Tiger Mom's interesting analysis of empires' history and lessons for contemporary world

'A Universe From Nothing' by Lawrence Krauss, AAI 2009

Sartre on Intellectualism

Are Hazaras of Quetta really trapped???

So we are in midst of 2^nd World Wide Protest against ongoing Genocide of Hazaras in Quetta, Pakistan, something that didn’t materialize when Taliban were systematically massacring Hazaras in Kabul, Mazar Sharif and Hazarajat from 1998 until Fall of 2001. Of course, it is the fruit of a decade long struggle of Hazaras to recollect their torn off society to rebuild their civic life. I don’t find any other nation on the face of earth that have faced more than a century long systematic genocides as Hazaras have been facing since 1885. Just in my life time, there have been three systematic genocides in three decades so far. It seems that Hazaras populations are the hotspots of Genocides.

While the Genocides of Hazaras in Quetta is continued and the culprits appear to have strong support and will to carry on their genocidal plans without any check from Government, there are fears of civil war in Afghanistan after withdrawal of international forces after 2014. Both sides of tunnel are dark and there is no light to show the way out. In this situation the migration is natural phenomenon but there are fears that the brain drain of capable men and women make these already torn off populations of Hazaras more vulnerable.
 

Now, what are the options? I am really glad that there are brains inside Hazaras who frequently speak their minds and there are political forces and organizations that are duly responding to crises in very civic manners. If I focus on current issue that is Genocide of Hazaras in Quetta, I should acknowledge that the Political forces have been wise and successful in making Genocide of Hazaras a national issue and are heading towards making it an international issue. As we are all aware that Countries act according to their national interests and it is really hard to conceive that Pakistan, neighboring countries and Gulf States will give concessions on the costs of their foreign policies. Then if Hazaras have been and are victims of geopolitical interests then it is really hard to believe that being a minority in Pakistan, Hazaras can make very big impacts in avoiding their victimizations. Similarly, internationalizing the Genocide of Hazaras might not influence international community to stand for Human Rights of a minority that do not affect global economy and global politics.

Having said all these continued civic movements and protests of Hazaras might influence the international organizations and people that really believe in Human Rights and do not link it just to their national interests. But more important than Human Rights are the Hazaras populations that are now scattered around the world. Their active participations not only make it more costly for forces to continue freely their genocidal plans but also benefit these communities themselves. It is natural to expect that Hazaras feel insecure after facing a century long genocides and they feel more secure within themselves. These protests and activisms will make them to reach out other communities and become active part of plural and democratic societies and let their potentials benefit all.

In short, I am hopeful about the political activism in the Hazaras society and as there are more able and experienced people in the field so I just wanted to express my gratitude to their struggles. BUT, the purpose of this piece of writing was expressing my concerns over other neglected areas.

Hazaras in Quetta was known for their contributions in civil services, education, sports, philanthropy and social activism. In facing the current crisis, politics have dominated the society and all other parts have gone into shades. For long, I am reading and listening to the suggestions about, what Hazaras need to do in face of ongoing crises but I fail to find anything beyond politics. Pakistan for six decades focused just on defense and the result of this one factor policy is now obvious to all. Despite of having a nuclear arsenal, well developed missile defense system, Six hundred thousand strong and organized military, she is moving towards a failed state. Now that Government has realized the mistakes and are trying to focus on the 3D (Defense, Developments and Diplomacy) it doesn’t have the means to do so. Pakistan might need more than a dedicated decade to develop the capacity of implementing her 3D policy.

I may be wrong but I feel that relying just on politics may harm Hazaras on the long run. While political maneuver of Hazaras are local and national more or less but their Economical, Cultural and Social activism have the potential to go global.

As I said earlier that Hazaras in Quetta is known for their contributions in non-political sectors of Province and the country. Learning and encouraged by organizing worldwide protests and activisms, it is time that Hazaras get out of the trap, evolve and bring to light their other areas. When I read the banners, “Hazaras of the world get united”, I do not see any other ways except that we take out our experiences and potentials in education, sport, arts, literature, music, philanthropy, social activism and most importantly economy to go global by networking, working together and most importantly REACHING OUT OTHER COMMUNITIES.

Please feel free to correct me in part that you feel, I have misunderstood… Thanks 

“X” is power

In a scene of the movie, “J. Edgar” – A biographical movie about FBI director, “J. Edgar Hoover”-…… Hoover takes Gandy (His personal secretary) to the Library of Congress, and shows her the card catalog system he devised. He muses about how easy it would be to solve crimes if every citizen were as easily identifiable as the books in the library……. Although Edgar was thinking of having a centralized catalogue of all citizens fingerprints but now the social networking site, “Facebook” made it really easy to make every citizen identifiable as easily as finding a book in library of congress. Facebook do not use fingerprints but instead life-prints. When Edgar said, “information is power”, he might not had an idea that one day, “information” can create “Arab spring” (A clear goal; democracy) and another day, it creates, “Arab winter” (Confusion; what does it mean?). You may have heard a lot that, “Money is power” and then you learn that there is a common practice of “Fractional reserve banking” (One deposits 100 dollars for example to a bank, the bank keeps 20 dollars as reserve and lends out 80 dollars out of it which naturally in ways ends in another bank and it just goes on). Yes, information is power but the real power is in perceptions. Doesn’t matter, you catalogue it, reserve it or rationalize it. 

 For few days, I was feeling that I am going to get cold as there were signs of fatigue but to a restless nature, rest is a punishment. What else I could do except doodling and hanging on in hope of getting something done. I heard that Che Guevara, the famous revolutionary figure was suffering from asthma but still he set to travel South American continent on a motorcycle for four months but ended up traveling on motorcycle, steamship, raft, horse, bus, and hitchhiking, covering more than 8,000 kilometres (5,000 mi) in nine months instead. He just wanted to see what he had just read in books but this travel totally changed his perspective about life, people and government. The rest is what everybody knows. I wanted to watch the movie “The motorcycle diaries” that is based on Che’s travels and tell the fatigue (you are not as good as asthma) that I am not somebody who gives in to pains (Sometimes bragging tastes as sweet as ice cream)… Information, if creates a reasonable perception can give a purpose that changes life/lives. Che’s travel provided him the information that was right for the recipe of a “revolutionary perception”.

In the morning, I wrote in my notebook while taking notes, we are not just in the age of “information” but we are “thinking in paradigm of information”. The whole evolution is based on variations and mutations of “genes” and even “reductionist evolutionists” like to call it, “selfish gene” as everything else is just meant to propagate them. Wonderful huh, with this coin, they are the real “Illuminati “. No, we just can’t blame only evolutionary biologists to be trapped in “information paradigm”. In fact, it began with Philosophers. To Plato, it was not acceptable that “information” with its excellence perish in the dust of time so he created an “ideal world” and called the changing reality as its shadow. What Plato was calling shadow of ideals; human civilizations were just one of its categories. Being the product of information (Mankind’s great minds), they were not immune to falls. The falls of civilizations were the fallibility of human minds and there were always efforts to find ways to make human minds or information infallible. Although, by now, I get irritated to use the “I think, therefore I am” declaration of Rene Descartes but I have to refer to it again as it was yet another reductionist effort to find a way to make human mind infallible. After failing again and again, the Philosopher tried to copy the nature. If nature has created DNA, an infallible carrier of information then perhaps the “language” as carrier of information is the tool that can make human mind infallible. So far all efforts to create a language that make human mind infallible went in vain. We can do math but we can’t speak mathematics. When we say 99%, we don’t mean any figure but instead we mean majority common people. It is what happens when we try to speak math. 

 It doesn’t matter how hard one tries to be exact, how detailed a correlation one makes or how centralized the data become, at the end it is the “X” –the perception- that is the power. Right perceptions are revolutionary and wrong ones “confusions”…

Walking Across.....

I don’t know, whether it is an addiction or ritual but I like to call it ritual as it sounds positive. So in general, the best of part of my day is the ritual of watching a part of some historical Korean drama while taking my lunch (Once, I was calling it, “fill in the blanks” meaning to enjoy doing my favorite things in time-gaps instead of waiting for a leisure time but now it falls; watching movies, reading and writings are my favorites). I like this ritual as it allows me to see how people in other cultures rationalize their acts and behaviors. (Currently watching Yi San; though, the characters in the story are very soft and the story is very slow and sometimes even boring but still, I like it as it makes me realize that, although we all cherish the same values but we rationalize them differently. Slowly, I am also realizing that if we set aside advances in technology and knowledge in general, the history doesn't change much in terms of values. The only thing that changes are the ways we rationalize them. That also happens across the cultures. So either we walk across the cultures or across the history, it is the rationalizations that change not basic values). As in humans, 90% of Serotonin is in gut and the rest in the CNS so just by guess; I hope that this ritual (nourishing body and mind simultaneously) also increases Serotonin levels in my blood (it is just a guess).

