‘Wallahi all the girls tell me I look like Drake… Bro, I want her to smell me in Palestine… SWAG – Something We Arabs Got.’
Legend.
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The following are some tweets I put out recently on the measure of success and power, and how such definitions aren’t professed by only those who aspire, but those who observe, become victims of this narrow thought.
Interesting piece on Russian recent (few decades) politics, history, rule of law, and transition. Newsweek January 2nd edition. Click here.
Gd tht Russia,China..BRIC countries nw r emerging powers. Lessening U.S. But I’m skeptical over their neglect for justice. N ppl everywher celebrate d emerging powers,merely cz they dnt like U.S. Shows tht what we value is economy $$$. Other values?
Thts problematic cz this reflects how we c things,domestically,in our own homes,in ourselves.Fikiran wang & materialisme (shj). N whn we hv social issues,tht stems fr family values,&lives of d rich&stupid r threatend,theyre unable 2 articulate root prob.
Did we go through/for civilization,education,globalization, to become less wise & more wealthy?Less community & more self?
If education is teaching us to be destructive, then it’s not knowledge we’re learning.
Okay post dinner thots are done. Empty plates, and an open magazine here in an empty resto. They nak tutup. Time to walk home. #AdaAkuKisah?
*Pic above from Guardian.
Grow Your Mind is a film discussion series and workshops to create awareness and initiate action at a community level on issues of environment and sustainable lifestyle. We are glad to invite you to join us for the 1st series this Saturday 14th January 2012 from 9am to 1pm at Urban Village, Bangsar for a morning of reflection and enabling positive action for ourselves and our planet!
Entrance is FREE but we love you more if you pitch in some green notes.
Grow Your Mind is another initiative of CRESCENT COLLECTIVE with MURUJAN PERMACULTURE DESIGN and supported by URBAN VILLAGE, COUNTERPOINT and ECO CENTRIC TRANSITIONS.
Film: “HOME” by Yann Arthus Bertrand
Workshop: “Amoeba Theory” by Steve McCoy from Counterpoint
The world we live in today is changing faster than we think – and more often than not, the effects of change can be catastrophic to those who are unprepared. By expanding our awareness and appreciation of the earth and our relation to it, we may begin to take steps to ensure a more ethical and sustainable future for all it’s inhabitants, including ourselves.
Crescent Collective and Murujan Permaculture Design are happy invite you to a special screening of the critically acclaimed documentary “HOME” followed by discussions and a workshop on the “Theory of Change” by Steve McCoy from Counterpoint Consulting.
HOME is is a documentary by French photographer, Yann Arthus Bertrand. The film is almost entirely composed of aerial shots of various places on Earth. It shows the diversity of life on Earth and how humanity is threatening the ecological balance of the planet.
Check out the trailer here: http://www.youtube.co/watch?v=u_9U4gqwHW8
Steve McCoy is Founder and Principal of Counterpoint, a consultancy firm providing support services on sustainability for the Corporate, Government and Non-profit sectors. Counterpoint’s work rests on the simple understanding that the challenges that confront the world today offer a broad canvas of opportunity to secure a better tomorrow, and the conviction that maintaining the status quo is no longer a viable option.
Check out Steve McCoy’s presentation at TEDxKL here: http://www.tedxkl.com/steve-mccoy/
Crescent Collective is a group of individuals with the common interest of spreading good vibes, positivity and funky time through creative and artistic means.
Check them out at: http://crescentcollective.org/
Murujan Permaculture Design envisions to become a collective of skilled Permaculture designers who cooperate and strive to improve our environment, lifestyles and communities through teaching, ethical business ventures and consulting, aid work, open source research, development and more.
Check them out here: http://murujan.com/
Urban Village is a creative hub that provides facilities for creative entrepreneurs and professional freelancers to operate their business by providing basic business necessities such as work space, event space, retail space, entrepreneurship consultation and exposure.
Check out their website here: http://www.urbanvillage.my
- 9:00am: Registration and Eco-corners – Mini booths by environmentally responsible denizens of KL
- 10:00am: Screening of “HOME”
- 11:30am: Discussion on “HOME” with Steve McCoy from Counterpoint, Nisha and Ly Mun from Eco Centric Transitions and Giovanni Galluzzo from Murujan Permaculture Design
- 12:00pm: “Amoeba Theory” Workshop with Steve McCoy
- 1:00pm: Wrap
Tags: permaculture
Learning To Live Well With The Earth : Andrew Faust : Permaculture Design from TerraVisus on Vimeo.
