Pakistan a Banana Republic?!

A nationwide power blackout which started in Ghazi Barotha last Sunday [24th Sept] caused rumours to spread that a coup was taking place, taking over Musharraf while he was in the US, launching his autobiography "In the Line of Fire". His statement to the press: "It is a nonsense. What should I say about this. Look we aren't, thank God, a banana republic, where such things happen suddenly."

That is funny, because he came to power by taking over Nawaz Sharif in a coup himself, and what's funnier - he used the term 'banana republic'.

According to Wikipedia: Banana republic is a pejorative term for a small, often Latin American or Caribbean country, which is politically unstable, dependent on limited agriculture, and ruled by a small, wealthy and corrupt clique.
This doesn't seem all too accurate now, but Pakistan IS dependent on agriculture, has a history of being politically unstable, and is mostly ruled by corrupt politicians.

The interpretation of Answers.com seems more befitting: A small country that is economically dependent on a single export commodity, such as bananas, and is typically governed by a dictator or the armed forces.
Small country, check. Dependent on a few exports, check. Governed by the armed forces, CHECK!

However, given Musharraf's understanding of the English language, what he probably meant by 'banana republic' was a country which is 'going bananas' because the ruler is out of town. So do you think Pakistan is not a banana republic? Or is it?

And so it is... [music video]

Edit: I removed the music video for I believe it was making the site very slow. Click below if you would still like to see it.

Damien Rice - Blower's Daughter

I won something =)

http://www.nus.edu.sg/comcen/imagine/hangout/index.htm

I'm an absolute "ectomorph"

• ECTOMORPHS are generally small-framed and thin. Their shoulders and hips are generally narrow. They have trouble gaining weight and building muscle. Ectomorphs should do enough cardio exercise to work their heart and lungs but not so much if they are concerned about building muscle and maintaining weight. Weight workouts should be on the heavier side if the goal is to build muscle. Weight training the upper body is helpful to keep proportions more even. Generally, lighter weights and more reps do the trick. Ectomorphs are generally tall and thin and have long arms and legs. These people have difficulty gaining weight and muscle no matter how much they eat or how hard they weight train. They have the body type you tend to see in ballet dancers, runway models, long-distance runners, and some basketball players. A very small proportion of the population has this type of body.
• MESOMORPHS tend to be of normal weight, neither fat nor skinny. They tend to pack on muscle easily and can lose weight easily up to a certain point. It is hard for them to become "skinny." Generally, their shoulders are wider than their hips. Mesomorphs should do longer-duration, higher-intensity cardio work if the goal is to lose weight. Building muscle is easy, but if the goal is not to gain size then moderately heavier weights and higher reps will be the way to go during weight-training sessions. Mesomorphs are generally muscular, shorter, and have stocky arms and legs. These people are strong and tend to gain muscle mass when they do strength training. They may find it difficult to lose weight, but they excel in power sports like soccer, softball, vaulting in gymnastics, sprinting events in track and field.
• ENDOMORPHS tend to be pear-shaped, meaning their hips are usually wider than their shoulders. They gain weight easily and tend to be curvier than the other body types. Endomorphs are generally shaped like apples or pears and carry more body fat. Their bodies resist losing weight and body fat no matter how restrictive they are with their eating. In fact, the more they "diet," the more their metabolisms slow down to resist weight loss. These people are better able to handle long periods of starvation and famine (which was a benefit to our ancestors). Sports they excel at are distance swimming, field events, and weight lifting.
  

Most of us aren't purely one body type or another; we are a combination of at least two. That means you're going to have to adjust your workout to strike the right balance of exercise and diet. I find it helps to keep a food and workout diary so you can more easily analyze what works and what doesn't.

Caffeine Information

Hey AIESEC!

Newbie @ers in LC NUS busy with Insight XP test

AIESEC Singapore at Lau Pa Sat [23rd September 2006]

What the world needs right now...

"Negroponte says U.S. not at higher risk"
"British forces kill leading terrorist"
"Abe moves toward easy Japan PM victory"
"U.S. to relax ban of liquids on planes"
"Iran minister: Nuclear talks 'on track'"

Newspapers are full of it: talk of civil-strife and internal rebellion, of wars fought and more tally-marks made to obituaries. Our dinner parties are full of it too: we sit in our living rooms, sipping our teas and shaking our heads, talking with feeling of these lives that are lost, of the futile blood that is spilt. We talk. We all talk.

