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Pakistan Deserves Better Treatment

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Professor Taboo

Pakistan Ambassador to U.S. Husein Haqquani

When American news journalists and American congress members, or CIA Director Leon Panetta, fill the news wires and networks with the angry incessant question, “How did the Pakistani military and officials not know Osama Bin Laden was living so long within a stone’s throw of their military base?” my blood-pressure begins to rise and my skin turns flush. After a few deep breaths I recollect myself and return to my normal positive demeanor. However, I am compelled to mention these important points about the Pakistani gaps in their population which I hope can shed some light.

Asking the stated question above from a purely Western-developed nation and mindset demonstrates an incorrect perspective of the average rural Pakistani in light of their governmental, military officials, and socio-economic living.

Pakistani television worker taps into nearby electric pole without any safety gear or equipment.

First, let us gain perspective of the average Pakistani standard of life. Released on November 4, 2010 the United Nation’s report on Human Development Index around the world from 169 member nations (including Pakistan) compiled measures of four major life-standards: life-expectancy, literacy, education, and standards of living. The report is a sufficient means of measuring human well-being, especially child welfare. More importantly and ironically, this index was developed by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq in 1990. Based on the four life-standards of life-expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living, of the 169 countries indexed Pakistan ranks #125. Pakistan ranks as one of the ten lowest HDI’s on the Asian continent, their neighbor Afghanistan being the lowest.

Pakistan ranks 125th of 169 UN-HDI nations

What does this mean about the average Pakistani citizen, particularly some of those sectors sympathetic to Al-Qaeda? As is the case with most stagnate developing nations or impoverished nations, the standard of literacy and education – to name just two – are nothing like those of western democratic developed nations, especially the United States. Therefore, assuming that the town Bin Laden was hiding is NOT sympathetic to him and Al-Qaeda, it is reasonable to assume those people around his compound either had much more important life-concerns or simply did not have the “investigative where-with-all” to tip-off the Pakistani officials. Bottom-line, it is misinformed to think or assume the Pakistani military and security officials would receive quality help from the general population, if any at all. Hence, they are essentially working alone and without thousands of literate eyes, ears, and mouths.

Finally, Western journalists and American Congress members must keep in mind that not only do two-thirds of Pakistanis live below the poverty line; typically “democratic” Muslim nations work on a different social system than the U.S. or other similar countries. In other words, in Pakistan and most other under-developed or developing Islāmic nations (e.g. Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, etc.) wealth, education, literacy, and remaining factors of the HDI, typically resides among the ruling families and/or governmental officials. As has recent North African and Middle Eastern civil revolts demonstrated, there are HUGE socio-economic gaps between the have’s and the have not’s. And as is typical in less-than developing Islāmic countries, high competency, literacy, and education remains traditionally among those sectors with influence and power…and like it or not America, in the case of Bin Laden’s whereabouts not being known by Pakistani officials, that socio-economic and literacy GAP is no better illustrated than now. A divide this size and this volatile is too often ripe for extremist anti-West, anti-American, and anti-capitalist cultivation. Many Pakistani people who are devout Muslims, not only believe vehemently that several of their own rulers are corrupt and subservient to U.S.-India designs, but take it further to extreme stating in no uncertain terms that Islam is the only legitimate challenger to the world’s “current chaos, inequality, despotism and international disorder – all a consequence of Western liberalism (Capitalism).” (from Khilafah.com).

Former UN legal & economic advisor & Pakistan descendent Mahreen-Khan

Mahreen Khan, a first generation British-born citizen and descendent from Pakistan, law graduate from Cambridge University, public administration graduate from Harvard University, former legal-economic advisor with the U.N. in Kosovo, and now host of BBC World’s Question Time Pakistan, gave a revealing report of Pakistan’s people as “suffering from corruption fatigue.” I recommend her article by clicking here: The Express Tribune.

