I have to hand it to Obama. I’ve begun to see him in a new light after catching him on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He was laid-back and offered honest opinions about what’s being reported and happening in the presidential race now. His continuous efforts to portray a down-to-earth image of himself and almost like a regular man on the street appear to be paying off.

I’ve always admired and looked up to Hillary Clinton. She’s indeed a role model for women all over. However, Obama promises not to be a laggard in the race up to the White House. Jon Stewart asked Obama what he thought of Hillary Clinton as an opponent and he was very respectful towards her. He said she is a very smart and capable woman but pointed out that people may want someone who’s more active in the local community rather than in Washington alone which is clearly him of course. Hmmm, as a world citizen, I would prefer if the President of the United States had a clearly defined foreign policy and didn’t alienate the world in his/her agenda. Hillary appears to fit the bill for that. On her official website, Hillary says that "The next president’s most urgent task will be to restore America’s standing in the world to promote our interests, ensure our security, and advance our values." I like her notion that America needs to "start engaging our enemies again." I guess this is following in the footsteps of Bill Clinton and doing something different after America’s miserable military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I am not sure exactly what Obama’s stand on foreign policy is. To me, they’ve been pretty vague and generalist so far. He also risks doing a "Kerry" by being wishy-washy on certain topics. For example, he initially said (during the CNN debates) that he would meet without conditions with leaders of renegade nations and then recently blundered by saying he would "unilaterally bomb Pakistan if actionable intelligence placed high-level al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan and President Musharraf would not act". Ok it’s good he recognises that Musharraf ain’t a saint like Bush’s been naive enough to think and that it’s highly possible that Osama and gang could be stashed away under Musharraf’s blessings. However, he’s pretty much committing international political suicide at a time that America actually needs Musharraf. The Hillary camp has been quick to pin all this on Obama’s lack of experience.

Jon stewart brought up this issue of inexperience as well. I thought Obama responded very well:

Jon: (on topic of inexperience) Have you thought of running a smaller country first?
Barack: (obviously in jest) No, but I did think of invading a smaller country first, like say Grenada?

Haha that was a good one.

Jon stewart himself later said, hey Hillary has been in the senate only a few more years than Obama and her years as First Lady doesn’t exactly go into the resume does it. Hmmmm, well I know I’m biased towards Hillary but she’s very much unlike other First Ladies. Barbara Bush and Laura Bush both stayed in the background while Hillary partcipated actively in politics. As her web-page states, as First Lady and U.S. senator, Hillary visited more than 80 countries and met countless world leaders as America’s representative. In the Senate, Hillary has continued to promote America’s interests through her work on international affairs.

I definitely liked Obama’s comment on his GOP competitors. He called them "decent candidates". Jon Stewart called it the "worst back-handed compliment ever". LOL. Honestly, I cannot disagree with Obama. I don’t think the presidential race has ever had to contend with two Democrat forerunners rather than the traditional GOP vs Dems. The Democrats are on a roll - they’re controlling Congress, have many governorships and are smirking after the GOP bungled with Iraq and Katrina. The nearest contenders appear to be Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. Frankly, I don’t know anything about Romney and the only things I know about Giuliani stems from 9/11. And Giuliani does seem more like a Dem rather than a Republican, esp with his not-so-pro-life stances. Well well well it’s gonna be an interesting lead up to 2008. I hope for Obama’s sake he gets his act together if he wants to remain a strong competitor for Hillary whom I sincerely hope will win and become the first Female president of America. (Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeee!)

Caught the latest news. Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s cricket coach was found dead. Some conspiracy stories have emerged, including that he was poisoned and strangled, possibly to hush up any aftermaths of match fixing. Cricket has been abysmal this year, to say the least. It’s hardly any consolation if India even makes it to the Super 8s, after being slapped in the face with regards to the defeat by Bangladesh. Of all the minnows in the world, being defeated by Bangladesh is really worse than being slapped in the face. Probably akin to being run over by a car when all you were expecting was a gentle breeze.

Anyway, today I received insight into the new meaning of overhyped. I’m referring to Mr. Bean’s Holiday.