Good stuff. Great learning. Relates to my thinking about the correlation of law and social sciences, and also professionalism and personal characteristics. Thanks Ashaari for sharing.
Andrew Faust is a Permaculture Designer and Teacher who teaches a Permaculture Certification Courses in NYC and in Ellenville NY at his Center for Bioregional Living. He is also a Permaculture Designer and offers regenerative design services applying permaculture and ecological principles.
Tags: design, permaculture
Kita hendak kehadapan, tetapi tidak bersedia untuk pemajuan pemikiran.
Kita hendak kehadapan, tetapi tidak bersedia untuk pengorbanan kemajuan.
Kita hendak kehadapan, tetapi tidak bersedia untuk berhadapan pembaharuan.
The above, are comments I left on a picture uploaded by a staff librarian from UiTM whom I gather, is not fond of the pro-establishment propaganda mooted by some students. I was moved to write that, based on other comments I read.
To an extent, I commend the students to take action and put up such banners, albeit I find their messaging, or more accurately their thinking, ignorant or non-progressive. But I too fall trap in that category, on a number of issues, I’m sure.
What I like about the people who were behind this, was that they were obviously not in agreement with the current state of things, certain student groups fighting for academic political freedom, and they took action for their (albeit poor) views.
Something that these students might not realize is that by doing this, they too are doing what those other students are fighting for. Participating in the public sphere for life, as oppose to being a observer or a mere follower.
I read in NST today Thursday 5th Jan, on the front page: US rights groups rapped over sodomy call (click here). Human Rights Watch have asked Malaysia to repeal law on homosexuality and drop charges against Anwar Ibrahim. For being a Muslim and having a background in (civil and syari’ah) law, and more importantly as an advocate of intellectual discourse on issues, I suppose what I’m feeling is an obligation to make sense of what’s happening, and that includes the reaction by the public.
*Disclaimer: I am not a student of Islamic jurisprudence, let alone an expert or authority of any form on the subject. The same applies to the issue of human rights as well as law. My stand on all issues in life is my prerogative, none of which I am making here. What I’d like to achieve from what you’re about to read, to make sense of things. Some of it. I hope.
Not an issue of sovereignty
HRW is not meddling with the prosecution of Anwar Ibrahim, in the sense that they are asking/telling Malaysia to go for X case, or drop Y case. The dropping Anwar’s case, is in the first place related to their premise of repealing laws on homosexuality. If such laws don’t exist, repealed as per their request, then the case won’t exist to begin with. Hence why the call went hand in hand. But there’s a need to stress out here, from HRW’s point of view, it is the law on homosexuality that is the issue, not Anwar.
Why now?
In terms of advocacy and achieving change, it’s the context of striking when the iron is hot. Generally the call to repeal laws on homosexuality by HRW is timeless beyond now, and borderless beyond Malaysia. But they are issuing the statement now to Malaysia because it’s timely to push for this cause now during a high profile case. Point to stress: HRW is not a tool of a political leader or party, it merely makes sense to push for this now, in Malaysia.
The Islamic context
Homosexuality was addressed the Qur’an, the highest source of authority for Muslims and the source that no sect of Muslims have disputed as Divine word. Lawyers are better at interpreting the law because that’s their area. Ulama’s are better at interpreting the Qur’an because that’s their area. There are many angles to which we can discuss issues like homosexuality, banking or even ethics in war, on the Islamic premise, and I won’t go into that due to lack of knowledge and it’ll be lengthy. But generally speaking, at the source (Qur’an), it is on the negative for homosexuality, to put it mildly.
Now while there are some laws in Islam that something illegal can become legal (subject to certain qualifications (as often seen in banking today)), it still recognizes the root of the law. Like it or not this reality matters. And if you’re going to tackle, advocate and persuade people on issues that are sticky to them, these realities (not just on homosexuality) must be addressed, because that will be your (not their) stumbling block. I recently wrote about this issue of dichotomy, please read to better understand what I mean by this point, click here.
Beyond this issue, you must also realize that somethings that are right, are right. That are wrong, are wrong. It is neither an issue of interpretation or era of society. The Prophet did say, that there will come a time, when even wrong things, will be (sincerely) seen as right. Again I’m not tying this exclusively to homosexuality but all issues of right and wrong today. Something that you could be doing, that is of no issue to you, that the idea that it might, just might, be a wrongful act to you, is non existent or questionable.