It is no stretch of the imagination that the distance between the Have’s (i.e. Pakistani government & military leaders, not foot soldiers) and the Have Not’s (i.e. Bin Laden’s neighbors) is a bitter untrusting gulf. And don’t forget that the Pakistani people, police, and government are dealing with murdering Taliban extremists in their northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan, AND violence in the Jammu and Kashmir regions bordering India, AND let’s thrown in again two-thirds of the population below the poverty-line. It is unrealistic to expect the Pakistani police, military, and government to run as smoothly, efficiently, stealthy, or with the same interest and zeal as the American counterparts. Pakistan’s Ambassador to the U.S. said correctly and candidly, “America can’t find Whitney Bulger, so why do you expect us to locate Bin Laden?” (from Jeffrey Goldberg, correspondent for The Atlantic; click here).

Two historical perspectives are relevant here. Today Germany is one of the most economically successful nations in Europe. Their Human Developement Index is ranked #10 of the 169 countries indexed. Over seven decades ago, however, Germany was on the brink of bankruptcy and mass unemployment, demographically not unlike Pakistan today. We all know too well who raised himself (and those closest to him) into singular power and control. Hitler and his Nazi SS members waged one of the deadliest world wars in history. Yet out of these darkest decades in Germany’s past were pockets of German-born non-Jew patriots resistant to all that was Nazi: one example, von Stauffenberg and Operation Valkyrie; the unsuccessful 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler.

More relevant to our treatment of Pakistani officials — and intimately closer to America than Germany — is what took place on April 19th, 1995 in Oklahoma City, right here on our own soil….by an American born caucasian and a former member of the U.S. Army, Timothy McVeigh. His two accomplices were Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier, both Americans as well and both former U.S. Army soldiers. These three American caucasian, U.S. military men killed/murdered 168 innocent lives, including 19 children under the age of 6, and permanently disfiguring more than 680 people.

In light of recent events with another more illusive terrorist in Pakistan found and killed, it begs the question, why did our own FBI and CIA members with enormously MORE resources than Pakistani police and military can only DREAM of having…not stop these three American militants right here in our own backyard?

America, Congress, and U.S. news journalists, let’s give the Pakistani leaders and people some slack. They are dealing with an entirely different scope of civil mentality, illiteracy, and socio-economic caste system that very few of us here in the U.S. can fully appreciate. Stoic patience and carefully articulated dialogue would be very prudent during this time.

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Compos Mentis: Rationality Prevails, For Now

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Professor Taboo

Paul Clement and John Boehner are key crusaders for DOMA

Anti-discrimination advocates received great news over a week ago Monday, April 25th. The law firm King & Spalding, hired by Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans to spend overspent taxpayer dollars to defend DOMA (the Defense Of Marriage Act), withdrew their representation of the case. If you are unaware of the litigation details, basically supporters of DOMA feel that gay-lesbians who want to marry, not only for the EQUAL legal benefits that hetero marriages freely enjoy, but just as much for the sake of “love“. They are clearly discriminated upon by not being legally allowed to marry under the guise of DOMA. Very specific religious-based groups who do not represent the entire diverse American population (much less the rest of the free-world), feel it is their “God-given” right to enact laws binding others how they are to live their personal lives. How have other religious-based power groups used the same God-given battle cry at the cost of basic human rights and lives? How many can you name and are their principles much different?

With my already published blog Sexual & Gender Ambiguity as my personal foundation on this issue, I am not going to waste my time or yours with the political rhetoric and unsound empty premises that DOMA and its supporters use. Here is my parody of the issue and how I condense their bottom-line:

Only heterosexual couples deserve all the personal and legal benefits of marriage in America. Period.

Well no, let me rephrase that to show more accurately the DOMA logic:

Only white-with-white, or Afro-American-with-Afro-American heterosexual couples deserve all the personal and legal benefits of marriage in America. Period.

Well, no no, let me rephrase that again to show more accurately the logic:

Only people with exactly 10-fingers and 10-toes who can produce children naturally through federally approved intercourse, deserve all the personal and legal benefits of marriage in America. Period.

