Communication Puzzel

I don't know if it is ESP, some advanced sort of telepathy

Or should I call it something else?

I cannot call it telepathy because telepathy involves the transfer of thoughts and feelings from one person to the other without the involvement of the five senses. I also rule out synchronicity, it is just not applicable here.

What I am talking about is a link, an unconscious connection between two people. A very strange feeling that is illuminating this kind of communication between those two people.

What I am talking about is when two people having a conversation about something, and out of the blue they say the same thing without prior notice, without any sign from one of them about saying that same word or sentence.

It happened once, and the conclusion would be "never mind, it is indeed some sort of a coincidence"

But when it happens twice, three times or more - till they lost count of the number of times they did this, it would not be normal to keep calling it a coincidence.

The reaction is either laugh, or go into silence, or just shocked with eyes full open!

Well, there are those who say that great minds think alike. Based on that, the flow of thoughts is common which might lead to say the same thing at the same time.

However, some say that such a connection is a sign that those two persons has met in a different life, especially those who believe in reincarnation. There are others who just bash this thing out and say that it is just a matter of coincidence. On the other hand, people would say that those two are very close, not necessary in physical terms, but their mind and soul are very close i.e. common mindset, some name it.

I thought that such a occurrences can only occur between soul mates, it has been proven in many sources related to history, sociology or psychology, however, they are not considered as such.

Those two know each other briefly. I mean that they don't go to details about their personal details, they meet every now and then, have a little talk about different things, and discuss many things. There is no physical attraction involved, there is no eye contact that can be some sort of an influence to any of them. They even don't share the same taste in many things in life, like music or life-style, or food!

Yet, they feel very close

What does that mean?

For The Greater Good of God

Are you a man of peace
Or man of holy war
Too many sides to you
Don't know wich anymore
So many full of life
But also filled with pain
Don't know just how many
Will live to breathe again

A life that's made to breath
destruction or defense
A mind that's vain corruption
bad or good intent
A wolf in sheep's clothing
Or saintly or sinner
Or some that would believe
A holy war winner

They fire off many shots
and many parting blows
Their actions beyond a reasoning
only god would know
And as he lies in heaven
or it could be in hell
I feel he's somewhere here
or looking from below
But I don't know, I don't know

Please tell me now what life is
Please tell me now what love is
Well tell me now what war is
Again tell me what life is

More pain and misery in the history of mankind
Sometimes it seems more like
the blind leading the blind
It brings upon us more of famine,death and war
You know religion has a lot to answer for

Please tell me now what life is
Please tell me now what love is
Well tell me now what war is
Again tell me what life is

And as they search to find the bodies in the sand
They find it's ashes that are
scattered across the land
And as their spirits seem to whistle on the wind
A shot is fired somewhere another war begins

And all because of it you'd think
that we would learn
But still the body count the city fires burn
Somewhere there's someone dying
in a foreign land
Meanwhile the world is crying stupidity of man
Tell me why, tell me why

Please tell me now what life is
Please tell me now what love is
Well tell me now what war is
Again tell me what life is

Please tell me now what life is
Please tell me now what love is
Well tell me now what war is
Again tell me what life is

For the greater good of God

Please tell me now what life is
Please tell me now what love is
Well tell me now what war is
Again tell me what life is

Please tell me now what life is
Please tell me now what love is
Well tell me now what war is
Again tell me what life is

For the greater good of God

He gave his life for us he fell upon the cross
To die for all of those who never mourn his loss
It wasn't meant for us to feel the pain again
Tell me why, tell me why

from the song "for the greater good of God" by Iron Maiden

Purpose of Life

I have been going very deep through these thoughts after hearing the following questions: what is our purpose? as human being? are we so worthless that we were born, grow up, marry with the one we want, have children, getting old, then die?? what is our purpose in life? why do we live in the first place if we just go through this cycle and then vanish from the face of earth?

The discussion was mainly about normal people, excluding those genies people and brilliant minds of scientists, poets, artists...etc The interesting question: do we need to be like Da Venci or Einstein in order to be considered valuable and accountable for being one those set mainlines for the purpose of life?