Yesterday, I was very late in taking my lunch (the drama part was also very uneventful, hehe). The net effect, I was feeling so sleepy that I thought, it is wiser if instead of pushing myself and tiring myself while not able to make any progress in my work, I should get a nap for an hour and come back to work with a fresh mind. I set my alarm for an hour. When I woke up, it was dark. I checked the time and found that I had slept for three hours instead of one. I even didn’t notice the loud alarm (it was very deep sleep). Initially I felt bad about it but soon my mind started its work, “rationalizing the act”. You know, brain consumes 25% of oxygen and glucose in blood and if one is involved in an intensive problem solving thinking process, the brain consumes almost as much energy as an athlete pushes hard his body to break a record. So, it is natural to get exhausted after a mental work although the body appears to be idle in the process.

Unconvinced by my back-rationalizing, while still lying there, the thoughts of why ancient people about cared those hard questions, “who am I?”, “Why am I here?” “Where will I go?” come to me (I guess, it is the way mind work. It is good at diverting attention and escapes the troubles it faces. This totally unrelated thought was an escape strategy). In nutshell all those questions are linked with purpose of life. Usually, we tend to think that the “primitive people” think simple things and as people advance in terms of knowledge, they questions become more sophisticated. These are really hard questions that still people struggle with. Because, I had just awaken up so the thought of “Morpheus” came to me. In Greek mythology, Morpheus is the God of sleep and dreams. it can take any human forms to appear into dreams (Morphine is named after it).

In a way, it allowed me to hypothesize that because ancient people had not much understanding of nature so they needed explanations to match their life styles (It is because we are highly addicted to brain’s reward system, Dopamine. When our ideas are appreciated or we think, they are right; our brains reward us with dopamine). Coming back to dreams, it is still mystery. Although there are a lot of explanations but none of them are satisfactory. If I was living in ancient time, the belief that Morpheus appears in different forms in my dreams would be a very surreal idea and my brains would definitely rewarded me with lot of dopamine shots.

Although, Science is snatching all those surreal narratives but on other hand it has given us another fancy way of rationalizing and getting rewarded by brain and that is “Hypothesizing”. Brain is very good at finding patterns among very random things and constructing a hypothesis out them to rationalize things.

So what was the pattern here? Well, I guess, in order to get a higher dose of dopamine, when we rationalize, we try to link with something superior and it is perhaps why, Greeks mythology is filled with Gods and Goddesses. Those complex questions of purpose are linked with superior beings to feel superb. It is just an egoistic nature of men that do not accept things as they are (and perhaps better not to). Things have not changed much. Now that modern men think of themselves in-charge instead, we tend to think that we understand most of things and we are right. It appears to me that in future, someone while lying in his bed might be thinking about the ways we rationalize things currently and might try to find a pattern to make a sense out of them. Who knows?

Does human sense of fairness match to standards of Capuchin monkey?

It is believed that in humans, upon entering into puberty stage, they start questioning their childhood beliefs. Now, I am realizing that how shallow is that questioning?  Actually, the life of this questioning is very brief and is soon shut by dominating social values that make individuals who dare to differ either based on their conscience or misunderstandings look freaky and odd. 

 It is not just biologists who have struck by close relatedness of organisms to each other. I guess, every culture has noticed these relatedness and have their own explanations. What I want to point out is that, these explanations are constructed very well to fit perfectly to the dominating social values and norms. This is just a manifestation of human arrogance that they want to see the whole Universe revolve around them. What we usually know as Anthropocentric world view. A perspective or world view that is not anthropocentric hurts human ego and arrogance.

 It is not unusual to not get struck by very close similarities of apes to humans. When I was just a kid and was not exposed to evolutionary theory, the only prevailing explanation was that the apes are descendants of the "cursed ancient nations" that had disobeyed God. Now, I understand that how arrogant humans can be  that they even go to extent of demonizing innocent animals. Of course, if one is not exposed to biological perspective, these explanations make them to think of apes as something to hated or at least something not clean/disgusting. It is another way of intimidating people to not question the dominating social values. 

If one follows the same line of reasoning in observing human behavior regarding animals one can understand clearly that why despite of availability of information and the ability of humans to think rationally, they  demonize each other (Animals yet have still long way to wait). It  really makes sense when I see the intimidation of dominating social values. To me, it appears that  most of  humans do not have the courage to maintain the freedom of their minds. Now look at this. Morality is one of the three basic constituents of Philosophy and it stands at the core of Theology. Why the morality should be so specialized and complex when everyone needs to have it? The simple reason is that the individual's sense of justice and fairness is thoughts as something dangerous to society and making things complex is a way of blocking free thinking (Mankind are generally lazy in thinking) by intimidation of complexity (You are not qualified to have a conscience; You need to be logician or specialized in religious studies to have good judgments).... 

 Watch these two interesting videos of experiments and decide what kinds of teachings are responsible for the sens of fairness in these monkeys? Isn't it the absence of intimidation? (Complex cultural constructs)

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What is really noticeable are protests against discrimination and inequality. When I watched these two videos, I really felt that by accepting the discrimination and rationalizing injustices either by legal, cultural and religious constructs, the mankind have lowered their conscience or moral standards and let me dare to say that human standards are not even matched to the standard of these Capuchin monkeys (because either way we tolerate or even accept different levels of discrimination)

SECRETS OF THE TAJ MAHAL

Meme is still waiting for its language

I just looked up in dictionary to reassure myself that my understanding of “Meme” is not much different from that of a “standard” one and found this definition; … “(biology) a cultural unit (an idea, value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic means (as by imitation)”…. Frankly, I am happy that Meme is non-genetic. If it was genetic, then perhaps we might have been calling it, “Memememe” and that is not a good looking word.  No, it is not me who thinks so but it is the “neuroscientists” who imply so. You may have read and heard several times that the brain inside our skulls is not actually a single brain but rather, it is 4 in 1; the reptilian brain, mammalian brain, Ape brain and Homo sapiens brain. That means, there is not a single “Me” but a “reptilian Me”, a Mammalian Me”, an “Ape Me” and a “Homo sapiens Me”.   

Though we have “Memememe” but our personalities are the product of meme, meaning the cultures we are exposed to. My intention here is not just to play with words but to say that memes that are responsible for giving us a sense of identity and personality is mostly “constructed reality”. No, I am not trying to imply that there is a war between the “constructed reality” and “natural reality” but instead that there is war within “constructed reality” and the main weapons is the “rationality”.

Well, it is good to rationalize things but anything out of moderation loses its originality. At least, the efforts to mathematize the language tell us so (The efforts to produce a logical language like that of mathematics based on symbols is now an example of classical failure in Philosophy). To me, the thinking that, math is the only rational way of expressing things is underestimating the complexity of reality especially the life. I am telling so because it has shattered one my childish dreams. From my early introductory (just out of curiosity) reading in Psychology, I found that there is a “subconscious mind” that the conscious mind remains mostly unaware of its “thinking” and one of the main “reasons” is our unfamiliarity to its language. It uses the language of the “symbols and images” and the verbal and numerical languages that we (conscious mind) understand are not of much use to communicate with this part of our minds. It is a fact that when we sleep, the conscious mind goes passive and unconscious mind becomes active and the unconscious mind communicates with us in form of dreams and usually they are strange and we do not know their meanings. Because we do not understand their meaning so we usually just discard them by ignoring them. The idea that a symbolic language would help us to communicate with unconscious mind was very thrilling for me. Modern arts somewhat were attracting me as I was “believing” that these seemingly “irrational” creations are influenced by “unconscious mind” and are windows for us to look into unconscious minds of their creators.

As I learned that computers have their own language that is very different than ours and we need an intermediary language to translate our language to the language that computers understand and likewise translate the language of computer to our language, so we could communicate with computers, made me even more hopeful. Perhaps, what we needed was an intermediary language.

With this thrilling idea in my head, I was looking for an intermediary language (How naïve) and when I learned about Bertrand Russell’s book, “Principia Mathematica”  and that it is a book about “symbolic logic”, I got really excited. It was not hard to find it. I was available at Provincial library. I started reading it very carefully but my hope was evaporated when I found out that it is neither an intermediary language nor a language for unconscious mind. In fact, it is not even a language for conscious mind (This is one of the reasons that I got allergic to mathematics and it is really taxing me high on my “intellectual” health). I know that I am the product of meme (Cultural unit however, I take it as me + me; Conscious me + Unconscious me) but actually this meme is me-me and still awaits for an intermediary language to make it meme. 

