Think your customers are difficult? Karim Khoja must cope with the Taliban
“THEY may be Taliban, they may be warlords, who cares?” asks Karim Khoja, rhetorically. “We are apolitical—they are customers.” Nobody could accuse Mr Khoja of being narrow-minded. Indeed, his easy-going approach has allowed him to build a successful mobile-phone business in one of the world's least hospitable markets, war-torn Afghanistan. One legacy of more than two decades of occupation, fighting and terror—and little in the way of economic activity before that—was that Afghanistan did not have much of a traditional fixed-line telecoms infrastructure. This presented a chance to leapfrog the old technology and go straight to mobile phones. A mobile-phone network requires a lot of radio masts, however. Whether they remain standing, especially in remote parts of Afghanistan, depends on the goodwill of the locals. Hence Mr Khoja's customer-centric philosophy. “When we go to a village, we talk to the elders and explain how when a mast comes to an area it brings jobs and economic growth,” he says. He adds, not entirely reassuringly, that everybody in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, understands the importance of being able to communicate. .Continue........
Friday, March 9, 2007
The Fall of Modernity
February 26, 2007 Issue
Copyright © 2006 The American Conservative
Has the American narrative authored its own undoing?
By Michael Vlahos
We are losing our wars in the Muslim world because our vision of history is at odds with reality. This is a well-established condition of successful societies, a condition that inevitably grows more worrisome with time and continuing success. In fact, what empires have most in common is how their sacred narratives come to rule their strategic behavior—and rule it badly. In America’s case, our war narrative works against us to promote our deepest fear: the end of modernity. ..................continued
Please Sponsor Me
Friends!
I’m participating in the World Partnership Walk, which takes place on Sunday, May 27th, 2007 (June 3rd in Ottawa) and I would like to invite you to donate to my fundraising effort by making a secure, online contribution by credit card.
The Walk, which is held in nine cities across the country, is Canada's largest national event dedicated to helping communities in the developing world break the cycle of poverty.
Click here to visit my Web page
An initiative of Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC), the Walk has a real impact on the lives of poor communities in Africa and Asia, bringing effective and lasting development solutions to some of the poorest communities in Asia and Africa. All contributions to the Walk (100%) go directly to programs that improve education and health care, enhance rural livelihoods and strengthen community-based organizations.
Please note that when you donate to me, your name and the amount donated will appear on my personal web page, which can be viewed by others. If you would prefer that your name not be displayed, please check the box “I prefer to make this donation anonymously” on the donation form. An official tax receipt will be sent to you by e-mail within 2-3 business days.
If you want to learn more about the event, visit World Partnership Walk or call 1.800.267.2532 x142.
Thanks for helping me in the fight against global poverty.
Khanu Lalani
Report: Israeli soliders used children as 'human shields'
posted March 09, 2007 at 11:15 am EST - http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0309/p99s01-duts.html
IDF says it will 'thoroughly' investigate allegations by Israeli human rights group.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has accused the Israeli army of using two Palestinian minors as human shields during their operations against militants in the town of Nablus in late February. The group reports on its website that an 11-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, as well as a 24-year-old man were used by the troops in "a flagrant breach of international humanitarian law and [an act that is] is explicitly and clearly prohibited by Israeli military orders.
Link for more......
Continue....
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Wedding Video
Of special interest for those with former spouses!
Monty: Last night I watched the tape of my wedding ceremony for the 1,000th time.
Max: When were you married?
Monty: Fifteen years ago.
Max: You must be very sentimental to still be watching you and your wife taking your vows after all these years.
Monty: That's right. It still chokes me up to hear her say "Yes" for the last time.
Monty: Last night I watched the tape of my wedding ceremony for the 1,000th time.
Max: When were you married?
Monty: Fifteen years ago.
Max: You must be very sentimental to still be watching you and your wife taking your vows after all these years.
Monty: That's right. It still chokes me up to hear her say "Yes" for the last time.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Message from Al Gore
Subject:March 21
On March 21st, I'm going to hand-deliver your messages on television when I testify at Congressional hearings on global warming.
This is an incredible opportunity to show Congress the energy behind this issue.
I need your help to really make it count.
Can you commit to getting 10 of your friends to sign a message to Congress before March 21st?
To get your friends involved in our effort, please forward them this note or direct them to: March 21st
Thank you,
Al Gore
Mightier Than the Pen
Never Mind Cursive -- Will Children Still Write
In an Era Ruled by Computers and PDA?
March 5, 2007
In an Era Ruled by Computers and PDA?
March 5, 2007
My four-year-old son is starting to get interested in making letters -- beginning, naturally, with writing his own name. He even makes some of the letters backwards, which I confess I thought only happened when adults imitated kids' writing.
