Daily Archives: January 9, 2021

About a year ago, press conferences and news reports were grabbing everyones attention.

Politicians and health experts were lining up to explain a crisis. A new virus was detected. It was quickly defined as contagious and deadly. It was also defined as preventable by washing your hands, covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing and stay home when sick. The advice was simple. Remember what you were taught in kindergarten and you will be fine.

As time moved on, so did the restrictions. It became politically incorrect to call it a Chinese virus, even though it was first identified in China. And yes, there were reports of people using the virus as an excuse to display racial bias against people of Asian descent.

Along the way, many questions were left unanswered from the national level down. Worse yet, this has become the golden idol in a sense. There is an implied script that must be followed. Ask questions, but when the appointed person answers, that persons response is absolute truth (as redundant as the statement is. Truth is truth and truth cannot deny truth.). Anyone who questions the response is viewed with the shock of watching the one human with enough brass to smack God himself.

A point to consider: doesnt it seem odd that businesses are limited, or worse, and then when the workers, the people hustling to pay their rent and mortgage, the government debates how much to give them? Doesnt it seem like the response is out of balance? Take care of the sick people, but dont make people sick. Dont assume people are sick, unless that is an individuals best response in regard to his or her personal health.

This virus is more deadly to some than to others; the same as with pneumonia, the flu, strep, a bad cold The list goes on. It doesnt take a medical professional to understand that. Some people have internal challenges even they dont know about until a new player enters the environment. Do my health challenges mean someone else has to close or limit their business? Or for that matter, anyone else?

Many people accuse this COVID crusade of being a power play, a step at unveiling a socialist conversion of the U.S. I often laugh at the comments highlighting the person complaining about capitalism while checking social media on the latest smart phone costing more than his/her parents first car and drinking a $6 coffee drink. Is it socialism, or is it more of an oligarchy, a system where the real power and decisions belong to a few? Believe it or not, the American form of government was designed to keep the oligarchs at bay. But it only works if people stay involved in the system. It isnt easy, and sometimes it is abrasive, especially when confronting people who have developed a way to benefit by the system.

So now that were in 2021, stay home and take care of yourself when youre sick. Follow an alternate work schedule if you can. And above all, be one that doesnt let the nations political system catch an incurable virus.

We are still in an environment where fear can win, if we let it. Make the choice to live each day deliberately as Henry David Thoreau would say, regardless if you have a day or a century of life to enjoy.

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What's Next - The Sidney Sun-Telegraph - Sidney Sun Telegraph

In this brand-new year, lets pump up the positivity and raise a glass to a beautiful 2021. Beautiful, in every way. In a real way.While a pale pink pearly dawn breaks over the distant horizon, I find myself singing an old Hindi film song: Dekh tere sansar ki halat kya ho gayi BhagwanKitna badal gaya insaan Its an evergreen song from the 1954 film Nastik (The Atheist), a crime drama written and directed by the irrepressible I S Johar. We all asked god exactly this question in the year just gone we urged Him to take a good, hard look at the state of the earth, while we lamented on how mankind had changed. It has changed irrevocably, and one fervently hopes, for the better. Since most of us had no choice but to stay cold sober this New Years Eve, unless of course you were Bollywood love birdscelebrating in Ranthambore, our thoughts turned to ourselves.

By default, this has been a year designed for introspection. Given the universal state of despair and panic, as the pandemic raged on and on and on, people started on a journey that was entirely unplanned a long, tumultuous one within their own selves. They arrived at places they did not know existed. Speaking personally, it was one hell of a ride! What started off as a distraction to keep dark, morbid Covid thoughts at bay, turned into an adventure, an exploration scary and thrilling at the same time. Not sure how many of you experienced insignificance and smallness, but I did.

Compared to the scale of global mass devastation and so many deaths my life shrank and shrank in a good way. In the larger scheme of things, we all figured how very inconsequential our pedestrian concerns were. A heightened state of awareness generated mixed feelings anxiety on one hand, and liberation on the other. We were freed from the pettiness of our daily insecurities. We asked ourselves tough questions, and all those trivial preoccupations of the past slunk away guiltily, leaving us feeling that much lighter.

