the goalkeeper here MUST have seen the ball bouncing way inside the goalline.
it was not just a few inches this way or that
it was in by almost half a yard!

it was so obvious
why could he not admit that he had been beaten?

all he had to do was
pick up the ball and place it behind the line to confirm the goal.

i ask,
if he had done it,
would he have been a fool?
would anyone ever mocked him for it?
more importantly, if they had eventually lost,
would any of his countrymen ever blamed him for being honest?

now in his mind he must know he was truly beaten
perhaps he admits it to his conscience too.

had the goal been allowed, it could have changed the outcome of the match.
that is the only doubt that will remain for ever
for no one can ever doubt it was a goal

do we really need more technology in sport
if the players themselves can be honest and admit their mistakes or having been beaten?

where is then the morality in sport?
where is fair play?

fairplayWorld CupfootballManuel Neuer

it will be 40 years tomorrow,
two men went to the moon

and returned safely back to earth

I was a young boy in Calcutta then
Calcutta had no TVs – no stations no broadcasting
I was forbid from tuning in on the radio late at night
but it could not keep me away from
the excitement
the enthusiasm
the anticipation tinged with fear
I had to wait sleepless nights to read expedition news in the morning papers

my world could no longer be the same
my mind could only look up and beyond,
my mind had embarked on an adventure of my own
to explore the wonders of space, the universe
wonders of the unknown

I was so very young when I heard this song
I loved the tune

Written by John Stewart
I heard the version sung by the American singer Lobo
I could not find either of their versions on youTube – so I give you this

ARMSTRONG

- Words By John Stewart © Bug Music, INC. / Burgle Publishing (BMI)

Black boy in Chicago, Playing in the street
Not near enough to wear, Not near enough to eat
Don’t you know he saw it,
On a July afternoon
He saw a man named Armstrong, Walk upon the moon

Young girl in Calcutta, Barely eight years old
The flies that swarm the market place, Will see she don’t get old
Don’t you know she heard it,
On that July afternoon
She heard a man named Armstrong, Had walked upon the moon

The rivers are getting dirty, The wind is getting bad
War and hate are killing off, The only earth we have
But the world all stopped to watch it
On that July afternoon
To watch a man named Armstrong, Walk upon the moon

And I wonder if a long time ago, Somewhere in the universe
They watched a man named Adam
Walk upon the earth

tomorrow
the world will look back 40 years to that day

no longer the young boy,
now I will look all around me before I look up and beyond
on earth
we are still divided, prejudiced and intolerent
we are yet to find unity; find peace for all mankind

for 40 years we have failed to live up to the promise we left behind on the moon.

Apollo11neil+armstrongmoon landing

to question the unexplained wrongs
beliefs blinded by aeons of
superstitions
prejudices
and religions

Faith of the Heart

a song written by Diane Warren
originally performed by Rod Stewart for the soundtrack of the 1998 film Patch Adams
also the opening soundtrack for “Enterprise” – the Star Trek prequel

sung here by Russel Watson.

It’s been a long road
Getting from there to here
It’s been a long time
But my time is finally near

And I can feel the change in the wind right now
Nothing’s in my way
And they’re not gonna hold me down no more
No they’re not gonna hold me down

‘Cause I’ve got faith of the heart
I’m going where my heart will take me
I’ve got faith to believe
I can do anything
I’ve got strength of the soul
And no one’s gonna bend or break me
I can reach any star
I’ve got faith, I’ve got faith, faith of the heart

It’s been a long night
Trying to find my way
Been through the darkness
Now I’ve finally have my day

And I will see my dream come alive at last
I will touch the sky
And they’re not gonna hold me down no more
No they’re not gonna change my mind

I’ve known the wind so cold, and seen the darkest days.
But now the winds I feel, are only winds of change.
I’ve been through the fire and I’ve been through the rain.
But I’ll be fine.