You wouldn’t quite believe it, but there was hardly a cinema you could get a seat at for this movie on a Saturday. Virtually all cinemas had sold out or selling fast status. That’ll probably give you the idea that this is some kind of blockbuster movie but it isn’t…and you probably should not expect it to be one. Instead, it’s a typical Bean movie which his usal bag of trite and hackneyed tricks that lead him to a disaster-filled path where he tries his best to get out of the huge mess that he created himself (and others too). It isn’t anything new but some parts of the movie are really overdone, like it’s too ridiculous or something - even for Mr. Bean. Too much for some cheap laughs, if you ask me. And the fact that there were kids who were sleeping during the movie points to the questionablity of the entertain-ability of the movie. If kids can’t appreciate Mr Bean, who can?

Earlier in the day, went to Olio Dome at Suntec City for lunch. I would recommend this place. The mixed grill is really good (ask for the steak to be replaced by chicken thighs and you’ll be pleased too). The soup’s good too and I dare say that the service was exemplary. The decor and ambience are soothing with the use of sofas and wood.

We didn’t make it to the NATAS fair. Decided to give it a miss and go full steam to find a bloody cinema that had seats for Mr Bean, which clearly was an uphill task. Finally ended up at Great World City, rotting at TCC for hours before catching a late show. The TCC there is pretty good. Service was really good despite the fact that we were kinda hogging the comfy seats. I discovered a magazine to look forward to every month - Harper’s Bazaar. It’s one of the few magazines I’ve come across that can engage me for hours and makes me wanna read and look at every single page. It got me glued - the writers really have good style and the photography is simply amazing. Loves it. Oh - and I got new shoes… but I need more pairs! My shoe closet is literally begging for more inhabitants. Perhaps I’ll get more shoes this weekend. Wish me luck!

Dear America,

I’m a fellow citizen of this world. Pardon me for being a busybody but I feel I have a right to give you this message. I feel I have that right because what you can do indirectly affects me too. Apparently your country is the most powerful country in the world and it also has the biggest free market economy in the world and it’s also one of the biggest pollutors in the world. So that basically means that if your economy is shity it can potentially be shity for me too and since we all share the same atmosphere I could be dying from all the bad environment policies that come into play too. So I have an indirect interest in making your country better and hence a better world for me too.

7th of November is an important day. You have to vote responsibly. Vote responsibly because there is a serious chain of events that occur upon you giving your vote to the wrong guy/woman. For example:

Bad vote > Wrong guy comes to power > Wrong party majority > Wrong policies implemented > Record deficit > Turmoil in the world > Unhappy people all around

The above situation is purely hypothetical and does not resemble any person/party intentionally. Yeah, let’s just imagine Iraq didn’t just have a foreign invasion (and Sadaam’s trial comes to an end coincidentally around this time - great timing by GOP?), Kyoto protocol didn’t get rejected by Bush and there was no a shity recession for a long time. Whatever.

I’m watching the midterm race closely. The events running up to it are pretty interesting - including the whole Haggard fiasco, etc. Clinton’s triumph on Fox was good to see too. Heh, he’s come a long way and hopefully can steer Hilary towards Capitol Hill come 2008.

Anyway, vote responsibly yaar.

Best Regards,
Fellow World Citizen

P.S.: Here’s a video you should watch to remind yourself WHY you should vote responsibly.

I was quite shocked to learn of the military coup in Thailand. I mean, it really took me by surprise. Perhaps it’s because I’ve not been watching the news for so long (I miss my BBC) and only limit myself to internet-based news. My dad was in Thailand during the coup but luckily he was 3hrs away from Bangkok. Even though the news reports said that it was a "peaceful coup" apparently there was little or not activity for one or two days.

It’s interesting to see how the seismic political circles around the world are moving recently. Unrest in Hungary where much of the legislature is center-right. Sweden did a U-turn to the right. Hezbollah in Lebanon creating tension in the government there. Unknown political status in middle-east. Uproar over the Pope’s comments regarding some ancient issue. And now Thailand. Does it not seem that the world is shifting ever so more to the right?

The funniest part, it seems, is the reaction by Pakistan. "Pakistan Wednesday expressed the hope Thailand would stay calm and avoid violence following the coup against the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra." Perhaps, people have forgotten that Pakistan itself had a government put into power as a result of a coup. And the guy who led the coup is still in power. Doesn’t it seem funny (and ironic and quite frankly, ridiculous) that the world has forgotten that, forgotten about the billions poured into it despite its blind eye towards sponsered-terrorism in Kashmir and forgotten about lifting sanctions altogether just to buy its support. Why bother upholding democracy when you’re prepared to sacrifice it just to further your own military prowess?

