" ... Roadsinger rode on, to another land
Though the people spoke a different tongue,
They’d understand
They showed him how to share and took him by the hand
Showed him the path to heaven
Through the desert sand

Where do you go? Where do you go?
To find happiness,
In a world filled with hatred,
And tears.
Where do you go? Oh, where do you go?
If no one cares
And everybody’s lost,
Looking for theirs.

Yusuf Islam ( Album = Roadsinger )

"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.