Democracy : An abject failure for the world

I’m no political scientist, but the way I see it by the way the world is moving, democracy as a philosophical movement, as an ideology, as a political mechanism, as a strong base for economics and commerce and as a governing principle for an increasingly interdependent and shrinking world - is an abject failure. The most glaring failure is at the political level where power-hungry and imperial political elitism still exists. Even for America now this holds true. Power is being abused while those in power vehemently ascribe to themselves claim democratic credentials. The sorry state that the world has been since the end of the world wars with unresolved conflicts perpetuated by self-righteous democracies such as the US, Israel, France and the UK.

Democracy is supposed to be a vanguard against political imperialism and corruption, totalitarian tyranny, dictatorial high-handedness, gross official incompetence and a whole host of other political evils that brings humanity to ruins. It is supposed to return dignity to every human being and respect for every individual’s belief. And even though not everyone gets what they want it is supposed to bring about the best solution to the larger society as a whole via clever elicitation of society’s will and earnest administration of society’s wisdom.

In theory it looks as pretty and romantic with it’s platitudinous principles –“power to the people”, “Rule of Law”, “separation of powers”, the highest political master, thus publicly empowered, sworn to lowly service to his people etc. etc. This is beautiful. But the reality is anything but.

Much of the world is in political turmoil and much of it are started and sustained by democracies. So far, instead of vesting the power with the people and empowering them to effect political change through collective will when things go awry, we have those in power clinging on to their powers and using it to perpetuate their political presence and their own personal ideologies and principles in flagrant disregard of the will and wants of the people and the common good. They are hell bent on strengthening their positions as long as they are allowed by the system that they happily hijacked once they came into power. I don’t have to name names the examples are readily available here and now.

The democratic system is a fucking failure because it failed to factor in the motherfucking assholes who deviously slip through the idiot filters and hold the world hostage to their tyranny. The problem of it is that the system assumes those who are elected to power are so elected by carefully calculated exercise common will. This is supposed to allow the people to elect a person who is the best among them. But alas, the common people can be idiotic bigots in large numbers trying to propagate their ideology through threat and force. This will throw the fucking spanner in the democratic works.

Lets face it people tend to be evil, selfish and egocentric when they can get away with it. The flimsy checks and balances has failed to protect the people from an overbearing government.

It has caused much misery to the world especially now that we are so interconnected and thus one callous action (or inaction) can cause so much damage to whole peoples half way across the world.

We need a new philosophy. The world needs a new system. Maybe we already have it – but we’re just not using it. Democracy is a fucking failure. Albeit it’s beautiful philosophy it does not work. We need a better mechanism other the that of the western styled ones, to re-establish a better social, political, economic and governing order.

How to develop charisma and self esteem

 

This article is taken wholesale from http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Peter-Dobler-427/self-esteem-2002.php.

I found it interesting that paying attention and treating others like they are very important will attract the same towards you. In short if you want self esteem - give others just that.

10 tips to improve your self esteem

Striving to improve our self esteem is on everybody’s mind. It doesn’t matter if you actively pursue this goal or you subconsciously working on improving your self esteem. The problem with this is that you really don’t know exactly what you want to improve. You’re acting intuitively on external signals.

Do you know how to improve your self esteem? Probably not. To make it a little bit easier for you and to achieve your goals quicker I put together 10 tips that you can utilize right away.

1. Build up your self-esteem. You must take an inventory. What do you want to improve or change about the way you interact with others? Try to make only one change at a time. Always check you progress before making another change.

2. Celebrate your journey, not your destination. Learn to always feel good about where you are now, and to exude self-confidence about anywhere you might find yourself tomorrow.

3. Set clear goals for yourself before every interaction. Know what you want. Think about how the people you will be meeting can help you reach those goals. Then decide how to approach each person accordingly. Apply this regularly and you will notice a difference.

4. Be proactive. Take the initiative. Be decisive. Let the other person know exactly how he or she can help you. Proactive people tent to be more successful in their career.

