Jesus visits the U.S. Embassy

On Friday night I was standing in a line outside the U.S. embassy surrounded mostly by Americans keen on a Halloween party. In front of me was a guy dressed as Jesus; robes, sandals, beard and a massive wooden cross he had made from pieces of his own bed. There is an incredibly large number of jokes that can be made while waiting in a line with Jesus and I ensured that all of them were made in due course.

The highlight occurred when entering the embassy and venturing through the security and registration area. My notes from the evening, hastily scribbled upon parchment, read-

And Jesus was stopped by a U.S. Marine who looked at the large cross and said unto Jesus, "You know this can be used to hurt people?" Jesus responded, with head downturned in knowing pain, "Only unto Me".

That, my friends, is a parable for the modern age.

Riders of Evolution

Riders of Evolution is the second of the “Yonderboi Finds Philosophy” mixes I'm currently putting together. This one brings together the Riders on the Storm remix from Hungarian DJ Yonderboi, with Eamonn Healey’s monologue in Waking Life on the telescoping nature of evolution and the development of the neohuman.

If cornered at an "event" by artsy types asking what kind of music you listen to- try this one - "I'm into amateur Alexandrian Philosophical-Hungarian DJ Mashups".

My tape quality sucks, my records are warped and my CD skips
- Sage Francis.

Untied Nations

"Last month, world leaders met in New York to try and forge a common response to these challenges... They decided to create new UN bodies for promoting human rights and building lasting peace in war-torn countries. They promised to fight terrorism in all its forms, and to take collective action, when needed, to save populations from genocide and other heinous crimes. They decided on important reforms of the UN Secretariat.

But on climate change and Security Council reform they could make only weak statements. And on nuclear proliferation and disarmament they could not agree at all. They have left us a great deal of work to do.
Today, as we mark the 60th anniversary of our indispensable institution, I promise you that I will do my part. And I trust that you, as global citizens, will do yours."

Excerpt of Kofi Annan's message for the 60th Anniversary of the UN.


60 years on, it seems that the UN finds itself in a bind but then if one looks into the history of the UN it has always been in a bind- or more accurately, in two shackles. First, the lack of political will from empowered countries to give up aspects of their authority, and even more inexcusably failing to honor their own commitments in the UN. Second, the ridiculous HR structures of the UN- combining the worst aspects of bureaucracy from its member nations- leading to massive waste, and has been highlighted in the Oil-for-Food scandal, corruption. I have had experience with both Country Representatives in the General Assembly and Senior Secretariat officials from New York and can recount stories from both sides of one blaming the entire problem on the other.

For the majority of it's history the UN has been bound in the Cold War deadlock- where people working for the UN were literally trying to stop things happening. Possibly the worst organisational culture that could have developed. Since then we have had two legitimate opportunities for real reform. The end of the Cold-War gave the last remaining superpower the opportunity to dictate a new era- and despite failure in Rwanda, things were comparatively ok in the UN in the 90's- nonetheless real system change was not realized. The second occurred on September 11th 2001, when history unfolded and the eyes of the world waited for the US to respond. They could have done anything and everyone would have agreed- they had the "moral authority" that's now being bantered about. It could have been the birth of a new international order, a global system upon which the 21st century would be built. But the opportunity was lost- a short-sighted empire that assumed it would remain in power forever, ignoring the lesson of the history of civilizations.

Will there be a third such tipping point? I believe there will be. And I believe that the next time we will actually get it right. Because the next time success will be the only option for us. When confronted by the environmental and resource challenges of the next two decades, when our Earth itself confront human progress and the geopolitics that come with it- we will again feel the urgency and clarity that inspired the UNs founding exactly sixty years ago- that it is a most necessary step for the survival of humanity.

A Tale of Tale of Two Cities: Alexandria, Egypt

“CAIRO (Reuters) - "Three demonstrators were killed when thousands of people protested on Friday near a church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria over the staging of a play they said was offensive to Islam, security sources said.
The demonstrators were killed during clashes between police and the more than 5,000-strong crowd which had gathered near St. George's Coptic church in the Mediterranean port city after Muslim prayers, the sources said.
Police used teargas to try to disperse the crowd, which had pelted police with stones and which regrouped on several occasions after prayer times through the day and evening, the sources said. They said protests continued late into the night... It was the second mass protest over the play in the past week and came two days after a young man stabbed a nun and a man. Their injuries were not serious and the attacker was arrested, the security sources said."

