He who praises you for what you lack wishes to take from you what you have.

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it.
  - Mary Wilson Little

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”
- Ernest Benn

(Yes it was stolen from the Google Quote of the day)

Amazing how that fits to every single level of politics that I’ve ever been familiar with. From inner-group politics, Sikhi, Federal, Provincial, Municipal. everywhere. Even after listening to politicians speak on a daily basis about the “wrong” in our society that they intend to fix. After taking a look at it, doesn’t really seem like there is much wrong, and this goes for everything you can possibly think of. The danger of a seasoned politician is they bite into a really tight knot, at whatever point they perceive to be the weakest, hold on as tight and just pull. They may need to adjust here or there, but sooner or later if they keep pulling things will un-ravel and when that strong knot comes loose, well then they’re free to make whatever adjustments they see fit.. But then again end of the day, we’re all politians to some degree, so we can either play the cards in our favour or against us, that is one choice entirely left on how we choose to play the game.

Ever since his designation as India’s PM, I’ve always been sceptical of Manmohan Singhs abilities to really serve the Sikh community. While many jumped and continue to jump with joy thinking that in some perverted way we have once again achieved Khalsa Raaj I can only continue to shake my head at the blind ignorance shown by our people.

I was going around the net and came across something written by, Omali Yeshitela who is a prominent figure and passionate speaker in the continuing civil rights movement in the US, which I feel really sums up whats happening today to Sikhs in India, and even across the world. The speech is from one of his works titled, Resistance of African People, Crisis of Imperialism: Why We must Build the National People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement.

I included the live audio portion which was copped from the Dead Prez intro, and a copy of the written speech that I copped from this other mans blog.

I’m told the Native People in the Arctic, in order to kill wolves take a sharp knife, melt the ice, and bury the handle in the ice and let it freeze over with the blade projecting up. They would cover the blade with blood. Wolves would smell the blade and come to try to eat. They would lick the blade. When they licked the blade they would cut their tongues and they would drink their own blood. They really were thinking that they had a lot to eat then, and of course they were drinking their own blood and killing themselves in the process.

One thing though that I do question though is how much of it is the oppressed (the wolves fault). Where Yeshitela blames the oppressor for everything, which is understandable, but there comes a time when the wolf needs to take responsibility. The first time sure, we were. (it [the wolf] was), ignorant about what was happening, but after everything that’s happened and to still remain ignorant crosses over into the realm of stupidity. We need to take more responsibility for our actions but convincing others about being this ignorant has proved to be no easy task. After all how do you convince the other wolves who continue to lick the blade, that its no good, considering they can bare witness to the hundreds of dead wolves around them. This problem stems into so many different branch’s in Sikhi, there are so many different blades that we continue to cut ourselves with, yet even after realization of this self mutilation we continue on, and keep repeating the same mistakes of yesterday, and then wonder why things got this way.

It all comes back to learning from our history, which no one seems ready to do. Thus repeating the same mistakes that we vowed to never let happen again happen right under our watch. So much for least we forget. I can understand the whole moving forward concept, but how can one move forward until the pains of yesterday have yet to be acknowledged. Basically,

Sins must be forgiven before they are truly let go, penance must be made and forgiveness must be asked for. The past, for better or worse is a shadow that gets longer as the day goes on. It follows our every footstep and though we may forget that we have a shadow it nonetheless is behind us every step we take. No matter how far we run or how far we go, there will always be a shadow looming and following, always one step behind so that if we happen to look back we will be forced to remember or we can choose to forget.

[The Joint: Enemy Tactics]

My Brother and I against My Cousin; My Cousin and I against the Stranger.

My feelings toward Otpreka Singh’s latest article. Check it out if you havn’t already.

“Why are we making a special exception for one religion?” asked Levant. “I know why. Because Christians, when they’re upset, they write a letter to the editor. Radical Muslims, when they’re upset, burn down embassies.”

Just goes to show, that if you want things done, peaceful protests, writing letters only go so far. You really want to make things happen you got to,

You gotta snap some collars and let them motherf@#@s know you here to take them out anytime you feel like it! You gotta get the ground beneath your feet, partner, get the wind behind your back and go out in a blaze if you got to! Otherwise you ain’t shit! You might as well be dead your damn self!

Or as Niccolo Machiavelli said -

Nevertheless a Prince should inspire fear in such a fashion that if he do not win love he may escape hate.