The number of deads rose to eleven in Afghanistan today as the cartoon crisis spread to the southern part of the country.
The cartoons were originally published in a Danish paper, Jyllands-Posten, after Danish writer Kare Bluitgen complained he was unable to find an illustrator for his children's book about the Prophet, because no one wanted to break an Islamic tenet banning the portrayal of his image.
I believe there have been more reasons to publishing the cartoons than what Kare Buitgen has been saying. Why would the cartoons need to be published if it’s for children illustration in Denmark’s leading daily newspaper, is Denmark a nation of three year olds?!
I was reading some of the Muslim newspapers and weblogs in reaction to this incident and there were two reasons which were most commonly spread. The more extreme writers believed it’s another manifestation of Western–Christian hostility toward Islam. They claimed the western “Politicians and the media have a tendency to see Muslims only as criminal, anti-social elements and as potential rapists” This could be seen in the irony of the cartoons, where the media connects the most prominent Islamic character with backwardness, bomb and criminality.
The other reason was, it’s also connected with a lot of home issues which still remains unsolved in Europe, such as freedom of expression. The traditional European censorship comes to a dead end with the rise of right wing governments in power.
Twentieth century history of the Scandinavian countries has had a reputation for being peace-loving and harmless.
That might still be true. But the perception among millions of Muslims has changed; the cartoons are not only breaking the ban and insulting, but it’s also provocative and hostile. Many Scandinavian’s has realized that their reputation is at risk and latest figures shows that almost 80% of the Danes regret the action of Jylland Posten. Many Muslim governments have demanded an official apology from the Danish government, I believe if the Danish government responds positively that would make a big difference.
The polish daily Rzeczospolita decided to republish the cartoons the other day, following the lead of many other papers in France, Germany, and Norway. This is after Jyllands-Posten apology, which admitted that their right of free expression has insulted some other people.
This clearly means that Rzeczospolita realizes the reprint of Mohammad’s cartoon portray is a provocative action, but they still want to go ahead with it. This brings up a good scenario for the polish government; will they allow the cartoons to reinforce their commitment to western values at the cost of exacerbated relationship with the Muslim countries and Muslims inside Poland. Poland is especially interesting to picture in this crisis as it has deep rooted Catholicism tradition and it’s currently ruled by PiS, a socially conservative party who is more toward religious values.
The sentiment of the Scandinavians as very secular societies where religion has never been much important is understandable, but Poland is even more religious than ‘classical countries’ such as Italy. How would a very religious European country insult to another religion? Will Poland standby if Rzeczospolita publishes similar cartoons of Jesus.
The tenet banning of Mohammad’s portrayal in Afghanistan also led to an over exaggeration of the caricatures. No one knew what was originally drawn and this is where the rumors start. rumors of the picture which has gone around Kabul is more obscene.
But even if the presumed cartoons were published I believe violence and attacks are no way to go.
I wonder how would Mohammad (pbuh) reacted if he was around. It has been said he was a very tolerant person with a very good sense of humor, and if he could have understood the Danish sense of humor, he would have set a good precedent for a lot of his followers.
Freedom of expression and information access has been one of the deadliest phenomena since volatile peace has return to this country in 2002. Protests in May 2005 against the alleged insult to Quran in Guantinamo brought at least 15 causalities.
آيا اروپا واقعا به آزادی بيان اعتقاد دارد و آن را رعايت می کند؟ ... شايد اگر دقت کنيد، در می يابيد که برخورد اروپا و غرب با آزادی بيان مانند بسياری از برخوردهای ايرانيان، متناقض است و غرب در رفتار خود کاملا عمل متناقضی را از خود بروز می دهد.
بعنوان مثال، میتوان به مساله هولوکاست در غرب اشاره نمود. اينجانب هولوکاست را نفی نمی کنم اما آيا اروپاييان برای ارايه نظرات مخالف خود پيرامون هولوکاست از آزادی بيان لازم برخوردارند؟
kazemzadeh.blogfa.com
نه محمد، ما سانسور نمی کنيم ... - همه چيز درباره آمريکای من - ۵ فوريه
... به نظر می آيد هربار "جهان اسلام" از چيزی رنجيده می شود، حتی چيزی خيلی کوچک، عکس العمل بسياری از آنان خشونت است. پرچم ها يا اشياء و حتی ساختمان ها را به آتش می کشند، غارت می کنند، انسان های بی گناه را می کشند و خواستار اعدام "توهين کنندگان" به باورهايشان می شوند.
تقدس و آزادی بيان - فرنگوپوليس - سيما شاخساری - ۳ فوريه
من فکر می کنم که مقوله هايی مثل "آزادی" و "دموکراسی" و "سکولاريسم" در دنيای امروزی ما شکل تقدس به خود گرفته اند. يعنی سکولاريسم در خود به مذهب تبديل شده و بعضی از حاميان آن تا حد بنيادگرايی هم می روند.
... و اين کارتون ها هم در مقطعی از تاريخ و در مکانی چاپ شده اند که جو ضد اسلام و مسلمانان باعث شده که مهاجران مسلمان مورد تبعيض و تنفر جوامعی که در آن زندگی می کنند قرار بگيرند. ... نمی شود تحت نام "آزادی بيان" خشونتی که اين کارتون ها در سطح ملی و فراملی به همراه دارند را ناديده گرفت.
... بنيادگرايی مذهبی، تصوير آيينه ای بنيادگرايی سکولار است. حالا خشونتش چه به اسم آزادی بيان باشد چه به اسم محمد، چه به اسم مسيح، چه به اسم شيوا، چه به اسم موسی.
farangeopolis.blogspot.com
کاريکاتورهای توهين آميز و جنگ هويت - مداد - حسين نوش آذر - ۳ فوريه
اعتراض يکپارچه و گسترده مسلمانان جهان به دولت دانمارک و تحريريه روزنامه "يولاندز پستن" نه تنها در اعتقادات مذهبی مسلمانان ريشه دارد، بلکه بيش از هر چيز از بحران هويتی نشان دارد که از شروع انقلاب اسلامی در ايران هر دم بر ابعاد آن افزوده می شود.
