PERFECT SYMMETRY

            A couple of weeks ago, as I was struggling to sleep I turned on my TV hoping for some thing that would either entertain or sedate me. Apparently 2:30am is prime time for televangelists. I always thought there was something sinister about televangelists (regardless of religion). They are way too nice … It gets to the point that it becomes unnatural and artificial. Anyway, one show had this woman promoting a self-help book. Needless to say, I was not about to take anything that this lady is going to say seriously. Anyway, the secret to living happily, according to this book, is “to live out of control”. When I heard that, I got slightly interested. You usually do not hear these things from people of faith. What she meant by this is that unhappiness originates from our inability to control our lives (the people, the events, the outcome, etc.). Therefore, in order to be truly happy we have to stop trying to control things… let things be … and put our trust in God. God will make things workout in one way or another. Of course, it was not too long before the show host interrupted her to make sure that she clarifies that she still believes that there are certain aspects of our lives that we have to control in order to please God.

            I have not really thought of this until today as I was planning out the projects for my PhD dissertation. I was obsessed with control. I wanted to make sure that everything was going to work the way I intended it. And if it does not work, I want to know how I am going to deal with it. Everything has to be under my control. I think that the motivation behind such behavior is the doubt that I feel about the direction that I am taking in my life (doubts that have already turned into fears).

I took a break from my work and thought about this … and decided to let it all go. Things will work themselves out.

            I have not examined my faith in a long time. As my faith deteriorated over the years, I knowingly retained some aspects of it that I thought were of significance (i.e. social philosophy). One aspect that has been with me all along is my belief that God was guiding me with his own way. It always brought comfort to me knowing that there is something out there looking after me. So why worry?

It sounds funny when a secular ‘atheist’ says this … But …

It’s all in God’s hands.

This piece is lengthy … but it is powerful.

(Courtesy of WAWA blog)

Prophets on Apartheid: Part 1

http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=631&Itemid=176

Prophets on Apartheid: Part 2

http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=632&Itemid=176

I will need to find the time to write about the tragedy of Hebron someday …

Here is a piece that I came across today …

http://time-blog.com/middle_east/2008/07/a_south_african_in_hebron.html

“To me, what I saw in Hebron defiles the memory of the Holocaust and the name of Judaism” In a way this statement describes everything I feel about the practices of Israel.

“…That famous phrase: “Never Again”, was never just about the Jews. It was about all of humanity.” How true!

I picked up this story from the Angry Arab blog (angryarab.blogspot.com) … However, it passed without much discussion.

Yesterday (July 10^th), the Al-Arabiya* main page had a sidebar showing the most popular stories on the site … this is the translation … 

Most Read: British woman on trial after having sex on Dubai beach

Most Discussed : British woman on trial after having sex on Dubai beach

Most Bookmarked: British woman on trial after having sex on Dubai beach

Most E-mailed: British woman on trial after having sex on Dubai beach

Arabs (especially Al-Arabiya Arabs) are not obsessed with sex … what are you talking about??!!

Ohh … And if you are a sex-crazed Arab … here is the original story …

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jul/09/middleeast

 
*This is a Saudi-financed “news” station … that was created to challenge the Qatari-financed Aljazeera … Qatar and Saudi Arabia are not on good terms … so they fight through news channels … Al-Arabiya’s coverage is similar to Fox news coverage… you know …“fair and balanced”!
It’s mainly U.S. and western propaganda.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/07/10/newton.yemen.child.bride.cnn

I was surprised that CNN did not follow the trend of blaming this on Islam (like all other western news outlets that covered this story). The culture is to blame here for letting something like this happen. Yemen’s tribal population (mainly males) is addicted to Khat – a drug that induces excitement and euphoria. For that reason, I am not surprised that so many similar stories are coming out of Yemen. Stories like these have to be put in a cultural and social context to be understood and dealt with appropriately.

I bet Ayaan Hirsi Ali started babbling on and on about how evil Islam is when she heard of this story. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a racist fear-monger that has been a victim of CULTURAL abuse in Somalia. But instead of blaming it on the culture of Central Africa, she is blaming Islam and all 1.2 billion Moslems of the world. If this is not racism, I don’t know what is.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Wikipedia … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayaan_Hirsi_Ali ...It’s ok to be racist when it comes to Islam … all the cool kids are doing it.

On a final note, Nujood Ali, the child in the video, is a wonderful character. I will be keeping an eye on her story (I have a feeling that it is not over). A girl with this amazing mentality can do so much if educated. But I am worried that her society will fail her again. Her courageous and confrontational spirit might be exactly what the women of Yemen need.

