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Prior to the final two fights, the evening could be considered a letdown. Sure, there were some meaningful and exciting debuts from Hyun Gyu Lim and Kazuki Tokudome but these were buried on the undercard and may have gone unnoticed to a lot of fans. The real disappointment, however, was the judging. The Alex Caceres split decision victory was debatable. Yushin Okami’s win over Hector Lombard should have been unanimous. But the real stunner had to be the Diego Sanchez’s split decision victory over Takanori Gomi. How two judges scored the fight in favour of “The Dream”, is a question that many will ask. Sanchez came out flat throughout the battle and was repeatedly beaten to the punch. Gomi, on the other hand, looked as good as he has inside the Octagon, and could have been awarded all three rounds. In the end, the controversial decision served as another reminder that the judging criteria in MMA, as well as the selection of judges, should be under review sooner than later.

Unfortunately, the judging wasn’t the only issue with UFC on Fuel TV 8. Many fighters failed to live up to expectations. Siyar Bahadurzada showed no semblance of a ground game as he was completely neutralized by Dong Hyun Kim, who also put on a forgettable performance that is sure to have left many fans frustrated. The following fight between Lombard and Yushin Okami was almost a repeat, as Okami smothered the Cuban for the better part of their match. The only difference is that Lombard made things interesting in the final round when he unleashed a barrage of punches on the Japanese fighter. Unfortunately for him, and the UFC who has invested quite a bit of money on Lombard, it was not meant to be and now the highly touted fighter and former Bellator middleweight champion is 1-2 in the sport’s top promotion and some are suggesting he should be released.

None were worse than Stefan Struve, who was utterly terrible in his battle with Hunt, failing to utilize any of his many physical advantages over his much smaller opponent. Recently, Struve’s stock had been soaring as he was riding a 4-fight win streak and was showing signs of finally coming into his own. It is now safe to consider that momentum completely undone as “Skyscraper” did not look like he belonged in the upper echelons of the heavyweight division on Saturday night.

Thankfully, Hunt put an end to an otherwise sloppy fight by sending his Dutch opponent to the canvas with a crushing punch that reportedly broke Struve’s jaw in half.  Silva and Brian Stann followed that up with two electric rounds before “The Axe Murderer” stopped an overly aggressive Stann with a beautiful combination followed by his trademark ground and pound. The finish couldn’t have been better for Silva and many would love it if he left the sport on this final high note, preferring not to see him take future unnecessary punishment. That said, Silva, who has had to answer numerous questions on retirement over the past few years, intends to fight on. That may not be the wisest of choices.

For those who were complaining that the ladies shouldn’t have been the main event, The Mammoth is sure you all feel differently right now. Rousey vs Carmouche fired on all cylinders. Sure, the outcome was no different than all of the champ’s previous battles but for the first time in her career, she had to go through adversity when challenger Carmouche took her back early in search of the rear-naked choke. “Rowdy” displayed great toughness and heart in the one-round affair but credit must go to Carmouche as well as she pushed the now undisputed champion further than anyone has before. Bottom line, the fight could not have turned out any better for women’s MMA and the UFC. The sport’s top promotion got a competitive battle in its first women’s fight and in Rousey, now has a new “cash cow” that will open even more doors into the mainstream for the growing UFC brand.

For most, the co-main event between Machida and Henderson was a major disappointment, as expectations were high and the bout failed to live up to them. “The Dragon”, in particular has taken a lot of heat for his split-decision win over Henderson. Pundits argue that he did not engage for most of the fight. The Mammoth sees things differently, however. Henderson, while generally the aggressor, displayed a limited game-plan, relying on his looping punches that never came close to hitting their mark. Machida, on the other hand, continually connected with counter-strikes that included front kicks, straight punches and lunging knees to Henderson’s sternum. The only thing Henderson had going for him in this fight was his toughness. Other men would have probably been badly hurt from Machida’s calculated attacks, whereas Henderson ate them all up. Still, you don’t win a fight by absorbing punishment. The fact that this one ended up being a split decision is somewhat of a farce. While perhaps using an unpopular method, Machida was the clear winner here and the decision should have been unanimous.

