The Economic crisis hits the now staggering Dubai market, the modern day land of opportunity (at least to the surrounding region). Many fall, some keep their balance. I was one of the lucky ones, or so I thought, finding another job after I was "retrenched" with a smile, an apology and a pat on my back.
I enter this new minefield gingerly, keeping my head down and huddling with the masses. Hoping that the scythe of unemployment does not swing my way again. And when I finally start to regain my normal breathing pace, and begin to shrug off the shackles of unease, I get sideswiped with a blow that I now recognize is from the trident of the Devil. For where Death is an agent of the heavens, where his blows are unadorned and frank, the Devil's fork comes disguised and seemingly harmless.
"Go to Saudi" I was told, "usher in a time of prosperity and balance to our existence there" they intoned. "For we have great faith in your abilities" they wooed...."plus you’re the only Arab-speaking guy we have" the followed.
At first I was taken aback and then I asked myself; Is this my calling? Am I the one foretold? Will I return victorious, in my wake the plunders of the Saudi ad market?
I then began to inquire from those around me and from those around them about this land beyond our borders. Is it a habitable land? Is there sufficient life sustenance? Will I be able to bear its perils and trials?
“Do not fret” was the answer “for undoubtedly the land is barren and devoid, but there lies an oasis every so often within that land that quenches the thirst and replenishes what you may lose. In fact, there be such life at these watering holes that you may find the land to your liking?”
They lied, they lied.
It has been just over a month since when I first set foot in this land. And from the onset, it has been a struggle. I told myself that I would make the best of it. I convinced myself that the time will pass quickly, for my mission is only for 6 months. But as I spend yet another weekend in front of my screen, on the net, as if I am in a self imposed quarantine, I realize that this country has a much more sinister level.
For I have noticed that the populace of this country’s capital go about their lives unaware of its effects, even those who are from beyond its borders unwittingly contract its permeating essence.
I call it a virus.
It is not a virus that has yet been classified, discovered or even studied. Yet it is a virus that is quick to infect and is far more deadly than the menial versions that have so wracked humanity thus far. It needs minimal exposure for a chance to latch on to the cavities of the soul and infect it with a fetid and putrid existence that festers and then saps the soul from its unaware victim. It leaves an empty husk of a human, not even a parody by denying its host the will to live.
It is a social predator, as in it hunts social gatherings and activities and steals from them enjoyment that they may offer. Leaving in its wake a stench of “whatever” and laziness that crawls up the nostrils to settle at the solar plexus and feeds of its energy.
In my short stay here so far, I have been accosted by a so-called holy man and criticized for adorning an accessory. Oh how proud I am to be a person of faith, where my clergy busy themselves with shepherding the faithful from unholy fashion trends lest we all end up in Hell for choosing to look like part of the 21st century.
I have been astounded by the reckless driving of Riyadh’s citizens, where they rush about and break innumerable laws as if possessed. You hope at least that this is due to some urgency or essential business requirement. But no, it is so that they can reach their destination and do nothing, to practice the effervescent nothingness of their existence.
I find most of the food lacking in texture and taste, as if a by-product of this virus is the loss of any sensory perception of the taste glands. Yet there is nothing else to do here but eat and gain weight.
These is but a sample of the Hell created in this land by the powers that be. Briefly said; Life here is but a word that holds no meaning. The pursuit of the afterlife is all powerful. But we are not allowed to decide how, when, where and the why.
Until next time, if my sanity prevails.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Religion - Some thoughts
I have been trying to get myself to write something for sometime now and thought I could get my creative juices flowing through this medium. I will be segmenting the content into subject matter for each separate bit of input.
If you are feeling like commenting, please comment on the content and the way it was written.
Please take into account, that a lot of these are work in progress and may contain altering once I have more information, or may altogether be discarded. I have chosen to start with a controversial issue to begin with and hope that I can add to create a series of subject matters.
Religion - Belief:
Through the past few years I have been going through what might be perceived as a personal form of enlightenment regarding my spirituality and beliefs. I was on the verge of careening over the precipice of atheism but couldn't make the leap. I realized that as liberal as I am, and may become, I had a strong belief in the presence of a divine entity and could not simply discard it. But nevertheless, I saw gaping holes in my chosen faith and was confronted with the age-old dilemma of conflicting with blind faith. I therefore decided that I would actively start researching and analyzing the information being presented. Tough I am still far from my goal, I believe that I have made some ground and the following is what I believe true at this junction of my life:
God (or Allah for those who are picky) exists, but this entity that we may worship is beyond our ability to realize. I do not believe It is in any way a “being” as such. And as the “Angels & Demons” movie pointed out, science is too young a field to compare with religion. But at the same time, because religion is so old it has become susceptible to corruption and misinterpretation. In a nutshell, I will proceed to explain the presence of a divine being within the universe and dimension/s that we occupy with some science that makes sense to me.