5. Treat each person you meet as if she or he is truly important. (You’ll be amazed how this works.)

6. Give a firm handshake; look the other person straight in the eye. Practice both of these. Your handshake should be just right. Not too firm and not too loose. Train yourself to notice something you like or find attractive in the person.

7. Listen! Listen! Listen! Teach yourself to develop good listening skills. Learn a way to remember the other person’s name. If in doubt simply ask for the name again 2 or 3 sentences into the conversation.

8. Visibly respond to the other person. Smile, nod agreement, and address him or her by name. Apply all you listening skills to visibly respond. The body language is the most important part of a conversation. Practice, practice, practice…

9. Pay more attention to the other person than to yourself. Are you responding to what may be going on in his or her life? Don’t filter out bad news. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Be caring.

10. Stay “in the moment.” Don’t mentally cut off the other person. Don’t reload while he or she is speaking. What this means is that you need to focus on the other person 100% during a conversation. Anything less is considered rude.

Next time you meet somebody new look out for these behaviors. Put a mental checkmark on the each of the 10 tips and see how well this person scored. Chances are that the person scored very high if you tent to like her/him. On the contraire the person probably scored low if you don’t seem to connect.

The more you practice the more likely you will create a positive aura which is commonly known as charisma. To step up to become a charismatic personality it takes more than just these 10 tips.

Creating a positive aura will benefit you in every thing you do. You will create a warmer ambience with your family. You will be more successful in your career. Even while trying to meet a partner of the opposite sex you will notice a difference on how people perceive you.

Unfortunately a small article can’t do justice on the wide spectrum of creating a positive aura and developing a charismatic personality. You will get the complete picture and step by step explanations in Race Kale’s new book “The Power of Charisma”.

 

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The Halal-food-in-school issue

I refer to this recent furore about the establishment of halal canteen in a public school here in Singapore.

The head of the school from the perspective of principled consistency in administration was technically not wrong. But he has ignored the deeply ingrained existing realities and has thus faltered egregriously on a very sensitive issue that violated an implicit but common understanding among the different peoples here.

 He has failed to fully appreciate that:

1)  mainstream schooling here is a secular government establishment.

2) adequate provisions had been made for muslim students halal food requirements

3) the existing system was working fine for all (i.e he tried to fix a thing that was not broken in the first place)

Fundamentally, the government, due to reasons entrenched in our historical cultural demography coupled with colonial era political legacy and post-independence socio-political upheaval, finds it imperative to preserve the secular character of the school system to allow for the peaceful sharing of the fast dwindling common space here.

The idea is to allow for healthy human social interaction and engagement and peaceful co-existence while preserving the socio-cultural distinctiveness of every group. So it is a situation that not only calls for tolerance of each others cultural behaviour and practices but also to actively partake in and gain knowledge and experience of the ways of our fellow citizens who are different from each other.

In Australia New Zealand, Europe and the north-Americas, a myriad of different cultures, even including that of the indigenous population, were uncermoniously (and sometimes violently) subsumed by a single dominant culture under a socio-political policy of integration. In Singapore we adhere to a policy of pluralism in the societal administration of our social and economic policies.

Like every system of choice there are always trade-offs and one major trade-off of a policy of pluralism is the opportunity-cost of social cohesion at the expense of allowing indivdual space for cultural expression and practices of the various social and cultural groups.

So while a policy of integration works to unite people it robs the society of the colour and vibrance of the symbiotic-diversity that pluralist societies, such as that of Singapore’s, enjoy.

Muslims, like the rest of the peoples here already enjoy their own cultural space and to push the limits of tolerance that may unduly pressurise others into grudgingly accept a policy that violates the fundamental rules of common space is not only unfair, it is downright insensitive. The principal should have known better as his only serves to play upon the weak social fabric of this pluralist society that took decades to stabilise. It puts the spotlight on the darker side cultural differences and lowers the threshold of tolerance among its peoples.

