Lately, I haven't been bothered by world issues except for the Gaza conflict. Oh, and there's the first black President of the United States too, congratulations to him on stamping his name in the pages of history, I bet the future history textbooks would mention his name alot. It's amazing, who would've thought the US would be headed by a black guy but he has a lot of work to do, I wish him luck on that.

The word "boycott" is used much lately and even I was dragged into it, through discussion. My stand was, it's a bit too late to boycott anything and rather than wasting energy promoting and encouraging boycott, people should direct all that energy into supporting local brands or alternative brands.

I tried to picture the event from both sides: those who agree with the boycott and those who disagreed.

For those who agree with the boycott, their main reasons would be:

Those who disagree will say:

I am against violence in any manner used on innocent civilians and especially children. No child should live through such trauma and atrocities.

I do not condone the act of Israel using their superior military power against a small group of rebels nor do I agree with the act of Hamas firing rockets.

I find it saddening whenever I discuss this issue, people would attack me for not looking at the Israelites side and supporting Hamas when I was only trying to reason out why people opt boycotting. I have always believed in delving into the views of both sides before giving my stand or opinion as I think it is only fair that everyone's view are taken into account.

My view on the conflict? I put both sides at fault, plus the Great Britain for their agreement with both the Arabs and Zionists which personally (there's no professionalism in here) I think, is the cause of all this. The Muslims should do like what the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did during his time, agreed to a truce even though the conditions were blatantly not in the Muslims favour. I think this was the Hudaibiyah agreement, if I'm not mistaken.

Like I've said before, people should focus their energy on promoting local brands or alternative brands at least and the local brands should take this to their advantage. Rather than saying "Boycott *insert name of country*!!!", they should instead say, "Buy local brands or use this products instead of *insert name of boycotted products*". The local brands should also consider a rebranding strategy, in my country, they are obviously targeting the Muslim consumers only with names like Safi, Najwa, etc, etc. They should widen their focus, I myself have used some of these local brands and they worked as fine as the international brands.

This rage of boycotting amongst MOST of the Muslim community are blind rage, they never did their research on the companies which were mentioned by various sources (and disputable ones too). I'm sure that more than 70% would resume using the boycotted products once the coverage on the conflict subsides. These people don't have a strategy for a systematic boycott and they forget that the Palestinians are comprised not only of Muslims but also other religions too, though their numbers have been greatly reduced since the past 60 years.

The non-muslims in my country, from those I've encountered, would care less about the conflict because it doesn't mean anything to them, even if it meant children being shot at. Why do this happen? It's the Muslims fault, they act as if this is a religous thing when it is not, and most of them label Jews as Zionists, gladly label them as pigs, curse them openly, damn them to hell, calling them the root of all evil and whatnot. This is the reason why the war will never end.

I will openly condemn them and tell them off when I see people condemning the Jews. The Jews have had their share of oppression, they were persecuted and hunted down during the anti-Semitic times and the Holocaust. It is the Zionist movement which are the ones governing Israel now (of whom should take the blame too) and they are only a minority in the Jewish community (uhh, I think so, I have to check again). People should not label the Jews as pigs and whatnot, they also condemn the act of the Zionists oppressing the Palestinians. The mindset of most of the Muslims in my country thinks that all Jews are at fault, which is very worrying so to speak.

The Muslims, who are the followers of the religion of peace should condemn all war, and not only the ones affecting their brethren. During the South Ossetia conflict, not many Muslims I know condemn the war, some didn't even know that it was happening. There weren't any funds raised for the South Ossetians, no posters going against the war, no demonstrations and this in a way, showed that Muslims only care for their own kin. This point has been used by many to attack the Muslims and I do think that Muslims should fix this issue.

Through various discussions, I've changed my stand to boycotting is not too late to be done but that we should focus more on developing local brands.

Hitherto, everyone should work towards peace and try to stop the war, taking sides will not work as the fault of this current conflict lies in both sides. People should think about the children, the mothers, the elderly, and the innocent civilians. They should think about humanity, this is no more an issue of religious differences, this is for the future of the generations to come. We do not want more children growing up in rubbles, we do not want children turning shrapnels and empty bullets into toys, we do not want more children fearing whether they could live through the day.

I've been MIA for a very long time but now I'm here I don't even know what to type about. Guess I'll do a come back post with a personal one.

I noticed a spike in the number of visitors, all looking for Yuna's chords (feedjit is amazing) and some came by searching for Koko Kaina. I hope the chords I transcribed helped them and made them happy, it's always nice to see a smile on someone's face (though I can't really see them). I hope that soon enough, I would hear people playing and humming to Yuna's and Miss Zee Avi's songs instead of my country's radio crap.

I wonder when is Miss Zee Avi is performing again and when her album is exactly coming out, God, I think I'm becoming like a teenage girl who's addicted to her favorite boy-band. I can't even explain why I'm like this.

Anyway, I'm officially 20 now, two decades or one-fifth of a century living as Nico, I should be grateful, not many had the chance to even reach this age.

I thank my family, friends and roommates for celebrating my birthday, it was a joy to have them around by my side during my birthday even though some were living very far away.

Somehow, I'm shrouded with fear, the fear of not getting any university in the US. I've been through disappointments that discouraged me from putting my hopes high in anything. I dreamt of getting into a normal high school, miss the bus sometimes, walking back home from school with my friends, planning and organizing events, going out with my friends during weekends, and spending my free time not studying. Instead, I went to boarding school and lived a repetitive and mundane life. My first two years was the most stressful and most agonizing times of my life and the remaining three was the same though lesser in impact but enough to the point that I refuse to acknowledge of any memories being there. Life there, though there were a few joy and excitements, but it was shadowed by frustrations and disappoinments I went through and not to mention the physical pain and torture I've received. Sometimes, when I painfully look back, I felt my teenage life was robbed away but I have to keep reminding myself that that's life.

I was given the chance to live that high school dream when I thought it was impossible: I was to go for a student exchange in Russia. I can't describe how elated I was when I received the news, it truly was a dream come true. Though it was only for one year, it was enough for me but even that... even that I didn't get. I was to have only three months, no, less than that, not enough to do much or even speak to my Russian friends properly about simple things.

To some, my life might not be as depressing as theirs, but in a way everyone has their own definition of the word disappointment and for me, it's enough for me to cast doubt over my own future. Maybe I won't get a university and if that happens, I don't know what to do, everyone thinks that I'm definitely going and they keep asking me when I'll be going there. At times, I ask myself, am I really going? How would I face everyone if I don't get a university? My parents have high hopes for me and that alone burdens me much.

There are times when I wished I wasn't given this gift of "above-average" brain and there are times I am grateful for it.

Even so, this is but a personal thought, I do not wish, nay, I want no advices or anyone's thought on this. Only a personal rambling, a cloud in my heart that I wish to let go since I do not have a pet to talk to or a diary to write in or anything that is not human that I could confide in with. It's funny that though I have the desire to express all this to something without feelings but yet I resort to a blog. Maybe it's a deep desire to reach out to someone but then, I only wish to let this go without any response from the one listening. Perhaps next time I should just go somewhere dark and quiet with my guitar and sing my heart out.

I wanted to make this private but I can't, it's not like livejournal. So I hope no one replies to this or talk to me about this. Like I said, it's just a rambling, I didn't even give a thought about it, neither should you.

So, another year awaits me and I'll be waiting for surprises, disappointments, happy moments and whatnot as I watch another year pass by me slowly.