Rivers of Paradise

 

The Bible, Douay-Rheims

Book of Genesis 

“2:10. And a river went out of the place of pleasure to water paradise,

which from thence is divided into four heads.

 

2:11. The name of the one is Phison: that is it which compasseth all the

land of Hevilath, where gold groweth.

 

2:12. And the gold of that land is very good: there is found bdellium,

and the onyx stone.

Comment: The region in Genesis is usually associated with either the Arabian Peninsula or north-west Yemen, but in the work associated with the Garden of Eden by Juris Zarins, the Hijaz mountains appear to satisfactorily meet the description. The Hejaz includes both the Cradle of Gold at Mahd adh Dhahab (Atlas23°30′12.96″N 40°51′34.92″E / 23.5036000°N 40.8597000°E / 23.5036000; 40.8597000) and a possible source of the "Pishon River" — a biblical name that has been speculated to refer to a now dried-out river formerly flowing 600 miles (970 km) northeast to the Persian Gulf via the Wadi Al-Batin system. Archaeological research led by Farouk El-Baz of Boston University indicates that the river system, now prospectively known as the Kuwait River, was active 2500–3000 BC.^[4] Bdellium plants are also abundant in the Hijaz.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havilah

 

2:13. And the name of the second river is Gehon: the same is it that

compasseth all the land of Ethiopia.

 

Perhaps it refers to river Nile as can be seen in picture below:

 

2:14. And the name of the third river is Tigris: the same passeth along

by the Assyrians. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

 

 

2:15. And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of

pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it.”

 

Unfortunately, man has made a complete mess of it.

It seems that the European authors of this particular version of the Bible believed that The valleys of the rivers Nile, Euphrates, Tigris and the area of Hijaz now commonly known as the Middle East was actually paradise and Adam and Eve were banished from it for their indiscretion into Europe where the human race grew and developed. Their concept of the patriarchs seems to be of gods similar to those of the Greek mythology. Later when other parts of the world and other civilizations were developed, the text in later versions was amended.

 

 

Impotent Democracy

Once upon a time, in a certain state of the Indian subcontinent an extremely badly managed general election were held in which bachelor Sardar became the chief minister of a coalition government. Soon after being sworn in his coalition partners arranged a beautiful bride for Sardar. A memorable wedding ceremony was held at state expense in which Sardar gave to and received from his coalition partners very expensive presents at state expense. After a while a news reporter asked Sardar when the heir was expected. Sardar promptly replied, “My coalition partners and the ministry of population welfare are working on it.”

PM Nawaz's Resignation

The current situation in Islamabad is simply intolerable. Gross violation of fundamental human rights and those guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan are taking place by order of the administration. If the federal cabinet did not want any demonstrations in Islamabad, the prime minister should have advised the declaration of Emergency under article 232 of the constitution. Instead, the constitutional process was shunned and unnecessary force was used coming close to the subversion of the Constitution. All democratic and pro-constitution forces should demand the resignation of the erring prime minister. Can the army take him in protective custody and persuade him to resign in greater national interest under article 245 which has been invoked by the government?

Thoughts for Today

1. Democracy is the ability of a larger group of stupid people to overwhelm a smaller group of geniuses and warriors without violence.

 

2. The simplest way to solving the current political crisis in Pakistan is to remove all obstacles from the roads leading to and within Islamabad and wait for a week. If the crowd starts swelling to a million, the government should quit. If there is no significant change, the marchers should return.