For muslims it is a double whammy because firstly they are not the dominant cultural group even though they wield a relatively stronger influence despite their small numbers. Secondly this negative spotlight will have a ripple effect on the rest of the muslims who may be treated with wariness whenever they stake their claim to theor share of their cultural pie.

The principal thus should have realised the gravity of  implementing such risky policies with scant regard for the sensitivities of others and existing realities. Such principled halal policies are only fit for a madrasah or where people are generally in agreement to such a move.

Having said that, the government also needs to do more to address the needs of muslims seeking religious education instead of the mainstream secular ones. The madrasahs need more funding and more infrastructural attention.

Paying token service to this need while statutorily and administratively restricting parents from exercising their choice to send their children to a non-mainstream schools is not a step in the right direction.

If the demand is there, the government must provide the necessary infrastructure and the required funding to accommodate a significant cultural group. Compulsory secular education could also be done in a madrasah. If the government pays scant regard to such important needs then there is always a danger that this need may spill into the common arena and cause unnecessary social upheavals.

Can robots “think”?

This looks is a no brainer and yet we struggle to comprehend this question.

We can simulate human neural functions like logical thinking, reasoning, language etc (i.e. left-brain activities) but can we simulate right brain functions like appreciation of music and art? It’s not humanly possible because these are subjective attributes that has no dicernable pattern to capture, imitate and reproduce. It is thus really a misnomer to say that robots can think. Thinking is a unique human attribute that can only be simulated or copied to a rudimentary degree. The origins of thought processes and how it develops and is processed within the neuro-circuitry are a mystery that eludes any explanation - scientific or otherwise. Even in this day and age we can only theorise how the brain functions. So we should have no illusions about robots possessing cognition, creativity or imagination. Its what we put into it and as such they function as an extention of our brain.

Israeli Judge : “We have a paper from God”

During a BBC call-in dialogue session last sunday an Israeli lady phoned in to say that Annapolis (Arab-Israeli peace initiative) will be unfair to Israel. Her reason was that Israeli gave gaza and allowed the palestinians to live in their midst with nothing given in return by the palestinians but terrorists killing Israelis. She claimed to the effect that palestinians are not worth Israeli time in giving land for peace because history has proven that the palestinians keep killing Israelis no matter what concessions are given by the Israelis. She shouted on the phone “we’ve got nothing from the palestinians - zero!”.

I would just like to remind people such as this lady (whose name I did’t get) that when the Jews came from Europe to join some of their brethren already living in some parts of the then palestine in the early 1900s, they had nothing. These jews came and took over palestinian land and property and claimed it for themselves. And then use it as bargaining chip for “peace” as showcase the whole act as though it was a great act of sacrificial benevolence. When land was partitioned by the UN and further land was sequestered by the IDF much later - the Israeli did not pay the palestininas a single cent. Why? Because according to bibilical apocrypha god bequeathed the promised land to the jews and as such they are entitled to the land without paying a single cent.

What a load of bullshit. Since when did God became a real estate agent for people (read : zionist) who do not believe in him? Since when did god bequeath favours upon thieves? If the palestinins are behaving like terrorists resisting Israel’s illegal sequestration of land that did not belong to them, then Israel is even worse than the the “terroists” they are complaining against.

What the Jews are doding to the Palestinians is the exact same thing Hitler did to the European Jewery but Hitler was denounced as a genocidal maniac for all history while these thievs in Palestine are benevolent angels? People who buy this line of thinking should simply go to hell.

Already what the Israeli did was thievery, and then they claim that they are giving it away out of benevolence without getting back nothing in return. But the Israelis did not own anything to give away in the first place. So this line of argument does not stand even if the court was a circus.

Check out this story narration of an Israeli judge dismissing legitimate claim of land by a palestinian with legal title with a simple “but we have paper from God!” - yes a judge (go figure!)

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Israel Rated World’s Sixth-Largest Nuclear Power

The west, namely The US, Britain and France has no business poking it’s nose into North Korean and Iranian internal affairs.