Elections Elections Elections everywhere. First it was Thailand, now it’s Italy and soon it’ll be Singapore. So Thaksin won, but he stepped down. So Prodi won. But did Thaksin and Berlusconi lose in the end? On the surface maybe but upon close scrutiny, well maybe not. Thaksin has announced that he’ll be back in power within a year and well, Prodi won by like what, 0.1%, which basically means Berlusconi still can do whatever he wants. So Thaksin and Berlusconi who’ve been in power for political eons are in form, no longer there, but in substance, they’re very much politically alive. And if I may take a leaf from my accounting/finance books, substance rules over form.

The similarities between the two are salient although I think Thaksin has been referred to as Asia’s Berlusconi before by foreign press (then again, foreign press writes anything and everything under the sun). They’re both filthy rich, self made and successful. The most overarching characteristic appears to be the grand autocratic rule in a democratic country. I may not have studied political science or what not, (and correct me if I’m wrong) but autocratic and democracy are not supposed to go together right? Well, technically not, BUT personally I feel that it’s the best kind of political system out there.

I think the main reason why I feel that way is because I think that free market capitalism works best in such a political environment (subject to the government being a rational one) and I’m a big fan of free maket capitalism. The figures speak for themselves and I like figures cos’ they don’t lie. They’ve both been responsible for creating more jobs and driving their economies forward. Ok, granted Italy’s economy’s in the dumps right now and Thailand’s under the threat of Bird flu and hasn’t been too pleased about Thaksin’s business dealings with Singapore’s Temasek Holdings. (Then again, the Italians haven’t been too pleased about Berlusconi’s business dealings either but that’s another issue)

Non-autocratic democracies just work less efficiently, in my opinion. There is an inherent flaw about them, by the simple virtue of being ideally democratic. Take a look at the biggest democracy in the world - India. I think India would do a LOT better if it had a one-party political system or something that resembled it. Oppositions always seem to be oppositions for the sake of being oppositions. They oppose cos’ it’s their job to do so - am I making sense? In the process of opposing and supposedly upholding the rights of a certain few, they’re impeding the progress of the nation. Dumb policies are introduced and seemingly benign laws are rescinded (despite claiming to be utterly democratic). If the central government needn’t have to bother about the dumb idiocycracies of the opposition parties every now and then, a country’s economy could certainly do better with the better utilisation of resources.

Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong in being labelled as an "autocratic democracy", despite the seemingly evident oxymoron. I guess it’s just a PR thing and the need to conform to poltical (theoretical) ideologies which may have been prescribed to be somewhat "ideal’. Peer pressure. I understand. Even the world’s greatest leaders bow to playground tactics.

That brings me to the question that begs to be answered. Do we really need "true demoncracy", or whatever that means? Isn’t an autocratic democracy just better for you and me who need jobs and the economy to do well? This way, we get the best of both worlds - the benefits of democracy and stability and onward progress. Why do we need to search for that elusive ideal democratic model? Should we even search for it?

I’m looking forward to the elections in Singapore. I’m so excited. I have to can vote this year!

Well, Hamas has formally taken over the government in the Palestinian state. Timely, considering Israel’s National Election was a day ago. I don’t want to judge, simply because I fully appreciate the meaning behind "one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom-fighter". Yet, I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason why one would pass judgment (usually an unbalanced and non-objective one) is probably because of asymmetrical information. The only way an outsider could give an objective opinion (although opinion by itself seems to hold a self-contradictory connotation) is by having a fair mix of views from both camps, equal exposure to both and accurate and reliable data. Very often, it is hard for the common man to come into contact with both groups. Holding the other variables together with this task seems almost impossible. All of these mean one thing - whatever opinion an outsider gives is bound to be largely one-sided, especially with a sensitive topic like religious conflict. I mean, personally, I don’t know any Palestinians but I do know Ad, who went back to Israel for reservist duty. I haven’t seen him since he left but whatever he told me gives rise to me giving an unfairly biased opinion, if I do pass judgment. I don’t think we can count on the mainstream media to give us objective information. Even reporters are outsiders, and I tend to think that they too would give only one-half of the story. Furthermore, it’s very common for people to choose to view media that is more or less aligned with their own views. For example, I only choose progressive media. That effectively means that no matter how much information we have, we are only capable of passing unfairly biased judgments. So why judge? It just becomes a recycling of information.

