End of Beijing

The Olympics are over! Finally! And all the commotion surrounding this event is finally over, too. What-a-relief! This was really one of the most phoney Olympics in our life time. From the chinese and western perspective! And you can create breathtaking ceremonies and what not, but these games showed in what kind of world we are living in. From the perspective of sport, we had some exceptions like Phelps, Bolt, Steiner, who gave us some precious moments, goose bumps and made us forget the phony olympic comittee, the chinese delegates, who were showing a facade that's far from the reality. Behind it are people who suffer, who have no rights or prospect for the future. But that happens, as I said, if you give the games to a dictatorship. Well, after 1988 in Seoul, South Korea changed. But will China? I don't think so. The communist party is now much stronger. The propaganda is reinforced, the censorship is tighter. It's a big bullshit now. While the whole world is tearing up at the closing ceremony, in Beijing's hutongs people struggle to survive. But we knew that in 2001 and we know that in 2008. Well, I can't fight something that's impossible to fight. So all these injustices are for the Chinese to fight. Let them struggle for their own freedoms. China is great, huge, too complicated. What is China? You can't define it. You can't change it from outside. And these games won't change a thing. That's what we should know before. We made a big mistake. Only 1 thing is positive: At least the games gave 3 weeks to some simple chinese people to forget their life's struggles and hardships. 3 weeks of a 'perfect world', created by a perfect stage - the new buildings, the well enacted happiness and unity... But we all know, the cute little girl didn't really sing, the fireworks were't all real... it was phoney and fake, only the athletes were real! My greatest respect to them! We saw great sport events with real honesty, unity, effort and strife for the better. The athletes showed us, what is the true olympic spirit.

McCain at his best

[Source: HuffPost]

What an august 2008!

This part of the year really puts me down. Sure, I shouldn't follow the news or the Olympics... It only makes me more depressed. The fake child singer and the fake fireworks at the opening ceremony and Russia's attack on Georgia... crazy... An American has been killed on the streets of Beijing by a chinese man. What's going on in this sick world? Honesty is lost, security is gone, what appears to be true is fake! The more the world's population grows, the more individual life is expendable? Humans, persons are just numbers... becoming nameless casualties... These Olympic games are overshadowed by all this phony and horrible events that really makes me wonder how to escape all this crap. I guess by the time I figure that out, these games will be already over. And hopefully the war in Georga.

Beijing Olympic Games

Aren't you sick of those repeated criticisms of the Chinese government on issues such as freedom of speech, Tibet, free press and internet censorship? I mean, what were those, who gave the olympics to China, thinking? That in few years China will become a Western democracy? After China's troublesome history they didn't know that? You just can't make the largest culture on earth follow your way of thinking in few years. China's been known for changing slowly, what happened in recent 25 years is already 100 times faster than the years before 1980. Yea, I condemn surpression of their own people and minorities. It's far from a perfect country. This year is really the year of China, but until now, more in a negative sense. Many bad things happened while China was in the spotlight of the world this year. 8 is the Chinese lucky number and I read, that many Chinese people wonder if that's still the case. Recently I'm thinking: Get over with these games already! I was never a big fan of olympics, I prefer the football Eurocup or Worldcup instead, but anyway, because of so much commotion before the games, I think I won't be able to escape them. I haven't watched the games 4 yars ago. But now there's nothing more anticipated than these games. It's only 3 weeks, and then? What will China do? Nothing probably. They will continue the same politics with fast money and slow political changes. They will face big problems and they will have to deal with them. We can condemn them or not, we can't change China and its course. We can only observe how it progresses. We have to accept that not all cultures will develop freedoms like us. I guess the people of China have accepted the way it is, if they don't like it, I think only they can change it. Whatever we in the West will say, the Chinese media won't talk about it, the Chinese people won't know.
So why bother? Why try? We will only make things worse... Let's not politicize the games. It's about athletes competing, it's about them, their carreers, not about which political ideology is right or wrong.
I congratulate to all the excited Chinese people who are proud to host the olympic games at home. I'm happy for them and I'm sure they will be great friendly hosts. They are the ones who will bring changes to China in future, let's not behave like some almighty teachers who wanna lecture them what's right and what's wrong. Let them have their games. It's too late to bother now. Few months later everybody will focus on the new President of the United states of America! And China will be far far away.

