Jokes

Set of ethics that vary from society to society are social constructs and those that don't change are Natural. It may take a lot of debates to find those natural sets of ethics but one thing that we can almost spontaneously agree upon is the universality of jokes. I doubt that we can find any society without jokes. Even Obama jokes (I am serious :)... 

"... I know CNN has taken some knocks lately, but the fact is I admire their commitment to cover all sides of a story, just in case, one of them happens to be accurate..." Obama 

It is believed that the sense of humor is an evolutionary adaptation to have a check on our data presentation. In other words, humors and jokes are there to help us in finding and correcting mistakes in our understanding and communication in sweet and rewarding ways. The complex a culture becomes, the jokes become more complex. For example, 

"A member of the United States Senate, known for his hot temper and acid tongue, exploded one day in mid-session and shouted, "Half of this Senate is made of dunces!"

All the other Senators demanded that the angry member withdraw his statement, or be removed from the chamber.

After a long pause, the angry member acquiesced. "OK," he said, "I withdraw what I said. Half of this Senate are not dunces!" (1)

Jokes are also believed to be evolved to reduce violence. It is a civil way to drain anger as well as to avoid violence. The following joke is not a polite one but illustrates well, how jokes work in draining anger and avoiding violence,

" A philosopher made an appointment with Nasrudin to have a scholarly discussion. When the day came, the philosopher dropped by Nasrudin’s house as planned. However, Nasrudin wasn’t home. The philosopher angrily took his pencil out of his pocket and wrote Asshole on Nasrudin’s door, and then left.

Nasrudin finally came home later and saw this. He quickly realized that he had missed his appointment, and he darted off to the philosopher’s house.

“Forgive my error,” Nasrudin told the philosopher when he got there. “I totally forgot about our appointment today. But when I got home and saw that you had written your name on my door, I immediately remembered and I came here as fast as I could.”....

What a style, Sir G!!!

Jokes are mostly spontaneous and make is easy to accept our none sense as there is no escape from it,

One of the student who was sitting next to window was looking outside. The teacher asked him look at black board. A few minutes later, he was again looking outside. The teacher becomes angry and asks,

"What is outside that you are looking at?" ....

"A donkey, Mam" replies the student innocently

"How many times, I warned you that when I am inside, don't look outside"....

1.  Hurley. M.W., Dennett. D.C., and Adams, Jr., (2011), Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind, 1st ed, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, p. 169. 

Decency

To me the most fitting word for intelligence is "control". Yes, you got it right: by control, I mean putting  safety, usefulness and discipline ahead of other things. Yes, it also covers artificial intelligence, and they are a step ahead of us by their remote controls (just kidding :)... Let me explain, what I mean by control,

Eusocial insects such as ants, mites and honey bees have always been a great source of inspiration for me  especially extreme altruism, the high level of discipline and social harmony/order in them which have no parallel in other organisms and that is why they are called eusocial. E. O. Wilson  introduced a new field in biology (Sociobiology) by studying these insects and has called them, " super-super organism".  These extremes in social behaviors are inherent as they don't have the large brain sizes to rationalize things. They  mostly behave as they are programmed. The way they build their homes (nests), divide their labor and manage their large society appear as work of high-intelligence but this intelligence is not the way we used to perceive intelligence like individual responses. The element of order is so high in their society that we can imagine a nest as a single brain with each individual functioning as a neuron.

It is not that just eusocial organisms have adapted the extreme social order as a way of survival. Humans have also shown interests and imagined them as utopias. Some of very notable thinkers have devised their utopias in very great details. Utopias of Plato and Karl Marx for example still resonate today. All attempts to create such highly ordered societies as utopias have failed. Humans always have been in trouble to balance between individuals and society. I am not claiming that humans are not intelligent as the  story of human intelligence is explained in terms of their steady control over forces of Nature, from control over fire, control over animals by domestication, domestication of grasses as major sources of food by selective evolution of them, control over water for irrigation ......... to control over atomic power to generate electricity... All indicators of human intelligence points on control over other things and others.

Despite of great advances in controlling over forces, humans have not been successful to devise ways to control their own behaviors. The controls by means of social constructs, such as culture, religion and laws have fired backed so far as we find humans are in constant state of struggle to counter them. All these wars and human rights movements are examples of failure in controlling human behavior by means of social constructs.

The purpose of this short introduction was to pave the way for the introduction of "emotional intelligence". I feel like, though the phrase is out there and we may also talk about it at times, but we haven't accepted it as really something as sign of intelligence. When we hear emotional intelligence, we feel a little bit skeptic because emotions is not there to control the forces of Nature. But in the process, we forget that the emotional intelligence is real and that is to control our Nature. We don't need any specialists to tell us that we have an innate sense of decency and "overly-done-reacted-expressed" things make us feel not good and some even disgusting. To me, that innate sense of decency is the emotional intelligence that put our emotions in control and help us to understand and deal in decent manners others' emotions.

