Dystopium

So I’ve been watching some Israeli films lately, the latest being one called “The Bubble”. Now if you plan to watch it, please do not read on because spoilers follow. So in the movie an Israeli Jew named Noam (Ohad Knoller) and a Palestinian Muslim named Ashraf (Yousef [Joe] Sweid) fall in love.

And at first I think, wow, so I guess Israel is kinda like the West, that’s pretty cool. Unfortunately some pretty shitty things happen to Ashraf, notably his sister getting killed by Israeli soldiers in attack of revenge for a bombing in Tel Aviv, the day after her wedding to a terrorist leader. This leads to Ashraf’s now brother-in-law Jihad vowing to revenge his dead wife’s murder with a suicide bombing attack.

Now for reasons which mystify me, Ashraf volunteers to take his Jihad’s place in the suicide bombing. Furthermore, Ashraf goes to the street in Tel Aviv where Noam works, and Noam sees him and runs out to see him, and Ashraf pulls the trigger and the two of them die (but no one else).

Now, I’ve also watched some French films lately, and they were more just weird, but they didn’t have your typical Hollywood happy endings either.

At one point in the film the four main characters in the story were merrily walking down the streets of Tel Aviv on a Saturday morning, commenting how beautiful it was. That seemed very Hollywood in retrospect, it would have made a nice happy ending, but even at the time, I noticed that there was still a good amount of time left on the clock, so something more was going to happen. Maybe that scene was meant to lull the audience into a state of complacency. I’m not sure, I’m no film critic.

So is it only in North America we get happy endings? Is this a foreign (no pun intended) concept to foreign films?

To be fair the last Israeli movie I watched (“Walk on Water”) didn’t have an unhappy ending, just not what I was expecting. It has been eye opening watching foreign films though. And has made me eager to travel to places like France, Israel, Portugal, Italy.

If anyone has any suggestions for some good foreign films, please let me know :)

When I see on TV certain Americans’ reaction to Obama care, I just feel sorry for them, and thank my lucky stars the Perzes and Bryks came to Canada and not the United States. I just can’t imagine myself being as backward and small-minded and ignorant like some Americans are. And I know many Americans aren’t like that, especially in the liberal states like Massachusetts and California, but the fact remains that a lot of Americans do think that way. No, just because Obama wants you to have health insurance DOES NOT mean he wants to choose what toothpaste you use. Ugh. Gah.

Furthermore, Obama’s health insurance scheme is terribly wrong in that it doesn’t go far enough. They should cut out the private insurers entirely. Their whole system is totally, seriously, effed up. What kind of civilized country forces you to buy/have health insurance? Isn’t that something your country should be doing for you?

Say what you will about how messed up Canada is, which it is as well, especially when it comes to things like the municipalities and public transit, but at least our health care system has some semblance of logic. And we get better results with fewer dollars than the American system. So we’re damn well doing something right.

I feel like I’m in the wrong universe à la Worf in “Parallels”. I keep hearing about this boy band on the radio I’ve never heard of before called One Direction? I though Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block were the big boy bands?

Not only that, but Toronto City Council voted to build an LRT on Sheppard East, which is like a nightmare come true and defies all sense of reality.

Do the laws of physics work differently in this universe too?

Maybe this also explains why I’ve been single for so many years. I’m stuck in the wrong universe and my dreamboat husband is in the wrong one.

I guess I need to just keep on sliding until I get back to my universe.

I’ve never been a consistent swallower or anything like that. But I decided to Google it and a lot of people seem to think it’s better to spit rather than swallow. Apparently when your phlegm is green you’re sick, yellow is getting better and clear/opaque is good. Next time I am sick I will be sure to always spit out my phlegm/mucous whenever I can.