"Ideas worth spreading" go multilingual

Today the "TED Open Translation Project" has been announced publicly. Before that, people were invited to participate in a top secret TED project. Later, it was revealed that the secret project was about translating your favourite talks into your native/near native language so that larger communities can benefit from "ideas worth spreading".

Now, I certainly do not think that every idea presented at the TED conference is worth spreading, but I want to continue participating, as some/many of them certainly are (e.g., Cameron Sinclair, Barry Schwartz, William Kamkwamba, etc.).
Often times, I watch a talk and think that it would be great if people with some kind of financial power could watch this, but then they do not speak or understand English. Now these barriers are being lifted.

With this great project I can even enhance my Hindi skills, just by watching new talks with their Hindi translations. A good alternative to Hindi movies??

The Paradox of Choice

Recently I started to watch the TED videos.

One of the videos stood out for me: The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz.

In the video, he basically tries to explain why less is often more.
Please forward it to youngsters, as they seem to be very confused these times.

Life goes on ... doesn't it?

The latest attack of the Israeli army on the Gaza population is over for now. Unfortunately, it has not been the first, nor does it seem to be the last.

But for now, people affected by this crises and survived, are going on with their lives.

Going on (?) ... after I've finished my thesis, people told me that there will be a period in which I will feel purposeless, in the dark, looking for something to do, etc. Back then, I thought, "you watch! that will not happen to me, i'm longing for some rest for too long, i'll make the best of my free time".

Guess what? Turns out they were right and I was wrong. Sure, for the first few months I was occupied with a project of my brother. And then we went to Istanbul, where you don't do much but visiting family members and get visited by them, etc. But then, we came back to Vienna. And here I'm now feeling purposeless, in the dark, looking for something to do, etc.

It seems the routines of life, like school, university, work and all, are nothing but mere parts of a play ... things we use (or rather abuse) in order not to think too much ... you know, about life, the universe and everything.
We abuse them to keep up our illusion, that we are doing all this stuff for a reason, to fulfill our duty and what not.
I think we all need a period, in which we have absolutely nothing 'meaningful' to do, in order to realise that we haven't been doing anything 'meaningful' anyway. This period should not last for long, though. It should lead to the realisation what 'meaningful' things are. I hope I arrive there soon, because time is precious and doesn't wait for anyone.

Ramadan is here

Again the blessed month of Ramadan is here. 1.8 billion muslims around the world will be again united in the same worship of fasting from dawn to sunset for a whole month. Our prayers just before fast-breaking, at which their acceptance is much more likely than at other times, will be for our brothers and sisters in faith and for all the people around the world who are facing injustice and difficulty.

By postponing our basic human needs, we will yet again experience, to some extent, what other people in other places have to face every day ... Hopefully, this will make us see that giving charity is the most natural thing to do with the blessings we have been given.

By weakening our material bodies through fasting, our spiritual senses will be more attentive and accessible. Therefore, during this month, we should concentrate on activities to purify our hearts from character defects and diseases.

I wish every one a blessed month of Ramadan. May Allah enable us to take the most out of it.

I would wish to spend this month in a muslim country, where the people around me would share the same feelings as I do and would just ... understand. But I don't. I'm planning to spend the last third of it in Istanbul though. And who knows ... may be I don't come back.

Finding Answers

Some of you, who follow my other blog, will know that I'm occasionally teaching programming to small groups of undergraduate students. Often, during the class I feel that I'm doing something wrong, because my students seem to understand the things in the class, but cannot solve the problems I give them as homework. Today I came across this quote, which pretty much sums the reason for that up:

" If you haven't really struggled with a question, you cannot digest the answer even if it is handed to you. " (A.H.Almaas)

About Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama

When I was a kid, my mom used to watch "A slave Isaura" on TV. I remember that I couldn't watch it for long because I couldn't stand the evilness of the baron. I still tend to cry when I see injustice. Not that much out of sadness but out of pure anger when I cannot do anything about it. That is why I hardly watched Blood Diamond or Schindler's List to the end.

With "A slave Isaura" I was introduced to the struggle of black people in the US. This and the history of the Indians (or rather the end of their history as the white men invaded their lands) were always the two things that came to my mind immediately when I thought of the US (now there is also Bush, of course).

You can imagine therefore how much I like the civil rights movement of the black people. Unfortunately, I could not read a lot about it yet, but I will inshAllah. The following blog entry of Imam Zaid Shakir was therefore a very welcome lecture and analysis as well, because I'm interested in the elections in the US and am counting the days when Bush will finally leave.

Here is the link: Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Barack Obama, and the Fate of America

Purification of the Heart

I started reading the 'Purification of the Heart' by Hamza Yusuf. I loved it from the very first page, that is the acknowledgments section :-)

The introduction is also great. It gives interesting information about the spiritual heart, of which we believe that it is centered in the physical heart.

Excerpt: " The heart is centered slightly to the left of our bodies. Two sacred languages of Arabic and Hebrew are written from right to left, toward the heart, which, as some have noted, mirrors the purpose of writing, namely to affect the heart. "

Excerpt: " We know that the heart starts beating before the brain is fully fashioned, that is, without the benefit of a fully formed central nervous system. The dominant theory states that the central nervous system is what controls the entire human being, with the brain as its center. Yet we also know that the nervous system does not initiate the beat of the heart, but that it is actually self-initiated, or, as we would say, initiated by God. We also know that the heart, should all of its connections to the brain be severed (as they are during a heart transplant), continues to beat. "

In the introduction Hamza Yusuf concludes that as opposed to (mainly) western views that the brain is at the center of our being, it is in fact the heart that is the center of our being, the human consciousness, and conscience.

He says that when we look at the world and ask ourselves wholeheartedly from where all this injustice, hatred, etc. comes that we will find that they are all rooted at or caused by people with diseased hearts.

But the heart is designed to be in a state of calm, it longs for peace and harmony. To insure such a state, we have to examine our hearts, look for diseases and try to cure them. This book contains the description, causes, and cures of 25 diseases of the heart. Enjoy !