The human rights issue
What is unfortunate about the Malaysian and non-Western world discourse is that this further reiterates the misconception that human rights is a Western issue, despite efforts such as the Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights, not to mention human rights values as raised in the Qur’an, the Prophet and various Ulama’s after him. But at the same time, the misconception is somewhat understandable, if at all times the issue of human rights is raised by Western peers, advocated by Western peers, formulated by Western peers or Western educated/leaning peers.
Also unfortunate, the coincidence that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was formulated at a time when Western players led the power index in the global playing field. My point is, if it was done at a different era, the connotations, the associations that the world, especially the Eastern and/or Islamic world would have towards the clear conceptualization of human rights, may be different.
Below are a set of tweets I put out, based on a thinking I’ve been simmering in my head, that will hopefully at some point be presented in a decent article, before moving to presentations.
Disc w/ aunt studying Arabic in SOAS London. Says there’s a group mtg weekly she knows abt tht explores discourse, bringing in ppl of .. a bckground tht recognizes the quantum leap of the world today, those embracing it but also entrenched in religious/traditional views. …. She’s keen on suggesting my name to them but doubt I can make to their meetups. As I’m based in KL. They in London. Well.. Obviously. .. .. Sigh.
But it wld be fun. N good to know such groups r actively coordinating things, consciously expanding their circle 4 some, what I .. .. Could not patronizingly call, grp intellectual masturbation. Areas they explore include d concept of faith on faith, faith on science ..
Itself. Part of the point is to bring ppl who don’t strictly dichotomize parts of life be in science, faith, knowledge, practice but for .. ..The merging or interrelation, interdependence of 1 another. On my end I’ve never gotten to terms w/ the outlook of say, ‘that’s religion.. ..Therefore completely separate.’ Or same goes btwn professional n personal life. It is a demand I suspect unrealistic thus unavoidable. .. ..N it’s unfortunate those who don’t segmentize it as such are deemed non able, weak, unintellectual, or not living the ‘modern’ world. ..
..It is in essence a paradox counter argument declaring tht poor bcz in essence d person tht embraces such,4got to question where his own.. ..own outlook came fr. D argument of independence of thot,smtimes get so carried away tht it distorts d essence of a natural person itself.
Example: u cnt xpect say,a Muslim 2 treat his work principles purely on professional basis when he was raised w/ precisely Islamic teachngs. N 2 demand him 2 dichotomize tht suddenly 2 fit ths concept of modern professional thinkng/culture,is silly. Esp in terms of bein realistic.
2nd example: a woman who celebrates say,her brother’s success in her office w/ laughter is acceptable. But cries abt home issues at .. ..Office is unaaceptable as it is unprofessional&unbecoming. 2 bring dirty linen out. But here’s the thing. Work is driven by human energy..
..N in tht very vein is the human nature. The biological,physical,spiritual,emotional makeup of tht human. Saying she can laugh in the.. ..Office but can’t cry is not jst abt being unrealistic (to not allow her to cry ever),but unfair in terms of being realistic. ..
..Isnt tht colleague a human being?Isn’t that part&parcel of bein a human being?Emotional capacity 2 feel,as well as mental capacity 2 work. This concept of demanding strict dichotomy is awfully silly n unrealistic. Sigh. See now I tweet bnyk. I penat. I nak rest. So I stop. End.
Philosophical study of knowledge. How Imam Ghazali, saw knowledge and what’s in your mind. Fascinating article. Reproduced from The Star, written by Dr. Mohd Zaidi B. Ismail, Senior Fellow/Director Centre for Science and Environment Studies – IKIM.
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In any real process of human knowing, man reaches the height of apprehending abstract notions, ideas or concepts. In fact, Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali, like many scholars in the intellectual and scientific tradition of Islam, understood pure ideas or concepts as always being abstract or non-material.
ACCORDING to ibn Khallikan (d. 681 A.H./1282 C.E.) in his biographical work, Wafayat al-A yan wa Anba’ Abna’ al-Zaman, this month, 900 years ago, departed one of Islam’s most eminent and influential scholars, Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali.
True to what al-Ghazzali once said: “A man’s second life in this world consists in people’s memory of him.”
Nine centuries later, he continues to be present and important in the intellectual and moral life of Muslims at large.
His works are still being earnestly read and studied, not only in the Muslim world but also in certain parts of the West.
Knowledge was among his main concerns and one of his significant contributions was therefore in epistemology or the philosophical study of knowledge.