جنگ های اخير با ابعاد جهانی و فرا ملی در خاورميانه تنها جنگ ميان غرب و جهان اسلام نيست. اين جنگ ها، جنگ هويت است. مسلمانان استعمار شده در يکسو قرار دارند و مسيحيان و صهيونيست های استعمارگر در سوی ديگر.
www.medad.net/wpm
فرهنگ افراطی نرنجاندن - BuzzMachine - جف جارويس - ۵ فوريه
من اغلب از اين ناليده ام که آمريکا به فرهنگ نرنجاندن تبديل شده، جايی که هر چه ممکن است موجب رنجش کسی شود را نبايد گفت ...
... آيا ما نبايد بيشتر، از عکس العمل خشونت آميز در مخالفت با بيان يک عقيده ناراحت شويم تا از ابراز آن عقيده؟ آيا نبايد اين موضوع را بيان کنيم؟ ... آيا ما - دولت ها، ناشران، روزنامه نگاران، شهروندان - مرعوب خشونت شده ايم؟ ...
آيا روزنامه نگاران آمريکايی برای ابراز همبستگی با ناشران اروپايی بايد اين کاريکاتورها را منتشر می کردند؟ ... آيا اين تصاوير بخشی از داستان نيستند که برای فهميده شدن بايد به نمايش در می آمدند؟ آيا حقی برای ديدن آنها هست؟ آيا مسئوليتی روزنامه نگارانه که آنها را در گزارش ها نشان دهيم وجود ندارد؟
وقتی اهانت، به گناه و جرم تبديل می شود و موجبی برای مجازات و حتی خشونت، هيچ وقت مشخص نيست که خط قرمز کجاست؟ اما زمانی که ابر
Friday, February 10, 2006
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
for Katowic victims
It’s snowing outside - like usual
I opened the window and touched to see if it was cold
In deed, I felt you; i felt the coldness of your body
I felt all the cold concrete rubbles coloured with cold white snow
Closed the window
I saw a man putting a new ad on the board across the window
I want them to put a big white pigeon
You know which one I am talking about
The one you liked the most
Yes, that one ;-)
The one you liked too much and decided to soar with it without farewell
We wondered where you went … Magda and Łukasz was looking for you
The dog misses you too… I saw him drunk last night; he had lost his second rotten tooth
Want to clear all roofs from snow
But usual story… my muscles can’t help me … I am a blind in the dark …bothered but not afraid
Today we mourn for you… flags half masted and decorated with couple of black ribbons
Wanted to tell you we’ll remember you after today too
If man does nothing because he feels not like it… then that causes the triumph of even concrete over us
our diminutive act could have prevented your sudden departure… this is no chaos theory
Maximum respect!!!
I opened the window and touched to see if it was cold
In deed, I felt you; i felt the coldness of your body
I felt all the cold concrete rubbles coloured with cold white snow
Closed the window
I saw a man putting a new ad on the board across the window
I want them to put a big white pigeon
You know which one I am talking about
The one you liked the most
Yes, that one ;-)
The one you liked too much and decided to soar with it without farewell
We wondered where you went … Magda and Łukasz was looking for you
The dog misses you too… I saw him drunk last night; he had lost his second rotten tooth
Want to clear all roofs from snow
But usual story… my muscles can’t help me … I am a blind in the dark …bothered but not afraid
Today we mourn for you… flags half masted and decorated with couple of black ribbons
Wanted to tell you we’ll remember you after today too
If man does nothing because he feels not like it… then that causes the triumph of even concrete over us
our diminutive act could have prevented your sudden departure… this is no chaos theory
Maximum respect!!!
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
cultural metaphore
On Christmas eve with a friend of mine, we went to join some student-mates in the hostel and it didn’t take very long until the entire room was dragged into a closed conversation, and no matter how hard all of us in the room tried to change the conversation topic we ended up talking about poles and poland and we were going round and round, reiterating ourselves and making no sense.
I happen to see the folks again and inevitably the same thing; we talked about Poland with the same ultra-subjective critical scrutiny.
Sometimes these conversations make you wonder and think where it’s rooted; and I think it’s the sweeping generalization. This one is the stereotyping which is a cognitive need to schematize and interpret with a negative tendency.
To escape from the seemingly no-exit situation of interpretations I do think we need to sacrifice our perspectives- a seeing through of those structures which, by their very nature, tend to resist being seen through. Through this radical sacrifice, "The multiplicity of actual human empirical spaces for man’s [woman's] interaction and communication may be made possible. However, I do realise this solution only applies to a very limited number of people, specifically in the case of our student community, quite significant number of individuals are ready for this radical sacrifice, but even within this group a substantial number of them needs an external jolt or force to direct/help them break the resistance of the structures confining them seen through.
Openness is not just enough to achieve this; academic students are often open just for the sake of openness. There is an obsession of openness and freedom. But quite often this openness restrains individual from sacrifice; the popular misunderstanding is that freedom of choice and open conscious do help in making radical sacrifice. Open communication with locked perspective scares off foreigners. I’ve noticed when western students are being open with students from Far East it really doesn’t help to build trust and other forms of cultural capital. It’s perhaps because there is no shared perspective.
The driving force and jolt for this sacrifice is crisis quite often. This program of emancipation requires that we not only acknowledge crisis as an element of man's life, but that we uncover its presuppositions. Crisis, in this view, may lead either to despair or it may engender a radical reorientation or the kind of orientation/activity which will make knowledge transparent to itself.
Obviously, crisis is not the only medium for cultural communication emancipation, or we would have had very rare intercultural communication; as we are building a conservative view here in Europe and typically enough conservative societies do not fancy crisis.
Like I said before, we are open in Europe for the sake of openness. There is an increasing lack of knowledge and imagination. Europe’s socio-economical problems are directly linked with its intercultural and perception problems. In countries like Italy and Germany people are accustomed and habituated to good standard of living, where social costs and wages are high, but the productive outcome is usual; in an economy which is generated more than 70% from export. This makes it hard for Europe to compete with other emerging nations in Asia which produces the same product for local markets in a way lower cost.
