Not A Great Start To Oh-Nine Is It?

So what's bad that's happened?

1. Three Singaporeans died in a Bangkok club fire on New Year's Day.

2. Israel decides to attack Gaza.

3. I got back pain from a yoga pose in mid-class.

Point 1 is just depressing. We lost one person to the Mumbai terrorist attack and now three more locals perish horribly in a fire. Are there more Singaporeans out there now putting themselves at risk? I am over-reacting. Perhaps we are just used to safe Singapore versus all the crap we hear about everywhere else. We are too well protected, too safe, too unfamiliar with all the bad things we hear about on the news. It's a sad way to usher in 2009.

Point 2 pisses me off. Most people think the Palestinians are terrorists, all of them, the women and children and tea-drinkers. There's Hamas who have clearly made themselves known as terrorists. Unfortunately, they run the Gaza strip and even more damagingly, launch missiles into Israel from their people's brick houses. So Israel decides to go whole hog into Gaza, bombing buildings to kingdom come. Now the ground forces have gone in to eradicate the militants. 450 dead Palestinians and about 5 dead Israelis.

Yes, it is ok for Israel to defend itself. It is ok for the Palestinians to be pissed. It is not ok for Israel to blockade the territory so that the Palestinians can't live like normal people. It is not ok for Hamas to send missiles into Israel but think about it - the Palestinians got chased out of their homelands 50 years ago and were not allowed to return, had their families shattered, economy screwed up, education and healthcare left to pieces, no real semblance of a nation, much less a society. When people are put down too long, they turn to violence to keep themselves alive. (One of the Sikh sacred symbols is a dagger, a reminder of the persecution of religion's followers in the 1600s and the right to arms as self-defence). Israel has not allowed Palestine to 'live'. Palestinians live horrible lives. So how can they co-exist?

I am worried about the bigger repercussions. Will the Arab countries come in to defend Gaza? Indonesians already want their government to send troops to protect the Palestinians. Will Iran launch a naughty pointy thing towards Israel? How will the US help anyone anymore? The UN is simply making a lot of noise thus far while homes get blown up and people die and mothers worry. Expect more crap from the Middle East.

Point 3. Oh it just hurts. Especially when yoga is supposed to fix things. Ow.