What we shall briefly do here in commemorating him is to reformulate one of his many illuminating thoughts on the nature of human knowledge.
In the religious, intellectual and scientific tradition, of which al-Ghazzali was an outstanding representative, true and beneficial knowledge was likened, among others, to water.
Just as water gives life to the human body, such knowledge gives life to the human mind.
But what actually is knowledge insofar as man is concerned?
It is in dealing with such a question that al-Ghazzali, having the general public in mind, made good use of metaphors in what may be termed as “the parable of a mirror”.
In a normal situation, when an object, say, a tree, is facing a mirror, it will be reflected on the mirror.
Yet, the reflex is not really the tree, but something resembling it, while the real tree, despite its image being mirrored, exists outside the mirror and is indeed existentially different from either the mirror or its reflected image.
The image, in turn, though different from the tree and existentially secondary or subsequent to it, is similar to it and in fact points to it.
In short, the tree, a huge one perhaps, remains where it is and does not move into that mirror which, due to its size, would have been unable to contain it.
Similarly, al-ilm or “knowledge” is not existentially the same as anything actual and existent that becomes al-ma lum, “the-object-of knowledge,” or “what-is-known,” or simply, “the-known”.
The object-of-knowledge is like the tree in the parable and the human mind or soul is like the mirror.
Just as the image of the tree will be reflected in the mirror so will knowledge be reflected in the mind if one properly attends to the object-of-knowledge.
True knowledge is a faithful reflection in one’s mind of the reality, whatever it is.
And what is reflected in the mind, in order to be true, must correspond to what is outside the mind.
Yet, what is reflected is only the form of the real object, not the object itself.
For the actual object as a whole still exists outside man’s perception.
Only something of it, the form, is grasped by man when he gets to know or understand something.
Yet, the form is only an aspect of a real object, the other aspect being represented by its matter.
Hence, the formal is different from the material and, understood as such, the formal is something non-material.
Nevertheless, none of the objects in the physical realm are purely form, but such objects are instead hybrids, albeit mysterious of form and matter.
As such, any mental “grasp” of what is “formal” with regard to a tangible object has to start with the mental act of abstracting the form from, not only the matter, but also anything material.
It is therefore clear that there is something else about knowledge that is also conveyed by this parable, “the process of knowing is a process of abstracting”.
In any real process of human knowing, man finally reaches the height of apprehending abstract notions, ideas or concepts.
In fact, al-Ghazzali, like many scholars in the intellectual and scientific tradition of Islam, understood pure ideas or concepts as always being abstract or non-material.
Abstracting simply means the mental process of separating the form of an actual object from the object as such, the object comprising also its materiality, so that what is at last inscribed in the human mind pertains simply to the formal aspect of the object.
This part of the epistemic process is what, to my mind, is originally meant when one uses the word “inform” in the sense that in-form-ation is a necessary condition in any real process of knowing, though one’s possession of it alone cannot be a sufficient condition to qualify one as knowledgeable.
In fact, the Latin original informare (a compound verb based on forma “form”) primarily connotes “shaping” via “forming an idea of something”.
It is also interesting to note that the common understanding among Muslim scholars, based on their grasp of the Qur’an, Prophetic teachings, and human experience and experiments, is that intellect is something spiritual or non-material in man, and knowing as well as understanding pertains to this spiritual dimension of man.
The form of thing, as we have just seen, is also something non-material.
Knowing, in this respect, is a sort of union of the non-material with the non-material!
However, what is somehow captured by the above parable does not reflect everything one can learn about knowledge.
In fact, it serves more to highlight both the passive side of men’s noetic activities and the correspondence factor; as if knowledge is a resemblance of an object that becomes inscribed on the human soul from an external source, such a soul merely acting as its passive recipient.
Yet, knowledge itself is more than just this.
To appreciate fully its other dimensions, one may need to learn all the interesting parables which contribute to the richness and depth of our intellectual tradition.
‘”There is no ‘Clash of Civilizations’ between the Muslim World and the West. There is only a clash of ignorance.”
Out of Cordoba confronts these issues through an exploration of the lives and writings of the two most important thinkers to emerge from medieval Muslim Spain: Averroes the Muslim, and his Jewish counterpart,Rabbi Moses Maimonides. The 82-minute film explores the legacy of these two philosophers, as well as their contemporary importance for interfaith relations, and especially for Muslims, Jews, and Christians struggling against religious extremism.’
