The sense of emptiness

It is interesting that I start this chapter with a seemingly religious phase.  Emptiness is a misleading term to many when come to understanding Buddhism. People tends to think about nothingness literally when it is in fact meaning something very different.

It is a mindset of impermanence, understanding that nothing can be permanently unchanged. everything on this world will go through formation, age, deterioration and cease existence. 

In this chapter, however, I am literally speaking of emptiness.

I was fascinated with psychology as I am intrigue with how people think and why they behave as they did. This was partially due to the influence of my brother who took up psychology for his degree and "Silence of the lamb".

The influence from "Silence of the lamb" has affected my interest enough that I started to research on serial killers, and I get t know many of them through the year of reading up different stories. 

One of the serial killers I came across during the 2000s was this Australian called Peter Dupas. He is not the worst of the lot, neither is his story "colorful". What attracted me was the photo on him.

Photo 1. Peter "Chubby" Dupas

Looking at the photo, I can't help but to notice his eyes, the iris is huge and dark. The more I stare at him, I felt the sense of emptiness in him, as if there is no soul within. 

It gives me a sense that he is no able to feel emotion at all. Most like the very reason he killed, to be able to feel. 

Indeed, the reason many serial killers kill is to feel in control and alive. Ironic, isn't it?

It may just be a coincident and that he has big eyes, but there are others with huge eyes, and you can sense them filling with life and emotion.

I recent years, I moved on to learning of the commercial world. Especially when I am into the financial market. I came across this scandal from a company, Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes. 

She is ambitious with a goal to create a one-stop test station; a single drop of blood will enable the machine to report the various health status of the patients. Her idea managed to attract much financial support, especially when she comes from an influential family. 

It is unfortunate that she was too ambitious, the technology was not ready for her. The company could not deliver the product and they decided to cover up and lied about the development progress, forging test report. It brought her down fall.

Photo 2 Elizabeth Holmes

Elizabeth's eyes are bluish as compared to Peter Dupas, yet observing her eyes a while longer, I can't help but tot notice the similar sensation. the eyes are quite empty and a lack of self and life.

Elizabeth was a fan of Steve Job and most likely her ambition mimic that of Job. Even her attire copied that of Job, she even lowers her tonality to portray a more dominant and commanding image. It seems like she lacks her own personality.

What triggers me to have this entry?

My most recent entry on my other blog on charting Meta ..... there should be a moment of self awareness. It is not the first time I see the photo of Mark Zuckerberg, seeing his photo this time let me decide to just keep this on record.

Photo 3. Mark Zuckerberg

I really find very close resemblance of his eyes to the other 2 persons I spoke of earlier. I do not recall any other expression other than this. Reference to the head of some companies such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Steve Jobs, who are filled with passion when even they appear. Mark Zuckerberg is certainly pale in comparison. There seems to have no emotional outburst when he presents.

The photo attached to this article for instance, you can see that the eyes do not synchronize with the smiling feature on his lips, giving me that it is not real and that he is putting on a false appearance.

七慯拳 - The 7-harm fist

The 7-harmhis masterpiece The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. It was formidable with 7 formulae, injuring the heart, lung, liver and intestine, separation of internal organs, depleting the energy and striping of consciousness.

There are other martial arts in his novel than this, but somehow, this martial art is highly attractive to his readers, simply because of this. For one to be trained in the art, he first has to harm and causing internal injury to himself.

It is commonly used to describe strategies used to cause devastation to the opponent but in the process causing self-inflicted damages. An example of such strategy is the US sanction of semiconductors to China which in turn will cause huge business losses to US companies while causing stagnation China's industry machine.  

Fig 1. Crimean Bridge in flame (Russia accuses Ukraine of organizing Crimean Bridge blast (independent.co.ug)

I was surprised when the Crimean bridge was rocked by an explosion. It was the day after Putin's birthday. It seemed like Ukraine wanted to present Putin with a huge birthday gift. Ukraine was quick to let known that eventually all evidence of Russia existence and released a stamp with Crimean bridge on fire. There was even a video with the bridge in flame while birthday song of Marilyn Monroe super imposed. 