Coming back to radical perception; it’s hard for Europeans to make radical changes, which goes against it’s tradition of building on existing intercultural communication knowledge. It’s supposedly the best and Europe has been exporting it for centuries. I want to point out that 'other' ways of knowledge becomes the possibility for emancipation and radical constitution. I’ve noticed with imaginative and emancipated students one could talk about anything and do anything and they are relaxed enough to grant you such a climate.
It is principally through dialogue and communication, that crisis can become a catalyst for change, because it involves, "fundamental realignments of value and perceptions among the participants." This means that cross-cultural communication can become part of a systematic effort to desensitize one's embodied/invariant ways of knowing- the way out of the no-exist world of interacting with one's projections.
Authoritative and confirmative cultures where variety is doomed unacceptable, one is expected to maintain habitual conversational behavior and gestures. Usually, hierarchical culture is this kind of invariant way of cognizing or imagining.
Programs for emancipation are not concerned with individual’s socially dominant cultural background; emancipation is not targeting mainstream intercultural communication.
It’s so when we have to communicate in an intercultural space we don’t have to change and communicate on there frequency, where concepts are unilaterally perceived and humor is not shared. The danger is the predominant context for interpretations and interactions with other cultures is your own standards; this is another discussion where and how to promote communality and where and how to maintain differences for building a pluralistic environment through communication.
I have also noticed that international students in a multi-cultural environment over along period of time are less keen to communicate cross-culturally. This creates repetitive humans. I’ve noticed some of them; there are some with whom you could only drink and some other nerds with whom you could be intellectual. Some of them get habituated to one place, the TV room, kitchen or corridor, others get habituated to each other and they stick together as they were glued together from top to bottom.
I happen to see the folks again and inevitably the same thing; we talked about Poland with the same ultra-subjective critical scrutiny.
Sometimes these conversations make you wonder and think where it’s rooted; and I think it’s the sweeping generalization. This one is the stereotyping which is a cognitive need to schematize and interpret with a negative tendency.
To escape from the seemingly no-exit situation of interpretations I do think we need to sacrifice our perspectives- a seeing through of those structures which, by their very nature, tend to resist being seen through. Through this radical sacrifice, "The multiplicity of actual human empirical spaces for man’s [woman's] interaction and communication may be made possible. However, I do realise this solution only applies to a very limited number of people, specifically in the case of our student community, quite significant number of individuals are ready for this radical sacrifice, but even within this group a substantial number of them needs an external jolt or force to direct/help them break the resistance of the structures confining them seen through.
Openness is not just enough to achieve this; academic students are often open just for the sake of openness. There is an obsession of openness and freedom. But quite often this openness restrains individual from sacrifice; the popular misunderstanding is that freedom of choice and open conscious do help in making radical sacrifice. Open communication with locked perspective scares off foreigners. I’ve noticed when western students are being open with students from Far East it really doesn’t help to build trust and other forms of cultural capital. It’s perhaps because there is no shared perspective.
The driving force and jolt for this sacrifice is crisis quite often. This program of emancipation requires that we not only acknowledge crisis as an element of man's life, but that we uncover its presuppositions. Crisis, in this view, may lead either to despair or it may engender a radical reorientation or the kind of orientation/activity which will make knowledge transparent to itself.
Obviously, crisis is not the only medium for cultural communication emancipation, or we would have had very rare intercultural communication; as we are building a conservative view here in Europe and typically enough conservative societies do not fancy crisis.
Like I said before, we are open in Europe for the sake of openness. There is an increasing lack of knowledge and imagination. Europe’s socio-economical problems are directly linked with its intercultural and perception problems. In countries like Italy and Germany people are accustomed and habituated to good standard of living, where social costs and wages are high, but the productive outcome is usual; in an economy which is generated more than 70% from export. This makes it hard for Europe to compete with other emerging nations in Asia which produces the same product for local markets in a way lower cost.
Coming back to radical perception; it’s hard for Europeans to make radical changes, which goes against it’s tradition of building on existing intercultural communication knowledge. It’s supposedly the best and Europe has been exporting it for centuries. I want to point out that 'other' ways of knowledge becomes the possibility for emancipation and radical constitution. I’ve noticed with imaginative and emancipated students one could talk about anything and do anything and they are relaxed enough to grant you such a climate.
It is principally through dialogue and communication, that crisis can become a catalyst for change, because it involves, "fundamental realignments of value and perceptions among the participants." This means that cross-cultural communication can become part of a systematic effort to desensitize one's embodied/invariant ways of knowing- the way out of the no-exist world of interacting with one's projections.
Authoritative and confirmative cultures where variety is doomed unacceptable, one is expected to maintain habitual conversational behavior and gestures. Usually, hierarchical culture is this kind of invariant way of cognizing or imagining.
Programs for emancipation are not concerned with individual’s socially dominant cultural background; emancipation is not targeting mainstream intercultural communication.
It’s so when we have to communicate in an intercultural space we don’t have to change and communicate on there frequency, where concepts are unilaterally perceived and humor is not shared. The danger is the predominant context for interpretations and interactions with other cultures is your own standards; this is another discussion where and how to promote communality and where and how to maintain differences for building a pluralistic environment through communication.
I have also noticed that international students in a multi-cultural environment over along period of time are less keen to communicate cross-culturally. This creates repetitive humans. I’ve noticed some of them; there are some with whom you could only drink and some other nerds with whom you could be intellectual. Some of them get habituated to one place, the TV room, kitchen or corridor, others get habituated to each other and they stick together as they were glued together from top to bottom.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Friday, December 09, 2005
we suck - big time
- morning mate, how is it going?
- Yako tako. Aren’t you deported yet?
- I’ve been, wankers didn’t give me a chance to say ‘bye’; sorry, and have a good life
- Are you in Afghanistan
- Yeah
- How is Usama?
- Between us, he is doing quite well. I think he is having breakfast with his master, mr.bush... Have you got a number for Urzand?
- No, but let’s talk later….
-
This was the conversation I had on Friday with Sonya, a friend, who is on the same program from Moscow while she was riding in a public auto-bus.
