recap

1. April 17, Political Prisoner's Day
2. April 20, Cannabis Day ... don't ask how I found out about that
3. April 22, Earth Day
4. April 24, Genocide Remembrance Day
5. May 8, Israel’s 60th Independence - going to a protest on the 11th

I went to this confrence on the 25th, and might I say, I was rather impressed! Many of the things mentioned were not foreign to me, but it was nice that I could relate. I'll write some sort of article or little essay about it in depth later on.

Fed up with politics, man eats vote

NAPLES (Reuters) - Ballot stuffing took on a new meaning in Italy's parliamentary election on Sunday when a man ate his ballot paper in protest at the country's politicians.

Police in Naples said they had charged the 41-year-old businessman with destroying election materials. He said all Italian politicians and politics "are crap" and that he was protesting "against the system."

(Reporting by Laura Viggiano; Writing by Phil Stewart)

April 17th - Palestinian prisoners day

Wear black in Solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners- Everywhere.. - Window Into Palestine

Freud on the Arab-Israeli conflict

Vienna: 26 February 1930: Letter to the Keren Hajessod (Dr. Chaim Koffler)

Freud would not have been surprised at the continuing conflict in the Middle East. He predicted as much 70 years ago.

We can predict Freud’s response because of a letter he wrote to Dr. Chaim Koffler in 1930.

In February 1930 Freud was asked, as a distinguished Jew, to contribute to a petition condemning Arab riots of 1929, in which over a hundred Jewish settlers were killed. This was his reply:

Letter to the Keren Hajessod (Dr. Chaim Koffler)

Vienna: 26 February 1930

Dear Sir,

I cannot do as you wish. I am unable to overcome my aversion to burdening the public with my name, and even the present critical time does not seem to me to warrant it. Whoever wants to influence the masses must give them something rousing and inflammatory and my sober judgement of Zionism does not permit this. I certainly sympathise with its goals, am proud of our University in Jerusalem and am delighted with our settlement’s prosperity. But, on the other hand, I do not think that Palestine could ever become a Jewish state, nor that the Christian and Islamic worlds would ever be prepared to have their holy places under Jewish care. It would have seemed more sensible to me to establish a Jewish homeland on a less historically-burdened land. But I know that such a rational viewpoint would never have gained the enthusiasm of the masses and the financial support of the wealthy. I concede with sorrow that the baseless fanaticism of our people is in part to be blamed for the awakening of Arab distrust. I can raise no sympathy at all for the misdirected piety which transforms a piece of a Herodian wall into a national relic, thereby offending the feelings of the natives.

Now judge for yourself whether I, with such a critical point of view, am the right person to come forward as the solace of a people deluded by unjustified hope.

Your obediant servant,

Freud

source:
www.dandelionsalad.wordpress.com

a sneaky trip

A few years ago, when I was about 4 or 5,I wanted to go to the store with my father; but he said that I couldn't go.I wanted to go no matter what, even if I had to throw a fit! I wasn't going to stay at home...

While I was trying to convince my dad to let me go, the phone rang.It might have been a long distance call from one of his friends, because he was on the phone for quite a while.As he was on the phone, I began to contemplate my trip to the store.

I'm not sure how the idea came to my head, but I decided to sneak in to the car and hide.My dad's jacket was in the backseat, and I was small enough to hide under it unnoticed.As the car stopped and my dad took the keys out of the ignition,I jumped out from under the jacket.

I remember my dad being absolutely perplexed, but I was more than delighted that I got my trip to the store.

Ageh Ye Rooz by Faramarz Aslani

This is one of my favorite persian songs and I have finally found the translation of the lyrics!




If one day...

If one day you leave me
out of the blue
and go away on a trip
leaving me alone once again
I'll tell the night to stay with me
I'll tell the wind to sing until dawn
a song from my beloved's land
why are you leaving me alone?

If you forget me
and leave my embrace
I'll become a sea bird
released in the grip of the waves
I'll hush my heart to silence
I'll urge the wind to sing until dawn
a song from my beloved's land
where I won't be left alone
If one day your name
rings in my ear again
If one day your name captures me again
I'll urge my heart not to fret
so I can soothe the pain
but the pain takes over my body
so I can sing for you again

If you desire me once again
as your lover
like in the old days
when we sat until dawn
your heart ought to gain colour
and a tune again
ought to get the colour of a land
where I won't be left alone again

If you want to stay with me
come back while we're still young
and still have skin coverin my bones
Don't leave my heart alone
Let colour into my darkness
and give my night a tune
give me the colour of that land
where I won't be left alone again

Man or Animal?

