Human Face of War

These days, the talks of war are all over the news channels. Both sides claim fighting against evil and calling it their responsibility to save civilians, but the fact is that, it is a power struggle of those who are already in power. We live in an era that public opinion matters and nothing is more appealing to public opinion than humanitarian aspect of a campaign. What is coming from syria are the pictures of destroyed cities and disfigured human bodies and of course, humanitarian aid is needed. Unfortunately, instead of aid and forcing both sides of war to negotiating table, there are talks of expansion of the war under pretext of humanitarian intervention. We can expect to see soon larger scales of the current pictures that are coming from Syria.

I have difficulty to determine what is the relation of honor and savagery but at times of war, those who are louder in their claims of honor, greater are their shows of horror. If honor is having conscience then there is no honor in any war, as conscience is the first casualty of war. I am sure, most people are sad about the ongoing civil war in Syria and the intensity of this sadness will increase, if God forbid, this war expands to bring in big powers, but I get surprised for those who are getting excited, as if they wish to see the homes of Syrian people turn into dust and their bodies go into fumes. May be, I am unrealistic (no time in history was a time of peace) and that is why, I tried to be realistic and tried to see if war has a human face. I painted an Asian woman face (women are considered as symbol of beauty and peace and Asians are at the moment most peaceful people). I don't know, if it means anything to the affected people and how realistic it is to ignore the ugly faces of war but I dedicate this paint to all those who are suffering and will suffer from this war. This is all I can do for them :(  

Change

Write It

I kill most of ideas despite of great urge to write them down, simply because of bad-timing or lack of proper way for expressing them. I could overcome both of these problems, if I had a way to not speak my mind directly. But I am not that skillful. I just pour out the words that are on top of my mind, hoping that others can infer what I mean but that is a wrong expectation at my end. I am not blaming the language for my shortcoming, instead, I get comfort when I read that, even skillful writers had problems with language:

"Eugene O'Neill was an American dramatist, ....while, in Europe, O'Neill, received a cable on behalf of Jean Harlow, explaining that Miss Harlow wanted her best available American dramatist to write a screen play for her. Would O'Neill please cable back, collect, confining his answer to twenty words. O'Neill cabled: " No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No O'Neill." - Bowen -

But Jacques Lacan doesn't allow me to be in my comfort zone for long as he tells us that unconscious is not structureless as Freud was suggesting. Instead, it is structured like language. I have trouble digesting this notion, particularly when I consider dreams as a medium of communication between conscious and unconscious mind. Language are structured around verbs, nouns, punctuations etc, but I haven't found anything similar for the dreams. Conscious mind is no doubt structured (we all familiar with those theories out there) and if we take it as reference to compare it with unconscious mind to have an idea of its structuredness (As Lacan is suggesting), we don't see the kind of clues that conscious mind provide us, e.g, identifying patterns, and creating patterns communicable. Language is as a product of conscious mind is the greatest evidence of its structuredness. In comparison, we don't see any such product to communicate our dreams in a meaningful way and that is why we do not take them as our experiences. It becomes more understable when we see that at times even conscious mind becomes hard to be expressed (get blocked: but thank God, that it doesn't require any password, key or things like, otherwise....:)

" Once Robert Benchley had been trying to start a piece but couldn't get it under way, se he went down the corridor to where a poker game was in progress, just to jolt his mind into starting up. Some time  later, he returned to his room, sat down to the clean sheet of paper in the typewriter, and pecked out the word, "The." This, he reasoned, was as safe a start as any, and might possibly break the block. But nothing else came, so he went downstairs and ran into group of Round Table people, with whom he passed a cheerful hour or so. Then, protesting that he had to work, he went back upstairs, where the small, bleak "The" was looking at him out of the expense of yellow paper. He sat down and stared at it for several minutes, then a sudden idea came to him, and he finished the sentence, making it read "The hell with it," and got up and went  happily out for the evening". - Nathaniel Benchley, 1955- 

Spiders

For long, I was battling spiders around my apartment and didn't like the resilience they were showing. Everytime, I see them hanging on their nets waiting for their preys, I was imagining them to be air-fishers. Like fishermen, they constantly repair their nets and wait for their preys and the small insects on their nets appear as trapped fishes. May be, to them, air looks like ocean (the only difference is the proportion of water to air) filled with fishes swimming in them (insects flying in air). Last night, however, I had a change in my thinking and started appreciating them when I saw a very large mummified mosquito in one of the nets. 