Ukraine neither admit nor deny the act all this while.

It silent the world, especially when Putin was threatening nuclear option should the annexed territory be intruded. Everyone's attention was on how Russia will react to this attack. Are they true to their words?

The reaction from the Russian government was quick, its transport minister was quick to reach the site, assessed the situation and promised to restoration of traffic the next day. 

Investigation quickly yielded result claiming that the explosion was caused by a truck filled with explosive. the driver was identified, it further that 12 people were involved and that 5 arrests were made and that concluded that Ukraine was behind the planning and execution of the attack, which took more than 4 months of preparation.

Monday, Putin claimed that the attack was a terrorist attack and labelled Ukraine as a terrorist. He appointed a new general in charge tad the Ukraine war, Sergey Surovikin who was known for his ruthless handling of the Syrian war. 

True to his nature, he ordered bombardment of various Ukrainian cities, causing death of Ukrainian civilians and damaging civilian properties. As a result, leading to strong international condemnation.

There was a part of me believing the possibility that the attack was the result of Ukrainian sabotage, especially when the bridge was crucial to military supply to the Russian frontline at Kerson. It would also be a hit to the morale of Russia and a double down calling Putin out on his nuclear threat.

However, this attack was really unnecessary especially when Ukraine is winning the war. The blowing up of the bridge will only be more a symbolism than practical. I am sure that President Zelenskyy would not want to jeopardize his attack plan with such a move.

Analyzing the behavior from Russia side on the other hand leads to more suspicion, this especially when the telecast the event, demonstrating the level of concern over the devastation, and that claiming Putin was given hourly update of the development. 

It much differs from the way they normally react to Ukrainian attack, which was in denial and blaming accidental act to avoid breaking of people morale.

This seem to me that they are putting on a show and stirring up emotion of the people. 

The story line was too perfect and considering a country with such level of bureaucracy, they are overly efficient to reach their conclusion. In a country where the government care less of its people, evidence from their lack of care of their troops in the frontline, they suddenly care too much about the harm caused to the people.

Not only that, the Foreign Minister also furnished in his news conference that Russian reporter team conned a staff from Ukrainian president to reveal that USA was in fact behind Ukraine aggression against Russia, without proof.

The video at the moment of explosion was released, while it was clear that the explosion happened when the truck reached point zero, the explosion was not initiated from the truck, the truck was more a victim of the explosion. Furthermore, the explosion was seen coming from the right of the truck.

In addition, if the explosion was from the truck, the force it created would not have lifter the bridge causing it to collapse in the way it would. Only an explosion from below the bridge would lift the part of the bridge. 

The whole thing seems very scripted, and it is pointing me towards a planned event by Russia. If this is so, why Russia, or Putin wants to cause harm to his own countrymen?

What I see is that the battle at the front line is not doing well for Putin, even his announcement of annexation not able to stop the advancement of the Ukrainian troops while his army is fast being disabled. His call for partial deployment in guise of security implementation at the annexed regions led to protests of multiple cities, exodus of Russian citizens and fast losing support from the pro-war faction.

He needs a quick fix by creating a common enemy and redirect people's attention to Ukraine. A symbol of national pride needs to be attacked to do so.

By attacking the Crimea bridge, he hopes to stir up the patriotic emotion of Russians to target Ukraine as their enemy. Further bombing of Ukraine while not fulfilling any military objective, it serves his propaganda to show he is still aggressive and in control of the war. Without the support from within, he will be removed and his end will not look well.

He in effect is trying to regain support from both supporter of war and Russian patriots.

What is the truth then? From the recent actions he has taken, seeking dialogue with Biden, calling Turkey president for truce intermediary, offering to re-establish natural gas supply to Germany and France. All these are signs he is begging for help to stop the war.

