Blabberings

As many of you all would already know, Israel is currently attacking Lebanon. Not many of us however know that Israel is actually just targeting the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim militant group, Hezbollah.

All this started when Hezbollah captured 2 Israeli soldiers during a cross-border raid. These actions angered Israel and therefore Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared the attacks against Hezbollah and generally Lebanon. At this time, the attacks have been on-going for about 4 to 5 days. Israel through its strong military force attacked lebanon in a sort of blockade. They wanted to form an air, land and sea blockade all around lebanon to restrict and contain its people and the militants from escaping out of the country. This was done primarily by bombing the runways of Beirut International Airport, bridges and all roads in or leading out of the country especially to Syria. The navy also patrolled the sea ports of lebanon.

Hezbollah also responded to these attacks by launching katyusha rockets to the northern parts of israel hitting the towns of Nahariya and the the third-largest port-city of Haifa. These rockets have been imploding northern israel every few hours and so do the israeli air strikes in lebanon. People living in both countries are in constant danger with hundreds of men, women and children already either killed or injured. Israel's air strikes have been mainly targeted at the southern part of lebanon's capital, Beirut as this is said to be the headquarters of Hezbollah.

This issue has garnered lots of attention from its neighbours particularly the west. President George W. Bush is blaming Syria and Iran for the attacks. Syria and Iran, constant supporters of Hezbollah are said to be fuelling the attacks by providing the necessary weaponry and etc. Lebanon has also been blamed for not exercising enough power and restraint on its territories which is not entirely possible since 20% of the government is filled with hezbollah party members. There has been no talk on the role Israel has played in this.

This important issue has been a huge talk from the G8 summit being held in St.Petersburg, Russia to the emergency Arab League meeting in Cairo, Egypt and even in the UN Security Council. The G8 which is considered as the 8 most powerful countries in the world play a significant role in this confrontation while the two mediator-Arab countries Jordan and Egypt have not done much to appease the situation. There was certainly however a huge clash of words between delegates of Israel, Lebanon and Syria at the UN Security Council last friday.

These attacks are also bringing a negative impact throughout the world affecting world economies and causing stock markets to tumble. Oil prices this week are threatening to rise up to US$80 per barrel. This is mainly because of the further increase in oil prices which has already been aggravated by the United States attacks on Iraq, Nigerian pipeline blasts, Hurricane Katrina last year, Iran’s nuclear program and the recent missile launch by North Korea. If this situation continues, it may in turn force us to tighten our pockets and spending. The aviation industry which relies highly on oil as fuel will be heavily affected. We may very well turn to hybrid cars in the future as a main form of transport.

To interest you people out there, let's relive that very unglamorous headbutt moment of zidane during the final match with very strange-sounding commentary. I find that its rather unfair if materazzi really insulted his family but well he could have always controlled his emotions. Its now already over so there's really not much to debate about anymore.



Meanwhile, a few schools in Japan are apparently making their students take 'power-naps' after lunch everyday. The naps are said to help ease the students memories. However, the naps must not be more than 20 minutes as you would have fallen into deep-sleep thus feeling blur and drowsy. This is one thing wms should be doing .. haha. Who wants to start a petition .. lolx

-adios-