Friday, May 18, 2007

Tatakai

In the beginning I would like to apologize for the delay and also I would like to apologize for the long post and I hope that it will be worth your time.

As we’ve seen from the results of the survey that the choices differ for each point some of the choices were selected due to past experience for the participant some were selected according to instinct and some were selected according to logic analysis of the situation anyway all the participants made their choices to ensure that the results of this meeting will be for their benefit and that is natural, since I’ve mentioned that it is a very important meeting that would affect your entire life so it is natural for a person to do his best not to mess up, BUT (and that is a big but) as might be seen by the results of the survey that everyone have done their best but not their all and that is also natural it is not because that they r careless at the contrary I believe that whoever to be put in such situation will try his all to ensure his success BUT (and that is another big one) is he really trying his all? Is he really doing everything that can be done?

A great samurai once said “When fighting an enemy and your sword is broken hit him with your hands, if your hands r cut press him with your shoulders and if your shoulders r cut bite him with your teeth” many people may find that a bit extreme well I think the contrary since if I may add “if your teeth r damaged kick him with your legs and if your legs r cut then keep your eyes fixed on him as u honorably pass away regretting nothing”.

Now what could make a person go that far? And how can anyone go that far? Well it is simply that when u r fighting for your life or what is really important to u (more important than your own life) u should not hold back and about how can he do it well that was the samurai of these days was trained, lived and died for.

Now everyone must be wondering, “What the hell does that have to do with the survey” well the situation that I’ve requested the participants to imagine themselves in is the situation of a very important business meeting that their future depends on, in other words it is a situation similar to that of the samurai in a battle since in both situations the person is fighting for what is important to him and in both situations the person should not give up till he reach his goal.

Now let’s get back to the survey, for the first point that concern the preparations for the meeting the majority had chosen to focus on the subject of the meeting focusing on ones self and that may work out most of the times but not all of the times since we can’t forget the influence of the other people in the meeting since by knowing their strong points and week points u would be able to control the flow of the meeting to your interest.
The second point is when having extra time before the meeting. The majority selected to do a second check for the points u r going to propose while others thought that it will be a waste of energy to do the same thing twice and that u should rest to be fresh when going to the meeting (well in my opinion that it depends on the level of confidence in your primary preparations).
For the third point which is the dressing up for the meeting I may say unfortunately we live now in a world that the appearance is more important than the person himself so u should be well dressed for the occasion but that will fall also in the field of knowing the likings and dislikings of the people u r meeting with.
For the forth point which is about how u r feeling before the meeting. Well if u worry u won’t get anything of that, if u convince yourself that u won’t succeed in order not to get disappointed if u get rejected then u’ll probably won’t succeed and that is due to the fact that when u set your mind to losing your motivation will be decreased to minimum since u’ve put in mind that it is OK to lose and u’ll actually lose but when u convince yourself that it is a peace of cake and that u’ll surely succeed then u’ll think high and work reach your goal no matter what since u won’t settle for otherwise and for that u would succeed.

The fifth point, which is about your state inside the meeting room. A lot of people may think that whether u sit at the same level with the others or a bit lower will not be an issue but I assure u the contrary and if u want to make sure of that then the next time that u have a conversation with someone sit in a chair that is lower than the chair of the person u r talking to and u’ll notice in a while that your spirit of arguing is starting to get weaker and that u start to lose motivation while when u r on the same level or higher (I mean the level of height u r sitting in) u’ll get a boost of confidence that will dramatically helps u in your argument.

The sixth point, which is about the level of your defense when the people u r meeting with starts to attack a weak point in your proposal. Many people may think that it is OK to acknowledge your opponents abilities and allow him to take that point against u but unfortunately that won’t do in our life, why? Simply because if u give your opponent an inch then he will take a mile, he may acknowledge your honesty but how is that useful to u if your proposal is going to turned down.

The seventh point, which is in the case of failure. Let me quote from the new Rocky Balboa movie (yeah even I didn’t see that coming) “it is not important to be able to take hard punches but most importantly how u’ll deal with them”. I’m glad that no participant in the survey had chosen to give up after being turned down and that indicates that the world is not as decayed as I thought it is…;D

Now how can a person make the right decision let’s say not all the time but most of the time especially when u can’t afford to mess things up? Well I’ve mentioned many similarities between the situation at hand and that of the samurai in battle and that wasn’t for nothing since life itself is nothing but a constant battle whether battles with outer opponents (people in a meeting) or with inner opponents (fears and desires).
(When I say life is but a constant battle I don’t mean that u should live your life with force and violence at the contrary a great samurai once said, “The real victory is the one u win with your sword unsheathed”)

Some people doesn’t realize this fact or may be chose not to, they just choose to drift through life without having to stand for anything they choose to live a simple easy life and try to run away from any hardship that would meet them in life thinking that they r living a happy life with nothing to disturb them. Well it is enough just to call them drifters.

