Israel, Oh Israel
Tuesday, July 18th, 2006Picture this – a young fledgling democracy, recently rid of foreign rulers in the midst of a volitle region, with little ability to defend itself, but with support of the international community. A bully of a country given weapons and money by most of the world on land stolen thru war and colonialism. A group of underground fighters determined to win no matter the cost to civilian life. Toss in a few fervant religious beliefs full of absolutes. Mix it all up and TA DA! you get the situation going on between Lebanon, Israel and Hezbollah right now in the Middle East.
I’m sick of both Hezbollah and Israel. Give it up already! Israel ain’t going anywhere, so why the hell are you killing civilians thinking its going to make a difference? And why did you go and kidnap some of their soldiers? Did you think that might make things better for you? Not cool. And Israel, you’re the all-mighty power in that area, thanks to the US and others. Nevertheless, you’re surrounded by people who want you destroyed. So stick out a hand once and a while to other countries around you who might be friendly. Lebanon is a country almost completely unable to defend itself, with low resources just emerging from underneath control by Syria. Maybe you could give them a break and not destroy all their bridges and airport runways in your efforts to wipe out Hezbollah.
A few other factors to complicate matters. Hezbollah knows how to win support. They build hospitals and other vital institutions for the people. What motivation (besides trying to avoid Israeli bombs) d0es Lebanon have to go after this group? And Hezbollah also may be getting weapons and money from Syria and Iran, countries the US hates. And Bush doesn’t seem likely to do much about it, since he doesn’t want to tell Israel what to do; instead he wants to keep issuing them a blank check. To sum it all up, it’s a messed up situation.
In other news, I’ve begun to learn to play my guitar. It’s tough. I’m so used to the tuning scheme of a piano; a guitar is a bit different. The strings are tuned E A D G B E, which is a little disorienting when you are used to A B C D E F G, on a keyboard, or at least chord layouts of C E G or C A F or D G B, so on. But it’s just as much fun to play, even if so far I can’t whip it out and play any songs. I’m getting there. And more rewarding is that the more I play, the more naturally my fingers bend around the neck to reach the frets. And the better I am at placing my fingers where they need to be. I am looking forward to buying a cord that will let me input the sound into my computer so that I can record and see what I sound like off a recording. Listening straight off the amp can be different because you get the sounds of strings rattling (which they shouldn’t be, but I’m a beginner) off the guitar, mixed with the sounds of the amp.
It’s nice to have a musical instrument to play on. That’s something I haven’t had since high school (piano). I plan to get my keyboard from Mishicot when I go home (August probably, but maybe earlier). Then with my guitar and keyboard, I’ll really be able to start thinking about recording. It’s an exciting prospect.