Loyalties
We are now a little over two hours from the India Pakistan game. If Pakistan loses the match, they will not only have committed the cardinal sin of losing to India, but will also be out of the World Cup. Recrimination will be swift and scary, considering the many different forms that a cocktail of passion and violence can take. (This makes me feel sorry for their team; having said that India had better win.)
I saw a picture today of Muslims in India holding up a banner showing their support to the Indian cricket team. Indian Muslims must be dreading the days these cricket matches are played. It is a day where they have to redouble their efforts to show their commitment to India. This is a sad testament to affairs in the nation and processions such as the one above only go a long way to further bolster the message of Muslims as a people with shaky loyalties.
And Indian Muslim must not in the slightest way feel different from the average Indian. If he or she does not want to support India, then there is no reason for s/he to feel apologetic about it. I have seen many Hindus support opposing teams while they were playing India. If a Hindu can stop supporting the Indian cricket team then why cannot a Muslim?
If India genuinely looked after the minorities in its populations, then could parents of school going children ever bear resentment towards India (which the last time I looked up is different from the Indian cricket team)? (I had great resentment towards my quality of life in India. I did more than stop supporting our cricket team. I moved. The US has given me hot cold water running in its taps and a sense that my ethnicity matters little if I am talented, and I feel greatly obliged towards it in a short span of five years).
However, this is beside the point. Muslims in India are just Indians first. They do not have to prove anything. They must not. People who put them in a position of having to do so on a daily basis are the root cause of most violence in the name of religion.
Disappointed by India? Support Pakistan? Want to leave to foreign lands? Earn a living? It’s all good and everyone can do what they want. They should be able to.
We are now a little over two hours from the India Pakistan game. If Pakistan loses the match, they will not only have committed the cardinal sin of losing to India, but will also be out of the World Cup. Recrimination will be swift and scary, considering the many different forms that a cocktail of passion and violence can take. (This makes me feel sorry for their team; having said that India had better win.)
I saw a picture today of Muslims in India holding up a banner showing their support to the Indian cricket team. Indian Muslims must be dreading the days these cricket matches are played. It is a day where they have to redouble their efforts to show their commitment to India. This is a sad testament to affairs in the nation and processions such as the one above only go a long way to further bolster the message of Muslims as a people with shaky loyalties.
And Indian Muslim must not in the slightest way feel different from the average Indian. If he or she does not want to support India, then there is no reason for s/he to feel apologetic about it. I have seen many Hindus support opposing teams while they were playing India. If a Hindu can stop supporting the Indian cricket team then why cannot a Muslim?
If India genuinely looked after the minorities in its populations, then could parents of school going children ever bear resentment towards India (which the last time I looked up is different from the Indian cricket team)? (I had great resentment towards my quality of life in India. I did more than stop supporting our cricket team. I moved. The US has given me hot cold water running in its taps and a sense that my ethnicity matters little if I am talented, and I feel greatly obliged towards it in a short span of five years).
However, this is beside the point. Muslims in India are just Indians first. They do not have to prove anything. They must not. People who put them in a position of having to do so on a daily basis are the root cause of most violence in the name of religion.
Disappointed by India? Support Pakistan? Want to leave to foreign lands? Earn a living? It’s all good and everyone can do what they want. They should be able to.
The obstacle
I could write about evil Saddam. I could write about Bush. I could write about the fact that it the first anniversary of the Godhra massacre, when thousands of innocent Hindus and Muslims lost their lives in senseless rioting.
I could write all this and much more. But I have a hangover. I have little right to talk about non-violence in this state.
Hence I won't.
I could write about evil Saddam. I could write about Bush. I could write about the fact that it the first anniversary of the Godhra massacre, when thousands of innocent Hindus and Muslims lost their lives in senseless rioting.
I could write all this and much more. But I have a hangover. I have little right to talk about non-violence in this state.
Hence I won't.
Once in a while
North Korea must be feeling like a very beautiful wife who is faithful by nature and married to an impotent man. She has all the goods and flaunts them shamelessly, but fails to get a reaction from the US.