The question that I considered broad, in fact most interesting: what would we do to keep a legacy? there are many who don't know what their grandfathers and grand grandfathers look like, not even know what are their achievements. This is not fair to us and to them at the same time. What lessons can we learn from their experience and how would we know if we resemble our mother side or father side of the family? or is it not worth it? Would knowing the chain of my family help me in any way to determine who I am and what I am and that for sure would impact my own personality and the way I behave / react towards things? and that include the choices I make in my life? I am confident that knowing about forefathers would impact us, there are many who changed their course of life when they discovered an old fact or received information on their family.

Some years ago I met a young guy, very intelligent to the level that sometimes you almost believe that this guy is suffering from some sort of Schizophrenia. Through time I came to the conclusion that that guy like to play different personalities (each time with different social, religious, and even political point of views), because he is suffering from the essence of being part of a certain group. This has something to do with his childhood, with a neglected boy by the always-busy-at-work-papa and mama who focused on the sisters instead. I didn't see that guy for years, but I heard that he finally found the group where he could settle down in and make an extension to his purpose of life. Well, I wonder if he did find his own purpose of life, with such turbulence through his childhood and adulthood until this very moment.

During that discussion, there are who became frustrated because "if we don't know what is the purpose of each us in this life, what is the difference then between us, humans, with animals, who just eat, mate, drink and die.

I thought of what have been said, but everytime I think more, I always come to the same conclusion: each of us must be proud of him/herself, because each of us is unique, but is that enough to give each of us purpose to live in this life?


Image by dchui

Unread Mail

How many times would you do the following: you decide that friendship is over with someone, and not having the desire to hear, read, or even know about the other person, so you decide to delete every email you receive or hang up the phone or tear up the letter received by post without even bother to know the content?

For some it might be considered as some sort of ignorance, and others see it as some rudeness of behavior. On the other hand, because of that person, the one of us have been put in an a number of awkward situations, so the only action is that a decision to be made not to have contact with that person anymore. It is exactly the opposite to have someone whom you would like to spend more time with and enjoying his or her company.

At the end, these unwanted emails, or posts will only pile up and after a month (if not on the same day) will all be cleaned up i.e. Junk

Retirement & Consciousness

Another retired military/intelligence expert decided to come out and admit using harsh treatment to prisoners. How come the notorious Donald Rumsfeld didn’t follow suit like Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez? It seems that those guys looked in the mirror more often after retirement and decided collectively to take the next step for them to clear consciousness, and to disclose either their disgust with their superior’s policy or admitting doing wrong (soft word for crime against humanity).

P.S. picture is courtesy of Eddi The Yetti

Sharing Tribute!

I found this picture on website. It is a tribute an Iraqi female graphic designer to her dead cousin. I thought I share this tribute with her and put the picture on my blog

God Bless her soul and of all innocent Iraqis, and may god protect Iraq and the Iraqis from any harm.

Courtesy: zahraa812graphic and deviantart

Power of the Heart

A couple of days ago, Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouge's former head of state of Cambodia, was arrested. He was taken from a hospital in the capital to a UN-backed genocide tribunal. He was in the hospital because of a heart stroke! Under the Khmer Rouge, more than one million people died from starvation or overwork as leaders strove to create an agrarian utopia. In addition, hundreds of thousands of the educated middle-classes were tortured and executed in special centres.

On March 11, 2006, Slobodan Milosevic, the formal president of Serbia, has been found dead in his cell in the Hague, the Netherlands, after suffering from a heart attack. He was indicted in May 1999, during the Kosovo War, by the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for crimes against humanity in Kosovo. Charges of violating the laws or customs of war, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions in Croatia and Bosnia and genocide in Bosnia were added a year and a half later.

Iraq's former deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, has suffered a mild heart stroke in 2005, while he was under the imprisonment of US forces. He is one of the high profile officials during the dictatorship rule of Saddam Hussain, which is accused of genocide and persecution of millions of Iraqis for almost three decades.

