Sunday, February 6, 2011

protest: egypt

Brief Introduction

The peaceful Egyptian struggle towards democracy has been inspiring to say the least. Through digital communication, social networks, and word-of-mouth, the people were able to lead a peaceful revolution with millions of followers. Nevertheless, Dictator Hosni Mubarak has refused to stand down as president and is clinging on to what he has left of borrowed time. Following the withdrawal of the police force and the freedom of the prisoners, the plan was to unleash chaos but the Egyptian people have been able to run the country and secure the streets while protesting. They organized the following:

(NOTE: All these systems are established by members of the Egyptian civil society)

• Healthcare systems to care for the injured protesters
• Cleaning shifts to make sure the streets stay clean after the protests
• Food/Drink services where people share and distribute food/drinks
• Traffic systems to manage the roads and streets of the cities
• Security systems to protect the neighborhoods and residences from thugs released

Problem

However, the protesters have faced attacks and infiltration attempts from the pro-Mubarak supporters who are currently aiming at spreading chaos to diffuse the revolution. The protesters clashed on February 2, 2011 and the Anti-Mubarak protesters were chased by mounted government agents holding knives, swords, guns, Molotov cocktails and whips. In short: While the Egyptians managed to form healthcare, cleaning, ration, traffic, and security systems, they haven't yet started protesting following a plan.

Solution

The way the government is able to resist this revolution is simple and predictable. The Egyptian people have seen it for decades and know which acts to expect from the government. On the other hand, the government is running low on resources and cannot assemble in opposition of the people if they are able to march and protest in formation. The people lead a peaceful revolution and while some pleaded to the military for assistance today, it did not mobilize to assist due to higher orders.

The Egyptian youth needs to fill in the gap the military won't, they should march in formation (unarmed) and move as one unit. A box formation would include protesters and healthcare providers marching as one and able to efficiently protect themselves against any potential attacks. Of course, the logistics could be further developed to include firemen, ration-providers, or (unarmed) protesters on the offense to help push any attacks back with no violence.

Structuring of the protesters offers increased capability required to drive the revolution further. Having the protesters move according to a plan and formation (despite attempts to diffuse them) will boost their efficiency to protect one another and form an unbreakable unit able to confront opposition. The opposition will not risk moving against a well-organized protest knowing they have a diminishing chance of winning.

These are samples of formations.

http://rotc.iweb.bsu.edu/images/Photos/Formation.jpg
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/army-4.jpg

Please spread the word.

Omar Sheira

Poster courtesy of Larry West.

Sudan news

monsters are everywhere. tell them to go away :(

LRA rebels launch fresh attacks in remote area of Western Equatoria - Sudan Tribune: Plural news and
www.sudantribune.com

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Visit somewhere across the ocean without the jet lag.

Thanks to Google’s new Art Project, you can explore museums from around the world the same way you explore cities with Street View. The Art Project features 17 museums that you can navigate through at your convenience


http://www.googleartproject.com/

Thursday, January 27, 2011

quotes

“Finally, I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am…”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy…this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.”

The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things, or stain the joy of the cosmic dance, which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood whether we want it to or not…And the fact remains, we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the wind, and join in the general dance.”

“To hope is to risk frustration. Therefore, make up your mind to risk frustration.”
“Do not be one of those who, rather than risk failure, never attempts anything.”

MARY OLIVER:
“We do one thing or another, we stay the same or we change. Congratulations if you’ve changed.”
“We all have much more listening to do.”