As the conversation finished, she noticed she was getting bad eyes from the occupants, who witnessed charismas eve bombs in Warsaw tram stations a couple of days ago; and there is a picture of the perpetrator with description and alert behind her.
In a few seconds she realised the entire bus was suspicious of her phone call, and were steering at her as though she was djabel (the polish devil).
She decided to jump out of the bus in the next stop, before she is arrested by police for having an allegedly suspicious phone call and eventually not having a quite valid visa or at least kicked out of the bus by the occupants.
We both received three month visas for Poland, unlike 62 other people on this program. Who received a one year visa for the full duration of the program. It was two days before our visas expire. Getting deported was a very ‘plausible joke’ among us, and it was quite likely to happen.
When coming to Poland the university recommended that we apply for a one year visa and that is the easiest arrangement to make. But Sonya and my request for a one year visa was turned down without giving us a good reason and we were issued three month visas.
When in Poland our team-mates dubbed us Al-qaida and Mafia as they couldn’t see any other reason for us not getting equal civil benefits.
When meeting with minister of foreign affairs, we brought this up with him and asked him if he could reimburse us the 130 euros we pay for residency card as this only applies to two people, out of hundreds who receive scholarships and this is not fair. But he said he couldn’t help said it’s our problem and he is sorry in a very political way.
As our request for residency in Poland faces more obstacles set forth by the authorities I start to believe my teammates’ conspiracy. It seems like polish government applies bureaucratic restrictions on citizen of the countries, who are not considered friendly and positive bilateral relation doesn’t exist. If you follow the news you can see restrictions on individuals are imposed when relation exacerbate with Byelorussia, after the expulsion of polish diplomats or on Russian band over polish farm products.
On the other hand civil freedoms have been bestowed such as easy visa access and passage to Western Europe without transit visa to Ukrainian citizens after diplomacy was tighten between the governments.
In other words individuals are not really respects as human beings but as a political tool.
In a post conventional war era national states play with individuals to achieve political objectives.
I find this particularly interesting, I was always thought that democratic countries has respect for people as individuals and human beings; I guess my contemplation was rooted in the universal declaration of human rights which we recognised more than half a century ago and the EU essence. Let me quote you article1, part1 of the EU treaty for the draft constitution “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, liberty, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights. These values are common to the Member States in a society of pluralism, tolerance, justice, solidarity and non-discrimination”
All this stuff is part of the truth and not the whole truth. There is not much respect for individual and human being as we claim, but that’s ok, what bothers me is we are not being honest about it. We claim all these great values, while we are miserable. I have a new clause for universal declaration of human rights and EU treaty ‘WE SUCK – BIG TIME’ it’s rude but honest. I do believe honesty is the only conduct to avoid all sorts of hypocrisy.
- Yako tako. Aren’t you deported yet?
- I’ve been, wankers didn’t give me a chance to say ‘bye’; sorry, and have a good life
- Are you in Afghanistan
- Yeah
- How is Usama?
- Between us, he is doing quite well. I think he is having breakfast with his master, mr.bush... Have you got a number for Urzand?
- No, but let’s talk later….
-
This was the conversation I had on Friday with Sonya, a friend, who is on the same program from Moscow while she was riding in a public auto-bus.
As the conversation finished, she noticed she was getting bad eyes from the occupants, who witnessed charismas eve bombs in Warsaw tram stations a couple of days ago; and there is a picture of the perpetrator with description and alert behind her.
In a few seconds she realised the entire bus was suspicious of her phone call, and were steering at her as though she was djabel (the polish devil).
She decided to jump out of the bus in the next stop, before she is arrested by police for having an allegedly suspicious phone call and eventually not having a quite valid visa or at least kicked out of the bus by the occupants.
We both received three month visas for Poland, unlike 62 other people on this program. Who received a one year visa for the full duration of the program. It was two days before our visas expire. Getting deported was a very ‘plausible joke’ among us, and it was quite likely to happen.
When coming to Poland the university recommended that we apply for a one year visa and that is the easiest arrangement to make. But Sonya and my request for a one year visa was turned down without giving us a good reason and we were issued three month visas.
When in Poland our team-mates dubbed us Al-qaida and Mafia as they couldn’t see any other reason for us not getting equal civil benefits.
When meeting with minister of foreign affairs, we brought this up with him and asked him if he could reimburse us the 130 euros we pay for residency card as this only applies to two people, out of hundreds who receive scholarships and this is not fair. But he said he couldn’t help said it’s our problem and he is sorry in a very political way.
As our request for residency in Poland faces more obstacles set forth by the authorities I start to believe my teammates’ conspiracy. It seems like polish government applies bureaucratic restrictions on citizen of the countries, who are not considered friendly and positive bilateral relation doesn’t exist. If you follow the news you can see restrictions on individuals are imposed when relation exacerbate with Byelorussia, after the expulsion of polish diplomats or on Russian band over polish farm products.
On the other hand civil freedoms have been bestowed such as easy visa access and passage to Western Europe without transit visa to Ukrainian citizens after diplomacy was tighten between the governments.
In other words individuals are not really respects as human beings but as a political tool.
In a post conventional war era national states play with individuals to achieve political objectives.
I find this particularly interesting, I was always thought that democratic countries has respect for people as individuals and human beings; I guess my contemplation was rooted in the universal declaration of human rights which we recognised more than half a century ago and the EU essence. Let me quote you article1, part1 of the EU treaty for the draft constitution “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, liberty, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights. These values are common to the Member States in a society of pluralism, tolerance, justice, solidarity and non-discrimination”
All this stuff is part of the truth and not the whole truth. There is not much respect for individual and human being as we claim, but that’s ok, what bothers me is we are not being honest about it. We claim all these great values, while we are miserable. I have a new clause for universal declaration of human rights and EU treaty ‘WE SUCK – BIG TIME’ it’s rude but honest. I do believe honesty is the only conduct to avoid all sorts of hypocrisy.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Alexis de Tocqueville
“The scope of human perfectibility should be particularly feared in the democratic age”
Because it thrives on the obsession with self and one’s own security which equality fosters.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Because it thrives on the obsession with self and one’s own security which equality fosters.