Submissions were the choice finish at UFC 157 and there were some good ones. Other than the usual Ronda Rousey armbar, Urijah Faber and Ultimate Fighter winner Michael Chiesa locked-in impressive rear-naked chokes against dangerous opponents in Ivan Menjivar and Anton Kuivanen, but it was Kenny Roberston’s unusual kneebar that was the true highlight. After surviving an early onslaught from Brock Jardine, which included a tight guillotine attempt, Robertson quickly showed his superior and slick ground game before finishing the fight with the submission that was so spectacular it left Joe Rogan speechless during the post-fight interview, which is no small feat.

No recap would be complete without mentioning the early fight of the year candidate between Dennis Burmudez and Matt Grice. Sure there were other exciting fights early in the evening, such as the opening bout between Nah-Shon Burrell and Yuri Villefort, but none was more impressive than this featherweight fight. Grice in particular was impressive even in a losing effort. He took inordinate amounts of punishment but stuck around until the end, even dishing out some powerful strikes while being badly hurt. Without a doubt, this fight will be remembered for a long time and both men have a promising future in the UFC.

It was delicious! Meat was done just  they way I like it… Bloody! With stir fry vegetables.

The added ingredients  included;  some pine nuts , chilli’s and   Worcestershire sauce,

Simple, easy and tasty,  it took him 35 minutes to prepare!

Well done to the Swedish chef!

Mine will be next …and I wonder what?!@..

The vegies

Naturally, Renan Barao was the brightest star of the night since he remained the interim champion of the UFC bantamweight division by defeating Michael McDonald in the fourth round with an arm-triangle choke. The fight was hotly contested at first but a game “Mayday” McDonald started to fade as the championship rounds approached. Meanwhile, Barao seemed to get more comfortable as the fight went on, finding his range and dictating the pace as he picked apart his opponent. That being said, one has to wonder if he will be able to do the same to the actual champ, Dominick Cruz, who’s been on the shelf since his last title defense in October 2011 due to an ailing knee injury. “The Dominator” is known for his incredible fast pace and relentless attack. Will Barao be able to match Cruz’s intensity? We should find out sometime this summer.

Cub Swanson threw his name in the ever-growing list of contenders at a 145 lbs with a hard-fought victory over the young and still improving Dustin Poirier. The pair exchanged strikes and transitions throughout the 3-round affair but it was Swanson who was more aggressive in general, eventually earning the unanimous decision. All is not lost on Poirier however, and he has a bright future. But for the time being, Swanson proved to be a tad too advanced for him.

Rising prospect Gunnar Nelson put Nordic MMA on the map as the nonchalant Icelander toyed with the veteran Jorge Santiago on route to a fairly easy decision victory. Nelson mixed sharp punches with incredible grappling throughout the fight, validating why people are so high on him. One has to feel for Santiago though, as this fight marked the beginning of his third stint in the UFC, which could be shorted lived, much like the first two.

And how can we forget about James Te Huna and Tom “Kong” Watson? The two men battled back after both were nearly finished in the first round of their respective bouts. Te Huna was crushed by an early high kick delivered by Ryan Jimmo and barely survived the round before pounding out the Canadian in the final two rounds. The Australian is now 5-1 in the UFC and is quickly becoming a dark horse in the light-heavyweight division. As for Watson, he absorbed an inordinate amount of punishment yet displayed incredible heart – and a granite chin – before knocking out the highly touted Bulgarian wrestler, Stanislav Nedkov, in the second round of their affair. “Kong” also delivered the most thought-provoking message of the night in his post-fight speech as he declared war on all Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) users in front of his countrymen. Perhaps this was his way of campaigning for a fight with Vitor Belfort?

Last night’s event did have a few unfortunate moments, including an underwhelming performance by Terry Etim and an injury to Cyrille Diabate that robbed us of a potentially colossal striking battle with Jimi Manuwa, but there were plenty of highlights to make UFC on Fuel TV 7 a roaring success.

