The Storm

The storm came in fast from the North, constantly picking up speed. The thunder rolled across the plains and into the small town, becoming louder and louder second by second. Down came bright flashes of light that were gone just as soon as they came. These were immediately followed by great roars of thunder that shook the town. The dark sky of the storm cracked open once more over the small town and down came a bolt of lightning right upon a great oak on the edge of a main street. The lightning tore the great trunks right open with a loud crack and the rumble of splintering wood over several seconds. The tree fractured into two great halves down the middle before the side hanging over the road ripped downward through the air and into the power lines. As the impact of tree’s destruction reverberated off the buildings the lights across town shut down one by one. The town was plunged into the complete darkness of the storm.

The great storm, picking up speed now, came crashing through the town and released a torrential downpour. The heavy drops came in fast and strong, whipped into a downpour by the great winds. The rain only added to the great rumble of thunder that never let in. The storm's winds belted around the town with such tremendous force that the all the windows vibrated violently from the pressure. The bleak sky that had been blocking the sun turned into a massive cloud of darkness, alternating between lighter shades of gray and dark shades of gray. The immense storm’s sky lay connected by bright blue lines of lightning unleashing cracks of lightning and thunder ever few seconds.

The storm reached its climax as an even larger bolt of lightning streaked across the dark sky and struck town hall. The immediate seconds after the bolt were filled with pin-drop silence, before the great roar of thunder finally caught up and slammed into the buildings of the town. It boomed along the streets for a good ten seconds before turning into an echo and rolling away. By the time the crack of thunder let down, the rain had lightened up considerably. It let in from a torrent to a light rain and the wind came down considerably. Just as quick as the storm had been in arriving and unleashing tremendous force it had left. The steady boom of thunder died away, and the dark clouds of the storm passed overhead and beyond the town. The storm died away within a matter of seconds, and out came the intensely missed sun.

The Black and White Suits of No Emotion

The heavy white door swung open into the white walled conference room, void of all but a black square of a table in the direct center of a room and four equally distanced and identical black chairs. And in entered the four suits of the white conference room, and each took a black seat around the black square of a table. The only discerning detail on each suit was which white personal office desk was his outside in the main area. As for their attire each suit had the same black suit, white shirt, black tie, black pants, and that empty and unemotional facial expression that said nothing and everything all at once.

After the suits had all taken their seats, suit #1 passed out the identical folders containing the files with the large ‘Confidential’ mark on them. The other three suits opened the folder and paused to look up to wait for orders in perfect unthinking unison. Suit #1 resumed talking, “We have direct orders to terminate the contracts of these two hundred and twenty seven employees for our banking firm.” The rest of the three suits nodded in near non-human precision and agreed in unanimity. Suit #2 replied with a “Yes sir. It will be done sir.” Suits #3 and #4 replied firmly with a “yes sir. Whatever it takes sir.” Suit #1 resumed talking once more, “Profits have been down last month. Orders have been given to foreclose all the defaulted loans on that white list in front of you. You and your teams are to accomplish these tasks in one month’s time. Dismissed.” Suit #1 stood up, and with a quick ad uniform nod from suit to suit, they fled out of the white room into the black and white main area of the office. The four suits filed into the black elevator at the end, and stared ahead in pin drop silence for the twenty seconds from the tenth floor to the lobby of their banking firm.

As each suit pushed open the doors of the large block-like and indiscernible building of the firm, the black and white suits of no emotion filed out in uniform heading down the street of the colorful and human New York. By the laughing college kids, and the late and rushing businessmen of colorful ties, and by the arguing hot dog vendor with the mustard and ketchup stains, the black and white suits of no emotion passed in identical unison and uniform.  

All you’ve heard about on the news for the past few weeks have been Syria. The media has been all over the conflict in Syria and it’s all you ever get to hear about on the political agenda anymore.

But just take a step back. Forget your own personal opinion for just a second. Don’t worry, I’ll play along too; this has nothing to do with what I think is the right move or what you think is the right move. Just stop and forget your own opinion on the correct course of action. This is not about what is right or what is wrong politically. Step back and take a look at the bigger picture.

