The Framed 1’s Life

From the Movie “The Third Man:”

“In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder bloodshed — they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, 500 years of Democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The Cuckoo Clock.” The further Irony: even the Cuckoo clock is a German Invention.1

On the Borgias: ‘Cesare Borgia murdered his brother-in-law for the love of his sister, who was the mistress of their father - the Pope.’2

So my point? Fuck Democracy and lets all bomb ourselves to progression! The harshest environment breeds the best survivors.

1 Quote can be seen at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Man
2 From the book ‘Ogilvy on Advertising’

A bloody red on a ledger that I’ve been!
A life worth less than a pence and a ten!
Am I, like all, just a number–dead;
A figure / figurine with living head?

**********************************

There’s no difference between Lives of Men:
All go for bread, some for milk, some for wine,
Yet, in a blink, us and dust are entwined!

It was the clearest, bluest sky
When I saw a balloon– white–
Ever slowly drifting by

Could a lad have lost
A gift from his mum;
Or a gentlemen’s care
Forgot to tie it down?

I know someon’e teared a cry
somewhere for that balloon
And it still drifted on and on
To the bluest, clearest sky.

That night was of the coldest winter night
When I woke from my slumber to see her
My love, of foreign-sent, in a window,
beyond my street, under the icy glow.

So I, a Romeo, went to have her
Bracing Nature’s protest to her fortress
And at it’s foot, I espied a crevice,
Surrendering everything to impress
(Were those destiny’s ploy against my hour?)
Yet, like Shakespeare’s hero, I climbed her tower
And as my father teared when I was made,
My heart thumped loudly that I’ll be remade;
But when I held her hand, confessed my all,
I’m met by a stare to the night’s snow fall.

C’est la vie.

Nigh was the night, this one of saddest days
When this figure–Sihouette–entwined my way.
The Sky, sanguine, with the Sun’s losing fight
Held a sight of so heavenly delight:
Waltzing atop a forlorn hill alone
A Thumbelina, in her steps, shone;
And in her dance, I found my feet had flown
With hands, hips, bones, a beating heart gone!
This maiden, so delicately divine,
captured, enslaved visions of this mind!

Oh, diamond so polished of God’s make,
How could fate sin such terrible mistake–
When the moon howled mad that darkness was nigh,
That I lost her dance, my saddest of nights.

Mark Twain Home, An Anti-Imperialist, New York Herald [New York, 10/15/1900]

I left these shores, at Vancouver, a red-hot imperialist. I wanted the American eagle to go screaming into the Pacific. It seemed tiresome and tame for it to content itself with the Rockies. Why not spread its wings over the Philippines, I asked myself? And I thought it would be a real good thing to do.

I said to myself, here are a people who have suffered for three centuries. We can make them as free as ourselves, give them a government and country of their own, put a miniature of the American constitution afloat in the Pacific, start a brand new republic to take its place among the free nations of the world. It seemed to me a great task to which we had addressed ourselves.

But I have thought some more, since then, and I have read carefully the treaty of Paris, and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem.

We have also pledged the power of this country to maintain and protect the abominable system established in the Philippines by the Friars.

It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.1

1http://www.historywiz.com/primarysources/marktwain-imperialism.htm

I’ve a thing for following news worldwide in hopes of capturing trickles of data worth more than Gold. Today, I caught one VERY big information that finally settles where the new trend is going : ONLINE. Well, in the USA anyway. That’s why I see such tremendous opportunities here in the Philippines — a labour force with tremendous talents, ok infrastructure and facilities and a market (though limited) ready to jump into the newest things. Ahhh, you gotta love globalization!

Yes, the Philippines still has a lot to do to catch up, and the amazing thing is that the entrepreneurs are SUPPOSED to do it (hallelujah for Capitalism!) Unfortunately, it’s our age-old aversion to risk and, frankly speaking, our islander mentality that’s holding the Pinoys back. I’ve noticed through my travels and travails that the Philippines IS insulated in terms of our market and our culture. After all, there are only two nations in the world that are archepelagos: The PH and Indonesia, and the system we’re using ain’t exactly optimal since we’ve pretty much copied the mainlander’s system.

Anyway, here’s a snipet of the article from businessweek.com:

“…Senior Retail Analyst Kimberly Greenberger says she expects a strong online shopping season, given what Web shoppers have seen so far. “It looks like more and more consumers are migrating to online purchases,” says Greenberger. “We suspect that the numbers are going to get even stronger as we progress through the holiday season.”

Greenberger believes online shopping will do well, regardless of any weakness seen at some of the brick-and-mortar stores, because shoppers are shifting more of their purchases from mall stores to Web sites. It’s a trend bolstered both by the increased convenience of shopping online, thanks to comparison sites and better-designed store Web pages, as well as the breadth of products available online…”1

1http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2006/tc20061128_710744.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_today%27s+top+stories

The Jonker facts:

The Jonker was first considered a "freak of nature." Its frosty exterior posed a great challenge to the diamond cutter. After studying the diamond for months, Lazare Kaplan cut it into several diamonds. The largest diamond, which retained the name "Jonker," originally weighed 142.9 carats and was cut with 66 facets. To create greater brilliance, the Jonker was recut to 125.65 carats, with 58 facets. The Jonker is considered the most perfectly cut gem in existence.

http://www.brazwriter.com/jewelry.html

The Jonker diamond was discovered in an alluvial deposit near the Premier Mine. The Jonker is the finest-quality large diamond ever found.