Alexis de Tocqueville
dictatorship vs democracy
“I happen to be one of those people who do not believe in multi-party democracy” Yoweri Museveni has written “in fact, I am totally opposed to it as far as Africa today is concerned …… if one forms a multi-party system in Uganda, a party can’t win elections unless it finds a way of dividing the ninety-four percent of the electorate and this is where the main problem comes up: tribalism, religion or regionalism becomes the basis for intense partisanship”
This explains why SNTV (single non-transferable voting) system, which resulted in a parliament without political parties, was opted in Afghanistan.
Museveni came to power in 1986 and postponed elections, until he saw that they took place in a manner that ensured his victory. Most important reasons were economical growth, coming hard on tribalism and attempts and promises to restore stability.
Museveni’s election terribly resembles Karzai’s.
There is not much difference between self proclaimed democracy and dictatorship, except dictatorship explains itself better
This explains why SNTV (single non-transferable voting) system, which resulted in a parliament without political parties, was opted in Afghanistan.
Museveni came to power in 1986 and postponed elections, until he saw that they took place in a manner that ensured his victory. Most important reasons were economical growth, coming hard on tribalism and attempts and promises to restore stability.
Museveni’s election terribly resembles Karzai’s.
There is not much difference between self proclaimed democracy and dictatorship, except dictatorship explains itself better
Monday, November 28, 2005
In a long lasting conflict we paint the image of others, conflicts within the conflict mushrooms as it goes for too long; in Afghanistan after the invasion we experienced many different sorts of regional, ethnic, social, personal, and psychological conflicts. The psychological combat is a relief mechanism.
These acts protect the individual from things that would otherwise make him uncomfortable and anxious. One defence mechanism is projection on others –who is perceived enemy and pretty much everyone is an enemy - of feelings, characteristics and desires that we can’t admit exist in ourselves.
A major factor in projection is the creation of a scapegoat. An ‘enemy’ serves as a scapegoat when it is accused of bringing about an outcome that was actually perpetrated by another, perhaps even oneself. The accusation is used to justify ones’ own behaviour, which is similar to that foisted on the others. Everyone is usually seen as aggressive, seeking dominance and conquest and capable of evil and brutality. One can ignore ones’ own behaviour and preserve ones self image because no matter how badly one is behaving, the world is a bad place, others are even worst.
Kabulis experience this in the 90s when belligerent parties were making projection of each other and the outside world; almost everyone in the outside world was considered evil. As the conflict prolonged this became a social trend too, and individuals started to perceive others through a defensive mechanism.
Having an enemy allows one the satisfaction of recognising one’s own moral superiority and the rightness of one’s cause (if there is one).
These acts protect the individual from things that would otherwise make him uncomfortable and anxious. One defence mechanism is projection on others –who is perceived enemy and pretty much everyone is an enemy - of feelings, characteristics and desires that we can’t admit exist in ourselves.
A major factor in projection is the creation of a scapegoat. An ‘enemy’ serves as a scapegoat when it is accused of bringing about an outcome that was actually perpetrated by another, perhaps even oneself. The accusation is used to justify ones’ own behaviour, which is similar to that foisted on the others. Everyone is usually seen as aggressive, seeking dominance and conquest and capable of evil and brutality. One can ignore ones’ own behaviour and preserve ones self image because no matter how badly one is behaving, the world is a bad place, others are even worst.
Kabulis experience this in the 90s when belligerent parties were making projection of each other and the outside world; almost everyone in the outside world was considered evil. As the conflict prolonged this became a social trend too, and individuals started to perceive others through a defensive mechanism.
Having an enemy allows one the satisfaction of recognising one’s own moral superiority and the rightness of one’s cause (if there is one).
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Challenges of Liberalism and Post modernity from an Islamic View
Individual is not merely free to choose, she is forced to be free obliged to understand and live her life as an act of successive choices, each rationalized by the commitment only to increase the choices available to her. individual is free to choose but her only choice is to increase her range of choice every other choice is irrational, unauthentic, perverse. She must pretend that facticity, death and the unknown do not exist. This never ending pretense constitutes her becoming for the gilded chains of freedom can never be discarded. Every relationship, every social institution is transformed by post-modern liberalism into a market institution. The only identity actually available to individual in this prison of rights and choices, is the identity of the entrepreneur.
Post Liberalism is a coercive instrument which moralizes and normalizes individual’s life. They go to every mean to feel free.
Liberal (L) governmentality is also concerned with extending the realm of the political rule, is extended to order the affairs of a population to promote its well being. The state and its apparatus is concerned with inter relating the political spheres to the nonpolitical spheres in which the ‘political’ is grounded.
In this sense governmentality is transformed to constitute a set of activities which relate the spheres of the formation of consciousness to the spheres of dominance. Governmentaity is more than police. In eighteenth centuary France police implied complete documentation of society ‘L’ was to be made totally transparent, her scrutiny was to be perpetual and the ordering of her life, her thoughts and her desires was to be complete the dictatorship of the proletariat was an extension of the classical police regime.
Post Modern Liberalism (PML) as a mentality abandons this fantasy of a totally administered and planned society. Classical liberalism recognises the necessity of self governance of the entities it confronts. The sovereign does not exercise its totalising will across a national space ‘L’ is recognised to possess those inviolable individual and welfare rights which allows her to seek the maximisation of pleasure. Classical liberalism saw a society prior to the market which defined individual’s community conciousness defined the social constraints. This recognition of individual as an autonomous, self created and self oriented being required the recognition of the autonomy and self regulating legitimacy of the market and of society. The objects, instruments and tasks of liberal rule were formed, in accordance with the need to promote individual’s rights and the autonomy of the market and society. But the recognition of these rights and autonomy was to be reconciled with the perpetual domination of the liberal, state over, individual and over her society.