Now how to prevent yourself from becoming a drifter? The world is a scary place full of pain and hardship and it is possible that at one point of your life u become tired of all that and think how nice it will be just to run away and just to drift through life. Well to prevent that all u have to do is to write down your goal, what u believe in and your principles. It will be your code of honor (just like the Bushido to the samurai) and try to remind yourself from time to time of that Bushido of yours. Whenever u r about to make a big decision in your life u just have to remind yourself of your Bushido and u’ll find out how easy it is to make that decision, whenever u meet a fearsome foe u just have to remember your Bushido and u’ll meet him heads on. In summary once u set your mind to it and know what u r fighting for u’ll be able to move with determination and confidence to accomplish your goals not letting anything getting in your way.
Well this is one of the techniques that would help in our constant battling (LIFE) and I think that I’ll discuss the other techniques in other posts and in the end I would like to thank all the people who had participated in the survey and thank u for reading this post I hope that it wasn’t as boring as it seems to be…

Monday, May 07, 2007

Survey results

Now let’s discover some of the results of the survey…
First let’s examine the survey and the answers that were provided by a group of people (whose participation was really appreciated) of different backgrounds and as a reminder the situation that the survey mentioned is when a person is having a very important business meeting that your future depends on it and here r the questions.

The first point is to cover the preparation that u would make before the meeting. The collected data shows that choice A is the most preferable choice. The reason for that in my opinion is most people would choose to focus on the subject in hand to be sure that they’ve got all the points of the subject covered and that would increase their sense of security (one Bird in hand is better than ten on the tree) and frankly this choice works most of the times.
Choice B on the other hand was only chosen by the minority I think the reason for that is it require more work than choice A and it gives less feeling of security.
I guess choice C is the worst choice to be taken here (I won’t go as far as saying it is a choice for losers) because the situation is said to be very serious and for a person to go with only minor preparations I don’t that is clever at all.

The second point is to check the person’s behavior when the preparation is over and u still have some spare time.
The majority has selected choice B to do a second check for the preparation to ensure not missing anything and that might be the smarter choice. Choice A on the other hand is to relax and preserve your energy and may be have some sleep and that might be useful most of the time if u r confident in the preparation u’ve made. Choice C which is to worry about what can go wrong is absolutely useless but the sad thing is that there r many people (not among our participants) that got actually caught with their fears.

The third point is how to dress for the occasion.
70% of the participants have selected to wear something neither too fancy nor informal for the occasion while 30% have chosen to wear something really fancy.

The Fourth point is how to act exactly before the meetings.
60% of the participants have chosen to think positively that the meeting will go smoothly and it is just a peace of cake, while 30% have chosen not put their hopes high in order to make it easier in case they fail and 10% chose not to think about the whole thing.

The Fifth point is about the state inside the meetings room.
60% of the participants have chosen to overlook the fault in the chair that they’re using while 40% decided that it is important to be on the same level of height as the other people in the meeting so they’ll substitute the chair with another one.

The sixth point is about the behavior when confronted with a weak point in your proposal.
80% of the participants have chosen to be honest and admit that there is a flaw in the proposal but yet its strong points r much more than its weak points while 20% have chosen to act confident and escape the immediate confrontation and then to make a strong comeback.

The seventh point is about the case of failure.
90% of the participants have chosen to research the reasons of your failure and to try to be better next time while 10% have chosen that there is nothing wrong with the proposal and there must be something wrong with the people who rejected it.

These where the opinions of different people from different backgrounds and I repeat the survey is not about judging those people and their choices. The survey is about helping me in my next post where u’ll discover what the fuss is all about. I’m sorry for making anyone wait this long and I hope that it will worth your while…

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Introduction

First I want to thank again the people that have participated in the survey and special thanks to Ridha Hameed a hard working gas containers delivery guy (I don’t mean that the other participants r not important but I promised him that his name will be on the Internet).

And now for what the survey is about, it is really something simple and it might be very simple that u may had never spent five minutes thinking of it and for some people it is something that they had settled upon ages ago and they r so convinced that it is the right thing and that no one can convince them otherwise so I say to those people “PLEASE just give me a chance and I assure u that the benefit will be all yours, u just have to be a little patient”.

If u had read my previous post u may find that I’ve mentioned that the situation that u have to imagine yourself in is the situation of having a business interview that is very important as it will make u or break u and I’m sure that u’ve been there or will be there someday. My point is that life is not fair and u may find yourself in a very serious situation, whether u like it or not, but the decision u would make then might be crucial for your future, your life or for what is really important to u and believe me u don’t want to mess that decision up. So the big question is how u make sure that u don’t?