Starting off with the atom; the atom is the smallest known tangible common denominator for all matter in the universe. This atom has an electron field (not electrons rotating on an orbit). These electrons cannot be stopped, cannot be frozen, cannot be split, etc… They also exist within this field at all and none of the points simultaneously. This, to me, is proof of divinity, because if something that is physical and tangible is able to achieve such attributes, why then is it such a leap to believe that a certain sentience cannot achieve the same. Additionally, since the electron (which is pure energy subsequently) is within ALL matter, would this not also align itself with the “God is in everything” from the theist religions or the “Everything has a being” from the Buddhist school of thought?
Additionally, it could also explain the miracles from the theist school, if the divine is in the energy of all matter; then the Prophets were granted the ability to manipulate their own energy and the energy surrounding them. An example of this is Jesus walking on water which could be explained that he was granted the ability to repel the energy between himself and the water surface and hence walk above it.
One more point is that if “God” created us in his own image, would it not make more sense that His own image is in we all have the energy that is him though the atoms that we inhabit?
That is all I will say on this subject for now, I obviously have some more things I could discuss, but in the interest of keeping it concise I will leave it at that.
Religion - Comparison:
The Muslim nation is at the same point Christendom was pre-Renaissance. The Muslim nation is full of masses of ignorant blind faith followers who look towards the clergy for all their directions. Refusing to think for themselves and taking the word of the cloth as the divine’s voice on earth. Certain factions are waging “Holy wars” in comparison to the crusades.
For the Christian world, they were saved by the call to reason via the Renaissance, but they only had the Vatican to contend with and oppose in this matter. Whereas the Muslim nation is split between several different factions with widely varying ideologies, and also has to content with international interference.
Religion – Journeys:
The way I look at it is; every person needs to find his tower of truth which leads to a greater spiritual consciousness. This tower is surrounded with a dense forest that as no paths, each person will try and venture in to get to the tower. Some may follow others, some may go alone, and some may choose to walk back. The tower may be found and may not. In my opinion, the journey within itself is important, regardless of reaching the goal (though it has its weight of importance too).
Religion – Materialism:
Many follow the Muslim faith with a reward program in mind. For example, you get X good points if you do a certain action or Y bad points for doing another. There are more good points for praying in a mosque on Friday, this in my opinion is plain stupid. The reason it is better to pray in a mosque is that it creates an opportunity for the community around said mosque to form just that: a community, by getting to know each other on an equal playing ground with no regard to what car or clothes or activity you may be partaking in.
I think the reason there is a “reward system” in the practice of the Muslim faith (and I stress the word practice) is that when Islam was introduced on earth, it was introduced to a society of trading, nomad pagans who needed to have a feel of gain or loss to process the religion in their minds and in actuality has nothing to do with the original teachings of Islam.
Islam should be observed and treated as any other theist belief system, for its spirituality and its contribution to society if practiced correctly and without corruption and self serving objectives.
If you are feeling like commenting, please comment on the content and the way it was written.
Please take into account, that a lot of these are work in progress and may contain altering once I have more information, or may altogether be discarded. I have chosen to start with a controversial issue to begin with and hope that I can add to create a series of subject matters.
Religion - Belief:
Through the past few years I have been going through what might be perceived as a personal form of enlightenment regarding my spirituality and beliefs. I was on the verge of careening over the precipice of atheism but couldn't make the leap. I realized that as liberal as I am, and may become, I had a strong belief in the presence of a divine entity and could not simply discard it. But nevertheless, I saw gaping holes in my chosen faith and was confronted with the age-old dilemma of conflicting with blind faith. I therefore decided that I would actively start researching and analyzing the information being presented. Tough I am still far from my goal, I believe that I have made some ground and the following is what I believe true at this junction of my life:
God (or Allah for those who are picky) exists, but this entity that we may worship is beyond our ability to realize. I do not believe It is in any way a “being” as such. And as the “Angels & Demons” movie pointed out, science is too young a field to compare with religion. But at the same time, because religion is so old it has become susceptible to corruption and misinterpretation. In a nutshell, I will proceed to explain the presence of a divine being within the universe and dimension/s that we occupy with some science that makes sense to me.
