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. 

The Bus Movement

As usual, I took bus No. 15 from University Union. It has become a ritual for me that as I sit in the bus, I start reading the books or papers out of my reading list that I struggle reading at leisure. That evening, as I took the book out of my bag to read, a skinny African American girl, wearing a pink t-shirt who was struggling to bring her luggage and backpack into the bus caught my attention. Since my childhood, I really liked watching ants carrying loads bigger than themselves and whenever, I see someone struggles with heavy loads, I spare sometime to watch the determinations (hard backbone) involved in it. As she brought in her stuffs, she talked to the driver and sat on one of the front seat close to driver. The driver started talking on his communication system, called the girl and asked few questions and the girl again sat back. I started reading my book. When the bus took a different rout, it made me puzzled (Have I taken the wrong bus, I wondered). The bus stopped next to other bus. The driver of other bus came in and handed a red purse to the driver and the driver thanked him. The African American went to driver and took the purse and took two dollars to insert into the machine. The level of care and honesty that drivers had shown (some may call it professionalism but it was more than that) impressed me so much that I might had uttered "coooool" as the the passenger next to me turned his face to give me a look and me by re-positioning myself sat upright, acting as nothing had happened. May be, it was something very normal for other passengers but it wasn't for me as I was linking it to three events: Montgomery Bus Boycott, Separate buses for Hazara Students and Hunger Strike of Kabul University Students. 

On the evening of December 1st of 1955, the arrest of an African American woman started the Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted for 381 days:

On the evening of December 1st in 1955, the African American woman, Rosa Parks was tired after spending the day at work as a department store seamstress. She sat in the fifth row (the first row of the African American Section: In those days, in Montgomery, Alabama, when a bus became full, the seats nearer the front were given to white passengers.) of the bus 2857 for the ride home. More passengers came in and as front seats were full, the  bus driver James Blake ordered Parks and three other African Americans seated nearby to move to the back of the bus. Three riders complied but Rosa Parks refused to move. She was arrested and fined $10. Her arrest resulted in Montgomery Bus Boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy during which people in Montgomery refused to ride the buses for 381 riding bicycles, cabs, car pooling or simply walking to works. After almost 13 months of the boycott, Supreme court ruled out  racial segregation of buses as unconstitutional. It was a milestone achievement in the civil rights movement. 

Of course, without those struggles, I wouldn't see what I saw on the bus this week. American Civil Rights Movement is one of the biggest events of the modern time and is considered as part of general knowledge and I would certainly be surprised, if a highly educated person expresses ignorance about it. It is this assumption that I was fully surprised when I heard that, the Universities (Particularly SBK Woman University) in Quetta had decided to arrange separate buses for Hazara students after BIUTMS bus came under attack, in which scores of Hazara students and professors died in 2012. Separate buses for students of a community was an obvious act of discrimination. And such kind of acts from highly educated segment (University establishment) of the society surprised and worried whole Hazara community. One of the student of the University S. Batool wrote in her letter to LUBP ( Letter from Quetta: ‘I too had a dream, but being a Pakistani Shia, it will remain a dream), "I was in the University that day, rumors circulated that Hazara students are supposed to travel by a separate bus – this was ordered on the call of other communities’ request to the VC of the University. I didn’t doubt VC to be such a sap-head to act upon the call, however, my expectations dusted and we were asked to travel by the separate bus." The discrimination by teachers and intellectuals are the most painful because their actions are not out of ignorance and they are looked at as agents of change.

Hazara Democratic Party's press release condemning the decisions of separate buses for Hazara students calling it injustice and discrimination against Hazara student based on ethnicity and religion. 

Well, one might argue that, Baluchistan has a tribal system and prejudices are an integral part of tribal system. With this system intact, education in not much of help in improving the conscience of the people. I may agree with this to some extent as last month, it took 8 days of hunger strike by more than hundred students of department of social studies (Kabul University) against discrimination on basis of ethnicity and religion to get heard their voices by Kabul establishment. Twelve years are very long time in history of any country and despite of 12 years presence  and help of international forces, the tribal system has not let Kabul to distance itself from her historic prejudices and discrimination.