 

Firstly they are not honest brokers and their mediation efforts in the middle east is only about their own economic interests (read : oil) and the interests of Israel. Their motives are thus suspect.

 

Secondly, the political climate of late in the west has become staunchly right wing, anti-Islamic and brazenly racist.

 

Thirdly they practice double standards when imposing the law on some while conveniently ignoring the atrocities of others.

 

Fourthly, these countries routinely use (or abuse) their power in the UN, that is unfairly and disproportionately tilted in favour of western countries anyway, to push their own countries political agendas.

 We move in this day and age with our eyes wide shut ignoring the danger posed by Israel, the human rights atrocities by tyrants, Aids and other epidemic, poverty, enironmental depradation, human moral degradation etc etc.. and kill innocent people wantonly spending billions of dollars in wars that is not justified in Iraq and Afganistan. If this is so-called the age of enlightenment, by god I don’t even wnat to know the definition of darkness.

Taken from rense.com
5-10-6

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History repeats itself: a Middle Eastern country launches its own nuclear program. The international community suspects it is a cover for building atomic weapons. The United States calls for the country’s nuclear sites to be inspected. Another government urges the country to scrap its nuclear plans. It is answered by defiant boasts that the nation’s sovereignty will not be compromised. The country in question is not Iran in 2006, but Israel in 1969. The current dispute over Iran’s nuclear program has shocking parallels with the tensions sparked off by Israel’s attempts to acquire the nuclear bomb in the 60s. The only major difference is that the U.S. decided at the time not to curb the Israeli nuclear program. Recently declassified documents reveal that the Nixon administration reached a secret understanding with the Israelis in 1969 that allowed them to pursue their nuclear program as long as they maintain a policy of deliberate ambiguity. In fact, this understanding paved the way for Israel, the 4th largest military power in the world, to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East and the world’s sixth country to acquire atomic weapons, a title its government has never admitted nor denied, according to an article on AFP. Despite its policy of ambiguity, Israel’s nuclear arsenal is estimated between 200 and 300 warheads. According to Eldridge, editor in chief of Jane’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense, this estimate “is based on the production capacity of the country’s reactors.” Meanwhile, the International Institute of Strategic Studies estimates the number of warheads that Israel possesses as being “up to 200″. And the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a U.S. advocacy group co-founded by Ted Turner, the founder of CNN and a former senator, believes that Israel’s arsenal “is comparable in quality and quantity to that of France and the United Kingdom.” With French assistance, Israel built a nuclear weapons facility at Dimona in the Negev desert in 1958. The Dimona site has a plutonium/tritium production reactor, an underground chemical separation plant, and nuclear component fabrication facilities. In the early years of its nuclear program, Israel may have used French testing data to confirm its own weapon designs. Moreover, recently declassified British documents show that Britain helped Israel in making its nuclear bomb forty years ago, when it sold the Jewish state 20 tonnes of heavy water, a key substance for the production of atomic bombs. Experts suggest that the Israeli Defense Forces had their first nuclear weapons ready before the Six-Day War. In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at Dimona, revealed to the media evidence that Israel possessed and produced nuclear weapons. At the time of Vanunu’s arrest, The Times reported that Israel had material for approximately 20 hydrogen bombs and 200 fission bombs. According to AFP, an unspecified number of ground-to-ground missiles, comprising short range Jericho 1 and medium range Jericho 2 missiles, forms Israel’s strategic force. At the end of the 1990s, the Jewish state also acquired three diesel-powered, Dolphin-class submarines, capable of launching nuclear-armed cruise missiles. Moreover, the Washington Post recently reported that Israel has succeeded in modifying U.S.-made cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to be launched from submarines. Unlike Iran and North Korea, Israel has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, designed to prevent the global spread of nuclear weapons. As a result, it is not subject to inspections and the threat of sanctions by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has repeatedly asked Israel to give up its secret nuclear arsenal to avoid an arms race in the Middle East. U.S. intelligence agencies often omit Israel from semiannual reports to Congress identifying countries developing weapons of mass destruction to protect the Jewish state from any economic or military sanctions. On the other hand, the U.S. is leading an international campaign against Iran over its nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for generating power. Israel also stepped up rhetoric against Iran. Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres warned on Monday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, should bear in mind that his own country could also be destroyed. Although Peres didn’t say who should attack Iran, he implied that military action should be led by the U.S., pointing to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. is striving to get a UN Security Council resolution demanding the Islamic Republic to halt uranium enrichment activities. But the truth is that Tehran hasn’t violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or any other international obligations. “Let me remind everybody that nothing Iran is accused of doing is illegal,” said Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector who challenged the Bush administration’s drive to Iraq War. “We’re condemning Iran for doing that which is permitted under a treaty which it has signed and entered into in force, and has UN inspectors on the ground verifying Iranian compliance.” It is obvious that Israel, which already possesses nuclear weapons, poses danger to Middle East stability. The U.S.–the only nation to have ever used nuclear weapons against human beings– should bear in mind this fact before it presses Tehran over its nuclear ambitions. Washington’s refusal to consider Iran’s proposal to make the Middle East a nuclear-free zone shows what all the U.S. hype about Iran’s nuclear program is really about. It simply doesn’t want to eliminate nuclear weapons in the Middle East as long as they remain in the hands of an ally.