On December, 2006, Augusto Pinochet, Chile's former military leader has died from a heart attack after some time in hospital, Santiago... He is accused of killing thousands and thousands of political rivals, in addition to torture, forced disappearance, and assassination accusations took place during the Military Junta in the 1970s.

Did they finally realize, after all these years in power, that justice will always prevail?

Football Match

I am not a big fan of football (soccer for those who mix it up with American football), but this match is unique! Supporters are not that much; there are some but a lot left the stadium looking for more interesting things to do! The remaining supporters can be sighted easily, because they shattered sitting here and there among the empty seats. Some of them are focused on the game beneath; others show emotions from sadness to despise, because of the foul play and the very obvious cheating among players. One can easily observe that no single honesty in that match. The first team consists of players from different countries: there is the Iranian player who wants to score at any cost, taking advantage of having his Iraqi co-player on different positions on the fields to pass the ball to him so he can get deeper in and score; the Iraqi player, though, has no chance of either to keep the ball or to score – they must pass the ball only to the other players; There is also the American player! like a bulldozer, run heavily and aggressively, always want to keep the ball to himself, never want to pass the ball to anyone, not even to his British (who play left and right wing) or European players! There are other players in that team but with a less tempo, such as the Turkish player, but when time comes (according to their evaluation it seems) they display fantastic energy and effort! This team does not show some harmony among its players, there is some feud, such as the player with a beard who seems to have a problem with his American co-player! They are both playing in the same team, but they don’t like each other… It happens, you know. There are other players from different backgrounds and countries playing in this team, but I thought it's worth it mentioning the toughest among them.

It is a tough game, the team is fully prepared, they had training, best equipments and facilities to ensure they are fit and have victory.

But wait, what about the other team? Yes, they are doing great, they are trying their best compare it to the humble training and facilities. They can be easily recognized, because each one of them is wearing a three striped colors T-Shirt: red on top, white, and black! When they stood next to each other before the start of the game, they formed the Iraqi flag. The interesting thing is that each Iraqi player is originally from different cities and villages' allover Iraq. They also come from entirely different ethnic, social and religious backgrounds! Despite that, they illustrated most amazing harmony during their play.

The more the Iraqi team defends his goal, the more the other team becomes more aggressive, and as I mentioned earlier, many foul plays took place but the referee seems to be in a different reality. He just whistles and warns players not to do this or that, but no red cards, not even a yellow card.

The match goes on and on and honestly there were some Iraqi scores that made the public sitting at the benches jump and dance with happiness, but they were very little! Some of the Iraqi team supporters were carrying crosses, others carrying their holy books and praying, many others just watch with tears mudding their eyes, shouting endlessly with tired voices words of encouragement, all hoping that the Iraqi team will come out victorious.

Eye Contact

Eye contact is a method used by many people as means for communication. Some consider it impudence, when someone talk to another one and keep a focused eye contact on the other. There are who think otherwise: I used to know a girl who hated the idea of a person talking to her while his eyes rolling now and then in all directions. She believed that a person doing such is not respecting her and she would never talk to him again in her life!! In other words, her concept is that an eye contact is like ""I'm listening..." without saying the word. Some see it as a symbol of winning certain discussion when keep eye contact on the other party involved in converstaion.

I think this has to do with how a person has been raised up! The way his or her personality came to be after certain age. It might have something to do with society or a certain culture background. Many in the west agree that eye contact with conversation partner is a proof of self confidence and personality strength. In some oriental cultures, they believe that personality strength and self confidence coems by voice tone, body language or even a gesture, and not from disrespectful and challenging look in the eys of another person, not that some culture consider eye contact between man and woman forbidden due to elements of attraction or flirting.

It is a little bit confusing, because I can't rule out which is right or wrong! However, the whole issue might be focusing on how we can have a conversation with someone and let that person be confident that you are paying good attention to him and that you are interested in the subject matter during that conversation. It also depends on that person, and what he believe in as guidlines for a healthy conversation, accordingly, a person can use eye contact or not.

