Living on the Edge

Lyrics:

There's something wrong with the world today
I don't know what it is
Something's wrong with our eyes

We're seeing things in a different way
And God knows it ain't His
It sure ain't no surprise
(YA!)

(Chorus)
We're livin' on the edge
We're livin' on the edge
We're livin' on the edgeWe're livin' on the edge

There's someting wrong with the world today
The lightbulb's gettin' dimmed
There's meltdown in the sky

If you can judge a wise man
By the color of his skin
Then mister, you're a better man than I

(Chorus)
We're Livin' on the edge
You can't help yourself from fallin'
Livin' on the edge
You can't help yourself at aaaaaaaall!
Livin' on the edge
You can't stop yourself from faaaaaaaallin'
Livin' on the edge


Tell me what you think about our sit-u-a-tion
Complication - aggravation
Is getting to you

If chicken little tells you that the sky is fallin'
Even if it wasn't would you still come crawling
Back again - I bet you would my friend
Again & Again & Again & Again & Again

Tell me what you think about our situation
Complication - aggravation
Is getting to you

If chicken little tells you that the sky is fallin'
Even if it was would you still come crawling
Back again - I bet you would my friend
Again & Again & Again & Again

Something right with the world today
And everybody knows it's wrong
But we can tell 'em no
Or we could let it go
But I would rather be a hanging on

(Chorus)
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

(Repeat Chorus)

The destructive male by Elizabeth Cady Stanton

I urge a sixteenth amendment, because 'manhood suffrage,' or a man's government, is civil, religious, and social disorganization. The male element is a destructive force, stern, selfish, aggrandizing, loving war, violence, conquest, acquisition, breeding in the material and moral world alike discord, disorder, disease, and death. See what a record of blood and cruelty the pages of history reveal! Through what slavery, slaughter, and sacrifice, through what inquisitions and imprisonments, pains and persecutions, black codes and gloomy creeds, the soul of humanity has struggled for the centuries, while mercy has veiled her face and all hearts have been dead alike to love and hope!

The male element has held high carnival thus far; it has fairly run riot from the beginning, overpowering the feminine element everywhere, crushing out all the diviner qualities in human nature, until we know but little of true manhood and womanhood, of the latter comparatively nothing, for it has scarce been recognized as a power until within the last century. Society is but the reflection of man himself, untempered by woman's thought; the hard iron rule we feel alike in the church, the state, and the home. No one need wonder at the disorganization, at the fragmentary condition of everything, when we remember that man, who represents but half a complete being, with but half an idea on every subject, has undertaken the absolute control of all sublunary matters.

People object to the demands of those whom they choose to call the strong-minded, because they say 'the right of suffrage will make the women masculine.' That is just the difficulty in which we are involved today. Though disfranchised, we have few women in the best sense; we have simply so many reflections, varieties, and dilutions of the masculine gender. The strong, natural characteristics of womanhood are repressed and ignored in dependence, for so long as man feeds woman she will try to please the giver and adapt herself to his condition. To keep a foothold in society, woman must be as near like man as possible, reflect his ideas, opinions, virtues, motives, prejudices, and vices. She must respect his statutes, though they strip her of every inalienable right, and conflict with that higher law written by the finger of God on her own soul.

She must look at everything from its dollar-and-cent point of view, or she is a mere romancer. She must accept things as they are and make the best of them. To mourn over the miseries of others, the poverty of the poor, their hardships in jails, prisons, asylums, the horrors of war, cruelty, and brutality in every form, all this would be mere sentimentalizing. To protest against the intrigue, bribery, and corruption of public life, to desire that her sons might follow some business that did not involve lying, cheating, and a hard, grinding selfishness, would be arrant nonsense.

In this way man has been molding woman to his ideas by direct and positive influences, while she, if not a negation, has used indirect means to control him, and in most cases developed the very characteristics both in him and herself that needed repression. And now man himself stands appalled at the results of his own excesses, and mourns in bitterness that falsehood, selfishness, and violence are the law of life. The need of this hour is not territory, gold mines, railroads, or specie payments but a new evangel of womanhood, to exalt purity, virtue, morality, true religion, to lift man up into the higher realms of thought and action.

