A Series of Unfortunate Events.

This one's going to be a long post. And its going to comment on the one issue that’s got everyone around the world jumping off buildings and bridges. Yes, the economic meltdown faced by a certain King of the Hill western nation. A lot of experts have commented on it. A lot of experts have theorized on why it happened, how it happened and what to do. It’s amusing that all of these so called 'experts' suddenly seem to know so much about it, and yet they couldn't predict it for nuts. Keeping this in mind I realized that anyone with a little economic sense can trace the roots of the crisis backwards to a certain point. And here I am trying to do the same and get to the bottom of this downfall. If you don't want to know what it is that has the world in a tizzy. Then turn back now.

P.S.> This theory (if I may) is based on my views and mine alone. It has been influenced by a number of observations and as such is not a concrete law. I'm just a layman who saw a certain sequence in the time line which I felt the need to point out.



[1991-1995]

The roots trace back to the first Gulf War, back in 1991 before a certain trade body became existent which brought about free trade throughout the world. The war which began in 1990 started draining the resources of USA as soon as it got involved. Up till 1995 there was a constant strain on the monetary and military resources of the country. With a grand total cost of $61.1 billion it would be remembered only as moderately expensive compared to the current war. But what is important to note is that at this time, all the world economies were not as deeply linked as today. Since the concept of free trade was still to be fully realized, so the costs were covered and no other factors were compounding. However this war funds deficit would need to be covered by the tax payers and finally influenced the actual setting of world free trade in 1995.


[1995-2001]

Now lets shift to 1995, when GATT was disregarded and the WTO came into existence. This was right around the time when the first Gulf War had officially ended and a lot of people were mighty pissed about the money spent on a pointless conflict, but still a lot of people supported the war and all was well that ended well. When the WTO came into existence, the world suddenly became a flat economy, slowly getting flattened as world markets started accepting WTO and their own markets started opening.

Now suddenly the rich-and-influential-of-the-western-nations realized that there were a number of markets around the world in which they could put in their money and watch it grow. It was common sense to put your money in a growing economy so as that, as the economy grows so would your fortune. So these rich-and-influential-of-the-western-nations did exactly that and started pulling out their investments in war mongering and started pooling them into the apparent noble cause of helping fledgling countries flourish, while at the same time laughing their way to the banks.

All was well again. The rich were getting richer, the comparatively poor were getting comparatively better-off, and Al-Qaeda was getting angry.

When the first Gulf War ended, it left a lot of people dead and a lot of people angry. Since most of the dead were from the Muslim community, most of the angry belonged to that community as well. But the fault here was not on the community, it was on the war that was brought down on the community by other capitalist bastards to make their own profits. Under these situations, certain socio-political outfits decided to capitalize on the overall feeling of hatred and started planting seeds of uprisal. One Osama Bin Laden was getting ready to react, and one Saddam Hussein was getting cocky.

A few years after the WTO came out everyone around the world was busy in making money and a number of advances were taking place in the lifestyles and living standards around the world. One of the most notable ones which has a huge part to play in this is the Credit system. The system of plastic money and the creation of instant loans by banks in the USA and ultimately around the world. People around the world (and more specifically America) started living beyond their means. Essentially the credit card became a means of spending money we didn't have, and creating virtual wealth. This slowly began adding up, and I will move towards this later on. But keep in mind that the credit debt is slowly increasing as the time line goes on and other events take place. Right now there is a more pressing event in the time line which acted as the catalyst for one of the biggest factors in the meltdown. I think the date should be enough: September 11, 2001.


[2001-2003]

We all know what happened on this date, since it has changed the course of world history as we know it. This one event is probably the single most important event in this generation's lifetime and also the first snowflake which snowballed into the current crisis situation. When Al-Qaeda declared epic war on America, the USA reacted in a typical redneck way. They decided that since one asshole wants to mess with us, we might as well take down his whole country. And so they launched an attack on Afghanistan, with the aim of finding Mr. Impossible-to-find, and in the process make a complete fool of themselves. While this was going on, in the process of killing one person they spent a total of $172 billion, killed around 45,000 extra people, destroyed one nation's economy and then spent an additional few dozen billion rebuilding that same economy.

As this was going on some soldier glanced westward and saw an interesting piece of land with a whole lotta oil. And then he thought, since we're in the neighborhood, we might as well take it. So a certain American President Jr. decided to avenge the embarrassment faced by his father in the same office and created a few reasons to declare war on a dictatorship. At that time in 2003, the world opinion was biased towards capitalism and pretty much everyone supported this second war for their own reasons. The people supported their leader, the soldier followed his orders, the communists were happy they weren't being targeted, the investment bankers saw an opportunity of rebuilding another economy and all the industrialists saw black gold on the horizon. (Keep in mind the American credit card debt at this time was $73 billion and already $172 billion has been spent in Afghanistan).