My biggest learning involved waste. Waste in a larger context. Time became the most precious commodity who knew how much time was left for each one of us? I became possessive and frugal about my waking hours. Figuring out how best to maximise the one resource (time) that cannot be either bought, borrowed or stretched, made me consciously cut, cut, cut. We all became great editors of our own narratives. We ruthlessly chopped non-essentials this included people. So many important but tricky decisions that had been kept on hold for decades became crystal clear as we pruned all the annoyances and irritations, the blocks and barriers. Time became an extravagance, a luxury beyond any other. Yes, there was loss so many of us dealt with the deaths of people we loved. Memories started playing games, as did a surfeit of information. How much more could we possibly absorb?

No matter who propounded which theory, the virus was one step ahead of us all. The French have a lovely expression, cest la vie. It is mandatory to shrug while uttering these words. It is true, life is what it is, what it has always been, what it will continue to be. We poor creatures will have to adapt and change. Why not? A hard lesson has been learnt by the world. The vaccine will be here shortly. It will provide just one of the answers for our survival, not all. We will certainly beat the virus, and any mutant that shows up. What is equally imperative is for us to change our wretched ways and think anew.

Enough has been said about the environment and how we have abused the very matter that sustains us and nurtures life. If we dont understand the meaning of the word respect now, we will have learnt absolutely nothing during the pandemic. But we are not that stupid, right? We are like cockroaches we survive! And like cockroaches, we crawl out of dark spaces when required to find food, find partners, mate, reproduce. We are hard to crush, even when a heavy boot lands on us. During these past months, when everything appeared pretty hopeless, I channelled my inner cockroach and scurried about in my restricted space, confident that I would make it to the other side. The tragedy being, so many didnt.

To all those who lost loved ones, and to all our courageous frontline workers, 2020 belongs to you. We are alive, thanks to you. Its a debt that can never be fully repaid. We shall go forth from this point onwards, stronger, wiser, healthier the journey has just begun. Heres to a gorgeous new year! I am singing Michael Jacksons immortal anthem as I write this: Heal the worldmake it a better placefor you and for me and the entire human race there are people dyingif you care enough for the living make it a better place for you and for me.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

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Loss, despair marked 2020. Let healing be the hallmark of 2021 - The Times of India Blog

After a shockingly good premiere episode that saw Disco Ball unmasked as Ice-T, its time to see the next 5 celebrities that will be hitting the dance floor on The Masked Dancer (Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CTV).

Given what happened in Washington on Wednesday, many of the judges chose to abstain from live-tweeting the episode.

The sloth kicked off the night by dancing to What I Like About You by The Romantics. In his intro video, we learned that the Sloth is anything but lazy and has worked hard to get where he is today. There were also references to a doctor, the number 13, a bad accident, and a Mickey Mouse operation. Sloth also used toothpaste marked GLEE. Immediately, we think it is likely someone who has ties to both Glee and Netflixs 13 Reasons Why?.

After a marginal performance, the performer offered his Word Up! clue (where the dancer is forced to say one word in their real voice) and chose broadway.

Paula picked up on the idea that the dancer made an L on his forehead using his fingers (used a lot on Glee) and this confirmed to her that the dancer was Matthew Morrison. Brian Austin Green focused on the doctors coat and the Mickey Mouse Club reference and thought it might be a pro dancer like Britney Spears ex, Kevin Federline. Ashley Tisdale seemed intrigued by the Broadway clue and thought it could be Jason Derulo who suffered an accident while filming Cats.

Next up was the lanky Ice Cube. We learn from his intro video that he lived a privileged life as a child and that while his mother worked at or with the White House. There were also a couple of unclear (at least to us) references to both corn and ballerina shoes which arent the first things we would consider pairing. The biggest clues were the numerous references to climate change and the periodic table, indicating that the star was likely some sort of activist.

Ice Cube decided to shake his groove thing by dancing to Postmodern Jukeboxs Bad Romance. Gotta say, he looked a little stiff and we immediately had flashbacks to Ice-Ts moves last week.

For his Word Up! choice, the dancer said that he was a 90s icon. Hmm. Ken immediately believed the dancer was Bill Nye, The Science Guy. Brian Austin Green mused that it could be a Guns N Roses band member like Axl Rose or Slash before finally settling on the host of Politically Incorrect, Bill Maher. Paula Abdul went with CNNs Anderson Cooper.

