Raju’s Lunar Paratha!

India has recently launched its first lunar exploration mission. I wondered after that, what is next? When will I read the following: Arabs launch their first lunar mission?

There was joke, allow me to alter it a bit, they once asked the computer: Who will rule the world in few years, the computer said: Arabs! They got confused and kept asking the computer, and the computer kept saying Arabs. They then asked the computer why, and the computer replied: Because everyone will be living on the moon, and they will still be on the Earth!

I say that we Arabs are the smartest people on earth, but we use our powers wrongly. We had empires and civilizations that spread sciences to the world. When Europe was suffering in the Dark Age, we were enjoying prosperity. We had and still have the best brains in the world.

I don’t even know what to write, it’s just that it hurts me that everyone is progressing while we are still where we were before 50 years or more. I send this message to the governments: Do not let the Arab brains leave! Invest in them, use them. There is nothing to lose!

I don’t want “Raju’s Lunar Paratha”, nor “ X’s Steakhouse”. I want us to be there!

Forgive or not to Forgive!

We still didn’t finish with the British beach sex pair to have another scandal. This time is way bigger than having sex on the beach while being drunk and attacking the police officer. It has to do with the Almighty. Now that’s something intolerable.

It’s basically about a morning show host reading an article about some an American court that dismissed a lawsuit against God. Not only that, but read a conversation with God that he got from the internet. From what I heard, what he said was something really bad against God, something with God complaining.

He had apologized publicly saying that he didn’t mean all that, and he was misunderstood where he just wanted to entertain audience and read weird news from around the globe. It’s nice that he apologized.

People had mixed reactions to the incident. Some asked for punishment and others asked for forgiveness. Both had reasons, but which one is right? Punishments are lessons for the doer and others. When someone watches someone being punished that person will just think twice before committing that action. People should know what kind of culture we have and what limits they can’t cross, and by punishing the host people will know that such action is not tolerate among us. It will make them think not only twice but thrice before committing such thing.

That is a great thing, but what about what that person might say later on. No one can guarantee that he won’t start lying about what happened and give false image about UAE and Muslims in general. Isn’t it enough what the media has already ruined?!

On the other hand, those who asked for forgiveness have a point too. We are forgiving people, we all know what the Prophet, peace be upon him, did when he reached Mecca; he forgave all the Meccans that day which lead them to declaring Islam. That’s great, and it might lead to show how forgiving we are. But, Meccans were Arabs and we are talking about real men here. Men of courage and generosity, men ready to sacrifice themselves for their tribes, men with noble traits. We don’t really know this person, and what he really is. Besides, if we keep letting go and forgiving they might take it for granted.

I tried to be as objective as possible. Now, you answer whether to forgive or not to forgive…

I am Selfish!

Motives are what drive us to what we want to do. Many studies were conducted to understand this aspect of life. Many theories were developed, and one of them is my own theory.

Selfishness is the real motive that drives the human beings to live their lives. Every one of us is selfish, mark my words: we all are SELFISH. When we eat, when we sleep, when we love, when we hate, when we laugh, when we cry, whatever we do we do it because we are selfish.

Think about it, it can be found that no matter what the motive is; selfishness is the source. That’s hard to imagine at the beginning, but it should be clear, God willing, later on. We all are working or studying no matter in what way, and we all do it for some reason. That’s our own satisfaction. Satisfying ourselves is the goal.

Now, how could that be? Well, let’s start with the obvious motives or actions that are categorized as selfish acts. When you buy yourself a heavy fatty delicious meal; you are satisfying that urge that you got suddenly. No one will be benefited from you buying that meal but yourself, forget the restaurant for time being, and that’s a selfish act. We will all agree on that even if I give lots of example regarding selfish acts as they are really obvious.

On the other hand, we find someone going and buying food for some poor kid, a noble act? Well, people will answer it in no time as yes it’s a noble act. Well, think about it, what makes someone pay for someone else and lose money? It’s the joy and pleasure that we get when we do something good and nice, the reward we await from Allah and the good reputation for some people. That’s motive that makes us pay charity and help others. Think about the last time you treated your friend and how good you felt about yourself at the end of that day. That was what you really wanted, and that’s what we seek all the time. So, the joy and pleasure are the motives here which are basically selfishness…

We heard many stories and legends about people sacrificing themselves for their beloved ones. It’s even depicted a lot of times in movies. People hate the fact that they might lose someone they love and cherish. I can still remember my mom when she watches any scene about people losing their children. She used to say these words: I wish my day, death, is before yours. God forbid mama!!! Anyway, I used to look at her in some weird look, and think to myself: How selfish, she wants to avoid the pain and let us live that pain…That’s exactly why people sacrifice themselves, of course there are other reasons too which are selfish ones also, but the main controlling one is that they can’t bare the idea of losing their beloved nor can live without them.

