One Language

Imagine!

Just dare to imagine every corner of the world being open to you. Imagine travelling from China to Lithuania, and being able to ask for a cup of tea without the need of an interpreter or book. Imagine, travelling from India to Africa and not feel a foreigner lost in a world of unknown sounds, of unintelligible blab, a planet with a common platform of expression.

A common platform of expression. How realistic is that? How will this concept impact interactions between individuals and between individuals and society? The tool to be used is common sense. Since society has at its core individuals and communication a common platform is essential in reversing social fragmentation. Mind  you, we are talking about a unified means of expression rather than replacing core cultural values.

What Muslims should actually be angry about - The Commentator

"There are many things that could legitimately offend people of the Islamic faith - YouTube videos, teddy bears, and cartoons are not included

Do people have their priorities straight?

In this age of riots, murders, and embassy lynchings over YouTube videos, teddy bears, and cartoons, it is worth highlighting the politicised, selective, and hypocritical nature of such Islamist-inspired fury. There are many things that should offend those who are seemingly shocked by benign and ignorable mockery of religion. These include:
- The systematic destruction of Islam's heritage in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Since the Saudi royal family conquered the Hijaz region, mausoleums, mosques, grave yards, and other significant buildings connected to the history of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad and his companions have been bulldozed to make way for motorways, shopping centres and five star hotels.
- The fact that the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) in Pakistan continue to blow up girls’ schools and violently attack young teenage girls for wanting to attend them.
- The systematic persecution of Ahmedis, Shias, Christians, Hindus, and other minorities in Pakistan who, if not being accused of blasphemy, are being hunted down by thugs claiming to be inspired by Islam.
- The destruction and vandalism visited upon the ancient city of Timbukto. Since the al-Qaeda affiliated Ansar al Dine took over the city, mosques have been attacked, mausoleums raided, and other holy sites destroyed, including tombs of great saints.
- The systematic and widespread practise of female genital mutilation (FGM) that Muslim clerics in North and East Africa defend and promote. A practise that is vile, disgusting, inhumane, and recognised as such around the world.
- The hysterical anti-Semitism that emanates from pulpits all over the Middle East. A form of bigotry that is largely accepted and rarely goes challenged.
- The destruction of Buddist temples and Christian churches in Indonesia that has increased since Islamist parties have begun to make gains in South East Asia.
- The destruction of the Bamiyan statues in Afghanistan by the Taliban, statues that stood for hundreds of years and held great significance for Buddhists around the world.
These are the grievances that should inspire protests and anger but alas they are ignored in favour of ones that can be attributed to the evil West and Israel, however fictitious and spurious the linkages.
The selective nature of the outrage thus points to a much deeper malaise infecting the minds of the faithful. A political narrative is at the heart of this and it is a narrative that provides simple answers, deflection, and solace at a time when the faithful should be doing some long overdue soul-searching and confronting their own shortcomings.
Gravitation towards a grievance and victimhood culture is the easy option because it doesn't compel Muslims to ask the difficult questions such as why we preside over some of the most corrupt, unequal, sexist, dysfunctional, and authoritarian societies on earth.
Instead, Islamist parties, seeking to galvanise the masses behind their apocalyptic message, encourage Muslims to look west and seek answers in the foreign policies of the US and the UK. Unfortunately, many Western leftists also encourage this defeatist and self-deprecating trend in the vain hope that it supports their cause.
The primary victims of this phenomenon are Muslims themselves who are left dis-empowered and undermine their own agency by placing all responsibility elsewhere. The winners are Islamists and Jihadists who continue to wage war against art, culture, women, and vulnerable minorities, safe in the knowledge that most Muslims are distracted by their obsession with the next Danish cartoon or American YouTube clip.
It is not easy to initiate rational conversation in such a context – ask those who have tried.
Ghaffar Hussain is a counter terrorism expert and Contributing Editor to The Commentator. Follow him on Twitter @GhaffarH "

Full article can be seen here: What Muslims should actually be angry about - The Commentator:

World Today: How We Stopped Loving Our Freedom

Arguably, we, as a society, have reached a peak. A highpoint that a century before wasn't even in our dreams. And humanity had its visionary men looking anxiously to the future, pushing it hard, dragging everybody else along with them...

Electricity, road and air travel, the way we made business, or killed each other, art, technology and science, everything had such an accelerated pace, that compared with the previous 6000 years looks like an explosion that keeps growing.

But, there is a black spot, a huge one - stamped on our faith like a tattoo that won't come off. We still didn't learn how to live with each other. An uneducated opinion that "my way" is better than "your way", and "your way" must die, that has its roots in religious or nationalist extremism. Involution? Maybe... The mechanics of hate feed heavily on those two components, and even heavier on our acceptance of it, as part of the freedom culture. By acceptance of freedom of expression, way is given to hate. The hate bubble grows and one day it will burst, straight in our face, and there will be no more liberty. No more liberty to smile when I'm happy, no more freedom to love when my heart's on fire, no more liberty to read, to think... the only way, the only explanation, the only voice will be the sanctioned one. I am afraid of those times.

Civilisation types - Evolution of mankind

Evolution.

   It's a subject that has always caught my attention wherever I heard it. If we only compare our civilization with the same Homo Sapiens Sapiens that lived through the 11th century, the difference is overwhelming. Personal Computers, cars, television, flying, rockets, skyscrapers. The list is endless. All this came because we managed to use and handle most of the resources from our own little planet. 

In 1964, Russian astrophysicist Nicolai Kardashev theorized that a civilization's technical advancement directly correlates to the amount of energy its citizens can manipulate. Along these lines, he defined three classifications for advanced civilizations in the galaxy:

1. Type I civilizations are masters of planetary energy, meaning that they can harness the sum energy of an entire world. 
2. Type II civilizations can summon the power of an entire star system. 
3. Type III civilizations command energy on a galactic scale. 

While we are not yet a Type I Civilization, we are very close to achieving it. The "only" thing that keeps us from achieving this advancement is getting rid of our dependency of fossil fuel.Nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, solar power, wind, water. They all have the potential for that, but we just haven't found an efficient way of harvesting it.

All that being said, technology isn't the only way to measure evolution. If we look to our ancestors we can see some differences in the anatomy of humans. But this is not my point here. What I am trying to imagine is how will we evolve. What will humans look like in ten thousand years, in 100.000 years? The more we know about our universe, the more we develop, will our brains become bigger? Will our bodies change? Is the next step in evolution the little grey aliens with huge heads? 

Time will tell.