Our time in history......

An eloquently written Message by George Carlin:

"The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away"

English from around the world

Wonderful English from around the world

In a Bangkok temple:

IT IS FORBIDDEN TO ENTER A WOMAN, EVEN A

FOREIGNER, IF DRESSED AS A MAN.

Cocktail lounge, Norway:

LADIES ARE REQUESTED NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN IN

THE BAR.

Doctors office, Rome :

SPECIALIST IN WOMEN AND OTHER DISEASES.

Dry cleaners, Bangkok :

DROP YOUR TROUSERS HERE FOR THE BEST RESULTS.

In a Nairobi restaurant:

CUSTOMERS WHO FIND OUR WAITRESSES RUDE OUGHT TO SEE THE MANAGER.

On the main road to Mombasa , leaving Nairobi :

TAKE NOTICE: WHEN THIS SIGN IS UNDER WATER,

THIS ROAD IS IMPASSABLE.

On a poster at Kencom:

ARE YOU AN ADULT THAT CANNOT READ? IF SO WE CAN HELP.

In a City restaurant:

OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK AND WEEKENDS.

In a cemetery:

PERSONS ARE PROHIBITED FROM PICKING FLOWERS FROM ANY BUT THEIR OWN GRAVES .

Tokyo hotel's rules and regulations:

GUESTS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO SMOKE OR DO OTHER DISGUSTING BEHAVIOURS IN BED.

On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:

OUR WINES LEAVE YOU NOTHING TO HOPE FOR.

In a Tokyo bar:

SPECIAL COCKTAILS FOR THE LADIES WITH NUTS.

Hotel, Yugoslavia:

THE FLATTENING OF UNDERWEAR WITH PLEASURE IS THE JOB OF THE CHAMBERMAID

Hotel, Japan:

YOU ARE INVITED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CHAMBERMAID.

In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery:

YOU ARE WELCOME TO VISIT THE CEMETERY WHERE FAMOUS RUSSIAN AND SOVIET COMPOSERS, ARTISTS AND WRITERS ARE

BURIED DAILY EXCEPT THURSDAY.

A sign posted in Germany 's Black Forest:

IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN ON OUR BLACK FOREST CAMPING SITE THAT PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT SEX, FOR INSTANCE, MEN AND WOMEN,

LIVE TOGETHER IN ONE TENT UNLESS THEY ARE MARRIED WITH EACH OTHER FOR THIS PURPOSE.

Hotel, Zurich :

BECAUSE OF THE IMPROPRIETY OF ENTERTAINING GUESTS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX IN THE BEDROOM, IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE LOBBY BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE.

Advertisement for donkey rides, Thailand :

WOULD YOU LIKE TO RIDE ON YOUR OWN ASS?

Airline ticket office, Copenhagen:

WE TAKE YOUR BAGS AND SEND THEM IN ALL DIRECTIONS.

A laundry in Rome :

LADIES, LEAVE YOUR CLOTHES HERE AND SPEND THE AFTERNOONHAVING A GOOD TIME.

A walk down memory lane

I was driving around town the other day and passed an area on the West Side of Los Angeles which brought back some long forgotten memories. I was at a traffic stop on the corner of Doheny and Sunset; there was a bus-stand to my right. A man was standing by the bench...He was young and just stood there with arms crossed craning his neck to see if a bus was approaching....

I suddenly realized where I was. A flood of memories came rushing back. In a sense, it was on this street corner that my life in Los Angeles began so many years ago. The only store I recognized was a liquor store on the north side. No wonder it took me a while to realize where I was. The traffic light turned green and someone honked from behind. I pulled over, parked my car and decided to take a little stroll down memory lane.

As I walked the street, soaking up familiar scenes, I took another look at the bus stand. I remembered what it was like for me all those years ago. I arrived in LA from NYC in my early 20s with big dreams of making it in the entertainment industry. I secured an internship at a production company not far from the intersection of Sunset and Doheny. At that time, I didn't have any money and the internship was unpaid. A cousin of mine who lived in San Gabriel offered me a place to stay. It wasn't much of a place. Small and cramped but it was free and I wasn't complaining.