Father & Son

A colleague of mine had his father taken recently to the hospital. After few days he was released, but require a lot of care by people around him due to his old age and blood pressure. He is in his 70s! My colleague, who is in his early 40s and still a bachelor. For that reason, the son took all responsibilities of taking care for his beloved father, who is my nature rejects the fact that he is getting old and that his health won't allow him to do many things, such as driving for long distance and time, or go out a lot... He even get furious of the fact that he is seeing his own friends being ill. Due to that, the son noticed how his father turn more depressed by the day, and complaining more than before... He even started questioning the purpose for being alive in the first place if he (or others in his age) suddenly becoming an eating and sleeping machines. The son tried many times to comfort his poor father, by helping him with shopping or take him to visit other friends and come back for him...etc This didn't help the situation, because the father was sometimes getting angry at his son.


Last weekend it was one of these days with such a very discussion when the son was almost fed up and told his father: "Look to what is happening in Iraq; fathers and mothers go to the market for shopping but they don't come back for their children, why? because they were blown up by a suicide bomber!!! what do you think of that? We can't keep complaining about the good life we have while there are others like us, humans, die with no reason. Do you think it is justice? is it fair for them? Shouldn't we see it as a lesson to be more subtle and satisfied?" The father looked at his son, his eyes slowly relaxed and his rage against himself and his son vanished in seconds. He nodded and said "yes, you are right, son, you are right." The old man was quiet for the rest of the evening, is it thinking of what is happening to people in Iraq, or is it a matter of reconsidering his thoughts?

P.S. I put the picture of Kirk and Micheal Douglas, because my colleague's father's situation is similar to the current situation Kirk Douglas is experiencing now, and my colleague is some how acts like Michael's... not physically but attitude wise.

Happiness!

A smile from a child can make someone very happy. Helping others can bring happiness. A smile from the one I love is the my ultimate happiness. Ice cream is the source of happiness for a child. A smile with a compliment from somone on the street can bring happiness. Meditation is for some people a great source of happiness. I am very happy when I achieve a goal at work or home or with family, or maybe when reaching the top of a mountain. In fact, friendship (new and old) and spending time with friends are sources of happiness.

Satisfaction can provide great happiness

But, can happiness be fulfilled when someone chasing a dream?

Many Ways To Protest

Protest is a peaceful way for a group of people to demonstrate their opinion about certain issue or an event- well in some cases it goes out of hand and there you go… big fight and police interfere with their sticks hammering left and right! Last Friday an unknown man poured dye into Rome's Trevi Fountain, turning the water into bright blood-red. More information on this here. There are many forms for protests, and for many purposes. There are protests related to an international event, such as the many and many protests against the war in Iraq. An example is shown on a video by heavy metal band, System of A Down video, called Boom:


There are others more spicific protests, such as that against recycled water, which in the protests' opinion will cause infertility. However, there are other protests that goes more and more specific, such as this one....



Some would seek a leader for their protest, like in this one...


Sometimes it goes out of the hand...


There are more explicit, maybe too obvious like the one in 2006 against global dependence on oil.

While watching and reading all this, I thought of the question: What is the strangest way to protest?

We’re Still Alive...

A couple of months ago an Iraqi man of 70 years old died of a heart attack. His poor family mourned his death almost with no one, not a lot of people (including relatives) managed to attend his funeral, because of fear from false checkpoints in different areas in Baghdad. Yesterday I called the man's youngest son to see how he and his family are doing. He told me about the continuous tragic situation ... how people are struggling with living regarding high prices of everything from fruits and vegetables to meat, from the level of corruption penetrated every single aspect in society..etc I asked him: "so people now are more concerned with that more than with the daily kidnapping, killing and other forms of violence?" He replied "They do fear death, but they lost hope in life too, some of them wish to die. Imagine, I was talking the other day to a friend and he mentioned my father. He said "God rest his soul, he's now in a better place. We should be happy for him, because we’re still alive... in this misery!""