[2003-2007]

Soon the Iraq war was in progress and the businessmen were happy, they had countries to invest money into and a war to entertain them, at the same time they were counting on the fact that once the war was over, all the oil from Iraq would help reduce their long-term costs by a substantial amount. But what happened since then has been the most documented and most ridiculed few years of the American Government. The government started facing opposition for the war quickly, and once the promised quick result didn't arrive the public became enraged and the government was quickly blamed. But the main factor in the global melt down out of this is the cost. (Overall the Iraq War cost $856 billion and a total of $3 trillion to the economy).

At this time, a number of economies around the world were flourishing thanks to the foreign investments. The rich countries around the world were investing their fortunes in a number of countries and these economies were again flourishing and re-investing in other economies. Markets like India were considered a gold mine investment and quickly the economies started going up. Slowly these economies started getting the jobs meant for America and people started depending on credit cards to maintain their lifestyles. Now the rich-and-influential-of-the-western-nations started getting richer and the comparatively well-off American started getting poorer and as a result started getting greedier.

They started investing money into any resource possible, the idea became that any rich person had the Midas touch and the assumption became that any investment will flourish. As such two things took center-stage; greed and stupidity. What was once a sound investor became overconfident and greedy. The investments became vast and the credit card became man's best friend. (On the time line we are in the year 2007 and credit card debt stands at $800 billion, the Iraq War is costing $856 billion and the Afghan conflict carries a $172 billion tag).


[2007-Present Day]

Now we reach the home lap. The year is 2008 and the world economy stands at a very precarious angle. Everyone is rich. Anyone can afford the high-life. The Iraq War is a disappointment. American unemployment is rising. Investments are diverse and international. The whole world economy is interdependent, and all markets around the world are inter-linked. A slight fluctuation in any market affects the world. And banks are realizing that the shit is about to hit the fan.

Suddenly, the bubble explodes when all the numbers add up. 8,281,000 people are unemployed in the USA. These 8,281,000 people are adding to the credit crunch. The War on Terror has cost the American tax-payer $3 trillion. American banks are sitting on over $800 billion in unpaid credit card bills and successful investments are a rare commodity.

All these factors are just the numbers, in reality all this debt was being handled somehow until 2008 owing to the fact that these banks managed to recover their international investments which paid back the dividends and the money equaled itself keeping the bank afloat. But in mid 2008, the investments saturated. The economies around the world stopped growing at an infinite rate and the dividends reduced. Suddenly the banks had no incoming money while the citizenry kept living on credit cards. Soon the water started churning and the banks started sinking one by one.

What happened next is economic history. It has been the culmination of a series of events in the last one and a half decade which has included a number of bad decisions. The main factors in my opinion have been the one's I stated above; war, greed, bad investments, credit cards and government policy. How they all snowballed into this shitstorm is what economy students will be learning for ages to come.

Preconceived Notions.

Every other day we meet some new person in life. Most often we meet such a person through a common friend slash acquaintance. And whenever you get introduced, such a person will always give you some constructive/destructive input about the person and his peculiarities. This is inescapable, and also the root cause of a number of problems with a lot of people. Because, when we meet this new person, what our friend is doing is implanting HIS image of that person into your mind, which leaves little room for you to make your own impression of the person.

The problem with this lies in human nature itself. We humans are essentially animals, and as such we have certain instincts. These instincts include at a primal level the ability and basic attribute of creating the image of a person to go along with the physical existence of each person. All animals remember an individual by the image it hold of him. Example: if you throw a stone at a dog for each day for the next 3 days, he will instinctively run on seeing you, because now there's an image in his mind that he should expect a stone on his head when he sees you. The human brain doesn't work much differently. Except maybe for the fact that it creates an image on a number of other complicated inputs.

By this I mean, we humans tend to create an image of a person based solely on what we hear about him/her. Most people will create such a concrete image that they refuse to let go of it inspite of all attempts to break it down. This attribute of humans to create an image based on external input other than actual experience is a very frustrating thing. An even greater frustration is the irritating habit of the human brain to stick to this preconceived notion of a person. We find it frustratingly hard to break the preconceived image created in another person's mind, and any person who has a preconceived image of another person will see all activites, habits, movements, talking etc in that color.