Man is the reasoning animal. Such is the claim. – Mark Twain

Humans differ from other animals in terms of mental capacity and intellect. From a biological point of view, humans are classified as animals. It is a biological classification system designed to categorize organisms in groups according to their characteristics. Therefore, biologically we are members of the Anamalia Kingdom.

The definition of an animal is: any member of the kingdom Animalia, comprising multi cellular organisms that have a well-defined shape and usually limited growth, can move voluntarily, actively acquire food and digest it internally, and have sensory and nervous systems that allow them to respond rapidly to stimuli: some classification schemes also include protozoa and certain other single-celled eukaryotes that have motility and animal like nutrition modes.

In an entire niche, a variety of animals can live together pleasantly and harmoniously, but if people from different religions and nationalities were put together in one room the outcome would be chaos and possibly even death.

Humans are the only flag-wavers. Man separates himself from others by nationalism, and looks down on others from distinctive ethnic groups and races. I wonder if a monkey would laugh at a lion for being more harrier?

Humans are oblivious followers. They follow political figures, doctrines, and ideas without knowing the reason for following them. When animals follow each other in a herd or a flock, they follow each other to stay together in order to keep other members from getting lost. Humans affiliate and identify themselves with parties and assemblies to separate from one another.

Humans have so called “unalienable rights”; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Dictators and tyrannical rulers seemingly think they have absolute power over everything and everyone, and greedily deceive citizens by making them believe that their interest’s lies in the well being of the country. Like in communism for example, where the government controls everything and the people receive very little if anything.

Humans set out on hunting excavations to shoot animals and leave them out to rot just for their amusement, while animals do their job to search for food with no intention on harming the animals, but merely to satisfy their hunger. Humans wantonly destroy what they have no use for.

Eating is a necessity for all living things, but when humans kill animals for the sake of fashion instead of provisions now that’s just a waste. Do we really need snake skin stilettos and fur coats? I mean you wouldn’t see a bear wearing leopard skin underwear or an ape wearing a dog fur purse?

Humans can never be satisfied no matter how much materials or resources they have, it’s never enough. Animals can only gather so much for their winter’s supply, but they don’t continuously accumulate until they start to plunge.

Human’s have the need to acquire more than they need just for the purpose of presentation and appearance.

If you feed and care for an animal, the animal will learn to trust you and show its affection. Yet if you feed a starving human, when he is full he will bite the hand that fed him and forget all the good that was given to him when prosperous.

Lewdness, profanity, and vulgarity, these are all attributes that humans have made. Animals are just animals, what better do they know? We are the highest and most elevated of all the creatures, yet we don’t always seem to act like so. We were granted with the gifts of reason and rationality, but sometimes are actions contradict that.

The concept of revenge is unknown to animals yet humans take revenge with the passion, and practice torture and oppression among others. Man is the one who is vindictive and malicious. He receives gratification from the pain that he causes others. If a cat plays with a mouse, the cat has the excuse that she may not know that the mouse is suffering. The cat might just scare the mouse or even eat it. The cat doesn’t torture the mouse by gouging it eyes out, tearing off its skin, or scratching it till death.

“Men are not gentle, friendly creatures wishing for love, who simply defend themselves if they are attacked, but that a powerful measure of desire for aggression has to be reckoned as part of their instinctual endowment.The result is that their neighbor is to them not only a possible helper or sexual object, but also a temptation to them to gratify their aggressiveness on him, to exploit his capacity for work without recompense, to use him sexually without his consent, to seize his possessions, to humiliate him, to cause him pain, to torture and to kill him."

-Sigmund Freud


In my opinion, human’s only superiorities are their intellect and sense of reason which is seldom used.

I'm not celebrating valentine's

The concept of valentine's day is quite idiotic, if you ask my opinion.So today is the day we love each other, and the rest of the 364 days out of the year we hate each other? Let's love each other everyday, not just on valentine's.Beware of contaminated e-cards.The love bug might be spreading around.


Prophet said: "You shall not enter Paradise so long as you do not affirm belief (in all those things which are the articles of faith), and you will not believe as long as you do not love one another. Should I not direct you to a thing which, if you do, will foster love amongst you: (i.e.) give currency to (the practice of paying salutation to one another by saying) As-Salaamu Alaykum."

early spring

As I was walking to class, I saw nature doing what it does best after the winter season. I’ve seen it before on the discovery channel or other educational programs, but I've never actually witnessed it with my own two eyes. I have to say it was pretty amazing. I would have stayed and observed for a longer time, if I wasn’t already late to class. I usually see squirrels around while I’m sitting on that bench near the library after school. But the other day they were getting rather promiscuous.