After a pretty stressful week at school last week, I feel the urge to find inspiration to "boost" my determination levels up. For the first time in two weeks, I finally found time to sit down and catch up with the rest of the world through New York Times.
"Germany-18 year Old Face Charges of Terrorism Over Internet Videos" by Michael Slackman, NYT, 5 November 2010- An 18-year-old man was arrested in northwest Germany on Friday on charges that he posted three videos on the Internet in October threatening terrorist attacks unless a convicted terrorist serving a 12-year prison term was released, the police said. The police said the suspect, whom they would not identify because he might be tried as a juvenile, uploaded three crude yet threatening videos onto YouTube. He also downloaded bomb-making manuals from the Internet, but was unable to make explosives because he did not have money for materials. In the videos, the man hid his face while claiming to speak on behalf of what he called the German mujahedeen. He demanded the release from prison of Daniel Schneider, the leader of the so-called Sauerland Cell, whose members were convicted in March 2010 for planning attacks on United States military installations in Germany. The police said that there was no evidence that the suspect was linked with Al Qaeda or any terrorist groups but that he had become a dangerous longer.
Whatever happened to ordinary teenage thoughts? It makes me wonder who in the world at the at of 18 would think of things other than studying and making money. The extremity of religious cults and beliefs drive thoughts other than seeking comfort, understanding and hope from a higher power from above.
Their brains and thoughts are completely influenced somehow by their exposure to other people's beliefs. I believe religion should not be "acquired" through the preaching of another person who so calls "represent" a higher power above. How does that system work? Truth be told, if people are so susceptible to an infinite number of ways of interpretation, religious believers should not be prone to falling for other people's interpretation of "God's Words".
Let's look at it this way. Language is another manifestation of complexity that determines our understanding of concepts, phrases, words, instructions, etc. Think of a word. Then think of how many different meanings it could be interpreted by people. Ever wondered why each word in the dictionary has more than ONE meaning?(with the exceptions of grammatical components) And even then, the dictionary does not state all the meanings of words because we have something called a brain that tends to work in mysterious ways, seeing things differently and that is what I define individualism to be. Dictionaries provide the definitions of individual words that are chronologically organized according to their alphabetical order. Now think of how many ways a sentence could be interpreted. Now think on the scale of a passage, now a short story, a novel, a book. Now consider religious phrases, texts and books. Now add in the complexity of different languages. I think you basically got my message. This series of complexity could go on and on and on.
Let's throw in statistics shall we, since we seem to be heading to that direction anyways. Recall probability? Permutations? Combinations? I think language and math seem to be running parallel in this context, no?
Getting back to the topic at hand. What are 18 year old these days thinking about? Over the past week while being stressed out over assignments and papers, I had to somehow find a source of inspiration. I decided to look up a story of a little girl named Kenadie. She was born with an unusual condition called primordial dwarfism. She is my inspiration. Youtube or Google her up, and you will see why I am amazed by her courage. It's funny how I found out about her too, they were showing a documentary about her on TLC while I was working out at the gym.
Why can't 18 year old teenagers or any teenager as a matter of fact think of how lucky they are and how unfortunate some people can be but still be able to start each day with a smile on their face without a single thought of suicidal attempts or terrorism or revenge. The thought of knowing someone with disabilities can go on normally in life without the added stress of worrying about the society's perceptions, opinions, beliefs, etc. makes my crying over silly assignments seem relatively insignificant.
I hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween celebrations! I'll have a personal update on my life so far as soon as I get another breather.
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