PML is concerned with the elaboration of theoretical systems but his self centeredness leads him to construct fragments of his own life into theoretical positions. It is never the theory and always the self his own self and no other which is the centre of his universe. It is this obsession with the death of the self
PML is freedom within the family, community and the market. But to make individual free in these spheres politician has to invent means for shaping and managing individual’s conduct and perceptions. individual’s “public” evaluations and conduct are evaluated by codes of orderliness, prudence, civility and consequentialism. Her “private” deliberations and behaviour are to be moulded by equipping her with languages and techniques and self understanding and self mastery. To be free individual must be taught to accept as natural and rational the pleasure/efficiency maximizing, conduct, characteristic of post enlightment libral society. Individual’s becomes free when she becomes a normal citizen of a liberal social order. Freedom is nothing else.
Post Liberalism is a coercive instrument which moralizes and normalizes individual’s life. They go to every mean to feel free.
Liberal (L) governmentality is also concerned with extending the realm of the political rule, is extended to order the affairs of a population to promote its well being. The state and its apparatus is concerned with inter relating the political spheres to the nonpolitical spheres in which the ‘political’ is grounded.
In this sense governmentality is transformed to constitute a set of activities which relate the spheres of the formation of consciousness to the spheres of dominance. Governmentaity is more than police. In eighteenth centuary France police implied complete documentation of society ‘L’ was to be made totally transparent, her scrutiny was to be perpetual and the ordering of her life, her thoughts and her desires was to be complete the dictatorship of the proletariat was an extension of the classical police regime.
Post Modern Liberalism (PML) as a mentality abandons this fantasy of a totally administered and planned society. Classical liberalism recognises the necessity of self governance of the entities it confronts. The sovereign does not exercise its totalising will across a national space ‘L’ is recognised to possess those inviolable individual and welfare rights which allows her to seek the maximisation of pleasure. Classical liberalism saw a society prior to the market which defined individual’s community conciousness defined the social constraints. This recognition of individual as an autonomous, self created and self oriented being required the recognition of the autonomy and self regulating legitimacy of the market and of society. The objects, instruments and tasks of liberal rule were formed, in accordance with the need to promote individual’s rights and the autonomy of the market and society. But the recognition of these rights and autonomy was to be reconciled with the perpetual domination of the liberal, state over, individual and over her society.
PML is concerned with the elaboration of theoretical systems but his self centeredness leads him to construct fragments of his own life into theoretical positions. It is never the theory and always the self his own self and no other which is the centre of his universe. It is this obsession with the death of the self
PML is freedom within the family, community and the market. But to make individual free in these spheres politician has to invent means for shaping and managing individual’s conduct and perceptions. individual’s “public” evaluations and conduct are evaluated by codes of orderliness, prudence, civility and consequentialism. Her “private” deliberations and behaviour are to be moulded by equipping her with languages and techniques and self understanding and self mastery. To be free individual must be taught to accept as natural and rational the pleasure/efficiency maximizing, conduct, characteristic of post enlightment libral society. Individual’s becomes free when she becomes a normal citizen of a liberal social order. Freedom is nothing else.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Sunday, November 20, 2005
war
Is violence a need or a mistake? violence comes to existance when people mishandle or can't handle a conflict. However, as time pass violence transforms to a habit. i think current crisis and world war three is a bit of both. western response to 911 strengthening anit-western ideology leading to fundamentalism in the middle east and asia. because of lack of understanding of global policy and the emergence of islamic radicalism in the middle east and asia; bankruptcy of left governments in the middle east and asia; impoverished democratic governance; oil curse. so it was clearly a mistake. but it's also a need. the emergence of right wind, pragmatist, extreme government in the US needs to wage war
It would have been fun if we let out our souls for a couple of hours every 24; for example when we are deep at sleep it takes off. It could have been a great relaxation for the body, bearing the weight of the soul and the soul being caged in by the body. Every morning we could have been refreshed and reborned just like a child. The age of the soul in the body would have been the same as an infant, therefore innocent and unambiguous. We wouldn’t have had all the hatred, suspicion, jealousy and distrust we are thought and inserted.
Actually I thought about it when I was to argue about an issue and I needed a devil advocate. It was so cool. I think I really figured out the issue. If our souls would have left the bodies then they could have met and discuss issues and figure out things that we can’t normally and the next day, we know all about it without exhausting our brain.
I bet there are stuff you want to discuss it honestly with someone – as a matter of fact I want to discuss everything honestly with people.
You know, there are people just want to be extreme for some reason, they either want to be part of something real big, perhaps because they feel flecky on their own and what they are, or they want to be the best.
I have a classmate who is even not American but his opinions are very right wing American, and he pretends to be one.
I wanted to have a very honest chat with real him. Clean from all sorts of acquirable values. So I could figure out what is exactly going on in his brain.
Actually I thought about it when I was to argue about an issue and I needed a devil advocate. It was so cool. I think I really figured out the issue. If our souls would have left the bodies then they could have met and discuss issues and figure out things that we can’t normally and the next day, we know all about it without exhausting our brain.
I bet there are stuff you want to discuss it honestly with someone – as a matter of fact I want to discuss everything honestly with people.
You know, there are people just want to be extreme for some reason, they either want to be part of something real big, perhaps because they feel flecky on their own and what they are, or they want to be the best.
I have a classmate who is even not American but his opinions are very right wing American, and he pretends to be one.
I wanted to have a very honest chat with real him. Clean from all sorts of acquirable values. So I could figure out what is exactly going on in his brain.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
from one of the lectures - interesting
Decisions (i.e. foreign policy) are made by people, as individuals and institutions; individual decision makers are wrapped up in several layers. Domestic and transnational. These layers are mingled and there are connections among them. these impinges directly the ablity of decision maker under both conditions of certainty and likelihood.
Decision-making: is the process of evaluating and choosing among eclectic alternatives course of action (or inaction).
In a decision willingness and opportunity are driving factors.
There could be several different causal reasons for a given decision: we wear jeans because everybody else does, we wear it because it looks good, we wear it because it’s cheap and durable, we wear it because we hate skirts, we wear …… no matter what a decision has been made.
In political decisions (and any decision) it’s important to know what are the willingness’s as oppose to opportunities.
