Straight Edge and Its Misconceptions

If we look at people's culture nowaday, we can see that straight edge is a non-smoking, non-alcohol, non-drugs abusing, and non-free sex culture among hardcore and punk scene. Seems like if you want to be a straight edge you have to play and love that genre of music.

It's true that straight edge culture was born in hardcore punk scene, but that's not the point. Straight edge firstly introduced by an 80's hardcore punk band, Minor Threat with its vocalist Ian Mackaye who wrote a song named Out Of Step which its lyric contained straight edge things like “don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t fuck, but at least i can fucking thing”.

The “X,” Straight Edge’s universal symbol, emerged in the early 1980s, when music club owners marked the hands of underage concert-goers with X’s to ensure that bartenders would not serve them alcohol. Soon the kids intentionally marked their own hands, both to signal club workers of their intentions not to drink and, more importantly, to make a statement of pride and defiance out of not drinking. The movement appropriated the X, a symbol meant to be negative, transforming its meaning into discipline and commitment to a drug-free lifestyle.

Being a straight edge doesn't mean that you have to listen exclusively to hardcore, to wear a certain kind of clothing, to collect sXe (popular abreviation of straight edge) tattoos, to attend shows twice a week, or to be a pretentious, judgemental jerk. Straight Edge, at its core, is none of these things. Despite its misconceptions, the movement has a long way to go to live up to what I see as its true potential. Yet for all it’s contradictions, sXe has inspired thousands of kids to live intentional lives.

Being straight edge is not because you want to be cool, that’s why there's a slogan “straight edge isn’t cool anymore”. You don’t join straight edge, you take on the straight edge. You just get involved in the scene and start thinking for yourself.

It's not about the music you listen to, it's what’s the inside that counts.

A Brief History of One of The Best Football Club in The World, Inter Milan

Do you have your own favourite football club? For me, it's FC Internazionale Milano. I don't really remember when the first time I like this team, but actually it was long time ago. Furthermore, I wanna share a brief history of the team that I supported since I was kid.

Inter were formed in 1908 as a breakaway from AC Milan, because of a row over the lack of foreign players. They won their first scudetto in 1910, and for a time it seemed they would only win the league when the year ended in 0. There were titles in 1920 and 1930, but the pattern was broken when they added another in 1938. Inevitably, Inter also won the scudetto in 1940. This team - inspired by the their record scorer Giuseppe Meazza, the extraordinary inside forward after whom the club's ground is named - also claimed their first Italian Cup in 1939.

Consecutive titles in 1953 and 1954 were followed by almost a decade without a trophy, but then came the era of La Grande Inter. Under the Argentine coach Helleno Herrera, the high priest of catenaccio, Inter won three titles in four seasons from 1963 to 1966, as well as their first European Cups. In 1964 they beat Real Madrid 3-1 in the final, while Benfica were conquered 1-0 a year later. They also won the Intercontinental Cup on both occasions, becoming the first team to regain the trophy. This remarkable Inter generation, which included the likes of Giacinto Fachetti, Sandro Mazzola and Luis Suarez, missed out on another European Cup when they lost 2-1 to Celtic in the final in 1967.

Inter never came close to extending that dominance, despite winning titles in 1971 and 1980 and Italian Cups in 1978 and 1982. Their next title was won mightily, in 1989, when they won 26 of their 34 games and, in the age of two points for a win, finished 11 points clear. The side included the future German World Cup-winning pair of Lothar Matthaus and Andreas Brehme, with Jurgen Klinsmann completing the holiest of trinities in the summer of 1989. They were captained by the unyielding stopper Giuseppe Bergomi, whose 758 appearances are an Inter record, albeit one under threat from the evergreen Javier Zanetti. That quartet helped the club win the UEFA Cup for the first time in 1991 but, despite two further UEFA Cup wins in 1994 and 1998, the Nineties was generally a forgettable time. It remains the only decade in which Inter have failed to win Serie A, and in 1993-94 they finished only a point above the relegation zone.

Inter's long wait for another scudetto ended in unusual circumstances, when they were given the 2005-06 title by default because of Juventus and Milan's role in the Calciopoli scandal. Inter had finished third that season but, with a three-horse race turned briefly into a one-horse race, they romped to four more titles in a row.