Zebra was up next and his intro video started with a slate that mentioned Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho. We also learned that Zebra has fallen out of the limelight and grew up in a rough neighborhood. The number 11 was featured along with a car that had the letters OS embossed on it. The Zebra also wore a medal around his neck in the video. Hmm. Your guess is as good as ours. The video also said that there was only one direction for him to go, that he was ready to become larger than life, and that the president knew his name (although, we arent entirely sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing).

Our initial thoughts were that he might be a member of a boy band like New Kids on the Block or the Backstreet Boys (Larger Than Life anyone?). That was before we heard the song choice of Magalenha by Sergio Mendes.

After a wild performance, Zebra said comeback as his Word Up! clue prompting Brian to believe that it might be Enrique Iglesias (remember him?!), Marc Anthony, or Ricky Martin. Ken was torn between Pitbull and Kevin Richardson from the Backstreet Boys.

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Cotton Candy was up next and her demure presence was a sharp contrast to her rivals. Her intro video put an emphasis on breakfast and the idea that she was a perfectionist who moved in with a new family. Other clues included her feeling homesick along with cupcakes that had big lips on them. In a first, we also got to see some rehearsal footage where Cotton Candy fell from a hula hoop that was hung from the ceiling (an almost too obvious homage to P!nk). She seemed to pull her best Taylor Swift impression by shaking it off and moving forward.

When the music hit, our initial thought seemed to be bang on as Cotton Candy chose Glitter in the Air by P!nk as her track. We also appreciated her tenacity as she got back up on the hula hoop and twirled down to the stage before completing a majestic slow dance that confirmed the idea that she was a trained dancer of some kind. After offering up primetime as her Word Up! clue in a relatively high-pitched voice, the dancer waited for what the judges would say. Paula Abdul thought that it was Jenna Dewan. Brian stated the obvious and went with P!nk. Ken and Ashley both thought that it wasDancing With The Stars alum Julianne Hough.

The final performer of the evening was another tall dancer. Moth easily had the best costume of the night and her video was also the most interesting. The dancer behind the mask admitted that moths often dont seek out the spotlight and that it just happens to draw them in. She said that this was a metaphor for her life. There was a box of clothes featured as one of the main clues (Tidying Up With Marie Kondo anyone?) We then learn that the moth lived a regular life until she made headlines with the president and suffered through a traumatic experience. Come on, this one is too easy. It has to be Monica Lewinsky right? We also think that it could be Fox News host Megyn Kelly as well.

The dance itself had a very country flair which is to be expected when the song is Boot Scootin Boogie by Brooks and Dunn. The performance was good but its hardly fair to the Moth as she had to follow Cotton Candys breathtaking aerial display. And yes, that is a sentence we never thought we would ever write.

Moth chose inspired as her Word Up! clue and the judges agreed with our initial assessment. Ashley thought it was Megyn Kelly. Paula and Brian both went with Monica Lewinsky (a guess that the Moth didnt seem too happy about, indicating that the obvious choice might not be the right one). The Moths clear denial caused Paula to reassess her choice, choosing Donald Trumps ex, Marla Maples, instead.

While not as obvious as last weeks, Ice Cube was voted the audiences least favourite. The judges then made their final guesses but not before a few last minute clues.

Ice Cube confirmed that millions of people had seen him on TV, that he had a big social media following and that he had more than a speck of white hair.

Time for the final guesses with Ashley going for former Vice-President Al Gore. Ken suggested that the dollar bills could be a reference to the dancers first name and doubled down on his earlier guess of Bill Nye.

Paula decided to change her guess, switching from Anderson Cooper to Tim Dunn from Project Runway. Brian did not divert from his initial path and went all in on Bill Maher.

It turns out Ice Cube was Bill Nye, The Science Guy and that Ken was right all along! (And if youve seen any Masked Singer, you know thats a true rarity.)

WatchThe Masked DancerWednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CTV.

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Ice Cube melts away on 'The Masked Dancer' - etalk

Donald Trump has fallen far from the President who enjoyed a lavish State Visit to the UK last year.