Best Jaw dropping Dance moves you’ll see

Try copying this!

You’ll be dazed after watching this. 

He wanted to give the world something different and creative - and boy did he @&*%@^%#ing do it!

Frankly, I’ve not seen anything quite like it.

Iran President Faces Public Dressing Down

The Ugly American Strikes Again. Columbia University president Lee Bollinger made allegations against the Iranian president while conveniently ignoring the failures, treachery and cruelty of his own government. He also almost turned the session dedicated to a speech from the Iranian President into one of his own sessions. If his agenda was about free speech, civil liberties  and human rights he should also have talked about Abu Ghraib, the wanton destruction of Iraq, Haditha, the Extraordinary resditions by Us secret services, broad wire tappings of the US citizenry, Guantanamo prison, homeland security act, racial profiling  and the list goes on. Who knows what more is to come. His accusations against Mr Ahmadinejad were thus by-and-large a matter of bigoted personal opinion than it was a reasonable acedemic comment worthy of scrutiny.

Who says right wing fascism is dead - Bollinger is a testament to the fact that fascism is still alive and kicking.

As bizzarre as it seems Mr Bollinger turned this dignified session into a public dressing down of a guest and a smeared the reputation of his guest and robbed the everyone a chance for an objective assessment of truth. This is the worst of American society.

It could have been used for lively civil exchanges and for US citizens to know more about Iran. In the end Bigotry and hatred prevailed. Mr Lee could have used this session to build bridges. But he burned what was left of it. Mr Lee Bollinger turned out to be a xenophobe in tuxedos oozing of pseudo academic arrogance. Bollingers sharp distaste for his guest was a testament to the much pervasive American ugliness and arrogance only matched by their equally repugnant bigotry. Watching the whole thing in youtube I could feel the rightwing political pressure on Bollinger’s face to publicly humiliate a guest. If the humiliation did not happen I think Bollinger would be forced to vacate his job the very next day by right wing Jewish lobbying.

Mr Bollinger, all the negative comments you made against a dignified guest speaks volumes of your own upbringing. You displayed the worst of the American culture when you could have easily done the reverse. You make various uncalled for allegations against your guest. But you should look at yourself in the mirror and see for yourself what a sly bastard you turned out to be to against your own guest after allowing for Mr Ahmedinajad to speak. You could have spoken about bush in the same derogatory terms and it would not have been further from the truth. You almost turn this diginified session into a mud slinging session. Thank God The Iranian President mantained his composure. Maybe you could have learnt a lesson or two from your guest. I hope one day you will be served your just desserts for the treachery you committed.

 All I can say is: what a terrible waste of a fabulous opportunity to showcase the beauty of American culture and civility when it was only used to show how ugly America is. And people still wonder why Muslims love to hate America?