[credit: skippedbreakfast.blogspot.com]

Ssss, released back in March, is a record by VCMG (otherwise known as Vince Clarke of Erasure and Martin Gore of Depeche Mode). Alongside the ten tracks on the record (voted # 2 in The Quietus’ recent Albums of the Year So Far) are three wonderful EPs (Spock, Single Blip and the forthcoming Aftermaths). They, along with Mute, have employed some interesting artists to mix these including: Alva Noto, LFO (Mark Bell who produced DP’s Exciter record), Byetone and Mathew Jonson. Watch for Aftermaths to drop on 8/20.

Title: Smoky Night

Author: Eve Bunting

Illustrator: David Diaz

Publisher: Harcourt Brace & Co

Published Date: 1994

This story is about Daniel. He and his mother are standing at their window looking out at the street. Without lights on in their apartment, they see rioters destroying everything on their street. Daniel doesn’t understand what is going on. His mother just hopes that they pass on and leave the people that live on the street alone. Daniel’s mother makes him go to sleep. He sleeps with his clothes on. He gets woken up. There is a fire. The apartments along the street have all been set on fire. Daniel is scared that his cat is trapped in the building and on their way out asks everyone, including the firemen, if they have seen his cat. They go to a shelter. The entire neighborhood seems to be at the shelter. People keep streaming in. And then one of the firemen comes into the shelter with two cats. One is Daniel’s and the other Mrs. Kim’s. The two cats have never gotten along. They drink from the same bowl. Everyone is shocked to see the two cats together. Daniel says something that changes the lives of all the residents. He tells them that the cats just didn’t know each other before. Daniel’s mom and Mrs. Kim plan on sitting down together.

At first I didn’t know what to make of this story. I didn’t know where it was going. I’m really happy that it ended the way it did. Never did the story say anything about the characters’ ethnicity. The only hint were the names. The same is with the illustrations. Everyone looked the same. No one was painted differently. The only thing you could tell was if they were children or adults. I loved the fact that there were real images as well as painted images. It made the situation more real. The message was great as well. If we got to know everyone of all ethnicities, then there would be no fighting. So true. Great book for kids and adults to read. It’s crazy cool how smart children can be and not even realize they’ve said something profound.

Happy Reading!

R

—

A tender little doll freshly drowned in mud
In the shaking arms of her weeping father…
On Christmas season when she was aged three or four…
She was one corpse of a thousand others more…

A multitude of suddenly homeless mouths to nourish
Who aren’t sure YET, if they’d be thankful to have survived…
Still out in their heads searching for loved ones and strangers
Still praying they’re still alive…

These are a glint of the wrath of a flash flood
That had more than a city abused and wiped out.
Life turns off when calamities turn on
But the Lord has told us how we could be saved…

When thousands of people had their breaths expire
Millions come together to relieve what they’ve left behind
Millions more continue calling out…
Out of their way… into their lives…

These are the heroes of heroes
Who had to be victims that heroes need save
Life goes on when calamities go off
But the Lord is watchful on how we behave…

—-

Donations

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—-

SOME VIDEOS FOR THE 2011 SENDONG TYPHOON:

Anyway, on to the final chapters of the novel.  Well, actually, one more chapter, and then, oddly enough, a short story.

Chapter Fifteen

Cordelia and Aral are finally preparing for a vacation at Bonsanklar when Prime Minister Vortala arrives.  They come downstairs to find Vortala talking with Aral’s father, and he congratulates them on their wedding.  Vortala says he is bearing a message from the Emperor, and when Aral begins to leave, Vortala says the message is for Aral, not the Count, that he is “requested and required” to attend on the Emperor, and Cordelia as well.  He says the Emperor is dying.

Vorkosigan blew out his breath. “He’s been dying for the last eleven months. Can’t he die a little longer?”

Vortala chuckled. “Five months,” he corrected absently, then frowned speculation at Vorkosigan. “Hm. Well, it has been very convenient for him. He’s flushed more rats out of the wainscotting in the last five months than the past twenty years. You could practically mark the shakedowns in the Ministries by his medical bulletins. One week: condition very grave. Next week: another deputy minister caught out on charges of peculation, or whatever.” He became serious again. “But it’s the real thing, this time. You must see him today. Tomorrow could be too late. Two weeks from now will definitely be too late.”

