This is my Nikki!!

Very short video about her wanting to go outside... She was being cute, so I held off on taking her out to take a video. :P

I wish this could be a post about how 9/11 will "never be forgotten" and how I feel for the US, post it on FB, on G+ and whatever... you know, reach out and hug the US, like.. "aww... I'm so sorry..."

I'm not saying that I don't think that what happened on September 11th, 2001 was horrible.
I'm not saying that I don't think it's horrible that all those people died the way that died.
I'm not saying that what the hijackers did was excusable in any way. For I hope they're being punished in the afterlife for what they did.
I'm not saying that I don't think it incredibly sad that people lost a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, etc, and that some children will never meet one of their parents.

All of these things... they're tragic, if we're talking about the individuals that were affected.

But I'm sorry, I can't feel sorry for the US as a collective, as a government, solely because of the way they retaliated after 9/11.

First, please keep in mind all of my "I'm not sayings"s above.

Now, what about the Iraq war? How many people died in the following years after the US suddenly decided to shift its attention from Afghanistan to Iraq, even though they knew they didn't have any weapons of mass destruction? Just because they wanted to get rid of Saddam Hussein and impose their own "democracy." How much did not just the country, but the Iraqi culture lose when US troops were ordered not to intervene when historic libraries and museums were being ransacked? 7000 years of history were lost when they were! How do you think people in Afghanistan & Iraq live ever since 9/11? After the US army comes in thinking they know better than everybody and impose their rules on locals, changing their lives forever, putting them against a rock and a hard place... (doomed if you cooperate on a local level, doomed if you don't because they'll think you're with the enemy).

The Bush administration disgusts me, with the decisions due to their ignorance, with their refusal to accept anything people with expertise in Middle-East relations would advise them, and their new-age version of the White Man's Burden. They justified all of their horrible decisions by taking on a paternalistic approach and telling the American people that what they were doing were in their name, and that it was the right thing to do. They took advantage of the fact that the American people felt vulnerable and took that as carte blanche to do whatever they fuck they wanted, and however they fuck they wanted to do it. Abu Ghraib, for example?

In essence, I think the American people are also victims of the decisions the Bush administration took, because they will have to live with that stigma, and people around the world will look at them going, "oh, poor you, 9/11? 3000 people died? well, in my country, tens or hundreds of thousands or even millions of people die every year BECAUSE of your country's constant decisions to butt in whenever they feel they're in the least bit threatened."

It's not good to compare tragedies, for in the end, what does that do? What does that solve? Nothing. But just I feel like 9/11, just for the mere fact that it was a blow to the US, it reverberated throughout the world. But what about all of those who have died, who have been terrorized, who have been tortured, and those who have been severely discriminated against because the US thinks of them as a threat? Mainly Muslim-Americans.

So, I'm sorry, but these are the things that come into my mind when I think of 9/11. Along with this:


::EDIT:: Huh. I just read this article: [CLICK], and, if you didn't understand what I wanted to say in this entry, this article pretty much says exactly what I wanted to say.

Yesterday I went to the Musée des Beaux-Arts to see their newly-arrived exposition of the Terracotta Army. It was amaaaaaaaaaazing, I really like it. I don't know why I find such joy and wonder in seeing pieces of rocks... OH, maybe it's because some of them have been there for over 2500 years? Maybe. :P

I have to admit I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the Egyptian exhibition when I went to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Québec City in 2008 with Neesa, Anf & Lena, but that's just because I have a soft spot for Egypt. WHICH, by the way, has just managed to get rid of their tyrannical president after being in power since 1981. WOO! Go Egypt!! I love it when people come together. =) And this may be highly internet-unethical, because I don't know who it's by, but I loved this picture that someone shared on Facebook:


Caption: Christians protecting Muslims during their prayers

<3

Back to the point though, the museum exhibit was sooo good. The thing that I liked most about it though had nothing to do with the exhibit itself. I saw a buuunch of Chinese parents with their kids there, I thought it was sooo sweet and it really reminded me of when my dad took me to the Gold Museum when I was about 7 years old. Especially because its your own culture you know? I don't know, there's something special about looking at something and knowing that it pertains to you a little bit more than it does to everybody else. It makes you think about your great-great-great-grandparents, and what it would've been like to be them.

It also makes you think about leaving as many traces as you can in this world for younger generations to know who you were, so you're not forgotten. Hence this journal? Maybe... :P

P.S.: Shout out to titelyd for having woken me up to go! ^^