When passive becomes active…

It might be a constructed misconception but I found it interesting in case it holds some truth in it and that is, “women change their minds frequently”. I found it amusing because I was born and raised in a country (Pakistan)whose half population (women; that are approximately more than 90 million) are dominantly passive population and it is a prevailing concept that the rest of the population (90 million men) value or better to say honor “standing on one leg” , no matter what. A thin layer of society that is active men and women are very slow in changing their minds. Although, I understand that it is a distorted face of “Real men keep their words” but “unfortunately”, it is now widely practiced and is a reality. It is also amusing that people are aware of this and there are many jokes on these stereotypical concepts that are not appropriate to repeat here (Making fun of it and standing firm for it; that is the sole paradox that is appreciated and even there TV shows that are totally based on this single paradox)

Let’s for a moment, assume that it is true, “women change their mind frequently”, then how Pakistan will look like if the 90 million passive populations become active??? One thing that will change for sure is the shift from “contradictory society” to “paradoxical society”. Let me explain, what does it mean?

Contradict mean, denial of “truth”, denial of others’ realities and contradictory society means, taking firm positions that, others’ truths (beliefs, constructed realities or whatever you like; doesn’t matter much) are utterly wrong and should be resisted or wiped out. In other words, there should be only one world view or “truth” exists and it should prevail.

Paradox means, self-contradictory or understanding that things that appear true have also another face (“wrong”) OR conflicting realities and the possibility that both might be right or both might be wrong. Paradoxical society means, people accepts the co-existence of multiple realities and people do not try to exterminate the reality of a part of society just because it is not matching with their own.

Although it is just a contemplation that by once 90 million passive population becomes active, that are supposedly frequently change their minds, a society shifts from contradictory to paradoxical society. One might ask that, why a society goes from paradoxical once it is not contradictory? Whether we accept or not but it is a fact that all societies are actually either contradictory or paradoxical in their basic nature. There is no truth or reality that does not contradict others or itself. Let me give an example, there are people who oppose “Evolutionary theory” that is a unifying theory in biological sciences but follow biological research in health. On other hand there are people who are great defender of “Evolutionary theory” but politically favor socialism or libertarianism (both of these two systems are thought to contradict evolutionary theory; Evolution is not product of controlled/regulated environments). It is just the nature of reality and it seems that there is no escape from contractions and paradoxes.

Changing the perception, not what you like most?

I like Sherlock Holmes and have watched all the series and movies based on this fictional character. The expression, “I suspect nothing and everything”, taking the “absence” of something as important clue as “footprint” and drawing big conclusions from seemingly very small and sporadic clues are my favorites that have dragged me to be big fan of this character. In short, Sherlock Holmes is what a rational man can/expected to do in controlled and deterministic yet thrilling fictional world. The utmost efforts of mankind to rationalize everything and look down to what appear as irrational are a self-serving evidence that rationality is most sought trait at least to “modern-humans” (Sometimes when I come across some evidently irrational expressions and comments in favor of rationality and sanity, I just get a stroke of puzzlement; Thanks to our brains that have evolved to ease us by changing the perceptions to create reality at least by illusion if not by facts; foods for beliefs?).

Cottingley Fairies
Being a fan of the fictional character of Sherlock Holms as a symbolic representation of a rational man, it is natural to think of the mind behind the character as a highly creative and rational person. Arthur Conan Doyle is the creator of this character but you may be amazed to know that the creator of such a rational character also believed that fairies do exist. In 1921, he wrote the book, “the coming of fairies” and he believed that the 5 photographs of fairies that were taken by two cousins, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths in 1917 in Cottingley, England were original. He was a member of “Ghost Club” and based on the differences of beliefs on “spiritualism” broke up with his friend, Harry Houdini who was a magician and was opposing “spiritualism”. So, how a rational person accommodate such an apparent paradox? Before pondering on this question let’s explore some more related paradoxes…

This is what one of my teachers told us as a joke,

…. The government started a literacy project for distant villages and was sending teachers to villages to teach people reading and writing. In some villages the village chiefs were opposing and resisting the project. A teacher reaches in one of such villages where village chief was against the project. He chooses the mosque as his classroom and evenings for his classes. It was a good strategy as people were free at evenings and were coming to mosque for evening prayers and following chatter. He succeeded to attract most of villagers and it made village chief furious. The village chief appeared in one of the class sessions. The teacher wrote “snake” on board. The chief went to blackboard and draw a snake beside the word and asked villagers, which one looks like snake, my snake or the teachers snake? Villagers replied your snake. The chief was successful in driving out the teacher by saying that he was fooling people…..

This is not really funny to make you laugh but I remembered this parable yesterday when I saw some large abstract sculptures and paintings exhibited at concourse between Albany State Museum and MacDonald. I am somewhat OK, with those abstract painting that have expressive color combinations but what about sculptures? The materials, colors and shapes, nothing in them are expressive. Expression is at core of Arts. Without expressions nothing makes sense in Arts. The modern Arts are like Arthur C. Doyle beliefs in fairies, there should be something that is above our understanding to merit as an imaginative.

I would have forgotten about the Modern Arts but today seeing a wooden abstract sculpture that has replaced by “late” fountain in front of library tower at University reminded me again the debate of the teacher and village chief. To me, nothing is more expressive, beautiful and romantic than water, especially fountains and water falls. I think, the Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang is right. Perhaps as our rationality grows so is our irrational parts and Modern arts is an expression of our co-evolved irrational part. May be my obsession and thirst for natural beauty is due to my primitive rational part.

I better to grow more rational so my irrational part also grow and start loving modern arts. No I think, a better solution is to change my perception to accommodate more paradoxes. It is much efficient way..hehehe. In fact, there is one aspect of modern art that I appreciate and that is the factor of “rebellion” but not to the extent that Ai Weiwei and Aliaa Magda Elmahdy's went. It is my understanding that cultural rebellions, though sometimes controversial helps in shedding hardened skins and shells during cultural metamorphosis. So, how rational men accommodate irrationality under at an attractive names of Modern Arts and even religious devotions? I think, the answer lies at plasticity of our left hemisphere. It has the job of rationalizing our deeds and likings. No matter, how much irrational and paradoxical are our devotions and likings, left hemisphere is very good at rationalizing things and convincing us.

The brains of golden ages

Celebrity gossip is not a modern phenomenon. As long as there were big names, the desire to link extra-ordinary things to them were there. Legends sprout that most of times overshadow the reality but still these legends provide a window to see glimpses of the prevailing reality. Alexander the great is the biggest name among great kings of ancient time so the desire to compare this great king to a great thinker is quite understandable. When Alexander conquers Athens, the big names like Socrates and Plato were no more so we find the legend of linking him to another big name in Philosophy, Diogenes. This legend is very common but still worth to read it again as it provides a glimpse of the prevailing thinking in ancient Athens,

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…………“Thereupon many statesmen and philosophers came to Alexander with their congratulations, and he expected that Diogenes of Sinope also, who was tarrying in Corinth, would do likewise. But since that philosopher took not the slightest notice of Alexander, and continued to enjoy his leisure in the suburb Craneion, Alexander went in person to see him; and he found him lying in the sun. Diogenes raised himself up a little when he saw so many persons coming towards him, and fixed his eyes upon Alexander. And when that monarch addressed him with greetings, and asked if he wanted anything, "Yes," said Diogenes, "stand a little out of my sun." It is said that Alexander was so struck by this, and admired so much the haughtiness and grandeur of the man who had nothing but scorn for him, that he said to his followers, who were laughing and jesting about the philosopher as they went away, "But truly, if I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.……………Wikipedia

I chose this legend as it beautifully illustrates the appreciation and dominance of Philosophical thoughts in Athens. To me, the comparison of a penniless philosopher to that of a great king in the form of a legend is more show of this kind of functional-brain-wiring than anything else.

For long, I was fascinated by this tiny (from our modern perspective) ancient city state; Athens, with an estimated population of 250,000 populations, out of which only 30,000 men had civil rights and the rest were women and slaves. Just for sake of comparison take Hazaras of Quetta; Hazaras is a minority in Quetta city (the least populated province of Pakistan) with an estimated population of more than 600,000 which is more than double population of that of ancient Athens. I understand that it is reasonable correlation to compare a modern population with an ancient city state that have more than 5000 years of time gap in between. On other hand it does make sense when we compare their accomplishments. Living in ancient times, when human knowledge was primitive and means of recording and transferring known knowledge was expensive and limited and at a time when modern educational institutions were absent, in a very period of time, Athens produced the kind of great men whose thoughts became the foundations of Western civilizations as a whole, Muslim civilization in part, USA and global world in general. It is not just the failure of Hazaras as even much bigger nations that have access to modern human knowledge had failed to produce not even a single man of knowledge of that statures… Why?