Well, no that doesn’t work quite right either. Let us rephrase it again:

Despite that well over half of American heterosexual marriages end in divorce more than once, spending untold amounts of sparse overspent taxpayer dollars in court fees, etc., let’s pretend they represent TRUE LOVE (since “God” agrees only with heteros) and hence are the only couples who deserve all the personal and legal benefits of marriage in America. Period….until we can sound more convincing the next time.

Various amounts of sexual hormones then genitalia develop first at the molecular level, not according to any post-natal religious propaganda.

Well, that last bottom-line doesn’t work either because who or what has the right to define what true love is…the Federal or State governments? Or more poignantly, the U.S. Constitution? As any elementary school student will recognize, the rationale behind these highlighted DOMA premises might seem ridiculous, but I hope they show the incredulous basis behind any person or legal/political organization trying to dictate onto persons and their private lives what defines the sanctity of marriage, love, or gender combinations the two belong. As my last ‘rephrase’ points out, American heterosexual marriages CERTAINLY have no track record worthy to define what love, marriage, or where the gender combinations belong.

My instinct tells me that DOMA advocates will grasp further outside Constitutional jurisdictions, calling upon their own individual religious or faith-based presumptions that discriminate against another sector of people with differing world or religious views. For me, it is glaringly obvious which position should be given legitimate “Constitutional protection“!

I remind readers that these views are as much a parody as they are a personal method to cause reflection on a subject that is ultimately OUTSIDE governmental or religious dictation. I also urge readers to read my earlier blog Sexual & Gender Ambiguity to gain proper perspective on my personal position on this discriminatory issue. While ‘hate‘ messages are not permitted, dialogue is most certainly welcomed. Thank you for respecting this.

[Later addition] Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who vetoed a bill in 2005 for legalizing same-sex marriage in California, admitted May 17th, 2011 that ten years earlier he fathered a child with another woman other than his wife. He never told her or his children, and most certainly while being governor paid-off monthly child support to keep this unethical behavior out of the public eye. Whether Schwarzenegger is a great example of the “sanctity of heterosexual marriage” or not, is not the real issue. The very REAL issue is America’s acceptance of not only non-monogomous marriages or relationships, but more importantly getting out of everyone’s personal lives and bedrooms and concerning themselves with and accepting the ethical sanctity of humanity instead of the genetic-hormonal-sexual differences of humanity. One of the best things now that Schwarzenegger can do to save face is reverse his position on same-sex marriage and start campaigning for its legalization. For more on this important genetic-sexual issue, read my blog Sexual & Gender Ambiguity.

Connectivity — Part 2

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Professor Taboo

Albert Einstein tried to join the fundamental forces of nature to the accepted laws of elemental particles under one simplified framework called the Unified Field. Between the 1940’s and the 1970’s several scientific fields were successfully joined into one single model: James Maxwell’s electromagnetism was translated into mathematical terms called quantum mechanics; Niels Bohr and Richard Feynman, along with Einstein consolidated the behavior of matter and energy on molecular, atomic and sub-atomic levels into Quantum Physics. It was an age of great scientific discovery and newer challenges, primarily how to incorporate gravity into Quantum Mechanics and Physics.

Generational macro-to-micro perspective of a quark — click on the diagram for a grade school level explanation.

Experiments in particle acceleration, i.e. breaking down atoms into smaller sub-atomic particles by literally crashing them together, revealed seemingly more unqualifyable mechanics. Yet after decades of watching these experiments, physicists began seeing patterns or family groups of sub-atomic particles. In our science classes we learned that elements were made up of various atomic combinations. Within the individual atoms we learned they in turn were made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons. By 1968 physicists discovered yet another generation of particles: the Quarks. These sub-parts of protons and neutrons, six types exactly, exist within the nuclei of atoms. Therefore, with the spinning electrons, neutrinos (created via radioactivity), the six different quarks, and photons (the basic unit of light), scientists and physicists have found a “new” 4-Part Standard Model joining quantum mechanics, quantum physics, and yes, gravity. Mr. Einstein would be at the edge of his seat, right? Has the Unified Field finally moved from theory to Universal law? Not so fast.