To me, the biggest question is, "What is the potential of civil rights movements in bringing change to tribal and sectarian mindsets?" So far, I haven't been much hopeful as I haven't seen any mention-able potential"... Let's see... 

Experiment With Automated Drawing

To me, if photography is preserving a moment of external world, drawing is preserving some moments of the mind... 

I know, talking about "mind" is more of a matter of opinion and personal experience than a body hard fact and mind-body problem is still there to challenge our understanding about ourselves. I know, when we talk about ourselves, we mostly talk about the social constructs that have become so deeply our integral parts that we take them as part of ourselves. Let's take the concept of "self" for example: it makes the core of our identity and a lot of things are attached to it, that we have borrowed from the environment we have lived -the names, places, people, events/historical narratives, rituals, foods, clothing, languages, set of beliefs,...etc- and we identify ourselves with, and draw meaning for our works and lives from are usually "external" things. In other words, what we usually take as a self are borrowed things from our environment. I have not problem with borrowing things but they create problems for us. One of the biggest problems that they create for us is the fear of mistakes. The borrowed things that we care so much about them and usually defend them forcefully and invest our emotions with slow down the force of expression in us (we use the umbrella word, creativity for it). The borrowed things teach us order, logic and rationale attitudes and we learn them with gratitude as they give us the sense of security and acceptability. Evolutionary speaking, the group identity had a survival value but over time it has become so sophisticated that we can't separate the borrowed self from real self. 

Automatism was a movement in art and writing to defy the "control factor" by rationality and logic that have robbed the real inner-self and let the subconscious express itself by let the hand does a free drawing. The expected results are certainly a chaotic and "senseless drawing" as there won't be any particular pattern. Yes,  if we reduce the pattern to fractals then we may say there are pattern even in most chaotic or automated drawings. I thought the idea is worth of trying. Following is my automated drawings: 

Frankly, after initial letting the hand draw totally free, I couldn't resist to the force of getting back to order.  I gave them some shape with semi-automatic drawing (not kidding ;) .... May be, it is because just as controls require practice to become better over time, the same is true about unlearning to control. It may require practice to let the hand becomes free. 

Does Great Literature Make Us Better?

This morning, I read an article by GREGORY CURRIE on Opinionator titled, “Does Great Literature Make Us Better?”. The answer of this question depends on the person who wants to answer it. It occurred to me as the writer is expecting that, “Great literary works are the results of high moral standards (Individuals with high moral standards produce great literary works) therefore the readers of great literary works should become more moral”. Irrespective of whether there are evidences in the favor of the question or not, I was not sure if the right question is asked mainly because literary works are the products of imaginations and exposures to literary works expand imaginations. Great literary works are not the products of high morality but the demands for higher imagination as a result of fierce competition in the pool of imaginations. When a writer writes something, it competes with other works out there. The more innovative and different is a work, the higher is the chance for its success to get attention of readers. It has nothing to do with morality. A work of high morality may not even get the attention of few hundred, not even to consider for competing as a great literary work. 

Now, how is an expanded imagination affect the morality depends on the basic moral teachings that we get as children. I favor the idea that skills beget skills. If the basic moral teachings are positive, the expanded imaginations increase the standards of morality, but if the basic moral teachings have some major contradictions, the expanded imaginations just enlarge those contradictions. For example, by reading/watching “Sherlock Holmes” series, a child who has a supportive environment for discoveries might get inspiration to sharpen his observations for discoveries and another child living in world of crimes might get inspiration for trying more innovative ways to do the job appreciated well in that environment. Do I have evidence to support my claims. No, not the kinds of evidences from academic research but just observing how the popular characters and stories from movies, history, and even fictions influence the behaviors remind me of co-evolution in the Nature. If the diversity of flowers remind us of the thousand faces of beauty, they also remind us of the competition that a beauty faces from the pool of competitive beauties. When an insect is attracted to a flower, it is the success of the flower in attracting that insect (It is possible that there were many other flowers in the area competing for that insect). I understand the temptation of thinking that literature actually increase the moral standards but I doubt it on the ground that followers of most read holy books with high moral lessons and great literary values have the strongest prejudices to others and discriminate on the grounds of the belief systems (let alone the crimes and wars that are waged on the basis of those high moralities). 