Starting off with the atom; the atom is the smallest known tangible common denominator for all matter in the universe. This atom has an electron field (not electrons rotating on an orbit). These electrons cannot be stopped, cannot be frozen, cannot be split, etc… They also exist within this field at all and none of the points simultaneously. This, to me, is proof of divinity, because if something that is physical and tangible is able to achieve such attributes, why then is it such a leap to believe that a certain sentience cannot achieve the same. Additionally, since the electron (which is pure energy subsequently) is within ALL matter, would this not also align itself with the “God is in everything” from the theist religions or the “Everything has a being” from the Buddhist school of thought?
Additionally, it could also explain the miracles from the theist school, if the divine is in the energy of all matter; then the Prophets were granted the ability to manipulate their own energy and the energy surrounding them. An example of this is Jesus walking on water which could be explained that he was granted the ability to repel the energy between himself and the water surface and hence walk above it.
One more point is that if “God” created us in his own image, would it not make more sense that His own image is in we all have the energy that is him though the atoms that we inhabit?
That is all I will say on this subject for now, I obviously have some more things I could discuss, but in the interest of keeping it concise I will leave it at that.
Religion - Comparison:
The Muslim nation is at the same point Christendom was pre-Renaissance. The Muslim nation is full of masses of ignorant blind faith followers who look towards the clergy for all their directions. Refusing to think for themselves and taking the word of the cloth as the divine’s voice on earth. Certain factions are waging “Holy wars” in comparison to the crusades.
For the Christian world, they were saved by the call to reason via the Renaissance, but they only had the Vatican to contend with and oppose in this matter. Whereas the Muslim nation is split between several different factions with widely varying ideologies, and also has to content with international interference.
Religion – Journeys:
The way I look at it is; every person needs to find his tower of truth which leads to a greater spiritual consciousness. This tower is surrounded with a dense forest that as no paths, each person will try and venture in to get to the tower. Some may follow others, some may go alone, and some may choose to walk back. The tower may be found and may not. In my opinion, the journey within itself is important, regardless of reaching the goal (though it has its weight of importance too).
Religion – Materialism:
Many follow the Muslim faith with a reward program in mind. For example, you get X good points if you do a certain action or Y bad points for doing another. There are more good points for praying in a mosque on Friday, this in my opinion is plain stupid. The reason it is better to pray in a mosque is that it creates an opportunity for the community around said mosque to form just that: a community, by getting to know each other on an equal playing ground with no regard to what car or clothes or activity you may be partaking in.
I think the reason there is a “reward system” in the practice of the Muslim faith (and I stress the word practice) is that when Islam was introduced on earth, it was introduced to a society of trading, nomad pagans who needed to have a feel of gain or loss to process the religion in their minds and in actuality has nothing to do with the original teachings of Islam.
Islam should be observed and treated as any other theist belief system, for its spirituality and its contribution to society if practiced correctly and without corruption and self serving objectives.
Friday, August 24, 2007
The call of Love
Love me woman of my dreams. Heed the call of my heart through time.
I will build a shrine to your beauty with my soul.
Grant me your love so that time will stop to wonder at my passion for you.
Let the dreams become real so that we become immortal!
Will a woman answer these calls and complete me?
I will build a shrine to your beauty with my soul.
Grant me your love so that time will stop to wonder at my passion for you.
Let the dreams become real so that we become immortal!
Will a woman answer these calls and complete me?
Small of her back
I kiss the small of her back as she sleeps, the room is cold but she radiates a heat that can only be the product of passion. My heart starts to thump so hard that I cannot hear anything else. She stirs while a smile moves her lips. I stroke my fingers flittingly down her leg, she twitches; tickled. I stretch myself beside her and inhale her essence, her hair is soft as silk as I draw closer to her. I hold her and wish that this moment will never end. And as I drift into sleep, my soul is left restless with all the torrent of affection I feel for her.
Senses
I want to hold a woman in my arms and absorb all that she is through all of my senses. I want the smell to envelope me in its richness and muskiness, my hands to caress every contour and curve of her soft silky skin and the warmth of her being, my eyes to feast on her spellbinding beauty, my ears to pick up the beat of her heart as the blood rushes through her veins, the taste of her on my tongue to intoxicate me beyond reason, but most importantly, my heart to drown in the passion and love that we share for each other.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)