To Victims of Quetta

As humans, we are not that different physically and biologically, but in terms of hearts and minds, each of us are world apart from the rest of us. We can't feel the immensity of a loss just by mere names unless we know, what was going in their hearts and minds. How they became the persons, they were. What were their fears, their passions, their struggles and their visions. How many eyes have been waiting with patience to see them grow up. How many hearts were becoming impatience not seeing them for a while. 

The words betray me, if I try to paint the holes in the hearts of the loved ones of the victims. I am just unable to create a body of flesh with a soul just by words. I can just look up at heavens and silently question each torn up fallen leaf. 

The Damn Solution!

There is a Farsi saying, "The one bitten by snake fears black and white rope". I saw a demo of this saying at the local store. I was in the store to buy some essentials and there was news on TV about the shootings on pro-Morsi protesters. The Algerian guy was nodding his heads and keep saying, "This is exactly what happened in Algeria. May Allah save Egypt". Despite being in the favor of separation of religion and state, I share his fears. Violence may begin on a small level and on a single issue, but it soon grows to bring in unexpected issues and draw in more players and in no tome can go out of everybody's control. This is what happening in Syria. It is no more a revolt for democracy but wars inside wars. The dynamics of population is not as easy as zealous rebel youths think or some planners out there think. The population is a crowd of diverse interest groups that are so connected to each other, that if one group is imbalanced, it is going to imbalance all other groups. I really like the example of solving malaria problem in Borneo by WHO (Word Health Organization),

In the early 1950s, the Dayak people of Borneo suffered from malaria. The World Health Organization (WHO) had a solution: it sprayed large amounts of DDT to kill the mosquitoes that carried the malaria. DDT killed mosquitoes and malaria declined, but roaches, which have a high DDT tolerance, survived. Gecko lizards feed on roaches and started sickening from DDT that they were getting from eating roaches. The sickened geckos were easy to catch by village cats and the cats started dying by getting DDT from sickened geckos. By decline of cats, the rats started moving from forest into the villages. To solve the problem of plague-bearing rats, the Borneo authorities parachuted in fresh cats, which having driven off the rats. The cats the started catching back geckos. The decline in number of geckos resulted in enormous increase in number of caterpillars which geckos had kept in control by feeding on them. Now, the village roofs started to collapse by these caterpillars. 

People were hoping that Arab Spring will solve the problem of tyranny in Middle East but like DDT solution for malaria, it is creating new problems. I can just hope that Egyptian people will not take the road Syrians or Algerians had taken. 

Sorry Muhammad Morsi !!!

A twist in the legend

To my understanding, the legend of Adam and Eve is about desire of a surreal place for home (Garden of Eden: the original home) and the inherent contradiction of human choice (Fruit of Knowledge at cost of losing the original home OR comfort zone). There is an additional factor in this legend, and that is the irresistible urge of making a choice under inherent pressure of curiosity. Many bring harms to themselves just to satisfy their curiosity. Some get addicted to drugs, being just curious about the experience at the beginning for example. 

At times, we like to be poetic in our thinking and I categorize legends as part of poetry (They are as surreal as any other form of poetry, and there is no reason for excluding them from poetry). Here is my play with Adam and Eve's legend:

If knowledge was the fruit that Adam and Eve chose at the cost of losing their place of origin, then every man should be scared of knowledge as something dangerous. Instead we look to knowledge as the only tool that has the capacity to turn the earth into Garden of Eden. The only thing that humans are equally scared of is death. If I have to write the legend of Adam and Eve, I replace the fruit of knowledge with fruit of death ("Every soul shall taste death"). 

Can I know you ever?

Daniel Wolpert thinks that the real reason for human brain is movement, not understanding and seeking truth. Most of our judgments do not come from direct observations but from memory. I buy this idea primarily by experiencing first hand the shear levels of misunderstanding and confusions around me. That is why I ask, "Can I know anyone ever?" and then I reply back to myself, certainly, No. Though, we can claim that I know him/her more than lines on my palm but that is not supported by psychological research. The ability to read others' thoughts and feelings are called empathic accuracy. Studies in empathic accuracy tell us that strangers are only 24% right in reading our thoughts and feelings and friends are only 36% (This means that even close friends read our feelings and thoughts 64% wrong: Linda and Ickes et al, 1992). This no doubt is a great flaw in our brain system with bitter consequences as our relations and communications with others depend on reading their thoughts and feelings. Yes, some factors like gender and strong sense of compassion  and training may affect the empathic accuracy, however it is not significant enough to make us able read correctly even half of other people's thoughts and feeling.

Beside empathic accuracy, the distance also greatly affect our judgments of others. If one sees a distant object, he looks at overall patterns (abstract pattern) of the object. In contrast, if one looks to a close object, he looks to the details. It is really interesting to know that the same mechanism applies to understanding ourselves, others, tasks, events ,...etc. For example, if you look to pictures of others, you look to overall pattern but if you look to your own picture, you look to such as details as sign on your cap or a curl in your hair that others might not even notice looking to your picture. Likewise, if an event is far, you imagine an overall pattern of it but if the event is in a few hours, you think seriously about the details.

In short, before judging others their actions and decisions, it is wise to give them the benefit of doubts, particularly when you are at distance... 

- Stinson, Linda L., William Ickes. "Empathic Accuracy in the Interactions of Male Friends versus Male Strangers." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 62 (1992): 787-97.