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Reply With Quote..... also cant wait for their oil to run out.... for the sake of both world peace and the climate...
In the meanwhile.....i'm having withdrawal symptoms.... get my oil fix, quick!
Saudi Arabia-- Rich Middle Eastern nation sentences to death a man to death on charges for witchcraft.....
In our Econ Development class we were taught that growth and development are not the same, that high income does not necessarily translate into high human development, and that prosperity does not guarantee freedom, gender-equality, right to practice one's beliefs etc etc. Saudi Arabia, the retrograde state is a classic example.
..... also cant wait for their oil to run out.... for the sake of both world peace and the climate...
In the meanwhile.....i'm having withdrawal symptoms.... get my oil fix, quick!
LOL curing stupidity with "lead poisoning"... two thumbs up~Originally Posted by chakos
Was thinking more about education than broader society. I'll bow to your knowledge here, but I wasn't aware that China was teaching about 'multiple dimensions' in science class.
Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C
Except when that happens, I lose my job.
What else can we expect from a kingdom that runs on religious laws instead of rational laws.
People were also persecuted for being different (jews, communists, capitalists, skin colour...)not so long ago in many nations.
May be they (Saudis) will change with time.
cheers
You'r an oil man? Wow! As an environmentally ethical man, I say, "Thanks for peddling us, unsuspecting folks, this drug!")
You could simply remove all those warning labels like that a bag of nuts has nuts in it.And you just can't fix stupid!
uh I might be wrong
Then it's begs the question "how long?". Then again, there are usual catalysts like coups, revolution, foreign intervention, and since they are secularist folk, perhaps the miracle of common sense might just occur along with a prophet who has seen a vision of St. Damnably-obvious-facts
what do you expect from Wahabbis?...
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy rather in power than use; and keep thy friend under thine own life's key; be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech.
I was going to say that but was having a bout with political correctness.... Glad I'm over that!
Man thinks he knows more than G*d, so he takes it upon himself to tell everyone else how to think of Him! It sounds even more arrogant when one considers that no man has understood G*d - even after having taken the time to do so.
There is a reason why Marx called religion the "opium of the masses". Not that it is bad, but that rather it is often used to disconnect people from reality.
However, it can also be used to bring about enlightenment. Below are a couple of stories and a joke from the Sufi tradition.
There was once a small boy who banged a drum all day and loved every moment of it. He would not be quiet, no matter what anyone else said or did. Various people who called themselves Sufis, and other well-wishers, were called in by neighbors and asked to do something about the child.
The first so-called Sufi told the boy that he would, if he continued to make so much noise, perforate his eardrums; this reasoning was too advanced for the child, who was neither a scientist nor a scholar. The second told him that drum beating was a sacred activity and should be carried out only on special occasions. The third offered the neighbors plugs for their ears; the fourth gave the boy a book; the fifth gave the neighbors books that described a method of controlling anger through biofeedback; the sixth gave the boy meditation exercises to make him placid and explained that all reality was imagination. Like all placebos, each of these remedies worked for a short while, but none worked for very long.
Eventually, a real Sufi came along. He looked at the situation, handed the boy a hammer and chisel, and said, "I wonder what is INSIDE the drum?"SEE WHAT I MEAN? Nasrudin was throwing handfuls of crumbs around his house. "What are you doing?" someone asked him. "Keeping the tigers away." "But there are no tigers in these parts." "That's right. Effective, isn't it?If you like, more can be found at: Sufi Stories as told by Idries Shah the western Sufism teacherIf a pot can multiply: One day Nasrudin lent his cooking pots to a neighbor, who was giving a feast. The neighbor returned them, together with one extra one - a very tiny pot. "What is this?" asked Nasrudin. "According to law, I have given you the offspring of your property which was born when the pots were in my care," said the joker. Shortly afterwards Nasrudin borrowed his neighbor's pots, but did not return them. The man came round to get them back. "Alas!" said Nasrudin, "they are dead. We have established, have we not, that pots are mortal?"
this Nasrudin is called Nasreddin and lived in Anatolia during the days of Sultan Bayezid & Timur.
his stories are not just jokes.
theres a whole lot of lessons in them for anyone
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy rather in power than use; and keep thy friend under thine own life's key; be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech.
But the fact that they are funny stories makes them all the more wonderful. There are not that many storytellers capable of conveying such profound lessons in such a "superficial" way. Nasreddin must've been a highly educated fellow for him to tell such stories.
I've heard more than once that a foreign learner of a language can say that he has achieved fluency when he can understand (and laugh at) jokes in the target language - and I believe this to be 100% true. Since jokes and funny stories have a lot of metaphor and puns in them, they do require a highly advanced ability in the target language on part of the student.
Ah, here are a couple more I found.
Source: Remember to laughOnce a renowned philosopher and moralist was traveling through Nasruddin's village when he asked him where there was a good place to eat. He suggested a place and the scholar, hungry for conversation, invited Mullah Nasruddin to join him. Much obliged, Mullah Nasruddin accompanied the scholar to a nearby restaurant, where they asked the waiter about the special of the day.
- Fish! Fresh Fish! replied the waiter.
- Bring us two, they answered.
A few minutes later, the waiter brought out a large platter with two cooked fish on it, one of which was quite a bit smaller than the other. Without hesitating, Mullah Nasruddin cooked the larger of the fish and put in on his plate. The scholar, giving Mullah Nasruddin a look of intense disbelief, proceed to tell him that what he did was not only blatantly selfish, but that it violated the principles of almost every known moral, religious, and ethical system. Mullah Nasruddin calmly listened to the philosopher's extempore lecture patiently, and when he had finally exhausted his resources, Mullah Nasruddin said,
- Well, Sir, what would you have done?
- I, being a conscientious human, would have taken the smaller fish for myself.
- And here you are, Mullah Nasruddin said, and placed the smaller fish on the gentleman's plate.
Source: Sufism/Nasrudin - Wikibooks, collection of open-content textbooksTimur's armies were plundering the entire Central Asia and the rumors were that Timur was heading for Mullah's village. Hearing this, Mullah in his Friday sermon called for a collective prayer. "Let us all pray for the death of Timur the Lame before he comes". All villagers said Amen loudly.
A man stood up from among the worshipers and asked, "Have you ever seen Timur?".
Mullah replied, "No, and I have not seen you before either".
The man said, "You are right, because I am Timur".
Mullah was stunned by the news, and so were all the villagers. Mullah calmly resumed his sermon. "Let us pray once more collectively, this time our Janazah (funeral prayer)".
"How can you pray your own Janazah you fool", asked Timur, "Janazah is prayed by the living on the dead".
"Yes my lord but you see" replied Mullah "We are all about to be dead with no one to pray Janazah on us. So we have to take care of our Janazah ourselves".
Timur laughed his heart out and pardoned Mullah and gave an elephant as his gift to the village.
...................................
The villagers soon discovered that the elephant ate a lot of their crop and was of no use. However they could not kill or sell the gift of Timur out of fear of his wrath. They all blamed Mullah and demanded he returned the gift.
Mullah agreed but on one condition that all villagers should accompany him. Mullah went to the tent of Timur. Timur was in a bad mood and shouted on Mullah as he saw him. "What do you want?"
"It is about the elephant you gave". Mullah replied.
"What about the elephant? Is my gift no good to you?" Timur asked.
Mullah turned and found no villagers behind him. Angry and feeling cheated, Mullah thought of a way out and a revenge with the villagers at the same time.
"Oh it is good alright, my lord" Mullah said, "It is just that he is all alone and feels sad. I was wondering if you can provide him with the company of a female elephant".
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