The large mummified  mosquito: Since my childhood, I was scared of syringes and now these guys are trying to haunt me but hey, spiders are here, so watch out. You might get mummified :) 

I said, well, spiders is not all that bad that I was thinking. They are older residents of the earth (Their history goes back to 400 million years) and I am a new comer (history of primates goes 80 million years) and now I have to accept that spiders might be more wise than me as scientists have also proved that, "with age really does come wisdom" (Notch...notch.... that is bad news). It was the first direct evidence that spiders actually protecting me from large mosquitos and I have to be in peace with them as sign of my gratitude to their valuable service. I wish, I could have a cap with a large spider net that I could wear at evenings when I go for a walk in the park. I bet, it would keep away mosquitoes who are eager to swarm over my head and force me to listen to their orchestra. 

The Cat

It appears that, at times, writers go wild in their intensity of expressions. At least, I can claim it by R. W. Emerson's following two quotes, "Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting."... Well, I agree that God's handwriting is the most beautiful, but when He writes things that hurt us, we might need to rethink our ideas of beauty. 

Cats are irresistible to some people (some of them are really charming) but to some they are plainly, proud and unpredictable creatures. Unlike cats, flowers are irresistible to all (there might be rare exceptions).  Emerson says, "Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out-values all the utilities of the world."... What if it happens that you like both flowers and cat and one day discover that the flower you brought home has actually killed your cat? The God's handwriting had hurt you but then you learn that it wasn't the fault in God's writings, but your ignorance that caused this tragic event. You find that stargazer lilies that you brought home to add a charm to it was actually poisonous to cats. As I mentioned in the beginning that at times, writers go wild in the intensity of their expressions. Not all beauties are harmless and that is not a misspell in God's writings but an open invitation to learn so that we do not hurt ourselves by our mere ignorance.

Consciousness

Accidental Rediscovery

Tonight, it was full moon. While we were returning from nearby park after our walk and talk evening session, we took a different route to our way back home to have a change. We noticed that frogs had swarmed the walkways. So, we had two different explanations for it. The frogs are frequent in this street because of the closeness of the street to some nearby pool that we aren't aware of (actually, the street is on higher ground than our routine route). The second explanation was, the frogs are frequent because of some sort of connections with full moon. So, the easiest and most convenient way to test our hypotheses was to search, if there were researches in this regard. As soon as I reached home, I googled it and I found this report on BBC (Amphibians mate under full moon). So, it turned out that full moon works as a biological clock for amphibians, just as spring season works as biological clocks for flowering plants. That was an awesome thing to learn and I couldn't stop myself, but to share it. 

The 6th Sense

Nothing makes sense except in the light of origin (more true than biology) and that is why we see the legends of origin everywhere without any exception, folk stories, religions, philosophy and science. Although we hear the claims that it is just in modern time that we have become anthropocentric, but humans were always anthropocentric as they couldn't have any external brains to borrow for their thinking and understanding. It is just the subjects of interests have changed over time. If I make it personal then I can only trace my origin to my childhood (that is as far my memory can take me) and that is where to look back to make sense of everything. The first time, I heard about about sixth sense was from a sufi lecture mystifying it with all those breathing practices. I thought, let it go as it appears something external that comes from inside (hard to make sense of it as I hadn't it since my childhood). But from time to time, I feel (as all others express from time to time) that there things that you can't understand and instead you have to feel them. They might look stupid and you might look out of your senses but they are real. They look stupid because they are beyond common senses and have to be felt. Take for example, a poem that touches your heart. If you look at it, its verses might not be in proper order with no logical connections, but because it syncs with your feelings, you might feel great to read or when you might enjoy listening it. The social norms contain our emotions and since childhood we are reminded everyday, what is accepted expressions of emotions and what are not. That is why emotions are mostly pressed or least expressed part of us (you don't feel comfortable to express them). In other words we trade our originality to the accepted social norms (means we mostly fake ourselves in order just to look normal). The most funny part is that, despite we know it, still we try to press others by constantly reminding them to be in their senses (and so we could assure ourselves that we are good learners of social norms).

So, originally, we get five senses plus emotions that are ASAP contained by everyone around us. But there comes times, when we let these emotions free for brief moments and become truly emotional (brief moments of originality) and those are the moments that we really feel that the sixth sense is not something that comes by sufi practices or breathing exercises (As they appear to be something mythical and are just to impress others. If there was something as sixth sense that everyone should have experienced it somehow. As emotions are something common and looked upon as something dangerous that is needed to be contained, so naturally, it is one of the senses that we do not let to develop and use it). It is already in us and it needs an external force to give you enough courage so you could face, the social pressures of norms and become brave enough to be truly yourself even it is for brief moments. Now, I don't look to sufis for the sixth sense but to artists, poets, actors and writers whose whole work depends on emotions (sorry, 6th sense). These are the group of people who have more originality in others as they have learned it how to master their emotions partially rather than suppressing them.  