I again assert my opinion that the expanded imaginations nourish your basic moral standards and the reason for my assertion is my personal experience from my encounters with literary works. Ever since my childhood, I was keenly studying the lives of people around me. There were individuals around me that climbed fast the social ladder and some of the bad decisions made them not have a pleasant ending and there were people who had a humble beginning but steadily grow prosperous and keep growing. For me, the mistakes and qualities of those individuals were as commandments are to the believers. But I knew, the life is much bigger and asks for countless examples and the shortest and safest way was literature. Literature was providing me with more examples from the lives of others. I am repeating that literature served me as an expansion of my basic moral templates: to learn the lessons of life. For someone else with a different experience, the literature might work differently. Do I have an example for it? Yes. Recently, I watched Lisa Bu’s TED talk, “Lisa Bu: How books can open your mind” in which she tells her story of how books allowed her to expand her shattered dream: Since her childhood, she wanted to become a Chinese opera singer but her parents wanted her to an engineer. She seeks help from school but adults don’t listen to her and she doesn't become an opera singer. Naturally, when one doesn't get heard, one rebels. She blames, the Confucian teaching of obedience for shattering her dreams and the books allow her to express it. For example, in the book, “Jane Eyre” she finds her role model for an independent woman (in contrast to dependent woman in Confucian society), Bible tells her to honor her parents (in contrast to obey her parent in Confucian teaching), the comparative books inform her that the temptation is not just psychological as Buddha says (Lust, Fear and Social Duty) but there are also social temptation as Christ says (Economic, Political and Spiritual). My reading from her talk is that books helped her expand her rebellion to Confucian society for robbing her childhood dream. 

Opinions make sense only in the light of jokes

Well, if biology only makes sense in the light of evolution, then opinions make only sense in the light of jokes. The world of opinions are like worlds of cartoons. When a cartoon runs fast, he doesn’t realize that he has walked off the cliff and is walking in the air, until he looks down. He only falls down when he realizes that he is no more on the solid ground but in the air. One way to distinguish between opinions and facts are the 5 Ws and one H. The basic difference between Ws and H is,

The 5 Ws (What, Who, Where, When and Why) is the most effective basic information gathering tool for everyone. On other hand H (how) is a challenging question as it requires a level of authority to tell, how did something happen, how something can be done, and especially how should something be done, ... and so on. Usually, the individuals who concern themselves with “how-s” on large scale is considered as “wise-men”. Their roles have declined as scholars in modern society and have become specialized as legislators/politicians as modern scholars are mostly concerned with Ws and seldom talks on H. Having said that still, if you are born in any particular region, your worldview is definitely have been influenced greatly by those individuals whose “how-s” are widely accepted in that region. For instance, if you are born in the West, the “how-s” of Greek philosophers are a great component of your worldviews even if you haven’t read them. Western cultures have integrated those ideas in their values (Democracy, atoms as building blocks of universe, evolution... are few big concepts). Similarly, if you are born in a Muslim society, the “how-s” of the prophets make a big part of your worldview even if you haven’t studied them (Not associate partners with Allah, Obedience to parents should be guided by obedience to Allah, Allah will reply to all human actions, Be patient with what happens to you... etc, are some of the big ideas). Of course, there are other major civilizations with their “how-s” thinkers that have become part of their value system. 

Yes, “how-s” are mostly opinions that might have some foundations in Ws, but still if you look them from the perspective of a different civilization, they might look subjects of jokes and might sense only in the form of jokes. In addition, as the world are mostly concerned with facts and evidences so the scholars have mostly limited themselves with Ws. But we can’t ignore the fact that the “how-s” of the past that were products of segregated civilizations and still shapes our worldviews are tearing down societies and creating violence that make heart-breaking headlines almost daily. Now that civilizations are not more segregated, it is time that thinkers also value “how-s” to help reduce the levels of distorted perceptions that we have from other historical civilizations even if their opinions make only sense in the light of jokes.

