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Saturday, Jan 12, 2008 - 00:37 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

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Restarts and Reviews

Semester Seven of my university life is due to begin in three days, and out of nowhere I'm a fourth-year senior. Thing about life is, it goes on. Began exercising the ol' printing skills by committing the entire GE1001E E-Readings list to paper, all 149 double-sided sheets of it, yesterday. Ring-bound the lot today. Feels nice to get a jump on things for once.

The articles appear rather... eclectic. Starting with "imaginative geographies", it takes the scenic route through multinational firms, globalization in the 21st century, popular music in Singapore (beats me), a case study of Pasir Ris and of McDonalds' in Beijing. Not a lot of physical geography, I gather, judging from the few maps sparsely spread out. Don't recall too many of the details from secondary school anyway.

Here, I have to commend the Reserve Books/Readings cum E-Reserves staff of the NUS Central Library. A major gripe of the E-Readings system is that the PDF files are often downloadable exactly once by each account - with download being defined as clicking on the link, never mind if the student accidentally cancels instead of saving, or if the transfer is interrupted. The accidental cancel happened to me, but the nice people over at the library reset my permissions for that particular file after just half an hour of my notifying them. Bliss.

I don't see too much logic in that restriction. The first explanation that jumped to mind was the conservation of bandwidth, but selected files are available to be read online with a Flash reader prohibiting saving, so that shouldn't be the case, not that I see the majority of students continually hammering the server with requests either. Keeping people to one download simply annoys without contributing towards enforcement of copyright laws, as the files can be copied limitlessly once on another computer anyway. Sort of as the detective says in Around the World in Eighty Days, "...Passports are only good for annoying honest folks, and aiding in the flight of rogues." Are we going down this road?

Can't say the same about service from my web host, sadly. The site went down for half a day yesterday (despite them finally managing to invoice me - their billing form does not recognize the existence of non-American territories), and the recent reviews I've got of them are universally negative. It may be time to look for a new host soon.

And on the subject of reviews, I'm due for a few. A trip to Borders a few weeks ago saw me return with some books, for while they are probably available from the library, some small support of the authors appeared in order, much as music fans do purchase CDs instead of just pirating songs all the time. The 3 for 2 offer also helped. Ladies and gentlemen, a hand for Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (which has already been referenced in a previous post - The Seeing Tongue is an example of stuff covered in their blog), The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and The Afghan by Frederick Forsyth. I will leave the former two for a more propitious occasion.

About The Afghan. What can I say? I've read a number of Forsyth tour de forces, and his newest offering doesn't quite compare. The back cover trumpets praise from the Daily Mail proclaiming that it is his "finest novel since the Jackal, a story as fresh as tomorrow's headlines...", which is to me quite unbelievable. His fiction debut, The Day of The Jackal was quite incomparable (as is conceded by the rather generous critic), but the earlier followups like The Dogs of War and The Devil's Alternative were gems in their own right.

Now, recycle the main character of the so-so The Fist of God, accidentally "volunteered" for a potentially lethal mission for a second time by his flabby bigmouthed academic brother (who perhaps secretly resents his tanned, macho military sibling a little). Mix in a dash of fashionable Arabic terrorism and culture, but never to the immersive standards of Jackal, and continue with an F-100 jet engine crashing by pure chance into the prison compound wall of the titular Afghan to allow the story to drag a little longer with a less than challenging manhunt, before the big finale which unfortunately feels directly upgraded from The Devil's Alternative with additional improbable premises.

Verdict: Not one of his better works. Beg, borrow, buy his earlier ones.

For the other book I'll cover today, I have to thank my cousin (who has made it a habit of borrowing Marvel/DC titles too). It's Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster by David Icke (website). Icke is an... interesting personality who has gone from playing goalie for Coventry City, to public speaker (though the footballer to after-dinner speaker career path is a traditional one) and fantastic conspiracy theorist. Even if you take his writing as pure fiction, they're worth it for entertainment value alone.

Though the book contains countless unsavoury allegations against "Boy" George Bush and his gang, it did get into the National Library system (which proves that censorship in Singapore is a relative affair after all), and thus it should not be too unreasonable to discuss, within bounds, its content.

Icke began by asserting that many of the world's rulers are of a common ancient bloodline, and are aided by the Illuminati, whose influence it is said can be seen on the backbone currency of the world - in the form of the Eye of Providence on the United States One Dollar Bill. Supposedly, the Illuminati goddess Queen Semiramis is a dead ringer for the Statue of Liberty too, though on the somewhat weak evidence of a single image on a coin.


At the very least they have a cool ambigram logo (Source)

The higher levels (above and beyond the 33rd degree of the Scottish Rite) of the Freemasons are held to be part of the Illuminati, though with the rather junior fifth degree already titled "Perfect Master" one may see why some Masons are satisfied with their rank. "Sublime Master Ejected" (11th degree)? "Knight of the Rose Croix of HRDM" (18th degree)? "Child of the Tabernacle" (23rd degree)? "General Inspector Inquisitor Commander" (31st degree)? Where do they come up with such things? I sense a game-background opportunity. As an aside, Freakonomics mentions that the downfall of the Ku Klux Klan was partially due to having its secrets widely exposed.