An obvious answer for the previous question is “KNOWLEDGE” and that is quite true since knowledge is power and u do need to be powerful in life so through knowledge u may acquire the wisdom that may help u in your darkest situations but here another question rises “How do I acquire that knowledge?” and here another terms pops up and it is “LEARNING” since acquiring knowledge requires a great deal of learning, to learn about science, history, logic, art…etc. Another way of acquiring knowledge is from experiencing and learning from life itself and that is a process of a life time so u may live and learn from your mistakes and I assure u that eventually u will acquire a great amount of knowledge but I’m afraid it will be too late to benefit from that then.

Knowledge is very important yet acquiring it will require a great amount of time and a greater deal of effort and frankly many people don’t have enough of them both and another thing is that u may not have the time to acquire that knowledge and that the moment of truth would come when u r still making your first step along the long path of knowledge and it is a very branched path and that will add another burden of picking the right path and relating that to your way of living. So how in the world will we be able to secure ourselves against life? How can we be sure that we r not missing anything and that when the moment of truth has come u wouldn’t give it just your best but rather to give it your all in order to regret nothing and even if u fail to stand up for what is important to u (as I said life is unfair) u would be able to be in peace with yourself.

I guess this is too long to be an introduction so I’ve decided to make it a post of its own and I promise that part two will be coming soon…

Monday, April 30, 2007

Hontoni Komene (I sincerely apologize )

I apologize for not being able to post anything earlier because of the lack of Internet connection till now and I promise that after processing the data that u've provided from the previous post I'll write the post for u to understand what the previous post was all about.
Thanks for all the people that participated in the survey and may God bless us all...

Friday, March 23, 2007

Survey

The following post is a survey that the next post will depend on. It contains simple questionnaire about an ordinary situation that has occurred to almost everyone of so I hope that u’ll be kind enough to spare some of your time and answer the questions given by pointing to the choice that u most likely to do in your ordinary life and I’m already thankful for your kindness…

You have a very important meeting with some officials (let’s say that your career depends on the outcome of this meeting) and it is a meeting that u definitely don’t want to mess up.

1.The meetings has been assigned three days from now so u will:

A- Focus only on the subject u r going to propose and make sure u r going to cove all points.
B- Try to collect information about the people u r going to meet up with their likings and dislikings week points and strong points.
C- After minor preparations for what u r going to say u decide that u’ll depend on your wit in this and see how things goes.

2.After doing all the required preparations for the meetings u found out that u have an extra five hours before the meetings so u will:

A-Sit back and relax may be get some sleep.
B-Perform a second check on what u r going to say and search thoroughly for pints that u may have missed.
C-Start thinking how things could get wrong and worry about that.

3.You r going to get dressed up for the meeting so u will:

A-Dress up casual in cloths that is comfortable for u.
B-Put on your fancy 10000$ suit.
C-Put on something neither too fancy nor informal.

4.Before the meeting u will:

A-Worry your ass off thinking of everything to go wrong.

B-Convince yourself that your request would be rejected in order not to be upset if it did.

C-Convince yourself that it is a peace of cake and that u know for sure that your request will be accepted.

5.You r now in the meeting room and the people u r going to meet haven’t shown up yet and u noticed that the chair u r going to sit on has a defect that made it lower than other chairs so u will:

A-Quickly change the chair before they enter the room.
B-U will pay no attention for such a trivial matter and focus on more important things.
C-U won’t risk being seen changing the chair so u’ll wait till they enter the room and when u sit u will point at the defect in your chair and u’ll change it then.

6.After an hour of tiring arguments they mention a week point in your proposal that u haven’t thought off so u will:


A-Acknowledge how sharp they r and tell them that it may have some week points but they overall benefits is satisfactory.
B-You’ll get confused and say that u haven’t thought of that.
C-You’ll act cool and point at another strong point in your proposal that is relevant to what they said then u tell them to think about it while u go to the bathroom where u r going to find a suitable answer for their question.

7.You think that your performance in the meeting is splendid yet they turn u down so u will:

A-Get upset and decide that u’ll quit this job since u suck at it.
B-You’ll study why u were turned down and make use of your errors and start again somewhere else.
C-You’ll say that there is nothing wrong with u and that there must be something wrong with the people in the meeting.