Vortala says that he plans to offer Aral a position in the upcoming Regency government; Aral can’t think of any that would tempt him, and Vortala says he’ll have to refuse in person.  Cordelia admits to being curious to meet the Emperor, and Aral acquiesces.  As they are changing clothes for the audience, though, Aral says that he’s never come out ahead on any dealings with Emperor Ezar.

At the Imperial Palace they are ushered into Ezar’s chambers, “half hospital, half antique display”, where the paper-white old man is hooked up to machines that keep him alive.  The Emperor greets Aral, and is refreshed by his honesty at telling him how awful he looks.  He tells Cordelia that he’s seen all her Betan records, and Mehta’s bizarre theories, which almost made Captain Negri hire her to generate ideas.

The Emperor talks to Aral about how long Aral has served him, which they date back to the day Aral’s mother was killed.  He asks Aral what he said to Emperor Yuri when they executed him–Aral was given the first cut, but in the end he almost cut Yuri’s throat right away and spared him the suffering that was to come.

“I think he knew by my face I was funking out. He leered at me. ‘Strike, little boy. If you dare while you wear my uniform. My uniform on a child.’ That was all he said. I said, ‘You killed all the children in that room,’ which was fatuous, but it was the best I could come up with at the time, then took my cut out of his stomach. I often wished I’d said—said something else, later. But mostly I wished I’d had the guts to follow my first impulse.”

Ezar turns to the main purpose of the visit.  He asks who should be Regent; Aral immediately offers Vortala, but the Emperor dismisses him as too old.  Princess Kareen, the Emperor says could never deal with the General Staff.  He ridicules Aral’s suggestion of Vordarian, having far too many shortcomings despite his military background.  Aral suggests Quintillan, Minister of the Interior, but Vortala points out that the Council of Counts won’t support anyone who isn’t a Vor.  Aral suggests making him a Vor, which horrifies Vortala and amuses Ezar.

“You can quit wriggling, Aral. You shall not wriggle out of this.

“Allow me to put it in a capsule. What the Regency requires is a man of impeccable rank, no more than middle-aged, with a strong military background. He should be popular with his officers and men, well-known to the public, and above all respected by the General Staff. Ruthless enough to hold near-absolute power in this madhouse for sixteen years, and honest enough to hand over that power at the end of those sixteen years to a boy who will no doubt be an idiot—I was, at that age, and as I recall, so were you—and, oh yes, happily married. Reduces the temptation of becoming bedroom Emperor via the Princess. In short, yourself.”

Aral is horrified at the prospect of stepping into the shoes of Prince Gregor’s father, which puzzles Vortala, not in the know.  Aral says that all of the other candidates that he suggested are better suited than himself.  Ezar reminds him that Aral has a better right to the throne than he does, though Aral protests that’s through his mother, and hence Salic descent.  Ezar says that anyone who claims the right to the throne would have to get rid of Aral anyway, which he knows is harder than it looks; furthermore, he knows for certain that Aral doesn’t want to be Emperor himself.  The best way for him to do that is to keep Gregor alive.

Count Vortala turned to Cordelia. “Lady Vorkosigan. Won’t you lend us your vote? You seem to have come to know him very well. Tell him he’s the man for the job.”

“When we came up here,” said Cordelia slowly, “with this vague talk of a post, I thought I might urge him to take it up. He needs work. He’s made for it. I confess I wasn’t anticipating that offer.” She stared at the Emperor’s embroidered bedspread, caught by its intricate patterns and colors. “But I’ve always thought—tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“No,” said Vortala.

“Yes,” said Vorkosigan.

Aral takes Cordelia aside and tells her that Regency would mean they’d be targets, and require constant guarding.  He says that he was more fearless before, when he had no future and nothing to lose.  Cordelia asks if he wants the position, and Aral says he does, but he doesn’t trust himself not to be corrupted.  Finally, Aral acquiesces, and Ezar tells him that he should start assembling his staff right away, starting with Illyan.  Aral suddenly has a great idea of who should be his personal secretary, and Ezar dismisses them, saying that Vortala will handle the details.