It’s been a long road.

i stumbled back on this song from the

flower power days
when some had the courage to stand up and say no more to violence
when to bring change needed courage and sacrifice
not the sanctimonious voices

younger generation – john sebastian at woodstock

why must every generation think they’re folks are square
and no matter where they’re heads are, they know mom’s aint there.
cause’ I swore when I was small, that I’d remember when
i knew what’s wrong with them that I was smaller then

determined to remember all the cardinal rules
like sunshowers are legal grounds for skipping school
i know I have forgotten maybe one or two
and I hope that I recall them all before the baby’s due
and I’ll know he’ll have a question or two

like hey pop can I go ride my zoom
it goes twohundred miles an hour, suspended on balloons
and can I put a droplet of this new stuff on my tongue
and imagine frothing dragons, while you sit and wreck your lungs
and I must be permissive understanding of the younger generation

and then I know that all I’ve learned my kid assumes
and all my deepest worries must be his cartoons
and still I’ll try to tell him all the things I’ve done
relating to what he can do when he becomes a man
and still he’ll stick his fingers in the fan

and hey pop my girlfriend’s only three
she’s got her own bitty phone
and she is taking lsd
and now that we’re best friends she want’s to give a taste of me
but whats the matter daddy how come you’re looking mean
can it be that you can’t live up to your dreams

40 years and more has gone by, do we even care
what kind of a world we leave behind for the future generations
a world where they still will have to fight for their equal rights, if any at all

not one we can be proud of

[flowerpower: 1967 photograph of George Edgerly Harris III by Bernie Boston]

for the christmas day, for me, is incomplete without
no! not the Queen’s speech,
the frivolous festivities
the roasts with trimmings
the cakes or the puddings
the empty promises on the once a year cards
the slaughtered conifers, the tinsels or the baubles
the meaningless pressies wrapped with countless dead trees

no, it can never be complete without
A Christmas Carol,
gifted to us by Mr Charles Dickens long ago, on 12/19 of 1843

one of the very few things I am grateful to my dad for, for forcing me
to set aside the Scrooge McDuck to know the Ebenezer Scrooge
and the world of Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim …

Mr Dickens did not tell us that there is goodness in the depths of EVERYone of us
no, he tells us, regardless of what we want to delude about ourselves,
the true goodness of the heart, in our world, belongs to the few
Bob Cratchits, the Fans and the Freds.

Christmas?
how can the Christmas’ spirit haunt us if we choose to live only in the instant present
when we are in deep denial of our unpleasant pasts,
and refuse to look at our future?

if you wish to jerktears like you have never tearjerked before
try the 1999 television movie adaptation directed by David Hugh Jones
with Patrick Stewart as Ebenezer Scrooge and Richard E. Grant as Bob Cratchit

So,
a blast from the past as my friend writes to me.
jethro tull
- the lyrics of Ian Anderson to be specific.

I loved this song
since way backwhen –
when (in kolkata) it was considered to be too uncool to even listen to this band.

but Mr Anderson himself explains:

this song was to illustrate how a style of music may go out of popularity
like with every other fashion and fade and then
everything comes back around
and the style rises
again…

being uncool –
is the story of my life – all my life
and words comes around as a reminder

“Too Old To Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young To Die”

The old Rocker wore his hair too long,
wore his trouser cuffs too tight.
Unfashionable to the end     drank his ale too light.
Death’s head belt buckle     yesterday’s dreams
the transport caf’ prophet of doom.
Ringing no change in his double-sewn seams
in his post-war-babe gloom.

Now he’s too old to Rock’n'Roll but he’s too young to die.

He once owned a Harley Davidson and a Triumph Bonneville.
Counted his friends in burned-out spark plugs
and prays that he always will.
But he’s the last of the blue blood greaser boys
all of his mates are doing time:
married with three kids up by the ring road
sold their souls straight down the line.
And some of them own little sports cars
and meet at the tennis club do’s.
For drinks on a Sunday     work on Monday.
They’ve thrown away their blue suede shoes.

Now they’re too old to Rock’n'Roll and they’re too young to die.

So the old Rocker gets out his bike
to make a ton before he takes his leave.
Up on the A1 by Scotch Corner
just like it used to be.
And as he flies     tears in his eyes
his wind-whipped words echo the final take
and he hits the trunk road doing around 120
with no room left to brake.

And he was too old to Rock’n'Roll but he was too young to die.
No, you’re never too old to Rock’n'Roll if you’re too young to die.