That is all folks and I hope that I didn’t bother u and please try to answer with what u think u’ll do not what is better to do since I’m not here to judge anyone and thank u again for your time and effort and may God bless us all…

P.S. for my blogger friends I'll be very grateful if u may spread the word cause I need at least 10 different surveys and thank u for your effort.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

And then there were mating

Although it is out of ordinary for me to talk in such a subject but I found it to be very interesting both funny and sad at the same time so I have to talk about it and for people who may find it offensive I apologize…

The story goes like this:
I have a friend who is a newly wed (let’s call him M) and since we both live in Iraq so I haven’t seen him since about 2 months although we live in the same district (well that is normal in Iraq) so the other day I was on the phone with a mutual friend of us who lives next door to M so I asked about M and the guy told me that lately he has been very gloomy and get pissed of easily and although M used to be a joke master the guy told me that M has fought with another guy because of a joke so I was extremely surprised and he told me that M is always sitting at the shop near his house and that he has become an unpleasant person to be with.
After I hung out the phone I started to think about M and I though how marriage has changed him this much since he was a cheerful guy joking about everything even in his darkest moments so I decided to go to see him against all the advises of my family to stay home (as if I’m going to a battle field) so I went to his house and here is what happened.
I knocked the door and after a minute M showed up with his big smile and he ran toward the door and he gave me a worm welcome with his usual cheerful style so I was a bit surprised but I though he was polite to greet me after a long period so he invited me in and we sat down. He started joking about the situation in Iraq and we did some chitchat for a while and I though why did they say that he is gloomy he is pretty cheerful to me. So after finishing all the stuff we could talk about I couldn't’t stand not to ask him so I said “the other day I talked to one of our friends and he told me that u were in a terrible shape and actually he got me worried but I see that he was wrong”. M paused for a while and then thanked me for my concern and he said “I was like shit indeed but now no more” so I told him that I’m glad to hear that and I asked him for the reason and he simply answered “Because it is summer now”. Actually that was an unexpected answer cause almost all Iraqis hate our summer cause it is very hot that u won’t know what hits u (I don’t believe anyone would understand till he sees for himself) so I was like “and so? R u going somewhere this summer” and he answered “ no I’m just glad that summer has come” when M saw that I didn’t get the idea of him loving the summer all of the sudden so he kindly explained that for my simple mind.
“u know that I’ve been married for about four months now and that I got married in winter?” I told him that I knew that but yet I don’t get the idea so he explained more. “in winter there is no electricity and no gas so u can’t boil any water and for a married man not having hot water is the worst thing ever, don’t u think so?”
Only then it hit me and it did so hard that I kept laughing with him for about 10 minutes and here is a simpler version for those who didn’t get it yet:
For Muslims, a Muslim has to have a shower after each time he have sex with his wife and he can’t go to his prayers unless he do so and since we have fiver prayers then he have to shower before the time of the prayer is on.
So M has explained that since he got married he had that problem and every time he sees his wife he get upset knowing that she is out of his reach although they r married and he get angry and blame anyone and anything so now while it is summer he won’t think about boiling water anymore at least till next winter…
So after we made few jokes about that and how the absence of electricity and fuel is part of a country wide scheme for birth control in Iraq and as Red Forman in “That 70’s” show says “best birth control method is not to do it”….;D so I left my friend enjoying his summer and I wished him that there won’t be any new schemes ( no water is another obstacle) and I wished him and all the Iraqis a healthy life…

P.S. this is an actual story and the permission to publish this information has been acquired from the persons related to this event.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

A comment on Kid's post

After reading a post on the Kid's blog I was obliged to say few words and one thing led to another and it has became a long comment that I've decided to publish it on my blog since I'm too lazy to write any new post and I really thank the Kid for his post cause I was unable to write anything about this subject cause I was too afraid that I would not be giving Imam Al-Hussein what he deserve but the Kid's post moved somthing inside me so thank u Kid again and here is my comment:
Nice post indeed but please don’t discuss things when u don’t have enough background on them u r very good in political analysis but when it comes to Shiite doctrine I’m sorry but u r very week if u have just heard the story of Imam Al-Hussein don’t try to analyze such an event politically and I’m saying that not carried away by the built up legend I admit that there r a lot of stuff added but u can’t say it is nothing but a myth it is a truth as much painful and great. U can’t say that Imam Hussein revolution is a revolution for Shiite only it had a great effect on all Islam, u may say “Wow, this is too much” but I tell u it isn’t at all the revolution of Imam Hussein was not a political revolution to get to the chair, why? I should answer with these undeniable facts:
First Moawya started the corruption of caliphate u may say that I’m being too prejudice but the unfortunate truth is that I’m not since have u heard in the time of Abu Baker, Omar, Othman or Imam Ali, of a caliph having a big castle or hundreds of slaves and having bacchanal everyday with dancing and wine? (if this is how the prince of the believers is then how would an ordinary believer be?) In the time of the first caliphs the caliph was in the service of Islam and the people, and after that the caliph was served by the people and he is higher than Islam and for that Imam Hussein has started his revolution nothing less and if it wasn’t for him who knows how Islam would have been.
Second if u may do a little search u may find that Moawya used to write poetry and if u search all his poems u’ll never find one verse praising Islam or the prophet and some of his poems r very shameless so does such kind of a person is fit to be caliph?
And the last is a document written by Moawya himself (and u can find that if u search historical documents) in which he is assigning Omar bin Al-3as as a ruler of Egypt in which he say “مصر طعمة مني ما حييت” and that means that Egypt is a gift from him as long as he is alive and is that a way of a righteous caliph to act? Acting as if the Muslims land belongs to him and he may give them to whom he likes.
Well no I may consider the part that u’ve said that people claims that Imam Al-Hussein knew his fate while he actually didn’t well I’m not going to argue with u about knowing the future or not (even I could do that) but let’s say that Al-Hussein didn’t know and he went to Iraq and then he was surrounded so if he was caught of guard then he could easily got off hock since we all know that the truth that Moawya lost the real battle so Al-Hussein was able to give up and accept Moawya as caliph and then no one can open his mouth and that will be the real victory to Moawya but although Al-Hussein knew that he was going to be killed and also all his followers and that the women of the house of the prophet will be taken as slaves but he didn’t because he was fighting not for himself or for the caliphate but rather for the glory of Islam and for what is right so he knew his fate and he did accept it even for cost of his life.
In the end all can I say is if u r about to write a delicate post like this one please don’t take it so lightly and if u want to compare someone to Saddam u’ll never find a fit more suitable than Moawya himself since a lot of people now glorify him.
Thank u Kid for your post and may God bless u…

