War! What is it good for?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!  -Edwin Starr

Quotes!!!!

I kinda have a penchant for quotes...

"Do what you will, this world's a fiction and it is made up of contradiction."

-William Blake

The Chronicles of Delilah and Jack

Volume I

Jump, Wind, Flame, and Flee

Delilah was sitting on a high ledge in the middle of that cold wintery night. From the top of highest building in the city, she sits, and waits. The city is silent; everyone is shut away, sheltered safely from the cold. Delilah is waiting for her signal. Waiting.

BOOM!!!

She leaps off the building, picking up unimaginable speed as she freefalls down to the slumbering city below. With the bright lights fast approaching, she spreads her beautiful brown and white wings and the freefall turns seamlessly into a controlled glide. Weaving up and down and around the low lying structures, she makes her way to the source of the noise.
A glowing reddish-yellowish tinge highlights the buildings surrounding her target destination. Delilah begins circling above the flaming building looking for her partner. Sirens are getting close. Her heart beats faster and faster. Where was Jack? The screaming from is sirens are too close. She looks around franticly, her eyes dart back and forth like an intense ping pong match.
The flaming building is almost about to fall down. The creaking of the imminent collapse begins, and the whole building sways to one side.

Delilah dashes downwards quicker than a bat out of hell. She flaps as she’s never flapped before. Duck diving under a falling burning wooden beam, she re-thinks what she has gotten herself into. How could she trust a rat? How could she have been so naïve to think that this plan would actually work? She was risking her life, and for what? She had already achieved her freedom.
All of a sudden, she heard the loud desperate barking of many, many dogs. Out of the ongoing destruction, she saw a rat, running frantically, followed but hundreds of dogs. Delilah swooped down, and using her razor sharp talons, she picked up Jack.

“Hey!...Ease off the death grip will ya?” Jack said, patting out and rubbing his formerly on fire tail.

“What took you so long?” Delilah questioned as they flew higher to safety. “Did you get it?”

“Oh I got it.” Jack said with an evil grin, in a way that only the darkest, devilish, vermin of the world could say. Jack reached back into his dirty, ratty fur behind his neck and pulled out a shiny red jewel. He began caressing the jewel, and a creepy red glow began to light up the face of the mischievous sprite. “The demon named Steven will never know what’s coming….Muhahahahahhahahha…”

TO BE CONTINUED…

-This is Jack signing out

Cat Cam

Meet Cooper- Photographer Extraordinaire....

Ever wonder where you cat travels to when you let him out into the big wide world? Michael Benjamin rigged a light weight digital camera designed to capture exactly what Cooper is looking at, at that minute. The result? Some really cool pictures with much aesthetic appeal....Take a look at his flicker photo set for some awesome spy snapshots!
My Personal favorite!
Sunny Fall day,
Mid afternoon Shadows...

Cooper looking suave in his 'camera collar' modified to match his lovely orange tabby fur. 

Signing out, 

-Delilah

Christmas Vacation Means Two Things:

One, I get to actually read books I enjoy without feeling guilty that I should be reading a textbook. Two, I can watch movies!!! 

  Yesterday I finally watched the movie Blood Diamond which came out in 2006. I initially was not inclined to watch the film because I thought it was just another blockbuster action flick. The film is set during the Sierra Leone civil war in the late 90's and shows the country torn apart by competin

g government army and the rebel forces (R.U.F or the Revolutionary United Front). The plot centers around the Vandy family who have become senseless victims of the conflict. The father, Solomon searches fruitlessly for his wife, daughters and son after escaping a diamond mining camp run by the rebels. The film demonstrates that the conflict is fueled by the diamond industry, as diamonds are illegally exported to Liberia and sold on the world market, with the money being siphoned into the growing rebel forces (in terms of arms). It captures the reality of civil war and growing concern that children are being brainwashed and used as soldiers. Solomon's son becomes an RUF rebel soldier and the film when Solomon find him is especially disturbing. The boy no longer shares an emotional bond with his father and declares him an enemy, one to be captured. 

    I am currently reading a book called 'A Lo

ng Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier' by Ishmael Beah; the book is written by a child soldier from Sierra Leone who was rescued by Unicef and rehabilitated. It is so sad to actually consider this type of thing is happening in the world today. Beah was orphaned by the civil war, on the run through desolate and plundered villages he is eventually captured. There he was, by the age of 12 carrying an AK-47. Pumped up on drugs (Cocaine and marijuana) he was forced to kill or be killed. The boys captured are indoctrinated to be killing machines, they glorify in battle and pass the time watching brutalized american war films such as Rambo. Beah wrote his book to put a human face on the suffering in Sierra Leone. He advocates for the rehabilitation of child soldiers in a desperate plea for the other 300,000 soldiers around the world engaged in conflict today. 

   I was interested in the topic and I googled blood diamond. In relation to diamond trading, blood diamond (or war diamond, conflict diamond, hot diamond) refers to a diamond mined in a war zone and sold to finance insurgency, rebel groups or a warlords activities, usually in Africa. There are numerous incidences of these types of diamonds entering the world market from all over Africa. There was controversy when the film was first produced between De Beers, the South African diamond mining and trading company who maintained that the trade in conflict diamonds had been reduced from 4% to 1% of total purchases. Furthermore, De Beers may or may not have pushed for a disclaimer to show the events of the film were fictional and outdated. What I was wondering is there a market for 'conflict-free' diamonds? The UN issued sanctions in attempt to control the export of these war diamonds in 2000. The General assembly recognized that diamonds are a crucial factor in prolonging brutal wars in Africa.

  

"It has been said that war is the price of peace...Angola and Sierra Leone have already paid too much. Let them live a better life." As put by Juan Larrain, Chairman of the monitoring mechanisms and sanction against the rebel group UNITA. 

I am interested to learn more about conflict in Africa. In the new year I am taking a politics of Africa as well as a history of Africa starting during colonization. It remains as one of the most war ravaged continents in he world. Everyday headlines surface about the dire state of Somalia, the Congo and Sudan. What is the best option for these countries? When will it end? Does foreign aid help or exasperate the problem?

I highly recommend both the film and the novel... Both will open your eyes to the reality of the situation in Africa, although the film may or may not be a bit sensationalized/ over sentimental as you sympathize with Leo...the facts are there. 

Signing out,

-Delilah

HHHHEEELLLLOOOOO Out There....Hhhheeelloo?

Good-evening Ladies and Gentlemen;

Broadcasting live from the wintry northern hemisphere, this is Delilah Baron and Jack Nitrozor, here to bring you for the first time ever...a first hand account of what the secret to the universe actually is...Drum roll please....dudududududududuuunnnnn.......42!

Now that we have got your attention,

Who are we!? We are two University students and this is our blog describing our views on politics, religion, the environment, books, movies, recipes, good, evil, up, down, orange, blue and everything in between. If you find our views controversial we invite you to join in and debate.

Hope to talk to you soon! More to come shortly,

Signing out...

-Delilah + Jack