The American government (it will be a good policy for all media with global reader/viewership to refer to the USA as such to differentiate them from the American man or woman) is busy drawing up a list of 40 leaders who will at any cost not be allowed to come to power should (or when) Saddam be (is) deposed. They have called this list “The Filthy forty”. So we now have a battle between the “Coalition of the Willing” and the “Filthy 40”. I wonder as to why this sounds like a Western movie.
And once in a while I shall delve into esoteric issues that have little appeal to most of the world. India defeated England in the key 2003 World Cup match today. What was special about the performance was the performance of the Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who earlier in this forum has already been mentioned as the ideal of any non-violent soldier. The English fast bowler Andrew Caddick had been repeatedly taunting Sachin in the media in the days leading up to the performance. Sachin had nothing but respect for his opponents in speech and demeanor off the field. On the field, he took apart Caddick in what can only be designated as a ruthless performance, which took the game to new heights of sublime perfection (and do note that the words in the preceding sentences are not superlatives).
It is a good example for all to follow. Don’t call yourself the “Good Guys”. Be the “Good Guys”.
North Korea must be feeling like a very beautiful wife who is faithful by nature and married to an impotent man. She has all the goods and flaunts them shamelessly, but fails to get a reaction from the US.
The American government (it will be a good policy for all media with global reader/viewership to refer to the USA as such to differentiate them from the American man or woman) is busy drawing up a list of 40 leaders who will at any cost not be allowed to come to power should (or when) Saddam be (is) deposed. They have called this list “The Filthy forty”. So we now have a battle between the “Coalition of the Willing” and the “Filthy 40”. I wonder as to why this sounds like a Western movie.
And once in a while I shall delve into esoteric issues that have little appeal to most of the world. India defeated England in the key 2003 World Cup match today. What was special about the performance was the performance of the Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who earlier in this forum has already been mentioned as the ideal of any non-violent soldier. The English fast bowler Andrew Caddick had been repeatedly taunting Sachin in the media in the days leading up to the performance. Sachin had nothing but respect for his opponents in speech and demeanor off the field. On the field, he took apart Caddick in what can only be designated as a ruthless performance, which took the game to new heights of sublime perfection (and do note that the words in the preceding sentences are not superlatives).
It is a good example for all to follow. Don’t call yourself the “Good Guys”. Be the “Good Guys”.
Hope in short supply
Information can be manufactured without any raw materials. The information put up on any website (including this one) could be entirely fabricated. The biggest change that the Internet has made in the dissemination of information is that it has not only reduced distance and time to nothingness, but also credibility.
But as human beings, we want to trust somebody. Hence we place our faith in institutions that have been worthy of the trust we have placed in the past. We look to them for laughter. For news. For solutions. And for hope. However, anything that can give, can also take. My hope for a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis has dimmed considerably.
USAID (the branch of the US government) has put up a report on what they plan to do in Iraq. The words "in case diplomatic channels fail" are conspicuous by their absence. War is inevitable. I don't know how to say that in French. Does anybody?
Information can be manufactured without any raw materials. The information put up on any website (including this one) could be entirely fabricated. The biggest change that the Internet has made in the dissemination of information is that it has not only reduced distance and time to nothingness, but also credibility.
But as human beings, we want to trust somebody. Hence we place our faith in institutions that have been worthy of the trust we have placed in the past. We look to them for laughter. For news. For solutions. And for hope. However, anything that can give, can also take. My hope for a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis has dimmed considerably.
USAID (the branch of the US government) has put up a report on what they plan to do in Iraq. The words "in case diplomatic channels fail" are conspicuous by their absence. War is inevitable. I don't know how to say that in French. Does anybody?
East and West
I read a piece by Schopenhauer yesterday. He strikes me as being a grim type of fellow, the kind that will complain incessantly even after you hand him a rum 'n raisin ice cream cone. However, it was not all stark.