I Might Go for Beef Steaks

Now, that beefs are grown in labs and the possibility of mass-production is close enough, the cows might also get the opportunity to enjoy beef steaks... 

Why We Don't Understand Art?

Can you guess, what I am trying to imply in this drawing?

It doesn't surprise us to see a white bear on ice desert of north pole, but it definitely surprise us to see white bears on sandy desert of Sahara. When we visit a zoo, we expect to see animals in the artificial environments, that are close to their natural niches. In contrast, it doesn't surprise us, to find human in any of the environments. Why we don't have any niches as other animals do? Even a school boy can answer that. That is because of our brain. It is the ability of our brain to recognize suitable patterns in any environment and fit in it. An interesting case in how brain is able to find a pattern to difficult problems is the legendary story of Archimedes uncovering of the blacksmith's fraud:

Hiero II, the King of Syracuse, orders a crown to be built of pure gold but when the crown is presented to the king, Hiero suspects that goldsmith has replaced some of the gold in the crown with silver. The king asks Archimedes for help. It was a difficult problem to solve, as it was easy to weigh the crown, but in order to determine the density of gold, Archimedes needed to measure its volume. As crown was in the form of a wreath, it was difficult to determine its volume. Legend has it that when Archimedes stepped into the bath, it caused it overflow. Archimedes notice it and apply this principle to the solve the problem. As gold has a density of 19.3 grams/cubic-centimeter and silver a density of 10.5 grams/cubic-centimeter, the amount of silver mixed into the crown, increases the volume of crown. Now, all Archimedes needed to do was to immerse the crown in a tub and measure how much water was displaced. The volume of displaced water was the volume of the crown. (Archimedes' screw is another interesting example of the ability of brain to solve the problems nature offers) 

The fact is brain faces countless problems on daily basis. The complex nature of communication alone suffices to understand the plasticity and ability of brain in identifying suitable patterns out of complexity and solving the problems so quickly that we don't notice any communication gap. This ability of brain comes from its strategy of simplification. Brain reduce the complexity out there into manageable facts and we can find its extremes in math and science. As Michio Kaku dreams to find the theory of everything that is just one inch long and describes it as, "I want to know how far you can push science until it completely falls apart.".... 

This amazing ability of brain has also a downside. The brain has a habit of clinging to its simplified way of framing something and overtime, this framing is perceived as reality. This is a BIG problem that creates mess. One of good example of this mess is our concepts of "self" and "others". Brain simplify "self" as something that exists independent of others and its interacts with others as independently. If we becomes egoistic at times and do think of ourselves better than others and give ourselves the rights to judge others is because of our misconception of the self based on the habit of brain to simplify everything. The fact is, when one dig deep and deeper into ego, it turns out to be only a mirror of others. The same way that brain simplify "self" as an independent entity with a "freewill", it simplify others as with readily available templates in the form of stereotypes and even simpler it gets when we hate them as it makes things easy to put them in bad category and thinking the world would be a much better place, if they wouldn't exist or if they cease to exist. 

The simplification habit of brain is not just associated with problem solving and deluding our concepts of self and others, but it also lead to duality of reality. While we can find duality in everything but I am more interested in the duality of mind and body as it is the origin of all other duality. As I said earlier, the origin of duality is in the habit of mind to simplify things and we find the irreducible problems of duality in the fields of knowledge that rely in parsimonious simplicity such as math, physics and philosophy (duality-in-math,  duality in physics: Wave-Particle and String-duality, dualism-philosophy) BUT, I see one field doesn't bother about the simplicity much and that is art, either it is copying nature or rebelling against it, in both form, it tries to express (rather than present) reality as it is. These might look more of caricatures of external reality, a time frame or a mental states of artists, but they do not cling to abstract-simplicity and that is why, as much expressive a piece of art becomes, that much it appears meaningless (to simple habit of mind). And that is why, we easily interpret cave arts, but we fail to do it with modern art as our minds get bored with them. 

