A different look at Pi's Life

   Hello everyone. How are you all doing? I hope this new year has been progressing rather well for all of you, and although a few bumps along the way are inevitable, I do hope everyone is on their way to accomplishing whatever goal they may have for their lives.
   Moving on, I would like to write today about a piece of art that inspired me. Both positively and negatively. About a film that many people have been talking about these days and that seemed to come out of nowhere to give people new hope on life and new aspect on religion. I am talking about Mr Ang Lee's masterpiece, "The Life Of Pi".
   I made sure I had the perfect setting to watch it. It was 3 o'clock in the morning, all the lights were off and I would have no interruptions. I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into since I didn't really enjoy "Slumdog Millionaire" and I was under the impression that this was going to be another film like that. I didn't even see the trailer but what I did know is that this film received a few Golden Globe awards and good critics, so I figured that since people where going to be talking about it, I may as well get it out of the way...
   Now this is what we call a *SPOILER ALERT*. For anyone who hasn't seen the film and would like to keep the experience new for themselves, I would recommend you skip to the final paragraph. I am about to go into details of what goes on in this film and I know how annoying it can be to watch a movie knowing what will happen next.
   The movie starts in quite a funny way, without even a hint of what's to follow. We have an author who's trying to find a compelling story and so someone recommends he goes to find Mr. Pi so that he can tell him the story of his friend Richard Parker. The potential author goes to Mr. Pi's house, they have dinner and so the story of Pi's life begins.
   Saying that he was named because of his father's love for pools is one thing, but having all the kids mock him in school because his actual name was Piscine (it sounds like "pissin'" when you say it in french) is another. I mean, the parents never stopped to think what they were doing to the poor kid? So, in order to avoid further mockery the kid called himself "Pi" from the greek mathematical term π which is a neverending number to which he remembered all the digits! As if anyone could do that!
   And if that wasn't bad enough, the kid became enchanted with all religions! Despite his father's warnings that "Religion is a very dark place", young Pi was a faithful hindu-muslim-christian, by the time he was 12! And as he told the author, later in his life he even taught seminars on Judaism. Yeah sure, why not? No one's getting offended by this, go for it Hollywood, get as many Gods in there as you can! See how many people you can make angry and how many lawsuits you end up with! (And this coming from an atheist!)
   So, because of financial problems, Pi's family is forced to leave India and move to Canada. Pi must've been 16 or 17 at the time. Pi's father owned some animals at a nearby zoo. He had arranged to take those animals and sell them to a Canadian zoo, taking care of them as well so that he could provide for his family. Pi, of course, was not ok with this since he had found himself a little girlfriend, but daddy's orders are obsolete in these cases. And during the trip (they went by boat because how else are you supposed to carry a bunch of animals across an ocean), Pi came to embrace the fact that his life was just beginning. With a little help from his mother of course.
   It took many days and many nights to cross the ocean. During one of these nights, Pi woke up to a massive thunderstorm. Pi tried to wake up his older brother (did I fail to mention he had a two-year-older brother? my bad..) so they could see the storm together, but all he got was a reply of "Don't tempt the forces of nature, Pi!". Always curious though, Pi climbed out on deck to see the rain and the massive waves hitting the boat. And his excitement swiftly turned to horror when he noticed the crew of the ship getting washed off-board by those waves.
   Noticing that something's wrong, Pi tried to reach his family. But it was already too late. The room they were all resting in was underwater, and the boat itself was quickly sinking. Pi rushed outside to get help but instead he was put on a safety vessel (one of those smaller boats) along with a zebra that jumped on board and a pissed off hyena. Pi, having nowhere else to go and drifting away from the boat that his family was on, grabbed on to the edge of his little boat and mourned for the loss of his family.
   Now this is where the really good stuff began. You would think that with just an Indian and a bunch of animals stranded in the ocean you really couldn't have much of a movie, but Pi began to learn how to survive, even find food, and eventually make friends with a wild tiger named... Richard Parker. Yes, I know, what the hell?
   Some beautiful nighttime scenery, amazing music, the courage of a boy, his willpower not to give up no matter how many odds were against him and the way he put his life lessons to use, the communication between human and beast and how they become meaningless in the face of desperation, all this is what made a truly amazing film. I think that there wasn't even a single person, nor will there be, that didn't feel a little sad when they saw Richard Parker get off that boat at the end of the journey.
   All the religion-gibberish was stuff this movie could've left out. It was already a great story, why ruin it with beliefs and morals and Gods? I suppose at the end of the day it was a story about survival. Whatever keeps someone going, whether it's a deity of a sort, or another person or just their own willpower, what matters is that they find what they need to make them reach into that hidden strength that's inside them. We all have it. We just don't know it. This movie is proof of it.  