Occasionally, when it happens that I listen to debates between well-educated and well-versed individuals from different value-systems, I feel one thing very strongly. Neither side appreciate the power of time. The values that each side defend and rationalize with all their logical mights have evolved at least in hundred of years. You can’t expect it to be changed in years. It needs time and plenty of funny “how-s” that “how-s” become identical. 

Let me help you

Usually, I don't watch TV. Today, I turned it on for a while. The frequent interruptions in the show by advertisement were really annoying. But then, I started enjoying the ads as I found one thing common in them. Most of the ads were asking, let me help you do this and do that.  That was not fitting with what we are taught at school, "God helps those who help themselves".... 

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 :(

Talking Philosophy

...............................................................................................................................

................................................................................................................

.................................................................................................................................

Please do mind, economics is not science and it behaves as people behave. There are "real" people involved in economics and people's intentions are unpredictable. No, no, we are rational beings and can't accept anything without some numbers attached to it, right? BUT there happen a lot of OOPS along with AHA even to the "best" rational minds. Don't believe it? Have a look,

Don't like You Tube videos? OK, here is the link to BBC report 
............................................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................................

Brother, I need help

Dedicated to Syrian Refugees who are desperately seeking help :(

Modern Conversations

.........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Don't you think, my Facebook Profile is cool? By the way, I don't care what you think...

Y-egg

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).   

Hybrid Philosophy

It is long that I haven't updated my blog. I had a lot to say but I think, I was remained a bit undecided about what I have to say are either news or something new. The easy way to rationalize my undecidedness was to convince myself that I have a "writer's block". I am not easy with passing news but rather have the tendency to express myself or present/describe my observations and I categorize expressing myself as "Armchair Philosophy" and my observations as "Hybrid Philosophy". Don't take me wrong. I am not claiming to be a philosopher by academic definition but I consider, "the process of thinking as doing philosophy and the products of organized thinking as Philosophy". In short, I have an open-ended definition/understanding of philosophy.

You may have heard of "Experimental Philosophy" and it is an effort of contemporary philosophers to save philosophy of becoming a passive/supportive discipline and help it becomes an independent discipline by giving it a new direction with designing experiments to test philosophical questions, particularly in areas of human behavior and understanding. But what if I have observations that raise certain questions and provide me some logical clues about possible answers but I don't have the means and time to do experiments and  test their validity? To solve my this problem, I just categorize them in a separate folder and name it "hybrid philosophy". Not all might like the idea but at least in helps me to not discard my observation and save them for possible future usage.

OK, let me share two of my observations

This Knol is under construction, please visit later to read the rest of the knol... thanks

Thursdays never end

“If we wish to know about a man, we ask 'what is his story--his real, inmost story?'--for each of us is a biography, a story. Each of us is a singular narrative, which is constructed, continually, unconsciously, by, through, and in us--through our perceptions, our feelings, our thoughts, our actions; and, not least, our discourse, our spoken narrations. Biologically, physiologically, we are not so different from each other; historically, as narratives--we are each of us unique.” ― Oliver Sacks

Oliver is right. Biologically and physiologically, we are not different from others, but our narrative is different from people, who live in the "Arc of instability". We want peace and respect for all, in a part of world that people take pride for killings and look at them as a source of honor (and have distorted religion to fit their narratives). That is a mistake that we have refused to learn and hence our Thursdays never end. 

Today is Thursday again. Again? Yes, it is Thursday again and it reminded of Thursdays that I had long forgotten. Every Thursdays were hellish for me as we had to revise our weekdays lessons (Thursday was last day of the week and Friday was weekend holiday) and each mistakes had to be corrected by sticks of the Mullah.  I was weak in learning and each Thursday, I had tears in my eyes and fears in my mind. I hated Thursdays. Today's twin suicide bombings on Alamdar road (the main residential area of Hazaras in Quetta) reportedly killed more than 85 and wounded more than 170 people and it brought me back, my memories of those Thursdays that I had to face a heartless and angry Mullah, who had zero tolerance for weak learners. For last 12 years, Hazaras are regularly targeted on the basis of their ethnicity and religion in Quetta, Pakistan but may be Hazaras are weak at learning and repeat a common mistake (different narrative at wrong place) that Al-Mullahs have zero tolerance for that. 

