Peace and Harmony is the Doable Alternative...

I was working on a blog post... about global shortage of water and women and children...
Also, I was working on a piece which included prostitution... and the laws that the French Parliament just voted...yesterday.
But, then a student-friend emailed me and my line of thought was diverted... That's why I interrupted my other post- I will post it tomorrow, hopefully- and focussed on my friend's email.
Here it is...

***

Ross, the chaplain at my last teaching post, cautioned me to not comment on everything and anything that comes across... His mantra; "You are allowed..." always solved many problems that could have stirred the cup... and maybe spilled few drops... At times I listened to him quietly... to learn from him... At times I followed him patiently... and avoided many complications... and difficulties that would have poisoned my day... 
I hated when negativity started fuming within me... and the only way I rose out of it was repeating to myself... "You are allowed."
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I do not write this blog to vent my frustrations... I do not write this blog to solve anything... I do not write this blog because I know better than the rest of the people... I do not write this blog to chase people who misspeak... or do not listen... I just write because I want to write... and it makes me think about the world... about social issues... and about people... I just write it because I want to share my way of looking at things with anyone who might be interested... 
Few years ago I had suggested to Ross to make this forum an open debating forum... and invited him to write a weekly thought... He agreed... We began a weekly exchange of ideas... If you want you may go to older posts... and I am sure you will locate the four exchanges between Ross and myself... We did that not because we knew better than anyone else... It was just our ideas and exchanging them was fun for us...
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At one point I did not post anything for few months... and then an intelligent student-friend wrote to me and asked whether I am okay... She was worried that something may have happened to me... She wrote that I should begin posting on the blog again... I thought about it... Then to honour Ross, my chaplain-friend... I agreed to start posting again... Just because it is fun to think about issues... NOT BECAUSE I HAVE SOLUTIONS... At times it is painful to write... After all, the things that happen in the global village are most of the time painful... bombings, torture, beheadings, stoning, hunger, lack of clean water, deforestation, pollution, greed... and chasing profits... It is indeed painful when one reads or encounters these... The global village is absurdly supersaturated with pain... war... famine... disease... sexual abuse... slavery... and child soldiers... and child labour-slavery.
I write to think... and to keep in touch...
I do not write to correct the wrong... to educate people... to point mistakes... That's for people who are full of themselves and think they are infallible... They do not realize that to caste the first stone... is scary... is judgmental... is outright wrong...
So like my friend Ross... I avoid to judge and repeat his golden rule... They are allowed... You are allowed... I am allowed... 
Or,
There are as many right as there are people...
Or,
There is no wrong... ALL OF US ARE RIGHT... and should find the way to live in peace and harmony...
That's why I write... for peace and harmony...

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

My student-friend, the engineer wrote... All of the words in the box below... 

Hello Sir, I've been checking up on your blog the last few days to see what you thought about the BLM [Black Lives Matter] Toronto controversy but haven't seen you write anything about it so maybe you didn't hear/read about it. Anyways, the issue at hand is that the cofounder of the BLM Toronto movement tweeted the following: PLZ Allah, give me the strength not to cuss/kill these men and white folks out here today. plz plz plz ..................................................... First of all, I don't think I'm wrong in saying that the whole movement, albeit grounded for the right reasons, is a joke to say the least and racist if I'm blunt on the topic. Those who support the movement take serious offence if you were to tell them ALL LIVES MATTER instead of BLACK LIVES MATTER. Then you look at the execution of their protests and their activity has been nothing less than barbaric. These recent actions just took it over the top for me.  Their leader is uttering death threats and she is getting away unpunished. Had I said something similar about them for example, I would already be in jail and the BLM movement would be asking for my head. This has been the clearest example yet of them manipulating social perceptions to their benefit, and more specifically abusing their power as so-called untouchables in the realm of discrimination or racism. What's even worse though is that they don't see that as a problem nor do they want to apologize for it. Here are another 2 articles showing just that, one written by a black male named Desmond Cole and another quoting Sandy Hudson (who by the way is in currently in court on charges that she defrauded my university's student union of some $280,000, 10% of the annual budget):

I read your note... and my take is different than yours... I am not angry and I am not fuming... Read carefully again... The lady is not threatening anyone... She is not attempting to intimidate anyone... She is not imposing her perception, point of view, idea, on anyone...