I found it really surprising and even shocking that drawing negative images and demonizing of political opponents (1,2) works more efficient than showing your programs and solutions in the democratic process. We cherish democratic processes and democratic parties for their acceptance of others, not for rejection of others. I found it really disturbing that the negative advertisements turn into long lasting negative behaviors in smaller communities that most of the people know each other. The side effects of negative ads may not be very visible on a country scale but I think that "emotional intelligence literacy" is much needed in smaller communities that cherish democratic process but can't afford its negative side affects.

1. 92 Percent of Ads in Florida Were Negative. 

2. Negative Ads Dominate 2012 Election, Study Shows

The New Pakistan (Naya Pakistan)

Allama Muhammad Iqbal, the poet and philosopher is considered as dreamer of Pakistan. At the time, India was a colony of British empire and Iqbal had a a strong instinct that the Muslims of subcontinent will not only be freed but will also lead Muslims of Asia, so he spent a lot of his times in thinking ways to inspire Muslims of subcontinent and prepare them for the coming future. Read his following lines for example,

                              "The blood of life runs in the veins of the dead East:

                               Avicenna and Farabi cannot understand this secret."

                         "This principle rises from the story of the Radiant Community:
                          You are the guardian of the nations of the land of Asia."

But perhaps he made one big mistake and that is taking inspirations from history rather than thinking totally anew. Look at these lines for example, where he takes inspirations from Middle Ages Central Asian Turk empires:

               
                            "Once more the spark of love has arisen from the heart of Asia:
                            The earth is the coursing‐ground for the stain-cloaked Tartars."

   "The Shrine was disgraced by the lack of foresight of the old keeper of the shrine:
    But how our Tartar heroes emerged as young men of vision."

                            "The stability of life in the world comes from the strength of faith:
                             For the Turanians have emerged firmer than even the Germans."

"The true believers are once more to receive from the court of God
The glory of the Turkamans, the intellect of the Indians and the eloquence of the Arabs"

Yes, Muslims of subcontinent got a separate homeland but this nation has not been able to become stable and "lead Asia" and one of the reasons might be their entrapment in the history. For me, the take home message is, "It is easy to get freedom from empires or liberate your homeland but if a nation is mentally trapped in the history, it is like struggling in a swamp".

The reason for this introduction is my reaction for the results of the current general election in Pakistan. From enthusiasm on traditional and social media about "The Change" and "The New Pakistan" in the form of Imran Khan's Pakistan's Tehreek-i-Insaaf, there were a general hope that Pakistan's politics is finally ready to get out of traditional parties' swamp. This was not making sense to me as I wasn't able to see any shift in traditional cultural, lingual and religious fault-lines and now the results have just proved that. Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League is back to power and it is the repetition of the same old game between the two big national parties: PPP -> PML (N) -> PPP -> PML (N).... 

The only change that happened is that ANP has given its place to Pakistan's Tehreek-i-insaf, as it has mostly won from Pakhtoon majority populations. So all these fuss for the supposed "New Pakistan" was just a change in the name of a party. It reminds me of the story of honoring the Ecuadorian poet. The story goes like this, 

The City of Guayaquil wanted to honor the renowned Ecuadorian poet, "Jose Joaquin de Olmedo" by making a sculpture of his statue, but she lacked the budget to hire a good sculptor, so she solves the problem by buying a statue of English poet, Lord Byron from a London Junk dealer and changes the plague which reads, "Jose Olmedo".... 

Election and Identity Cards

It is election season in Pakistan and being most persecuted community in Pakistan, the fate of  Hazara community is one of the big questions for upcoming government, and media (1, 2, 3) have already started asking questions, if there is any hope for Hazaras in upcoming election. Being a member of the community, I wanted to express my thoughts on the issue,

On January 14th of this year, after 3 days of sit-in protest on Alamdar road of Quetta city, the Hazaras forced federal government to impose governor rule in Baluchistan.  Of course, governor rule was not solution for this vulnerable community and within a month, there was a second massive truck-bomb attack on Hazaras and forced them to stage similar sit-in protest but it was the first time that both Hazaras and rest of Pakistan learned the power of peaceful and consistent protest. Certainly, it was a turning point in the perception of Hazara community about their collective-will as well as perceptions of rest of Pakistan about Hazaras. Although, Hazara community is still vulnerable and threats against them still serious but the evolution in awareness and social activism was an achievement worth carrying on.

Usually at times of agitations, there are a lot of noises on the streets and on media and there might have some immediate effects but the real changes are the changes that survive among people, once the agitations subside. It might not make a lot of sense but those who are familiar with K-T boundary event in earth's history know very well that earth before K-T boundary was dominated by Dinosaurs, and mammals were small and living in fringes but after K-T mass-extinction, mammals evolved to become dominant living forms on earth. Mammals had evolved a set of characteristics that had enabled them to survive impact-event and diversify in a changed-post-impact earth. Coming back to my basic point, although governor rule, the demand for targeted operations against terrorists and elections were the immediate needs however, they aren't  the factors to decide the fate of Hazaras but changes in their perceptions and visions are.  Governments come and go, policies, politics and relations change but the perceptions and visions of a nation need "revolutions" to change and as I said before, the changes that do not survive to carry on is not "revolutionary".