RUMI:
“What keeps us from joining the dance
The dust particles do?…”
*
“We should split the sack
Of this culture
And stick our heads out.”
“I have lived on the lip
of insanity, wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door. It opens.
I’ve been knocking from the inside!”
*
“Because of this love for you
My bowl has fallen from the roof.
Put down a ladder and collect the pieces, please.”
*
“Hear what Sanai said:
Lose your life, if you seek eternity.”
“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”
“Beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
“If you’ve opened to…love, you’re helping people you don’t know and have never seen.”
WENDELL BARRY:
“When I hear the stock market has fallen, I say, Long live gravity!”
“Intellectual property names the deed by which the mind is bought and sold and the world enslaved.”
“Nor do I believe artistic genius is the possession of any artist.”
“Ceaseless preparation for war is not peace.”
HENRY DAVID THOREAU:
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”
“As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.”
“We make ourselves sick, that we may lay up something against a sick day.”
“What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can…”
“What everybody echoes as true today… may turn out to be falsehood tomorrow.”
“Age is no better qualified for an instructor than youth… for it has not profited so much as it has lost.”
“I am always regretting the fact that I am not as wise as the day I was born.”
GANDHI:
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
“My life is my message.”
“Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.”
“An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind.”
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
ALBERT EINSTEIN:
“A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.” (1945)
“You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it. You must learn to see the world anew.”
“Try not to let school get in the way of your education.”
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI:
“It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”
“Preach the gospel wherever you can and when all else fails, use words.”
WALT WHITMAN:
“Whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral.”
“I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God no the least…”
“Love the earth and sun and animals,
Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
Stand up for the stupid and crazy,
Devote your income and labor to others…
Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book;
Dismiss whatever insults your own soul;
And your very flesh shall be a great poem.”
“Swiftly arose around me the peace and knowledge
that pass all the argument of the earth;
And I know that the hand of God is the elderhand of my own,
And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own,
And that all men and women ever born are also my brothers…”
MOTHER TERESA:
“The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis…it is the lack of love and charity; the terrible indifference towards one’s neighbor.”
“It is not how much we do, but how much love we put into what we do.”
“Intense love does not measure; it just gives.”
“I do not agree with the big way of doing things, to us what matters is the individuals, if we wait till we get the number then we will be lost in the numbers.”
KAHLIL GIBRAN:
“We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.”
“Doubt is too lonely a pain to know that faith is his twin brother.”
THE ALCHEMIST:
“Before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up. It’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one ‘dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.’”
“Every search begins with beginners luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.”
“His heart whispered: ‘Be aware of the place where you are brought to tears. That is where I am, and that is where your treasure is.’”
“Thy lot or proportion in life is seeking after thee, therefore be at rest from seeking after it.” (The Alchemist, The Kalif Ali)
MOTHER MEERA:
“When you know that you are eternal you can play your true role in time. When you know you are divine you can become completely human. When you know you are one with God you are free to become absolutely yourself …”
“One common mistake is to think that one reality is THE reality. You must always be prepared to leave one reality for a greater one.”
“In silence one can receive more because all one’s activities become concentrated at one point. There is only one real rhythm; in silence you hear it. When you live to the rhythm of this silence, you become it, slowly; everything you do, you do to it.”
ABRAHAM LINCOLN:
“I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend.”
“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.”
EMILY DICKINSON:
“For Occupation – This – the spreading wide my narrow Hands to gather Paradise.”
MARTIN LUTHER-KING:
“Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve… You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
BUDDHA:
“If you want to know the past, look at your present life. If you want to know the future, look at your present.”
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON:
“When we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
JOHN-MICHAEL:
“When we live our life contrary to the inner guidance of our Soul, our actions often have a disharmonious effect upon ourselves, others and the Earth. This is why the evolution of individual human consciousness is intimately linked with the future of this planet. In light of this, the crisis of all physical illness, emotional imbalance and planetary upheaval has but one ultimate purpose: to provide an opportunity that will motivate us to realign our body, mind and emotions with the infinite love, wisdom and healing of our Soul. Therefore, whenever we gather the courage to do whatever it takes to end the war within, we contribute directly and immediately to our own healing and transformation as well as to the peace that our world cries out for.”
ST. AUGUSTINE:
“Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others”
A.L. KITSELMAN:
“The words ‘I am…’ are potent words; be careful what you hitch them to. The thing you’re claiming has a way of reaching back and claiming you.”
GOETHE:
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.”
GALILEO:
“The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the Universe to do.”
TALMUD:
“We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are.”
ALBERT SCHWEITZER:
“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”
VANDERLEEUW:
“When we have seen Reality, there is not a grain of dust which has not a sublime meaning.”
EDGAR CAYCE:
“Don’t feel sorry for yourself if you have chosen the wrong road – turn around!”
THOMAS A’KEMPIS:
“Study to overcome that in yourself which disturbs you most in others.”

poem written beautifully by hafiz

“When all your desires are distilled
You will cast just two votes
To love more
And be happy”
*
“I wish I could show you,
When you are lonely or in darkness,
The Astonishing Light
Of your own Being.”
*
“Why go to sleep each night,
Exhausted from the folly of ignorance.”
*
“I
Have
Learned
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call
Myself
A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
a Buddhist, a Jew.”
*
“The
great religions are the
ships,
poets the Life
Boats.
Every sane person I know has jumped
overboard.”
*
“Every child has known God,
Not the God of names,
Not the God of don’ts…
But the God who only knows four words…
“Come dance with me.”"
*
“Even after all this time
The Sun has never told the Earth
“You owe me,”
look what happens
with a love like that,
it lights the whole sky.”
“Die before you die,
Then do whatever you want.
It’s all good.”

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

got a minute or two?...

http://www.donothingfor2minutes.com/


-thought this is handy and useful but you'll most probably fail. :P

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

15 eco friendly artists hehe,

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/photos/the-15-most-eco-friendly-rockers-20101216/0595793