Many a times we even make a mental image of a person on the first time we see him/her. Though this image can be broken easily its still the human quirk of judging people the instant we see them. Nothing thrills me more than breaking this preconceived notion that people make as soon as they lay their eyes on me. Its the most amazing thing to break the image people make of you, and to have them create their own perspective of what you want them to know. Though each external element will always contribute towards or against this effort, I always believe in giving each person a chance to impress their image on my mind, and then its upto me to hold it up or break it down and make my own.

Essentially, we depend so much on other people's opinions of a person that we refuse to give that person a second chance at creating his actual image for you. Somehow we started giving more weightage to other people's opinions than creating our own. Which is why I find it absolutely interesting to meet a completely random person. It gives me a chance to create an untainted and unaffected opinion of the person based on my own experiences. Its a refreshing experience as I have recently found out. I urge everyone to try it.



----------------
Now playing: Tenacious D - Kielbasa
via FoxyTunes

Let it out.

Don't you want to be at peace,
Don't you feel the disease.

Just wait for it all to end,
Or scream and shout,
Go against the trend.

Let it out,
Let it out my children,
Just let it out,
Let it out,
Before you let it grow.

Let it out,
Let it out my children,
Just let it out,
Let it out,
And watch the river flow.

Going crazy, going insane,
Living on a different plane.

All the anger growing inside,
Always being pushed aside.

Let it out,
Let it out my children,
Just let it out,
Let it out,
And watch it go.

Let it out,
Let it out my children,
Just let it out,
Let it out,
And watch the river flow.

Change the world.

We chase the same sun,
As we try to outrun,
This life and its problems.

Maybe we should try to be,
What no one else can see,
Away from all this chaos.

We will find a better start,
From the pieces of my heart,
Another day is before us.
Cast your problems in the air,
Let the highway take us there,
Away from this world of disorder.

Are we afraid of where we've gone,
Is it the fear of the unknown,
That keeps us standing here.

In our lives we cannot choose,
What to keep and what we lose,
This is all just an illusion.

We will find a better start,
From the pieces of my heart,
Another day is before us.
Cast your problems in the air,
Let the highway take us there,
Away from this world of disorder.

Its time to turn our backs and run,
Time to walk into the setting sun,
Watch the old world disappear,
Break away from fear.

We will find a better start,
From the pieces of my heart,
Another day is before us.
Cast your problems in the air,
Let the highway take us there,
Away from this world of disorder.




----------------
Now playing: Primus - My Name is Mudd
via FoxyTunes

Flashback of a Fool.

A few days back, I was at a friends place, a party. And everyone was happily drunk/high. As is normal procedure at such get-togethers, the conversation shifted to some deep and philosophical topic. This time particularly, it shifted to relationships. As everyone was putting up little tid-bits about their relationship experiences, I suddenly found myself going back to a conversation I had with one of my ex's.

It was not much of a monumental conversation, I just remembered it for how pissed it made the poor girl, and with right reason. Lets call her 'A' for the sake of anonymity.

A: Vi, will you love me forever?

Me: Define 'forever'.

A: Until the end of time, baby?

Me: All time or our lifetimes?

A: Till all of time.

Me: But what if time isn't real? What if its just an illusion created in our minds just to keep us sane? What if time doesn't really exist?

A: Vi, I'm leaving you.



She didn't really leave me though. Just mighty pissed at how monumentally stupid I can get when faced with a question about commitment.

Love makes me do stupid things.

Not being in love, avoiding it.



----------------
Now playing: Nightwish - Bye Bye Beautiful
via FoxyTunes

The Final Moment.

My life, dangles on a string,
As I hear the bells,
They ring,
And pull me under.

Time, keeps going on,
Drawings of life,
And song,
That keep me longing.

Things, that make me cry,
The times that,
Passed me by,
Never looking back.

And yet you cannot see,
Everything comes to and end.
The final moment of me,
Is right around the bend.
And I love it.

Whatever, you meant to me,
The things that I,
Could never see,
Now I'm lost.

People, and the places I know,
They remind me,
Somehow,
Of days gone by.

And yet you cannot see,
Everything comes to and end.
The final moment of me,
Is right around the bend.
And I love it.

Complete clarity,
Comes in my final moment.
Lies and sincerity,
Confusion and regret.
Everything is gone finally,
Including all of me.

And yet you cannot see,
Everything comes to and end.
The final moment of me,
Is right around the bend.
And I love it.

A Hero among us.

Hope and pray,
That you may not need me.

But you do know,
That I've never let you down.

I walk beside you,
And you do not see me.

A hero among you,
Yet I don't wear a crown.

On that day,
When you need me there,
When you don't have the strength,
Your burdens I'll bear.
On that day,
When you cry for mercy,
I'll show myself,
Just when you need me.

Beyond the darkness,
And these city lights.

I stand alone,
Listening to your cries.

