Albert's Play

Taking turns to screw up

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:37:00 +0000

Three years ago I wrote this post , decrying the election by the Palestinians of Hamas as the governing party. I was sadly accurate about Hamas's endorsement of violence and about Israel's increased willingness to use military interventions...not that it was much forecasting to be done, it was the only possible scenario.

This time around, the clusterfuck comes from the Israeli side...For appetizers, Likud - with its Nutty Benny - are elected to lead the country; for mains - Armageddon Avigdor Lieberman is to be the foreign minister. By all means, let's not have deserts on this one.

Since I began travelling more around the world, I increasingly found the cliché that "every country has the government it deserves" to be quite true, with few notably exceptions of mad dictatorships.

It’s sad to think what these elections say about today’s Israel.

The amateur

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:02:00 +0000

I've meant to post the video for a while now; it's an excellent short film in which my brother, Erwin, has the lead role. Given that it recently won the prize for Best Short Film at L'Alternativa (Barcelona Independent Film Festival), I figured it's the right moment to put it up.

It takes 20 minutes and it's got English subtitles (not fully accurate, but you'll understand the story).

Enjoy.

Amatorul from amdraci on Vimeo.

Say that again???

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:18:00 +0000

I'm just watching a Romanian news channel, where mr A. Jaber - representative of the Palestinian community in Romania is a guest speaker.

While talking about the alleged ill-intent and about the impact on civilian population of the current Israeli offensive in Gaza, he points that - I quote: "If Israel really wanted to destroy Hamas, all they should do is turn off the water and gas supply for the Gaza population and Hamas would be gone in few weeks. "

????? Am I missing something? Wouldn't that be an actual crime against all the people in Gaza? Is this better than trying to destroy the terror infrastructure built by Hamas across the territory, under people's houses, under University, under Mosques?

Is this what a Palestinian suggests be done to its people - leave them all without gas and water?
The Likud party might want to recruit this fellow.

I'd almost forgotten I had a blog

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:08:00 +0000

exams....love'em, hate'em...now, actually just hate'em. the necessary evil of a wonderful learning experience.

As funky as a National Anthem can get

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:59:00 +0000

This is awesome. Check out especially the gospel-like choir towards the end.

Hatikva
by FranckyPerez

Do you want to learn the full truth about the Jews?

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 04:12:00 +0000

tatatata...look no further than www.jewwatch.com ....

Now, tell me this: how would you react if one of your best friends is reading this website and when you point out it's a lot of hateful garbage, he asks - albeit in different words - " how can you prove that? "

How do you begin? Do you begin at all? How do you deconstruct a monstrous library of lies put under the hideous tagline of 'scholarly research'? How, when I cannot even begin to understand what drives the people that created it to such levels of insanity?

It was probably the first time in my life when I just couldn't answer a question regarding Jewish identity and history. But I began to see more clearly how easy anti-Semitism can be spread, by simply carrying the message long and loud enough, through as many channels as possible, and, of more recent trend, also with an 'honest interest for scientific accuracy' makeup('oh, he's playing the anti-Semitism card, like they always do when asked uncomfortable questions'...raise your hand if you just thought that while reading the last sentence).

I sadly left the room.

Shameful !

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:29:00 +0000

I've been making this point to some of my friends for a while now, but today i have no doubt whatsoever: BBC is one of the most bias, one-sided, opinionated global media there is! Compared to BBC’s, even Al Jazeera's coverage of Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems as neutral as Pierluigi Colina' refereeing in a Champions League final.

If you spend some time on their website, you'll notice the pattern:

- any article that portrays either the suffering of the Gaza people (which I am NOT debating, as it's beyond doubt that they live in miserable conditions) or an attack of the Israeli army, gets full-day coverage - as the front article plus 3-4 other links in the page.

- any article that is discussing the plight of Israeli citizens continuously under rocket attacks (alas, BBC needs to keep the appearance of objectivity) is tucked away in maximum one of the subsections AND

- any article of this second type will no later than paragraph 2 (max3) immediately draw parallels with the problems in Gaza. The reciprocal never happens: article about the Palestinian suffering have, at the most, the last sentence as a reference to the Israeli side.

There's no point providing examples on the above points in this post, because any single example doesn't come as solid enough to prove the point. BUT, if you do want to test this, observe BBC's coverage on a longer period of time. It will come screaming in your face!

The perverted tango

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:35:00 +0000

One to the left, two to the right...Or something like that...

