I been doing? Struggling mostly as my mind fatigues me and grants me sleepless nights or days. Melting into each other, hours pass making no sense or gestures, nothing but the annoying repetitive sound of the clock hanging on the wall. Gazing in objects without reflection, feeling the depths of every inanimate object that crosses my path, I see myself not different from them. From a safe distance I observe the world speeding up past me, the people, the nature, in an uncontrolled frenzy. And as usual, my essence doesn't feel the peace. This place tires me, displaced and sickened I turn page after page. Reading this book called life seems more like a 2 page leaflet found in any puny office. With a smile on one side and the price list on the other.
So here I am again, talking to you, while you legitimately wonder if this post is really something that should "break" the silence. Don't wonder. It isn't. But then again, I'll have enough time to be wordless when I'll be breathless too. So until next time, pray to whomever or whatever you believe in, lobbying that my "next time" will not be as poorly designed as this.

Slumber

I rise between words and dreams,so hard to unwrap and so deep to swim in, that only the night gives me enough peace. Looking at a blank page I find nothing to fill it with, as if my life as a whole collapsed into itself. Defying a purpose that so distant away shimmers I turn my head to watch you sleep. Dreaming things that I was banished from, living in those tenebrous depths that I once belonged to. And I know, in my encumbered heart that I am lost. Lost in a labyrinth that enjoys holding me captive; nothing but a rat smashing it's head in the maze's walls. But as the night guards me, and always being my most devoted confidant I know that now, despite my stray, I am not completely beyond redemption. My salvation, the stake that keeps me grounded in these misty times of my ridiculous existence, is you.
So in my twisted devotion, all my debt can be paid like this. Watching over your restless sleep, as the blank page keeps staring at me.

nEUROzone

The whole world is eye-balling Europe for the continuous stream of emerging problems. And shouts from every corner predict the impending doom of what we once knew as the European Union.
The image will start getting clear in June, when Greece will vote if they want to remain in the EU or not. Spain, Portugal, Ireland and lately Italy are putting requests for money on the European Central Bank's desk, money that believe or not comes in high part from Germany's central bank. In this WWII seeming scenario where the Europe starts owing Germany their existence, the runt of E.U. Romania,the one always taking punches in the mouth for being and saying stupid things, cleverly postponed the adoption of Euro as a national currency until 2019. Year in which if we don't grab tightly the reins now, there will be nothing to adopt.
To be cruel and unfair I can blame all this jitter on Germany who proves again to be too efficient for the good of the others.
All in all, this year is filled with elections all over Europe and such be aware of all the crap served on a daily basis by politicians. They rarely have any decency left and after the lines are drawn, it matters not who won and who lost. Because it is simple to see that politicians never actually lose.  

The mist

I believe in nothing else but me as I feel that slowly I have become something I never would have guessed or expected. People hate me for not being able to see through me. Trees hate me for burdening their branches. Every living creature found something to hate about what I developed into. My body is nothing but an ethereal form, taken away,taken from place to place by the mocking wind. I am cold and alone, dispersed through the streets, the skies, shadowing the lamp-posts and the moon.
Looking around I can see nothing else. Not even me. Without thinking that I don't even remember how I look like. Again bound to nothing, no one and no will, deserted as the arid wastelands I grow impatient. For I seek only my rest. A place, or an idea in which I can reside now, and long after I cease to unveil restless thoughts.
Moments keep running in front of my eyes, filled with people, places, changing scenarios. Everything moves but me. Since I have grown so powerless and dependent, that my hatred has finally stoned me. I guess I deserve my fate and what I am to be. But as long as I still exist in a way or another, I will never stop my desire, my hope of being condensed, being an unique something. Or at least that my existence will end.