Brighter Than A Thousand Suns

We are not the sons of God
We are not His chosen people now
We have crossed the path He trod
We will feel the pain of it beginning

Shadow fingers rise above
Crying figures stab the desert sky
Oh behold the power of man
On its tower, ready for the fall

Locking hands together well
Raise a city, build a living hell
Join the race to suicide
Listen for the tolling of the bell

Out of the universe
A strange life is born
Unholy union
Trinity reformed

Yellow sun, it's evil twin
In the black the wings deliver him
We will split our souls within
Atom seed to nuclear dust is riven

Out of the universe
A strange life is born
Unholy union
Trinity reformed

Out of the darkness
Brighter than a thousand suns

Bury your morals
And bury your dead
Bury your head in the sand
E=MC squared you can relate
How we made God with our hands

Whatever would Robert
Have said to his God
Of how we made war with the sun
E=MC squared you can relate
How we made God with our hands

All nations are rising
Through acid veils of love, and hate
Chain letters of Satan
Uncertainty us all to this

All nations are rising
Through acid veils of love, and hate
Cold fusion and fury

Divide and conquer while ye may
Others preach and others fall and pray
In the bunkers where we'll die
There the executioners they lie

Bombers launch with no recall
Minutes warning of the missile fall
Take a look at your last day
Guessing you won't have the time to cry

Out of the universe
A strange love is born
Unholy union
Trinity reformed

Out of the darkness
Brighter than a thousand suns

Holy Father we have sinned

--------------------------------------------

from the song "brighter than a Thousand Suns" by Iron Maiden

Questions On Personal Characteristics - P.1

Can someone suddenly decide unconsciously to give up certain characteristics within his personality? There was a colleague of mine during university days. He was very friendly with everyone, always a smile on his face, and known for his good heart. Sitting with him for hours on many occasions surprised me how an emotional person he is – he used to tell me his secrets too, about his first and only love in his life to a fellow student in college who dumped him later for another guy. More than a year went by before I met him again and I was shocked: He was not the same person; I was talking to a cold-hearted man, so dried out of anything related to humanity. He did not want to listen to anything but to himself, and his “achievements”! Do I have to acknowledge that I have been deceived by that person for years till that moment after long absence which gave me the opportunity to see his real face?

How can someone who is for years famous for having certain characteristic suddenly change similar to the way I witnessed with that colleague? Personal characteristics are either inherited or acquired since childhood! I am not talking about meeting someone, get together very well and become close friends, and after sometime gradually discover certain qualities that might effect (and later ruin) that friendship. It is about real characteristics and personalities of people you used to know for years and for some reason… that’s it: for some reason they change!

The most important question related to this is: will that person be back to his old-self? Can I say that the change he has been going through is merely hype?

Do certain personal characteristics change over time? Does age has something to do with it? Maybe it is something to do with the amount of energy one has, or a person’s energy has nothing to do with it? I mean inner energy of a person to be able to do something in particular for years of being able to show certain quality for years. For example, a good listener is someone who many friends (relatives too) like to sit with, talk, trust and seek for answers. Can that good listener suddenly change his habit and becomes something else? Something else not necessarily negative, but he might have the feeling that he has no energy anymore to listen to other like he used to. Or there are other elements in life that made some kind of restrictions within that person inner self? It might be life itself when a person getting older he or she becomes more occupied with many tasks and responsibilities where time becomes more valuable. But would that also be considered a change in someone’s personal characteristics or qualities?

I thought if the above can be applied on a relationship between a man and a woman! No, I don't see it relevant at all! Maybe because of the nature of intimacy that make such an analysis of personal characteristics approached differently.

Islam Permits Wife Beating

I came across this video while browsing youtube.com


Instead of spreading a message of granting nobility to wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters, by treating them with love and compassion, by supporting them and strengthen that holy bond between man and his wife. Instead of doing all this, the mufti of Egypt is allowing aggression, permitting shame and pain to be present in the family. Actually, he is even destroying a life-time partnership between married people.

What is the difference between a woman from the west and another from the east? Culture? What culture has to do with how to treat my wife? He is arguing that other cultures consider this act as barbaric or aggressive, therefore Islam will never permit it in these countries, but it is allowed by a man from the middle east or an Islamic country to beat the hell out of his wife! What a mockery!

I don’t believe that the mufti of Egypt still consider it civilized when his sister or daughter comes to him with bruises all over her body because her husband decided one night to check out his muscularity