Portraits Of Denial

Stayed up late to catch the news on TV3 last night. Laughed throughout. Everything happening in the world now is an ongoing tragickal-comedy (or comickal-tragedy). Kinda like Mr. Punch (but without Judy - although the Devil is sure having a field day).

Latest Soundbites From Bolehland:

Pak Lah and Najib both gave speeches saying that Anwar was "bluffing" because it's September 16th but BN is still in power. By "in power", they of course mean that:

(i) The guy tasked to reform the law/judiciary system just quit because he knew that it's a lost cause trying to reform anything with the present administration in power.

(ii) They are so powerful that they can redefine the role of the ISA. In Malaysia, if the government wants to protect you, they will first brand you a "disturber of the peace" or a "local terrorist" (since that was what the ISA was for, right?). In Bolehland, protection and unlawful imprisonment means the same thing.

(iii) In power = PM & DPM both giving their assurances that "kerajaan kita teguh" while looking like they just shat in their pants. ("Oh, thankfully Anwar is going for the negotiations route otherwise we'll have to start moving our stuff out of office today...!")

(iv) SAPP is standing with DAP in public gatherings and even MCA/Gerakan are speaking up against the ruling coalition's policies regarding race, religion and the use of the ISA. This is what "in power" means!

(v) "In power" means that a cute Sin Chew reporter is as threatening to the nation as the whole Parti Komunis Malaysia and that a botak-blogger who speaks to the pasar-malam crowd is considered the most dangerous insurrectionist in the country.

What do I think?

(i) I'm no supporter of PKR or Anwar. I distrust politicians in general - even when they come with noble aspirations and tempting words. Having said that, I think that the ruling coalition have been in power for simply too long a time. A change of government is not a bad thing - especially when those in power have already let it go to their heads (hence the silliness that we are treated to on a daily basis) and they've largely lost their credibility already.

(ii) If PKR wants to take over, please do it quickly and spare us the endless comedy by the usual gang of idiots (no, I'm not referring to the editorial board of "MAD Magazine"!) with their endless "assurances" and "arrests" (for protection purposes, of course).

Problem was, the Soundbites didn't end there. I was then given Soundbites from America:

Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and AIG were the biggest "tai-kors" in the financial world. We are told that they are now in serious trouble.

Enter: Bank of America, Federal Reserve, Bank of England and the European Central Bank to the rescue.

"Don't worry. We'll just print more money and lend them to you to tide you through this financial crisis that will last until 2010!"

AIG, the largest insurer the world has ever known, took a US$80 billion loan from the Federal Reserve (there's no reserve, my friends - it's simply a privately-owned company with the rights to print US money to "lend" to Americans and bleed the Americans and tax-payers dry) while debt-investors are chasing AIG for payments of anything from US$13 billion onwards.

Merrill Lynch has been taken over by the Bank of America (that is really not owned by Americans at all - get the joke yet?!?).

Lehman Brothers? Dissected and fed to the wolves (I mean, Barclays, ICICI, etc.)

In crude terms, the fuckers have become the fuckees. Or the fucked. Or they're all just fucking with each other. Why do we even listen to these so called economists and experts. They've created a monstrous-system that is way out-of-control (read: secretly controlled by the Elites on top) so much that even financial giants are among those who are fucked.

In the midst of all these happenings, both presidential candidates McCain and Obama assured the nation that "ekonomi and kerajaan kami masih teguh". McCain is still trying to sell it on the basis of American-gutso and Obama is still talking about "change" and "the audacity of hope".

Are you tired of being lied to?

The liars are not even trying very hard anymore!

The lies are no longer even convincing or creative!

Some of us have even stopped laughing.

Postscript: Denial is not just the name of a stupid river in Egypt.