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Right now, one possible (of course from many) answer comes from “Neuroscience”. Though there are doubts about the methodology (It was started with “Split brain experiments” and now is dominated by fMRI – Functional Magnetic resonance; measuring the blood flow in brain; as brain does not store energy so it depends for supply of sugar on blood and measuring oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood is way of measuring consumption of energy and activities of certain brain areas and correlating them with certain behaviors or thoughts provides key information to know how brain functions; correlation is tricky though) but still, one thing is appearing as a common pattern and that is brain does not have a “central control”. Different brain areas functions “independently” or “semi-independently” or in aggregates and it is why we have conflicts inside our heads but the good news is that all these happens in subconscious level and we usually do not notice so the conscious mind is usually has a resolved form of thought as a conscious product (comes with rational theories/explanations about final decisions)…



One common example might be the breaking of rule that we make to follow strictly but we tend to go easy on ourselves and rationalize once we break those rules; e.g, if you have made your mind to stop taking sweet dishes but seeing your favorite sweet dish, your lizard brain make you eat and once you have broken the rule then your left hemisphere come up with a theory to rationalize it, usually with a reward theory to justify the acts.

I am not neurologists and these explanations might change as new techniques or new hypotheses emerge but one thing that I get from this is,

The frequent use of certain brain areas increase their performance and make them dominate over other parts (increased neuron connections in those areas) so the wiring of the brain depends on the rate of usage of certain areas. In simple words, it is the functional wiring of brain that determines a person…. If it is true (as of now accepted) then reasoning on the same line, it is possible that each era is Dominated by “Particular Functional Wiring of Brains”…

“In other Words, if we know human history based on the certain golden ages like, the correlation of rise of Athens City State with “Golden Age of Philosophy”, the correlation of Renaissance and industrialization with “Golden Age of Sciences” , the correlation of rise of digital technologies with “Golden Age of entrepreneurship”… it makes sense in the light of dominance of certain “functional wiring of brains” because they are seen as way of unbeaten success in their relative times….”

1. Golden Age of Philosophy;

Athens city state was much smaller as compared to Egyptian, Indus, Chinese, Babylon and Persian Kingdoms but because the rhetoric and reasoning was a way of earning/maintaining high social status and political positions in the so called Athenian “democratic state” so the Sophists were offering those skills to people in market places. Coming back to our functional brain wiring types hypothesis; because of higher demand for reasoning, the push for this functional brain wiring was a dominated so it make sense that some of those sophists distinguished themselves from the rest as Philosophers. Right now, for me it is a convenient explanation for how in short amount of time, Athens could produce so many great names in Philosophy whose thoughts became the foundation of Western civilization in particular and modern civilization in general.

2. Golden Age of Science;

Based on same line of reasoning, the renaissance and following industrial period was a time for naturalism. The reasoning supported with evidences was a kind of thinking that was proving a liberating and empowering force. “Liberty; Libertarian Philosophers” and “Power; Nietzsche and Darwinianism” were two main themes of these period (Colonization and World Wars were two tragic byproducts of these kinds of functional brain wiring). Again, it makes sense that the zeal of empowerment and sense of freedom made the discoverers and inventors social outliers. So it is not surprising that why in a short period of time continental Europe produced so many great Scientists that reshaped the face of earth and redefined the basic concepts of Man, God and Universe.

3. Golden Age of digital Entrepreneurs;

I don’t think, I need to explain this period as following the same line of reasoning, anyone can figure out why in short period of time, the Silicon Valley produced so many successful entrepreneurs in very short amount of time. The big names, like those of Bill Gates (Founder of Microsoft), Steve Jobs (co-founder of “Apple”) and Mark Zuckerberg (Founder of Facebook), Sergey Brin (Less known; the co-founder of Google) dominates over other fields. Now, it became a trend and a recipe for success to come up with a novel idea for business which promises an empty niche for rapid growth and becoming a giant before competitors appear in the market. So it really makes sense to see the dominance of this kind of functional brain wiring in Golden age of digital entrepreneurs.

Google's Project Glass: One day...

Camel and desire for meaning

A Persian parable goes like this,

“One day Sa’adi (a Persian poet) was traveling by foot from one village to another. The footprints on the trail caught his attention. There were footprints of a camel and a man. After a while, he saw print of camel in sitting position and prints of hands shanks, toes, foot (the sign of difficulty in climbing down and climbing up of camel), and of low pressure pee beside it. He concluded, “A pregnant woman must be sitting on the camel”… and then he noticed that there are flies at one side of trail and bees on other side trail flying here and there, “Hmm, the camel must be loaded with ghee at one side and honey on other side” .. While continuing to follow the footprints, he also noticed that grass at one side of trail is grazed upon and other side is untouched, “Aha, one eye of camel must be blind”… On his way, he meets a man with a stick who was looking desperate. As he reached the man, the man asks, “Haven’t you seen a camel on your way? I stopped for rest and fell into sleep and after waking up found that my camel is missing”.. Sa’adi replied, “Was your camel blind at one eye?” …”Yes” the man becomes excited… “Was it carrying a pregnant woman and was loaded with honey and ghee?.. Sa’adi continued asking… “Yes, all the signs are correct” the man becomes hopeful … “Well, I haven’t seen your camel”… Hearing the answer, the man loses his temper and starts beating Sa’adi… “You must have stolen my camel”… It took a few hit of sticks and lot of explanations before he could convince the man that he has just seen the prints and marks not the real camel… It is said that after getting out of trouble, Sa’adi promised to himself that this good lesson, if people ask me, “Have you seen camel?” even if I have seen one, my answer will be, “No”….

Though this parable was created to warn for unnecessary zeal in expressing quick conclusions but my aim here for it is to illustrate the deep desire of mankind for finding meaning in everything is basically originates out of their ARROGANCE. Men basically want to appear right because proving wrong or errors wounds their ego and self-confidence. Men try very hard and even at great costs to appear consistent and absolutely right. And it is why they try to relate themselves with something that “That is always right”… Some men try to be consistent with nature (Naturalists), Some try to be consistent with a form of “Infallible Truth” coming from a higher source like that of “God” (Religious people), Some try to be consistent with logic (axioms that have passed the tests of falsifications; Philosophers) and some try to be consistent with Science (Hypotheses that have passed the tests of both falsifications and evidences)…

You might say, “OK, that is what we all know… What is the problem?” … Well, quest for consistency is not a problem in itself. It becomes problematic with the emotions are invested in it. You know, mankind is basically “Slaves to their emotions”. Emotions are system of rewards and punishments within each person. When something is consistent with our emotions, our emotions reward us with good mood and feeling good. As a joke makes us laugh, similarly by feeling “Right” or be on the right side, our emotions reward us with feeling good. On other side, by feeling that we are wrong or we are on the wrong side, our emotions punish us with sadness and guilt.

Men are in fact slaves of their emotions and it is why, they usually do not listen, read or investigate what their opponents say. They fear that by being wrong they will be punished by their emotions and they try by every way to escape it. It is also the basis of our prejudices and standing on one leg and stressing on “Our truth” against “others false”…

The Venus Project, Jacque Fresco -

Usually, we take the Utopian thinking and its products, "utopias" as something "more than real" and as our sanity ends at reality so they look "unreal", and un-examined. It is the same as when we say, "more than happy".  It has nothing to do with happiness but is just an expression. But wait a moment, how the science progress? error and trial.. How the philosophy progress? thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis... how human experience grow? by learning from mistakes... Does the fear of errors and mistakes stop us to not practice Science, Philosophy or interact with each others?

Of course, we go but there is a way to go safely for them and that is to first test them in small and pilot projects in a manageable environments to learn the costs and benefits out them and to perfect them before putting them in practice...

You might have heard about Venus project of Jacque Fresco. Of course, it is utopian but just because it utopian doesn't mean it is totally unreal. Utopias are in fact mirrors in which we see the reflections of our current reality. So, I hope you will enjoy seeing some reflections...



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Hungry eyes

It was raining. After a week of clear and sunny sky that I used to know March with, it was again cloudy and rainy. I like to see the pouring sky especially when it dances in mild wind. I like rain because I see it as a soul of life on earth. The water that rains have been part of every living being on earth, from bacteria to vegetables, Dinosaurs and men and after going through us, they are going to be part of coming living beings. Yes, rains are transcendental and they carry life to every corner of earth. Usually when I sit and watch it raining, my mind goes blank and it makes the sound of rain loud and I can feel the cold touches of raining deep to my bone marrow. This time however, my mind was not blank. The pictures of old women and old men who invested their lives to raise their children and now just in snapshot of time with few spray of bullets, their sons and daughter gone forever and it was troubling my thinking. The pains of mourning families and their despair had dominated my mind and for a while I was deaf to hear any raining and numb enough to feel any cold. Then a car passes on Avenue and I come again to my conscious. I was standing for long out on the porch and I was cold. I came inside and turned on heat and sat next to heater to warm myself but the apartment was looking much smaller than usual. Now it is more than six months that I had shifted to this new apartment and it is well designed to fit comfortably a person and I was comfortable in it especially because of considerate, respectful and quiet neighbors.