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Death

Death is the end of our mortal life; it is when our internal organs seize to function and that is when we die…

It is a fixed fact that all mortal tend to die and that death is inevitable for all mortals and that u can’t escape death nor delay it when your time would come and that is that. So after all that I started to wonder why do we fear death? If u can’t escape it and no matter what your life will end with death whether u like it or not then why do we fear something that whether u r afraid of it or not it will come? Some times we even not talk about death as if death would hear its name it will come. I guess the reason of all that is the lack of knowledge of the true meaning of death…

If we take a look at death from a different perspective we might find it to be something not ominous at all it is simply an ordinary phase of our life think of your life and death as a beautiful flower that was raised till the day it blossoms as a beautiful flower and then it will wither and die (I like to resemble life with a Sakura blossom) u can never forbid a flower from withering but the picture of the flower blooming in its prime would stick in your memory for ever and that is exactly how life and death is, u can’t gain immortality nor u can prolong your life more than God has given u and the only thing that is left is for u to ensure that your life has blossomed in a way that would be remembered by others and in an honorable way that u would be proud of.

On of the reasons of our fear to death is the concept of life after death since the great connection and I believe greatly in the concept (or most suitably the fact) of life after death and for those who don’t I have only one thing to say, “Big surprise is waiting for u”. Life after death has a great effect of our fear for death since one of the big reasons that we may fear death for is our fear to the outcome of our life (whether we were good or bad) and how we’ll be judged accordingly.

Other reason is that we fear death because of our need to fulfill a specific duty for us in this life and we fear death before fulfilling that duty or reaching that aim for us in this life and actually I found this very respectable and I want to point on something and it is the fact that if u die for the sake of reaching your goal and your life ends before u do that is just more respectable. One of the examples of this is of someone fearing death for the sake of someone dear to him since whether we like it or not death is always the cause of grieve for the love ones but the idea of seeking immortality for the sake of your loved ones is kinda stupid cause u’ll get to see all your loved ones die before your eyes and that is more painful for the heart than anything in the world.
In the end all I can say that we should fear death not since death is an inevitable thing u may fear it as long as u want and that will not change the fact that we all die so the only thing we can do about it is to eliminate the reasons that keep us afraid of death we should live our lives to the fullest and never forget what is important to us and what we aim for in our lives and to always do what is right to avoid the punishment afterward. Life is too short and there is no time for fooling around and as one of the great samurai once said
“Wake up with the idea of death in your mind in the morning and refresh your self with it in the evening”


P.S. since I'm currently surrounded by all means of death I should give it a quite amount of thinking so if anything should happen to me I hereby transfer the property of this blog to my friend and brother Anarki and he has full authority to do anything he desires with it and may God bless us all...

Monday, February 12, 2007

Seppuku

Hey check out this post by Forest Acre Whispers it is really a good post about Seppuku and thank u....ja matta
http://forestacrewhispers.blogspot.com/2007/02/honor-and-seppuku.html

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

the 10th of Muharam

I was assembling the information for the next post about the great Miyamoto Musashi sama when I overheard a conversation between my parents about the weather (Yesterday we had a terrible sand storm) and they were discussing how come that every year on the same exact day the weather get crazy and that made me take a pause for a second and I decided something “Kumineh Musashi sama ur post should be postponed”…
Now back to the subject what is so special about this exact day well actually it is the 9th of Muharam (first of the Arabic months) and anyone in Iraq knows what that means and why the 9th and the 10th of Muharam is special.
The 10th of Muharam is the day that Al-Hussein was murdered, he was a great man that we r in dept for himand will remain forever since if it wasn’t for him the line that separate right from wrong would have been blurred so he chose to sacrifice himself and his kin to straighten the path of Islam for us to take and he protected Islam (the message that his grandfather prophet Mohammed held to humanity).
So in the end I just hope that Muslims will appreciate the sacrifice of A-Hussein and that they will work together to keep the name of Islam high putting aside all their differences and arguments.
عظم الله اجورنا و اجوركم باستشهاد الامام و نسأل الله الثبات على الدين و الولاية,يا ابا عبد الله ياليتنا كنا معكم فنفوز فوزا عظيما