The Real Alien

Jeune Fille Andormie was painted by Picasso, and I adopted the painting to compare it with a cave painting to illustrate the direction of painting. The journey is a journey inside. The cave-men were inspired and occupied by mysterious nature. To modern men, the nature is no more a mysterious world, but facts that can be expressed by abstract notations and can be predicted to some extend, and also manipulated. However, the human innerself is still a mystery, particularly the "mind" that doesn't have a physical existence as such, and is really frightening and alien in Freudian perspective. The Freudian perspective of mind was the dominant theme in Picasso's painting. I chose Jeune Fille Endormie because of its soft, graceful and smooth stroke to avoid the crude ones (in nutshell a non-Freudian painting of Picasso). The contrast is obvious and illustrate well the direction of painting: the natural mind of primitive cave painter and the Freudian mind of the a modern artist that tries to communicate an alien self.  

I am sure that everyone has some sort of obsession. I don't shy of telling that I have special obsession for Russian short stories and Korea's historical dramas. It is not that I have developed an obsession because, they are enjoyable to read or watch, but rather I see them as soft extensions of the Machiavelli's "The Prince".  Machiavelli's biggest mistake was his utter honesty in describing the nature of men as he perceived and so he lost the grace of "modesty" to the eyes of those who do not like to see any scar on the holiness of men's nature. In contrast to the Machiavelli, the great Russian writers (short stories) and Korean historical drama writers sugar-coat human nature and make them more palatable.

Today, after a very long time, I read one of the short stories, "The Three Girdles" by Vassily Zhukovsky. As soon as I started reading it, I just stuck to it, and like my early teenage times, I devoured it without any break in between (how silly a hungry soul gets: that is what obsession is, right?). Although, the story is more like a folk story, but it beautifully illustrate (may be better to say unravel) an aspect of human nature: the real alien is self that steals one's connection to nature. One has to read the story to appreciate it but, the part that I like most is when she  (It is a story about Ludmila, a good and content-heated girl who is happy with her ordinary appearance, and ordinary life, but a magical gift changes her) torments herself for losing her natural happiness for the dreams she develops from the magic girdle that transforms her charm and beauty and as a result her self-image. Under influence of her self-image, when she looks down to her original appearance (including magic girdle), she loses her charm and hence her improved self-image. She finally gets back her magic girdle and her charm returns back (a happy ending). OK, let's not forget the best part:

"...What happened to the poor, unfortunate, good-hearted Ludmila? She cried, suffered in despair, longed for her hopeless love. Where was her previous happiness; the previous tranquility of her innocent heart?....."

                ... A content-heart is the best guard that one can have, that is what I got from this story....

Wisdom of Body

Nietzsche says, “There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy. ” I agree with him. Once, I visited the museum of modern art and got fed up just in a few minutes...

I love the dark color

Drawing with Q-tips

It is a beautiful night. It is dark and silent and I can smell the peace in it. It makes me realize that eyes are the biggest distraction to the peace. As past and future are noises of mind that distract us from being at the moment, so is the eyes. It brings in so much from outside that we don't find time to see what is inside.

I still remember, the first drawings of mine. They were all about very familiar things, mountains, sun, home, tree, school, sheep, stairs... Subjects remains the same but the taste of colors change. The kids like light and colors to explore the world out there. When things become familiar out there, we find that what we missed in between was ourselves. People say, darkness is the absence of light, but I don't buy it. Just light shifts its place from outside to inside. That is all. Its beauty is in its ability to let everything look alike to your eyes and let you see by your imaginations. Colors let your eyes see and darkness let your imaginations see and that is why, I love it.  

Irrationality

A philosopher and a monk's journey is a journey inside... to explore the self,..... and a scientist's journey is a journey outside... to explore the Nature.... To me, to be really yourself means, to travel like a wave, to go outside now, and to be inside then...and keep going...

It is really interesting (even funny), that how definitions create limits, which doesn't fit with "reality". For example, Noam Chomsky in his interview, Science, Religion and Human Nature, defines "irrationality" as, " The ability to have two contradictory ideas in mind, at same time and live by it. This is the peak of irrationality".  Well, with this definition, I don't see any rational person as to me, irrespective of what people say about what they believe in, and what they don't, practically, they live by "utilitarian rationality".

In practice, people don't care about the duality of mind/body or trichotomy of body, soul and spirit, but instead are concerned with what works best. Just take example of physical well being, modern medicine is popular among atheist and theist. The same is true about yoga. Despite of increasing popularity of evolutionary biology, we don't see the popularity of paleolithic diet on other hand. To further the case for living with multiples ideas at same time, people still turn to religion and philosophy for meaning of life. Although, Philosophy has lost its central place in the quest for truth, but it is still looked upon as source guide for meaning of life, beside religion. And, psychology has still a fear-factor attached to it, though positive psychology is appealing for bright side of psychological studies.