Watching Joshua train his hand to make an 'S,' though, got me thinking: In our technological age, how much use will he get out of this particular skill? Will keyboards and touchscreens render pens and pencils specialized implements, with my kid never using a pen for anything much longer than a Post-It note?
Monday, March 5, 2007
I need a jug of wine and a book of poetry
I need a jug of wine and a book of poetry,
Half a loaf for a bite to eat,
Then you and I, seated in a deserted spot,
Will have more wealth than a Sultan's realm
Omar Khayyam
The Ruba'iyat
The Pictures
Conversation is, among other things, a mind-reading game and a puzzle. We constantly have to guess why others say what they do. We can never be sure when words will dance with each other, opinions caress, imaginations undress, topics open. But we can become more agile if we wish.
Theodore Zeldin from the opening paragraph of CONVERSATION - How Talk Can Change Our Lives
NEWSFLASH: FREE Balcony Upgrade on the Queen Mary 2 w/$500 Credit
NEW YORK--MARCH 5, 2007-- Crucon just announced a sale on
the world-famous Queen Mary 2 where you pay for an inside
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shipboard credit.
the world-famous Queen Mary 2 where you pay for an inside
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shipboard credit.
You must book by March 9.
This $1699 package (regularly more than $2299) includes:
- 10-night cruise on Cunard's luxurious Queen Mary 2
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- Departure dates on: Oct. 31; Nov. 10, 20 (over
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- $500 per cabin in shipboard credit
You will sail roundtrip from New York to Tortola, St. Kitts,
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The Queen Mary 2 has received numerous awards, including
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There are only 25 cabins available per sailing.
For full details on this sale and to book your cruise,
call CruCon directly at 1-800-493-6609.
Click here for full details from CruCon:
http://www.travelzoo.com/Newsflash.asp?286809
Sunday, March 4, 2007
The Authoritative and the Authoritarian
This Conference thrives on the provocation of complexity. Muslims, nowadays, are provoked by complexity. This Conference exists, marginalized by obscurity. Muslims are obscured by their marginality. Meanings and concepts are aggravated by words and phrases. Ideas are imprisoned by the very words that express them. This Conference is injected in the midst of clichés, sales pitches, and gross oversimplifications. Chaos and complexity are the stuff of creation, but order and stability is the craving of life. The authoritative directs the complex and stabilizes the chaotic, but the authoritarian dooms all to death.
Your book, The Authoritative and the Authoritarian in Islamic Discourses, has been published and you remember the days when you thought that a single book could change the world. You remember your short jalabiyya, and patchy beard, your miswak in the upper pocket a re-affirmation of power and triumph. The sparkling white head cover limited your range of vision and provided you with such unencumbered clarity. Back then a single book, Riyad al-Salihin (The Gardens of the Righteous) symbolized all the world had to say to you and all that you had to say to others. Parts of Hayat al-Sahaba (The Lives of the Companions) would be read in the mosque and visions of a perfectly ordered, perfectly structured society would relieve the stresses of your mind. When you bought a copy of Sahih al-Bukhari, you believed that all the problems and answers of existence were contained therein. Any contradiction was a challenge and any challenge was a negation of your existence. Everytime you would assure yourself, "I will commit the whole of Bukhari to memory and then..."
You remember a world stremlined into self-invented categories --- simple and yielding to a perfect causality. You believed that if you do your du'a' well on Friday, the rest of the week would be perfect, but if you would forget a single verse or phrase, then the order would unfold and collapse. A simple world --- an authoritarian world, comfortable with its delusions, submerged in immaturity.
You remember the day you seized your sister's cassette tapes and destroyed them. Music is haram, you declared. When your mother punished you, you declared that your mother was living in haram as well. Your mother never listened to music either. The only thing she listened to was Qur'an, but you did not get the point. It took you years to get the point.
What a world --- a world streamlined and in its dimensions, fed by ignorance and sheltered by arrogance. An authoritarian world where you are the authority. A world where the magnificence of God is represented through the authoritarian voice of a self-righteous self. A world where the Divine voice becomes imprisoned by a human voice and the human voice ascends to the throne. An essentially God-less world.
Now years later, you publish The Authoritative and the Authoritarian in Islamic Discourses. God's Will must be discovered through its evidence and signs. The voices aspiring to comprehend the Divine Will are authoritative indicators, but they never become the embodiment of the Divine. These voices might be authoritative but they must never become authoritarian. Riyad al-Salihin and Sahih al-Bukhari are raw materials --- raw indicators to the Will of the Divine. The materials could be used to construct either the authoritative or the authoritarian. If the authoritarian is constructed, the text is rendered subservient and submerged into its representer and reader. If the authoritative is constructed, the text survives unencumbered and unlimited by its representer and reader.