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Demonic announcement

Attention all class B demons and below, the high console of Demonic affairs has decided that all demonic operation in Iraq to be suspended until further notice due to the fact that the actions that have been performed by humans in Iraq has surpassed those of our jurisdiction and this statement hold from this moment forth till stated other wise by the high consul of Demonic affairs and the consul will hold a meeting do discuss the possibility of sending a special trained unit in a trial to bring balance to the area since the humans have taken no active moves and for the sake of protecting the cattle (protect the humans from their-selves) so those who would like to join this unit submit ur applications at the Balance restoration office and for ur information the members of the unit will have the privilege of feasting on what they hunt.


Yours Demonically,
Class B high consul official Kitsune Kyubai Samma

P.S. The birthday of our beloved Queen Lilith is approaching so all Demons be advised to take the suitable preparation for the event (be careful not to repeat last year tragedy by offering low life sacrifices)...

Sunday, January 21, 2007

the truth about V-Experiment

After completing V-experiment here r the things that I’ve concluded:

  • The implementation of the virtues in our daily life is easy if u want to do it and the key word here is WANT TO
  • People of this world always wants u to act righteous when u r dealing with them and when it comes to their side of the deal they simply bale on ethics it is like saying “don’t lie to me” or “don’t cheat me” and from their side the lie and cheat.
  • You would be called crazy for suggesting such a thing as V-experiment and when u ask why they say it can’t be done in this time and that should make u think what part of implementing honorable virtues is related to a specific time?
  • You would be called unrealistic or in Iraqi (واحد فايخ) if u suggest to commit to a virtue and when u ask why the answer will be “in what world r u living can’t u see people getting killed every day and u talk to me about virtues” not realizing that in virtues lies solution for all our problems.
  • It is a human nature to try to be righteous (well not every human) but the lack of mind drove us to the wrong way of living, as an example let’s say that some child broke a vase in the house as soon as the parent hear the voice of the broken vase he/she will go straight to the child and ask him angrily “did u break the vase? “ as the child sees how angry his parent is he –in fear of the punishment- will simply lie and even if the parent knew that his child was lying he/ she will act in a way that won’t encourage the child of not lying again but rather to be more skillful with his lies another example that include adults let’s say that a certain man/woman is not satisfied with his/her partner for a certain fault in that person so he/she would cheat on his partner to satisfies his/her need rather than talking to his/her partner to solve that problem because his/her partner tends to overreact when being directed to small details on his/her personality that needs work on. And many more examples.
  • People with high level of confidence of their principals would find the idea of V-experiment quite interesting because such people can’t bare the idea of themselves living a dishonorable life even at the cost of some mortal achievements.
  • Being virtuous is pretty contagious specially when people see that u r very committed to what u believe in so it starts with jealousy and if that person has an open mind he’ll show the same level of commitment for what he believes in.
  • All these conclusions r personal opinions of me some might be right others might be wrong but the indisputable truth is that this experiment was an eye opener for me on things I haven’t perceived before and I’ve gained a new level of respect to the BUSHIDO.

In the end all I can say is what an Arabic poet once said
انما امم الاخلاق ما بقيت
فان هم ذهبت اخلاقهم ذهبوا
In English:

The nations of ethics and morals are no more

Their morals are gone and so did they

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

I'm back (I guess)

I'm sorry if I kept anyone waiting (although I doubt there is someone dying for a new post from me) but due to the great circumstances in Iraq it is kinda difficult for me to be online and the solution is simple yet complicated for me anyway that is not the subject in hand let me give u the latest update of Kyubai:

* About V-experiment I went one with it and completed it (me and the few friends who accompanied me here in Iraq) so I'm sorry David and Anarki if u feel that u were left behind, u have the option of continuing on ur own if u like and I'll post the details of my weeks later-on.

* About my personal Info here is a brief confusing description:
NEW VERSION: "ALIVE AND KICKING"
* Now I'm trying to get a wireless Internet connection but it is simple -as u may think - I just need to go out by the antenna and the wireless LAN card and then get connected, well it is all easy except for the going out part since if I want to go to a decent computer shop I need two fake IDs and an armored vehicle so I think I'll pass for the time being.

Well that is all for now wish me luck and may God bless and protect us all...