None of the news sources, Reuters, New York Times or Al Jazeera, claim to have even seen the play or have any credible sources as to what it contains. The only factoid presented is that it was performed once two years ago by some young people. That is until it was released by some random guys on the internet and inflamed by editorials in two local papers recently- with strong suggestions of political manipulation.

I rebuke the New York Times for publishing inflammatory and uninformed perspectives like -
"No one will stop until they give a formal apology," Mr. Abdo said, adding that he heard the play denied a central tenet of the Islamic faith - that Muhammad was God's prophet.""

Mr Abdo, being a local shoemaker; a profession well known for their education and objective insights into social forces. And by the way, Christianity does deny Muhammad was God'’s Prophet- that's central to Islam being a different religion, just as Judaism denies Jesus being the son of God. NYT why are you interviewing and presenting the views of ignorance?

Then from the Christian side they present the views of a local man "“who was selling fruit on a street corner not far from the church"”. I suppose they balanced the interview by finally sharing the views of one of his unnamed customers. What is this? They grabbed the first three people they could find so as not to miss lunch at the club? Shame on you NYT. Cheap, cheap high school journalism.

While people were getting themselves arrested, injured and even killed while protesting over rumors they had been spun, 30 minutes away a very different scene was taking place. 180 Egyptian university students; from Alexandria and Cairo, from public universities and private, where planting the seeds of a vision for the future of their country. As the chair for this conference, AIESEC Egypt'’s National Leadership Development Seminar, I had the opportunity to spend three days working with these young people- and the one thing that struck me was the unity. There was no divide between the religions, between the economic backgrounds, between those who had lived abroad and those who hadn't, between the spectrum of colors that makes up the Egyptian population. They were one group facing the challenges and opportunities of one world. They worked together, ate and sang together, and never once did I see, hear or feel discrimination between those who were Coptic and those who Muslim.

These two scenes present a choice for Egypt's future; will it be determined through manipulating the prejudices of the ignorant mob? Or will it lay with those who wish to learn from diversity, who seek peace and prosperity for all Egyptians and who dare to walk this path towards a better tomorrow?

Role Models and the Society of True Seekers

In recent contemplations I've been considering the nature of role models. We seem to search the character of our heroes or role models, scanning potentials and marking where they meet and fail to meet the ideals in our mind. This search has become more conscious for me recently, I find myself collecting a list of "almost"; people who certainly have some of the most important factors of the ideal I'm searching for but who are lacking in others. The group is rather impressive but I notice feeling that there is some kind of gap or combination lacking between them. I now realize that this gap is in fact where your self-image ideal lies. We may find hint of it as we search the faces of those who have gone before, but we will only know its fullness when we face our greater self directly.

Einstein said "Of all the communities available to us, there is not one I would want to devote myself to except for the society of the true seekers, which has very few living members at any one time".

This idea resonates strongly with me. A community of the mind and the journey. One that does not meet in space or time, but is perhaps supported by the knowledge that we do not walk this way alone.

It is as part of this society that I imagine my heroes- those I hold closest to my heart. They are quite diverse individuals who lived this search for truth and each contributed much of their discovery to the greater good of our humanity. I shall write upon each of them at length, but for this post I shall merely name the four; Albert Einstein, Herman Hesse, Kahlil Gibran and Bill Hicks. It is our loss that they have past on, and our luck that there is so much to remember.

Injustice Morning

Woke up, came online, tore my phone connection out of the wall. Internet cafe down the street is almost slower than the dial up. Still no word from the guys Im waiting to hear from. Outside hot ... Im fasting, no water, trying not be grumpy...sentence structure defeated.. Children destroyed by plague, forced to live in belly of large aquatic mammal, picked to be parable for "testing"... Man, who gets picked for testing? Couldn't I get picked for "rewarding", or "unjustifiable discovery of playstation three?". Damn.

Lickpenny Loafer

I just heard from a Canadian uber musician I used to chill with in Johannesburg. He was a genius engineering grad, doing developmental work in africa when he realised that it was all about The Music. Ron writes-

"To be a musician is not necessarily a choice. Like many other things, it begins and continues on with a slow, rising compulsion. We start with an ideal in mind,only to have it shattered and recreated a thousand more times. Fruition is here today, gone tomorrow. But, there is much solace in the appreciation of the process. For one who is unknown, it can bring tremendous gratification and much needed lift. And so I share my process- not just to energize a waning ego, but to offer another voice for any who wish to hear."

His band is called Lickpenny Loafer, and you can check their awesome mp3s online, or if your Canada side go drop by a gig. As a general ninja his insights into music are worth a read.

Mad props to Ron for following the call.