Every generation has its own traditions and these traditions are based on their visions of life. There were a tradition of building spacious rooms in previous generation and the reason as I was told, to make children’s hearts and minds grow big. They believed that living space effects on thinking and personality of children and to make their children think big and have big hearts, they were making spacious rooms. I don’t know how much truth it holds but I respect the philosophy, it is based on. Parents were trying to go beyond their limits to make sure the availability of abundance in basic needs of their children. There was the concept of “hungry eyes”, something as a signature of bad upbringing. To install content in the children, one could hear again and again the proverb, “if one is hungry we can make him full but if one’s eyes are hungry then nothing in the world can make them full”..

My feeling was that the people who were targeted killed on Thursday (March 29th) was brought up in spacious rooms, they were raised to be content and have big hearts and think big, much bigger to think mean for others. Their heads and hearts were targeted because they were much bigger to be places for narrow-mindedness. They were raised to work single-mindedly for progress and of course their “progress” in this narrow-minded and envious environment is looked upon as a crime punishable by death.

The first time that I saw the real demonstration of “hungry eyes” was in Rawalpindi. I was early and had to wait for the bus to go back to Quetta. The waiting wasn’t boring as this overcrowded bus stop had a lot to observe. The buses go to all major cities in four provinces from there so one sees people from the provinces and northern areas. The diverse outfits, languages and behaviors and most importantly attitudes invite any curious person to observe. It is not just bus stop, the hotels, food stalls, costermonger, street vendors, cart pushers and taxi drivers, all trying to earn a living for their families. Whenever a bus arrives, the taxi drivers and cart pushers surround it to get passengers or offload and carry their goods to taxi.

A bus stopped in the middle of this narrow road, as usual taxis and carts surrounded it. A fat, bald and waddling old man that was appearing, the father of the family escorted the three women, two young girls and an elderly woman to other side of road and got busy offloading his goods on carts and then into taxis (A lot of goods, rented two just to take his goods and third one for his family). The women were looking different from crowd; they had fair skins and had half covered heads with dupatta but what I had never seen was that a lot of people had stopped and were looking at them as they were aliens or something strange. One could see the uneasiness and urgency in the girls, their mother (who was trying to cover her daughter by standing in front of them...notch.. huh) and the father who had difficulty in walking and was trying hard to get out of there. It was the first time that I had realized, how the normal looking crowd is terrifying when they have “hungry eyes”. There wasn’t anything unusual in dressing or behaviors of those girls. It was just their fair skins that had caused uneasiness for them (I could imagine that how something that should be a plus point make lives miserable in a crowd that are suffering from hungry eyes)

The same is true for Hazaras in Quetta. From journalists to former President of Pakistan (Pervez Musharraf) is saying the same thing. The crime of Hazaras is that… they are progressive and in short amount of time have “progressed” to appear as outliers and it has attracted the “hungry eyes”… Again, if some are hungry, their stomach can be filled but if their “eyes are hungry” then even the lives of people can’t fill them…

The invisible specialist workers

Bioleaching



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Bioremediation

Conscience VS popular tide

I don’t know the real appetite of a bear for a honey hive but I use it as an analogy to illustrate my craving for ice creams. It is just beastly. To me, if anything is close to ice creams are biographies, especially autobiographies. I really can’t afford missing any “bear-time” (the chance to read biographies or eating ice creams). Thanks to technology and those who develop Apps, especially those Apps that allow downloading free eBooks, now I can get bear-time, every day that I use bus to go school. These days, I get almost 15 minutes of bear-time in bus (both ways) and use it to enjoy reading the “The life of Abraham Lincoln” by Henry Ketcham (You can download to read it free on Google books). Though by reading this biography, I get a feeling that the writer was a real devotee to Abe and had written the book having the picture of a saintly figure in his mind but of course, I am in a stage of life that I can imagine a human figure even out of most revered saints. Reading the book, the thought that struck me again and again was the repetition of history. Of course, the events do not repeat themselves but the forces and processes that drive the events do not change and repeat themselves. Let me illustrate this by borrowing the event of the Lincoln-Stone Protest from the book,

….“ The prophetic event of his legislative work was what is known as the Lincoln−Stone protest. This looks to−day so harmless that it is not easy to understand the situation in 1837. The pro−slavery feeling was running high, an abolitionist was looked on as a monster and a menace to national law and order. It was in that year that the Reverend Elijah P. Lovejoy was murdered martyred at Alton, Ill. The legislature had passed pro−slavery resolutions. There were many in the legislature who did not approve of these, but in the condition of public feeling, it was looked on as political suicide to express opposition openly. There was no politic reason why Lincoln should protest. His protest could do no practical good. To him it was solely a matter of conscience. Slavery was wrong, the resolutions were wrong, and to him it became necessary to enter the protest. He succeeded in getting but one man to join him, and he did so because he was about to withdraw from politics and therefore had nothing to lose. Here is the document as it was spread on the journal:

Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both branches of the General Assembly at its present session, the undersigned hereby protest against the passage of the same.
They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy, but that the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils.

They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power under the Constitution to interfere with the institution of slavery in the different States.

They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but that the power ought not to be exercised, unless at the request of the people of the District.

The difference between these opinions and those contained in the above resolutions is their reason for entering this protest.

(Signed)

DAN STONE,
LINCOLN,

Representatives from the county of Sangamon.”……………..

What really moved me is that Abe got only one person on his side on his protest against “Pro-slavery resolutions”. It might have seemed a failure on those days but today no one sees that a failure as his stand based on his conscience has won over what were popular trends and sentiments in those days. Though, today, we don’t have physical slavery in the sense of those frontier times but the issue of “Human Rights” is an equivalent issue as to that of issue of slavery was then. The deep desires for supremacy and monopoly of values or religious beliefs have much popular appeal than to give in much for sake of “Human Rights” even if it appeals to conscience.

I agree that Human Rights have been misused as a foreign policy tools and even as a warfare tool against opponents and opponent governments. I agree that Human Rights have been used as a political tool or even economical tool by people who don’t really believe in it. It has been misused to an extent that if you talk about Human Rights, all and I really mean all try to find what you really want to conceal, using it. Some see weakness in it, some see ambitions and others see cowardice and betrayal in it. So when Abe protested against pro-slavery resolutions, he got just one supporter on his side but it didn’t stop him because his conscience was much bigger than the whole popular sentiments and judgments out there.

Although my bear-time is beastly but it gives me some humanely thoughts and let me to not wash out by current sentiments and events but see the processes that is going to repeat again and again…

You gotta love Ants !!!

Yeah, you gotta love ants, they are law abiding citizen but mind it, they are communist and they are communist in strictest sense. They are communist even long before Karl Marx had thought of writing his communist manifesto and perhaps even longer than that -even before anything had to look close to Marx (Ants (co-)evolved 140 to 160 million years ago and diversified along with flowering plants). Their system didn't collapse for their entire known history, perhaps because they haven't produced any libertarian,hehehe ... I am sure, the ideology don't stop from loving such law abiding citizen as ants...

I don't know, how you celebrate your valentine day but for more than a decade I hadn't missed ant's valentine's day (annual mating ritual that lasts for one day and it is usually occurs oh hot sunny day).... it is the day that you can see countless number of winged prince (smaller head and longer antenna than princess) and wingless princess ants swarm and they are looking for their pairs..For those who are not much familiar, it is an awkward day but truly it is a romantic day.. (There was an underground colony of ants at our house and we were feeding them regularly and no one was allowed to harm them as it was believed that harming ants will bring misfortunes.. Superstition, you may call it but compassion I would name it)

It is not just economy, romance and hard work that make ants look lovely to me but also their skills that make me appreciate these tiny creatures... I was frequent to use the example of ants feeding system to talk about food at home and school... Men are very sensitive to their outfits..very cautious at sizes, colors and fabrics but when it comes to food, who cares then? tastes drive everything... Ant nurses are specialized in giving care and esp in food. They make food according to needs of each ant category (It was not like men to invest heavily in health related research, spent on health and debate health insurance and yet don't know even the basics of preparing and eating healthy)

Ants are real patriots. They work heartlessly for prosperity of their colony (worker ants) and fight to death to defend their colony(Soldier ants)..

I don't know why tonight , I remembered ants (I had to read a paper on iron plaques on rhizosphere and the authors were so boring and vague in their writings that I wasn't moving from 3rd page so it makes sense that my mind needed an escape and ants came to rescue me..hehehe) but seriously if you have watched "Matrix movie" and want to see it outside of virtual world in real world then ants are most likely candidates... They have perfect stable "Utopian societies", now for more than 140 million years...