Friday, December 15, 2006

Week review “Honesty”

Surprisingly the implementation of honesty in our real world is not that hard at all and the results were splendid so I have concluded that the reason of that is that when we lie –no matter how we r used to it- we know all the time that we r lying and part of us is urging us not to and that good lies needs more times to think them over so I used that as an indicator when I’m about to lie and it worked just fine and the score is much less than that of respect cause I always knew when I’m about to lie and stopped it right then.

To be completely honest I did lied on Wednesday about a question that was a bit personal from a not very close friend so I didn’t want to share to much info with him but I tried at first to give a vague answer but he wasn’t satisfied so I was obliged to lie to him, I’m not very proud of that but it has to be done that way.
The conclusion that I came up with about honesty is that we can be honest if we want to be so it will only be hard for us in the times we r used to tell lies but that should be an indicator for us to reconsider why we r lying since it has to be something wrong either with us or in the situation that we put ourselves in so it has to be changed and that will be the key to be honest with ur self before being honest to others u should know why u r lying and what r the consequences of ur lies and how to fix that all…and may God help us all.

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Another week another virtue (Honesty)

Honesty is the virtue we r going to apply this week and we r going to find out is it possible for a normal human being (that is used to casual lying) to keep being honest for a whole week and how it is going to affect us is it a negative effect or a positive one the only sure thing is that I’m going to score big on this one and it is not because I’m a big fat liar (at least not fat) but it is just simply that we r used to tell little white lies in our lives and to quit that it is a challenge.
I remember once a comment by David about honesty in which he said”it can be very difficult to criticize the person you love. Say your girlfriend asks you a question and wants an honest answer. Well, sometimes a completely honest answer may hurt her feelings. So, do you tell the complete truth, or do you hold back part of the truth so she will be happy? ” well I quite agree with him about one thing that we certainly need to be careful about commenting on how a girl look but that definitely doesn’t mean that u have to lie cause not a lot of men has super models as their girlfriends but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t enjoy being with that person and there must be reasons for that, so when a guy is asked to comment about his girlfriend’s looks he doesn’t have to comment on her physical appearance –that is definitely dangerous if u say the wrong answer- so the only thing u have to do is to describe her beauty in ur eyes and why do u love her and forget about the others and in that way u’ll neither be lying nor hurting her (or actually getting hurt urself :)).

So I think that would work on a lot of situations being honest doesn’t mean that u r authorized to hurt people and if u have to tell a hurtful truth do it gently and be honest in ur heart.

Another view for honesty is being honest to ur own self cause if u can’t do that u won’t be able to be honest to anyone so u have to confront ur self with what u like and dislike about ur behavior don’t try to live in denial cause there is only one side for the truth so u have to admit at least to ur self of what is right and what is wrong and I don’t mean that u don’t have to be honest to others but start with ur self.
I know it might be hard to implement honesty but the idea of the possibility of an honest world is quite delightful a world that u may not fear to be cheated a world when there is no need to double check more than a source of information, I know that it might be my wildest dream but what r we without dreaming and may God help us all…

For more information about honesty u can go HERE

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Sorry for the delay

Due to the fact that I had a crappy week I was unable to get online so in order to get back on schedule for V-experiment I suggest that we may take these few days to review the last week so that we may continue next week with the second virtue if that is OK with everyone...
Well about my week it started normally and since the first few days there were no difference in my life style -since I was locked up at home due to the ultra violent environment- and since at home I'm only surrounded by my family that I hold respect for them normally-well I could say that I've lessen the teasing for my little sister-but there was some points that were scored against me due to the fact that I was sitting in front of the TV and I passed through some TV programs or video clips that I do not approve so I was unable to hold my tongue and I feel sorry for that and here is a record for the points for the first days
Sunday 15
Monday 9
Tuesday 16 (I know it is disrespectful to increase my points here)
Wednesday 5
Thursday 2
Friday 3

So as u may see I've tried to improve but on Thursday I met with some friends and tried to hold my tongue but it is sometimes hard to be respectful against some people I know that I should be respectful even for my enemies but I think it is OK for a respectable enemy but against terrorists well I can't stand but cursing and that is definitely not respectful thing to do...
Now we reach the juicy stuff on this week on Sunday I went to college and it was all going just fine-except for few points I scored for checking some girls' figures- till it was time to go back so I got a ride in my friend's car and it was OK till we started talking about some girls in our college and one thing led to another and I scored at least 50 or something I don't know what happened to me was it because I feared that if I didn't participate in the conversation I would be looked down at or may be I just wanted to look COOL- As if insulting people and laughing at their account is COOL although that they may be dressed or behave disrespectfully- well when I got back to my place I felt very bad because I was unable to behave my self but u know what I guess that is what the experiment all about.
In summary I've reached a conclusion that respect is a very deep a virtue since I noticed that everything is related to respect cause u can't lie if u respect ur self and respect the person u r lying to, u can't cheat if u respect ur self and do u want to know an extreme level of respect it is that u can't eat what is bad to ur body - like junk food and such stuff- if u respect ur self and ur body so it is all about respect

