Enough said!
posted by Zakintosh at 4/27/2008 11:46:00 AM
Sunday, April 27, 2008
About Me
- Name: Zakintosh
- Location: Karachi, Pakistan
They laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at them because they are all the same.
recommended links
- Wanna Indulge?
- School Horror Stories
- The Second Floor
- Meanderings
- In The Line of Wire
- Cherry, we miss you
- Tarun's Baby
- Tehelka Special
-
- 3QD
- Blogging the Bible
- Beat the Blogbans
- YaGooHoogle!
- DogPile
- Literary Treasure-Chest
- Change This
- Understanding Evolution
- Centre for Science Education
- And Darkness was upon the Face of the Earth
words of wisdom
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have scrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness - that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that the saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought and, though it might seem too good for human life, this is what - at last - I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
Bertrand Russell
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.
Noam Chomsky
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Albert Einstein
Each century seems to take on a particular character as we view it in retrospect. How will the 20th Century be remembered? My guess is that this dramatic span of 100 years will ultimately be marked not by computers or the Internet, but by the drive toward individual freedom, the breaking of human barriers of prejudice, and the opening of society to include all people.
John S. Spong
DESIDERATA
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
Max Ehrmann
5 Comments:
Er...Aren't we missing keeping a can of pepper-spray handy?
27 April, 2008 16:04
@Siddusaaheb, with all due respect, this is a very serious issue and CANNOT be taken lightly or in jest. As a Dermatologist,I see a lot of young children both male and female who I'm sure have been molested either by domestic staff but most often by their brothers, uncles and even fathers.Though any suggestion of such an event having taken place is often denied by the child's parents and then unfortunately they are lost to follow up.
Unfortunately, this is a very common practice not just in cities but in our rural areas as well. Many of these girls commit suicide or are murdered 'accidentally' by burning.
The case of the Australian man who held his own daughter captive and fathered 7 children by her. REVOLTING!
This is a cause for which every citizen of any country has to do something. But what?
29 April, 2008 12:17
@aziz72: While to some extent, and very understandably in the majority* of cases, retribution is warranted, prevention is a far better option. Both in the short term, and in the long term, we need to look at reshaping childhood, in order to inculcate a sense of inclusivity from an early age.
Current educational systems (both secular and faith-oriented) are designed to heighten a sense of exclusion and hierarchy. Children grow up to be adults with an extraordinary 'divide'-oriented outlook.
Where this 'divide' is unnaturally focused towards the other sex, rape and sexual abuse of some - other than purely physical - nature is an inevitable outcome. I put rape and abuse by both men and women in this category.
Retribution, on the other hand, once allowed, is easily perverted into further attacks on women (honour killings), and into unconscionably complex legal proceedings that barely are distinguishable from rape itself. Where legal strictures are excused (in order to protect the victim), abuse of the legal system by women is not uncommon (though how rare as compared to physical rape by women itself, I don't know. It hardly matters: an inclusive approach to rearing children would go far to minimise that possibility too).
(* the minority being those where the women are strong enough within themselves to not allow the rape to ruin or even colour the rest of their lives)
29 April, 2008 14:42
@VIc,I completely agree with you regarding reshaping childhood from an early age,as well as making appropriate changes in the educational system. But how do you get to the thousands of children, both male and female in'madressas', and how do you propose educating the bearded fornicators posing as arbiters of 'faith'?
I was actually talking in the context of young children 3-5 years of age who are probably too scared to admit to being abused, physically or otherwise.More often than not they are brought to my clinic by the fathers rather than the mothers. You can see the fear in their eyes, but even the gentlest of probing evokes a harsh rebuke from the accompanying parent.
29 April, 2008 18:26
FYI, the "basement horror" father was Austrian, not AustRALian.
05 May, 2008 18:31
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