The daily journey to the West-Side was arduous.....LA is not known for it's excellent public transportation system and it was even worse back then. I had to take 2 buses and a subway to get to my destination and it took me about 3 hours one way.....I went from San Gabriel to downtown LA. Took the metro from downtown LA to Hollywood. From Hollywood, I took another bus all the way to Sunset and Doheny. I was usually the first employee to arrive at around 9am.

From the time I arrived in the morning, I made copies, ran errands, read scripts, wrote coverage, answered the phones, walked the bosses dogs. Every conceivable menial job you could imagine but they were great lessons and I learnt fortitude and patience. The folks I worked with were very nice but I wished they paid me even a couple of dollars a day. I wasn't looking for minimum wage, just a few bucks. But I didn't complain. Many of the interns I started with left quickly because they wouldn't stand working for nothing. It was tough. Often I only had enough money for bus fare so I lived on power bars for lunch and dinner, most of the week. To make matters worse, I nursed a right inguinal hernia which made it difficult to stand for long periods without it popping out but yet my work required that I stand on my feet all day long!

Once a week, on my journey home, I would treat myself to a simple dinner at a small Thai restaurant on Sunset and Vine. I had about 30 minutes between buses so I swung by the restaurant and wolfed down a vegetarian Thai fried rice with lots of carrots and broccoli.....and I always looked forward to my fortune cookie to see what it had in store for me. It was my crystal ball, bearer of news. Sounds silly looking back but as a struggling young man with multiple challenges and an uncertain future, the fortune cookie provided a tiny bit of comfort.

There was this one time I remember. It was pouring. Unusual for Southern CA. Must have been sometime in January. I finished work and was heading home when a storm broke out. Of course I didn't have an umbrella so I was forced to run out into the rain to catch my bus. Needless to say I was soaked to the bone. When I got to the bus stand, it was crowded full of people seeking shelter and the few buildings shelters nearby were also full of people. I couldn't risk walking into one of the stores because I could miss my bus...In the end, I simply gave up and sat on the sidewalk. Cold rain pouring down but I didn't care, I was just so tired. And then, this huge, stately Bentley Continental pulls up alongside me. The driver, obviously ignorant of my presence sitting below on the sidewalk was cosseted in the finest leather and advanced climate control system. Here I was, this street urchin compared to Mr Bentley, sitting on a sidewalk, rain drenched, and next to me this fabulously wealthy gentleman in a $300,000 automobile. The contrast couldn't have been be greater but then I realized for the first time in my life how completely free I was. I mean I had absolutely nothing to my name. No property, no car, no home, no family, nothing. I could simply get up, walk away or stay but I was not bound by anything or anyone. It was an incredible feeling which I've not been able to replicate since.

I got back to my car soon enough. Took another quick look at the street corner and drove off. I was glad I made the stop.....

The 3 Amigos

I’m convinced Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran and Kim Jim Il, ruler of North Korea are in regular contact. Both nations never test fire nuclear missiles simultaneously. It’s either one or the other but never together. I think they alternate firing missiles to distract the world. For e.g when the EU and America hound Iran to accept inspectors to review their nuclear program, North Korea fires a few missiles into the Sea of Japan to distract the west away from Iran and ease the pressure. Iran returns the favor when the West begins hounding North Korea, by launching a couple of missiles. Coincidence or deliberate & calculated coordination? I don’t know but I find it interesting that both countries don’t ever fire their test missiles at the same time. I’m a bit of a conspiracy theorist so I tend to over-analyze when there is not much to analyze.