Fourteen days before he is booted from office, he reached a new low by telling Capitol rioters we love you.

The Presidents baseless claims the election was stolen from him earned a rebuke from the UK.

Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, said Trumps comments directly led to the violence by his supporters in Washington.

She told the BBC: So far hes failed to condemn that violence, and that is completely wrong.

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Ms Patels condemnation was notable partly because it is so rare.

In the past her fellow Tory ministers and backbenchers have cosied up to the President to win his favour - despite warnings at the time about his character.

Even on Wednesday night, when he condemned the violence via Twitter, Boris Johnson made no mention of Donald Trump.

Ms Patel insisted Britain should look forward, not backwards, as Joe Biden enters the White House.

The fact of the matter is they are now transitioning to a new President, she said.

This isnt about going back and reflecting on personal relationships.

But for the sake of argument, what would we find if we did? Here are seven times Tory MPs were more friendly than they needed to be to the US President.

The Prime Minister used to be blunt about Donald Trump.

In 2015 he accused him of stupefying ignorance for saying parts of London are so radicalised that the police are afraid for their own lives.

Perhaps for diplomatic reasons, Mr Johnson cooled off on the criticism when both men were in government. But critics say he went too far in trying to appease the President - who lavished praised on him and called him 'Britain Trump'.

As Foreign Secretary 2018 he even suggested Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize.

He said: If he can fix North Korea and the Iran nuclear deal then I dont see why hes any less of a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize than Barack Obama, who got it before he even did anything.

The PM of course had history with Barack Obama - who he branded part-Kenyan and accused of an ancestral dislike of the British empire in 2016.

As he hoped for a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, the PM repeatedly stopped short of criticising Trump directly, even in his worst controversies - and even when it was clear he had lost the 2020 election.

Needless to say, the much-hoped-for Brexit trade deal with the US hasnt materialised yet.

Michael Gove, rather than a full-time journalist, won the first UK interview with Trump after his election.

It later emerged Rupert Murdoch had sat in the room, amid claims the newspaper mogul had a hand in setting up the meeting.

The write-up in The Times praised the incoming Presidents intelligence, saying: Mr Trumps number-rich analysis of defence spending reflects a businessmans ability to cut through jargon to get to the essentials of a case.

Mr Gove also called Trump the master of the profit and loss accounts and a determined negotiator, and they talked about their shared Scottish heritage.

The interview asked Trump about his Muslim ban, which hed stood by weeks earlier, but the answer didnt make it into the final edit of Mr Goves write-up.

To cap it all, the Tory MP then posed with the President-elect with his thumbs up.

Unfortunately for him the friendly tactics didnt work - as when he ran for Tory leader two and half years later, Trump said: I dont know him.

Now Commons Leader, Jacob Rees-Mogg repeatedly sprang to Trumps defence as a backbencher.

Asked in 2016 if he would vote for Trump, he replied: I would almost certainly vote Republican if I were in America. That was nine months after the President demanded a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

Two years later Mr Rees-Mogg urged MPs to lay out the reddest of red carpets for the President and treat him with the greatest respect and courtesy.

He also took up Trumps claim that he was Americas Mr Brexit.

In a 2018 article headlined President Trump will be our greatest ally after Brexit, Mr Rees-Mogg wrote: His election depended upon similar factors to those that led to Brexit.

He appealed to voters left behind by the metropolitan elite and he exudes confidence about his own nation and a determination not to be a manager of decline, which also inspires the Brexiteers.

The Tory MP for Romford gave fuel to Trumps baseless voter fraud claims with an image he tweeted the day after the US election.

The MPs account shared a crude meme showing Trump as the American Eagle, wrestling back the flag from Biden who was depicted in the form of communism rising from the dead.

It happened after Trump went on TV to demand legal votes stop being counted.

The Tory MP for Morley and Outwood didnt hold back in her enthusiasm for the US President.

When he was mooted for the Nobel Peace Prize she tweeted: "Surely even critics of @realDonaldTrump can recognise his good work in this area.

She shouted "you're welcome Mr President!" down from her office window at anti-Trump protesters while playing with a nodding-head toy of the President during his June 2019 visit to the UK.

"We should roll out the red carpet and welcome President Trump," she said at the time.

