mink

"In any self-organising system there is a need to escape from a local optimum in order to move towards a more global optimum. The techniques of lateral thinking, such as provocation, are designed to help that change." -- Edward de Bono on Lateral Thinking

I attended a MOTO meet up yesterday after a few months. We heard from a new member - Najma - who had written a piece on beliefs, discussed writing and editing, and watched Samaki Mchangani .  The discussion on writing and editing was intriguing: Some of us were of the opinion that it is mandatory to go over one's writing and make it perfect by consolidating ideas and throwing unneeded ideas out. Others (me included) were of the opinion that sometimes the most potent way you can express an emotion is in the very moment you pen it down for the first time; any iterations beyond this instance waters the emotion down to suit public convention.  In the background, a question lingered: Is all of emotion able to be relayed through words?

Thanks to a reading club that happens once a week in Khane (thanks SL!), I've been getting into Marshall Hodgon's The Venture of Islam   (Book 1). The section titled "Muhammad's Challenge 570-624" has made me think about history unlike I did back at the IIS. Particularly, one question: In any instance when a new way of transacting goods and services was introduced, was force necessary? We could discuss market entry , but that would imply an assumption that there is a market in which people transact based on known and accepted methods. Today that means that cash and credit can buy you a good or a service. Barter could also do, but you may have to try extra hard. But that assumption did not exist in 570 AD. Barter was a viable option, and so were other forms of currency which came from different lands. So in order for Muhammad to introduce a way of being - including a way of doing business that was based on a philosophy of why business should be d...

HH will be addressing the Canadian Parliament tonight. We are without a state, but we're lucky to have networks in the political economies of the states we live in. His Highness the Aga Khan to Address Canadian Parliament  (AKDN) Aga Khan to address special joint session of parliament on Thursday, February 27  (CNW) Spiritual leader Aga Khan to address Parliament on Thursday  (Canada.com)

To volunteer is to step outside the belief that immediate material returns on investment are the only reason to work. It is to believe in something larger than oneself, in a different kind of return to a different kind of investment. Contrary to popular discussion, volunteering is indeed an investment. (Thanks Femima HIP!)

Chris: I will never forget your names, jokes, disses, always-on attitude, choice of music and your bike. Thank you for showing me that the boundaries we create in life are malleable and, most times, irrelevant. Hopefully this isn't the last I'll see of you. Rest well, my friend.

A library was recently torched in Tripoli . This is not the first time I am reading about the burning of library texts. I have two thoughts I want to share with future kin about this matter. First, that knowledge is manifested through the actions of mankind should be regarded as fact. That is, knowledge has physical implications. For example, the knowledge of how to build a car is manifested in the building of a car; the car is proof that a systemic plan (which includes its corresponding theories and all the experimentation around those theories to prove them as true) was executed. But knowledge itself is not physical. It exists first in the mind. Second, whatever mankind's opinion, knowledge ought to be preserved. Even for "bad knowledge", future generations ought to understand the prevailing interests of past times. Otherwise, if knowledge from different points in time or communities is erased, then history is obscured. Using the example of building a car, how wou...

When do we think most efficiently? A joke with one of my managers at work today got me started on this (thanks, VL). My guess is that boundaries, such as an office with all the objects and activities it involves, focus thinking. That is why we institutionalize great ideas. And when one needs an "open" mind, they tend to leave the confined set of objects and activities in order to "think outside the box". In short, leaving boundaries helps thinking. But what about other, bigger boundaries. Such as our households, education systems and nation states? Surely, we come to point where we can't actually leave because we've been brought up in those boundaries. To step outside those would be to go insane, to lose touch of what we know and hold as truth. So, can we ever think outside boundaries? I believe we can, and this is what makes religion and/or metaphysics interesting. There are concepts in religious values, ethics and morals that cannot be described in ...

It's not everyday I come across a track that just fits. The rhythm meets the rhyme. Something about the chords enveloping the emotion makes a lotta sense. I get the impression this happens best when the artist tells it like it is. In this Bruno Mars / Damian track , I find the message to be depressing, but it's still a track that clicks on point for me. Damian has the only line in the track that actually tells us the whole story is a depressing one: "Nuff ghetto youth cannot escape the trap". The rest of the track seems quite sarcastic, telling it like it is, getting messed up today thinking tomorrow's going to be just fine. Yet, if the track had rhymes like most others do, discussing the problem and really getting down with the message, I don't think it would ring the same tone with me. There's also the music, and it could be that the construction of this track is really what's special about it. But I like to believe that when rhythm and rhy...