For the last half century our most powerful sub-atomic microscopes and particle accelerators found the quarks. Now the questions are what hold these four basic components together? How are things solid or grouped together? What intelligence is behind the behavior of everything inside us, everything on our planet, our moon, our solar system and everything between and beyond? Well, modern physicists are pretty sure it’s a unique energy organizer. What can’t be explained yet is why there are vast weight-ranges, or mass from these seemingly infinite random forms of energy or intelligent interaction when protons and neutrons smash together.

Theoretical physicist Peter Higgs of Edinburgh University

Enter the Higgs Phenomena (Peter Higgs). Higgs postulates that there is a sub/sub-atomic field throughout everything and touching everything. When certain particles interact with this field, that interaction determines the mass of those particles, like our own bodies or other objects of form. More specifically, Higgs predicts that a matching particle will produce a constant-connector or force carrier (like light given off from photons), termed the Higgs Boson. Physicists think this Higgs Boson will be discovered and measured in a larger particle accelerator than previously constructed at Fermilab near Chicago, IL; which is 3.9 miles in circumference and capable of pushing particles of protons near the speed of light. But their accelerator is neither long enough nor powerful enough to crack-open the Universe’s last common denominator.

Near Geneva, Switzerland the European Organization for Nuclear Research (known as CERN) has built just such a mega-mammoth. The Large Hadron Collider is 17 miles in circumference and in 2009 and 2010 accelerated protons almost four times faster than Fermilab, but is designed to smash particles over 7-times faster or with 7-trillion electron volts. However, due to the enormous amounts of artificial energy required to push particles upwards to the speed of light and greater distances, the CERN’S LHC will not be ready for full-power colliding until 2014.

FermiLab Particle Accelerator outside of Chicago, IL

Detailed explanation of these future experiments and the plethora of scientific terms, theoretical experiments, laws, and their formulas goes beyond the scope of this already bloating two-part article. However, if you get a wild hair to exercise your brain and expand your knowledge in quantum physics, I urge you to do so, beginning with a few of these mentioned theories and scientists. But physicists now know that we must move beyond classical Empedoclesian and Newtonian laws of nature which have governed our understanding of matter, gravity, time and space for 2 or 3,000 centuries. At the scale of the Unified Field (or Higgs Boson) there is no other choice but to go outside classical intuitions.

Here is where things get abstractly bizarre, at least for me. Conceptually or theoretically this is where scientists are at today: macroscopic bodies/entities are in multiple positions simultaneously (around thousands or more) on the nuclear scale of the Unified Field called Quantum Superposition. They may also be connected over unbelievable distances called Entanglement. And more intriguingly, they can be congealed into one quantum state (e.g. our own bodies) governed by one wave function called, interestingly enough: Bose-Einstein Condensates, slightly touched on in Part 1 of this article with Dr. Emoto’s findings via waveforms.

The 17-mile CERN Particle Accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland. The synchrotron sits 574 ft beneath the surface.

Due to the depth of this subject and need to do it justice while not sacrificing meaning, I will continue this pseudo-brief topic in the third article: Connectivity – Back to Physics Class.

Meanwhile, for an excellent in-depth elaboration of the topics and terms covered in these two articles/blogs, watch the 8-part series: Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. Another such resource is the two-part series: What the Bleep Do We Know!? Then the second: What the Bleep Do We Know!? Down the Rabbit Hole!

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The One We Feed

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Professor Taboo

One day an old Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson. He said, “There are two wolves fighting inside all of us – the wolf of fear and hate, and the wolf of love and peace.“

The grandson listened, then looked up at his grandfather and asked, “Which one will win?”

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The grandfather replied, “The one we feed.”

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