Obsessed with the “worlds”

When an artist creates an imaginary world (to represent dreams and unconscious mind), through images or words, it is called surrealism and if he envisions an attainable future (Sci-fi or Utopian), again by creating an imaginary world, it is called idealism. On other hand, if he all the way breaks with real world (Rebellion against nature) again using his imaginations, we call it abstract art (Obsession for creativity?). O Yes, you can find a lot of alternative definitions about those fancy terms…. I don’t intend to define, introduce or talk about those arts movements as they are not my specialty. Instead I just wanted to say that we create our “worlds” and then identify ourselves with them and while we share the earth with other organisms but we do not share our “worlds” with any other organism not even with apes. What about all those ape-making of mankind? Well frankly, there is no doubt that there are strong correlations biologically but culturally, I don’t see any correlation and all those generalizations do not make sense at all..

It is not just apes that have no share in the “worlds” created by mankind but humans have created “worlds” that keep them apart from each other. How one sees these “worlds” depends on what one wants out of them. Let me give you some examples; if you are Samuel Huntington, interesting in selling a big project for global hegemony then you will see it as “Clash of Civilizations”… If you are King Abduallah of Jordan and is really worried about your throne because of “Arab Spring” then you will see it as “overlapping of cultures” and if you are Mark Pagel, an evolutionist and feeling uneasy that why you can’t find any genetic phylogeny for cultural evolution but still you want to see cultural diversity as something biological and to make it sense in light of evolution, you will say, “Genetically we remain a single species, but culturally we are worlds apart, comparable to dinosaurs, birds and mammals…..”

When I was a little boy, there was a proverb that I was frequently hearing; Shoemakers don’t own a decent pair of shoes, Construction workers don’t own decent housing, Drivers don’t own decent housing, Tailors don’t own decent pairs of dresses, Cooks don’t eat healthy meals and so on… Although this proverb is appearing counterintuitive but it is true at least for one thing and that is for sure… Humans that have unlocked the secrets of the largest thing like Universe that is really hard to have a clear picture of its vastness and size even imaginary and the smallest particles like subatomic particles that require cyclotrons to detect…. have not yet unlocked their own “intelligence”… Human intelligence is conscious of itself but it is not sure of its origin and how its operates (despite of a lot of generalizations, it is still a mystery)..
MRI scans produce images of blood flows in a live brain but it can’t explain and able to find a mechanism for mechanization of human intelligence. Even there are great debates between Philosophers, psychologists and neurologist about such aspect of human intelligence like “free will”. Does it exist or it is just a “fantasy” based on which human have created their “real worlds” (legal systems; doesn’t matter the source or the way it is created)… That is exactly like a construction worker who works at giant construction projects but can’t build his own house….

But who cares about the origin and nature of “intelligence” as long as it is available all the time and free of costs and we can use it to uncover or construct things of interests… As long as we can create “worlds” without knowing the origins and how it really works then we will value the concepts of “wrong” and “right” (constructed concepts) over what things really are… and as long as we value very high the definitive/constructed concepts, we would continue to seek supremacy of our values over others’ values and continue to take interest in battle of Titans…

Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan

Reading Chinese Machiavelli

Unlike all major ancient civilizations that had become part of history, Chinese civilization is the only one which went through all historical stages without any fall. The continuity of Chinese civilization is a challenge to generalized historical theories of rise and fall of civilizations. In fact Chinese civilization has all characteristics and characters of any ancient civilization. Guess what? it has also my favorite character, "Socrates". Socrates was a revolutionary figure in ancient Greek Philosophy as he turned the practice of Sophism into discipline of Philosophy. While mentioning Socrates, it is a matter of interest to note that it was Socrates' students who turned to evolve the single handed movement of their teacher into a successful "intellectual revolution" by setting up schools such as Academia by Plato in first generation and Lyceum by Aristotle in second generation.

So what we know about Socrates comes through the writings of his students especially through "Republic" of Plato that includes sketches about life, personality and dialogues of Socrates. It might be a matter of amusement to note that an identical picture comes from China. The 'Analects of Confucius" is equivalent to the "Republic" of Plato and is not written by Confucius himself but by his disciples. Although, there is a contrast between Socrates' life styles and circumstances, interests and even practices but their roles are almost similar in their respective civilizations and to me Confucius is Chinese Socrates. Confucius is well known both in East and West and his philosophy has been practiced not only in China but also in neighboring countries, what we know as East Asian countries....

If I have to grandly classify the world based on their philosophies, I would say historically there are three geo-philosophical regions (These regions are distinct in their philosophies),

Spiritual East, that includes, North Africa, Middle East, South and Central Asia, Practical Far-East that includes Eastern Asian Nations and Idealist West that include western nations...

Although Chinese philosophy has not the taste of spiritualism and idealism but its practicality makes it palatable to common instincts.

When one looks for a practical Philosopher in the Western world, Machiavelli is the most likely name to come first in his mind. Because Machiavelli's practical philosophy does not fit very well to idealistic Western Philosophy and Spiritual Eastern Philosophy so he is looked upon as a philosopher of ruling class and Machiavelli himself was looking to himself in the same way and it is perhaps why he was named his most famous book, "The Prince"... If you are familiar with Machiavelli then Sun Tzu is not an alien to you except that Sun Tzu is taller in practicality than Machiavelli..

As globalization pushing the nations closer to each other, we see the inertia in the form of new conflicts and new means of competitions to increase the spheres of influences. It is quite predictable that fear of losing is by-product of this globalization inertia. If the East is scared of decline in spirituality, the West is worried about scrambling of idealism. Even layman can sense the ad hoc responses to current challenges. While Eastern and Western Philosophies are just looking into cultural aspects of conflicts, the Sun Tzu tells us why certain regions of world are land of conflicts.. Why certain places and people faces uninvited wars and conflicts again and again?

Following is a documentary about Sun Tzu's book, "The Art of War". While, I am not interested in war but I believe that in order to understand Peace, one needs to understand war and conflicts. It is necessary to understand why certain people are victims of conflicts and why certain people are interested in war instead of Peace....
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The illusion of Power

Here I am reading the two different opinions from two close generations on the same subject, decline and transformation. Professor Joseph Nye in his article, “What is wrong with transformational leadership?” compares era of Clinton to those of Bush Junior’s era and blames Bush for ignoring reality in favor of changing it but on other hand expresses satisfaction on the power of current institutions. Umair Haque a representative of current generation in his article, “The Economic Roots of Your Life Crisis” does not blame leaders but the decline of the institutions for general “disorientations of current generation”.

Well, I am not in mood of taking sides but for me, it is really interesting to see the differences of opinions in two neighboring generations. Looking to the nature of general decline both in terms of governance and economics that is global in its nature, it would be unfair to blame individuals who were more of products of those institutions. I am reading Professor Nye’s article for long and I have noticed a big shift in his position from advocating the projection of “smart power” to currently more focusing on “leadership”. By having a look to the lists of his current articles, “When Women Lead”, “Angela Merkel’s Vision Thing”, “Charisma We Believe in” and now “What is Wrong with Transformational Leadership”, I feel that he is seeing the problem with “leadership” instead of his proposed “smart power” and still looking for some charismatic and smart leader for successful execution and strong comeback of his “smart power” (In Mideast, the goal is "smart power"......"Smart Power" ).

To me, power is the biggest illusion that people get from fall or failures of others. After collapse of Soviet Union, there were a big shift in balance of power on the world’s theatre but instead of seeing the resulting chaos, the “generation” who was involved in the struggle against Soviet Union got an illusion of power. That is a common symptom both in West and East, particularly in Pakistan that was frontline state in struggle against Soviet Union. Like Professor Nye, the Pakistani generation that was involved in struggle against Soviet Union, got an illusion of power and instead of seeing the mess they had created during their “Holy Struggle” both in Pakistani institutions and society, they tried to project their “power” to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Guess what was the “Power”? Of course, it was not something secret and mysterious. The power that was the fruit of two decades of struggle was Taliban and religious extremists groups. After two decades of projection of “Taliban Power”, the toll of destruction to Pakistani institutions and society is unimaginable. Tolerance, trust and confidence are things almost missing in the society. How our “Power generation” expect from current generation to not be disoriented? This is lost generations who have the problem of wasting too much time in understanding their situations, society and governing institutions than learning and inventing time. The time they spend wandering about their situations and governing institution is not only wasted but also waste them. This is a generation that is lost in waste. It is really unfortunate that instead of rethinking institutions, the politicians are blamed. Despite of all these, I see a hot pursuit for “Charismatic and Strong Leadership” to bring changes to Pakistan.

Let me dare to say, “Sorry, with decline of most institutions, any charismatic leadership will be just a memorable failure”. It is not time for hunting a leadership but “leaderships in all spheres” and serious rethinking about the restructuring of institutions. There is still time to come out of “illusion of power” and correcting others but instead it is time for “correcting self” and that is more of an urgency call.