Some people stresses that a good decision is not good or bad but it’s the rational one. Rational decision is to maximize benefit relative to the cost. This means gathering a lot of information and calculate cost against benefit, after identifying all of the options. So rationality is purposive and than posses; humanistic and organizational capabilities imposes a limit on rational behavior.
The neo-liberal prospect is that rationalism spoils values. (not quite sure how to explain it, but will do some studies)
What is outlined above is bollocks and can’t happen in the real world. Great deal of research has been done in this regard, one could do it’s own if not sure about it.
Decision-making: is the process of evaluating and choosing among eclectic alternatives course of action (or inaction).
In a decision willingness and opportunity are driving factors.
There could be several different causal reasons for a given decision: we wear jeans because everybody else does, we wear it because it looks good, we wear it because it’s cheap and durable, we wear it because we hate skirts, we wear …… no matter what a decision has been made.
In political decisions (and any decision) it’s important to know what are the willingness’s as oppose to opportunities.
Some people stresses that a good decision is not good or bad but it’s the rational one. Rational decision is to maximize benefit relative to the cost. This means gathering a lot of information and calculate cost against benefit, after identifying all of the options. So rationality is purposive and than posses; humanistic and organizational capabilities imposes a limit on rational behavior.
The neo-liberal prospect is that rationalism spoils values. (not quite sure how to explain it, but will do some studies)
What is outlined above is bollocks and can’t happen in the real world. Great deal of research has been done in this regard, one could do it’s own if not sure about it.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
war
Is violence a need or a mistake? violence comes to existance when people mishandle or can't handle a conflict. However, as time pass violence transforms to a habit. i think current crisis and world war three is a bit of both. western response to 911 strengthening anit-western ideology leading to fundamentalism in the middle east and asia. because of lack of understanding of global policy and the emergence of islamic radicalism in the middle east and asia; bankruptcy of left governments in the middle east and asia; impoverished democratic governance; oil curse. so it was clearly a mistake. but it's also a need. the emergence of right wind, pragmatist, extreme government in the US needs to wage war
Saturday, November 12, 2005
sisters
sisters is my favourite polish band, they are sort of into 'soul' music. i got pirate album of them the other day, and was listening to it the other night. i wrote the lyrics and i think this was the best.
You ask me about all my inspirations. You won't be surprised if I tell you.
what I write it comes from my emotions from my felling; my love wide as an ocean.
From your side you've untouched my feelings.
from your smiles, your absence always killing.
From whole life; from all sort of situations; from my people, from my education.
From home, from street, from money; from free; from you; from him; from everything; from books; from god; and I am still glad that I can see that
They asked me about my secret feelings.
Don't ask about songs and their meanings.
But if I stop talking let you listen.
The old last sing comes.
From home, from street, from money; from free; from you; from him; from everything; from books; from god; and I am still glad that I can see that
From home, from street, from money; from free; from you; from him; from everything; from books; from god; and I am still glad that I can see that
You have to know I have to tell you that; I am gonna change but real me is what you got my hearth is rich you offer trusting you
the truth is that if you say one word.
I will feel it.
I will write it then, I will sing it.
You so make me unforgettable.
You so make me unforgettable.
You so make me unforgettable.
Unforgettable
Unforgettable
Unforgettable
….
You so make me unforgettable.
You ask me about all my inspirations. You won't be surprised if I tell you.
what I write it comes from my emotions from my felling; my love wide as an ocean.
From your side you've untouched my feelings.
from your smiles, your absence always killing.
From whole life; from all sort of situations; from my people, from my education.
From home, from street, from money; from free; from you; from him; from everything; from books; from god; and I am still glad that I can see that
They asked me about my secret feelings.
Don't ask about songs and their meanings.
But if I stop talking let you listen.
The old last sing comes.
From home, from street, from money; from free; from you; from him; from everything; from books; from god; and I am still glad that I can see that
From home, from street, from money; from free; from you; from him; from everything; from books; from god; and I am still glad that I can see that
You have to know I have to tell you that; I am gonna change but real me is what you got my hearth is rich you offer trusting you
the truth is that if you say one word.
I will feel it.
I will write it then, I will sing it.
You so make me unforgettable.
You so make me unforgettable.
You so make me unforgettable.
Unforgettable
Unforgettable
Unforgettable
….
You so make me unforgettable.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Warsaw Diary – the scenes and places
still there is nothing to indicate that four, five or six times victorious armies had marched through the city (unless you go and look for it in the museums). the cafes shone with elegant women. the trim and slender officers like practised actors impersonating soldiers than like fighters. everywhere one sense activity and confidence and ….. (other things which i don’t know at this point)… which had risen so vigorously from the ashes of the centuries.
here i am, standing on the top of notorious palac kultury i nauki. the building which automatically wins in the "most attention demanding structure in a european capital" category. this massive, city-like tower stands at the center of the capital of the largest country in new europe. it's been called freaky huge. the panorama is beautiful, one feel like being able to see all warsaw or maybe all poland from here. i think if i brought a pair of binoculars i could have seen the entire europe ;-))) that would have saved me a lot of traveling and fare ;-))) it was built in 1955 as joseph stalin's "gift" to warsaw, the palace of culture and science still stands as the tallest structure in the city as well as in all of poland. at over 234 meters, this bad boy still has the upper hand on all of its modern neighbors - thanks god i didn’t measure it, was just thinking whoever has done it must have had quite a lot of fun or in another words it must have been a communist with a good sense of fun and adventure - oh look!!! there is another building called ‘marriott’ trying to compete, but i don’t think so. if you come and stand here at the top you would think non of these modern glass structures will make it this high.
oh and by the way, the tower is standing on the largest square in europe (that is a big statement to make, since i haven’t been to many european cities, but that is what i have been told and i am telling you. you can always not believe it)
i think it was makar shnip a friend of mine telling me the poles had a big debate whether to keep or destroy it in the beginning of 90s as a sign to refuse communism and its gift. but i think they decided to keep it.
a female friend was saying it’s a very boy-ish symbol, and often polish girls discuss among themselves that they will put a condemn on it ;-)) i love the idea; i’ll definitely take picture of that and send it to you.