According to a rough search, the word "cultivation" yields two types of definitions. Bot relate to growth based on something. One type concerns biological cultivation - that is growth of living things - particularly of plant life. Another type concerns metaphysical cultivation - that is growth of a certain sense - particularly of human and communal life. I was prompted to conduct this rough search after a conversation with MK last night. The conversation - as always - covered many topics, but one seemed to stick for some time. That topic was about cultivation. Though we didn't use the word, we spent some time contemplating what it is that we grow up to be. Growth is inevitable, it is something we cannot prevent or whose rate we cannot decrease. So what is the reason for which we grow? Some options we discussed for answers to this question were: To make a living, to reproduce, to maintain the young or elderly, to search for new frontiers, to create from what is ar...

Around this time last year, I contemplated the value of conflicting positions , using the example of how the status of a hero is reinforced by his enemy. Can the same value be applied to conflicting opinions? Here is a scenario: I am in a crowd of 200 people. All of us work at a construction site. One day we are told that we will no longer have a lunch break. I know for a fact that one of my coworkers disagrees with this. I have mixed feelings. In this case, is it better to keep quite in order to keep my coworker quite in order to let the company run better so that the building can be completed? Or is it better for me to speak up with my coworker and express difference in hopes that the rule may somehow be dropped? The first option benefits the building contractors, the building occupants, and perhaps a few others, but it brings trouble to us construction workers (no lunch!). The second option brings trouble to the contractors, occupiers, etc. but benefits us. Who counts? ...

In the last few years since I completed grad school, I have been thinking about why history seems more difficult to reminisce than the future is to look forward to. But this Economist blogpost  from the other day highlights some new research in this area. "They used to think that time does not have a direction, at least at the subatomic level, though they now agree that it does. Ordinary people, of course, have always known this. Nearly all cultures have a version of the arrow of time, a process by which they move towards the future and away from the past. According to a paper to be published in Psychological Science this has an interesting psychological effect. A group of researchers, led by Eugene Caruso of the University of Chicago, found that people judge the distance of events differently, depending on whether they are in the past or future."  It's interesting how the psychology of time has been found to work similarly to the sound of moving objects. Event...

I was recently sent an extract of Rumi from a former teacher. According to a translation by Andrew Harvey , it goes something like this: The grapes of my body can only become wine After the winemaker tramples me. I surrender my spirit like grapes to his trampling So my inmost heart can blaze and dance with joy. Although the grapes go on weeping blood and sobbing "I cannot bear any more anguish, any more cruelty" The trampler stuffs cotton in his ears: "I am not working in ignorance You can deny me if you want, you have every excuse, But it is I who am the Master of this Work. And when through my Passion you reach Perfection, You will never be done praising my name." Thanks, KR.

A: Spirit B: Human C: Action If all A = B, and every B = C, then all C = A. 

"You don't know what's in store, But you know what you're here for."

On Vijana FM's poll this week, we asked whether traditional healers can work with doctors. So far, most people say "in some ways, sure". Coincidentally, I came across this article today titled Traditional Medicine Excels Where Science Fails . Here is an extract: "Traditional medicine is popular in rural and urban communities due to beliefs. High cost of living, which has made medical treatment unaffordable to many people, is another reason for the popularity of the customary medicines. Other factors notwithstanding, long distance to a local health facility has also pushed many people towards traditional medicine, which to most rural people, is more readily available.   "It is estimated that over 80 per cent of rural people in Tanzania depend on traditional healers for their primary health care needs. Since the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in the country allowed treatment through traditional medicines, clinics and shops, which give that service are...

Here is an epic  panoramic view of Mars, with love from Curiosity. Thanks Engadget !

Metaphysical subjects cannot be clearly discussed through words, regardless of language ( Thanks, LW ). They might be able to be felt - in some way or the other - through other forms of expression (sight, sound, touch, etc.) but even through these other forms, the subject is obscure, vague, not exact and interpretable in different ways. Does this mean we should shy away from expressing our metaphysical beliefs through our actions in life? And when instinct speaks loud from within, is this even an option?

Three years ago in London, I met Adil Mamodaly, who happened to be living in the room next door to me at our student residence near Kings Cross. At the time, Adil was pursuing a double Masters program (in Muslim Civilizations and Education respectively), jointly run by the Institute of Education and the Institute of Ismaili Studies . Though we no longer live in the same city and can no longer enjoy a game of Monopoly together as easily, I am lucky to still be in touch with Adil. He is now working as a teacher and scholar with the Ismaili community in Canada and recently published a paper titled Rethinking the role of religious education in a knowledge society: A Shia Ismaili Muslim perspective . Yesterday I caught up with Adil over e-mail and asked him five questions on the paper. He was kind enough to respond. Here is what he said: 1. This knowledge society; does it just have to do with the physical production of knowledge or are there intangible aspects to it?  Knowledg...

Sometimes, we argue about how far we have acted out our thoughts. Other times, we decide we cannot act as much as we can think. Insofar as thinking and acting are seen as two departments, two worlds, two states of being, their combination seems difficult. Insofar as they are thought of as one seamless process, one world, one way of being, their interdependency becomes clearer.