As a member of current generation, I walk in same shoes as Umair Haque walks. It doesn’t fit and it hurts walking so “you” can’t blame me for not walking well while it hurts. Our problem is that change has already come (May be through technology) but we still want to forcefully resist it. Let’ see if change will force us to go for change or we will be saved just by continuing to look for a “Charismatic Leader” and blaming failed leaders for the mess.

World's Oldest Fossilised Forest Unearthed in NY

Don Tapscott on Internet and innovation

"I don't think, it is just recession, I think, it is punctuation. We are going from something old to something new".... Don Tapscott....

The Future of Work 2.0

It still scares me….

I was cold. My hands were almost frozen and it was getting hard to keep breathing as my nose was running. Running nose was making breathing miserable but my both hands were busy in steering my kite and I had no time for blowing my nose or rubbing my palms together to give them some heat out of friction. The only thing that I was caring was my kite. The wind was blowing at a good pace and my kite was flying high of all time. I was not sure if I could make it again so I just wanted to keep it high as long as I could. Despite my lust for flying kites, I was rarely successful to fly it as high. I was trying hard to learn the secrets of hobby so I was listening to everyone who had a say about it and was trying them but almost all of my efforts were ending in despair. I was so envious of my uncle’s skills (if it happens that you read this, please make a good kite for me, hehehe, as I still believe in your ingenious skills..). To me, he was a genius as he was making very handy and beautiful kites out of scratches. All he needed was bamboo spines, a plastic shopper bag and thread, not even a scissor as he was cutting plastic with thread.

That evening, it was one of my rarest times and it was so delicious that I didn’t realize that it was getting dark. Then I heard someone calling me. I think, I heard my name twice. I looked back but nobody was there. In fact, the whole ground was empty. I got so scared that I left my kite and thread in place and just started running to home. When I reached home it was already dark and I was no more cold as I had run nonstop, may be for more than 20 minutes. The reason that I got scared was not the empty ground and calling of my name by a ghost (or just out of my head) but the ground itself. I heard that before partition of India-Pakistan, this ground was used for open air cremation. More than that was the scary stories of elders that were making this place scarier after dark. One of the stories goes like,

(A retired old man); at those times, most of current Alamdar Road was unpaved. I was returning from duty (government job) on bicycle. It was dark, silent and there was nobody around. For me it was routine. Then I see a beautiful white baby goat playing and jumping around my bicycle. It was so beautiful and tempting that I couldn’t resist but to go and grab this baby goat. As I picked it up, I felt as its limbs are lengthening and it is becoming heavy and it is laughing with the sound of a woman. I tried to throw it but I failed. The only thing that I remember was fainting and falling on the ground. When I woke up, it was dawn and I was on the ground with no one around…

For a child it was enough to know that his city was totally destroyed in 1935 earthquake, in which estimated 30,000-60,000 residents died. The spirits of those who died must be roaming around but this ground was even scarier as no one knew for how long it was used for open air cremation. I think, the stories that then I was reading about dark roaming spirits had added to my superstitions. The thought of thousands of spirits roaming in the city after dark was enough to scare me. Whatever, it was just spirits and ghostly creatures that I was scared of and of course only after dark. I never thought that there will come times that I no more fear any ghost or spirit but devil-men who claim to stand for religion or civilization.



It is again March but that March was really a dark March. On March 2nd, 2004, long after I had forgotten my childish fears of ghosts I witnessed for the first time what devils are and how they go for cannibalism. I was in Ashura procession like every year. Around 1;12 PM, suddenly two blasts occurred and intense firing followed. Nobody had an idea that what was happening and then I saw the wounded and dead bodies coming in. It was a total chaos. What I may never forget was a dead 10-11 years old boy. His face was undamaged but his back-skull was missing and the skull was empty. Two persons were carrying him and his forehead was moving in and out as they were running. Though there were people with missing legs and open stomachs but that child, Ah, I just can’t forget. His innocent face and his empty skull still come to me as great pain. There were mostly children in front of procession and they were the first victims of firing and suicide attack. More than 56 people died on that day. It was first time that I realized, it is not dead-ghosts roaming around in dark that are scary but devil-men who roam around in day light who eat live people. Frankly, anybody, no matter who he is and what he stands for when talks about war; he doesn’t look to me as human but a devil. I would love to be scared of ghosts but I think, the devils snatched that innocence even from children. I can just wish that children continue to get scared of ghosts than devils. When I watch talks of war, I just think about those children who are now scared of ghosts but soon going to get scared of devils instead and that thought STILL SCARES ME….

The need for a Second Culture

“Genetically we remain a single species, but culturally we are worlds apart, comparable to dinosaurs, birds and mammals.” Mark Pagel... Pagel's cultural speciation seems more valid when the concept of "clash of civilizations" doesn't stay a mere a theory but a reality...

Whether you are a rationalist who sees the world through the eyes of logic and Philosophy or a believer in one merciful God or worship idols, you can't claim that you do not belong to a history of men that were/are believing in their cultural superiority and have been involved in eradication of rival cultures in order to spread their own... It seems that the destruction and conversion of civilizations is a universal process across religions, cultures and times. We find the evidences in ancient world, Medieval ages and witness their continuation in our modern age.

Alexander "the great" was the pupil of logic's father and a great philosopher of all time, Aristotle. Aristotle tutored Alexander to fulfill the dream of his teacher, Plato for a "Philosopher King". The "Philosopher King" had a "Philosophical mission" and that was Hellenization (in other word to spread the culture of philosophy) of the world.

Alexander the great destroyed the Persepolis to ground while he was building new cities like that of Alexandria throughout of his expanding empire. It seems that the sole reason for his destruction of Persepolis was that of rivalry among civilizations. He was looking to Persian civilization as an obstacle to his project of Hellenization of world...


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Although Hellenization of world was not lasted long but the world didn't cease to repeat the same sort of efforts. Ottomans after capturing the last city of Byzantine empire, converted its jewel church, the Hagia Sophia Church to Aya Sophia Mosque in an effort of Islamization of Byzantine empire. Islamization of conquered territories was identical to Alexander's project of Hellenization of the world.


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The re-christianization of Muslim Spain cities was no different than the Islamization of Ottomans and the continuation of the same phenomenon as those of Alexander and Ottomans... the conversion of Civilizations...


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One may argue that those events were happening in a time period of human history that human history were merely the story of emperors. So they were more of battles of emperors than clash of civilizations. So, lets come to our times and go to the biggest democratic country, India. The demolition of historic Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India was another act of eradication of a history or conversion of civilization in a democratic society.


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And of course, religious fanatics who left their brains in history are determined to roll back all civilizations. The destruction of Buddha of Bamiyan by Taliban was just a trailer of their project will proceed and what their world will look like..



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Wait, as we have the seed for a future clash. This process is not doing end as the controversial status of Jerusalem and prediction of Armageddon over Jerusalem is popular among Jews, Christians and Muslims.... It is just the matter of time when the followers these three Abrahamic religions go for a large scale clashes..



Looking to all these examples, I am compelled to think that overtaking of civilizations is not mere products of teaching but deeply embedded in our "second nature". What does it mean? That means that our "second nature" was born and grown up with us as we were born and grown up in our particular cultures.

While, I understand the need for preservation and promotion of our primary cultures (cultures that we have inherited and are the source of our identity) but in order to bridge the gaps and reduce conflicts we need a second culture, a culture common to all human being. Human Rights' thirty articles are accepted and endorsed by all nations and provides a framework and values system for our second culture. Unfortunately, there is no arts, movies, stories and other forms of cultural products to make this a reality. I don't know, how much my appeal goes but at least I voice for it...

The Peaks?

If you know about Magnetotactic Bacteria, then you know that these bacteria live in the Oxic-anoxic zone in the sediments and to find favorable environments, they use magnetic field lines of Earth to locate themselves and find directions. If you live in sediments, it would be hard to know whether you are going up, down or any other direction so these bacteria have evolved to convert dissolved iron compounds into magnetite and store them in their magnetostomes which are used as magnetic needles like those in compasses used in orientation and finding directions. The Oxic-anoxic zone in sediments change frequently by cycle of water, seasons and influx of sediments so these bacteria need to move in order to survive...Here is a video of magnetotactic bacteria responding to changing magnetic field...(One point that I wanted you to note is the migration of whole colony by shifting magnetic field... That fits from very simple unicellular organism like those of bacteria to very complex ones like those of human... Our needs are like magnet...If there happens a big change in sphere of needs then the mass migrations are inevitable)



Unlike bacteria that respond to changing environments, humans are smart creatures and change their environments to their needs BUT it is not ideal either...In the process of changing the environments, they create new dependencies. Gold and Oil is not part of essential commodities for survival but by creating complex societies and machines to run them we are now dependent on these precious commodities.