Most people wouldn’t know it, but it’s the Indian new year (as per hindu calendar) today - Yugadi. I don’t think it’s prominently celebrated in Singapore cos’ none of my Indian (Sing) friends breathed a word about it. The Indian (Ind) friends are clueless unless they call back home. It’s probably excusable since it’s celebrated with gusto only in a few states. As far as I’m concerned, we have a special food to consume on this day called bevu-bella, which has equal amount of sweetness and bitterness. It’s to teach a lesson about life and remind us yearly, that life is never always sweet or always bitter. We should expect life to be a combination of both, and once again, that there is always cosmic balance. And you though bitter-sweet was an oxymoron didn’t you? 

Apart from that, I’m glad to note that I’ll be getting $600 for the progress package. This was contrary to my earlier lousy calculations that I’ll get $200. I’m happy for the bonus, though I must wait till May to get it credited to my account. I got bored of having not so many things to do. So I went shopping and bought more shoes. Everyone says I’ve got too many shoes. Well my answer is that you can never have too many shoes. I went to visit the newest library. I initially thought it’s very disappointing but when I went home my brother informed me that there were two more levels I failed to see. I must be blind. Nevertheless, I’m quite impressed with the national library board. I just recommended a book to them a couple of weeks back (although I was a little piffed and shocked that none of the libraries in the whole country didn’t have the book) and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they’ve already bought the book and are on their way to cataloguing it. I’m impressed!

I was watching the daily show the other day, the one with clive owen as the guest star. There was this amusing part about global warming. Scientists have come to a consenus on one thing, and hey, they appear to concur with (gasp!) Nelly. [as quoted on the show]

It’s gettin hot in here (so hot)
So take off all your clothes

Jokes aside, the issue with global warming and the technicalities of the Kyoto Protocol piss me off. They piss me off cos’ the treaty took so long to be signed by so many parties and longer to get ratified. They piss me off cos’ even after all that, the largest pollutor in the world, the United States, is not a signatory party to this treaty. They piss me off cos’ even after the Kyoto came into force and Russia ratified the treaty, it still leaves India, China and US out of the picture. The biggest irony is that they pollute more than anyone else on earth. Ok fine, so the US is not going to budge. They have enough muscle anyway. But it seems almost senseless that two rising economic powers who cough out toxic gases and pollute the earth so much are willingly left out. Ok, granted India and China are left out of Kyoto’s initial phase because most of their people are still dirt poor and it’s not fair to ask them to clean the air rather than eat food. But what’s the use then?

So the rest of the world works hard (or at least it attempts to do so) at cleaning up their acts but the guilty parties, namely US, China and India continue to cloak our atmosphere with noxious shit. I mean, come on, one just has to go to any major Indian city to witness the shocking amount of pollution. You can hardly breathe in there! The only point of getting to Bangalore is to escape to the rural clean areas. So in reality, it’s not the poor people who’re poisioning this world. It’s the bloody rich and middle class in the cities who do it. The poor people live in enough abject poverty to distance themselves from the poisionous doings of their richer counterparts. YET, they breathe in the same air. So they suffer. WHY then is the reason to exclude India and China, because of their poor brethen, when it’s the rich and the middle class who ought to be punished and put in their right place?

Ok, I admit it’s hard to identify the blameworthy parties of pollution and arguably even harder to persecute them, given the redundant bureacracies that may or may not exist, each bringing nothing but hindrance to the game. BUT the cities are a start. Companies are a start. Esp. Foreign companies. Even worse if they’re american companies, polluting not only in America (killing their own people) and polluting in Asia too (proceeding to kill rest of the world citizens). Is that a pattern? Kill people, even if war can’t do it.

Toopid Blogsome server was down, so I had to leave this post to today.