And she urged him to "win the election" after he was struck down with coronavirus.

Of course wishing his good health is what any sensible person would do. But urging him to win the election, two days after he refused to condemn white supremacists in a TV debate, is a little different.

Shipley MP Philip Davies is another backbencher who was enthusiastic about the US President in the past.

In 2016, after the President called for a ban on Muslims entering the US, MPs debated banning Trump from entering the UK in retaliation.

But Mr Davies insisted: "He is not a serious threat of harm to our society in any way. The uproar is largely because he is rich, white and politically incorrect, and that, to me, is really the crux of the issue."

He added: Lots of my constituents agree with what Donald Trump said, whether I like it or not. [Should they] be expelled from the country as a result of their views?

In the same year he added: I think that we should celebrate politicians who stand up and say things that are unpopular and controversial.

Theresa May was partly a prisoner of her office - she had to cosy up to Trump for the sake of diplomacy.

But no-one forced her to invite him for a State Visit just a week after his 2017 inauguration - a move that prompted furious protests and a petition that hit a million supporters within days.

World leaders are not automatically offered state visits. Barack Obama was afforded one in 2011 and George Bush had one in 2003, but no other US Presidents had one during the Queens reign.

Mrs May stood by her decision in the face of angry protests and the full State Visit eventually happened in 2019. But she may well have regretted it.

Donald Trump used another visit in 2018 to put a wrecking ball to her Brexit deal, calling her foolish and saying: I actually told Theresa May how to do it but she didnt agree, she didnt listen to me.

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7 times Tories cosied up to Donald Trump despite the warning signs - Mirror Online

When we moved into our neighbourhood a decade ago, it was a quiet and elegant area with wide streets and gap-toothed by the occasional vacant lot that multiple car families and visitors could use to park their vehicles.

Over time, the children in the hood grew up and people moved in and out but the essence of the area remained unruffled.

However, in one aspect the surroundings have changed and Im going to put it out here at the risk of sounding politically incorrect.

We have seen a marked increase in animals and birds in the area pets as well as strays and the public endorsement of the practice of feeding strays means that there are feeding stations all over the place.

One household keeps out trays of stale bread pieces for pigeons and another puts up a regular banquet for the cats in the street all nine or 10 of them.

A couple of houses down the line, a kindly lady shares her pet dogs treats with a steadily increasing pack of stray dogs.

In between these feeding times, the animals romp around and hunt for snacks in the municipal garbage bins.

And then there are pet-owners who walk their dogs and have decided to ignore the October 2020 Capital Trustees Board suggestion that the dog-owners must scoop the poop and not be allowed to leave public places dirty and unhygienic.

It is a practice that is followed in some of the most fashionable places from Hyde Park to the Champs Elysees, so why not the parks and streets of Bahrain?

Now, I am not a pet owner and while not a passionate animal-lover, I do vigorously defend animal rights.

I fail to understand though, why my neighbourhood must pay the price for the animal-feeding instincts of people who themselves dont have so many pets. Those pigeon-feeders and cat-feeders are happily pet-free and the feeder of canines has just one happy dog to care for in her own space.

All these people inflict their need to feed these creatures on the neighbourhoods public space without taking responsibility for the animals. Want to feed 10 cats?

Sure, but do so in the privacy of your garden and not in the street in front of my house. And why not contribute to a neutering programme for these kitties so that they will not multiply every year and over-run the block?

As for pigeons, I think there must be a law against dumping stale food in public places for birds or any creatures for that matter.

The way some restaurants simply trash the small roundabouts and pavements nearby under the pretext of feeding the birds is bad for public health.

Who are they kidding when they throw away yesterdays smelly biryani leftovers and say the pigeons love the meal?

The menace of stray dogs is often over-exaggerated there is a difference between strays and feral packs but the line dividing them is thin indeed.

If I wanted to share my life with pets, I would have gotten myself one and I feel quite put upon that I have to now swerve my car or walk gingerly around prowling cats and dogs in a street that originally beguiled me with its monastic quiet.

Im seriously thinking of starting an awareness campaign against the irresponsibility of making your street a zoo without checks and balances.

Suggestions are welcome.

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Comment: Help! There's a zoo in my street - Gulf Digital News