An Evening with Todd Shea: The Improbable American

Above is a picture of Todd Shea, CEO of Shine Humanity and founder of Comprehensive Disaster Relief Services (CDRS).

Last Friday I had the grand opportunity of attending a presentation and music session by the bold and courageous humanist Todd Shea. The event was held at Kings College London and hosted by the organization United Pakistan Front.

I was really impressed with Todd’s exceptional struggle for the cause of humanity, his service to the Pakistanis affected by the Kashmir earthquake, his own humility and commitment to justice. I just wish I had half the commitment he has in anything I do but then again his cause is far greater and noble.

When you first look at Todd he really strikes you as an unlikely character for the station he has acquired as a rescue worker and a CEO of a disaster relief organization. From the looks of it he just seems like your average McDonalds munching American hippie who just walked in to give a talk wearing nothing more than a casual black shirt and a denim jeans. In fact in some part of his speech he testified that by the age of 18 he was a cocaine addict, but once you hear his half-baked cocktail of English and Urdu you really begin to wonder out of all the places how did he end up in Chikar (Pakistan).

Well here's his story........

On September the 12^th, 2001 Todd had a performance due at the renowned CBGB music club and off course due to the unfaithful events of 9-11 the gig never materialized. However 9-11 had kindled a new spark in the then Todd Shea who, prompted by the plane crash, immediately emptied his van and began helping the first responders with supplies and logistical support at Ground Zero. In the presentation Todd recounted 9-11 as a life changing experience and subsequently he put an indefinite halt to his musical career and dedicated himself to rescue work.

In 2004 he volunteered in Sri-Lanka after the tsunami and following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 he again enlisted himself in another organisation (whose name I can’t remember) in which apart from saving people he also occupied himself in saving pet Kuttahs (dogs) and Billis(cats) which had become trapped in the rubble. He remarked, “I love these animals and I was amazed at how they managed to survive even when the houses were filled with water nearly up to the ceilings.”

Once the earthquake hit Pakistan, Todd packed his bags and set out for the alien country absent of any idea of what to expect when he got there. In fact once he dived into the field work he became so engrossed with his work that he recalled, “For the first few weeks I didn’t even know that I was in Kashmir. I just knew that I was some place in Pakistan.”

After witnessing the devastation of the land and the people of Kashmir first hand and having fallen in love with the country and its culture Todd has spent almost six years as a disaster relief worker living in Pakistan.

Todd has also been greatly critical of United States foreign policy which he said, “To a great extent has had negative and adverse consequences for the people of Pakistan.” He also resented the stereotypical portrayal of the country’s people by the US media; after showing a picture of him holding the infant daughter of a bearded Muslim he remarked, “The US media tends to show every bearded Muslim as a member of the Taliban but this man allowed me to hold his children as if I were a relative. He treated me as if I were a part of his family.” 

In 2006 he founded Comprehensive Disaster Relief Services (CDRS), a charity hospital in Chikar which provides primary healthcare and treatment to about 200,000 people annually, the majority of whom are women and children. Although the group’s annual budget is set to about $ 200,000 per year providing prompt medical services is a real difficult job primary due to the lack of input from the end of the Pakistani government. Balanced budgeting is a huge source of contention in the country with the government devoting only about one percent of the budget for healthcare provisions. To make matters worse a great proportion of the appropriated budget is either wasted or lost by the time it reaches rural communities of the country. As a result most of the funding for the organizations rescue work comes from foreign countries like the United States, the UK and institutions like UNICEF. 

Following the floods in Pakistan and other various international disasters like the Haiti earthquake and the Japanese tsunami, in April of 2009 Todd founded another organization called Shine Humanity which serves to provide long term sustainable and affordable quality healthcare services to disaster victims worldwide.

Todd Shea firmly believes the health is a fundamental human right and has devoted him-self to raising the flag of humanity throughout the world, a duty I think that all of us share and are obligated to pursue.  Therefore head on to http://www.shinehumanity.org/ and donate whatever you can.

Every penny counts! 

After Todd went through his presentation he sat down and took to the guitar playing a few Atif Aslam songs and Dil Dil Pakistan. I didn't record the event but luckily I have found another video,which I have posted below, where he sings Dil Dil Pakistan and a few others in his American Desi accent !

Here is a small documentary on Todd Shea from the New York Times.