After a conference with Vortala, Negri and Illyan, they leave the Imperial Residence with new guards.  Cordelia notes that Aral seems more energized and focused than she’s seen him in a long while.  First, they head to Vorkosigan House, the local residence, where Aral goes up to his often-vacant room.  Cordelia finds a stack of pen-and-ink drawings from when Aral was much younger, including some of his first wife, and of a younger Ges Vorrutyer.  His medals and ribbons are oddly disarranged, with the earlier ones carefully preserved, and the later, more prestigious ones more haphazard.  Finally Aral finds some of his old Lieutenant rank tabs.

Next they go to ImpMil hospital, where they are soon talking to Koudelka’s doctor.  Aral tells the doctor that Koudelka’s being reassigned, to a desk job, and discharged.  They go to see Koudelka himself, and find him preparing for bed.  Aral asks him his plans, and Koudelka admits he’s not sure what he’ll do with himself after the discharge.  Aral gives him his new orders, and his promotion, and Koudelka is surprised and delighted, more so when he realizes that the “Regent-elect” he’ll be working for is Aral.

Cordelia asks to put Koudelka’s collar tabs on, and then Aral says Koudelka can stay at Vorkosigan House that night so they can get an early start in the morning.

Later, lying warm in the darkness in Vorkosigan’s room in the Count’s town house, Cordelia remembered a curiosity. “What did you say to the Emperor, about me?”

He stirred beside her, and pulled the sheet tenderly up over her bare shoulder, tenting them together. “Hm? Oh, that.” He hesitated. “Ezar had been questioning me about you, in our argument about Escobar. Implied that you had affected my nerve, for the worse. I didn’t know then if I’d ever see you again. He wanted to know what I saw in you. I told him . . .” he paused again, and then continued almost shyly, “that you poured out honor like a fountain, all around you.”

“That’s weird. I don’t feel full of honor, or anything else, except maybe confusion.”

“Naturally not. Fountains keep nothing for themselves.”

Comments

Pretty nice ending–the “fountain of honour” thing is a great metaphor, and would have almost made a great title, except “Shards of Honour” is still better.  Maybe David Weber can use it sometime.  Of course, there were a number of places where the book could have ended, but this does well enough, I suppose.  When I consider that Barrayar didn’t come out for five years after that, with four Miles Vorkosigan books in between (counting Borders of Infinity), plus Falling Free and Ethan of Athos…  It avoids the usual prequel difficulties quite handily, trust me.  But that’s for next time.

Short Story: “Aftermaths”

Pilot Officer Falco Ferrell looks from his ship at a broken ship in front of him, destroyed in the Barrayaran invasion of Escobar, which they call the “120 Day War”.  He is a new officer, with less than a year of service, and is accompanied on the ship by Medtech Boni, who is in her mid-forties.  Ferrell himself graduated three days too late to actually participate in the war.

Ferrell tells Boni that he is going to start his sweep, scanning for bodies floating in space.  He asks if she wants to stand by, but Boni says the area has been picked over fairly thoroughly.  He asks what minimum mass they should scan for–he suggests 40 kilograms, but she says one kilogram should suffice, for a body part big enough to identify, without being small enough to generate a lot of false positives.  She retires to her cabin to nap.  Their ship is a former courier, refurbished, also too late for the war, and Ferrell is not looking forward to his “garbage” duty.  He nonetheless enjoys piloting, and sets a spiraling search course.

Hours later, Ferrell pages Boni to tell her he’s found something.  She soon arrives on the bridge and activates the tractor beam.  Ferrell comments on the low setting she is using, and Boni says that she likes a delicate touch to keep from damaging the bodies, since they are frozen and very brittle.  She slows down the body’s spin, commenting that spinning too fast can’t be very restful.

His attention was pulled from the thing in the screen, and he stared at her. “They’re dead, lady!”

She smiled slowly as the corpse, bloated from decompression, limbs twisted as though frozen in a strobe-flash of convulsion, was drawn gently toward the cargo bay. “Well, that’s not their fault, is it?—one of our fellows, I see by the uniform.”

“Bleh!” he repeated himself, then gave vent to an embarrassed laugh. “You act like you enjoy it.”

