In Peace and War

In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility,

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger:

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage.

- 'Once more unto the breach' speech, from Shakespeare's Henry V, 1598

Part of a speech before soldiers prepared to scale the walls of Harfleur. Eloquent piece I picked up from a bit of reading. Almost makes me wanna slap my right hand on my heart and sing God Save the Queen. 

Debilitating Hurdle!

And there it is, a picture of a well defined upper body skeletal system ...... but... it has one fatal flaw!

Whilst training the other day I landed rather forcefully on my left shoulder. I immediately felt something was wrong, something was seriously irritating my left shoulder! I felt the error signals rush to my brain and my body switching to emergency mode. I didnt feel no pain at that specific moment. I immediately let go of my opponent, I was very close to locking his arm. My left shoulder was completely immobilized I thats when I felt my bone popping out on my left shoulder... yikes!! At first I thought it was a dislocation but after visiting the emergency ward I realized its a common sporting injury - seperated shoulder.

Due to the location of the shoulder, its vulnerable to injuries in these types of sports (grappling, wrestling, rugby). Known as a separated shoulder, the clavicular bone and the scapula are joined by some ligaments. There's various grades to the injury. Grade I being a partial tear and a slight bump on the shoulder and grade VI being a complete tear with a dislocation and whole of other nasty stuff. My one is in the middle grade III and this means that the bone popping out, seen on the scan, is my clavicle sticking out. The ligaments holding it in place have been torn hence the reason its springing upwards! I'll be out of training for a few months unitl I get full mobility. I just hope this injury doesn't keep haunting me in the future... More worrying for me is a weird new phenomenon and fetish of staring at people's shoulders! lol

I'm a believer of fate and everything has a reason for its occurrence. This incident could be a reason for me to slow down and focus on other aspects of training and life. Funnily enough, it was only last recently I was wondering when I'd find time to complete my online personal training course. This seems to be the perfect time and hopefully add another valuable qualification under my belt! I can also focus on one handed defenses and fighting at a disadvantage..... (hope its not permanent!)

Injury is definitely depressing especially since it was my schedule 5 times a week, but I guess this is part of the learning process. I've seen talented people pack their bags after injuries, some more significant than mine. In the end, it boils down to how much you want it and what hurdles you're prepared to overcome to achieve that goal. Apart from the psychological battles that one faces, this debilitating hurdle is definitely something new to me. I hope I can bounce back stronger!

Who's Pulling Whose String?

 

So what do Chechnya and Boston have in common? That'll even have some of the world's top analysts pulling their hair out. This incident raises more questions than answers. The US cannot come out of this clean and dry. They could be knee deep in this as well. After the event of 9-11 and the wiki leaks scandal, nothing can be discounted. What's puzzling is how could these two relatively average guys, whilst the older one was being watched, get hold of some serious armory in Boston. After all the gun rampages in the US, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was able to get hold of assault rifles and hand guns which held off the police for a considerable amount of time. Surely it couldn't have been that easy getting hold of these weapons. So how does the US benefit from an operation like this? See my entry on the Politics of Fear.

At the other end of the spectrum, an issue which raises questions is the history of FSB in operations like this. They've been known to employ Chechens to do their wet-work and in all-round criminality. Tsarnaevs may have not known they were working for the FSB. A case in point is that of Mehmet Ali Ağca. He attempted to assassinate the Pope John Paul II. He only realized his string was being pulled by Moscow years after the event.

What could the Kremlin have possibly capitalized from this event? Moscow has attempted to highlight the troubles in Chechnya as part of the worldwide threat of terrorism. This has so far fallen on deaf ears. However, Washington will now have to examine the threat in Russia as a worldwide terrorism threat. It seems like the Chechen cause has seen this coming and already issued a statement mentioning that 'our fight is with Russia and not with the US'. They seem to have realized that these bombings do nothing to further their cause. WHo knows what links are dug up between the Tsarnaevs and Chechen groups operating in Dagestan. 

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but everything is not what it seems. There's a lot more to significant events around the world than meets the eye and its never clear who's pulling whose string. 

Mind and Matter

" If you think you'll lose, you're lost
  for out in the world you'll find
  Success begins with a fellows will
  it's all in the state of mind"

Trying to develop the right mindset can always be worked on. I guess its always overlooked by many athletes.

Well how do you train the mind? Its similar to my earlier entry - Power of Belief.  Another way of training the mind is putting yourself in a stressful situation, a competition, a street fight (don't go picking fights) and trying to overcome the demons which whisper in your ear... "You aint going to win this", "Pull out now when you can", "You've dug yourself in a hole"...etc All these thoughts can be vanquished by constant positive thought, mental focus and end goal.

I remember a quote I heard a while back...

"Mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter " 

Stay positive guys. Ain't no hurdle big enough or to difficult to overcome

Another Intervention

So a country in Sub-Saharan Africa has been run over by 'Islamists' who are bent upon enforcing 'Sharia Law'. A term which, unfortunately, justifies foreign intervention. At the cost of millions of pounds/euros (aren't we still in a recession?) and the inevitable destruction of property and loss of lives. Do we need another war and do we need more bloodshed? In the end, its the civilians that will pay the ultimate price. There seems to be no clear strategy in foreign intervention. Egypt are now run by an 'Islamist Goverment'. Does this justify another foreign intervention? There are groups all over Sub-Sahran Africa, Boko Haram, Al-Shabab and other of the like.

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Sun Tzu

Power of Belief - Roger Gracie

“What do you think it is that makes you better than the average top level Jiu-Jitsu guy?” 

“Everything in life from martial arts to business. Why so many people do something and very few achieve the best? Because they are the ones who really believe.” 

Above are extracts from an interview with Roger Gracie, an athlete at the very top of his game. He also mentioned in the interview that training aids in becoming the best. Train with the best and always beat them on the mat. But the key thing he emphasizes is total belief in the winner and not having an ounce of doubt as to who the victorious one will be. I really need to get this engrained in me! 

Politics of Fear

"We make money till the world burns, for that to we need people to remain ignorant of the problems until its too late. That's why there are triggers like 9-11 etc. A population in fear don't ask questions. Our desire for war becomes its desire. Fear is justification, fear is control, fear is money"

I have a notebook where I generally write quotes which I find of interest. I cant remember where I got the one above, it was a long time ago but recent events around the world made me want to share this. The psychology of fear is really interesting as it makes people want to survive by any means necessary. 

So the key thing to remember, keep everyone in fear and you can manipulate them in any shape or form you want!