I don’t like the radio. I always believed that the radio is the ultimate form of modern propaganda. I love music and to let someone else define what music you should listen to and FORCE it down your ears just doesn’t make sense to me. Apart from the general feeling that I get that Singaporean radio stations play disastrous music (or what some like to call, radio-friendly [read: euphemism] ), it also appears to me that Singaporean deejays talk rot most of the time. I guess they admit they talk rot also, because of the apt names they give their shows. That rot is PROPAGANDA (because there are tons of idiots out there who actually worship those deejays)!!!!!

This observation stems from my blunder of forgetting to bring my new cd along to the car (after dumbly removing the old one yesterday). So I was forced to listen to the radio. And I had to endure some pathetic chattering (termed discussion) about how two guys in a supermarket doing grocery shopping may be perceived as being gay.

• First of all, who the fuck cares or should care if two guys are doing grocery shopping together?
• Second of all, so what if they’re gay? You think gay people don’t need to do grocery shopping is it? You think gay people don’t need to eat right?
• Third of all, you got nothing better to do or talk about right? Play some good music damnit.

The above obvious frustration also lies in reading a reported article.

The article reported that a certain community group (the liberty league) was given a government grant (which means using taxpayers’ funds) to help Singaporeans “understand their sexual identity” and promote ‘healthy gender identity”. What those phrases mean, erm I really can’t tell. To be fair, the article reported that Liberty league does in fact “champion human rights”, which should mean that they’re not against homosexuals. Interestingly, Fridae reported in a separate article that Liberty league “is an advocate of reparative therapy and is linked to an international Christian group which dedicates itself to “correcting” homosexuality”. Now that’s where the issue therein lies.

If the grant is used by a group to tell homosexuals what their “correct” sexual orientation should be, then taxpayers’ funds are being used wrongly. Having had to deal with rejections of using public funds for community service projects previously, whatdafish, can you imagine how angry I am? People with legitimate concerns and ideas are being given the pass over people who have hidden agendas? If that article is indeed true, I’ll be seriously very pissed.

[Redundant last paragraph.] Also, I honestly think that there should be a regulatory and monitoring body for grants given out for community service projects, preferrably run by CPAs only. More audit work, more audit fees, more jobs And of course, more power for CPAs. I got very concerned after my prof said that more monitoring bodies are being run by non-CPAs. Not good, not good at all…

[Update:] Osama Bin Laden releases new audio tape. [full text link]

So scary. It seems Osama is very well read and has done a lot of research. I’m wondering how come he has access to some much information from his cave in Afghanistan. Well, at least that’s what the media would like you to believe, that he’s hiding in a cave. In reality, he’s most probably “hiding” in a nice palace with lots of servants in Pakistan, fully courtesy of Musharraf. One day, maybe just one day, the world will realise what fools they all are, because Musharraf will prove himself to be a smart genius who’s made a fool out of YOU and the rest of the world.

Sigh.Sigh.Sigh.

And I have too much time on my hands to go “make up” conspiracy theories right? We’ll see…

Ear Candy >>> Weezer - Perfect Situation

A big debate was on the dinner table today. Bangalore’s name change. To Bengalooru. My dad, the ultra-modern-wannabe is pissed with the “backward turn”. Myself and my mum, both “statists” and nationalists, are all for the name change. I mean, it’s about time, and long overdue since Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkatta are all household names now. Soon Bengalooru will follow suit, and should too, since it was the original name anyway and was changed because the British found it difficult to pronounce. *rolls eyes*

I don’t understand his stand on wanting to be so ultra-modern. I mean, I believe you should be modern but they’re certain limits. You cannot be so modern as to sacrifice basic priorities.

1) Yourself
2) Your immediate family
3) Your community/village
4) Your caste
5) Your state/language
6) Your country

Everything else should be secondary but these cannot be compromised. Like his stand that companies from Bengalooru should hire everyone indiscriminately, regardless of what state they’re originally from. That’s ridiculous cos’ other states don’t do that and other countries don’t do that either. Take Malaysia or even Singapore for example. Malaysia has the “bumiputra” policy and Singapore keeps check of the number of foreigners employed here. Right now Bengalooru has no such policy. Of course that has made the city extremely cosmopolitian which I’m not against. But the problem arises when our own people have no jobs despite having qualifications and instead are forced to head back to their villages to escape Bengalooru’s exhorbitant living standards. I think these companies (shall not be named but it’s sooo obvious who they are) should set aside a quota for college grads strictly for their own people and also limit recruitment of people from certain states which already show signs of poltical and territorial encroachment. It just doesn’t help poltically and relations-wise. I’m not saying don’t hire outsiders but please, be responsible and have some civic mindedness and uphold your duty as a citizen of your state first.