In 2006-07, under Roberto Mancini, Inter smashed a couple of long-standing records by amassing 97 points and 30 wins, including 17 in a row. By the time Juventus and Milan were back to full strength, Inter were just too powerful - particularly when they were taken over by Jose Mourinho in 2008.

He made good on his promise to end a period of dismal underachievement in Europe. In 2010, as well as moving ahead of Milan's total of 17 titles, Inter won the European Cup for the first time in 45 years, defeating the holders Barcelona in an epic semi-final before beating Bayern Munich 2-0 in the final.

The Coppa Italia completed the first Treble by an Italian side - although Mourinho left for Madrid, his work done, and Rafael Benitez oversaw a six month spell of failure, despite bringing home the Club World Cup. Ex-Milan boss Leonardo took charge, but could not lead them to more than a Coppa Italia win and also chose to leave with the title heading to the other side of the city.

The rollercoaster of managerial departures continued with Cludio Ranieri's failure to get Inter up the table and, in March 2012, youth coach Andrea Stramaccioni was handed the reigns with a tough test on his hands. Andrea Stramaccioni was the Inter Primavera coach that led the Inter youth players to win the NextGen series in 2011. Such was the quality of his work, he was drafted in to take over the first-team duties when a poor run of form caused Claudio Ranieri sacked in March.


FORZA INTER!!

Give Peace A Chance

"I killed half the Jews and left the other half for you to discover why I killed the first"

- Adolf Hitler

As we all know, the conflict between Israel-Palestine is becoming worlwide trending topic nowaday. The warfare and its casualities as seen on TV, internet, and newspaper has affected people in the world to curse what Israel did and support Palestine redemption.

If we see through its history, for centuries there was no such conflict. In the 19th century the land of Palestine was inhabited by a multicultural population – approximately 86 percent Muslim, 10 percent Christian, and 4 percent Jewish – living in peace.

In the late 1800s a group in Europe decided to colonize this land. Known as Zionists, they represented an extremist minority of the Jewish population. Their goal was to create a Jewish homeland, and they considered locations in Africa and the Americas, before settling on Palestine.

At first, this immigration created no problems. However, as more and more Zionists immigrated to Palestine – many with the express wish of taking over the land for a Jewish state – the indigenous population became increasingly alarmed. Eventually, fighting broke out, with escalating waves of violence. Hitler's rise to power, combined with Zionist activities to sabotage efforts to place Jewish refugees in western countries, led to increased Jewish immigration to Palestine, and conflict grew.

After that, the conflicts between two countries escalating more and more. The peak of that conflicts happened when Israel launched the offensive on 14 November 2012 to halt renewed rocket fire from Gaza, unleashing some 1,500 airstrikes on Hamas-linked targets, while Hamas and other Gaza militant groups showered Israel with just as many rockets.

The eight days of fighting killed 161 Palestinians, including 71 civilians, and five Israelis. Israel also destroyed key symbols of Hamas power, such as the prime minister's office, along with rocket launching sites and Gaza police stations.

Egypt, the traditional mediator between Israel and the Arab world, has been at the center of recent diplomatic efforts involving the US, Turkey, Qatar and other nations. Egyptian intelligence officials met separately in Cairo with an Israeli envoy and with Khaled Mashaal, the top Hamas leader in exile, to try to bridge the considerable differences.

Israel demands an end to rocket fire from Gaza and a halt to weapons smuggling into Gaza through tunnels under the border with Egypt. It also wants international guarantees that Hamas will not rearm or use Egypt's Sinai region, which abuts both Gaza and southern Israel, to attack Israelis.

Hamas wants Israel to halt all attacks on Gaza and lift tight restrictions on trade and movement in and out of the territory that have been in place since Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007. Israel has rejected such demands in the past.

Despite the tough talk, the cease-fire raised hopes of a new era between Israel and Hamas. The two sides are now to negotiate a deal that would end years of Gaza rocket fire on Israel and open the borders of the blockaded Palestinian territory.

However, the vague language in the agreement and deep hostility between the combatants made it far from certain that the bloodshed would end or that either side will get everything it wants.

SAVE GAZA! SAVE HUMANITY!
Give peace a chance.......