Read Singapore's media these days, regarding the Selamat Kastari escape: the one to the left - "we're almost critical of the authorities"...the two to the right: "only to praise them even stronger...for apologizing...for doing a vigorous search...."...

it's time Singaporeans are given a little bit of credit and assumption of intelligence....they won't start riots or become less-affectionate of a government that brough them such a good standard of living just because it was once strongly criticized, with no cushions, no random excuses...

I'd bet on the opposite...that maybe it would make people a bit more responsible, more aware that the authorities can't always keep the game straight on their own...

huge risks, yes, i see that. but wouldn't the reward be so sweet?

me, running?

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 06:03:00 +0000

hehe, in the 'breaking your limits/fears' cheesy stories corner, this could possibly be my best entry. In my pre 2000 part of life, while I always did some sports(soccer, basketball, ping-pong-if you count it for a sport), running was always an "off-limits" area, because of my f*ing spleen which, after more then 50 m of continous running would hurt beyond belief(luckily it didn't behave the same way during the run-stop-run rythim of the other sports).

Even after getting rid of the spleen in 00, I pretty much lived under the same assumption for quite a while...That is till 90% of my friends in SG became a bit of jogging-freaks and so I thought I'd at least give it a try...So, 6 months down the line, finishing(with a pretty decent time as well) a 12km race was a bit of a shocker, not in itself, but more when looking into my (non)running past...

Marathon races, here I come... ( Mom, I'm kidding, don't go having a panic attack on this :)...

Macedonian restaurants and Afghan interiors...

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:17:00 +0000

...and African artwork....and...

No, it's not New York ( never been there, though from my brother's stories I reckoned it's got to be the one place where such a wonderful mix of cultures exists), but....Newtown, a suburb of Sydney.

A "Wild West meets East End" type of place, Newtown was a great surprise, the highlight of my aussie trip last week, though I only spent about 45 minutes walking around (Sid, I still hold you personally responsible for not taking me there earlier)...It was enough though to witness an abundance of cultural and artistic forms of existence: theatres, dance studios, street painters, conservatory, ethnic art shops, music studios and stores, funky combinations of architectural styles....

Forget Darling Harbour; forget Circular Quay, the Rocks, King Cross....if I get to go to Sydney again, Newtown's definitely my home base...

You should check it out.

"I will do such things,--

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 13:57:00 +0000

...What they are, yet I kno'w not: but they shall be
The terrors of the earth."

While still not in Iago's (Othello) league, Edmund (King Lear) just made it in my top villains list...

Pretty hard not to come out with some strong emotions when you've just seen a Royal Shakespeare Company performance....oops, take that back, I meant 2 performances, because - probably to clarify that they're not just shakespearean nerds( if such thing exists) - they also pulled off an amazing performance of "Seagull" by Chekhov.

Many stagings of classic playwrights I've seen in the last few years were modernized versions...Some were horrendous, some were quite brilliant, but in most occasions modernizing a play meant stealing a bit(or more) from the original story and substance of the text.

The two performances I saw this week-end were, in my view, as close as it gets to what Shakespeare and Chekhov might have had in mind when writing the plays. This is not to say that they were merely a read-through of the text, with no artistic creation from the director's side. It's just that both shows had such a perfect flow and rhythm (smooth, subtle) that it made the stories as truthful, and touching as I guess they were meant to be...Nothing more, nothing less...

It’s been a week-end to remember....but, more importantly, to repeat....

Deny

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 06:02:00 +0000

"My task and all I ask is that you never forget
Cause those who forget: history will repeat it
The Nazis were defeated yet the lies live on and spawn
In the ignorance of those whose motives reap it
And claim death counts were made up as if we needed to exaggerate
But I saw how hate could make right-thinking people deviate
When they create excuses for the nooses and reasons for the bleeding
But nothing made as much sense as "Seeing is believing"
I can't stop crying
This isn't human
Only illusion, but I'm trying
What I saw will defy
Too many dead to identify
Cities disappear and whole families die
So when you deny, spreading lies my mind burns with the pictures left behind
Please look inside my eye and tell six million Earth citizens why
All I want to know is how the hell can you deny?
How the hell can you deny? How the hell can you deny?
How the hell can you deny..."

Excerpt from lyrics of "Deny" - Josh Martinez

NEVER AGAIN.....i wonder......