One of the victims of today's bombing was a young peace activist, Irfan Ali Khudi  who had a different narrative in a wrong place. He founded Human Rights Commission for Social Justice and Peace in 2000 and strongly believed that, "No nation and society can progress without the awareness and values based on Human Rights and Social Justice" and was actively voicing for his different narrative. It was definitely a mistake and this Thursday, Al-Mullahs ... :(

God Knows...

Nawal El Saadawi, in an interview (The Age of Reason) with BBC describes her grandmother's argument (who was an illiterate, peasant woman) with mayor of her village on subject of God and claims to be her first lesson in Philosophy and Religion, 

Mayor, "You don't know God. You didn't read the Quran"

Grandma, "I know God better than you because, God is not a book, God is not a Quran, God is justice and we know Him by our mind."

I may not agree with all of the Saadawi's ideas but I liked her grandma's story as the concept of God is inseparable from concept of "Justice" and that is why, believing in the "Judgment Day" is  the core concept of religions and easy to grasp for all individuals irrespective of their literacy levels. The problem arises when some people start emphasizing the need for certification in understanding and believing in God. Surely, then God becomes an unreachable concept that needs mediation of "specialists in God", a commodity that not everyone can afford.

If we turn to specialists (Philosophers) , we will hear an argument as following,

There can be two scenarios when we look at "what is right" in respect with the concept of God;

 A; "Something is right because God says, it is right"

This concept is against concept of justice as it is based on the concept of "Might is Right" and this concept has been used to justify all sorts of crimes from Genocides, discrimination and suppression of minorities, women, children and authoritarian rules.

 B; "God says, something is right because it is right"

This concept is based on the concept of Justice and we don't need all the times, the specialists to tell us what is right as our reasoning and conscience can guide us to what is right. Reason is the best mediator between the Creator and the subjects. 

Personally, I believe that, there are billions of people who believe in God (and it makes it an important subject  particularly that, it is exploited for political reasons and denials can't do any good) according to their capacities and it is natural that their concepts do not match with each other. Humans err and that is why they need the concept of God to take refuge and if humans had flawless brains, they either  wouldn't need this concept at all or all were perfect faithfuls. Modern societies have solved this problem by giving the people "the rights to be wrong as long as it is not harming others" and that is closer to justice than forcing people to follow particular set of concepts, that a lot of people find them conflicting with their reasoning or conscience. 

What are in the mirror?

If painting is playing with colors then photography is playing with lights. A photographer paints or better to say writes with lights. A photograph has three main aspects, the subjects of photographs, the technical capability of camera and intentional part that is the interest, skills and world view of the photographer. Although, I am not a professional photographer but I like to shoot things around me, sometimes just point to shoot things as they are and sometimes compose them to shoot for two main reasons; (a) It makes me realize that a single fact can be pictured and presented in many ways and (b) I look at photography as an aided-introspection and expression of freewill.

Why these two reasons are important to me? They are important to me because of the diverse answers that we get from diverse sources on broad questions and it helps me to reassert the fact that, no one has a final answer, no matter, how hard one pushes for it. Let me explain; 

A physicist like Michio Kaku looks to mirror and says, “It is not me. It looks like me but it is not me. It is not me now. It is me a billionth of a second ago because it takes light, a billionth of second to go from me to mirror and come back to me”…

Neurophysiologist Benjamin Libet looks to mirror, winks  and says, "I didn't wink as an exercise of  free will.  The decision was already generated in my brain and I became aware of that just 0.5 second later. I could veto when I became aware and that is my "free will" if you like to call it so."....  

Physicist Daniel Whiteson  looks to mirror and says, "You only know about 5% of the matter in Universe. Out of other 95% , the 20% is dark matter and we have no idea about the remaining 75% ...."