How do we get our information? How do we know what is going on around us? The media. From social networks to news channels and websites, the media is what gives us our information. Based off of this information we form ideas and suggestions come into play with our thinking. So if we form ideas from what the media tells us, we are very vulnerable to the media, right? Precisely. But you already understood that to some part; certain news channels or papers are going to be biased- they’ll try and convince you of something or another.

Now let’s apply this idea to Syria. Certain media sites or channels will probably try and convince you of a particular course of action to take in regard to the crisis. But in regard to Syria and the tensions in the Middle East, the media’s bias extends further than just what course of action to take. The media is extremely biased in its view on Syria and its people, not just on intervention in Syria. This article is about how Syria is portrayed by the media.

Take this picture and this quote for example:

This image was found on BBC news under the title, “Syria Profile”, as one of the three pictures used to give a general overview of the nation as of one week ago. The caption is “Syria’s conflict has steadily turned to a civil war.” This image however does not in any way show a legitimate conflict between the two sides. This picture looks far more like an extremely stereotypical image of a terrorist of Arabic origin. To validate my argument that there is in no way a ridiculous image like this came from a reporter, how on earth would a reporter or anyone be doing for that matter in a car with a man with an automatic weapon in the middle of the Syrian civil war taking pictures?!?! Obviously this is not a picture of the real event. Moreover, it is not an accurate representation of the real event. This kind of picture promotes the idea that the Middle East’s and Syria’s people are terrorists and the civil unrest is just terrorism. But it is these kinds of pictures of Syria that have been popping up all over social media and news media the last few weeks. What happens when people see images like this is they assume that this is what Syria and the civil conflict is like over there because it is the only source of information. Another idea on the media to keep in mind is how whenever you hear about the conflict, you do not hear the root of the conflict. Basically the media projects a terrible view of Syria and its people and this picture is a classic example of just how it promotes these kinds of ideas, but is just one of many.

Vishesh. Since I was a little kid, I’ve been told the story of my name. In Tamil, an ancient language of India that exists to this day, my name means ‘special’. But the word, ‘special’, has one more Tamil character tacked on at the end so it would be pronounced visheshem. சிறப்பு means special but my name is spelled சிறப். I also found out a little belatedly that I had been pronouncing my name wrong all these years. I pronounced it with a flat e, as in ‘pet, and broke it into two syllables as in vish-esh. It was supposed to be pronounced as vi-shesh, and the e was supposed to be pronounced like the ‘a’ in ‘maze’ and the first ‘sh’ was to be just a‘s’. Confusing, I know. But besides the breakdown of my name, I used to wonder if being ‘special’ was actually good or bad.

When I was 5, I lived in Australia, and like most 5 year old's, the world made absolutely no sense whatsoever. But I remember reading this one book from the school library vividly. I no longer remember the plot only that it had to do with monkeys, but the last line of the book stays with me to this day. It said, “There was nothing wrong with being different, odd just meant special.” I remember thinking, ‘well, if being odd is just being special, and if my name means special, doesn’t that mean I’m odd and different?’ I wondered if that meant I shouldn’t try to fit in with everyone else or was different from everybody else. Being special sounded nice, but it also sounded like I was the oddball.

Later on in life, I continued to contemplate the deeper meaning and connotations of my name when I became more competitive. Whether it was sports or grades or some kind of contest, I was just plain competitive and going in I always thought about what my name meant first. I’d always say to myself, “Special, right, let’s show that today.” Of course, life isn’t always just winning, so whenever things didn’t go my way, which is to say often, I’d scorn the meaning of my name. Maybe because my name was one character of from ‘special’ I was always supposed to fall a little short of being special. So firstly my name probably meant I was supposed to stick out, now it meant I was always going to fall short? My name was not coming out to be all that, rather I wished it was different.

Just a few weeks ago, though, my outlook on my name changed pretty dramatically. I was at an international leadership conference in Halifax, Canada, and I was placed in a team of 20 against 5 other teams to come up with a solution to the problem of sustainability in cities in 1 week. We were the under dogs from the very beginning, and I was to lead my team in getting the answer. Before four others and I went up to present, a consultant from our team told me to “live up to the meaning of my name”, which he knew because he knew Tamil as well. As if by charm and against all luck my team managed to come out on top, and that brought me a new outlook on my name. Perhaps it did not been I was to stick out or always fall a little short but that perhaps there was a lot in store for me and I had great things ahead of me.