Schopenhauer says that the immediate visible world is one of dreams. It is all illusion. This is in agreement to the Hindu/Buddhist school of thought that speaks of maya. According to this ancient philosophy, everything and everyone is all the same God or if you have it the same Self. To avoid boredom, God takes on different forms and mannerisms. (not to mention, if everyone looked the same, the entire ID industry would come to a grinding halt.)
If this is the case, then it should apply to all suffering as well as joy. Starving children, landmine victims, destitute women are all illusion. They are not real. How can they be when nothing is real?
So why should we even bother trying to do something when things go wrong? Why don’t we watch in silence when children starve and women cry?
We cannot, simply for the reason that we would be hurting our Self.
In order to help “our Self” effectively that we must perceive suffering and objects of suffering as such. After all, when your tooth aches, do you feel sorry only for the tooth?
There is another reason too. With utter indifference to all, it would become very boring. Yes, it is all no doubt very unreal, but that is only added incentive to make it interesting.
I read a piece by Schopenhauer yesterday. He strikes me as being a grim type of fellow, the kind that will complain incessantly even after you hand him a rum 'n raisin ice cream cone. However, it was not all stark.
Schopenhauer says that the immediate visible world is one of dreams. It is all illusion. This is in agreement to the Hindu/Buddhist school of thought that speaks of maya. According to this ancient philosophy, everything and everyone is all the same God or if you have it the same Self. To avoid boredom, God takes on different forms and mannerisms. (not to mention, if everyone looked the same, the entire ID industry would come to a grinding halt.)
If this is the case, then it should apply to all suffering as well as joy. Starving children, landmine victims, destitute women are all illusion. They are not real. How can they be when nothing is real?
So why should we even bother trying to do something when things go wrong? Why don’t we watch in silence when children starve and women cry?
We cannot, simply for the reason that we would be hurting our Self.
In order to help “our Self” effectively that we must perceive suffering and objects of suffering as such. After all, when your tooth aches, do you feel sorry only for the tooth?
There is another reason too. With utter indifference to all, it would become very boring. Yes, it is all no doubt very unreal, but that is only added incentive to make it interesting.
Beyond criticism
I have written a lot in the past about how much a man/woman can learn from a dog as far as co-existing with the environment goes. There are a few things that dogs can learn from men/women too.
A pet is often the function of its master. If you tie up a dog and are rude to it, chances are it will bite many people that chance to cross its path.
Human beings are slightly different.
Today, I was listening to this fantastic singer/guitarist from Cuba: Eliades Ochoa
He has composed flawless music in a manner that would do Nietzsche proud, and has probed completely the very realms of Dionysian art. Intoxicating is the word to describe it. Eliades Ochoa goes down the path of happiness. Never mind the sanctions, poverty, dictatorship and the like.
There are thousands of people like Eliades that are capable of producing songs of hope in times of extreme adversity. Happiness for them might be one interaction with another person that might have happened by chance long ago or that has become dulled by daily routine.
It is possible for "them" to live with thoughts other than survival or domination dominating their mindset. It happens all the time.
We only have to want to see and listen.
I have written a lot in the past about how much a man/woman can learn from a dog as far as co-existing with the environment goes. There are a few things that dogs can learn from men/women too.
A pet is often the function of its master. If you tie up a dog and are rude to it, chances are it will bite many people that chance to cross its path.
Human beings are slightly different.
Today, I was listening to this fantastic singer/guitarist from Cuba: Eliades Ochoa
He has composed flawless music in a manner that would do Nietzsche proud, and has probed completely the very realms of Dionysian art. Intoxicating is the word to describe it. Eliades Ochoa goes down the path of happiness. Never mind the sanctions, poverty, dictatorship and the like.
There are thousands of people like Eliades that are capable of producing songs of hope in times of extreme adversity. Happiness for them might be one interaction with another person that might have happened by chance long ago or that has become dulled by daily routine.
It is possible for "them" to live with thoughts other than survival or domination dominating their mindset. It happens all the time.
We only have to want to see and listen.
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