So many times,
You called out for my help.

And when that moment finally comes,
I won't make you wait.

On that day,
When you need me there,
When you don't have the strength,
Your burdens I'll bear.
On that day,
When you cry for mercy,
I'll show myself,
Just when you need me.

All the people crying in the streets,
People starving,
With nothing to eat.

When all you need today,
Is a place to rest your head.

Right here under my eyes,
You will be safe.

Standing to guard,
From the dark of despair.

Just look up now,
I'm standing right there.

On that day,
When you need me there,
When you don't have the strength,
Your burdens I'll bear.
On that day,
When you cry for mercy,
I'll show myself,
Just when you need me.




----------------
Now playing: Alter Bridge - Open Your Eyes
via FoxyTunes

Untitled.

I just want to know,
If you see me.
Its the one thing that matters,
Right now.

There's just one thing,
That I may be fearing.
Is if you would know me,
At all.

I'm ready to die if you find me,
And I'll live one more day just for you.

You're the one who can help me,
And I'll wait till know that somehow.

And this time I will let the world know,
That you're the one meant for me.

But all that I made will be broken,
What if we will never be.

And I just want to know,
If you see me.
Its the one thing that matters,
Right now.

There's just one thing,
That I may be fearing.
Is if you would know me,
At all.

I can't fight the world all alone,
It just seems like it brings me down.

If they wish to somehow break me,
I can't let you see me just drown.

You're the closest to freedom,
That I can ever be.
And it hurts me to just let you go.

And I just want to know,
If you see me.
Its the one thing that matters,
Right now.

There's just one thing,
That I may be fearing.
Is if you would know me,
At all.



----------------
Now playing: Audioslave - Moth
via FoxyTunes

Dependency Issues.

People seem so convinced when they talk about love and their relationship. Every person I know to be either in love or in a relationship keeps telling me about it. They keep harping how those two things are meant to be and one supports and replenishes the other and how it improves on something already so, divine(actual quote this one).

So I got down to study this so called love-relationship mechanism. And as per my severely twised outlook, I stumbled across a realization which had been long coming. I had known all along that there's something fishy in the business of so called love-relationship stability and interdependence. They aren't interdependent at all. Yes, its true that everyone feels those two things go hand-in-hand on the joyride of life. But infact it is also true that both of them can survive without the other.

Love doesn't need a relationship to take place. And numerous relationships keep going long after love has died, albeit begdrudgingly. Take for example the case of Romeo and Juliet, the eternal love story, the first epic win of Love over all odds. In their case, love didn't need a relationship to blossom. All that was there was Romeo loved Juliet and she loved him back. And their love lives on long after they died for it. In a more modern world there are so many cases of a love-smitten idiot longing and pining for someone who they can never have. Here also love exists without the slightest hint or hope of a relationship (I hope Megan Fox is reading this).

In the second instance of relationships going on without love, well you can see that everyday, people stick together for a number of reasons, long after love is dead. Maybe they stay together for the kids, or maybe a lesser reason. But their relationship still exists. Yes people will argue that such a relationship is but only a shell of a relationship when love is dead and gone, but I never argued the point that love and relationships mix well. All I'm saying is that they don't need each other to survive.

All I mean to say is, love and relationships sure mix well, but they don't need each other. They can be mutually exclusive. Its like coffee and cookies, sure they go great together, but you don't neccessarily need one to enjoy the other.




----------------
Now playing: Alter Bridge - Break Me Down
via FoxyTunes

Let it go.

Keep your mind on the side,

Get your head off the heel.

Keep it down to a tone,
Get yourself another deal.

Keep the world on your knees,
Go get someone to love.

If you love someone,
Then maybe you will know.

Just let it go,
Let it go.
Lose yourself,
Just let it go.
Find someone,
And let it go.

Hold your heart in your hand,
Try to find how it beats.

Let your love off the leash,
Just let it find its own feet.

Sell your soul to the devil,
And watch it go.

Lose your mind,
Just so you don't know.

Just let it go,
Let it go.
Lose yourself,
Just let it go.
Find someone,
And let it go.

Let it go, let it go,
Kill your mind,
And let it go.
See what you find,
Just let it go.

Just let it go,
Let it go.
Lose yourself,
Just let it go.
Find someone,
And let it go.


Comment: In case some of you may be wondering, the song is about love. Its about how you need to lose your mind, body and soul to actually fall in love. Someone told me that I will never find my true love until I let myself go. This song is actually inspired from those three words and titled with it, Let It Go.

I'm gonna give it a try, lets see what I find if I'm not myself.




----------------
Now playing: Pearl Jam - I Am Mine
via FoxyTunes