And that is all we do. The need of the hour is to understand the root cause behind what we see happening around us and to find a feasible solution to put an end to it all .Fingers are pointed at 'rogue states', at fundamentalists and extremism, at mistakes of the past breeding the consequences that news reports and journalists pay tribute to today. Little do we realize that this isn't recognition of the problem? This is the problem. The root cause of all the conflicts we see around us is lack of tolerance. None of us has to look beyond our own country's borders to understand what I mean.

In order to overcome these problems the world requires exemplary leadership with skills like the ability to communicate effectively, conflict management skills and the ability to sway the masses for what this discretion dictates to be the best modus operandi.

At the parallel

He looks longingly at the door; maybe she walks in.
He looks out the window - maybe she walks by.
A raindrop falls on his forehead; maybe its a sign from God.

He sits next to an empty seat on the bus, maybe she will join him.
He calls her name out, maybe she listens.
She visits him alone; maybe she cares.

Maybe she wants me, but who am I to say 'yes'?

Boredom "invented" in the 1760s!?

http://www.newstatesman.com/200503140048

I think I would like to agree with the author of the book (even though I haven't even read it). But a noteworthy point is that it took the person an entire book to prove how the FEELING of boredom was invented in 1760 - surely one blog post won't change the minds of all those people before me.

It also makes sense to assume that terms are invented as soon as you can associate a feeling or action with them. Suppose the world was a happy place and no one used to cry... Don't you think the first time a person cried, he wanted to describe what he was feeling? He probably couldn't and maybe he wasn't the first one to have actually coined in the verb "to cry" but gradually as more and more people began to cry (because the world became more and more of an unhappy place), they finally got their linguists together to come up with "crying". *phew*

Okay that was a rather lame example, but my idea is, if the term "boredom" was invented, it only means that people were getting bored more and more often. True, maybe an exact figure of 1760 might be a tad bit idealistic, but it won't be too harmful to say that the feeling of "boredom" became so common in the late 1700s that they actually had to make a word for it!

I refer to Teo Kim Sheng's example (in another blog service) of "mood-swings" as being a complex emotion which can be broken down into several others. Suppose one such feeling is to feel lazy in the mornings and active before bed-time. It would not be surprising if this particular feeling gets its own term when more and more people start feeling the same way. And that's probably how the "feeling" and the "term" BOREDOM might have been invented - as the author supposedly proved in his book (in a much better way than this I presume!).

Change will come tomorrow - Tomorrow never comes

He sat at the edge of his seat, at the brink of his existence more like, a lone, hunched figure, withdrawn into his self as much as one possibly can. His state of mind was very much reflected in his physical state; he didn’t like being with people that much anymore…

He carelessly held an empty bottle of alcohol in his hand, staring at the lingering dregs of the clear liquid, perhaps wondering if that amount was enough to drown in…. The “whites” of his eyes had gradually yellowed, much like the over-used keys of a moldy, worn-out piano. His eyes had generally acquired the kind of glassiness typical of cold, placid, life-less lakes. The deflated, grey bags under his eyes were evidence to the fact that he did not get much sleep in the previous night, or countless others before, for that matter. The skin on his face was sallow, yet as taut as a pair of lycras that had been stretched a little too much.

Somewhere down the street, someone was trying to play an old Led Zeppelin record. The distant crooning managed to pierce through his thoughts, making him jolt out of his abysmal misery. His lips creased into a faint smile; he remembered that song, it was her favorite…But thinking about her was painful, so he dismissed her into a forgotten portion of his memory and directed his attention towards the crumpled, unlit cigarette in his other hand, dropped the glass bottle onto a pile already at his feet, and fumbled for a matchbox somewhere inside his frayed clothes’ pockets. It was amazing, how, even in that condition, he was able to recall her at all, so he hastily tried to make her memory go away. Having found none on him, he muttered something angrily, clumsily stood up and kicked the heap of the foul-smelling bottles with all the force his mind could muster at that bare minimum level of consciousness, or its lack thereof. Stumbling over his own feet, he fell heavily on his face and could not get up. He was passed out.

Could he be a changed man when he wakes up?

Initiation...

This is the beginning... of not just another blog; of not just Ramadan 2006; not just being nicotine-free; not just being an active AIESEC member, but the life of a totally changed person. Let's see how it goes...

I'm importing some stuff from my previous blog - http://nubeals.spaces.live.com/