A socio-biologist like Edward O. Wilson looks to mirror and says, “What I see is a person with a star war civilization, stone age emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology.”…..

An evolutionary biologist like Richard Dawkins looks to mirror and says, “He is a mortal vehicle to propagate immortal selfish genes” …. 

The author of Meme Machine Susan Blackmore looks to mirror and says, “Look to the big head (expensive organ to run and deadly organ to give birth to) she got. That is because she is a meme machine and as her brain wasn’t sufficient to store and propagate memes, she went into symbiotic relationship with computers to propagate teme and if computers get self-replicating capabilities, they will no more need humans as meme machines”…

A religious person looks to mirror and says, “He is the image of God Or He is the God’s Caliph on earth”…

Socialist Philosopher Slavoj Zizek looks to mirror and says, " What I see is real and I see that he is fully alienated from Nature but he doesn't admit...."

Science fiction writer Issac Asimov looks to mirror and says, "This guy doesn't get excited by hearing eureka  after a scientific discovery but by hearing 'that is funny'".....

So, the bottom line is that, whether one is physicist, neurologist, biologist, psychologist, philosopher or a religious person, he/she spends a lot of energy in reflective introspection (aided and unaided) to make sense of a coherent self and a coherent environment that provide stimulation for it. Here, I used mirror metaphor because mirror has been used as  primary indicator of self-recognition or self-awareness. Only few other animals like great apes, dolphins, orcas and elephants can recognize themselves in mirror. I began this knol with photography because compared to "a billionth of a second time interval between the subject and its mirror image", photographs represent larger time intervals. And interests of men in photography and even further drawing out of  memory are the by-products of costly big brains that they have gotten. The story of self awareness doesn't stop with mirror and other form of images. It extends to broader reflective connections with Nature and Universe in the form of the narrative of common origin.  Since prehistoric times, humans have asked questions like, "Where do we come from?", "What are we?" and "Where are we going?" and all these questions are associated with self awareness and group identity. The ancient ruins from Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Latin America, North Africa have preserved the answer to these questions in the form of creation myths and we know that each civilization had their own creation myths. Sky was working as a giant mirror, where each group of people was looking for their recognition. And I take no surprise that in the "space age", the sky is still working as a giant mirror, except that the horizon has become larger and now people are speculating for aliens, other intelligent life forms that might or might not look like humans and might help or destroy humans.

The problem is that unlike other organisms that have not invested in costly big brains and depend mostly on cost effective reflexive actions for their survivals, humans are condemned to invest large energies in costly reflective actions for survival. As reflections are very costly, majority of humans tend either to outsource the reflective thinking to others (just believe in the explanations that re-enforce group identity) or tend to avoid questioning what is already there and it is why we see cultures as living fossils (they have changed very little) and the medieval institutions still persist in most societies, despite of creating conflicts and problems. 

The evolutionary biologists tell us that self recognition and group recognition (through culture and religions) have survival values and had evolved over millions of years. It was basically designed for survival and reproduction (Meme Machine) not for introspection or finding the truth or unravel the reality of Universe and that is why, the philosophers have failed to answer these questions as in words of E O. Wilson, "unaided rational inquiry has no way to conceive its own process" so they suggests that, evolutionary biology has the answer to questions, where we came from, what we are and where we are going.

Still, the problem is that, when humans observe nature or observe broadly the Universe, they tend to make everything compatible to their senses and to their rationality, what some like to call Anthropic Principle. Could it be there are realities or facts that are not compatible with our senses and rationality and we are missing them? Well, that is a possibility but we have no way to confirm or reject them.

So, coming back to photography, despite of my ordinary cameras and my ordinary skills in taking pictures, I still like to shoot things around me and myself as it reminds me that, we have brains that cherish self-awareness but there is no Universal mirror that everyone sees himself/herself the same. Every picture, even  every self portrait is different. We are diverse and our conscious are diverse and  claims for final answer is delusional (it happened before and proved to be partially true and humanity is still discovering and learning) and  the push for Universal identity is nothing more than a desire for dominance.