You will say, well we worship Allah. I say that’s selfishness too. The joy, pleasure, serenity and peacefulness are what we seek. Then add to that, we want to satisfy our instinct to live in harmony and avoid any conflicts with it. Don’t forget the Heaven that we want and the Hell that we avoid. By worshipping, we feed our souls and feel great about ourselves, that’s being selfish. The writer of Satan’s Bible, Anton LaVey, was asked about Satanism. He said that it’s basically atheism but with rituals since the human soul needs rituals of any kind. This shows that we need rituals. Most of the religions have rituals to feed the souls of their followers. We perform the ritual to feed our souls. Again selfishness!!!

No matter what you think about, you can find that after all; the people are benefiting themselves in the first place and with their full knowledge of that. So basically, it’s selfishness that drives us, and it comes in many names which are the motives.

I was approached by this question, which philosophers will ask, why do we have to thank people if they are selfish? Well, you thank people because you are selfish you bloody philosopher. I hate it when they ask stupid questions like the hot-cold thing… Anyway, you thank people because you just got what you need. You thank them because you want more later on or you want to show gratitude. Again “you want”. It’s all about what we want. Then dear philosopher, when you waste our time listening to your stupid question, isn’t that selfishness?

The two main emotions in a human are the pain and pleasure. We try to avoid pain in many ways and get pleasure also in many ways. All motives are based on those two, and reaching what you want from those two is self satisfying which is selfishness…

FINALLY SELFISHNESS RULES!!!

Mythbusters of our own!!!

I’m currently watching Mythbusters, a show by Discovery Channel aimed to test myths and urban legends to check their validity. It’s a great show that got me addicted to it; you can say that I watch an average of 2 episodes per day each of 50mins. Now, that’s a lot of science and humor.

I won’t be evaluating the show, it’s a great show. I just want to suggest that we Arabs should have a show of our own, a show to bust all the myths that we grow up with that our parents or even great grandparents grow up with.

When we compare the difference between our myths and myth the show busting, we find that our myths are totally myths. They don’t make sense at all, unlike their myths which are based on some true scientific facts. We don’t really need another Mythbusters here, but what to do if some of us have a piece of cheese in their skull with some black line.

Myths of the Arabs are mostly creepy; they involve genies most of the time. I guess they were narrated to scare kids and keep them on the “right path”. Then it turned into myths that we are living with now. The problem is that some might contain “Shirk”, that’s association partner with Allah one way or another.

I still remember when once a relative of mine came to visit us, she had a piece of cloth with her. When I asked her about it, she told me that this is a piece of a cloth kept on the tomb of some religious man. She also told me that it’s blessed. Well, I couldn’t believe that, and I told her that though I was still a child. Another myth, is don’t ever point your finger at a star; you’ll get a big pimple on its tip, now the star is billions of light years away how can such thing happen?!

Action Day’s Aftermath

We had an event called Action Day in our university the University of Sharjah. It was basically about poverty and what we can do to help eliminating it out. The event was by Vision Club.

There was a short movie prepared by the club and from that movie I wrote the following. You can find both the movie and the following in the club’s website.

Well, to start up with, I still can’t get that image out of my head; an image of a young girl with a bowl in front of her. Well, nothing strange about that, we all have seen children with bowls in front of them. Think of this, the bowl was filled with leaves, inedible leaves! Now that’s a picture that people don’t usually see, or even don’t want to think of.

That girl is living and surviving on those leaves, while we have our bowls filled for example with rice for Beryani, Mandi, Machboos, Mansaf or whatever you like. Where we eat almost half of it and throw the rest. We throw have of our food while our “brothers” are dreaming of the day where they eat a grain of that.

It’s our duty as human beings; we were created with mercy in our hearts. Where did all that go?! What happened to humanity?! Should we call it humanity?! We turned into beasts, money eater or let’s say worshippers. We are living a global economical crisis that is turning everyone worried. Governments have been funding the banks with billions of dollars to save the banks from bankruptcy. The European Union has given more than a trillion to the banks. That was an emergency situation that governments around the world coped together to solve it. Great! We finally saw the world working together for the first time, but why don’t they help eliminating poverty, it takes few billions of dollars to end it, and that is not a problem for countries with high income.