Assassins Creed Revelations: The Pros

 Some fifteen days after the release date I finally got the opportunity to play the newest Assassin’s creed game. I have been an ardent enthusiast of the whole series and I thought I should do justice by giving it an honest review. I will say my opinions are rather personal and if you really want to know the game then you should go and play it yourself.

At the end of Brotherhood, just after the credits start rolling in you can hear Rebecca and another mysterious voice discussing the prospect of putting an unconscious Desmond back into the Animus and this is where Revelations kicks in.

Although on the outside you’re in a coma, you begin your journey with Desmond waking up on Animus Island. In fact this small rudimentary island is what is called the Animus ‘safe mode’ or as subject sixteen puts it ‘Hello World and basic physics’. Subject sixteen who now makes his first appearance in the flesh tells Desmond that his mind is fragmenting and the memories of his ancestors are beginning to clash with his own. Therefore in order for the Animus to better isolate Desmond’s memories from his ancestor’s and to send the correct personality back to his body he must play through all the memories of his ancestors. 

 The Animus Island is a really interesting and freaky place which kept on reminding me of the movie Inception. Its dark, dull and misty yet eerily lit which really gives you shivers the first time you see it, especially with sixteen teleporting all over the place. Sixteen it seems is permanently stuck there with no prospect of getting out, you’ll see him lamenting and cursing himself for the ordeal of being imprisoned in the Animus. In fact he goes on to tell Desmond in a psychedelic manner that he lost his chance, yet goes out of his way to act as Desmond’s protective overlord. I think the Island, conversing with sixteen along with the Desmond sequences (which are only fully unlocked after 30 data fragments) added a unique dimension to the new game. Once you follow through the Desmond sequences which are even freakier than the Island itself you finally learn about Desmond’s childhood and origins, something that was long overdue in the franchise. In the previous games you knew nothing about Desmond and I always felt disconnected with the protagonist often seeing him as somewhat of a hollow character, but after going through revelations you can finally begin to feel Desmond’s place as a distinguished role.

Upon learning about the Masyaf keys you venture out to the city of Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople. As far as the breadth of the new setting in Assassins Creed Revelations is concerned Istanbul is a stunning and beautiful location where traversing through the roof tops, city streets and Bazaars is an absolute joy. It’s a maritime city with many ports and harbors rife with boats and Ottoman naval ships. Like Venice (from AC 2) you will find streaming waters all across the city giving the whole ambiance a tinge of blue and combined with the sight of the evening sunset Istanbul really shines its own.  The city itself is like a union of districts and islands which you get to travel back and from throughout the game making the scenery just that more enjoyable. 

 

In terms of the architecture and cultural outlook the game has probably surpassed its former predecessors. It has just been about 50 years from the fall of Constantinople. Therefore neither enough time has passed for the eastern culture of the Islamic Caliphate to consolidate or for that of the preceding Christian one to fade.  As a result the city not only constitutes the crossroads of continents but also of two different civilizations. You’ll frequently witness churches, mosques or mosques newly converted from churches scattered throughout the mainland which accurately reflects the mood and setting of a land just recently conquered by a foreign culture. And for those who have no chance of visiting modern day Turkey, Revelations is as close you’ll get to seeing wonders like the Topkapi Palace or the church of Hagia Sophia.

Ezio walking with Yusuf

Church of Hagia Sophia (In game)

The gameplay and the story line also delineate the cultural and political tension that any historian would expect from the conquest of Constantinople.  On the streets you’ll see people wearing a mix of eastern and Byzantium attire in the new colourful Ottoman Capitol, some with pictures of the cross, others with Arabic inscriptions on their turbans and off course the occasional Hijab observing ladies who stand out quite prominently form the rest of the crowd. Likewise passing over to the political arena you’ll see that it is suspended with the same type of hostility. Ezio’s and the Prince Suleiman’s partnership is all centred on subjugating the Byzantines who have just joined forces with the Templars in order to regain the lost capital.