Today is the 13^th anniversary for the Srebrenica genocide – one of the most gruesome atrocities in modern history. On July 11^th 1995, Serbian troops occupied the town of Srebrenica (inhabitants mainly Moslem Bosniaks ), and systematically killed men and boys.

This morning, the burial of hundreds of victims was done after DNA identification of their remains. Their families can finally find some peace.

The sad thing is that such atrocities will happen again! The UN and The Hague courts are not enough … they are not independent, and are manipulated by the same countries that are committing these acts. The US will never be tried for their massacres in Iraq, Russia will not be held responsible for its massacres in Chechnya. Israel will not be held responsible for the massacres of 1948, 1967, 1982, 1996, 2003, 2006 …..

This is going to be hilarious … The movie is still untitled … It should be out by the summer of 2009.

http://www.forward.com/article/13679/

            There were two main engagements on day 2. The first one was titled “Polished Sabers Dazzling in the Sun”. It was the third biggest cavalry battle of the civil war. General Stuart of the confederacy facing General Gregg of the union. The reenactment was great. They had a bout 250 horses on the field. The battle consisted of charges and countercharges executed with strategic perfection.

            The second engagement was later that day, it was titled “Hold the Line”. There were more than 15,000 re-enactors on the field. It was big. The actual battle involved the III corps (about 10,000 men) led by General Sickles and a good portion of Longstreet’s corps. The Union III corps was rendered ineffective after this. They sustained heavy causalities - about 40% of their strength. The south would have won Gettysburg if they capitalized on this victory, and took little round top.

            Seeing the actual battlefield was the highlight of the visit. We started the tour from the south close to big round top. We went up a small hill around that area to investigate a monument that was on top. It was where the 20^th Maine made their famous stand to protect the union’s left flank. It was a well preserved site … there was a low wall (several rocks high) that made a shape of a hook. Standing and looking down I felt that I was there in the middle of it all … It was a well protected site … any attacking army would have had a very hard time taking this position. It must have been a blood bath.

            I think that’s it …

Listening to
Faithful By Pearl Jam
Present Tense By Pearl Jam
When the World Ends By DMB
Black By Pearl Jam
Light Years By Pearl Jam

I returned from Gettysburg late last night. I watched the reenactments of the second day’s engagements. I also visited the actual battlefield, which was much bigger than what I imagined.
About a year ago, I got introduced to the American Civil War though the book “The Killer Angels”. For some reason this war, captured my imagination. I can probably conceptualize this interest in two main points:

-Warfare strategy: I thought it was outrageous how war was waged at that time. People died from diseases that could have been easily cured. Medical technology could not keep up with the weapons (death technology). Amputations were the only option in most cases (Ironically, they only had a 15-20% success rate). People died for no good reason. They stood in disciplined lines … waiting for their death. I wonder what the survival rate was for the people who were made to stand in the front lines … it must have been a death sentence. This war could have been waged differently … more humanely.

-Self determination: This might sound shocking … but I sympathize with the southern cause. The way I see it, people have the right to self determination. They have the right to do what they want. The will of governments are insignificant in front of the will of the people. Breaking away from the union was the right of every state. They were paying taxes to a government that they thought did not represent them. Of course this argument has no merit when slavery is put in the picture. If Whites have the right to self-determination … then blacks have the right to self-determination as well. The reason why I made the argument for the south earlier is due to the fact that the union was not fighting to end slavery. It was a government that is trying to maintain its territorial integrity (China with Tibet? Russia with Chechnya?). The north was as racist as the south … it took about 100 years after the civil war for blacks to be able to use the same bathrooms as the white men who “freed them”. The union was hypocritical, the south was not. Hypocrisy and insincerity are worse than being wrong.

“Smart People Do Smart Experiments”

This statement might sound intuitive, but it is not. When Dr. Keil (a really smart yeast geneticist) mentioned these words on my first day as a graduate student, I got inspired. I did not know why. These words implied something that I found very soothing.

Earlier today, I was thinking about this and realized what it actually meant to me. Science is an art! It is a reflection of someone’s self. The same way a painting is a reflection of who painted it, or music is a reflection of who composed it.

Smart people do smart experiment. Stupid people do stupid experiments. Sloppy people do sloppy experiment. Cautious people do cautious experiments. Like I said, this sounds intuitive … but it is not. Science is more about the scientist than anything else. Medicine is more about the accumulated knowledge than the individual doctor. After all, a doctor without the knowledge is not a good doctor. On the other hand, scientists without a complete (or true) understanding of their fields can still be good scientists.

If you put two scientists together in the same room and ask them to tackle the same problem, it would be very unlikely for both to come up with the same solution. Their solution is a reflection of who they are, what they know; and the experiences they had.