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:56:00 +0000

Freedom of speech, power of rational debate; Holocaust deniers have long used these core values of some societies to defend their hatred-filled speech. In light of the Danish cartoons row, this was a favorite line in those weeks: “If one is allowed to mock a religion, why shouldn’t one be allowed to deny Holocaust??? Isn’t it freedom of speech for all??”

I’m not going to go through the entire list of arguments for which an equal sign cannot be put between the two…Just think what the consequences of Holocaust denial are. History has proved, in too many occasions, that no matter how absurd an idea, it is sufficient to repeat it loud enough and long enough, for people to gradually start believing that ‘there might be some truth in it’.

It doesn’t matter that the idea can be clearly ripped apart by historical evidence and rational argument. The average person of the world won’t go chasing the source of alternate opinion, on the contrary, will likely want to listen again to the ‘weird, absurd’ theory....and again and again, till it has been around for so long, that he/she gets used with it and accepts it…It’s how political propaganda worked for centuries and how it works even better today with intense media coverage we’re all exposed to..

That’s what’s hideous about Holocaust deniers: they don’t need to prove anything! The don’t need to have any evidence of their statements! For their purpose, it is enough to keep talking, to keep screaming their ‘scientific speech’, till a critical mass of followers and created. And once there, restarting another ‘historical argument’ - “Jews are to blame for all evil of the world and that needs to be eliminated’ is the natural step to follow”…

The idea sounds so absurd in today’s society. Indeed, it would probably take much longer than the same cycle took in previous massacres/pogroms…but, give it a generation change or two, get holocaust deniers platforms like international history conferences for their message, and you’ll see the world showing its dark face once again…

I signed this petition of the Simon Wiesenthal Center against the Iran's Holocaust Denial Conference and sent it across to my friends as well. Not sure if it can change anything, but beside writing this blog and signing that letter, I don’t know what else I can do…

Tom Waits on The Daily Show

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:25:00 +0000

Al Jawala

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 03:24:00 +0000

a great many excellent things arrive in an unexpected / accidental manner...like this creators of twisted, brilliant music, which I got to hear in a chilled-out evening such as only GreenHours in Bucharest can provide...

it had been a short while before hearing it when I was thinking that all the gypsy/east european/klezmer music I'd been listening to felt by now slightly dull, repetitive..

no more of that, because Al Jawala put it all in a huge pot, dressed it up with some funky beats, spiced it up with jazz-a-like inflexions and came up with a wicked new audio dish... add to all this, the occasional presence - along with drums, saxophone and bass - of a didgeridoo (not your average instrument in the east european music) and you know you're in for some wonderful experience..

Of human rights and human shields

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 15:21:00 +0000

Gazans gather to foil air strike

Large numbers of Palestinians have converged on a home in Gaza belonging to a senior member of the ruling Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The move follows reports the Israeli air force was about to attack it, but there has been no confirmation of this.

Similar action on Saturday caused Israel to call off an air strike on the home of another militant leader...

................................................

The violations of human rights in the Palestinian territories are intolerable. I think it's clear that civilians are tremendously exposed...
Louise Arbour (UN High commissioner for human rights)...

This is perversity taken to perfection...when a group of people rushes in and surounds a building about which it has been communicated that will be attacked, those people have become "exposed" to the merciless fury of the Israel army....BUT HANG ON: isn't this the same Israel army that had called 10 minutes before to announce that the house will be bombed specifically so that there would be no people exposed???

I bet there were already 20 cameras ( 19 of which belonging to Hamas staff) ready to record another 'Israeli abuse'...In fact, I'm sure Hamas will soon begin surounding all its leaders homes with innocent civilians, in the hope Israel will pull the trigger...Let's be serious, they'll get tremendously more benefits from the media coverage of the tragedy, rather than from saving the house...

There's something fundamentally wrong...

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 16:37:00 +0000

I wrote my last entry almost 2 months ago, telling the story of a disturbing scene I’d been witness too...having not written anything for so long, I am actually sad that it is something similar that has pushed me now...but, no, it's not similar, it is terribly more sickening and horrible...