In fact, just like duality of mind and body, we now have duality of perspectives on what it means to be human. For several thousands of years, it was human perspective in the form of the religion and philosophy to look and understand humans through. So, it was all about human contemplation on condition. Humankind was the ultimate purpose of universe. But, by coming of evolutionary biology, we got "Nature's Perspective" on what it means to be human. Humans are just another species of primates, "Homo sapiens sapiens", not the purpose of universe. The appearance of Man is just the result of chances that were favored by Natural Selection. And, this is the extrospective perspective of Humans. Now, if we have an introspective and extrospective perspectives of Humans at same time, and live by it both for practical reasons and as our shared culture, does it mean, we are highly irrational? 

How Can I Doubt My Heart?

At dawn, I checked the day's temperature on my phone, it was reading 22 C, and by midday, it was going to rise up to 32 C (I have yet to familiarize myself to Fahrenheit ). I made my mind to leave early for library so by midday, when I am out of fuel, I could come back home. At bus stop, I met my Muslim neighbor and as conversation started, I told him, what was on my mind, "It is 22 C now and going to be 32 C by midday. It is a bad news in Ramadan." His reply was a usual Muslim's answer, but it really struck me, as I realized that I am actually complaining, "The longer and hotter is the day, the greater is the reward by Allah"... I felt like, if I was a King in ancient Babylon, I would had failed in renewing my rights to throne for the coming year. 

In ancient Babylon, the new year was beginning by a ceremonial ritual to purify the city. The King, as head of the state had to prove himself as a purified person in order to get approval of high priest for next year as ruler: "According to protocol, the king would enter the temple of Marduk, Babylon’s chief god, and tell the god that he hadn't done anything wrong in the last year—for example, slapped the cheek of any of his subjects. The high priest then slapped the king but good; if the king’s eyes teared up from this unjust punishment, he was telling the truth, and Marduk approved him to rule for another year."

Well, usually when one realizes that he is complaining for nothing, one might doubt the sanctity of his heart. Of course, if I was a dead citizen of ancient Egypt, I had to be scared of facing Anubis ( having a human body and the head of a jackal), the first god of death for weighing my heart, as it would prove that I had lived an unjust life (while, in fact, my heart was heavy, because I had lived complaining about troubles that I had faced).

It is month of Ramadan and the month of self-accountability, but I have no way to measure my heart (For that I need Anubis' weighing machine) but what I can tell with certainty, is that I do not have a good heart as  the two teen girls, Malala Yousafzai and Anne Frank has/had.

Anne Frank, the teenage Jewish girl who wrote her diary in hiding and died in the Nazi concentration camp at the age of 15, writes in her diary, "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” This sentence of Anne echoes in my heart, whenever, I doubt someone's heart (for being unfair) or my own heart for being egoistic or judgmental at times. The Malala's (a Pakistani teenage girl who was shot by Taliban for writing a diary for BBC Urdu, detailing her daily experiences during Taliban's control of Swat Valley ) response to Taliban who attacked to kill her is reaffirmation of Anne's belief in people's hearts. She says, "I do not even hate the Talib who shot me. Even if there is a gun in my hand and he stands in front of me, I would not shoot him."

My dedication to these two courageous-innocent hearts 

I can only believe in goodness of human heart, if religion and ideology doesn't change it. Either, it was ancient Babylon, ancient Egypt or Jew or Muslim, a human heart is sacred and remains the same, unless we doubt its existence.

To Victims of Quetta

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

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

The Damn Solution!

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

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

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

Sorry Muhammad Morsi !!!

A twist in the legend

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

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

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

Can I know you ever?

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

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

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

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

The Bus Movement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Experiment With Automated Drawing

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

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

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

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

Does Great Literature Make Us Better?

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

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

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

Opinions make sense only in the light of jokes

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

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

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

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

Let me help you

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

Jokes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What a style, Sir G!!!

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

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

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

"A donkey, Mam" replies the student innocently

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

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

Decency

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. 92 Percent of Ads in Florida Were Negative. 

2. Negative Ads Dominate 2012 Election, Study Shows

The New Pakistan (Naya Pakistan)

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

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

                               Avicenna and Farabi cannot understand this secret."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Election and Identity Cards

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

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

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

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

1. BBC Radio 4; Hazaras, Hatred and Pakistan

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

3. Aaj TV; Whom Hazara community will vote?  

Quetta's changing sense of humor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And he continued,

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

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

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

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