Human populations have responded to each big breakthrough in technological, economical and social developments and have increased to reach 6 billion. Of course, this number is going to increase. It is logical to think that as population increase, the rate of consumption also increase. Until now, as the consumption has increased so is the production. That means we are living in good times. There are some ecological migrations but the still most of the migrants are those of war migrants and economical migrants and this might made this look natural to see most of efforts are linked with political and economical concerns....

There are some people who are alarming us that these good times (A balance between consumption and Production) might not go forever. Some of commodities are limited and non-renewable so expecting to increase in their production forever is not logical and they predict a peak for production beyond which the productions won't be able to meet the supply demand...

Hubbert peak oil plot

The concept of Oil Peak was there since 60s but now we are hearing about "Peak Gold".

Peak Gold might not be as serious as Peak oil but still it would affect the way people think of economy and their personal savings. My concern is not whether Peak oil or Peak gold are real or myths but of coming more Peaks. Perhaps our next talks be about "Peak Food", "Peak Fresh Water", "Peak Land" and so forth. Although human have faced famines and other ecological disasters in past but in global world where interdependence are rapidly growing, the ecological disasters and migrations are something totally new that yet we may have to discover their scales and impacts....

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Peak Oil



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Peak Gold



This report belongs to 2009 but still it shows the renewed interest in gold. If we really have reached Peak Gold then gold will be the next big player in social stratification assuming that the prices will continue to climb up, especially in societies where Gold is an important part of social events (especially marriages)

A family that taught me what to read

On Monday, my youngest brother (who is an eighth grader) came on skype to consult me about his current endeavors. He was asking me, how he can become a good software engineer and a good writer? I recommended him some of my favorite writers, Chekhov, Dostoevsky and Oscar Wilde and told him stories of Mark Zuckerberg (The founder of Facebook), Steve Jobs (Founder of Apple), Bill Gates (Founder of Microsoft) and Niklas Zennström (Founder of Skype). We exchanged ideas on how to do things and what to expect and what to not and so forth. After we are done with our conversations, I felt a little bit envious of him as he has access to internet and elder brothers that he consults.

When I was an eighth grader, I was maintaining a thick encyclopedic diary that had my aphorismatic expressions (Uncle Nietzsche), schemes of new plays (Good idea; if you can’t compete in existing plays then why not to create new ones? …But frankly, it was more an effort to have more useful plays than cricket), designs for their outfits and play grounds, exterior architectures of buildings that I liked to build someday (heheheh), List of problems of our society and my suggested solutions (how naïve), notes of medicinal plants, chemical properties of some compounds of interests, thinking strategies, some characters (I was always failing to balance the body parts and my characters were closer to beasts to than what I was imagining them to appear on paper) and stories based on them (loved to watch cartoons and wanted to write my own comic books) and of course my Philosophical constructions (Yeah, Uncle Socrates were very thoughtful on those days…hehehe)…. Though I had an encyclopedic diary that I was regularly and passionately updating but to others it was just a sketchbook of a kid and there was nobody to tell me, what to do and where to go… I was a curious but disoriented school boy…. The books were scarce and my pocket was empty. There was just a burning curiosity and a passionate learner and his only guidance was the story of Bernard Shaw that his uncle told him (My uncle was my class fellow and we are almost of same age). The story goes,

George Bernard Shaw hated formal education so he had not proper formal education. One day he was crossing a street and found a piece of newspaper. Just out of curirosity he picked it up and started reading the story on it. As it was only a torn off part of newspaper, he could not finish the story but the story touched him so much that wanted to learn about rest of the story. He started going to libraries and reading books to find the rest of story. Although he didn’t find the missing part of the story but in the process of looking for it he read so much that he became a learned person and a known writer….

I don’t know, how much of this story is real as I had only heard of it but it was always at top of my mind and I was reading everything I had access to but there wasn’t enough books to read…. I still remember the first fat story book that I read. I was so happy that I read a book. My grand Ma shifted to a new house and there was a college girl that had some story books. It was there that I read my first fat story book. Before that I had access to magazines, thin booklets for children that either I was buying from bookstore or was borrowing from school library. There was a bookstore with some thick books on its shelves and one of the books was “Shahnama Firdosi”. I was looking to its beautifully decorated cover with images of legendary Rostam and was wishing for a day I would be able to buy this book…

When our school received new books, I was so excited that I was not missing any spare to read them and even was using class time to read them. To hide from teachers I was putting book on my lap under desk to read them in class (Greed never dies..still, I get that much greedy if something excites me).

If the confessions of Gandhi about his youth let me to have more humanistic view about “great men”, the stories of Avicenna, Jabir Bin Hayan, Ibn Battuta and an European Astronomer that I don’t remember his name excited and allowed me to enter into the world of real characters than story characters that until that time was known to me. One of the books was about a Persian doctor who goes to India to learn medicine and meets a Persian girl there, falls in love with her, marries her but she becomes sick and dies. When doctor sees that his medicine fails to save the life of his lover, he abandons medicine and turns to spiritualism. This story was so touching that I decided that I am not going to fall in love with any girl (hehehe.. A kid grows just to undo his childish decisions…hehehehe) ….

In 1989, my father built his own house and we moved from Grand Pa’s house to our house. This shifting brought new opportunities for me. It was far from city so I was getting more pocket money to go on bus and also there weren’t many shops so I had more money in my pocket. I was able to buy second hand books and exchange mine with those of my uncle… Soon there was a small library at our town managed by one of our schoolmate and then I got membership of Provincial library and this changed my life as I had access to real knowledge (Big fat books with big names on their covers)

But the biggest paradigm shift in my thinking came from a refugee family. In summer of 1998, Taliban captured Mazar-i-Sharif and massacred the local Hazara population. A large number of survivals escaped to neighboring countries. As our city is close to Afghanistan, a large number of survivals took refuge there. There were families who were staying in mosques and had no place to move. People were trying to accommodate them. We had a small multi-purpose extra room and one of the families moved in. There were 7 members in the family, a dark tanned, skinny father, a tall skinny mother, three daughters and two sons the eldest and second youngest. The father was sick and barely able to walk and they had nothing to live on.

I was always amazed that how this family of seven was managing to live in that small room? Seven people could sit there but it had not enough space for seven people to sleep there. His eldest son started working in a shoe workshop with hundred rupees per week as “wage”. The two girls who may be 13 or 14 years old (I am guessing) were doing embroidery works with their mother, again for few hundred rupees per scarf. They were sitting all day doing embroidery and were able to finish a scarf in few days to earn a few hundred rupees. The father was very sick but still he was going to bring the hard firewood to make benches. In my whole life, I have never seen such a determination and skill. A sick man just with three hand tools were sawing and carving benches out of such hardwood that strong baker workers can just think of cutting them in large pieces for fire. Later on, he became so sick that he wasn’t able to sit and even go to washroom and was lying in that small room.

What was really shocking for all of us that in two years that they lived in our house, we never seen them a drop of tear in their eyes, a sign of grief or worry or any complain. When they were out, they were neat, smiley and talkative but no talk of pain or their difficulties. Though we were aware that they were in trouble but we could not figure out what they eat, how they eat or when eat or even if they go hungry. Even the youngest daughter who was only 4 or 5 years old was behaving so maturely and with dignity that other children of her age could hardly do. This family even changed our behaviors and thinking about life. From one side we were seeing the wealthy families’ favorite talks are complaining and backbiting and here was a family who was so dignified that were facing misfortunes of life in such a dignity and bravery that was almost idealistic (At least I can’t do it even now).

They had earned so much of our respect that we were very careful in our interactions to not offend them even unintentionally. My father knew some organizations that were helping poor families but the problem was how to reach them to not offend this dignified family. My mother talked to them and they finally accepted to get their father hospitalized and get treated by the charity organization but it was too late. Their father had stomach cancer and died in hospital. I still remember that time when the body of their father was brought in, I felt as my heart was ripped off. How could life be so cruel to such nice people? But they were calm and didn’t show any signs of discomfort. I was sure that they had mourned in their small room (out of sights of others) but in front of people they showed no symptoms of grief.

Until that time, I was aware of characters in stories of Russian writers who had hard times but those characters were noisy and complaining about their lives and here I was seeing everyday a family who were facing tragedy after tragedy but facing life with such a dignity that left me envious of such self-restraint and resilience forever.

It was first time that I felt, I was mistaken for so long that I was looking knowledge in books. The human around us with their life perspectives are open books. I was just needed to study them and learn. I am really thankful to that family that changed my perspective. Believe it or not, fat books no more excite me and I am no more piling up books. Whenever, I have hard time, I just remember that family and get enough to overcome over my emotions. Yes, I still spend a large part of my time reading but my real inspirations come from live people….