France bans all public prayer

It has become state law in France to ban all public prayers. As of Friday 16th of September 2011, no prayers shall be conducted in public. This move has brought up a lot of controversy in the country as the main religion affected is the Islamic faith; a faith that is widely believed by its followers to be targeted by right wing European governments.

A link to the Al Jazeera coverage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ne-pT9XjnE&feature=feedu

Muslims gather to pray 5 times a day, their maximum numbers are often during Friday noon prayers; the numbers which exceed the capacity of their masjids and thus pray outside in public. The move is seen by many to be targeting those who over-flood the masjids and pray outside, many feel the move is trying to prevent people from praying. Many "religious leaders" have asked the government for more space as the worshipers would not be flooding the streets should there be enough space to pray in. This brings up the notion that if the government does not provide the space nor allow prayer outside then they are effectively preventing people from praying. This along with other moves such as the banning of 'burkas' "for security reasons" is creating a feeling of defensiveness against Islamophobia.

In my opinion, I don't believe that the Muslim community should be bothered too much by this just as they were not bothered by the Burka ban. The move has been placed on all forms of worship and thus should be assumed that other religions must comply. Also, the move is not a direct prevention of prayer. I feel the same sentiments that my brothers and sisters feel: "they're trying to stop us" or "they hate that they see us praying in numbers", this may well be true, but we should not let it get to us. Simply follow the proper procedures and ask for more space, wouldn't it be great to get a grand masjid in the middle of Paris? That seems far-fetched but if that is blocked the true intentions would be clear. European governments as a whole need to understand that Muslims are part of Europe now, the governments are the ones that invited the immigrants! Live together or turn into the Nazis and treat Muslims like they treated the Jews.

It's really just about aliens...

Although a very late release here in the UAE, Cowboys vs. Aliens was the hot movie to watch this week. Unfortunately it was another example of 'Good trailer, Mediocre Movie'. The trailer really gave me a completely different impression about what the movie was going to be like. It was as if the trailer was about a completely different movie. It was such a great concept that was ruined by either bad screenplay or directing; sad to see Spielberg's name on the crew list.

A lot of times in the film you would be led on to believe that some things are going to be important in the movie. For instance, at the beginning we realize that the protagonist (Daniel Craig/Jake Lanargan) is checking the hammer of a gun he picked up, this shows that he knows his guns, but whats the point of showing that if he hardly ever uses the gun in the movie. The movie lost its western element as soon as the Aliens arrived. I was really enjoying the movie up until they began to track the runaway. Craig loses the aura of his character, other characters also lose their initial first impressions, for example, The Colonel was portrayed in the beginning to be a hard and ruthless cattle herder that practically reigns over the town, by the end of the movie ,although ever-present, there is absolutely no sign of that perception in the movie.

I have to say I was disappointed with this movie. I've always told myself to never judge a movie by it's trailer, but I let this one get to me. If you're looking to watch this movie don't keep your expectations high, and if you're not looking to watch it, you're not missing out.

Space Monkeys

So the title is clearly not the perfect one for the movie 'Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes', but honestly, when you hear the real title isn't that what hits your head? Monkeys on a planet in space?

Two reasons why my chosen title doesn't fit. Firstly, because the movie is clearly about 'Apes' and not 'monkeys', the movie states that out so people don't get confused, they want to get technical about these things. The second reason is that nothing happens in space; absolutely nothing, the setting is completely on Earth. Now although the prequel (or sequel?) to this movie can more or less carry my proposed title it still wasn't about monkeys. Unfortunately, I was a little lost as to how both these films' story lines were connected and there were clearly a lot of things that were placed to keep audience in a wow state; clearly illogical though.

I don't care how smart a monkey, sorry, ape can get, even if somehow it manages to get a virus like the one in the movie, it can't learn to be an ace disk thrower, javelin thrower, and pro horse rider, in a matter of minutes. Contrary to the principle of the movie, that the apes are smarter, jumping through windows is not a very smart thing to do, especially if you're jumping from stories high. I understand that apes are capable of landing safely from high places but honestly I don't think they'd make it from 7 stories high.

A final note: the concept of the film was believable, monkeys would be capable of a lot of things had they become much smarter, but I personally believe that no matter how smart an animal can become, there is no way it could overcome instinct. Although apes do move in packs (chimps hunt in packs), I don't believe gorillas are able to overcome their dominant instincts and follow the lead of chimpanzees. It's also hard to believe that there wouldn't be any internal struggle among the chimps.

Also the movie slogan sucked... 'Evolution becomes Revolution' come on, really?

12/9/2011 Edit: I forgot to mention that I still thought it was a fun movie to watch : P

Re-love-ution

Since I haven't watched anything in the cinema for over a month, I apologize to my readers for not posting in a long time. I'll be writing something a little different this time; finally some politics.

In a couple of days, the 10th anniversary of 9/11 will be upon us, unfortunately, it still feels like it only happened a couple of years ago. I remember stepping down from my room and into the living room only to see on television two tall buildings engulfed in smoke, that night I stayed up late simply to follow up on all the news that was going on surrounding the events; I was 12. It wasn't an event that only affected Americans but everyone in the world. This past decade has been difficult for everyone. With that said, a lot of people thought that this decade would be made easier with 8 years of Bush rule ending and a new era with Obama; sadly not.

I remember the day 'change' came to America, the day everyone in the world rejoiced that a black man was voted as President of the United States of America, the day everyone rejoiced but me. I like conspiracy theories and always thought that Obama was always going to win simply because I thought it would be good PR for America. The war on terror raged on, and Obama knew all the right things to say about Muslims, Guantanamo was supposed to be taken down, the troops were supposed to go home, and there was supposed to be less war. Unfortunately none of that happened, and I always argued with people about how I knew it was never going to happen. Sure, Iraq has far less soldiers than there ever was, but those soldiers were simply taken from there and into Afghanistan, and Pakistan became a new US front in the War on Terror. Ironically, for the first time in my life probably, although I'm not American, I'm rooting for a candidate in the elections; Republican and Congressman, Ron Paul.

No more troops outside of America, No more income tax, back to the gold standard, no more Federal Reserve, No more outside spending, and balanced budgets. All these intentions have been heard before, but Ron Paul actually adds logic that I like to hear: "They wouldn't be coming after us if we weren't in their countries to begin with. " or "The reason we're in debt is because we're trying to run an empire and borrowing money in order to keep running it. " I'm not going to keep this blog running for long but here's my two cents: if I were American, I'd vote for Ron Paul, he's sticking to the principles of the constitution that people in the whole world are able to respect, something that most American politicians have lost ages ago and especially in this past decade; reminds me of a certain JFK. Bear in mind, I'm not naive to think that simply because I like him he's going to be completely different from past presidents, but surely he's making the most sense. Watch his videos on youtube, they're all over the place.

This probably is the most pro-American talk you'll ever get from me so enjoy it! haha