Misreading the history

Changing impressions of those who claim to be Amirs

The name Afghanistan is synonym with wars, brutality, terrorism, migration, poverty and misery and there might be few very optimistic people who hope for peace in this "country". But, it is not even a news that neither Soviet Union, despite of spending billions and sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives couldn't bring peace nor US and her allies, after more than a decade of efforts and trying every possible means could bring peace to this "country". It is an image that world has of Afghanistan. If you read what the most prominent Amir in Afghan history wants the world remember as his legacy, it gives a clue that why hoping for peace in Afghanistan has very little chances of survival.

Abdur Rahman Khan, one of the Amirs of Afghanistan has written a book about his life in Farsi and was translated and published in English by name of "The life of Abdur Rahman, amir of Afghanistan; By ʻAbd al-Raḥmān Khān (Amir of Afghanistan)". On the page of 284, when he is taking pride about putting down the wars with Hazaras, he writes,

"....Some of the Hazaras asked to be reappointed in their own country, but I think that the words of the poem appropriately describe the relations between the Hazaras and myself:—

"As long as you remember your son and I remember my tail,

To think of our friendship is an impossible tale."'

It may be said that the Hazara war which has just been described was the last civil war that occurred in Afghanistan, and I earnestly hope that there will be no more danger of civil war in this country, as I believe."....

The Amirs of Afghanistan were believing and still believe that, the only way to restore peace is through terror and subjugation. This has been proved wrong again and again but in words of Abdur Rahman, "As long you remember your son and I remember my tail," to think of peace by co-existence is an impossible tale. I am getting this impression because I don't see any change in the thinking when I read a book of more than a century old and what I read and hear of them now.  If you read the whole book, the sole purpose of the Amir was to wipe all the rivals and opposition to the throne of Kabul and the tactics appear still the same, despite that all other communities of Afghanistan want decentralized democratic government in the "country". And that is why the hope of Amir was a false hope. The Hazara war was not the last civil war. After a century past the Hazara war there is still no peace in Afghanistan and there is no hope for it in near future unless you stop misreading history. 

Star Dust

Amorphous Penoptes

 My first sculpture; Amorphous Penoptes (Amorphous; without any shape/form, without any clear identity and Penoptes; all-seeing, have access to all sorts of information, immersed in information, well-ill-informed)

Amorphous Penoptes; side-view

Amorphous Penoptes; Back-view 

Amorphous Penoptes; Front-view 

The sculpture is open to interpretation. I see two trends are gaining ground: a. the efforts to explain everything with evolutionary theory, something that appears to be emerging as a modern age religion. The fossil symbolizes evolutionary theory and eyes of different sizes and patterns symbolizes the trend of seeing everything through evolutionary eyes. b. With meltdown of traditional forms of communication and ease in availability and increase in usage of smart means of communication, identity crises are deepening and I feel that even leading cultural institutions have become victims of identity crises. May be I am not a good observer but frankly, I feel like I haven't met yet a true scientist, a true artist, a true philosopher, not even a true nationalist, a true religious person, ...etc. All I have seen are self-contradicting people who aren't even aware of their contradictions and I have accepted it as human condition, something that is hard to escape from. One may say that you may have an idealistic perspective of scientists, artists and philosophers. That might be true to some extent but current stasis in these fields and the conflict between traditional means of doing things and the external pressure by social media for for new ways of communications have pushed these fields into identity crises. In short, Amorphous Penoptes is the symbolic expression of current human condition and both cultural leaders and people in general are represented in it. 

April Fool

Buddhistein

Buddhistein is the current human condition

Although change is inevitable but it appears that Nature has some frames that embody all changes. Duality is one of the frames. We hear a lot about ability of humans to mold Nature to their needs by manipulating laws of Nature but just like change, humans manipulations are also bound in these frames. For thousands of years religions had institutionalized human thinking and then the success of scientific methodologies in uncovering Natural Laws and giving  men the ability to change their certain conditions  gave hopes that humans  are now free to choose the conditions they want for themselves; Nietzsche expressed the hope by claiming that, "God is dead" and Sartre expressed the hope by saying, "We are left alone, without excuse. That is what I mean when I say man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, yet is nevertheless at liberty, and from the moment that he is thrown into this world he is responsible for everything he does" ...

But if  we look around and see the modern-men, though they want to be free of any institution but we see duality in their actions and thoughts are evident. For instance, for their physical and psychological well-being, they practice yoga and meditation and for life in general, they follow Science (if not scientific methodologies as Scientists do). Although knowledge frees man from Man-made institutions or human constructed conditions but it also make them realize that there are Natural frames that bound human knowledge and progress (Humans walk from condition to condition and that is how I see human progression).