The circle is incomplete without Senor Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. He has many nicknames but one in particular is “La Cucaracha”. Not only is it the title of a popular drinking song, it is also the name of an exceptionally useless and annoying insect, the cockroach. This is a former paratrooper who has essentially taken over Venezuela and threatens to turn this once thriving, oil rich South American nation into another despot dominated country. If you recall, Chavez called then President Bush, El Diablo (the Devil) at a UN meeting a couple of years ago. His exact words were along the lines of “the devil was just here and I can still smell sulfur”. While Bush was certainly very unpopular and not well liked by many member nations, the utter lack of class displayed by Chavez who was supposed to be head of state representing his country at the UN, cost him a seat on the coveted security-council. A huge blow for a man who lobbied very hard to get it….Of course he blamed it on American meddling but many pro-Chavez nations voted against him; unusual, considering these voting countries had nothing to gain from opposing Chavez and in fact had poor relations with the US. One can only assume that many ambassadors were put off by the coarseness of his conduct. Had he put a lock on his lips and threw away the keys into one of his state owned oil-wells, he may well have succeeded in winning the prized seat……

The annual UN general assembly meeting is coming up next week. Leaders from all over the world descend on New York City ready to discuss problems of the world and offer up solutions and remedies. To me, it's like a giant photo opportunity and a chance for politicians to do what they do best; sit around tables and engage in endless dialogue…At the end of discussions, there is little consensus. Certainly not enough to craft real solutions to move the process forward but it happens every year. Big headlines, big promises, lots of hope but ultimately very little to show for by way of concrete, definable action. For all the fanfare, pomp and show, I always marvel at how much money politicians spend on private jets, fancy hotels, expensive meals and security detail just to attend events like these. All courtesy of tax dollars and if there is anything politicians enjoys more then staying in power forever, it’s spending tax dollars.…

German reliability

Today I had to take my car in unexpectedly to the service center so I spent a good chunk of the morning waiting for my car to get fixed.

I own an Audi. Always liked German cars but Audi's in particular for their understated elegance. Not near as flashy as the MBZ's or BMW's. Great cars to drive and solidly built. In fact, Audi build quality is legendary and considered the standard bearer of the automative industry. The Ingolstadt manufacturer's fit and finish are beyond reproach.

Years ago I started out Japanese. Japanese reliability was always drilled into my head by friends and family and so when I was ready to buy a car, I bought Japanese. A Nissan Maxima to be precise. It was good car and pretty reliable but it had no soul and the steering was utterly and completely lifeless. In short, no bloody fun to drive!

For some folks, a car is simply a means to an end. For me, it's the same but I strongly believe that you have to love what you drive. That love enhances the driving experience ten fold. Much like anything else in life. So I enjoy my Audi. I love driving it. I love the feel of a German car especially on the freeway. These cars were bred on the legendary autobahns. When it comes to high speed stability and road feel, German cars are still a cut above the rest. At least in my opinion.......

German cars however have one major drawback. Reliability. Now I never thought I would admit this but it's true. I've owned German cars for a few years now. Prior to this Audi, I owned a Volkswagen Passat. Although they are techonologically sophisticated and brimming with the latest gadgets, Deutschland simply doesn't understand the concept of reliability unlike our Japanese friends.

My Volkswagen Passat was a great car when it worked. But "when" it worked. The Volkswagen spent a lot of time in the shop. It's problems were mainly electrical. Like the digital compass going out, myriad sensor lights coming on, power window going kaput. All on a pretty new car with less then 10k miles. Once at about 8,000 miles, the ignition just died. I inserted my little key fob to start the engine and it simply wouldn't start up. Had to flat bed my baby all the way to the dealer who took a couple of days to fix her because parts weren't available.

My Audi's reliability has been markedly superior but I've still been plagued by a number of little issues. The first one and my car was hardly 3 month old then, was the oil warning light that kept coming on which warranted trips to the dealer. It turns out Audi's love OIL, and go through quarts of the black stuff very quickly. So the oil warning lights up every time levels dip below recommended levels. Not safe levels but recommended levels. Every couple of months I have to top off the oil which I've learnt to do by myself.

Today's trip to the dealer today happened because the engine alert warning light came on yesterday and the user manual recommended I take it in asap. Of course the dealer doesn't really care much about the fact that I need to take precious time out of my day to deal with the problem. Initially they asked me to drop my car off, get a rental at my own expense and come back when the car was ready. Absurd. I insisted on waiting and the service advisor was nice enough to make my car a priority. Apparently a coil for one of the cylinders expired and needed to be replaced. A $300 job had I been out of warranty.

