get over it, it's unfortunate

So I was chewing on some Genoa salami, after not having been able to decide if I should print out another copy for my dissertation tomorrow morning. It's nearly 90 pages, and my computer can't even handle opening the files, and my printer is broken. I'd have to go to Kinko's on broadway to get this thing printed. And that's a pain. Or go all the way to UBC again, and feel guilty as I use the student office's printer. Hm.

Anyway, so out of sheer boredom I was reading an article on the IHT website. Something about Korea and Japan feuding over a couple islands worth millions for its natural resources, and carrying much sentimental value for Koreans who suffered under Japanese colonialism.

This reminded me of that movie coming out in a few days, weeks, not sure--the one about 9/11.

How so? Well, if you can only tell from the title of this blog. That's right, people, get over it.

I know, it's kinda harsh if you consider all those families who lost their loved ones, the familial ancestors who suffered so much pain under colonial rule, the atrocities, the violence, etc.

But -- no apology is going to make that kind of pain go away. No public apology by any government or organization will ever heal the wounds of that magnitude.

So now--you've got half the world full of people who hate the other half because of the things a handful of them did. Soon, they will retaliate. And then, neither side will accept a simple word of apology. Then what? An entire world full of hating people. Completely blinded by their grief, their hatred, their irrationality over the death of a loved one --which, by the way, was an unfortunate consequence of a long history of hatred.

So why don't you share that island? Why don't you, if you've lost someone you've loved, think about that mother or wife in another part of the world, grieving for the exact same reason? Why make a movie about an event that idolize those who vanished with the airplane, that heroicize the unfortunate victims and demonize the equally-unfortunate hijackers. Why equally-unfortunate? Because they were as blinded by hatred as you hating people are now. They weren't born to be hijackers. They were born to be people, but born in an unfortunate situation, and made unfortunate choices--probably sometimes out of self-initiative, other times out of threat, left with no other option--throughout their lives. Not everyone's born into a family and get to eat everyday and receive an education that informs them about what's going on in the rest of the world.

Which is why they were blinded by hatred in the first place. If you had no idea that there's half a world of people going through the same grievances, the same agonies of life, if you didn't know any better and believed that the world was set up against you, then yes, it kind of does make sense that they would be blinded by hatred, doesn't it?

This isn't to justify the wrongdoings that have been committed. It doesn't make anything right to say that well, they were born into shitty situations and unfortunately made the wrong decisions. But it doesn't make your hatred a right either.

So come on people, get a rational head on your necks and think, for once!