I went and saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra on Wednesday. As always it was an awesome show. Me and my dad go every year. It's half a joke, half truth, but we say we go because we enjoy the show and forget how the story ends. Come mid year I can't ever for the life of me remember what the Angel finds. He's on a mission to find something that humans value but can't touch.
The other thing I enjoy about the show, in a weird way, is it never fails to make me cry like a little bitch. It's true, I lose it every year. Lemme tell you why. The Angel flies over Sarajevo, and sees scars on the land - which, interesting historical point: after the war the people painted the holes in the ground from bombs and stuff with read paint. As he's flying over, he comments/thinks/whatever that he's listened to God closely many many times and had never once heard him say to kill in his name.
The Bosnian War started in 1991, or thereabouts. I was ten years old. I watched the entire thing on the news station at school called Channel 1. By the time it ended I knew the concept of ethnic cleansing. I learned there were places in the world were people killed you because of your background, heritage, race, religion, sex, any reason a person could muster to separate you out from this concept of 'pure'. The Siege of Sarajevo is to date the most heart breaking war time event that's happened in my life time.
By the end of this war, though I learned the concepts around what was going on, no one could answer my one question of Why? Why do people still kill in the name of God? Why are people still killed because of their ethnicity? Why has anyone ever been killed because of their religion?
None of these questions have ever been answered to my liking. I think that's why I cry. I remember when the open air markets were attacked - the Serbs killed civilians on purpose. I remember the pictures of the bombings, the destruction, the rape of countless Muslim women.
I know I don't quite know all the political atmosphere or exactly what was going on. Even still, there's no reason that fits within humanity, or within my human element, that makes me sit back and say, "Oh. Okay. I get it now."
I'm not sure how this ties in, just foreign affairs stuff, but the other day former prime minister of Palestine Benazir Bhutto was killed. She was shot twice and then a suicide bomber set off a bomb and killed about 20 of her supporters. She. A woman was a prime minister. In Palestine. Hopefully not the only female leader in that part of the world. But, she is gone now. This story disturbed me. She spent eight years in exile and it was just within the last year she returned.
If you ever get a chance, at least listen to Christmas Eve in Sarajevo, now that you know a bit about what happened. Even without the narration I get teary eyed.
*EDIT* My bad. Benazir Bhutto was the former Prime Minster of Pakistan, not Palestine. Thanks Loren. :D
The other thing I enjoy about the show, in a weird way, is it never fails to make me cry like a little bitch. It's true, I lose it every year. Lemme tell you why. The Angel flies over Sarajevo, and sees scars on the land - which, interesting historical point: after the war the people painted the holes in the ground from bombs and stuff with read paint. As he's flying over, he comments/thinks/whatever that he's listened to God closely many many times and had never once heard him say to kill in his name.
The Bosnian War started in 1991, or thereabouts. I was ten years old. I watched the entire thing on the news station at school called Channel 1. By the time it ended I knew the concept of ethnic cleansing. I learned there were places in the world were people killed you because of your background, heritage, race, religion, sex, any reason a person could muster to separate you out from this concept of 'pure'. The Siege of Sarajevo is to date the most heart breaking war time event that's happened in my life time.
By the end of this war, though I learned the concepts around what was going on, no one could answer my one question of Why? Why do people still kill in the name of God? Why are people still killed because of their ethnicity? Why has anyone ever been killed because of their religion?
None of these questions have ever been answered to my liking. I think that's why I cry. I remember when the open air markets were attacked - the Serbs killed civilians on purpose. I remember the pictures of the bombings, the destruction, the rape of countless Muslim women.
I know I don't quite know all the political atmosphere or exactly what was going on. Even still, there's no reason that fits within humanity, or within my human element, that makes me sit back and say, "Oh. Okay. I get it now."
I'm not sure how this ties in, just foreign affairs stuff, but the other day former prime minister of Palestine Benazir Bhutto was killed. She was shot twice and then a suicide bomber set off a bomb and killed about 20 of her supporters. She. A woman was a prime minister. In Palestine. Hopefully not the only female leader in that part of the world. But, she is gone now. This story disturbed me. She spent eight years in exile and it was just within the last year she returned.
If you ever get a chance, at least listen to Christmas Eve in Sarajevo, now that you know a bit about what happened. Even without the narration I get teary eyed.
*EDIT* My bad. Benazir Bhutto was the former Prime Minster of Pakistan, not Palestine. Thanks Loren. :D