It was the endless spew of contemporary oral gyrations that once rendered your world uni-dimensional and linear. But the day came when you abandoned the contemporary apologetics and the rot of the modern decay in Islamic discourses and embraced the wonders of a bygone civilization. You read Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni (d. 478/1084) explaining that the purpose of a Shari'a inquiry is not to reach the right result but the inquiry itself. You read Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911/1505) arguing that God's Will is not the ruling reached but the search for the ruling. The result of a search is not the point --- the point is the search. A life consumed by the search for the Divine Will is the divine Will and is the ultimate morality.
In short, you grew up and your conscience grew. You are no longer as threatened, but you are no longer as confident and secure. You realize that while we seek to discover the Divine will, we never come to embody it. While we search the truth, we are not the truth. From this came the Conference, from this came the book. The child of the Conference, for the sake of the Conference, in the way of Allah --- May He accept.
May 1997
Khaled Abou El Fadl
Conference of the Books
Chapter 13.
Your book, The Authoritative and the Authoritarian in Islamic Discourses, has been published and you remember the days when you thought that a single book could change the world. You remember your short jalabiyya, and patchy beard, your miswak in the upper pocket a re-affirmation of power and triumph. The sparkling white head cover limited your range of vision and provided you with such unencumbered clarity. Back then a single book, Riyad al-Salihin (The Gardens of the Righteous) symbolized all the world had to say to you and all that you had to say to others. Parts of Hayat al-Sahaba (The Lives of the Companions) would be read in the mosque and visions of a perfectly ordered, perfectly structured society would relieve the stresses of your mind. When you bought a copy of Sahih al-Bukhari, you believed that all the problems and answers of existence were contained therein. Any contradiction was a challenge and any challenge was a negation of your existence. Everytime you would assure yourself, "I will commit the whole of Bukhari to memory and then..."
You remember a world stremlined into self-invented categories --- simple and yielding to a perfect causality. You believed that if you do your du'a' well on Friday, the rest of the week would be perfect, but if you would forget a single verse or phrase, then the order would unfold and collapse. A simple world --- an authoritarian world, comfortable with its delusions, submerged in immaturity.
You remember the day you seized your sister's cassette tapes and destroyed them. Music is haram, you declared. When your mother punished you, you declared that your mother was living in haram as well. Your mother never listened to music either. The only thing she listened to was Qur'an, but you did not get the point. It took you years to get the point.
What a world --- a world streamlined and in its dimensions, fed by ignorance and sheltered by arrogance. An authoritarian world where you are the authority. A world where the magnificence of God is represented through the authoritarian voice of a self-righteous self. A world where the Divine voice becomes imprisoned by a human voice and the human voice ascends to the throne. An essentially God-less world.
Now years later, you publish The Authoritative and the Authoritarian in Islamic Discourses. God's Will must be discovered through its evidence and signs. The voices aspiring to comprehend the Divine Will are authoritative indicators, but they never become the embodiment of the Divine. These voices might be authoritative but they must never become authoritarian. Riyad al-Salihin and Sahih al-Bukhari are raw materials --- raw indicators to the Will of the Divine. The materials could be used to construct either the authoritative or the authoritarian. If the authoritarian is constructed, the text is rendered subservient and submerged into its representer and reader. If the authoritative is constructed, the text survives unencumbered and unlimited by its representer and reader.
It was the endless spew of contemporary oral gyrations that once rendered your world uni-dimensional and linear. But the day came when you abandoned the contemporary apologetics and the rot of the modern decay in Islamic discourses and embraced the wonders of a bygone civilization. You read Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni (d. 478/1084) explaining that the purpose of a Shari'a inquiry is not to reach the right result but the inquiry itself. You read Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911/1505) arguing that God's Will is not the ruling reached but the search for the ruling. The result of a search is not the point --- the point is the search. A life consumed by the search for the Divine Will is the divine Will and is the ultimate morality.
In short, you grew up and your conscience grew. You are no longer as threatened, but you are no longer as confident and secure. You realize that while we seek to discover the Divine will, we never come to embody it. While we search the truth, we are not the truth. From this came the Conference, from this came the book. The child of the Conference, for the sake of the Conference, in the way of Allah --- May He accept.
May 1997
Khaled Abou El Fadl
Conference of the Books
Chapter 13.
RideShares
Links to:
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Craigslist has rideboards in most cities it serves
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The Maestro
The Maestro
Where is the weft of our life's warp?
What is the gain of our coming and going?
Where is the weft of our life's warp?
In the circle of spheres the lives of so many good men
Burn and become dust, but where is the smoke?
- The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam
Metro Long Island New Buildings
Check out this link to a new luxury apartment building in LIC.
http://www.topnycapts.com/blog/new-buildings.php?cat=155
The Maestro
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