High maintanence, yes, but the payoff is the opportunity to command a splendid machine.

Gamma Ray Burst (GRB)

Ever heard of a Gamma Ray Burst? Maybe something linked to the Incredible Hulk? Remember how Bruce Banner aka the Hulk was exposed to a massive dose of Gamma rays in a lab experiment gone wrong. It ultimately turned him into the raging Hulk. According to superhero lore, the Hulk is the most powerful of them all with near limitless muscle.

Unlike the Hulk though, a GRB is real. It's not science fiction or the stuff of imagination. It's a bona fide phenomenon. GRB's are some of the most powerful forces in the known universe. A single gamma ray burst energy output exceeds the total cumulative power of our sun over it's 10 billion year life cycle!

GRB's are usually created by exploding super stars. A super star can be 100 times larger then our own sun. These hulking masses burn bright, live fast and usually don't last very long. Our sun in comparison is not big enough to explode into a supernova but it's life span is much longer.

As the mega star begin it's death march and enters the final stages before ripping itself apart, it's rapidly rotating mass collapses to create a black hole. That ensuing collapse is referred to as a supernova. During that collapse, a GRB can occur. It usually only lasts a couple of seconds but the power generated during those few seconds is immeasurable.

So where are these GRB's? Any lurking in our corner of the universe? It's possible but they usually occur billions of light years away; in the far edges of the universe.

But I was watching a program on History Channel recently and a team of JPL scientist talked about a Wolf Rayet star (class of super stars usually about 20 times the mass of our sun) only about 8,000 light years away that appears highly unstable and poised to ignite. The explosion in itself poses no danger to our planet but it's axis is pointing directly towards Earth which means that we are staring down the barrel of a gun.

If the resulting supernova were to produce a GRB, Earth could be directly in the line of fire. A direct hit from a GRB even from 8,000 light years away, has the capacity to obliterate our atmosphere which will cause mass extinction. Imagine the earth without it's protective ozone. Solar winds from our sun will roast the blue planet alive.

Just around the corner

I recently found out that a friend was diagnosed with lung cancer. It was an aggressive form and had spread to her bones. The doctors considered it Stage 4 but the final verdict is still uncertain as modern medicine struggles to understand the exact scope and depth of the disease.

My friend called me and told me about the diagnosis a few weeks ago. She was obviously confused and frightened. They were more questions then answers. The only indication of the cancer was a persistent cough which she didn't think much off but decided to check it out. The first doctor brushed it aside but the 2^nd doctor ran a few scans which discovered the tumors…..

I often struggle with expressing emotion, a symptom of some repressed aspect of my childhood no doubt. As children, we were always taught that when dealing with difficult situations, real men held it in, kept their composure and left the wailing to the ladies…..

So when my friend called and broke the news, I didn't know how to respond. I was simply stunned. In fact, I wasn't even concentrating on all that she was saying. I was more concerned about formulating the right response and petrified about blurting out a generic, recycled response. I wanted to offer a meaningful, appropriate response that might offer this poor soul some little comfort. That was my overwhelming concern…..

This is really the first time I've had to deal with a situation like this. The first time someone I know quite well had been diagnosed with a serious, life threatening illness. And I simply could not imagine or even fathom the horror, the shock, the feeling of complete helplessness my friend was going through. Imagine being told you have stage 4 cancer and may only have a few months to live. How do you react? How do you process? What do you do?

I managed to muster all the sincerity I could find and said how very sorry I was and that I stood ready to help in any way possible. She was thankful. Conversation didn't last very long.

Life really is a fragile bubble. We go about it, convinced that nothing will happen but the world around us constantly reminds us that death is ever ready to pounce. Either we are oblivious or choose to be oblivious. Either way it doesn't matter because the reaper awaits, patiently. Ready to strike when our time is up. If we meditate on death for a moment, think about the inevitability of death, we realize how little time we really have and how much remains to be done.....