Ok, that was a long winded rant. Anyway was wearing my brand new white suit with lace trimmings today and everyone loved it. Not gonna give away the secret as to where I got it from but I really got it for a steal even without realising it! Wore it for some recruitment lunch by some big company at a certain big hotel. It was the first time I ever ate in that hotel but the food sucked so bad. It was super pretencious and cold and truly sucked. But I wasn’t at all impressed with the company and told my bosses so. After a chat my boss made a list of banks for me to apply to cos she said “all have a lot of indian bankers, surely fit in very easily”. Bleah. That’s the last thing I want to do, apply to a place just because there are a lot of indians there. Wrong reason.

And I want to get another suit. It’s really sad I get paid intern pay. How? Each suit costs almost $300. And would have helped if I had had a more generous credit limit.

Ear Candy >>> O-Zone - Numa Numa

Dancefloor alert - Numa Numa’s predicted to take over the dancefloor…duh (but then again I like techno and love trance). The weekend was interesting. On Saturday, after a crappy afternoon doing fyp by MYSELF in the library which resembled a ghost town and completely embarrassing myself to be the ultimate nerd, I got release at Gayt’s birthday party. I really liked it, as I do all nice cosy house birthday parties. Got to meet a lot of my friends, some of whom I’d not seen in a very long time. And the cake was the same as at ks’s party. lolx.

Yesterday went for jx’s bday. Chalet leh, complete with mahjong and barbeque but I didn’t get my promised bottle of vodka!!! But I hope you loved the pressies and our THIRD birthday card to you in as many weeks! And the cake was delicious and I heard, apparently the same as John’s birthday cake. John I didn’t know you read my blog too! Sneaky… Well I left early to get help regarding some documents from a better friend than someone. Oh well, at least now I know for sure the character of that person. Get help from you only, never return any favours.

Today ks and I went to give our acceptance forms to [a certain big four firm]. Personally I would have chosen another firm if I were her but I have no right to judge her decisions. At least if I’m jinxed (and stuck with bad luck) and I don’t get a better job soon, I know I’ll have one good friend to hold my hand while we endure shity long hours and a miserable job. I suspect ks is afraid of spending life with hp who supposedly chose that other firm (again we have no way of verifying this because ks suspects hp got no offers and is just lying to us). I see no reason for hp to lie unless she’s got an ego the size of the moon. What a “friend”. Honestly, it’ll be good riddance.

Oh yes, it’s so hard to explain politics and racial/ethnic/religious tensions to young kids while trying your best to remain objective. It’s difficult and although I know I indirectly influence my brother to think along my political ideologies and the stand I take on certain religious/racial/ethnic tensions I hope that he is able to hold his own thoughts without mine superimposing on them. It is also difficult when certain tensions are true to your heart and you know you have to tell the kid the truth about certain people but yet make sure he doesn’t hold hatred against the entire race of people because only a minority are doing what we perceive to be wrong. It’s just really tough and I do not really know the art of diplomatic speak and suppressing thoughts and censorship for “kid speech”. And there’s only so much I can do to protect him from the big bad world.

Today he was asking me about the racial riots in sydney, australia at cronulla beach. I told him what little I knew from the media, again reminding him to be objective because we have to understand we hold biased views because we are influenced by what the media shows us. But just because I look at the news and I’m disgusted and hence lead my brother to believe it’s disgusting does not mean everyone thinks that way. Like this guy, who says that he’s “all for the riots”. Should I be disgusted by him? Just because he doesn’t think the way the media has led me to believe? This made me think of other issues I hold biased, non-media aligned views on, namely ethnic conflicts in my state and other states. Does that mean I have double standards? I think not. After all, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. What you and I see may be tangibly the same but may not mean the same. What I think is wrong in issues that I do not really know much about is probably due to what the media has led me to believe is wrong. In other instances where I know about the true state of affairs, the media is irrelevant to me and I define what is right or wrong. So it’s all subjective isn’t it?