One of the perhaps-most-obvious, but for me - very important lessons I’ve learned from my dad is that no excess can ever be good, even when the excess is of possibly the most useful thing/idea/process...etc. I look to Singapore and am more and more convinced that it has fallen into a sad trap: in its desire to curb excesses, to control over-reaction, over-usage, over-expressions, it has become deeply addicted and somehow rotten by the...excess of regulations, law, directives, advices…

Tonight, in one unfortunate incident, I had three 'clear showcases' of this status. We'd been waiting for a cab, when I saw a girl fainting...I approached quickly, but was immediately pushed aside by her friends who put a serious effort in convincing me she was ONLY terribly drunk and had 'not taken anything'...it was more than obvious that is was 'taking lots of something' that had happened to her. I asked them to take her to hospital, but they furiously/in panic refused the idea. It's not hard to figure out why: given the more than draconic (some call them 'savage') punishments given for drugs abuse here, those kids were so scared that they were willing to risk their friend's life rather than take the risk of the terrible punishments.

I went to the taxi I had ordered for myself and asked him to change the destination and take the sick girl instead. He refused, arguing that he had been working for long hours, and was willing only to take orders towards his home. I don't know what is worse to think: that he really didn't care if a person was going to die because of him rushing to bed, or that he simply 'didn't want anything to do' with something 'suspiciously looking'? Both options are equally disgusting...

Coming back angrily to the taxi stand, there's a cab coming, and just when it stops, the people who were first in line, literally jumped towards it, to make sure no one has the time to ask them to give their turn to the kids...Explanation for this behaviour? I don't know, I really can't think of any, except that for one second, when rushing, the guy turned his head towards the sick girl and all his face was saying was " she deserves it"...

Perhaps there's no connection between the 3 reactions, perhaps it's a series of miserable coincidences....perhaps those behaviours were not generated by cautiousness, by fear, by 'civic outrage'...perhaps Singapore's values "Community support and respect for the individual ", "society before self " are in fact engrained in the souls of its citizens, as meant by the patriotic excess of...guidelines...

I’m sorry if the above made no sense at all...I just had to write it so I can fall asleep.

ssshhh...

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 16:14:00 +0000

on the train back home from work...somewhere on my right, close to the end of the train there's a group of high-school kids, laughing, screaming...noisy, but they carry a good feeling of happiness and joy with them..

getting out, there's an error with my ticket card, so I go to the counter to sort it out...in front of me there's a middle aged man, speaking loudly and gesticulating widely - obviously quite angry. I get close to hear his argument and I hear him ramping against the group of kids in the train: "...unnaceptable","..disturbing the citizens.. "..and they were laughing loudly..".

For couple of seconds I feel sorry for the poor customer service man who has to listen to this, but then, raising my eyes, I see him fully composed and with an expression of pure outrage on his face. He interuptes the angry man " just a second, sir", picks up the phone, whispers a few words, and then returns smiley: "it's alright, sir, i've already allerted my colleagues from the next stop, they will be dealt with ".................

i walked home slowly, trying not to disturb anybody...Orwell, Huxley, sorry to tell you guys, but your fictional societies don't frighten me anymore...

" 'Disproportionate' in What Moral Universe? "

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 14:07:00 +0000

The following are extracts from an article published in Washington Post...they express some of my thoughts on the current Israel - Hizbollah conflict, but, obviosuly,the journalist put them more coherently into words than I would have. If anyone wants to read the full article, please let me know and I'll forward it ( I don't have the link).

"What other country, when attacked in an unprovoked aggression across a recognized international frontier, is then put on a countdown clock by the world, given a limited time window in which to fight back, regardless of whether it has restored its own security?

What other country sustains 1,500 indiscriminate rocket attacks into its cities -- every one designed to kill, maim and terrorize civilians -- and is then vilified by the world when it tries to destroy the enemy's infrastructure and strongholds.....?
......

The word that obviates all thinking and magically inverts victim into aggressor is "disproportionate," as in the universally decried "disproportionate Israeli response."
......

The perversity of today's international outcry lies in the fact that there is indeed a disproportion in this war, a radical moral asymmetry between Hezbollah and Israel: Hezbollah is deliberately trying to create civilian casualties on both sides while Israel is deliberately trying to minimize civilian casualties, also on both sides.

In perhaps the most blatant terror campaign from the air since the London Blitz, Hezbollah is raining rockets on Israeli cities and villages. These rockets are packed with ball bearings that can penetrate automobiles and shred human flesh. They are meant to kill and maim. And they do.

But it is a dual campaign. Israeli innocents must die in order for Israel to be terrorized. But Lebanese innocents must also die in order for Israel to be demonized, which is why Hezbollah hides its fighters, its rockets, its launchers, its entire infrastructure among civilians. Creating human shields is a war crime. It is also a Hezbollah specialty.
......

