Sunday, March 14, 2010

4 x 7

Hi peeps. I turn 28 today. It's been quite an emotional day today. I'm not gonna write it here. I've written what I wanted to write in my diary, including the reference to 4 x 7. Since it's so personal, I'm not sharing it here.

I spent today with myself. I didn't treat myself to anything special. I did buy myself an overpriced ice cream. S$6/cup! It made me miss the days when I was in Italy, getting gelato at 1.50 - 2 euro and I could choose different flavours. Over here 1 scoop of ice cream can cost more than a modest lunch! Not that they taste bad but it's just sometime so not worth it. I really miss having gelato in Italy.

So today, I had breakfast, went to watch a movie, went to pray, and got my lunch/dinner. The movie was kinda a last minute plan. There's isn't any one movie that interest me currently that in the end I settled with Green Zone, starring Matt Damon. I thought it was a good movie and Matt Damon was really really cool in it, even more so than when he was in Bourne Identity, I think. I am not that knowledgeable on the war in Iraq so I don't really know how true or how close the movie is to the truth. But we all know that up to this point, the US cannot really say that they found any WMD or traces of it in Iraq. WMD is weapon of mass destruction, in case you're wondering. If you don't know what it stands for, it may take you longer to understand what they're talking about, because they just refered to it as WMD. I like how the story is. I think it is a good reflection of how things work in this world, that everything is not black and white and eventhough you may find certain things to be the right one, it may not be so for other people. Matt Damon's character kinda went off course to investigate why the intels he's been getting were always wrong. He went on his own course, followed his own instint, even after his colleague pointed to him that it wasn't the order that was given to them. I think anyone in the military will agree that following order is of the utmost importance. So he went on his investigation helped by a CIA agent, uncovering clues one by one, until he discovered that a high ranking US official had been lying about the existence of WMD in Iraq. A high level Iraqi general told this US official that there's no WMD and yet the official said that there's is WMD in Iraq which of course ultimately led to the Iraq "invasion" by the US to find this elusive WMD. In the end, Matt Damon found the high level Iraqi general but then he was shot by an Iraqi who had been helping him because the Iraqi hated what this general did when he was in power. After that, Matt Damon's character sent his report about what had been happening to all the journalist covering the war in Iraq. I give you much spoiler, I'm sorry. But here's my take on the movie.

One, what Matt Damon and the CIA agent were doing was perhaps seen as the right thing to do. But like in any country, or any organization, or company, sometime the right thing to do is not the course that the people in power choose. Being the small minority thinking the other way around and in the case of them, choosing to act on it, they could actually be in deep trouble. In the case of Matt Damon's character, I'm sure after he sent the email with classified information, he could be persecuted by the military court. I guess everything is not always black and white and it is frustrating when you feel that people are doing the wrong thing and making the wrong decision and you cannot do anything about it, that you are being shut down, and you are deemed as a liability for not being aligned with them. In the case of Matt Damon's character who thought he was working to help the Iraqi, it sure sucks when the Iraqi he was trying to help, was siding with the people who were doing the wrong thing, eventhough they had different reasons for coming to the same conclusion. I feel this kinda thing is really a real reflection of how things work in this world.

Two, I do feel thankful for my life eventhough many times I don't appreciate it. I remember some new years ago, standing at my house's balcony and watching the fireworks appear on the sky, with sounds like bullets and bombs being fired. I was thinking it's perhaps how people feel in a war area, seeing fire light up their sky. Unfortunately not beautiful fireworks. In this movie, you can see violence broke on a common neighbourhood area and you really wonder how people actually live there! It made feel really thankful that I'm not there and at the same time I also get when people say that God is unfair. Like why how can He let people suffer like that? And the only answer that we can give ourselves is God has a reason *sigh* When you're in that situation, it's not very comforting, isn't it?

Hmmm ... I guess that's all peeps. I have nothing else to say. I don't know how I am going to survive this coming week. One breathe at a time I guess. Take care peeps!

:) eKa @ 8:36:00 PM •