Further analysis of women in today's society

   Hello everyone! In this post I would like to go back and further analyze one of the topics that I recently went into. I have had some further time to process the matter, along with an addition of a few things that have made me want to dwelve deeper into it's substance. The matter at hand is women's career opportunities and their lives in general.
   I recently came across an article written by a woman who was deeply involved in U.S. politics. When I say deeply, I mean she went from teaching to Universities all the way to becoming a secretary to senator Clinton. It was a very long article mind you, but what really glued me to it was the fact that she stated that, in her early career, she was the one spurring women on to pursue careers as prosperous as men's. She would give lectures about how women "could have it all". A career and a family. But, after going to D.C. she would speak to other women who had to eventually make choices. Either follow the dream of a career or sacrifice the dream so they could be with their families.
   The author herself was having trouble since she had two young boys of her own. They were practically growing up with their father, as she could only be with them on weekends or on holidays and she was starting to see the difficulties of trying to juggle too many things at once. She was beginning to realize that what she had been giving lectures about sometimes can't be done. There truly is a time when a woman must choose.
   And letting children grow up without one of their parents is an issue which I personally think I have addressed enough in previous posts. They begin to develop trust issues with their parents at first and then find it difficult to open up to others, eventually making all the wrong choices in life. So, a mother's love is irreplaceable for a child, especially at a young age.
   But does all this necessarily mean that women can't afford to have careers? Well, there are a lot of women who have had a lot of success on a professional level and quite a respectable household. But still, that doesn't mean that they were always around when their children were in need of them. That doesn't mean that some foster parent or nanny wasn't there looking after the children most of the time, because the mother was simply too busy. But there's simply no right choice in this situation. These women owe it not only to themselves, but to women of previous generations that didn't have the same opportunities, to pursue as bigger a career as possible.
   Which brings me to my other topic. The continuing exploitation of women, to their own consent. Recently I happened to be one of the many spectators of the 70th Golden Globe Awards. Many Hollywood stars were present and many were awarded for their contributions to the movie and tv-series making industry. Among them was a young girl. A girl by the name of Lena Dunham. She was awarded Golden Globe for Best Performance In A Television Series - Musical or Comedy (Actress) and the show which she herself created was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Series (Musical or Comedy). Quite an admirable feat for a first-timer.
   So, this of course turned my attention to the brand new series. It's only in it's second season and it's already an award winner, it should be pretty good, I thought to myself. Well, I didn't get a chance to watch it. After a few minutes I was forced to turn it off. The high level of nudity (even in unnecessary scenes), vulgarity and rawness of this show immediately made me want to turn it off. Supposedly it's goal was to depict the "hardships of a girl's life" and how they look at things such as sex, work and their relationships with other people.
   I suppose it has a bit of Sex and the City in it, but without the glamour and sprinkles. But, why would anyone promote this, much less give an award to something like this? This is not even good enough to be porn, it just imitates real life sex, with all it's uncomfortableness. Why would someone lower the bar not only for women, but for the world in general by giving awards to this? 
   Sure, I totally get where this show is coming from. The world needs to see itself through a woman's eyes. Women have a lot of problems and this show is a fun way to address them. But it could've been done in a much more tasteful way. In a way that protects women, rather than exposing them. Instead of watching two girls talking about their sex lives while being naked in the bathtub and eating cupcakes, I dunno, maybe they could be out in the living room!
   Call me old fashioned but, as I stated in a previous post, there were women who fought and died so they could be taken seriously. So they could be given opportunities equal to those of men out in the business world. And so they could be viewed as more than just house-cleaners and sex-objects. It's proving to be quite a task, as some women are finding out, but continuously throwing to waste what their ancestors fought so hard to obtain, that isn't a solution either.
 

