Please freak out !!

The buzz in the news yesterday was the blast that hit the congress building in Manila. Several people were killed and others were injured.

What gripped my attention and forced me to write is not the incident it self; it was the reaction of their president “Gloria Macapagal Arroyo”. Gloria Arroyo addressed the nation to stay calm and called for people not to start making allegations until the investigations reach an end.

In fact, I will be bald to say that the whole thing means nothing to me. But,

What makes a good leader?

I was reading in the news the other day that presidential candidate Hilary Clinton was engaged in a public debate. The news reporter said that the audience was testing her “consistency” and “judgment“.

This phrase rang a bell in my head. Those two words summed up a long debate in my mind on what characteristics make a good leader.

Intuitional decision making

The fact that we watch a lot of TV, and that this has been running the logic of many is becoming more acceptable these days. In the world of movies we usually associate with the good guys. Usually those good guys are heroes capable of beating the bad guys with there “innate” capabilities.

Many try to represent the scenario in real life. This has a bright side: it does inspire people to do good things. But it becomes risky when those people are in charge. What turned me on to write this is the way some leaders and politicians take there decisions.

Do real life situations give us the luxury to experience our fantasy?

و يقولون أن العرب شعب عاطفي !!

 

هذه هي المرة الأولى التي أكتب فيها مقالا باللغة العربية. السبب ببساطة هو أنني لا أحفظ الأحرف العربية على لوحة المفاتيح بينما أكتب باللغة الإنكليزية دون النظر إليها. لطالما سألت نفسي عن السبب في تقصيري في تعلم كتابة لغتي الأم. ربما كان السبب هو أن عملي يتطلب مني الكتابة باللغة الإنكليزية فقط بما أن هذه اللغة هي لغة “البزنس”. لم يخطر ببالي ولا مرة أن هذا التقصير سببه الإحساس اللا واعي باللاإنتماء أو بمعنى أصح التجرد اللا واعي من الإنتماء.

في مدونتي هذه كتبت كل المواضيع باللغة الإنكليزية لأنني أود التجرد من أي إنتماء سياسي أو ديني أو عرقي. أود أن أحاور العالم بلغة العالم. و لكنني هذه المرة أكتب بالعربية لأني لا أريد لغير العرب أن يقرأوا ما سأكتب. لأنني لا أريد أن أنتمي إلى قائمة النادبين و بلهاء السياسيين. و لأنني أريد أن أوجه رسالتي إلى الشخص المناسب أو الشعب المناسب.

Mr. Commissioner, Do you speak English?

Yesterday, the UN reported that the Syrian delegate to the UN did not say that: “Israeli warplanes hit a nuclear facility in Syria”. They said that this was mentioned in there report by a “translation mistake”.  The mistaken report struck a cord in the media worldwide and generated a lot of headlines.

I always wonder why he doesn’t speak English for god’s sake. I know that in politics the commissioner or the delegate is a representative of his country in many ways; one of them is the language. Politicians believe that the language is like the flag. It should be protected and presented in international encounters. But this has a lot of disadvantages.

Ahmadinejad on stage

Mr. Bollinger, the president of Columbia university, started the party welcoming the Iranian president describing with phrases like: “all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator” and described his denial of the Holocaust as: “either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated”.

What a shame. The guy him self sent an early morning email calling students and faculty to “live up to the best of Columbia’s traditions”. I wonder if he could live to those traditions or even thought about them when he uttered those embarrassing and offensive statements.

The value of a human

Have you ever watched a movie called “Black Hawk Down“? It’s really a nice movie thrilling with action and you can’t but watch it till the last second.

However, it couldn’t stop here for me. What makes me thrilled is the way the movie makes you feel about the death of people. Or may I say the different reaction towards the death of different types of humans. But are there types of humans? Well the movie gives you this impression.

Playing self-chess

Sometime ago I heard people talking about the benefits of playing chess with one’s self. At that time I thought about it as ridiculous and I didn’t give it much of my attention. But my other self kept nagging on me and wanted me to play it with him.

To be frank, me and myself didn’t quite enjoy the game, but I couldn’t nevertheless notice that it should be the hardest game ever. Although I am not an expert in the game I know that chess is a game of planning, strategies and tactics. It’s your plan versus the opponent’s plan. While you keep discovering your opponent plan during the game, you adjust your tactics accordingly and you defend and attack according to the situation of the game.

Diversity & integration: a citizenship test

I was reading an article in the BBC news website that Australia has unveiled details of a new citizenship test for immigrants.

Immigrants will be asked questions about history, institution and culture – as well as committing to Australian social values focusing on “mateship”.

The immigration minister said: “The aim of the test was to get that balance between diversity and integration correct in the future”

One-Child slogan:

China cleaned up most of its one child slogans to replace them with a list of “190 acceptable slogans”. One of the slogans to be removed says: “one more baby means one more tomb.” They think that slogans like this one are harming the image of the policy in place for more than 25 years now and strictly followed all over the country. They said it’s an effort to win more understanding to the country’s population control policy.