Beautiful Poem to ponder in Contemplation of the Infinite

There is no secular definition for the word soul. The deepest recesses of the self are unknown to conscious awareness and yet we talk like we understand. In the quran it is written that nothing of the soul is known save a little.

The problem with the current secular oriented culture that tends to rob and deny the spiritual and non-material dimension of human existence. The ghost behind the machine, the will behind the volition, the very voice within our thoughts. It may seem odd that the current MTV culture is developed in such a way that life is lived in a superficial way and thoughts and actions are appraised by it’s causes and effects on the material self. What is unknown and not privy to objective materialist observation is deemed as hocus-pocus-fairy-tale stuff by secular materialism. And yet there is no denying since einstein that man has vastly underestimated the reality before him. Theoretical science (or even metaphysics) is beginning to sound more and more like religious dogma with hardly any consensus among the groups in the scientific commnity as to which is the way to go. Intellectual reach is limited by perceptual limitations and now we have infinitely more questions than we have answers for. Despite the complexities of the reality before us, the secular scholars find intellectual gratification in arrogantly holding on to simplistic answers. The m-theory, the multiverse theory, the theory of evolution gratify the base curiosities of the infinite complexities of reality.

This poem below is by a 19th century poet Khalil Gibran and he succintly puts the authors humble understanding of reality as nothing more than calculated speculation before an infinitely enigmatic reality.

Self-Knowledge

By Kahlil Gibran
(1883 - 1931)

And a man said, Speak to us of Self-Knowledge.
And he answered saying:
Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.
But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart’s knowledge.
You would know in words that which you have always known in thought.
You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.

And it is well you should.
The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;
And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.
But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;
And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.
For self is a sea boundless and measureless.

Say not, “I have found the truth,” but rather, “I have found a truth.”
Say not, “I have found the path of the soul.” Say rather, “I have met the soul walking upon my path.”
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.

Israel : The Torah, their Title deed & God, their Real estate agent - never mind the evil

Zionism made the Jews believe this for their own political ends (that the promised land is theirs only). It used this honest Jewish belief to wreck lives and destroy a whole nation. “Never again” was their slogan but they do it again and again.

No doubt the Torah and the Quran says that the land was promised by their God to the Jews. But this is a belief that is rooted in theolgy - and in no way has any justification whatsoever for action to fulfil secular objectives. So the resultant supplanting of arab Palestine must be wholly based on Judaic theocratic ideals - not on secular ideals. Because that (the torah) was their ONLY basis of their claim to the promised land.

We must understand that the Israel of Davidian times is a theocracy - not a secular (pseudo-) democracy. The land that was promised to them in Palestine by Yahweh was contingent upon 1) their unwavering belief in Him and 2) that they act righteously - otherwise they have no claim over it.

But the death of innocents, the wanton destruction, the deliberate defoliation of cultured lands, and the continued criminal land grab of the legitimately owned property is an evil beyond expression. Would Moses - who delivered the hebrews from the Pharoah condoned such an ideology of hatred called Zionism?

Some not so cool facts here about Israel that the so-called free media of the west would be reluctant to exercise it’s freedom of expression over. But when it comes to bashing palestinians, Arabs and muslims - they reserve their right to free speech - if the Danish cartoons are at all any indicator of this media and political hypocrisy.

If a picture speaks a thousand words - this three speaks in encyclopediac volumes because of the unmitigated oppression that has been imposed upon the palestinians. Apartheid did not die with Nelson Mandela - It is still alive and kicking in the heart of the middle east. Fascism and “genocidism” did not die with Hitler - it is still alive here in the blessed promised land.

If there is one terror that will divide and destroy the world - it is not not the god loving Jews, nor their religion, nor their torah, not the christians nor their bible, not Islam nor their quran - it is the terror of this secular Zionist and their secular ilk (the neo cons) and their dangerous ideolgy of hatred - so much hatred they bring into this blessed world that it would make Hitler - their erstwhile tormentor - look like a petty bicycle thief.