Final... Art

   Good day! I would like to begin this article by congratulating a few people on an incredible document. Some people from all over the world and from different fan-sites put in a whole lot of time and effort into something they really love and created a great thing. The one thing they all had in common: their love for the Final Fantasy saga. I took notice of it through the good people at Final Fantasy Network. (http://www.finalfantasy.net/misc/celebrating-25-years-final-fantasybrunofficial-celebration-emagazine/#comments)
   While reading this incredible 129-page document, my eyes opened up to some amazing facts. Facts that I never even thought about while previously playing through these epics. I myself have only played through VI to XIII of the main series and so those are the ones I can speak of. Never had I realized this before but, Final Fantasy has truly influenced an entire generation's way of thinking. Whether it comes to politics, religion, or important life lessons such as the loss of loved ones, this game taught us all a lot while we were still at a young age. Let's take a closer look.
   I will begin with the numerically first of the titles I had the pleasure of playing through. And, even though I was engulfed in the world of FF VI quite recently, I must say it was enticing, despite it being in 16-bit sprites. The most shocking scenes in this whole story was when the villain, Kefka, decided to kill an entire nation by poisoning it's water supply. And the second was when one of the heroes, General Celes, deprived of all hope since the planet had crumbled into oblivion and she didn't know the whereabouts of her comrades, decided to end her own life. There were other moments as well, but just through these two it is obvious that the main concept of this title was the loss of hope.
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   Then there was VII. Instant classic, for some the best game that ever graced the series, the cries for a remake have been endless. What this game's story had was never seen or heard of before, especially for a video game. This game tackled issues such as environmentalism, what goes on behind the scenes in politics, combining science and magic, and it even went so far as to address psychological issues. The main character, Cloud, had actually created a persona of himself based on past experiences of his deceased friend Zack. Cloud was subject to a matter of experiments that he did not have memory of and because of this, he sometimes didn't have control of his own actions. The saddest moment in this game was when Cloud's nemesis Sephiroth impaled Aerith, a young flower girl Cloud had met in the slums. The reason for this became apparent quite a while later in the game's story.

   Final Fantasy VIII seemed to have more of a "high-school musical" theme at first, except the high-school was actually training students to go to war instead of being able to become useful members of society. Still, you could see how they got along with each other and that was what this addition to the series tried to address. How teenagers fail to communicate what they're truly feeling, how heavy burdens can be when trying to take them on alone and how opening up to others can really help you out. Other important issues in this game were tyranny and the effects of time-travel.

   It may have seemed to be a bit of a return to the classics with the release of FF IX one year later, but that wasn't the case. Handling issues such as the effects of a monarchy, being overindulgent with power, and being full of philosophy about life, the colorful creatures of this title had many things to teach and even more to be taught. The way this story went from serious, to humorous, to action-packed, all in a fully Shakespearean England environment was truly a marvel to the sore eyes. Players have returned to this title time and time again, just to get a taste of how things used to be.

   Final Fantasy X was the first step in the next generation. Better graphics, better sound that included voices for the characters, a lot of neat stuff was added to the series. What wasn't lost though was the fact that the series continued to talk about important life matters. FF X went into a sort of sensitive area. Religion. According to this title, people followed a certain religion blindly. Because it was they're only hope for salvation. Only a few dared to question it and they were excommunicated and treated as outcasts. The people at the head of this religion (known as Maesters) were the only ones that knew the truth. But, in their words, hope was the only thing that was left for the people. Take away their hope and they have nothing. A certain someone arrived from 1000 years in the past. He had a fresh outlook on things and questioned them. Why should this be like this and not like that? Did you ever stop to think that you could do things another way and not just blindly follow whatever they tell you? Eventually, this young man's outlook on things is what ended up saving an entire planet from it's fate. His name was Tidus. But, what that game taught us is that we should be able to question things for our selves before choosing to follow them.