"But lets stick with strictly sadness for a moment... it was Theodore Dreiser who said, "Art is the stored honey of the human soul, arriving on wings of misery and travail"...I think somewhere in the process of our evolution, the breadth of sensitivity and expression that defines our emotional basis basically exploded. "

The Russell-Einstein Manifesto: A Choice for Humanity

In 1939 the Allies knew that the Nazi government was hoarding uranium from their Czech mines and were investigating the development of atomic weapons. The prospect of the Nazi government having nuclear weapons was, and still is, terrifying for humanity. In light of this darkest of dangers, on August 2nd 1939, and before the U.S entered WW2, Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt.

Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard (re)crafting their famous letter to F.D.R in 1939. Source.

"In the course of the last four months it has been made probable - through the work of Joliot in France as well as Fermi and Szilard in America - that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated. Now it appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future. This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable - though much less certain - that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory."

And so began the Manhattan Project resulting in US developing the first nuclear technology -and the devastating use of these weapons upon humanity in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If any blame can be attributed to Einstein, it is perhaps for the difficult choice of the lesser of two evils. Despite the destruction of the Nazi terror, a new and very real fear had arisen- the prospect of nuclear global annihilation from the next global war. As his last public act, and just days before his death in 1955, he signed the Russell-Einstein Manifesto. It was written by Bertrand Russell- Einstein's fellow great public intellectual and Nobel Laureate- and forms one the great humanist charters of the 20th Century.

Excerpted paragraphs from the Manifesto read-

"We are speaking on this occasion, not as members of this or that nation, continent, or creed, but as human beings, members of the species Man, whose continued existence is in doubt. The world is full of conflicts; and, overshadowing all minor conflicts, the titanic struggle between Communism and anti-Communism... We have to learn to think in a new way. We have to learn to ask ourselves, not what steps can be taken to give military victory to whatever group we prefer, for there no longer are such steps; the question we have to ask ourselves is: what steps can be taken to prevent a military contest of which the issue must be disastrous to all parties?...

It is stated on very good authority that a bomb can now be manufactured which will be 2,500 times as powerful as that which destroyed Hiroshima. Such a bomb, if exploded near the ground or under water, sends radio-active particles into the upper air. They sink gradually and reach the surface of the earth in the form of a deadly dust or rain… No one knows how widely such lethal radio-active particles might be diffused, but the best authorities are unanimous in saying that a war with H-bombs might possibly put an end to the human race. It is feared that if many H-bombs are used there will be universal death, sudden only for a minority, but for the majority a slow torture of disease and disintegration…

Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war? People will not face this alternative because it is so difficult to abolish war. The abolition of war will demand distasteful limitations of national sovereignty. But what perhaps impedes understanding of the situation more than anything else is that the term "mankind" feels vague and abstract. People scarcely realize in imagination that the danger is to themselves and their children and their grandchildren, and not only to a dimly apprehended humanity...

There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal as human beings to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death."

The Manifesto was taken as the founding charter for The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work towards reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats. In 1995 The Pugwash, and surviving founder Joseph Rotblat, won the Nobel prize "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms".

Cute Party Time in Japan

Recently, I was looking for traineeship opportunities through AIESEC's Work Abroad Program. Apart from some excellent professional positions that I'm considering I was forwarded this interesting opportunity.

"I' m interested in you!
Our position is in kind of cute cafe, but teaching English to their customers.
Customers enjoy speaking with taking some sips with tea or sweets!
Sometimes they have cute party.
We needs Native Speakers teaching English, with serving some foods for their customers. 
Ms. Yamamoto,the owner of this Cafe is great people, and enthusiastic for English education.
You can learn a lot from her."

Now, as you well know I'm not one to turn down cute party, especially one that involves the sipping of tea or sweets at cute cafe. However, there is a more profitable business chatting to customers in Japan- and their cute party involves whiskey and many, many thousands of Yen.

And in these modern times of change, can't we all learn a lot from
Ms. Yamamoto?

Issue Three: Deriving Universal Meaning

An attempt to define what is ultimately valuable from a subjective
(individual experience) and objective (universal) perspectives in a two page pdf including pictures? You heard it here first.

ISSUE THREE:
"Deriving Universal Meaning"

Pictures by the Master,
Salvador Dali.

Not so Fast

I managed the first two days of Ramadan fasting with no problems. But then I went to Dahab. Swimming in the very salty Red Sea and spending most of the day in the sun while not drinking any water would have been all bad. So I decided to have a reverse fast and eat ungodly amounts of wonderful seafood dinners, massive three course breakfasts and a general level of debauchery that can only fall comfortably in such pleasurable surrounds.