So after two massive sit-in protests, the current election is not a matter of who get elected from Hazara community but how the election campaigns are conducted and how people, particularly Hazara youths respond to them. It is the test for this community to see if those sit-in protests had some real fruits. Traditionally, the Hazara vote in Quetta was based on identity and was divided into two camps of nationalist-identity and religious-identity and I am not that naive to expect that this traditional divide would go after two historical sit-in protests but I had hopes that at least intellectuals and activists will break the ice and go beyond the traditional divides. I had hopes that candidates will show some creativity and campaign in a way that people would feel the change and present their cases to people in a way that their cases would make sense to people and give them hope. After all leaders are visionary individuals that transfer their visions to their followers and their followers start seeing their worlds in more meaningful way and find ways out. Frankly, so far I haven't seen any big change but some sporadic voices that I  have heard and read from some activists and youths that were demanding candidates to not use identity-cards but rather present clear policies/ road-maps to people they were really pleasing. These demands are "revolutionary" and need to survive and grow. I am hoping that our activists use their pens and voice in cultivating a new political culture that is necessary for survival of this community. 

1. BBC Radio 4; Hazaras, Hatred and Pakistan

2. BBC Urdu; The Future of Hazara community in Quetta 

3. Aaj TV; Whom Hazara community will vote?  

Quetta's changing sense of humor

It is always amusing to read and listen what others write or say about your city. Their narratives give fresh eyes to look at things that are so familiar that we usually ignore. While reading Mahim Mahir's article, "My Great Quetta Adventure", I felt really sad that she started Quetta's description with a "dark joke". She writes, 

"At the Quetta Press Club's cavernous general secretary's room a relaxed senior reporter SZ explains how they actually like to kill people there:

"You see, we have a counter at the airport arrivals lounge," he says with a twinkle in his eye. "And as soon as you enter we check out if you LOOK Punjabi, pull the gun out of the drawer and... " He cocks his thumb and fires his index finger.

"No... no... wait!" interjects another senior reporter SS. "We don't wait till they come into the arrival lounge, we pick them off as soon as they get OFF the plane."

A round of guffaws circles the room."...

"Dark City", where newspapers report the terrorists as "unidentified persons", intelligence agencies most often fail, courts don't find "enough evidences" and people live in terror and confusion, and sense of humor is darkened...

I can't blame her as blasts, target killings and exodus have become the dominant topics and what is more tragic that even jokes of the city have darkened. The reason that I couldn't resist sharing it is my surprise in finding that one thing has not changed for as long as I know it and that is the emotions and expressions of  its people which is still raw and unprocessed. Their feelings are so original that they not only don't mind joking on themselves but also enjoy sharing them with others. I still remember that in a mixed gathering, one of my Baloch friends shared some political jokes that were amusing for all,

"Balochistan National Movement and Pakhtun-khwa Milli Awami Party were part of Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM). Mahmood Khan Achakzai was organizing large rallies in Pashtoon areas and had invited Sardar Attaullah Mengal to deliver speeches in his rallies. People were zealously responding to speeches of their beloved leaders by whistling, throwing their turbans, shoes and caps in air, and waving their shawls. On his return from PkMAP's rallies, it was the turn of Sardar Attaullah to organize rallies and invite Mehmood Khan to deliver speeches but it was hard for him to gather comparable huge crowds as Baloch populations were scattered. So he calls for meeting of tribes, tells the details of his tours and inform the tribes that their honor is at stake so the crowd must be huge and response to the speeches of leaders must be accompanied with loud cheers. Everyone's efforts payoff when, on the day of rally a huge crowd turns out. People were really excited and as per tradition, the first person who goes on  the stage is a Qari. As Qari starts reciting , the crowds starts whistling, throwing their shoes, caps and turbans in the air... "

And he continued,

"A Mir sahib wins election and becomes minister. He shifts to the provincial assembly hostel. Next morning, peon knocks the door and brings in a plate having shaving cream, toothpaste and tissue paper. An hour later he knocks again and asks, "What do you like for breakfast, Sir?" asks peon... "I have already taken my breakfast. By the way, I liked them. They were delicious and had charming aroma..."

Hazaras had the same kinds of jokes that were elaborating their sense of oppression. Usually you would hear,

" A Pashtoon sees a lonely Hazara and stops him, "O Brother, where are you going?"... The Hazara-man replies in fear, "I am just a traveler"... The Pashtoon acts as he is searching his pockets for something, "Wait here for me, I have forgotten my knife. I am going home to bring it and behead you"... A couple hours later, the Pashtoon passes the same spot and sees the Hazara is still sitting there. "You didn't escape?" asks the Pashtoon... "No, I was waiting for you"....replies Hazara...."I was just kidding man"... 

Quetta has changed a lot. As the city blackened by smokes of blasts, the jokes have also blackened and old jokes might even appear offending but my intention was not offending anyone but to feel sorry for changing senses of humor :(