Boni says that she’s been working in Personnel Retrieval and Identification for nine years, and finds it unobjectionable.  She says vacuum work is better than planetary–there is decompression damage, but no decay.  Ferrell asks Boni if they call them “corpse-sicles”; Boni says that some do, but she doesn’t–she just calls them “people”.  She maneuvers the body into the cargo bay and sets the temperature for a slow thaw.

On his next break he pays a visit to the mortuary; Boni is there, but the body is not yet.  They share their first names–Boni’s is “Tersa”, which Ferrell comments is quite common.  She brings the dead man into the mortuary on a float pallet, and slides the body onto the table.  Ferrell tells himself he should leave, but he lingers.  She scans the body’s retinas and then its fingerprints, and identifies the man as Lieutenant Marco Deleo.

Ferrell is unnerved to hear Boni talking to the body, which Boni says she considers a “courtesy”; he says that it’s obscene, recovering these hunks of frozen meat rather than just leaving them in space.  Boni goes through Deleo’s uniform pockets, which she likes, saying that it reminds her of going through a friend’s house.  She notes that Deleo’s pockets contain only one non-regulation item, a vid disc from home.  She packages them up and begins to wash the corpse, which Ferrell doesn’t stay for.

They don’t find another body for a full day; this time it’s a Barrayaran, and Ferrell suggests they throw him back, but Boni says they have an agreement with the Barrayarans.  Boni spends extra effort trying to smooth his contorted facial muscles.  In his pocket is a locket containing a clear liquid, which Boni says is probably a good luck charm, which many Barrayarans carry.  She identifies it as “mother’s tears”, and notes it was given to the man as an ensign.  He also has a pendant with a lock of hair, which Boni says is the mother’s “death lock”, so she is already dead.  She says the oddest charm she found was a tiny skeleton of a fetus.  She puts the Barrayaran back in his uniform, since they seem to like them so much, and identifies him as Commander Aristede Vorkalloner.

After three more days, they are reaching the end of their search pattern, but Boni asks Ferrell to go a little farther out; most of the bodies wouldn’t have gotten this far, but there might be some that had a little extra momentum.  Ferrell doesn’t really want to look for more bodies, but he does want to spend more time piloting, so he accedes.  They do find another body a few hours later, a female officer this time.  Ferrell doesn’t really want to join her for this one, but Boni asks for his company, so he comes along.

After Boni prepares the body, she kisses it, which repulses Ferrell, who calls her a “lesbian necrophiliac”.  Boni then proceeds to dress the body in a wedding dress, which she had brought with her, and decides to put her next to the Barrayaran, since Lieutenant Deleo was married.  Ferrell is beginning to think that Boni has gone crazy.  Suddenly he realizes that Boni hasn’t IDed the woman.  He checks the ID and discovers that the woman is Ensign Sylva Boni, age twenty, the same age as Ferrell himself.  Boni confirms that it’s her daughter, and that she’d asked for this sector on purpose.  Ferrell apologies for his earlier remarks.

They run one more sweep and find another body, this one more grisly than the others.  This time, Ferrell shyly offers to help with the cleaning.

“Don’t be afraid,” she said. “The dead cannot hurt you. They give you no pain, except that of seeing your own death in their faces. And one can face that, I find.”

Yes, he thought, the good face pain. But the great—they embrace it.

Comments

I often forget about this story tacked onto the end of Shards of Honour.  It’s connected to it a little tenuously–by the battle, by the body of Aral Vorkosigan’s second officer, Vorkalloner, and thematically, by its references to motherhood.  It’s self-contained, and as far as I can tell it was actually published three months before Shards itself, which of course is easily close enough for her to have written it afterwards.  Apart from that, it doesn’t feel like there’s much to it.

So next week, definitely starting on Barrayar.  I was initially deceived into thinking that it had an even number of chapters (22), but I forgot about the Author’s Afterword, so there’s actually only 21.  Still more than Shards, though, but by 1991 people had gotten used to bigger books.  I’ll probably try to squeeze another chapter in there…or perhaps I’ll slack off and do a one-week chapter.  Maybe for the week when I’d otherwise be on vacation, for instance.  But that’s not for a little while yet.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my reread of Shards of Honour, and I also hope that you were reading along.  Of course, I was only doing two chapters a week, so if you wanted, you might have been managed to read the entire Vorkosigan Saga by this time.

