Fast Felines

Two cats met in an alley.

The first cat greeted the other with a mew and exclaimed, “You are looking younger today!”

“Yes,” replied the second cat, “my owners took me along to see their relatives over the weekend, and drove very fast.”

“So, what did it do to your appearance?” The first cat looked puzzled.

”My master who is a physicist says that if you travel very fast, according to Einstein’s theory of relativity, you age less and remain younger,” the second cat mewed proudly.

“Aha!” the first cat exclaimed joyfully at if it had discovered something, “now I understand what my master says.”

“Huh, what does he say?” The eyes of the second cat lit up with excitement.

“He says,” the first cat narrated thoughtfully, “those who drive fast die young.”

At that point a dog barked nearby and both cats ran in opposite directions – very fast.

Moral: What you mean is not necessarily what others understand.

The RANK Principle

RANK is the abbreviation for “Reform And Not Kill”. The principle was successfully exercised by immortal men such as Jesus, Muhammad and Gandhi. It can be explained briefly in the following way.

If you kill an enemy, you reduce the number of your enemies by one; but at least two of his or her relatives, friends and sympathizers become your enemies. Thus, actually by killing an enemy you increase the number of your enemies. On the other hand if you reform your enemy, he or she becomes your friend and also enlists a few others as your friends. Consequently, you have fewer enemies and more friends.

The winning strategy for yourself and your future generations is to reform your enemies rather than killing them.

Military Priority Index of Selected Countries

Serial No.	Country Name	Population (2002 estimate)	Total number of military personnel (2001)	People per soldier	GDP per capita (U.S.$) (2000)	Annual expenditure per soldier in US$	Annual expenditure per soldier as multiple of per capita GDP (MPI)
1	Nigeria	129,934,910	78,500	1,655	320	23,561	73.63
2	China	1,284,303,700	2,310,000	556	860	24,779	28.81
3	Yemen	18,701,257	54000	346	490	12,278	25.06
4	India	1,045,845,200	1,263,000	828	450	11,217	24.93
5	Zimbabwe	11,376,676	39000	292	590	11,574	19.62
6	Bangladesh	133,376,680	137,000	974	360	6,188	17.19
7	Sudan	37,090,298	117,000	317	370	6,256	16.91
8	Luxembourg	448,569	900	498	43,090	719,111	16.69
9	Brazil	176,029,560	287,600	612	3,490	57,976	16.61
10	Saudi Arabia	23,513,330	126,500	186	8,360	138,366	16.55
11	Philippines	84,525,639	107,000	790	990	13,264	13.40
12	Pakistan	147,663,430	620,000	238	450	5,800	12.89
13	Kuwait	2,111,561	15,500	136	19,040	238,994	12.55
14	South Africa	43,647,658	61,500	710	2,940	32,754	11.14
15	Uganda	24,699,073	60,000	412	280	3,100	11.07
16	Yugoslavia	11,206,039	105,500	106	790	7,962	10.08
17	Iran	66,622,704	513,000	130	1,650	15,336	9.29
18	Argentina	37,812,817	70,100	539	7,690	69,116	8.99
19	Sri Lanka	19,576,783	123,000	159	840	7,024	8.36
20	Russia	144,978,570	977,100	148	1,730	12,849	7.43
21	Australia	19,546,792	50,700	386	20,340	146,191	7.19
22	Malaysia	22,662,365	100,500	225	3,850	27,669	7.19
23	Indonesia	232,073,070	297,000	781	730	5,162	7.07
24	UK	59,778,002	211,430	283	23,680	158,918	6.71
25	Turkey	67,308,928	515,100	131	3,060	20,190	6.60
26	Canada	31,902,268	56,800	562	22,370	145,352	6.50
27	USA	280,562,490	1,367,700	205	34,940	214,959	6.15
28	Venezuela	24,287,670	59,300	410	4,980	30,354	6.10
29	Netherlands	16,067,754	50,430	319	22,910	137,442	6.00
30	Sweden	8,876,744	33,900	262	25,630	147,510	5.76
31	France	59,765,983	273,740	218	21,980	123,475	5.62
32	Qatar	793,341	12,330	64	24,740	137,591	5.56
33	Oman	2,713,462	43,400	63	6500	34,562	5.32
34	Japan	126,974,630	239,800	530	38,160	200,167	5.25
35	Mexico	103,400,170	192,770	536	5,860	29,802	5.09
36	Vietnam	81,098,416	484,000	168	400	1,940	4.85
37	Egypt	70,712,345	443,000	160	1,540	7,151	4.64
38	Germany	83,251,851	308,400	270	22,800	98,573	4.32
39	Thailand	62,354,402	306,000	204	2,010	7,987	3.97
40	Poland	38,625,478	206,045	187	4,080	15,307	3.75
41	Spain	40,077,100	143,450	279	14,150	50,659	3.58
42	Israel	6,029,529	163,500	37	17,710	60,095	3.39
43	Jordan	5,307,470	100,240	53	1,710	5,713	3.34
44	Syria	17,155,814	321,000	53	1,050	2,966	2.82
45	U. A. E.	2,445,989	65000	38	17,060	41,754	2.45
46	Lebanon	3,677,780	71,830	51	3,810	7,810	2.05
47	South Korea	48,324,000	683,000	71	9,670	18,743	1.94
48	North Korea	22,224,195	1,082,000	21	1,700