  

She is just praying... Please, please Allah-God-Buddha give me strength so as I will not "cuss/kill"... these men, white folks, any men or women...
Hers is just a plea... a prayer... so as she will have the insight and the strength to avoid violence... To be honest, I discern a Ross-type attitude... give me strength and power... to love and avoid resorting to violence...
Friend,
I do not see any wrong in people praying...
Ross, my friend-chaplain, was a mathematician without numbers and he got it right... 

Student-friend,
You are an engineer... you know how to add and subtract... You know how to do the math... Just read the Black Lives Matter message again... Do not react right away... Take your time and read... and read again... do not judge... just read... and then you will penetrate into her plea... her prayer... my prayer... and maybe our prayer too... God-Allah-Bhudda-all-the-rest-of-them bless us with wisdom so as we will avoid "cuss/kill" and live in PEACE and in HARMONY...
Student-friend,
It is doable... Ross, the chaplain, told me that...

It is Hard... to Kick Against the Goads...

At times are think words are useless... At times I “outgrow” the blog... At times I debate within me...whether “ the pen is mightier than the sword...” At times I rather have a glass of wine than sit at the laptop to write... At times, I remember that "It is hard ... to kick against the goads..." and I almost give up !

But also at times I reminisce my teaching days... and sort of get new energy... and at times tragic acts of stupidity which world leaders demonstrate make me think... and when I read that in some part of the world a person is imprisoned or killed because of the "pen"... I realize that I have to continue again... and prolong The Myth of Sisyphus...
At times nothing matters... I remember my friend Ross, the chaplain at my last teaching post, and his archive of personal writings... which I have never seen... and of course, never read... At times I remember a more famous colleague of mine... who also wrote things... published one of his novels... He published only 50 copies... and numbered them... signed 30 of the copies and gave them his "intellectually inclined" friends... The book was titled The City... I asked him; "Why only fifty..."
"I am not in the business to educate..." was his response... "You are the educator... I am the author of my pain and my insights ... my experience is for me... and I do not like voyeurs... and I am not going to striptease my soul for anyone... my friends are about 30 and I know that about 20 are interested in my writing and thoughts..." My friend hated the apparatchiks and the funny bureaucrats... the Big Brothers... He had a special name for them; "Stupidity without borders..."

Police in Bangladesh on Thursday, April 7, identified the victim of a gruesome slaying in the capital as a 27-year-old student and secular blogger, making him the latest person to be killed in the South Asian nation allegedly for criticizing fundamentalist Islam... The victim is Nazimuddin Samad, 27, who was attending law school in the evenings at state-run Jagannath University. In his online writings, including on his Facebook wall, Samad criticized religious extremism. On his profile page, under religious views, he wrote: “I have no religion.”  He had a globalized vision of humanity... and rejected Organized religion... and was a Masters student in Law...  This is Nazimuddin Samad... and the photo is from his Facebook page... The Islamist attackers chanted "Allahu Akbar" as they hacked him to death...

Ross, the chaplain at my last teaching post, always reminded me that each of us are duty bound to do our best to alleviate the stupidity of the funny leaders... and "forced" me to do my best.

While I was following today's events on the TV a reporter asked a surrogate of one of the U.S. Presidential candidates... "You admitted that there are better people than the candidate you support..." The reporter was so proud of his trap... and wanted to create a controversy for cheap news gossip... and higher ratings...

"There are better people in everything..." The surrogate replied.

"There are better surgeons than me and I am sure there are better reporters than you... There are better people in all jobs and in anything..." 

I was happy for the answer... Trapping people just to create controversy and increase ratings on the part of the reporter is very much like the greed and chasing profit of the funny leaders.

Ross would have loved and be proud of the answers the wise surrogate handled the trap... The reporter looked stupid on his show... 

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If there are controversial situations... We do not hack the adversary... as they are used to do in Islamic-Jihadist Sharia Law... as it is consistently done in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries like Bangladesh and Iraq and Syria where the Islamic-Jihadists have occupied...

If there are controversies we open up a dialogue and talk with each other... like the funny reporter and the wise surrogate of the presidential candidate did...

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

Maybe the pen is mightier than the sword after all... Maybe Ross was correct all along by insisting that he write... albeit for himself... or like my friend who just published 50 copies of his book...

April 2 ... Go Crazy and Create... like the God(s) on Olympus... Like God in genesis...

March 21 was World Poetry Day...

March 22 was World Water Day...

...and Today, April 2 is "Get Creative Day"... in England... I suggest that it should be "Get Creative Day" all over the world... A globalized Creative Day will be a wonderful promotion of human imagination to enjoy what humanity has created in the past... but also a promotion to create now... Maybe we will stay away from wars and violence and create... like God(s)...