Friday, November 24, 2006

Implementation of Respect (Rei)

After gathering the opinions of all the participants we decided to begin with the virtue of Respect.
For information on this virtue u can find it Here .
And now how to implement this virtue in our daily life I think that it is quite obvious how to be a respectful and in return respectable person the only thing that u have to do is to respect all in life and respect life itself with no exceptions u have to treat everyone and everything respectfully...
Let's say that ur Boss is the ideal as$#@l then how could u respect him? well if u don't respect him for him being ur boss (Out of business courtesy) u may respect him for his accomplishment if not then there has to be some qualities that u may respect him for and even if there isn't u have to respect him for being a human being at least.
How may ur respect be met by others? I assume that at first u may find a rejection by the person u may respect as he may think that u r sucking up to him and others may think the same but I assure u that after a while when people find out that u respect them for nothing in return but respect itself then they'll respect u in return.
So this is our challenge for a whole week we have to respect everyone and everything to the out most starting with ur own self so it doesn't mean that if u respect someone u have to stand still when he disrespects u but u have to respond in the most respectable way.
Any way what ever I say I may never reach the answer the question of how to implement this virtue so I will believe in the nature of the Human being to really reach that answer via experimenting and I'm sure that we -some how- r going to find our way.

So I hereby announce the beginning of V-Experiment on the 25/11/2006 and may God help us all...
HAJIMETE
P.S. for the online participants u have the total freedom to suggest, argue about any part in this experiment about the how or the time just say so in ur comment and thank u.

Virtue of Choice

Where should we start? that is the question going to be, I thought that we should start with a virtue that is not very complicated and vague a virtue that may be understood and implemented easily so I limited the options to three virtues:

and I've got the approvement of the offline participants and I thought of taking the opinion of the online participants so u may agree or disagree with us and also u can name the most suitable virtue to begin with in ur opinion and to help u decide u may check these virtues in my previous posts or where ever u like .

OK that is all for now I hope that u'll respond quickly and may God help us all...

Saturday, November 18, 2006

V-Experiment

We may take years talking about the virtues and how we can apply them in life and what it does feel to be honorable,honest,loyal....or having any of the honorable virtues or even more than one or may be all, but to know what it does mean there is only one way and it is the extreme level of commitment to one or all of the virtues and by extreme I mean holding that commitment in our daily life some may say that is impossible to perform in our current life but I say if a whole class of people (the samurai) has applied and lived by a certain code of honor for hundred of years then why can't we live by it for few days and I don't mean in the same way that they lived (that u have to commit suicide if u dishonor ur self) but at least in a certain respectable level that we might be considered as honorable human-beings and here V-experiment comes in.

V-Experiment is a short for virtues experiment and in that one I tend to experiment the applicability of the seven virtues in the real world, and is the community able to accept whoever lives by such virtues? but in order to do that I need some help as I can experiment on the community in Iraq (and believe me that won't be easy cause lying can be a life saver) but what about other places and communities so I here by announce the initiation of V-experiment for all of the world and for those who r tempted to join me in my experiment u can say so in ur comment and I can only assure one thing that this experiment will be useful to u one way or another u may not realize it now but afterward u'll see the difference in ur personality and the way u see the world around u I know it won't be easy at all but I say it worth the shot, for having new perspective to the world u have to suffer a little and this experiment will manifest the best of u...
The experiment goes like this:We select a virtue and then we try to apply it in our daily life for a brief amount of time and we see from there how things will go, the key is the level of commitment to that virtue and since I've been in the world so I know how hard it will be to be fully committed to that virtue all the time so to ease things up u'll get to have piece of paper in ur pocket and every time u act against that virtue u'll score a point in the paper and in the end of the day u count the points and try the other day to lessen them and so on and u'll get angry some times furious others but u'll be happy when u lessen ur points so it will be an experiment filled with emotions so if u r up to the challenge tell me now and the experiment will be started next week and may God help us all...

P.S. if u r a blogger I will really appreciate if u link to this post even if u r not participating since I'm kinda new blogger so this will be like a big favour to me and thank u in advance.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Tadaima (I'm home)

Tadaima Baghdad, it's me again and although I hoped that the next time I'll be here I'll recognize some improvements of any kind and I surely didn't expect that it will go worst but what can I say I can't sit with my feet in the sun and expect that everything will be just as I wish for and I think in the mean time I'll be just content if u (Baghdad) just replied "Ukarinasai" and I promise u that I've learned a lot of my trip things that may improve me and will improve me to be a better Iraqi and better human being so as a final words I'll say "BEHOLD, I LIVE AGAIN"...