Strong VS Weak

All is one

Playing strong though looks desirable but is wrong. Playing weak on other hand is utterly wrong. No, I do not want to prove wrong everything. These two extremes are wrong because they depict imaginations and conceptions that we have created and like to play rather than depicting reality. Playing strong is wrong because, the moment you start looking at you as strong, you will start feeling your position in danger from others. You will start worrying about keeping your strong position in place and will see every progressive move by others as a threat to your strength. It makes you to focus on countering others rather than focusing on yourself, on your real needs, on your real issues and your potentials. Keeping an eye on others’ backyards while neglecting yours is by no measure could be counted as right. On other hand, playing weak is utterly wrong because it is the denial of reality. The reality is that strong lose its meaning without weak. It is the weak which makes strong to believe in their strength. The fact is, when one submits or accepts defeat then the other one gets a triumphant feeling, gets a sense of winning. Of course, you can lose a game, a battle or a deal or a series of them but these losses do not disqualify you to not play again or to not challenge again.

Simply we have the choice to play strong and feel threaten or accept defeat and provide the chance to others to feel that way. Besides these two choices, there is also a third option and that is accepting support and help from others irrespective of their strengths or weaknesses and to be ready to support and help others again irrespective of their strengths and weaknesses. In short, instead of playing strong or weak we have the option to play as helpful and open to receive help and support from all. The third option is the acceptance of reality and becoming an agent of peace and at same time, be blessed by it. It might look to be more ideal but it is the new reality that we are moving towards. By bursting off of cultural, economic, social and political boundaries, everybody got a role to play and with the same coin, we all became more interdependent. If all have a role to play and have an impact and we are becoming more dependent on each other, then the third option is what closer to reality than other two options.

Cultural identities are the basic units of global culture but unfortunately we see that, there are cultural conflicts in every part of world and it is really unfortunate that, in some parts of world, there are violence, Human Rights abuses and discriminations based on the cultural identities. The roots of these conflicts are again the roles that these cultural identities play. Majority or groups of cultural identities that are in power feel that their positions are threatened and try to maintain their power by discriminating against others and on other hand minorities seeing themselves in existential struggles, try to isolate themselves to protect their identities. This situation puts one cultural identity against others or cultural identities against each other.

Naturally they feel in competition with each other. What comes out of these competitions? Of course, no one get anything out it as it only helps to increase fear and feeling of insecurity and keep occupying the minds with negative thoughts and negative activities and result in great loss of very needed potentials that these cultural identities need to pace in their contemporary world with dignity.

The third option is wise as it makes us to accept each other’s’ rights and support and help each other in achieving our rights. While globally cultures tend to assimilate into a “global culture”, competing with each other locally does not make any sense.

If globalization is the fate of humankind as the current trends are showing and earth is our home then we are one. And not any individual can call it healthy or stand as one when its organs are competing against each other. Unfortunately, humanity was born sick (its organs competing against each other) and has progressed a lot but still is sick. The worst thing is that there is no indication that humankind has realized the sickness and thinking seriously to cure itself. Our heroes are those who divide us and kill us under names of cultural identities. Patriotism and nationalism should become a mean of curing by becoming helpful and open to others’ help and support rather than playing Strong or Playing Weak….

There is nothing more effective force to make relations strong than helping/supporting others and getting help/support from others………….

Capitalism without capital; What's the alternative?

Gold and silver are the metals that have been used since ancient times as standard trading metals. In the period that we are living in, inflation has become a common reality and has been accepted as a form of indirect taxation. On the other hand, the prices of these two precious metals are generally rising and people who fear losing money in inflation (dropping value of unit currencies) tend to buy gold and silver. 

On the other hand, the internet is emerging as a new marketplace where it is not possible to do business with traditional precious metals. Banks and other financial institutions are the backbone of online businesses. Technology is changing rapidly our habits, expectations, and perceptions about things. It is not just money, bullion gold, and silver that appear as digital numbers, but personal libraries and intellectual properties are also nothing more than digital texts, figures, graphics, and so on.

While the digital form of currency gives Governments and financial institutions the enormous capability to track and control the finances of people or manipulate markets, the gigantic size of the transactions and the ease of printing money can also create bubbles that can ruin economies and the lives of people.  Look at the decreasing distance between the economic bubbles in modern times;

- Tulip Mania ( (1634-1637)

- Dot-com bubble (1995-2000)

-U.S. housing bubble (2000-2007)

- Bitcoin bubble (2017-2018)

By adding to this list, the collapses of the banks in 2023, I am just wondering if the banks and financial institutions so easily turn into bubbles, and keep bursting at decreasing distance of time, then what are the alternatives?

Effect of Moharram on Pakistani Economy

I am not an economist but "recession" is scary for me as it means a collective hard time, a time when one sees worrying faces become the dominant species and people with smiley faces go to the verge of extinction. It is Christmas season and also the biggest shopping season in Western world where usually sales go higher from 30 to 40% than other months of year. The end of shopping season is the beginning of new year so economists look to sale season as a determinant of a "good" or "bad" year for economy. Big sales will stimulate the economy in a new year and small sale will slow down economy in new year. So it is why Christmas became almost a corporate Christmas... Whether it is ethical or not, is another issue but Christmas is the biggest turnover in economy, that is a fact....