On Wednesday CNN cameras showed destruction in Tyre. What does Israel have against Tyre and its inhabitants? Nothing. But the long-range Hezbollah rockets that have been raining terror on Haifa are based in Tyre. What is Israel to do? Leave untouched the launch sites that are deliberately placed in built-up areas?

Had Israel wanted to destroy Lebanese civilian infrastructure, it would have turned out the lights in Beirut in the first hour of the war, destroying the billion-dollar power grid and setting back Lebanon 20 years. It did not do that. Instead it attacked dual-use infrastructure -- bridges, roads, airport runways -- and blockaded Lebanon's ports to prevent the reinforcement and resupply of Hezbollah. Ten thousand Katyusha rockets are enough. Israel was not going to allow Hezbollah 10,000 more...
......

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 19:17:00 +0000

As raw, brutal and over-simplified as it may be, I do believe that the above picture captures the essence of the two battle approaches...

I hope to find more of the pictures that have been, in numerous occassions, intentionally edited in the international media: the ones originally showing palestinian terrorists hiden and firing from behind walls/baricades, with children in front of the wall and israeli soldiers at the other end, only to be seen in mainstream media later on showing the opposition of the soldiers and the children, but having the palestinian fighters removed from the image.

I find it a bit of a sad joke to say that Israel gets undeserved protective media...If there is one battle that Israel has definitely lost in the last years, it's the media one, where it has been outclassed by Arrafat's perfectly executed strategy of using his own people's human shield as main public speaker.

"Words do not express thoughts very well"

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 13:03:00 +0000

"They always become a little different immediately they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish".

I finished reading "Siddhartha" and after few hours of trying to grasp all that had I had been communicated, I felt the need to capture in writting the thoughts, questions, shocks that the book has given me...

It's impossible though, first and foremost reson being the one mentioned in the above quote. I don't have the writting skills and the mastery of words to write these down in least a decent, coherent form...

So this is just to let you know that i've had a most wonderful and awakening afternoon. It will get even better, I'm sure, once I start it again and discover some of what I've surely mised in the first reading..

"Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish...Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it."

huge, sweden, jazz, soccer,overwhelming, paraguay, cheering ...

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 17:10:00 +0000

Going to my first world cup game was quite an astonishing moment...i've been to soccer games before, but no way was I prepared for a 72 000 people full house olympiastadium...add to the equation that more than 50 000 were swedish supporters and you begin to get an idea of the spirit that was there..

in that sea of hectiness though, there was an island of pure chill-out, brought through the purple pass around my neck - giving access to the hospitality village...some drinks, some jazz..

couldn't stay there for too long though, as the vibe and high pulse were in the stadium...after a short paraguayan affiliation, and some too calm moments at my seat, I became swedish...and from there onwards it was one big shout, one tense moment, one kick-ass evening...definitely to repeat...South Africa, here I come...

Geniuses don't shave

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 16:19:00 +0000

this is one of them:

a member of The Cat Empire band, he is one of the most astonishing musicians I've seen and heard: tremendous, surreal voice, and utermost brilliant trompet playing skills, all spiced up with one funky stage performance style..

yeap,that's about it for now...I'll go shave, need to get to the office soon...

back-stage...

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Mon, 29 May 2006 16:13:00 +0000

6 years

noreply@blogger.com (Albert) — Wed, 24 May 2006 15:36:00 +0000

the last time I did a role in a theatre play was almost exactly 6 years ago(not counting a short 2-lines role in one of Erwin's exams)...I had finished that show with a promise that as soon as I start university, I'll find an amateur theatre group to join and continue what had been to utermost wonderful experience of my life..

well, nothing goes by the script, so that didn't happen...new exciting things, ideas, opportunties...somehow it seemed a waste keeping doing the same as before...

this year I finally pulled my sh*t together and joined a theatre club here in singapore..ok, it's not the best of plays, definitely not among the greatest performances, in fact it's pretty much what I don't like in acting - cheap, quick comedy....BUT, but today, after 6 years, I'VE BEEN ON A STAGE AGAIN...

the biggest truth in the world for me now is the one that says that you never know how much you miss something until you have it/do it again....

I've been a fool...I love theatre, I love acting, and spending 6 years of my life without something I care for so much is just stupid...

lesson learned.Solemnly promise to myself not to let that happen again...and next one, I'm not wearing any tights, nor funny hats..