Ubisoft has also tried to bring in some new features to the combat system of the franchise. The AI seems to have improved significantly; foes and guards are much more aware of disturbances within their surroundings and are prompt in sounding alarms and commencing coordinated attacks. The AI also seems to be much more aggressive in Revelations. Victims of pick pocketing are extremely eager to pick a fight and you’ll seriously need to be on your guard while defending while fighting guards or civilians. One of the really laudable improvements to the game experience is a really cool new cinematic kill system which never really seems to lose its wow factor. Provided you nail the combos timely you’ll definitely see some good old slow-motion throat slitting, blood spurting kill sequences. The only thing that is lacking in Revelations is the ability to fully wield a rifle as a primary weapon. I’m not quite sure how this escaped the block heads at Ubisoft but they should have allowed this feature in the new game because it’s concurrent with the times the game is set in and also because occasionally you will find a guard making Ezio dance like a chicken by spraying bullets all over him.

IF THEY CAN HAVE IT WHY CAN’T WE?

 Bomb Crafting is also a totally unique new feature, a particular skill the Ottomans had taken well to their liking during the 15^th and 16^th century after the introduction of gun powder from China. There is a huge diversity of bombs that can be made depending on what you require, everything from smoke bombs, mid-explosives, high-explosives to cherry and spike bombs. Their efficacy is quite substantial as Ezio can offset large crowds of enemies allowing for quick escapes or easy massacres. The new crafting mechanism allows you to customise and create your own inventory of bombs which you might find favourable to your playing style and strategy. Moreover some missions actually allow you to craft the necessary bombs during the mission before going on to confront enemies. I personally like to create a ruckus, so I usually alarmed the maximum number of guards as I could so that they would huddle and then kill them all in one go with a high explosive (off course blood is on). But for those who don’t quite share the same style as me and prefer being stealthy you can always create and use bombs for diversions.

Now that you have reached the end of this post in a parting statement I'll simply say that the game also has some of the most amazing soundtracks. I'll leave you with my favorite battle soundtrack from the game. It just makes me want to go out and kill even more evil Templars. You can even hear a part of the Muslim call to prayer.

Assassins Creed Revelations: The Cons

Despite of the fact that Ubisoft has annualized the series it has still managed to pull out a good game one after the other and Revelations is no different, it is definitely a must buy. And although it’s a great game which lives up to the pedigree of its predecessors there were quite a few things that I didn’t find quite so appealing.

One new contrivance in Revelations is the hook blade and a superfluous one at that. It did very little to add anything new to the game except for maybe allowing hook/run and zip-line escapes, however these hardly made the impact of improving gaming experience. The main function was to help you climb and extend your reach while jumping but considering the fact that Ezio was already doing this in the previous games with his bare hands this was rather unnecessary. In fact if my memory serves me correct in of the missions of Assassins creed 2 the female member of the thieves/pirates actually teaches you a higher reaching leaping technique for climbing walls and buildings. Apart from that buildings were often very close to one another making the hook blade somewhat of a misfit in your inventory. As I have mentioned the only good thing about it was the hook/run and zip-line. You might find the hook/run convenient in some situations but why bother risking a collision head on when you can just swerve to the right or quickly jump and grab onto a ledge and evade the enemy that way. Zip-lines on the other hand are just far too occasional and when you did really need them they were simply nowhere to be found.  

Another thing I didn’t like was the new Templar Den side missions. These are basically a carryover from Brotherhood and I’ve always seen them as a repetitious exercise, a complete nuisance which often than not distracts you from the primary story line. However they are even worse in Revelations because not only do you have to capture new Dens but now you have to protect and defend old ones from Templar assaults. As far as taking over the dens is concerned there is no problem, however defending them is a pain because it always feels like the den furthest to you is being attacked which takes ages just to get there. They just feel annoying!

Something I believe that made AC 2 and Brotherhood really fun was the glyph puzzles. The biggest disappointment in Revelations was that sadly these are all gone. What remains are the Prince of Persia like Romulus treasure hunts, this time not for any treasure but for the Masyaf keys. Naturally the key hunts are plagued with the same problem as the treasure hunts from the previous game; they are straight forward and extremely linear with no freedom or mobility to move about, not even for alternative routes or pathways. Moreover unlike the treasure hunts from Brotherhood the key hunts do not involve any fighting or wild chases and the vaults are completely unguarded which makes the actual hunts seem dull, monotonous and un-lively. The loss of the glyph puzzles is seriously disappointing as they use to be an extremely joyful aspect of the game for me and Ubisoft has done absolutely nothing to compensate for this loss. The glyphs made the previous games a really challenging brain teaser and distinguished themselves as a unique and exclusive feature of Assassins Creed. Now that these are gone it just felt like something was really missing in the new game.

  

Final Verdict: AC Revelations gets an 8/10