Back in the saddle

Ok it's been a couple of months since my last post. Writing disciplined, regular posts is not as easy as I imagined. Actually, I stopped posting because I simply didn't see the point to a blog. I was struggling to understand it's purpose. It seemed to me that a blog was simply meant to post self indulgent ramblings on a website for people to read. Plus no one ever reads this blog. I don't know how to advertise or get the word out. Or maybe a bunch of people have read the blog but found it dull and boring and just moved on.

In any case, I will start up again and see how it goes.................

Pursuing a dream - Part 1

I always wanted to make movies. Somehow I managed to convince my very reluctant parents of my desire to become a film-director. In the culture I came from, it was like saying I wanted to be a pot smoking, beach bum. A drifter with no purpose in life. With infinite patience coupled with a healthy dose of persuasion, I prevailed. My folks relented. Eventually, I landed at a university in Italy studying the art of film, Italian style. I spent 5 of the happiest years of my life, in a little medieval town just outside the Eternal City.

Life eventually took in me in a completely different direction. Today I work in as corporate an environment as it gets. Far away from anything remotely close to film-making. Rather then hobble along, trying to preserve a meager existence holding on to the improbable hope of making it big, I chose to embrace a pragmatic solution. A stable career that would eventually give me the tools to revisit film making again. It was a strategic retreat so I could fight my battle another day with reinforcements and a stronger footing. As soon as I established my day job, which took me a couple of years, I shifted focus again.....

It had been almost 10 years since I left film school and technology had a taken a giant leap forward. When I was a student, it was near impossible for an individual to edit his/her movies without engaging the services of a post production house or an editor. Today, at a relatively small cost, an individual can do it alone. 10 years ago, the cost of cameras, editing software, hard drives, computers, lighting were prohibitively expensive but today, supported by the incredible advance in technology, costs have shifted down dramatically.

And then there was the internet. Use of the world wide web exploded over the last decade. In the old days, budding filmmakers needed to find distribution channels for their movies, a daunting task to say the least. Distributors only went for big ticket projects with proven potential at the box office. The little ones struggled mightily. Many great movies and documentaries never saw the light of day because of how the system worked. These days filmmakers upload movies onto any number of websites, taking content directly to the consumer. The internet revolutionized and completely changed the landscape of film making.

In early 2007, I bought a 24 inch I-Mac and Final Cut Express, Mac's amazing consumer level editing software. Having been to film school, I knew all the basics from production to post production. I visited Craigslist.com, where I found a working Final Cut editor, willing to give me a few private lessons. Final Cut had a somewhat steep learning curve and rather then stumble along by myself trying to master complex software, I figured private lessons would provide the quickest, most efficient way to study. Sure enough, within 3 weeks, I had the basics down and was ready to start editing.

In retrospect, my decision to reenter the field albeit on a part time basis, could not have come at a better time. Initially I wasn't sure if the money spent setting myself up was such a good investment. This wasn't going to be an income generating venture and all projects I had planned were documentaries about social welfare projects with zero commercial potential. But it was an investment in my dreams, an opportunity to get back to what I really loved doing.

We've heard it many times before and it's true. We should never give up on our dreams and aspirations however trivial or Utopian they may seem. If it's what we love doing, we owe it ourselves to make it happen....

Ever wondered about our Sun?

Astronomy is a fascinating subject. The study of our breathtaking universe continues to be an important step in my spiritual evolution. Every time I read about new discoveries or view pictures from outer space, I can't help but wonder. Could one entity really be the architect, the invisible hand, the engineering virtuoso behind our vast universe?

Let's start with the sun, at the center of our cozy little solar system neatly tucked away in an obscure corner of the enormous Milky Way galaxy, 100,000 light years across, containing between 200 billion to 400 billion stars. Our sun sits about 93 million miles away from earth. Any closer or farther would mean the end of life. It is maintained at precisely that distance.

The sun is classified as a GV Star and small by cosmic standards. There are much much larger stars out there and yet the total volume of the sun is 1.4 x 10²⁷ cubic meters, enough to fit 1.3 million earths with room to spare. From a human perspective, this is almost unfathomable. Every second, the sun fuses approximately 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium converting about 4 million tons of matter into energy. Each second mind you and this is just a small yellow dwarf star.