May be he should have been content with his gain in 2014, may be he should have taken that offer when Zelenskyy requested for that dialogue in January, February and March 2022. well, it is a little late for that now.

Shoot the hostage

Speed was a hit action movie in 1994 starring Keanu Reeve and Sandra Bullock. It grossed profit of USD 350  million on a USD30 -37 million budget.

One memorable part of the movie was a challenge in a hostage situation. The remedy to a threat with a hostage is to shoot the hostage. This is an interesting strategy as it neutralizes the threat.

Since the beginning of Russia "special military operation". USA has been trying to convince Europe to continue their support to Ukraine, with much hesitation from the later. 

The European Union has a strong dependence on gas from Russia, Up to 60% of their gas comes from Russia delivering a nominal capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per Anum through Nord Stream pipelines.

Russia not only threaten, but acted on it with Gazprom, the operator for the pipelines cutting the supply by 20% of the maximum capacity in July 2022 and shut down the pipeline for 10 days claiming difficulty in repair works due to sanction against Russia. 

Gazprom again halted gas supply for 3 days in August 2022 and announce that pipeline 1 would remain shut off in September 2022 to fix a gas leak at the station near St Petersburg, again hinting on sanctions against Russia as the main cause of repair delay.

It is in fact Putin hinting threat to the European Union the consequence of going against him. He is holding the European Union by the balls and expecting them to eventually bow to him when winter arrives.

Then the strange turn of events in September 2022 with multiple ruptures appears on both Nord Stream pipeline 1 and 2 leaking natural gas into the Nordic Sea, causing pressure drop on both pipelines.

It was suspected to be an act of sabotage. The question is who?

It is true that Russia is holding the European Union hostage with the pipelines. However, for the threat to work, the hostage has to remain unharmed. Putin has to give the European Union a glimpse of hope should they comply with his wishes, destroying the pipeline will render the threat useless as there is no U-turn once it is executed.

Ture enough, it is Russia's initiation to offer to fix the problem, they have more interest to make sure the pipelines remain operational.

To find out who may be the party initiating the sabotage, we have to understand who has the interest and the ability to do so.

It is definitely not Ukraine as they may not have the resources nor the knowhow to do so. Afterall, they have no access to the Nordic Sea.

I believe the severing of Nordic Stream pipelines would benefit the US allies most. Removing the threat will rid the one Europe hesitation to fully support Ukraine against Russia. Furthermore, USA has the resource and the ability to do so.

Pride leading to the downfall of men

 Barings Bank must be very foreign to everyone here, this bank is no longer existing. It was founded in 1762 with over two hundred years of history before its downfall in 1995, all because of the pride of a single man, Nick Leeson. 

Is Nick Leeson the head of the bank? No, he is definitely not. He was a trader of the bank stationed in Singapore before he went rogue.

Nick was ambitious, he first worked for Stanley Morgen on the trading floor and in time he was filled with the ambition of becoming a trader. His application was rejected by his superior.

He found a breakthrough and landed the post in Barings Bank. He was determined to be successful, as a result he started to break the rules set by the bank, cutting corners, hiding losses and falsifying reporting. 

Since he stationed in Singapore, far from the eyes and nose of his headquarter, he not only managed to hide his losses in guise of gains, he convinced his headquarter to finance the margin calls of losing trades claiming those were meant for investment portfolio of new customers.

He did not learn his lesson when he was saved from the market turn-around.  He went bolder believing that he held the secret to success, he thought that he could win over the market. By now he was the star trader of the organization as he demonstrated huge profit from the trade.

History repeats itself, he was again amassing huge losses, implementing the same deception to convincing the company to finance his margin call. Unfortunately, he was out of luck this time, Japan was met with a huge earthquake and that caused the market to plummet.