WORLD MUSLIMS PRESENT AND FUTURE

Based on the actual data for the years 1994 and 2002 and assuming that the trend will continue unchanged, the following projections can be made about the future of the Muslim world.
YEAR	POPULATION IN BILLIONS OF PEOPLE			GROSS DOMESTTIC PRODUCT IN BILLION US$			PURCHASING POWER PARITY		PER CAPITA GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT US$
C.E.	WORLD	MUSLIMS	%	WORLD	MUSLIMS	%	WORLD	MUSLIMS	WORLD	MUSLIMS	%
1994	5.660	1.033	18.25	25,267	1,084	4.29	100	8.98	4,464	1,049	23.51
2002	6.106	1.253	20.52	32,067	1,465	4.57	100	8.97	5,252	1,169	22.26
2004	6.223	1.315	21.13	34,036	1,580	4.64	100	8.97	5,469	1,201	21.96
2050	9.625	3.991	41.46	133,994	8,927	6.66	100	8.94	13,922	2,237	16.07
2063	10.887	5.462	50.16	197,370	14,563	7.38	100	8.93	18,128	2,666	14.71
2100	15.462	13.339	86.27	594,279	58,646	9.87	100	8.91	38,434	4,397	11.44

ISLAM AND THE MODERN WORLD

In the year 2002 there were nearly 6,2 billion people in the world. Of these 1.25 billion were Muslims, 90 percent Sunnis and 10 percent Shi’as. About 80 percent of all Muslims in the world lived in 57 countries who were members of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC). Detailed statistics about these countries can be found in the Appendices. On average 80 % of the population of the OIC countries was Muslim. Thus there were as many nonmuslims in the Muslim countries as there were Muslims in the rest of the world. The following table gives the basic statistics:

	World	OIC Members	OIC total as World %
Area sq km	130,295,148	31,209,703	23.95
Population	6,106,267,299	1,334,608,993	21.86
No of Muslims	1,252,754,259	1,047,815,624	83.64
Total GDP in billion US dollars	32,067.115	1,465	4.57
Purchasing Power Parity	100	9	8.97
Per Capita GDP in US dollars	5,251.51	1,097	20.90
Economic Growth rate percent	2.09	4	212.65
Inflation Rate percent	2.55	10	395.74
Population density, people per sq km	47	43	91.49

The 57 OIC countries include: AFGHANISTAN, ALBANIA, ALGERIA, AZERBAIJAN, BAHRAIN, BANGLADESH, BENIN, BRUNEI DARESSALAM, BURKINA FASO, CAMEROON, CHAD, COMOROS, COTE D IVOIRE, DJIBOUTI, EGYPT, GABON, GAMBIA THE, GUINEA, GUINEA-BISSAU, GUYANA, INDONESIA, IRAN I.R. OF, IRAQ, JORDAN, KAZAKHSTAN, KUWAIT, KYRGYZ REPUBLIC, LEBANON, LIBYA, MALAYSIA, MALDIVES, MALI, MAURITANIA, MOROCCO, MOZAMBIQUE, NIGER, NIGERIA, OMAN, PAKISTAN, PALESTINE, QATAR, SAUDI ARABIA, SENEGAL, SIERRA LEONE, SOMALIA, SUDAN, SURINAME, SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC, TAJIKISTAN, TOGO, TUNISIA, TURKEY, TURKMENISTAN, UGANDA, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, UZBEKISTAN, YEMEN REPUBLIC OF.

Economic Power

As can be seen in the table above the 57 Muslim countries that are home to nearly 22 % of the world population contribute less than 5 % of the World’s Gross Domestic Product in US dollar terms. The under-valuation of their currencies and their trading disadvantage can be judged by the fact that although their Purchasing Power Parity is nearly 9 % of the World, the GDP is only half that value. This means that their currencies are on average valued against the US dollar at nearly half the rate they deserve. Although there is much publicity about the economic power and affluence of the Oil exporting Muslim countries of the Middle East, they hardly play a significant role in the overall economic or trading scenario of the world. The reasons are simple. These countries are literally defenseless and have to depend on others for the exploitation of their natural wealth. The following Table compares the combined economic performance of the Muslim countries with other significant groups. Detailed statistics of the groups can be found in the appendices.

Groups*	Total Area as % of World	Total Population as % of World	Average per capita Gross Domestic Product US$	Combined Purchasing Power Parity World %	Total Gross Domestic Product World %	Ratio of World % GDP to PPP	Average Annual Inflation Rate %	Average Population density per sq km	Average Annual GDP growth rate %
G-7	16	12	30,112	44.02	66.5	1.45	1.63	22	1.47
22 Richest per capita	24	13	29,665	50	75	1.5	1.32	26	1.52
20 Largest GDP	54	60	7,556	77	86	1.12	1.73	51	2.05
20 Highest PPP	56	66	6,714	79	84	1.06	2.12	55	2.18
11 Oil Exporters	9	9	1,571	6.00	4.0	0.67	6.73	41	1.08
57 Muslim Countries	24	22	1,097	8.97	4.57	0.51	10.09	43	4.44
22 Deprived Countries	40	66	919	32	11	0.36	6.86	77	5.37
20 Poorest Countries	7	6	175	0.18	0.20	1.11	11.52	42	5.33
World Average	100	100	5,251	100	100	1.00	2.55	47	2.09

* For lists of countries in each group, refer to Appendix-1.