God created the heavens and the earth...

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. ...And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. … And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. … And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. … And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day...

I asked Ross; "Is it blasphemous to create like God(s)..." Ross was brief and very assertive in his "No..." 
He added; "Creating something, anything is GOOD... So let them just create... Let everyone create..."
Ross wrote... He told me that he wanted to write his memoirs... and at one point he alluded to it... that he was writing... But I never saw it... I am not sure what happened to it... I guess they are just scattered in the wind... and I hear his chuckle and his voice in the whispers of the wind...in the gentle tapping of the breeze... "Just create... let everyone create... the void will bring in boredom... and boredom is evil... and will usher in violence and wars..."
I agreed with Ross in this and in many things... specially in our happy hours...
When I was complaining that I do not have much energy to create, he admonished me; "When I am passing by your classroom I hear your voice... I stay there for few minutes and listen to the laughter of the students... and I hear their voices... I am very sure that you guys are creating something in there...You will never be tired of creating... It is in your nature...;" Ross told me... and then added; "It is simple and it is consuming... but it is fun too...just create your inside-out unabashedly... Create whatever you fancy...Let your imagination rule... and fly... fly... and soar higher... Like Daedalus and his son... even go near the sun... let the sun burn your wings and melt the wax... Enjoy the downward flight... and the splash into the sea..."
"But Icarus died...," I complained...
"Creation is always painful... and if you are not careful it's deadly too..." Ross laughed...   

    

Prepare your wings... spread them... and today create like God(s)... something... anything... Go to the edge of the cliff... and fly high... and higher... 

... and who cares even when you tumble down... enjoy the exhilarating experience... and keep on creating...  Take a piece of paper... and write something... a poem to your mom... a thank you to your dad... a love stanza to your friend... Take a cup and paint it with whatever you like... take a piece of wood and carve the universe out of it... Never complain and never be ashamed... Whatever you created is a masterpiece... indeed...

The politically correct... say masterpiece is racist... It has come to us from the times when there were masters... and also slaves!

It may be true... But I love your creation that you just now completed and I believe it is a masterpiece... regardless of the politically correct funny people...

This one is good... People like the sun... it makes living easy... But when I was in a sunshine zone... for months it did not rain... and then after so many months it drizzled... I went out and walked in the rain... It was indeed fun... and created a new mood for me... to have a glass of wine and remember Ross when he danced in the train station to the tzigane-gypsy music...

 

Get creative... and feel like God(s) on Olympus... and have the fun and enjoyment of creation... "Light is good..." but the darkness is not evil... You do not have to be a simple creationist... mingle the light and the darkness together... and create anew... a visual, or verbal... masterpiece... and indeed you will 

***

An engineer, my student-friend, just emailed me about nudity and art and women's rights... Read below...

2 questions popped into my head recently that I hope will make you think a little bit. First, you always advocate against women showing themselves off and wearing minimal clothes yet I've seen numerous posts on the blog where you've posted paintings or sculptures of nudity. It just kind of made me think and ask myself why the double standard? Secondly, I was talking to a friend of mine who has been dancing all her life and I asked her the question if she considers dance an art or a sport. She was stumped to say the least. Personally, I see it more as a sport as dancers are athletes. They're in great physical and mental shape and unlike a painting for example, there is no debating your talent if you're a good dancer. With paintings for example, I've seen works where they look absolutely terrible (i.e. abstract art) and could quite literally be drawn by a 2 year old yet there considered masterpieces by the art community. With dance, you don't have that debate. Either you're good or you're not.

My student-friend thinks of a "double standard." I am pleased with it... since noticing something is the initial step of creation... and I am sure soon my engineer-friend will create his own masterpiece... My friend is a practicing Christian... and I am sure he will agree with me that God created both Adam and Eve very beautiful... After all, it's God creation and must be GREAT.
So when an artist admires the beauty that God created is GOOD and wonderful... Observe the beauty in the photos of Daedalus and Icarus... that I printed above... admire the beauty... that God created ... and be inspired... and create a masterpiece too.
But my engineer-friend will agree, at least I assume he will, that when a man or a woman attend church services "wearing minimal cloths" ... will not only be offensive but also demeaning for both the man and the woman and insult the congregation...!
My friend is at the initial step of creation... He has began an inquiry... and I am sure with subsequent steps he will solve the "double standard"... dilemma... he is smart and I am sure he will cut the Gordian Knot... with his sharp reasoning...
After all he indeed has seen the beauty of dancing... and he has the great perception of amalgamating sports and art together... He is absolutely correct... Good sports is art... and art is good sports... when I watch football (the soccer type)... I admire both the sport and art of the player... It is beautiful to watch and artful to admire the trajectory and the curvature of the ball from the foot of Messi into the net of the opposing goal... Artful and beautiful sports... 