2008 AD

the United States of America has elected a black president – their first ever black president.
It is an event I did not expect to see in my lifetime.

I am in disbelief.
Why?

There has been many notable first blacks in the country’s sad and often unpleasant history.

On a day when history is about to be re-written,
I can only think of
one person – Elizabeth Eckford
one school – Little Rock Central High School
and the one event – Little Rock Nine
that never failed to leave me in speechless anger,
everytime I remember
and for as long as I can remember.

Little Rock Nine

1957 AD
Nine students who had been chosen to attend Central High because of their excellent grades.
They were nine black students.
Central High was a racially segregated school.

September 4:
Segregationist “citizens’ councils” threatened to hold protests and physically block the black students from entering the school. The Governor Orval Faubus had deployed the Arkansas National Guard to support the segregationists.

On that first day of school, only one of the nine students – Elizabeth Eckford
showed up because she did not receive the phone call about the danger of going to school.

Elizabeth Eckford is depicted in this photograph taken by Will Counts in 1957

She was harassed by White Americans outside the school, and the police had to take her away in a patrol car to protect her.

September 24:
President Dwight Eisenhower sent in the 101st Airborne to escort nine students to school.

153rd Infantry, a Task Force had to hastily organized taking over the entire operation when the paratroopers left and remained on duty until the end of the school year.

October 3:
Georgia Dortch and Jane Emery,
editors of Central High’s student newspaper The Tiger, editorialize:

“Looking back on this year will probably be with regret that integration could not have been accomplished peacefully, without incident, without publicity.” The editors encourage “each individual to maintain a sensible, peaceful neutrality; to accept the situation without demonstration, no matter what personal views are entertained; and to make these, your years in Little Rock Central High School, the happiest and most fruitful of your academic education.”

How long will it take to finally erase all these memories?

How long does it take to right the wrongs?
Fifty years, it seems, hasn’t been long enough.

The Legacy of Little Rock

Juan Williams Thursday, Sep. 20, 2007

The 50th anniversary of the Little Rock school crisis is a powerful lesson in the complicated calculus of social change.

Earlier this year the U.S. Mint issued a silver dollar commemorating the event, and throughout the anniversary’s week there will be other observations marking this turning point in U.S. history. But the joy will be somewhat muted, for American schools are still nearly as segregated as they were 50 years ago.

Fifty years after U.S. troops had to escort nine black children to school in Little Rock, the issue is still how to take race out of the equation when it comes to educating every American child.

The students had written the editorial fifty years ago.
The observation in the Time US was made only a year ago – fifty years hence.

Equality is not confirmed overnight by the election of a president,
it will come only on the day every American child is truly considered as equals.

Its over to each one of you,
each american citizen …

Americaequality

Paleocontact – the ancient astronaut theories have never been proved.
Or received support within the scientific community.
Neither can it be disproved.

What if
we are the descendents of
or if we have been visited by ancient astronauts –
life forms, or a race, or a civilisation of galactic proportions
from somewhere, it can be almost anywhere, in this infinite universe
or a parallel; or from a dimension imperceptable to our primitive three-D senses?

They left behind for us to follow,
their ways of life
their rules
in the form of a belief system focusing on a system of laws,
the doctrine of an unseen being considered supernatural, sacred, divine, or of the highest truth.
A God! And a religion.

And they created fear in us – so we followed without questioning.

Fear, The Foundation Of Religion

Bertrand Russell | March 6, 1927 | Lecture delivered at the Battersea Town Hall.

Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes.

Fear is the basis of the whole thing — fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand-in-hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things.

What if
we were visited by not one but many of such alien races,
each from a different corner of the universe, each with
different body forms,
different requirements
different mind forms
different principles
different thoughts
different beliefs
different laws
and each of them directed us to follow ONLY their tenets.
Different Gods! As many religions!

What if
these alien life forms
because of their unique xenobiology
had to remain segragated and were/are intolerant of each other
what if in their bigotry they were as bad as one other, if not worse.

What if
they were the Gods or the descendents of
and those they could not tolerate or fought and killed were the evil – the Devil.

What if
ONLY their own home world or solar system or their galaxy was to be our Heaven
and every galaxy outside their domain was
Hell!