Supposedly these Illuminati dipped their feet into all forms of human belief, of course including religious engineering - ".. Religions have created rigid belief systems that should never be questioned. They have imposed those beliefs through fear, indoctrination, isolation, and the mass genocide of non-believers...". Let it be said that Icke at least throws some sensible tidbits in. Icke's take on money is also non-complimentary. "The Illuminati financial sting... is based on creating money that doesn't exist and lending it to people and business in return for interest... If even a fraction of the people who theoretically have money deposited in a bank went today to remove it, the banks would slam the door in half an hour because they don't have it. Money in the bank is a myth, another confidence trick..." Which on the face of things is indeed true. Banks do lend most of what they have, which when deposited in other banks - or even itself - can then be used to lend further.

The next few chapters go over the "Bush crime family", covering issues like George Bush's alleged "complex" relationships with the Bin Ladens, Saudis, Taliban and others, which has been aired in more popular media such as Fahrenheit 9/11; His "white horse" squeaking into a cushy domestic National Guard assignment (despite sucky pilot aptitude test scores) instead of taking his chances in Vietnam like the rest of the guys; His membership of the shady Skull and Bones Society at Yale (with real skulls, Icke says); His grandfather's funding of Hitler, and his own funding of Saddam (though "enemy of my enemy is my friend of convenience" deals are probably common politically).

Following on, criticism of the Gulf War and indiscriminate accidental slaughter of civilians and mixed convoys in turkey shoots, with the sage observation that the definition of "war crimes" depends a lot on which side of the war one is on. Less substantiated are the accusations of mind control and child abuse, as Icke does himself few favours by following up reasonable statements with close to lunatic ones. But that's his style, I infer. Blah blah blah Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and Richard Armitage, blah blah connections to the Queen of England and Tony Blair (Bush being buddy-buddy with the latter does seem very likely), Oklahoma City bombing Pearl Harbor blah blah... you get the idea.

Then he gets to the meat, which is 9/11. It's long and meandering, but there are several main lines of questioning. Some, like the "fact" that some of the hijackers are in fact still alive, or why the hijackers crashed into the section of the Pentagon undergoing reinforcement (chance, insufficient skill or simply ignorance?) are quite weak. Others, like:

  • How NORAD with its mission to ensure "air defense of the airspace of Canada and the United States" even against presumably much speedier ballistic missiles, could have been so incompetent that they could not intercept any of four relatively slow-flying commercial aircraft for well over an hour?
  • Especially, how Flight 77 managed to circle around back to Washington D.C. and get all the way to presumably the most protected building in the world, the Pentagon, taking 45 minutes after the first WTC hit, while fighters were belatedly scrambled from Langley some 200km away when Andrews Air Force Base was just about 16km from the Pentagon? (Supposedly the official website describing the duties of the 113rd Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard at Andrews was taken down after 9/11)?
  • How the box-cutter, fake-bomb-armed terrorists so successfully took over on all four planes without the pilots being at least able to send a single hijack warning to air controllers, which would presumably have allowed them to be easily tracked and if needed destroyed to avert the greater disaster (as is usual procedure)?
  • How the terrorists were able to fly the planes manually with training specific for hobby aircraft like Piper Cubs and Cessnas, and execute expert maneuvers such as safely dropping nearly 2km in less than three minutes and keeping on a perfect flat path into the not-so-tall Pentagon?


    • Bush the Bibliophile (Source)

  • The infamous "pet goat reading" of Bush even after being informed of an incident that would probably be the defining moment of any presidency? (Actually this one may not have a sinister explanation - Bush may be just plain dumb)
  • The very first ever collapse of a steel-frame structure (WTC 7) from mere fire, and the very fast sale of the structural steel debris precluding them from being examined as evidence? (Icke regrettably ups the stakes by suggesting directed energy-beam weapons)
Are more convincing. By the facts alone, it appears that America's multibillion-dollar home defence system was either criminally negligent, or there is more than meets the eyes. Nothing else. Though Icke may be exaggerating on many of the details (with large swaths of the book unsubstantiated), and massaging them too (such as when he raises the question of why there were extremely many put options on the affected airlines on September 6 and 7, which leaves the possibility that the distribution may not be exceptional if considered over a slightly longer time span), some points really do not add up.

Icke really goes off the beaten track in the final chapters, as he claims, among other things, that:

  • Aspartame foods and fluoride water and toothpaste are meant to make people stupid, stupid enough to, say, vote Bush
  • Compulsory vaccination is a prelude to compulsory microchipping of the populace
  • The official death toll of Hurricane Andrew was artificially surpressed to 26, when thousands of mobile homes and apartments were destroyed, and in fact over 5000 were killed and secretly disposed of (this depends on how much warning was given and how effective the evacuation attempts were, I guess)
  • Most world rulers are of a part-human, part-reptilian Nefilim bloodline created long long ago when they first interbred, with "corrupted DNA" (Wow)
  • Love is the answer. We are infinite consciousness that has nothing and no one to survive, we are not our bodies or our families or our jobs or our religions or our bank balances, but we are all that has been, is, or will ever be, all love, all hate, all fear, all freedom, everyone, everything. (Booya!)
Five hundred pages. Try it someday.

Song of the week - Potential Breakup Song by Aly and AJ (cousin recommendation). See Youtube music vid.

I have run after victory and I won her.
But when I found myself beside her I felt despair.
The glows of her insignia illuminated everything,
The ashes of the dead, the suffering of the living.

 Álvaro Obregón (from the Civilization Fanatics' Forums)



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