Red Moon

The Sun turns red twice every day at rising and setting times, but few people notice it. It is a routine phenomenon. However, people whose ancestors were convinced that certain remarkable events in their lives were related to the Sun still worship the rising and setting Sun irrespective of its color. To me the Sun and the Moon symbolize thermodynamics and Optics or heat and pure light in simple English.

The Moon does not emit any light, cold or hot. It just reflects some of the light that impinges on its surface. If it reflects direct sunlight, it looks white with patches of grey. When it is illuminated by light reflected from Earth’s surface (oceans) it looks bluish. When it is illuminated by light reflected from the Martian surface, it looks reddish. The changing colors of the moon have nothing to do with terrestrial economics or politics.

Astronomy is a subject of study as ancient as nutrition and herbal medicine. The first astrolabes are said to have been built in Greece and Egypt before the dawn of the Christian era and the Muslim Spaniards and Iranians of about a thousand years ago had developed fairly scientific astrolabes and Celestial globes. It was just a matter of how much time one spent fingering his astrolabe to predict the celestial events of the future. Even a thousand year ago it could be calculated as to when the Earth, Moon and Mars will be in the required positions relative to the Sun to produce the Blood Moon effect by reflection of light from moon which was originally sunlight reflected by Mars.

Religious and nonreligious people alike who benefit from the worry and panic of the common people would exploit any unusual occurrence to their advantage. And if they can pretend to predict it, then they can trap a few weak minded people in their net of superstition.

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Laws of Democracy

1.       No decision shall be taken except by majority vote.

2.       No voting shall take place until everyone has been heard.

3.       No one shall be made to vote against his conscience.

4.       No one shall refuse to hear what another has to say.

Prayer

Prayer is the humble expression of one's desires and aspirations carried out with utter humility. The action is recognized by the universal supervisory system and natural selection takes effect. It has nothing to do with religion.

No Comment

https://www.facebook.com/insider.pk/photos/a.212847215395779.64624.200661876614313/529569380390226/?type=1

Translation:
Innocent Liba affected by drone attack poses a question to the Pakistani public:
My countrymen, am I less lovable than Malala, or is my patriotism suspect?
Then why did nobody speak for me? Is it because America the brave is responsible for my condition?

PEC Elections

PEC elections are due to be held on 14th June, 2015.
In the past when postal balloting was held, I was often approached by engineers affiliated to political parties to hand over the unmarked ballot papers to them so that they might mark all the candidates affiliated with their parties and get credit from their leaders. I never obliged, although many others did.
Since last time, polling booths are being set up for direct balloting and various allegations of rigging have been made.
This year in Karachi with about 40,000 voters in a population of about 20 million 10 polling stations have been set up, of which two are located in the Sindh Assembly Building which is not accessible to general public. Apparently these polling stations are for the few privileged engineers who are also members of the provincial assembly, which seems to be a deplorable abuse of privilege.
There are also murmurs being heard that the polling stations in the Sindh assembly will be used to round up ballot papers from interior Sindh and have them marked and and cast under the direct supervision of ruling party bosses.
It will be interesting to see the detailed balloting results assuming that they will not be rigged.
Why can't the Engineering Council be left out of state politics. Does the Engineering profession have to be brought to the same level of corruption as mainstream politics?

Myanmar Massacre – 2

Nearly two years ago in April, 2013 I wrote a short blog on the massacre of Muslims in Myanmar. Unfortunately, nobody took notice of it. Recent reports indicate that the scale of atrocities has increased and the situation can be rightly termed as genocide and ethnic cleansing. The following are the latest images circulating on the social media:

One would have thought that not only compassionate Muslims but also conscientious Buddhists from  countries with substantial Buddhist populations would have come forward to mitigate the sufferings of the innocent human beings being subjected to abject baseness in Myanmar. Now there are tens of thousands of people meandering in the seas being turned away from every port of refuge.

However, there is another angle to the situation. How do you think the survivors of this genuine holocaust are going to feel towards humanity? With utter hatred and obsession to revenge? Aren’t we breeding a new creed of terrorists? 

The Virtue of ISIS

The world today seems to be seized with the menacing events taking place in the Middle East in the name of ISIS. Unfortunately, this seems another example how misinformed politicians and military men have botched up and made a complete mess of a noble idea.

The movement called ISIS, as the very name Islamic State of Iraq and Syria seems to have started to unite Iraq and Syria into a single Islamic Republic. Historically they have been parts of a greater Islamic empire and most of the troubles of the people of both countries seem to have started after their separation, specially the religious sectarian persecution.

Let us see what will be religious distribution of a united ISIS Republic. The table below gives a heartening picture:

Country	Total Million	Sunni %	Shia  %	Christian %	Other  %	Sunny Million	Shia  Million	Christian Million	Other Million
Syria	18	74	12	10	4	13.32	2.16	1.8	0.72
Iraq	36	33	62	4	1	11.88	22.32	1.44	0.36
Total	54	47	45	6	2	25.2	24.48	3.24	1.08

Form the above table it is obvious that the union of Iraq and Syria will constitute a viable country with nearly equal populations of Shias and Sunnis, while the 8% minorities will hold the balance of power. It would be a workable democracy with little chance of anyone being persecuted on religious grounds.

It would be a good idea if the demonization of ISIS and the inhuman military activities are stopped and diplomatic efforts are made to bring the leaders of Iraq, Syria and the ISIS to form a Democratic Islamic State. The name and the capital will indeed be issues that can be resolved by decent negotiations.

The United Nations has a good opportunity to do at least once what it was created for.

Random Thoughts 150324

He-man = A man who wins over the woman he likes, but does not yield to the woman who likes him. (In the current Western perspective you can read man or woman instead of woman)

Israel = The last remnant of the Colonial era.

ISIS = Latest ploy of American Shale oil manufacturers to maintain turmoil in the middle east and
keep the price of petroleum up. (The idea of uniting Iraq and Syria into a single democratic state having balanced populations of Shias and Sunnis is not a bad one.)

Terrorism = One sided war; attack by armed persons on unarmed persons.

Yohannabad = Baptism in blood and fire. Has the anti-Christ appeared?

Marriage

Marriage is a socio-legal process by which a man and a woman acquire exclusive rights on one another's body, but the souls remain free.

Some Thoughts

1.     Miracles can be made to happen

2.     ‘We’ is always better than I.

3.     Nobody is better than anybody else.

4.     All colors combine to make white.

5.     Everyone has something to give

6.     A free man is one who governs himself.