Instead of reporting his losses, he doubled down convinced that the market would go his way, it did not.

When everything come to light, the losses he has accumulated amounted to GBP800 Million. It was too much for the bank to bare, it was also too great for UK to save. The bank declared bankrupt.

What of Nick Leeson? He maintained his innocent and blamed everything else including the bank system, his superior and inexperience auditors. Never once did he take responsibility for his action.

It is right to be ambitious, it is right to do whatever it takes to reach your goals. But what makes a different to the outcome is a person's believes and values. In general, we are taught to be ethical and law abiding, we are taught to follow the rules as our actions affect others.

However, pride blinds a person as he will put his needs over others.  He will justify the means with the grandiose outcome. He will not take ownership of consequences as he cannot be wrong and therefore always the fault of others when things are stacked against him. 

Unfortunately, Nick Leeson is not the last, he is not the only one and certainly not the last. Pride exists in everyone, it is a coping mechanism to protect our ego. What is ego? It is a term that describe control of self. A threat on control of self leads to insecurity and pride is one of the many "qualities" in man to regain his sense of security.

It is also interesting that pride grow stronger higher up in the hierarchy due to a stronger sense of insecurity. 

Fast forward till today, we are witnessing a stronger sense of insecurity in one of our world leaders. 

After collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was in shamble, he stepped forward with the goal of re-instating the past glory of Russia. To maintain a secure platform for his plan, he rules the country with autocracy, removing potential threat and maintaining a strict rule over media, so that the people only hear what he wants them to hear.

Externally, he rebuilds the country using the rich resources of natural gas and oil, in the process leveraging Russia's position in the world arena, making other countries fearful of retaliation to confront his action. 

In the end, he is surrounded by those who would only agree with him, in the process boosting his ego with falsehood.

He further establishes his image as a fighter with involvement of Russia on the battlefield such as his support for the Syria president, stamping the rebellion in Chechia and few other pseudo countries under the control of Russia, as well as invasion of Ukraine, thereby expanding the map of Russia.

His ego has never been so high, letting him think that he can get away in any atrocities. 

By the beginning of this year, he has decided to further expand the territory of Russia again at the expense of Ukraine through special military exercise. 

His original intention was to devour Luhansk and Donetsk. But his huge ego got the better of him, " why not just take the whole Ukraine? it was originally part of Russia after all."

He did not expect a strong resistance from Ukraine, he underestimated the fighting spirit of the comedian president and his people. This time, he has the people of a whole country raised against him.

7 months into the conflict, we witness a continual failure of the Russian army, first to conquer Ukraine and now on continuous retreat. 

Yet, his pride continues to tell him that it is possible for him to turn this around, he hid the news of battle losses and the serious annihilation of his troops to his people, in guise of tactical maneuver and repositioning. 

As the war drags on, he knows that he is losing, at the same time his pride maintains the possibility of a turn around. He annexes 4 regions in Ukraine as part of Russia in hope that this will stop the Ukrainian attacks fearing retaliation of nuclear option. He falsifies the purpose of 300,000 troop replacement claiming their purpose is to secure the annexed region. 

It did not stop the Ukrainians' advancement, and his people are aware of the development at the frontline, they are leaving the country in mass.

Unfortunately, his pride is too strong for him to admit defeat even at this point. I am sure that he is sitting right in front of his nuclear activation, with fingers toying around that red button. 

He is angry of the west; they should be fearful of him, yet they supply ammunition to Ukraine to fight against him. 

He is angry at the Ukraine president and his people; they are no body and should only be a subject for his disposal.

He is angry at those generals who turn out to be useless and corrupt, causing the massive defeat due to their incompetence. 

He is angry with Russians; they desert him in a time when he needs their sacrifice.

He needs to win, because that is the only thing that matters to him. 

I am sure he is very tempted to press that button, because it will create real fear to the world, and they will have to bow to him, turn the situation around and eventually bring back control.