People and places

I wonder if there is a magic in the spirit of places, streets or cities, some grow deep roots in people's soles. What is this magic? Does it come from the solid constructed soil and sand, the metals and the shiny glassy walls? Or it comes from us; human beings and the events that take place there?
I am standing in a corner, in Washington square, NYC; watching the crowd, it moves like a giant wave. I spot Jeremy and Simon among the crowd. Jeremy is a tourist from San Francisco. He was rubbed last night by a group of youngsters, right there. He hates that spot, even Manhattan and the big apple. And Simon is walking there too. He is a New Yorker. He used to love Washington square, because he met Angela in the same spot five years ago. She was his greatest love ever. But they broke up three years later. He was in pain and sorrow for a long time. It took him more than two years to get over her. Since then this monument reminds him Angela and the grief he went through.

But we know that Washington square has been the same for decades, no matter who is passing by or how we feel about it.

My new homeland, my former enemy's friend.

It is ironic few weeks after I received my Canadian citizenship and I relocated to Montréal/Quebec I saw this documentary about Gerald Bull on CBC's Fifth estate. I found his finger prints all over my nightmares back in a big slice of my and many others' lives:

If and when arms inspectors return to Iraq, they will be on the lookout for all kinds of biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction (See "The Secret Killer"). But they will also be looking at Saddam Hussein's conventional arsenal. And experts predict they may just come upon blueprints - maybe even fingerprints - belonging to the late Gerald Bull. Once a darling of the North American defense establishment, Canadian Gerald Bull spent his last years in exile in Belgium, dreaming up powerful weapons and selling his designs to whomever he chose. And though his life ended in a hail of bullets a decade ago, his legacy lives on...CBC Newsworld - Fifth estate
During the Iran-Iraq war we were living hundreds miles away from the front line, but once in a while Saddam bombed Tehran or fired missiles toward the capital. Many civilians were killed. We were living in a state of fear for 8 years, though we were the lucky ones, never mind about those who got killed or paralyzed. Here is the ironic part, those missiles were crafted by a Canadian astrophysicist, Gerald Bull. He began researching and developing the predecessors of those missiles back in 1960s in McGill university here in Montréal.
I remember vividly on a weekend night, one of those missiles hit a 4 storey building in a busy residential area. That night there was a birthday party in that building and more than 40 kids were burnt to ashes instantly.

The truth is...

Now that Bush's party has taken over all the three power spots, god knows how far he's gonna go with his aggression. Now he has all the supports and he is gonna monkey around more and more. It's ironic that many Americans indicate that Bush is not that nation's actual choice (I remember watching a debate on BBC channel weeks ago, when Michael Moore was asked about Bush's foreign policy, he said first of all he is not a legitimate president; and he began ranting about the Florida ballots). With all due respect to Amircans like Michael Moore, I disagree about illegitimacy of Mr. Bush, they have shown over and over that rednecks like Bush or Reagan are their choice and, oops they did it again. Americans knew that if the Republicans win this week election, Bush will get more support for his yahooing in his foreign policies and they gave him this support, quite consciously and deliberately.