When you have settled down after taking care of all of your needs, obligations and wants then relax and enjoy the peace and quiet while it last. There’s always a storm brewing out there somewhere and you can’t stop it. All you can do is prepare for it if it comes your way. If it does just hope it won’t have a major impact on you when it lands. No one wants to be affected by the strong winds of an approaching storm or totally blown away by its force when it strikes. Storms do develop and they do affect you sometimes indirectly but you have to be prepared either way to deal with the aftermaths. You may think you can run and hide from them but the truth is if someone you care about is left behind and get caught up in the turbulence or aftermath it’s still going to affect you. That’s because you still care no matter how much distance you put between you and the potential storms and the one’s you left behind to cope on their own. It just takes some a little longer than others to learn how to cope and deal with the unexpected. Eventually one day everybody will learn to deal with storms on their own. Ride it out with them a little longer, it is what it is now and it’s going to do what it’s going to do when it arrives, but you have to show the others how it is done before they can stand alone when it happens.

Politicians (and an awful lot of hacks) can only do the aftermath and the postmortem. They are like economists in this sense: towers of bestselling books and calm columns about how 2008 happened….but hardly any of them saw it coming.

Beforemaths would tell anyone with an ounce of commonsense that the Egyptian opposition was likely to be Islamist, a marriage between Cameroons and Fluffies could only end in tears, Barack Obama had nothing much of any substance to say, and deregulating bankers was slightly less dangerous than deregulating brain surgery. But all we have to show for the last twelve months of disaster is after stuff, which for some reason always precedes any before things. It’s not supposed to be like this.

Even the aftermath gets segmented this way and that. The Guardian says Clegg is diluting the Left, and the Telegraph says he’s diluting the Right. But beforehand, the Guardian enthusiastically told us to vote for Nick, and the Telegraph opined that Cameron would be tougher in Office than he had been in Opposition.

The hindsight in all of it massively outweighs the foresight. I blame 24/7 news for this: the focus on what is has completely blurred what is likely, and become a sort of que sera, sera. Except that ‘what will be, will be’ has media-morphed into ‘what will be is what we’d like it to be’.

What an odd melange of cynicism and naivety our media set is these days. Lots of soi-disant ‘quality’ newspapers being measured, and most tabloids being immeasurably optimistic. But somewhere between the deadpan Opeds of the former and the braindead headlines of the latter is a place where the rest of us live.

In that place, most people have been resigned to some form of slow-mo disaster for months. In that place, people are chasing interest rates, cutting household bills, stashing money away for long-awaited rainy days, and quietly laughing at all the financial castles in the air being designed and described by the central bankers of five continents. In that place, cuts v spending, EU bailout v EU exit, QE v rate rises and Left v Right might just as well be United v City as far as real people are concerned. We’ve had a party, now is the hangover, and next comes the bill.

It’s such a shame that not a single politician anywhere respects the People enough to say beforehand what the aftermath is likely to be.

reality

__________________________________________dld o8.o8.1o

Lets review the post Mumbai 26/11 impact on our political front, we have our Home Minister steps down, our finance minister moves to Home Ministry and our Prime Minister will handle his normal job as well as the finance minstry. At this stage of global recession where we need finace minster in full swing, we have a part time finance minister, and Home Minister who has little expertise in handling Home Land Security portfolio before…this is at the national level. At state level we have our Deputy CM stepping down, our CM has put the papers, and waiting for the feedback from the high command.

Every body is waitng to captilze on the aftermath, this gives them a better platform to start a blame game. This is not limited to our politicans, even companies like LIC, on 30th of Nov LIC has circulated a sms message saying that they have cleared the LIC claim of Hemant Karkare with in 24 hours of the event, what are they trying to do? Hard-Sell that , they are prompt in processing the claim?

The business for tour operators were slow due to the global meltdown and added that the attack will impact tourist inflows to the city, both from within and outside the country. The tourism trade would take a huge hit as the season had just begun, this will also directly impact the currency liquidity in the market as well as the small time traders in mumbai who’s main business are with the tourist.