Tropical rain in Penang

We had so much rain lately here in Slovenia. Luckily there wasn't any floods where I live, but it was pretty bad in Austria and Czech republic, whole towns were flooded. But the rain here makes me depressed. It just doesn't stop, it can go for days or weeks without a break. I remember few years ago, one October, we literally had 14days of rain. Crazy! Well, now it was like 4-5days, still bad, but not as bad as autumn rains. This rain made me browse my old photos and I stumbled accross my Penang pics from 2007. One folder says 'rain torrent'. Then I remembered: It was the heaviest rain I ever saw! It was May and one of those periods in northern Malaysia, when it rained a lot. It poured like crazy, but it stopped pretty fast. That's what I love about tropical rain. It's finished fast and it's not so cold when it rains. And few hours after the rain, everything is dry already. I like rain, but only the tropical one. I hate the rain here in the northern hemisphere. Here's the pics from Penang in May 2007. It was taken from Sunrise Tower near Gurney plaza, from the 6th floor, where I lived. Amazing view and a very nice part of Penang. 5 min from the fabulous shopping mall and cafés and condos. Full of tourists and locals, very vibrant... Especially because of a big foodstall area near by, every night was crowded. I have very fond memories from that time. So, here's the pics:

It starts off slowly...

...getting stronger...

...and stronger.

Soon the whole road is flooded.

Look at the bikers, they're like on water scooters!

Soon there's a lake...

Cars having a hard time...

They're almost sinking.

That rain started fast and finished fast. And the lake was gone fast, too. In the evening, everything was dry already. If this were in central Europe, it would take days. That's why I love the climate in Malaysia.

[Photos by MKL, 2007]

Moment

She was just wandering around a snowy landside. There was a cottage surrounded by trees who were partly covered by snow and she thought about how to express her feelings as simply as the snow appeared on those branches. In her life everything was in contrast with her inner and outer world. As she saw the door half open, she thought wheather she should enter or turn away. She stopped for a while, glanced her eyes over the surroundings, took a deep breath and remembered last summer's incident in Liontown. She couldn't forget the past, she couldn't forget how she felt when she stood infront of him after 5 years. He was happily married to his charming wife, yet she felt the inner turmoil of her heart's confusion. She remembered how awkward it was to say hi, how she blushed and stuttered. She didn't expect to see him after she let go of him. In that moment, surrounded by snow, she started crying, she started missing him... The tears dropped on the ground, leaving little holes in the snow. Suddenly she ran towards the door, her tears reminded her of his tears when she left him. She slammed the door behind her as if she wanted to forget the past. She needed the security of walls. Suddenly someone knocks on the door. She gets confused. The noise gets louder and louder. She wakes up. Her sister calls her to wake up and drive her to town. In her daze and confusion, she starts rubbing her eyes, she wants to come back to her senses. Her eyes finally wake up, the image of him is slowly fading. Back on her feet, she opened the door and stepped into the reality.

Yes we did it!

Finaly!!!! Barack Obama made it! He clinched the nomination of the Democratic party. America is finally back on track. Congratulations! This exciting roller coaster finally came to a stop. I've been paying close attention to this race since the beginning. Nobody would expect such a dramatic race with so many ups and downs and partly it really got ugly. This is now forgotten. Justice prevailed, the rules weren't changed to serve Hillarie's intentions. Now let's start bringing people together, America, and elect an intelligent and diverse president. The rest of the world begs you. Let's end the Bush-blunder once and for all. Good luck!

Obama '08

[Photo source Huffington Post]