***

The intriguing art... and the intrigue of sculpting... An artists perception of the horror of genocide... 

The Abstract Sculpture sits atop a Reflecting Pool; its waters wash over its sides and re-emerge as a single jet of water at the Labyrinth's center.  The Abstract Sculpture is dedicated to lives lost during the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923 and all genocides that have followed...

The Armenian Heritage Park on the Greenway welcomes all in celebration of the immigrant experience. The Park graces the public space with design features to engage all ages.

  
2012                            2013                           2014                                      2015
The sculpture...in the past four years... The concept intrigued me... and I hoped that my engineer-friend will be fascinated and intrigued too... and take few more steps to create the beauty of his imagination...

The Abstract Sculpture, a split dodecahedron, commemorates the immigrant experience. Annually, the Abstract Sculpture is reconfigured, symbolic of all who pulled away from their country of origin and came to these Massachusetts shores, establishing themselves in new and different ways.  In late March, a crane lifts and pulls apart the two halves of the split dodecahedron, made of steel and aluminum, and reshapes the two halves of the geometric shape into a new and different configuration of the Abstract Sculpture.
This year on April 10... the new configuration of the art will come to life...

***

Spencer Tunick has a particular kind of art... and I do not appreciate it much... But I will not argue with him... after all it is a form of art... 
I will not buy and frame the nude photographs in my study... but I will not banish them too... If someone is inspired by them then it will be wonderful...
I had a nude in my classroom on the wall... I faced it all the time, but the students had their backs to it... It made me think of the fragility of human health and body... It was a nude of an obese person... 
The nude had nothing to do with demeaning pornography or exploiting the human body... It was just an expression of the beauty of God's creation... 
..............................
Hull, in England, has been chosen as the latest place to stage a mass nude gathering, all in the name of art.
The gathering is to be photographed in the East Yorkshire port, in Hull, on 9 July, with the resulting work unveiled in 2017.
Below some other photographs of "mass nude" shots of Spencer Tunick...

They say beauty is in the eyes of the beholder... I do not appreciate it... But I am sure someone does...

These are not people praying in the nude... But it is a group of people who appreciates the mass nudity... Ross would have said..."They are allowed..."  Maybe collective hallucination is another form of inspiration... of art... I will not be judgmental... We should never be judgmental...!

If someone sees beauty in this collective fun... Then so be it... Remember, today is "Get Creative Day"... so do not hesitate... take a piece of paper... a splinter of wood... a glass which is sitting in the kitchen... and be creative... Create like God(s) on Olympus...  Create like God in the Genesis...

Just act... and everything will be great...

Ross and the Stupid people...

When Ross,the chaplain at my school and my good friend, retired... we got a new Principal at the school... and Ross warned me; "Be careful with him," he said... "He is vicious and very self-centered and retaliates viciously... That's what they did to a superintendent... Their family hit him very hard and he resigned his post and left the community too..." 

It is good that I retired after a year of his appointment... because he started demonstrating his dictatorial inclinations and his mean spirited policies... and after I retired, he was mean to a student who was bullied by a group of students... and instead of protecting the victim... he sided with the bullies... so as not to rock the boat... He called the police on the victim and eventually "expelled" him to another school...

This new principal was mean... and yesterday while reading about Detroit schools and principals... I remembered Ross and our principal and Ross's advice to me rang in my ears the whole day...

13 Principals Charged in a Bribery Scheme...

Authorities say the scheme basically boiled down to this: Shy, the head of the company , paid bribes and kickbacks to principals so they would allow their schools to be charged for supplies that were never delivered, like chairs, teaching materials, paper... The very things that students need to learn and schools need to function remained, frustratingly, out of reach.

.......

Ross was aware that power corrupts... he always reminded me of that fact... and suggested that one cannot do much about it... After all we are caught in the web and "They [that is, the establishment] have the power and the means to obliterate, destroy any individual...," he insisted... and cited from Franz Kafka's The Trial..."It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be sure of themselves." 