Well, it seems that it’s of no use talking about governments or to governments. Capitalism has taken the mercy from people with or without money. Here is our job as individuals with bit of mercy in our hearts. Don’t ask yourself: What can I do, but ask yourself: What should I do. Don’t think you are nothing, you can make a change and I can make a change, we all can make a change. Start acting now. Plan your own “road plan” for helping others. I don’t have to give examples, when you really think about it you will have a lot of thoughts rushing to your head.

That’s what an individual can do. It’s still not enough though, we need something on a larger scale; and here where Islam comes in handy, though I hate using this term regarding Islam. Zakah, the third pillar of Islam, is the only solution for poverty. It proved its efficiency many times through history, well what could we say about something from Allah? We, unfortunately, have dropped it from our “to do” list, and that’s a big catastrophe. We should start paying our Zakah, and add charity work to it. That will eliminate poverty and maximize the “teamwork”, not the Network Marketing that one guy was trying to talk me into. Besides, we have the charity societies, check their projects out and help them by donating. Don’t limit the donations for mosques; we need schools, orphanages and schools. One of the charity societies has started a great initiative; which is basically calling them after a heavy meal and they will happily take the left over. That’s one great initiative that we shouldn’t have it in the first place.

Now, if whatever you hear or see doesn’t affect you, allow me to quote from someone “you lack the third dimension”. Imagine that girl was no one but a beloved one to you, would you stay cold-hearted as you’re now?

How I Met your Mother

It’s one hell of a name, and it’s weird!!! Well I do expect a punch in the face when I approach a friend and tell him: Hey, do you know how I met your mother… HIMYM, the intials, is a sitcom produced by CBS, and currently running the 4th season. I watched every single episode. It’s just Legen-wait for it- dary.

Barney is the best character, I love his sarcasm, he is “awesome”. The way he gets girls and the way he is against marriage it’s just funny. Unfortunately, in real life he’s gay…

Ted, the main character, is a weird architect narrated the story of how he met his children’s mother to them. Fell in love with Robin the first time he saw her, and currently engaged to Stella. I hate her, she is not awesome…

Robin, well she is Canadian, isn’t that enough?

Marshall, now he is one funny dude. A weirdo!!! The way he’s fascinated with food, and the way he slaps Barney are just funny…

Lily, Marshall’s wife and girlfriend for the past 8 years. Well she’s funny too but I feel she is kinda stupid yet cute…

There is this episode that I can’t forget, it’s about Marshall and burgers. When he first came to New York, he came across this small burger joint. That joint served the best burger ever, and since then Marshall was unable to find it nor able to like any other burger. Now honestly, it does look delicious especially when you are hungry watching it and dying for some fatty burger from Hardee’s. I had hard time watching it.

If you notice something, the actors are either Jewish, gay or Canadian, isn’t that weird?

Lebanon

“Be careful of your enemy once and of your friend a thousand times, for a double crossing friend knows more evil.” an Arabic proverb that really describes the situation in the once prosperous Lebanon.

One martyr might not be enough to gain freedom, it takes many, but how many does it take to gain our freedom from the beast that devoured our beloved land for the past few decades? Is it immoral to ask for freedom, is it a sin to gain sovereignty,is it a vice to love our precious land or maybe it’s blasphemy to even mention it.

It’s one of the two options, either submit yourself to the scavengers to be a righteous honest noble patriotic figure or stand against the predator and turn into a betrayer who lacks virtues, into a villain who is ready to sell anything for his own good… The irony is when the devil accuses the angel of being an infidel, it is when patriotism is selling one’s country, it is when conspiracy is loving one’s land….

Lebanon what was once Switzerland of the Middle East is now the battlefield, the corner where bullies finish their clashes? Funny, isn’t it? Questions where asked; how can a country turn from a place that enjoyed prosperity into that of destruction? A question left for your conscience to answer…

Hello World!!!

Hello World, this is GK here!!!

Welcome to my page, a page where I’ll be posting some of my thoughts regarding many aspects of life. You will probably find them weird or controversial. Well bare with me….

I promise to update it as much as possible. I’m no writer so don’t expect high-end writing, I just write down what I feel honestly.

Please feel free to comment, but avoid any provoking comments…