Now I planned to return to fasting as soon as I left Dahab, but I hit another snag. Our microbus didnt get back to Cairo till 4AM, so by the time I got to the train station the following day I was dying for water. In the Koran travellers are allowed to break their fast, just one of the logistical pragmatics of Islam, so I grabbed a bottle of water. Not wanting to temp people who were fasting I hid facing the corner of a small room in the station, behind a phone box and sculled the water in no time.. But not fast enough to not get hissed at by two guys walking behind me. Again I wished I had insta-Koran knowledge and could have shouted at them the rules for travelling during Ramadan. Insta-Koran would be handy in Egypt, I would love to quote some scripture at guys on the street who hiss at women for being unveiled, or for being alone at 8pm, or being western.

One more thing before this rant ends. Egyptian guys dont wear shorts. Whats the deal? Its like 40 degrees and everyones in long pants. I say they need to get over the ol' timey colonial days and bust out the hibiscus okanuis. I'm told that Egyptian guys consider it manly to wear pants and consider that shorts imply a lack of masculinity. This is great. Egyptian guys are generally incredibly homophobic, BUT the guys hold hands in public, not just holding it's better described as cradling. They kiss each other hello and theres a lot of general man-man cuddling going down, but would often hiss if a man and a women greeted in such a fashion... And they think shorts aren't masculine.

So today I'm back to fasting, still have an hour before I can drink anything and am getting a bit cranky... which is against the rules. Damn... Shorts or Pants: One Love.

Instamatic Focal Point: Dahab, Egypt

I just returned from a beautiful weekend in Dahab, Egypt. Three days of snorkeling incredible reefs and chilling in a more than luxorious lifestyle by the Red Sea at the edge of the Sinai desert. Less talk, more photos.







And finally, so you too can chill by the Red Sea, here's some video fotage of the scene (5 mb)

Issue Two: Knowing the unknowable

Well after several walks by the sea and an equal number of rewrites here's the next issue in my philosophical contemplations,
ISSUE TWO: Knowing the Unknowable.
Basically, it looks at how we construct models of the universe, how we can expand them and make them more accurate, and looks briefly at the paradox of absolute knowledge. Again its a boiled down to a one page pdf. It is not necessarily how I would teach philosophy, rather it is merely a few notes taken on side of the deeper philosophical construction that I'm working through. I hope it provides some new challenge, question or insight to whoever cares to read.

First Days Fast

Well I've just returned from my first Iftar- literally meaning "break fast", and no it is not ok to call it "ramadinner", although if I was the marketing manager things might be different. The first days fast was not too bad, a bit tired by the end of the day as my brain ran out of sweet, sweet glucose to power itself upon. Iftar is a big family affair so everyone is off the streets of around sunset. I thought it was more in my sabbatical style to head down to the end of one of the piers into the ocean and break my fast surrounded by the rolling sea.

But while I sat reflecting and listening to the crash of water upon rock I met some hungry cats, so we breakfasted together on falafel and fuul. If the cats had turned into three wise men who told me to rebuild a long destroyed temple it would have been a parable.

" Fasting is an institution as old as Adam. It has been resorted to for self-purification or for some ends, noble as well as ignoble."- Gandhi.

Aussie Scientists Kick Ass and Get A Million Bucks

In my previous post I described a mock prayer from an Aussie to the sun-god "Sol Invictus", mentioning his crook guts. Now "Crook Guts" is aussie slang for stomach trouble. If you get food poisoning the source is pretty obvious, its those prawns you ate on the Air Gabon flight, but for millions of sufferers around the world this gastritis and peptic ulcers had nothing to do with the food they ate.

The prevailing wisdom for the majority of the 21st Century was that these ulcers came from stress and lifestyle factors. This was until 1982, when two Australian scientists, Robin Warren and Barry Marshall, isolated and cultured a, then unknown, bacterium from human stomachs claimin that it was the cause of this common stomach illness. The theory was ridiculed by the establishment scientists and doctors, who did not believe that any bacteria could live in the acidic stomach. To force people to pay attention to this theory, Marshall drank a test tube of the bacteria and soon developed gastric ulcers, which he then cured by antibiotics. Go Aussie.


The bacteria was eventually named Helicobacter pylori and twenty-three years later, around 2 hours ago in fact, the two Aussie scientists were named winners of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Medicine- and thus got the million bucks as cash component of the prize. And to wrap it up, the stomach problems caused by this H.pylori are the very same ulcers Charleze Theron "braved" to film Aeon Flux, and Charlize was of course in "Trapped" with Kevin Bacon.... Done. And made you read about science.