Wall Street Journal Quotes ….”The deadly attacks in Mumbai, in addition to the human toll, have damaged the city’s ambitions of becoming an international finance capital. The Taj Mahal hotel and the Oberoi Trident Hotel, luxury hotels that were both targeted, are among the most coveted retail address for luxury-goods firms that are tapping into India’s growing number of wealthy individuals.”

I am having a fear of going out to dine with my family or friends , I am having the fear that some one will barge in and start firing, haven’t the terrorists being successful in impacting my thought process about security at my town.  During the initial phase of the attacks the number of terrorists were more than 20, now they are accounting only for 10, so whats the truth, do we still have some terrorists roaming in our neighborhood? Am I panicked? or Am I panicked by the media by providing me with the unwarranted news?

Our Insane Media adds fuel…

If these are not enough, our media is making statements like “We should rage war on the neighbors” , these kind of statements make our investors / foreign investors to think twice before they invest in the business process. And our media is keep on forgetting that there are lot of people in Fortune 1000 companies who are watching India closely, as some of their business process are outsourced here either as BPO / ITES or in terms of Software development / support. These kind of statements can have a big impact to these industries.

If I am a Fortune 1000 Company outsourcing my work to India here is my first thought…What would happen to my operations if a full-scale war broke out between Pakistan and India ? The answer is , I will suffer a catastrophic loss of their operations. These kind of events can bring down the day to day oursourcing operations to stand-still and who will be responsible for this? We dont have a definite answer for this and we will never have it…since for us these kind of teror operations become a day to day event, Oh there was a blast in Kurla last week, but everything is normal today…and the media will what ever possible to blame the politicians and the authorities , not because they are concerned about the people, but, they will get more TRPs ….before the analysis and the report come in we will start the blame game, and the funny thing is they wont even apologize the people whom they have defamed out of mistake…what we are forgetting in the middle of this is, these statements and blame games has direct impact on our small time business man, export business etc., as everybody is watching us through the media….if you give out the wrong information without being official, the people are going to get scared.

At no point any of the Indian officals has said, they are going to attack Pakistan, but the media has started their own view point by saying that we will attack Pakistan, this has created so much panic that Rice has to fly down to India immediately so that the tensions between India and Pakistan has reduced and no war will started…

Can some one leash the media whos unleased and spreading rumors?

Sometimes, a wrong decision can haunt you for years. How can you know that? Well, it’s simple, maybe your consciousness is torturing you about it all the time. But for some people, a simple wrong decision can have huge aftermaths as they kept on making mistakes after it. An example?

B.,38, is married with two children. He started an affair four years ago with a woman he met during a seminar in another town, and developed with her true bonds each time he went back to this town. She got pregnant with him, and he recognized the child as his. His wife doesn’t know anything about the other woman, while she just wants the situation to stop. He fears that one day, his wife will discover the truth, because she will eventually. It’s impossible not to know. B. can’t choose between the two women of his life because he loved them both, in a different way however.

Another example? “I fell in love with my husband although I knew he was gay. I got pregnant with him very rapidly and he felt obliged to marry me because of that. Deep inside of me, I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t end the relationship to let him live like he wanted. I also know that one day, I will have to let him go, and that our daughter will suffer about my wrong decision”H., 36, said.

“I left my studies to become a lawyer to follow that man I met in a bar. We married, but two years later, we decided to divorce because we simply couldn’t get along anymore. And  I  ended up doing little jobs just to earn my life. I hate this situation. I know I should go back to school, but I can’t because my jobs are eating all my time” P., 32, said.

Of course, not all of us suffer from a wrong decision. G., 34, accepted to sacrifice everything in her life to follow her man abroad, including her studies, and she’s happy about it as her love life is on the right track.  L., 35, is living in a triangle relationship with two men who know about the existence of each other and don’t bother about it. “I’m happy like that, I don’t see why I would have to change anything” she said.

I believe you have to be honest with yourself and with the other when you take a “wrong” decision. Besides, some people don’t consider their act as wrong. It’s a question of point of view.

So, have you ever taken a wrong decision that still haunts you today?

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