    Moving on to XII (I didn't play XI), politics found it's way back into the games. A lot of VII's dirty, behind-the-scenes, tricks along with IX's corruption of power theme was found here, along with a bit of a new theme. Family affairs in politics and in business in general. Whether it was House Solidor's indecisiveness as to which of the two brothers was best suited to lead the Archadian Empire after Emperor Gramis's resignation, or ex-judge magister's Balthier good-gone-bad relationship with his father after he, the highly profound scientist Cid became obsessed with the manufacture of nethicite, this addition to the series always spoke of some broken family, one way or another. It always seemed that these characters were looking for a missing part in their life. Yet another new theme here was revenge and it's consequences. Lady Ashe of Dalmasca desires revenge upon the Archadian Empire for the death of her father and husband during the war that enslaved her dukedom, but to claim it she knows that it would only bring more hardship to her people. So after a lot of inner turmoil, she decides against it. The voices for this title where quite excellent, British royalty standards!

   Nowadays a new epic is reaching it's conclusion, with the FF XIII trilogy. The issues at hand on this latest addition to the series are challenging one's fate, making your own destiny and how we could all be part of an even bigger plan. It was something in between politics and religion, since at the head of the human society wad a god-like entity that provided them with everything they needed -including sunlight! In the second part of this three-parter, XIII-2, the theme was how far would you go for your loved one and hope. The frailty of the human race was also addressed here, as was the time-space issue. F.e. how could a person's actions in one time and place affect the future of another time and place. And what could be done to set things right, if there was anything that could be done at all.

   So, there you have it. A series full of life lessons with each new chapter that is brought to us. Whether it is how people play on the dirty field of politics, or which other way they decide to use the people (religion), Final Fantasy has taught this generation that not only is it alright to ask questions, but sometimes it can be vital! Also, handling matters such as death, loneliness, loss of hope, making the best out of the small happy moments of life is another thing this series has always had a knack for. Delivering a few good laughs when appropriate, full of action-packed battling, this series always had a great way of story-telling that took your breath away every time you got to that next chapter. A little taste of what I mean is just below... And, despite all of this, the best is yet to come!

 

Gracias, Lionel! (A tribute to the World's best footballer)

   I rarely have inspiration to write two consecutive articles within the same evening. There has to be something really special. Something on my mind that I can't take out and that I really want to share or talk about. Something spectacular. Well, it is. As you know, I am a huge fan of football. And since last night it was made official: we are living in the era of the greatest footballer to ever grace this planet. I am speaking of course, about Lionel Andres Messi.
   Messi last night made it to a place no player before him has ever made it. He received his fourth consecutive Ballon D'or, an award that is given out at the beginning of each year to the player voted as the best of the previous year. This award is given by FIFA (the world football association) along with France Football, a most prestigious French magazine. There were players who had won three of these awards. Some even consecutive, like Messi. But none had ever won four. Until now.

   And to think that at the start of his career Messi was instructed to not pursue football. His short build was reason enough for doctors and physiologists to advise this, as young Leonel didn't have the muscular structure to stand up to the physically bigger than him players and he could easily get hurt. But he never gave up. Instead, he decided to work in order to turn his greatest disadvantage into his greatest asset! He was small and fast, so it became easy for him to dribble past big opponents.
   Of course along with all the hard work he put into it came the natural talent he possessed. That's what Barcelona's academy school (El Macia) saw in him when they decided to give him a chance. And they weren't wrong either. For someone to be able to shine so brightly through the class of Fabregas, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Pique, Pedro, Busquets, Valdes and many others he has to be something special.

   But that was just the start! At a very young age he was given the chance to play in the first team beside world stars such as Ronaldinho, Henry, Edmilson, Silvinho and many others. Messi shone from the start. He has been a fan-favorite ever since and has rarely lost his position in Barca's starting line-up, especially after Ronaldinho's departure.

