The End of the World

Many people have predicted the end of the world in as many different ways.

Some thought that the world would end in the year 2000, others have predicted the year 2012 and some thought it would happen when they activated the Large Hadron Collider... the means of the world ending range from the wrath of nature, the effects of the irreversible degradation of the environment (e.g. Global Warming), collisions with large celestial bodies, and from being sucked into a man made black hole...

But... by some miracle... we as a species seem to have escaped at least some of those predicted ends... although the others do appear to be ticking time bombs...

You want to know what I think will cause the end of the world?

I think our end is not going to be because of anything external... at the rate we are going... we will likely wipe our race off the face of this earth with our own hands...

In case you have not understood... I am talking about the specter of war...

Do you know that there are more than a dozen active war-zones in the world today? (This is not even including many of the conflicts in Africa)... Here are some I know from off the top of my head... and the affected regions...

1] Arab-Israeli Conflict: Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories and Syria

2] Somali Civil War: Somalia

3] Afghan War: Afghanistan, Pakistan

4] War in Darfur: Sudan

5] Iraq War: Iraq

6] Mexican Drug War: Mexico

7] Colombian Armed Conflict: Colombia

8] Communist and Islamic Insurgency in the Philippines: Philippines

9] Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir: India

10] Naxalite-Maoist Insurgency: India

11] Balochistan Conflict: Pakistan

12] Conflict in the Niger Delta: Nigeria

13] Fourth Civil War in Chad: Chad

Some of these conflicts involve nuclear armed foes. When you add the specter of terrorism to this volatile mix... the threat of terrorists obtaining even one of the massive stockpile of nuclear weapons being hoarded by the world powers... the grim picture emerges...

A single nuclear weapon in the wrong hands.... a single error of judgement by a commander of the armed forces of the nuclear armed countries could mean the difference between life and death for practically all of mankind... This is not mere Cold War hysteria... This is a cold hard fact...

They say that the Arms Race had ended... when they should be saying it has only just begun... Whether for self defense or for aggressive purposes... the ranks of nuclear armed countries have only grown over the last half century.... not shrunk.... the potency of these weapons has not been reduced... but increased... Currently... it is said that Iran and N. Korea may be on the verge of obtaining these weapons... (well... apparently N. Korea already has them...)...

Given the expansionist tendencies of most of the nuclear armed powers (India included)... things only look more grim... the race for obtaining nuclear weapons has also spawned an even more frenetic race to build better conventional weapons systems... It is estimated that as a whole... mankind had upwards of 1400 BILLION dollars on 'defense' related expenditures in the year 2008... that figure has only risen... and it likely does not fully account for the untold billions spent on research and development... but most importantly... that number does not account for the man hours spent by the worlds most brilliant minds searching for new ways for men to kill each other... rather than saving each other... or trying to solve issues of world hunger, global warming and the like...

The New START initiatives by the American and Russian governments give me hope... but only a glimmer... the fact is that even after the reductions... they will both retain enough nuclear weapons to destroy the entire world many times over... not to mention all of the production facilities and materials to make many thousands more....

Closing Note

I have no real message to send here... this is just my view on the question of how the world could someday end...

Unless some steps are taken by the people in the position to do so... I think that we wont be around long enough to have to worry about Global Warming and environmental degradation...

Given my small audience... I don't think this will have much more effect than alleviating that urge I get to yell this out loud in public when people start to talk about how some hypothetical scenario will cause the end of the world...

This is not to say that Global Warming is less of a threat to the survival of the world as we know it... its just not as immediate... nor will it be as quick to kill...

Fly Daddy Fly

Writer: Based on a novel by Kaneshiro Kazuki (Japanese born Korean Novelist).

Director: Choi Jong Tae

Cast: Lee Jun Ki, Lee Moon Sik

Plot Synopsis:

The movie starts off showing us the daily life of Jhang Ga Pil (Moon Sik). Jhang is a salaryman in his 40's and is married with a 17 year old daughter. The family are seen to share close relationships and Jhang dotes on his daughter. One day he receives word that his daughter is in hospital. He rushes there to find her badly hurt... the victim of a brutal assault by a group of young men.

In the hospital, Jhang is approached by a man who claims to be an official of a prestigious school. The man offers him money and tells him that he will also pay the hospital expenses in full if Jhang Pil overlooks the 'indiscretion' of one of his students. The student in question happens to be a rising star in the world of boxing and is also from a well connected family. The man warns Jhang that if he 'raises a fuss' then it would only lead to defamation of his daughter and that they could easily create rumors that would ruin her public image and credibility.

Jhang is forced to accept this deal under duress, but he vows to take his revenge. To prove that he is not a coward and will do anything for his family, he decides to physically attack his daughter's tormentor. When he approaches the offenders school, he drops the knife that he was concealing and causes a ruckus by brandishing it at random students.

Jhang is then accosted by Go Seung Suk (Lee Jun Ki), a rebellious high school student with talent for fighting who proceeds to knock him out. When he awakens, Seung Suk chides him for his cowardice in bringing a knife to the school and sends him on his way. However when he encounters Jhang once more trying to attack the offender, Seung Suk offers to train him so that he can have a face to face confrontation with the boxer.

The movie follows his training and leads up to a final confrontation between Jhang and the assailant. It also focuses on the growing bond between Jhang and Seung Suk...

My Thoughts:

Acting: Well there was a fair share of overacting at times, but I thought most of the actors did a great job and the cast was supremely well chosen since they all fit their roles perfectly, both in terms of appearance and acting ability. Moon Ski did a fine job portraying the emotions of a father who is enraged but at the same time helpless to persecute his daughters tormentor. There were many scenes in the movie where he made me empathize with him. The final scene where he tosses an envelope of money in the face of the school official and tells him exactly the same thing that the official had said to him in the hospital was EPIC! Well... I thought so anyway...

Story: I loved the story. Sure its a bit cheesy and follows the formula of an underdog overcoming the odds, but it was well executed. It appealed to me... it was an example of an ordinary man deciding to make a stand against a powerful foe and deciding that "Enough is enough" even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds..

Overall Score: 85% I would say.