i love the confidence in young poles. the good sense of time, the past is the past, and warsaw is where the future is being shaped. there is a great interest in whatever they are doing. i am not saying there is no whinging. there is quite some of that; i was warned about it when i was coming and on the first few days of our introductory course pan piotr enlightened us about it with a great emphasize on the polish synonym for it; i think it’s something like “narzekają”.
here i am, standing on the top of notorious palac kultury i nauki. the building which automatically wins in the "most attention demanding structure in a european capital" category. this massive, city-like tower stands at the center of the capital of the largest country in new europe. it's been called freaky huge. the panorama is beautiful, one feel like being able to see all warsaw or maybe all poland from here. i think if i brought a pair of binoculars i could have seen the entire europe ;-))) that would have saved me a lot of traveling and fare ;-))) it was built in 1955 as joseph stalin's "gift" to warsaw, the palace of culture and science still stands as the tallest structure in the city as well as in all of poland. at over 234 meters, this bad boy still has the upper hand on all of its modern neighbors - thanks god i didn’t measure it, was just thinking whoever has done it must have had quite a lot of fun or in another words it must have been a communist with a good sense of fun and adventure - oh look!!! there is another building called ‘marriott’ trying to compete, but i don’t think so. if you come and stand here at the top you would think non of these modern glass structures will make it this high.
oh and by the way, the tower is standing on the largest square in europe (that is a big statement to make, since i haven’t been to many european cities, but that is what i have been told and i am telling you. you can always not believe it)
i think it was makar shnip a friend of mine telling me the poles had a big debate whether to keep or destroy it in the beginning of 90s as a sign to refuse communism and its gift. but i think they decided to keep it.
a female friend was saying it’s a very boy-ish symbol, and often polish girls discuss among themselves that they will put a condemn on it ;-)) i love the idea; i’ll definitely take picture of that and send it to you.
i love the confidence in young poles. the good sense of time, the past is the past, and warsaw is where the future is being shaped. there is a great interest in whatever they are doing. i am not saying there is no whinging. there is quite some of that; i was warned about it when i was coming and on the first few days of our introductory course pan piotr enlightened us about it with a great emphasize on the polish synonym for it; i think it’s something like “narzekają”.
warsaw is a very expensive city comparing with other polish cities, poles come from far and
wide to make their fortune; centered around marshal street and solidarity avenue, warsaw is the business capital and where trends are set. it is also the academic centre of the country, warsaw's is the country's leading university, and its offshoots, such as the school of economics and political science, are leaders in their fields. the lively student population numbers some 150,000 alone.warsaw university, where i study, has over 60000 students including quite a substantial number of international students. established in 1816 uw offers courses of studies in 35 fields of arts and sciences. it comprises 18 faculties and 25 independent research and didactic units. it probably has one of the largest numbers of phd scholars in europe. i visited the faculty of oriental studies, where i will be based. i’ll do oriental media studies – not quite sure what that is.
the faculty has extensive farsi classes and lectures and since it’s establishment (don’t know when) it has graduated around 60 students with ma degrees on afghan and iranian history and culture, some of whom speaks better farsi than i do. i was wondering how many people in kabul would speak better polish than a pole. but i figured it out - i will ;-))
on the other hand, warsaw is an immensely moving place to connect with the past. the rebuilt city centre is the old town with its proud royal castle. in addition, the former jewish ghetto is a stark reminder of the unforgiving hand of history.
the old town in the heart of warsaw resembles to a quaint provincial town or one feel being in a city of 17th century - a fortified town of modest stature. warsaw was founded by the dukes of this region of poland, mazovia, in the late 12th century. their castle, which was transformed into the royal seat in 1569, was the most important edifice and it remains the focus of the area to this day.it’s very elegantly rebuilt and it’s hard to think 98% of it was destroyed. life is slower in the old town. it gets slower in the paintings you see in the old town squire; paintings of feasts and palaces of 15 century exposes life much slower. it’s good to see that as it makes one think we always haven’t been jumpy. fragments of the old city walls still survive, and within the old town there are many landmarks, including the historic cathedral of st. paul's. the wall surrounding the old city was destroyed during warsaw uprising and the communist didn’t build it for quite a while; it was built in the last days of communist regime by a special order from the chief of polish communist party. it’s told he was strolling in the presidential palace garden which is a cross the river and he saw st. paul and all these other gigantic churches with their shining crosses; that’s when he ordered he doesn’t wanna see those crosses again and the wall should be built around it to conceal them. he hated the religion more than his fear of another upraise.
also went to the museum of history in the old town and watched warsaw's wartime tales. one can fail to be touched with the sheer power of the ancient city in having overcome all the odds to rise once again from rubbles.
loved the royal castle, i think after its construction was completed in the 60s or maybe beginning of 70s it was included on the unesco list.
the sigismond column is also quite noticeable as you get to the palace. i think kind sigismond iii moved the capital from krakow to warsaw. and the typical situation, krakovians doesn’t like him very much and i bet there is no sigismond column in krakow.
from the edge you could see a straight shot down krakowskie przedmiescie or across the wisla
river a nice view of praga and the swietokrzyski bridge. krakowskie przedmiecie is the street where my university is located. i’ve got some shots of this view.for a change there are also great places out of city center. the lazienski park area, with its palaces and gardens, is a favourite with poles and foreigners alike, as is wilanow, i think i’ve got pictures of wilanow.
Friday, September 30, 2005
international tongue twister
i thought you might like this http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/index.htm. it's probably the world largest tongue twister website. i loved the persian and polish sections. this is a great resource for afghan media espicially radio to use and update, or maybe create their own. interactive programs are still very few in afghan radio sector and it's one of the most important part of the radio industry. this could be used to create interactive radio programs. i think tongue twisters, jokes, proverbs and poems are a profound part of afghan culture and bringing afghan culture into the media scene is something which needs to happen. if i ever get to have some free time i'll create a website with afghan proverbs, jokes, tongue twisters and folkloric stories to be used as a resource center by media.
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