So it's a major cold. Not a flu because I don't have a fever as far as I can tell. The doctor took my temperature this morning and it was fine, but I did not take my temperature after that even though my symptoms had worsened by adding "blocked nose" to the list.
He asked me if I wanted antibiotics because he was not sure if that was necessary. Having light green mucus by the second day is not enough to tell if it's an infection, but I said yes anyway.
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Couldn't sleep with the nasal congestion but it got better at some point during the night. I remember the pleasant surprise at being able to breathe again before I fell asleep because I had expected to get no sleep last night.
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The haze may be gone but I'm still sick. The phlegm and runny nose are still there and I can't find my thermometer. Looks like I'm going to have to buy one or two the next time I visit a pharmacy. Not good to have no thermometer at home.
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The comic app "Operation Ajax" on the iPad was epic. It was meant to be a comic but the developers added in music, video clips, sound effects and simple animation and turned it into some kind of film or documentary.
This, I'm sure, is the next step in the evolution of comics.
Anyway the story is based on actual CIA documents and it's mostly accurate from what I've read from other sources (some conversations were probably added to dramatise the story).
While I have said that problems in the Middle East started when the Americans stuck their hands into what the British had started, I did not know the Operation Ajax was how they did it. Through it, they replaced the pro-Western democratically elected Mossadegh with brutal dictator Shah Reza Pahlavi for the sake of Iranian oil and the ambitions of a few men. The pro-American Shah was later replaced by an anti-Western government led by Ayatollah Khomeini.
The worst thing about it is that all the villains lived happily ever after. The Americans behind the coup prospered while the British got back 20% control of Iran's oil (they used to control 100% before Mossadegh), and Eisenhower and Churchill are now great historical figures in our history books. However, Mossadegh, Iran's first democratically elected leader, was jailed for three years and placed under house arrest until his death. Since he was pro-Western and friendly with the US, he probably never saw it coming.
The methods the CIA used were also interesting in that they kinda explain certain seemingly paranoid measures employed by various governments. For example, the CIA paid the local media to print propaganda, and hired locals to pretend to be part of the local Communist party and supported Mossadegh at the same time, causing others to believe that Mossadegh was pro-Communist.
No wonder most, if not all, anti-American countries have control of their own mainstream media. After details of Operation Ajax got out, who wouldn't? And since it also showed how the US is willing to betray friendly countries for its own gains, it's not surprising Singapore does not allow our media to be free.
State-controlled media is not a sign of paranoia, not after Operation Ajax.
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