When I woke up today, I see the oil prices shooting up to US$100 per barrel. How untimely, when in Singapore, the GST hike, the increasing commodity prices, the inflation and the rising of taxi fares has becoming increasingly painful for the middle- to lower-income groups.
Elsewhere, the US democracy is funny: people elect “electors” to elect the next president. Myanmar’s democratic progress is laughable, Pakistan is reeling from the loss of a moderate voice, and China is increasing its net against dissentors. The French voted for what I deemed the most repressive, and adulterous, president ever. Stupid clashes everywhere because of polling fraud. Infighting over “demands for fair and rights.”
On the Internet, it’s not much worse. We’ve heard stories of how some corporations abused the legal IP system for their ends, now read this: somebody sued OLPC for “patent infringement.” In my opinion, this stinks of the SCO saga. Don’t even talk about copyright or anything related to intellectual property: a stupid copyright coalition declared intellectual theft “worse than burglary, fraud and bank robbery.” GTFO this world, you stinking greedy pigs. Words fail me to describe the audacity to equate copyright infringement — in its course a civil infraction — worse than potentially life-killing criminal activities. Wow, solipism at its highest levels. Speaking of which, I forgot to add on: the entire copyright laws are “broken”, not accommodating to the new realities of the Internet revolution. So much over cyberspace. I think I can say that Gundam 00 and Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars are my catharsis in regards to the events that are happening around the world. Let me digress a bit here. It would sound like something out of a science fiction fantasy. But when I say disenchanted, Internet-driven people would actually be willing to escape from the real world, and drowned themselves in “alternate realities”, where the system gives them ultimate freedom to “die, respawn and fight back,” they’d be willing to be immersed. If it sounds like the Matrix, it’s because it is. To choose between accepting the hard realities of life, or continue living in the cocoon of bliss idealism, disenchantment can drive people to madness, I guess. But back to topic. What I see right now, is not just “dumb rule of mob.” Increasingly, there is a collective trend of “consolidation of power to a select few,” an oligarchy. Maybe it’s beyond my hindsight/foresight, whichever fits the description. I saw that the US are increasingly bigot in both domestic and foreign affairs: it has become Rome in all but name. Individual freedoms are still intact, but with the increasing level of security amidst the fear of “terror” and “insubordination,” I guess the dsytopic 1984 scenario is going to become a reality anytime soon. Why I said so: biometrics. I never liked having parts of my body being used against me (not that I engaged in “illegal activities”, but when trying to be naughty can lead to instances of “Cheater-like confrontation,” and the potential abuse of the surveillance systems ala “Minority Report”, you know individuality is going to be sacrificed for the greater good.) *Sigh* So much for my emo rant. Welcome 2008, I longed for humanity to live up in space, and leave me on Earth alone for [insert vulgarity/deity/adverb here] sake.
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