Muharram is the first month in Islamic calender and also the beginning of Ashora festivals that lasts almost 48 days but the peak days of festivals are from 1st to 10th Muharram. There is no study in overall impact of Muharram on economy of Muslim world but Geo TV made an interesting report on impact of Muharram on Pakistan's economy that was almost unbelievable for me at first glance..... According to this report Muharram festivals stimulate the economy with 125 billion Rupees that is almost equals 1/4th (22.1%) of country's annual budget (Pakistan federal budget for 2011-2012 is " 2767 billion" rupees. That seems the biggest turnover in the country's economy and works like that of Christmas season in the Western world...

According to Wikipedia, there are 30 million Shia Muslims which is 16.1% of total population (180 million). The size of economic turnover indicates a large participation of Sunni Muslims in Ashora festivals and that is a positive indicator of religious harmony between these two big sects of Islam at grass roots level which needs to be tighten in order to prevent country from sectarian chaos.

Of course some people do not like (It may be even offensive for some) to look at it economically and also there might be some people who think more individualistically to this large expenditure as somewhat waste of money (Perhaps they are thinking of other social aspects like education, health and so on). I am not discarding their points of views but by thinking in a bigger picture, the overall economy of country matters to all and affects everything from per person income to employment to social developments. If the economy of a country goes to recession then budget cuts, downsizing, flight of capital/investments and general tendency of people to limit their expenditure will shrink the size of smiley faces irrespective of their faith or ideologies...

Reactionary thinkers; Do they need to think anew

I don’t know why instead of mature and real historical stories, I turn to childish folk stories that I used to and loved to read when I began to explore the literary world. Perhaps the main reason is attitude. We hear a lot of good pieces about means and goals but when boil them down, we see attitude in all them. Those seemingly childish folk stories had stuck with my heart because they were about attitudes, not about means and goals as means and goals are time and need related issues and change accordingly. What really persist are attitudes which are not bound to any particular time and place.

From one side if we are historically condemned to face tragedies after tragedies, from another side we are also seeing some sparkles of hopes trying to not let these tragedies write our fate. One of these sparkles of hopes is writing of intellectuals who try to share their parts in a time of chaos. Is it really worth to give consideration to writing of few intellectuals? I am not going to put my judgment but rather let you to draw conclusions based on work of a single individual, Faiz Muhammad Kateb, a thin man with small body who used his intellect a century ago to record what oppressors wanted to eliminate forever. Information is not the same as facts as information have been used as the most effective tool of oppression. No one can stop the flow of information and it is what oppressors knew very well so they instead spread false information to make oppressed look to be deserved of what have been done to them.

While I am really glad that these intellectuals come forward to write but it is also natural to get opinion out of readings so I got an opinion and wanted to share it. Again, it would be funny if one starts suggesting what to write and how to think but having opinion is quite natural. It seems to me that most of these writings are “REACTIONARY” in nature. By reactionary, I mean that an event happens and then some come forward to say what it means and how should we react. No doubt that we need them but having said that it is my opinion that it is not the only job or only thing that intellect can do… Why am I saying this? It is just because it reflects an attitude. As I mentioned in the beginning that attitude does not reflect time but “means” and “goals” do. Writing as means of recording and guiding are among the best of means and they could be used for great goals yet attitudes will determine the directions and outcomes….

Abraham Lincoln says, “The dogmas of the quite past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew”…. It is what Abraham Lincoln said one and half century ago… If today America is standing tall among nations of world, it is not because they are different from others, it is just because “THEY THOUGHT AND ACTED ANEW”… Thinking and acting anew is an attitude that is valid all the time…. One really wonders when sees ancient Greek city names and ancient Greek architecture so prevailing in Northeast of USA… These prevailing of ancient Greek culture are reflecting the determination of then young nation to stick with attitude of “thinking and acting anew” just as ancient Greeks did… It would be repetition but again “Attitudes are not bound by time, whether it is in ancient Greek city states, Early Muslims, 13th century Mongols, Europe in Renaissance period and in newly founded American nation… it works and it works perfect”…

Wise were ancient people that instead of giving list of do and not to dos (which always have the danger of to be challenged) were telling them stories which were working as guides to their attitudes and no doubt that these guides are so simple and so common in appeal that were fitting to all ages and to all levels of intellects.

…………“ A MISER sold all that he had and bought a lump of gold, which he buried in a hole in the ground by the side of an old wall and went to look at daily. One of his workmen observed his frequent visits to the spot and decided to watch his movements. He soon discovered the secret of the hidden treasure, and digging down, came to the lump of gold, and stole it. The Miser, on his next visit, found the hole empty and began to tear his hair and to make loud lamentations. A neighbor, seeing him overcome with grief and learning the cause, said, “Pray do not grieve so; but go and take a stone, and place it in the hole, and fancy that the gold is still lying there. It will do you quite the same service; for when the gold was there, you had it not, as you did not make the slightest use of it.”… Story from Aesop’s Fables…

To me, limiting intellect only for reaction is like burying gold underground. I think it is the result of an attitude… The attitude of oppressed people who perhaps fear that thinking anew is dangerous and will add to their chaos…who want to stick to whatever small circles of stability left for them… Again, I am saying it is just my opinion and I like to see my opinion goes wrong by works that are beyond reaction and under a spirit of thinking and acting anew….

Web picks on Economic Inequality

Occupy Wall Street is still going on. If you have read occasionally about this movement you know that this movement is evolving, though its evolution is more of reactionary than under tactics. Nobody knows, how it will look in its final form. Popular movements are usually unpredictable and it is what we are seeing in Egyptian Revolution. Currently we are witnessing the beginning of second phase in Egyptian Revolution while it was thought to have ended by general election. I thought it is interesting to learn the ideology behind the OWS movement...Here is a talk about the ideology of OWS movement,