We ask woman's enfranchisement, as the first step toward the recognition of that essential element in government that can only secure the health, strength, and prosperity of the nation. Whatever is done to lift woman to her true position will help to usher in a new day of peace and perfection for the race.

In speaking of the masculine element, I do not wish to be understood to say that all men are hard, selfish, and brutal, for many of the most beautiful spirits the world has known have been clothed with manhood; but I refer to those characteristics, though often marked in woman, that distinguish what is called the stronger sex. For example, the love of acquisition and conquest, the very pioneers of civilization, when expended on the earth, the sea, the elements, the riches and forces of nature, are powers of destruction when used to subjugate one man to another or to sacrifice nations to ambition.

Here that great conservator of woman's love, if permitted to assert itself, as it naturally would in freedom against oppression, violence, and war, would hold all these destructive forces in check, for woman knows the cost of life better than man does, and not with her consent would one drop of blood ever be shed, one life sacrificed in vain.

With violence and disturbance in the natural world, we see a constant effort to maintain an equilibrium of forces. Nature, like a loving mother, is ever trying to keep land and sea, mountain and valley, each in its place, to hush the angry winds and waves, balance the extremes of heat and cold, of rain and drought, that peace, harmony, and beauty may reign supreme. There is a striking analogy between matter and mind, and the present disorganization of society warns us that in the dethronement of woman we have let loose the elements of violence and ruin that she only has the power to curb. If the civilization of the age calls for an extension of the suffrage, surely a government of the most virtuous educated men and women would better represent the whole and protect the interests of all than could the representation of either sex alone.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton - 1868

Nowhere to be found

Reflections on the lost cell-phone

My wife recently lost her newly purchased Nokia mobile handset, while using the public transport. But, what is the fuss? Every day, people either lose something or gain

something, and for my wife it was no different — she just lost a mobile handset of about 50k, which I had gifted on her birthday.

No, I am not upset about it; neither had I scolded her as any semi-intelligent husband might have done in such a situation. All right, the big worry is that I am waiting for the lost mobile set to return. As if any wise husband would do, I am waiting for the person who might have found the mobile handset, to return it. It has been a long wait already, and I am still wondering, why the woman operator after dialling into her number says, “the number you have dialled is switched off”. Maybe, the lost mobile phone has been by someone, I mean some human (not monkey), who has voluntarily switched off the mobile phone.

Mobile technology has progressed vastly in recent years. It has been upgraded with performance, battery life, operating system, child safety, camera and what not. Nevertheless, it still lacks traceable technology (suitable enough to find it) when a person loses it involuntarily. On the other hand, consumers do not always necessarily record their phone’s IMEI number —which is a unique manufactured number given for each handset. If this number is known, one might possibly track their expensive handset. I put “possibly” because I am no mobile expert and this in surely not my domain of research.

Some mobile operators also give special services to their customer when they lose their SIM card. After this bitter mobile losing experience, I found that one could visit the mobile service operator’s office and ask for the same SIM card. How can I not bring forth philosophical ideologies of Buddha and our Nepalese stereotype in this context? Why are you saying that you are a Nepalese, if you do not obey the teachings of Buddha? Some of his moral attributes: honesty, loyalty and bravery are three pillars of our Nepalese individualism.

Meanwhile, I do want to make a point on honesty and loyalty. People lose their belongings daily, and those who find them would never like to return them. Why? Never mind, I have to re-consider buying her a new handset.



Published: The Himalayan Times
Editorial section: Topics

Added At:  2011-07-05 10:25 PM

Last Updated At: 2011-07-06 10:25 PM

Intellectual dishonesty

This refers to Mr. Biswas Baral's The plagiarist (June 30).

Plagiarism is a real issue of the world. I do not mean to be disrespectful toward the writer but the truth is that ideas and words are not the same. Ideas are bigger concepts derived from intellectual insight that does not need any words. It can be discussed, revised and recorded in any forms whatsoever. On the contrary, words are always naked.

Having taken bits-and-pieces from some source and naming them does not impair the originality of article, Yet, by simply giving credits to other authors, the writer seems to be valuing himself. Intellectualism comes from accepting and realizing the fact that there are bigger ideas and better individuals working on the tings you would ever have imagined.

Santosh Kalwar

via myrepublica.com

Published: Letter to Editor
04-07-2011
Republica