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761557986_2/Diamond.html

***

Quick facts on Diamonds:

1. In Western culture, diamonds are the traditional emblem of fearlessness and virtue, but have also often associated with power, wealth, crime and misfortune. Today, diamonds are used to symbolize eternity and love, being often seen adorning engagement rings and sometimes wedding rings as well. The popularity of this modern tradition can be traced directly to the marketing campaigns of De Beers, starting in 1938. Prior to the De Beers marketing campaign, engagement rings had no one particular stone associated with them.
2. The first diamond engagement ring can be traced to the marriage of Maximilian I (then Archduke of Austria) to Mary of Burgundy in 1477.

Posted in verbatim:

I think that sex is the only topic in the world where it is neither hot or cold. It’s one of those megalomaniacal issues we see everywhere everyday especially in today’s ever-liberated society, even our fathers as our figure for sure have had (pms) or if not a majority of them. I mean we’re only human, God said His son was just human just like us, and I ask myself “did Jesus really do it?” i mean he had a prostitute as a close friend who practically stuck with him after He saved her from getting stoned to death.

They say sex is only after marriage but I think that just never works. I say it just makes the ‘current situation’ much harder to bear. I just wanna ask the right questions, if you really love someone, I say sex is not just for one person but it is also an expression and a sign of love. What is virginity really? It’s really not that special when you think about it. Only the self-righteous would see virginity as a huge issue and as a sacred thing, but it really isn’t. When it comes to this sort of issue, there are two kinds of persons, the righteous who are the open minded and see sex as part of life’s journey especially in meeting the only person. And the self-righteous, who seem to have such radical religious and saintlike beliefs living in a biased mind due to religious matters which in turn results them from living in such programmed lives and telling them to restrict their gift of choice. But even still after I have told you this stuff, there still isn’t a preferable side. Both sides are neither right or wrong. I just believe pms is too gray that the right thing to do is to be gray as well. Therefore the choices we make to do it or not is neither right or wrong as long love is present it is the perfect excuse.

******
Name and address withheld.

I never thought I’d see the light of day to admit my now-realized fact that I am a Romantic with much lofty, fleeting idea on MY ultimate utopia (of course, its ultra self-centric. What is heaven but the propagation of a myriad of pleasure upon the ego?). Yes, I must confess, it’s an isle with everything on it–the sun, moon and the stars shan’t find a haze of cloudy dark; the ocean and the mounts forever serene; and the people, they are from my most treasured memories.

Alas, it is but a plug on reality. An escape bunker of sort to scurry away from assails of pragmatism and the stinging abrasiveness that is truth. I would like to think that it is in what we don’t know or what we fear most that we stuff it with fantastical fantasies. We then toss those very fantasies to the gods to decide on, hoping that the “best” may come. And it’s usually accompanied by a dear old mate named Anxiety.

I have had been graced by my old mate’s presence for sometime now. The most recent one was when I got infatuated on somebody whom I haven’t met personally before. Her information was served on a virtual platter, and I immediately consumed all of it. But what I failed to know about her, I dared to plug it with my reverie. And right before my eyes, she transformed into a goddess even Zeus couldn’t even touch. She was in my Pantheon occupying its throne; and I, her most unworthy worshipper, had given my life in her service — to find that mythical jewel called Bliss. That I would crucify myself and allow it to be an extension of hers became my silent delusion.

It went on for days on ends. I would awaken and find myself in imaginary reality where she would be awaiting my service, and that I, a mere mortal, shall attempt Herculean feats to consummate my love through actions. Will she be happy when I let her greet her dreams when I sacrifice mine? Will she find enjoyment when I own palaces, yachts and a thousand isles? Will a gryphon swoop down and pick me up for her?

I pined for her. I gutted myself out to people in complete abandon like never before and allowed this chimera to digest me. For a while, poetry would’ve been my answer but I refrained from it. It was during this fanciful period that I suddenly remembered an old article about Ted Ngoy, a Cambodian dreamer that rose and fell. But what made a true impact on me was on how he wooed his princess. “Should I,” became my big question mark.

One day, I spoke with Chris and, again, told him of how awesome she is, and how much I’d want her. He told me bluntly, “dude, take her off from the pedestal. She’s only human. You’d come crashing down when you realized most of the stuff you made up isn’t even close to real.” (Not verbatim, but that’s the gist of our conversation). True.

Perhaps it’s because it’s been a while since I let my heavily guarded self down and allowed it to drift and fly. Perhaps she really was my Eve who received my missing rib. Perhaps I’m just plain schizophrenic and should be admitted in an asylum (hope this isn’t the case!).

Or, perhaps, it was simply another opportunity to free myself from inhibitions and run after what I want.