Solar energy is created deep within the core of the Sun. It is here that the temperature (15,000,000° C; 27,000,000° F) and pressure (340 billion times Earth's air pressure at sea level) is so intense that nuclear reactions take place.

Sunlight is the primary source of Earth's energy. The source of our power. Sunlight traveling at 186,000 miles per second takes approximately 8 minutes to reach the earth. So powerful is the sun that even from that distance, it can vaporize water. A powerful solar storm can unleash a tidal wave of destruction pulverizing everything from orbiting communication satellites to power grids on the ground. A single powerful storm has the capacity to take civilization as we know it back to the stone ages.

The sun is about 4.5 billion years old. It is slowly but surely dying. As it fades away, it will get progressively hotter and more violent. In about 5 billion years, the sun will enter the red giant phase, its outer layers expanding as the hydrogen fuel in the core is consumed. By this time, life on earth would have been long extinct or perhaps humans would have found a way to exist on other planets. The sun's radius will swell. The inner planets, Mercury, Venus and Earth will be obliterated. As the sun cools down and shrinks into a white dwarf star, the outer planets of our solar system will become cold, dark, hulking masses. Ghostly silhouettes, spinning aimlessly in a once effervescent solar system.

Because our sun is not big enough to explode into a supernova, it is destined to become a white dwarf star. The sun will dim, burning at a tiny fraction of it's former self; no longer able to sustain life. It is said that the sun could remain in the white dwarf stage for a trillion years before the candle is finally extinguished.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Why do bad things happen to good people? We find ourselves asking this question time and time again. The answer is simple but to understand it we must first try to fully understand the concept of Karma. Karma, contrary to the beliefs of some, is not some hippy Hindu term based on the foundations of a misguided religion. Karma is a very intelligent concept engineered by one the most ancient religions in the world.....Hinduism. Thousands of years ago, the Hindus not only figured out the essence and purpose of life but provided a detailed explanation on the real causes of human suffering.

All around us, everyday, we bear witness to unbelievable human suffering affecting our fellow brothers and sisters in all corners of our planet. Why are some born wealthy and others born into abject poverty? Why are some born with serious, debilitating illnesses while others enjoy life long health? Why do some die happy, peaceful deaths while others exit the world in a most horrible and painful way? Does fate randomly pick its victims?

Thousands of years ago, Hinduism figured it out. They gave us Karma; a diffident but brilliant concept that is both logical and intuitive. Karma states that every action, results in a corresponding reaction. The effect of this corresponding reaction does not always happen in the present life. For e.g. an individual commits murder; punishment is carried out in the appropriate dose, usually many times the scale and brutality of the original crime. I am not talking about our human justice system or "the law" as we know it. In fact, "the law" with it's imperfect blend of judges and juries, is the least of the wrong doers problems......

The Universe created a system of karma to address precisely this type of aberrant truancy by the soul. The individual will have to reincarnate again on earth and suffer the extreme consequences of his/her dastardly actions. This system of justice, presided over by the universe and its tributaries is uncompromising unlike the human penal code. It will inflict a punishment far harsher so that the soul will never forget the lesson again and permanently refrain from ever taking innocent life.

The life we lead today is a result of our actions from a previous incarnation and the life we lead in our next life will be based upon our actions in this life. It's so simple and yet so many of us struggle to understand it especially when we bear witness to the pain and suffering of seemingly innocent individuals. Everything we do, from the thoughts we think, to the actions we commit are recorded and accounted for. We will enjoy or suffer consequences of these actions in this life or the next.

When General Maximus returns as a gladiator to Rome in the film, Gladiator, Emperor Commodus insists on meeting the fearsome gladiator not knowing his real identity. When Maximus finally reveals himself to the emperor, he looks the evil Commodus straight in the eye and utters the following words "My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”

Maximus embodies Karma and whether it's in this life or the next, the whip of karma is inescapable as it is inevitable.