I, deep down, wanted him to be wrong... but unfortunately my life experience supported him... The Soviet Union was corrupt... People survived if they had connections... The Middle East was like that too... people survived if they knew higher ups... and they were killed if they were "nobody..."
Kafka had it right... It is their "stupidity" which makes them full of themselves and therefor "sure of themselves."
I was very much annoyed... and asked myself... All my life, did I struggle against their "stupidity"...? To fight stupidity is very difficult... in the classroom, in the principal's office... and in the courts... and in the serene sanctity of the caverns of the monasteries... I had done all and I had sort of failed...!
Ross humored himself by stressing the point, again from Kafka; "in man's struggle against the world, bet on the world." This quote, for some reason, was funny for Ross and he asked; "What does the 'world' refer to... the stupid bureaucrats and funny apparatchiks or Mother Nature... ?
Side with the "world", he stressed... before you are crushed... Because Mother Nature has the last word always... I think Ross was correct in this case... The ice caps are melting and the sea level will rise and the coastlines will be devastated... Mother Nature will always have the last word...
After quoting Kafka, Ross rested triumphantly... He had made a point...and he was happy... But he was not over yet... he wanted to mention yet another Kafka ambiguity referring to everything and anything; "You do not need to accept everything as true, you only have to accept it as necessary." 
Indeed truth and necessity are antagonistically complimentary... and Ross comprehended it...
I asked him; "Does that include religion too...?"
Ross just smiled... Did not answer... He let the question to float in the air... for a while... I knew he would have answered it on his own time... in the future... But the future never came... when he was crushed under the bus... 
He went to eternity... but his wisdom survived with me... maybe with others too...
... and I live with that every day... I am reminded of Ross's wisdom few times each day... When I read "stupidity" and when I hear "stupidity"... 
Check below...

The Apparatchiks Waste 86 Million on a Plane that cannot even Fly...

The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Defense spent more than $86 million on an aircraft for counter narcotics efforts in Afghanistan that has "never actually flown in Afghanistan," according to a Department of Justice inspector general report... This reads like a late night show comedy skit... but, unfortunately for the taxpayer it's true... Two U.S. agencies joined forces to spend $86 million on a plane to retro fit it... But as the report reads... the plane can't even get off the ground... The Defense Department and the DEA wanted to use the plane in Afghanistan for counter narcotics efforts. Over the past seven years, money was spent on tricking out the plane with surveillance and communication equipment and modifying a hanger the plane never used... because the DEA stopped its Afghan aviation mission last year... So where is the plane now? It's inoperable and sitting on blocks.

Ross was correct in his assessment... It is extremely difficult to struggle against..."stupidity"...

*** 

I am sure there are as many rights as there are people in the world... I am sure there are as many wrongs as there are people in the world... 

To dispute and attempt to convince others is a waste of time... So settle down and enjoy the day and live the moment... 

I am not sure what philosophy this is but I am sure that it is true... It is true because it is necessary... as Ross told me long time ago...

Wrong and right are relative too... and no matter what... Wrong and right are in the eyes (mind) of the beholder... 

So Ross told me... "do not argue... just let it be..."

A German football team painted their faces black... just to support two of their Sudanese players... who were attached recently... But they were criticized... because to wear black faces is "offensive" to 

some blacks and to some media pundits and some higher ups who, as Kafka stressed, are just "stupid"...

A German football club... to support two of its players have digitally altering its team photo to make the players appear black...               Deinster SV, a lower-league football club from the Lower Saxony region, posted the image on its Facebook page alongside a message detailing what happened to the men, both Sudanese refugees. "Violence against refugees is pathetic," the post reads. "Emad and Amar, you are one of us just like everyone else and we're happy you are with us."

To criticize this... is the job of the politically correct... stupids... 

Instead of focussing on the message and the good gesture... The politically correct stupids are saying that painting the faces black is demeaning to black people...
I have heard few time that my friend Ross swore... and one time he said... "Just fuck off... leave us alone..."
...................................................................
And this other occasion... Messi, the world famous football player... donates his boots to be auctioned for charity...
But, Messi’s boots create controversy in Egypt... ... ... ... 
In the Middle Eastern, Arab culture... boots are demeaning and insulting... So, the politically correct stupids... blame Messi for donating his boots... instead of celebrating the money that the boots will bring in for the charity...
I guess Ross was right... you cannot educate Kafka's "stupids"
and I guess I will agree with Kafka and Ross too...