What if
what we have done for centuries
is simply perpetuate the bigotry and conflict of galactic proportions.
and without questioning have followed “On earth, as it is in heaven(s)” –
each religion dreaming of a different heaven – of a different galactic empire.

Bertrand Russell
In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by the help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion, against the churches, and against the opposition of all the old precepts.

Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has lived for so many generations. Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead of the sort of place that the churches in all these centuries have made it.

We are now capable of creating monstrous tunnels to recreate a nanoscopic ‘big bang’ – at a staggering cost of €3.2–6.4 billion that would have fed the hungries of this world till kingdom come.

Yet we do not have the courage to apply our knowledge to question or explain the no longer “supernatural” events of centuries ago. Or to shelve our ancient beliefs and practices and form a new religion, that is relevent to what we are now, and where we wish to go in our future.

A code of conduct to live by, a terrestrial religion.
A religion of Earth, created by earthpeople and for all earth’s inhabitants.

religionancient astronaut

what ifs?

are the results of an idle mind drifting laterally
from and along the thoughts and beliefs of the norm, cannot be proved, cannot be disproved either – littleindian

.. as we believe, we the humans are not the superior beings?

Never at the top of the food chain, but the very end of it?

Like the fodder will never recognise the predator,
like the grass that will never know what the cattle looks like,
or like the tree is unaware that it’s parts are deemed a delicacy,
what if we too are oblivious of the reality of our existence
we do not recognise our predators?

What if our predators are from a different universe or a different dimension,
perhaps even a different reality?
What if we are just being herded in a human farm – the Earth?
Being fattened only to be harvested as sustenance of an even superior entity?

Like we relish flesh, blood and muscles of other lifeforms
what if it is our souls,
(and of all life-forms known or still alien,)
that somewhere in space-time is being savoured and relished ?

All our souls
dripping with our egos, greed, vanity, thirst for wealth and for power,
the fortune of the victorius ruler exulting at the anguish of the vanquished,
will all one day come to nothing more than just an appetiser at a celestial banquet?

Just a thought,

what ifs?

are the results of an idle mind drifting laterally
from and along the thoughts and beliefs of the norm, cannot be proved, cannot be disproved either – littleindian

anthropomorphic
pron: AHD: ăn’thrə-pə-môr′fĭk
having the form of a man

ASIMO
an acronym for
“Advanced Step in Innovative MObility”

is a humanoid robot
created by Honda Motor Company.
height: 130 centimeters (4 feet 3 inches)
weight: 52 kilograms (119 lbs.),
resembling a small astronaut with a backpack
it can walk on two feet in a manner
resembling human locomotion
at a speed up to 6 km/h (3.7 mph).

A humanoid robot
is a robot whose appearance
is based on that of the human body.
They have a torso with a head,
two arms and two legs, and
may have a ‘face’, with ‘eyes’ and ‘mouth’.

Androids resemble a male human,
Gynoids are built to resemble a human female.
Actroid are humanoid robot with strong graphic human-likeness.

ASIMO is the current model
in a line of eleven that began in 1986 with E0.

Should we consider these as eleven separate ‘creations’
or is the robot ‘evolving’ into more ‘intelligent’ forms.

If us humans, organic beings,
still in our infancy of science and technology
can create an “inorganic being” which can perform desired tasks
in unstructured environments and without continuous human guidance.

Is it just possible,
that somewhere in this infinite universe,
13.7 billion (1.37 × 1010) years from the time of the Big Bang
there are some ‘forms’ organic or inorganic or unknown otherwise
that may have the capabilities to create with materials we know as organic?
What if we were also created to resemble the body forms of our creators,
just like our own humanoid and actroid creations?

Was Adam such a creation?
Was Eve genetically tweaked ‘clone‘ from cells taken from his rib.

Created from stardust, then are we too of alien origin?

Did our alien ancestors land and settled in Africa, and gradually spread?
Is that why mitochondrial population genetics, maps the early human migrations
originating from only one single continent?

roboticscreationismevolution human beingsalien ancestors

what ifs?

are the results of an idle mind drifting laterally
from and along the thoughts and beliefs of the norm, cannot be proved, cannot be disproved either – littleindian