Watch it here: http://outofcordoba.com/
On the last day of 2011, after failed attempts on two previous trips, I finally got the chance to visit the Asian Specialist Bookstore – Select Books, on Tanglin Road in Singapore. I’ve been looking for Goenawan Mohamad’s book Sidelines, (the English version articles from his award winning column Catatan Pinggir, from Tempo magazine) and he tweeted me back to find it at this bookshop, months ago.
Above are the 3 books I bought. Below are tweets I put out, during the 3 or so hours I was in that shop.
Finally found Select Books in Tanglin aftr walking arnd 30 mins. Came here cz Goenawan Mohamed told me I cld find his book Sidelines here .. But it’s no longer available. Seems like last time they ordered tht was in 2000. They’ve other books by Goenawan tho, but not tht I want. ..
Anyway Select Books seem to hv a gd selection of Asian books. 2 books I saw tht I shld probly try to find in KL 1st are:
1 – Al-Qur’an, The Sacred Art of Revelation, w/c discusses the art elements w/in it n also cultural elements in print based of geography.. Of publication. Like design of a Qur’an cover n inside, differ btwn Malaya, Turkish, Europe, African. Publisher is Islamic Arts Museum KL.
2 – Krishen Jit: An Uncommon Position (Selected Writings). Altho it’s publised by the Contemp. Asian Arts Centre, I suspct best 2 try KL 1st.
So yes. Surprisingly after an hr in this shop I’ve yet 2 decide (midway or conclusively) wht Im gettng. Unusual indeed. Lapar nak start ni.
3 – There’s also Equity & Urban Enviro in the 3rd World (Asean&Sgpore).Bloody intrstng,but published in 75. I suspct outdated 4 applicatn sake.
Oh dear I see some nice books here. Tenun – Handwoven Textils of Indonesia. SGD79. Kuusemangat. Boleh beli teket terbang KL Sgpore. Terbang. So what I’ve done is, to take address of publisher in Indo. They’re in Kebayoran Baru. Still in Jkt Selatan. Tak jauh. There’s also another book focusing in Indo textile. Legacy in Cloth. SGD150. Lompat si katak lompat.
I’ve nvr looked into these things forensically or even halfway. Altho I’ve been taken to frequently buying textiles during trips circa 2003.
Saw a pic of a weave belt for a sword w/ Islamic inscriptions of battle cries, tht resembles the Chumpis I always wear w/ jeans. Chumpis r weave belts worn by Quechua tribe farmers in Bolivia and Peru. 6 inch thick. Lebih kurang. The 1s I bought not so. Kita kan slim. There’s also Batik – Fabled Cloth of Java. Amazing book. But published in 84. Also the font is massive. The font size must’ve been ‘AWAS.’ Also here a book called Jute – Handlooms of India. Lovely stuff in there. Altho frankly it’s nice to own them, not books abt them.
Oh dear. There’s a book here called Pashmina. Looks into all things Pashmina, but more importantly to me, design. Cantik ya ampun. There’s jst smtng abt these flers fr Kashmir. Damn son. It’s a gd coffee table book to entertain talkative guest yg aku malas nak layan.
F this. I’m getting this Pashmina book.
Jst gotta b not tempted 2 cutout some pages 2 put in a frame 4 my wall. Like wht I did w/ Van Gogh 2008 Calendar fr Antwerp. 6 Euro aja apa.
Got a Batik book here by Nat’l Museum Sgpore. Abt 30% of the text is in Mandarin. Potong stim. But I like it’s application to Sgpore contxt.
Oh hunky dorry. Jst browse 3 furniture books. Peranakan, Java, Tibet. Metaphorically, this is 1 of those ‘jizz in pants’ moments isn’t it? (tilt 90 degrees)
Jst left shop. 3 books. 1 on Asian proverbs. 1 on Pashmina. 1 on Javanese Batik.Decided to buy books on furniture on my nxt visit since they’re quite mahal individually, let alone altogether the 1s I wanna buy.
Ya so..mm..seems like I spent tad bit too much on books. Happy fckng new year Zain. You’re a legend. Buy more in 2012. Monyet.Ordered lamb shawarma at Shiraz. Si syaitan ni tanya aku nak add cheese ke tak. What donkey serves shawarma w/ tht? Kesian ni minah. Aku yang naik darah pasal tershopping lebih at bookstore, dia yang kena. This tortilla (ew) wrap shawarma better be gd. Oh ye tak ye. My bad. Snap bck to reality. HNY Lainie. :) RT@lainie: @ZainHD dont forget, you’re in the country of cheese naans too :D
