Absurdity Without Borders...

While the world is in turmoil... devastated Porto Rico... more than 50 massacred in Las Vegas... Spain-Catalan (Barcelona) in quarrel... Brexit- U.K. and EU are still not sure how to settle their dispute... The Middle East wars still kill people... Mayanmar-Rohingya massacres still continue... The Kurdish people aspire to nationhood denied to them for decades... 

This 900-year-old Chinese bowl just sold for $38 million... Just Blasphemous...!

When people are in need... when people are starving... to waste $38 million on a bowl... is not human... and defies logic... It is indeed incomprehensible...!

They say capital has no conscience... and no soul... The global 1% feeds on its greed... ignoring all humanity... the 99%... 

The purchase of the 900-year-old bowl, which was fashioned during the Song dynasty, sets a new auction record for Chinese porcelain, auction house Sotheby's said... An anonymous buyer placed the winning bid of 294 million Hong Kong dollars ($38 million), clinching the piece after a 20-minute bidding war in Hong Kong.

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We were at a friend's patio on a cool evening sipping the drinks and talking about social-cultural issues... The music was nice too... Mozart-Vivaldi-Rachmaninoff... I love the classics and I have reserved Sunday mornings for Gregorian Chants and liturgical music...

The evening was enchanting... but then a friend brought up the opioid crisis plaguing the U.S. But he had more than just venting against the pharmaceuticals and the drug industry... He had a more nuanced perspective...

No one can abstain from politics... Everything that we do and not do is political... We cannot escape this fact... Either we act and change things for the better, or inact and uphold the status quo of the 1%... Inaction is just supporting the status quo of the present 1%...

If we abstain and stay quiet... stay silent... turn our head the other way... then those actions will support the status quo and the status quo is just upholding the racism which still pollutes our society... and condone the greed of the 1%... 

In fact, inaction will just say okay to the Chinese Bowl for $38 million... 

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NFL stars continue protests and remain defiant

More than 50 football players rejected the threats and seized the moment to express their right for free speech and freedom of thought... The 1% with their executive branch, the government, should not have the right to limit the people's right for free speech and should not have the right to intimidate people to silence...

New Orleans Saints players and team kneel prior to the NFL match against Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium in London, England...

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On Saturday night - Sept. 30, 2017, the Oakland Athletics' Bruce Maxwell became the first Major League Baseball player to kneel in protest during the anthem.

His father is in the military and he was born on an army base, US media report. He told a reporter that he was "kneeling for people that don't have a voice"...

Athlets have the right to manifest their concerns in anyway they can... and we must not judge the athletes...  
If we want to put an end to the "kneelings...," then we can simply put an end to the racist laws and racist behaviour of all... 
If the police do not kill blacks... then there will be no need for "Black Lives Matter..."

Athletes are not gladiators just there for our entertainment...

 

Athletes are not gladiators... without any rights... They are human beings like anyone else... and they have the right to speak and critique to racism within our social norms...

A friend reminded me...
He said... "In the 1980's when the crack-cock epidemic was consuming society... the U.S. government introduced new laws to arrest and imprison people ("offenders")... "Three strike and out..." became fashionable... But now there is an opioid  epidemic and a new crisis... but everyone talks about how to help the addicts to recover..." 
My friend told me; "Crack was essentially a black epidemic... while the opioid is overwhelmingly white...!"
Indeed... Racism manifests itself in curious ways...
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They say it is the "hurricane season..." 
First it was Hurricane Harvey... devastating Texas... The government, the executive branch of the 1%, acted... 
Then it was Hurricane Irma... devastating Florida... and the government acted again...
But then came Hurricane Maria... and the government began to fumble... "They want us to do everything for them..." the government said... 
"We are dying...," said the mayor of San Juan in Porto Rico... and she was blamed for criticizing the government... just like the athletes are blamed for the racism in society and the police killings...
The hurricane season exposed part of our racism too...

 San Juan after the hurricane... 

Whether in Texas or in Florida or in Purto Rico... people are people...
And like in The Merchant of Venice...
Hath not a [Porto Rican] hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a [white] Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?

Some buy antique pots... some live in golden cages... and the people suffer...