   Messi has broken one record after another and is still at such a young age. It would take me too long to find and post all of his records, but his most notable ones are most goals scored in one Champions League season, most goals scored in one Primera Liga season, most goals in a Champions League game, most hat-tricks in a Primera Liga season, Barcelona's top scorer overall in the Primera Liga, most goals scored in a Copa Del Rey, and his most recent record, most goals scored within a year. And that's just the icing of the cake. What this kid has done is incredible!
   I remember when I used to be young and I would sit in my living room with my father, watching football. He would tell me about the legends of the past like Pele, Socrates, Rivelino, Van Basten, Beckenbauer, Rummenigge, Cruyff, and so many others. He would describe them to me in such a lively fashion that it was like I could see them in front of me, playing. He would say that there are no more players like that anymore and there probably never will be. Boy, would he be shocked to learn that there's actually someone that surpassed even them! Thank you, Lionel Messi, for giving us something to reminisce about with our children!

 

Women vs. Men, civilization to civilization

   Hi everyone! Happy 2013 and may all your wishes come true! We've said goodbye to a year full of grandeur and have flipped a new page in our time-calendar... Let's see what's in store for us!
   So, in my opening post of this new year I would like to tackle a truly trifling matter: equal rights of the opposite sexes in different civilizations. Of course, I'm talking about the modern era. But, in order to find out how we came to today's status, we must take a quick walk down memory lane. As they say, the best guide for the future is the past.
   The inspiration for this article came to me as I was looking through my gmail account, where I noticed some spam mail. Apparently a young female college student in New Delhi was savagely raped for six hours on a bus by a gang as she was returning home from class and passed away at a nearby hospital a few days later. The e-mail complained about how women were still being treated in the mid-east civilizations and that they must put funding into educating them about equal rights for women.
   Totally understandable. I agree. They may have progressed even further ahead than Europe and the U.S. in some areas, but when in comes to treating their women, they're still a bit in the 1600's. Women have made giant leaps forward from when they would eagerly await their loved one to come home, patiently waiting for him while he was out doing who knows what. Or if in a case of adultery on their behalf, they would be stoned in the streets. And heaven forbid they had a job! That was just for the men.
   Women have progressed. Of course! They're people too! Men and women should all have the same rights and nothing to divide between them. And so, incidents like these should stop being reported at such a large scale. 7 in 10 women in the world are being raped every 22 minutes! For a world that's supposed to be passed the dark ages, that's quite a frightening fact...
   OK, so we've solidified the fact that women have equal rights as men. Equal freedom. At least in most parts of the world. But, what was done with that freedom that they fought so hard for? Some women have become quite recognizable. Their feats have given them a place in the history books. Like Jeanne D'Arc. Most women have become quite respectable members of society. Icons, for some. And it's for this reason that we should all be thankful for their hard earned freedom. Because a jewel shines brighter when it shines under the sun.
   But, as with everything, there's another side to this story. Women's progressive freedom that becomes even more as we leap from one generation to the next, has made some women use what their ancestors fought so hard to protect. I am speaking of how women are seen in the community. Women fought so they could be taken seriously. Not just as objects that men could use for their own satisfaction, but as people with the same rights as them. Today, it seems the opposite is in effect: women are doing the best they can in order to show their outside self instead of their personality.
   It is a sad fact that in these communities we like to call progressive, looks can get you a long way. A lot of women have been known to use that in order to open doors professionally. In some countries they may actually be hired with the only criteria being their image, over other, more qualified applicants.
   With all these new laws that were created in order to protect them, some women today know how to play the game in order to get what they want. Dress enough to land the job and if someone crosses the boundaries the "rape" card is immediately played, which is able to land them from thousand to millions of dollars (euros, whatever your currency is) depending on the firm. 
   So how much freedom is enough? I guess the only true answer to that is "it depends on the person". Others live by the law, others find the way to turn it in their favor. There are many other issues such as racism that the laws can be twisted in. No matter how many laws are installed, I think it's up to us to not really need them by becoming better people. Let's not forget, we're not living on this planet for ourselves, but we're preparing it for the generations that will come after us...