Power to People + Information Revolution = better future for all ?

     can more information and people to access it change the way we live our lives today, if government are held accountable for every penny they spend, and where they spend it, would that lead to a better for all. i guess so. so far i can see many government through the middle east that if they wore to be questioned to where the budget spending is spend at, they would have trouble answering.so far the internet is giving power to citizen journalist around the world to voice there opinion on many topics including those topic that are viewed controversial or tabooed in there own country.  David Cameron point out that behavioral economics can help us recycle martial and save electricity through comparing our consumption of electricity with our neighbors consumption and the overall average consumption. Transparency, Choice, Accountability are three methods he mentions to increase the wellbeing of a country citizen and to empower them to change there environment for the betterment of all citizen.

 

 

     in this ever changing world of IT and interconnect information technology devices we as citizen are becoming expose to information that none of our grandparent or even parent did. we are empower with tools that enable us to voice our opinions on the net for the whole world to hear, we are empower to voice our opinion and to debate them in a way that has never been given to any of our pervious generation. the question is can we act on these information and point out the wrongdoer or do we keep silent and live another day with the torment of not being the whistle blower who we could have been. at the end it is those who speak out that are remembers not those who keep silent in the midst of oppression, ternary and coercion. feel free to comment and tell me what you think

Gran Torino: i just finished watching the movie. just inspirational.

  The movie is very inspirational. it has many perspective interim of culture exchange and how people view each other culture. interesting movie that has an interesting twist to it and the end. hope you get the chance to watch it.

Invictus: truly an inspirational movie, With a message to Africa

I don't know about you guys

but if you haven't watched the movie I highly recommend you to do so, I just watched the movie invictus and while watching it for a while I thought if only we had more of him, if only we had more of him in Africa. Once a while ago I was talking to a friend of mine and he was pointing out that Africa as a whole doesn't have great leaders, he was insisting that we need an inspirational leader in Africa for the youth of Africa to following in his path. I always thought that he was wrong,that Africa does have great leaders. Nelson mandela, is truly an inspirational leader that has moved his country from being divided due to apartheids to being united under one rugby Stadium.

I do not know if I'm right or wrong but I definitely believe that I'm closer to being right then being wrong, what happened in South Africa is similar to what Sudan is witnessing today. The difference between South Africa's case and Sudan case is that Sudan and the Sudanese people have to decide on independence in 2011. In South Africa's case they didn't even get to the point of deciding to have a two state solution. I am pro-unionist who believe that Sudan should be one state where freedom of religion is respected and honored and opportunities are giving equally to everyone no matter their race, sex or color. So to all the Sudanese people out there that’s the remember how we would all use to study at the same school and we all used to play in the same play ground and eat from the same restaurant and go out partying together, tell me what happened. today Sudan is not the Sudan that we grow up in. It's not about South or North it's about us.

Let's not let what happened in the past 20 years and affect that some ignorant leaders of our country have made in the society and the fabric of the society itself erase the memory of us of we of a one sudan, let's not forget who we are, a society that does not judge a person by its color or race or religion.

let's try to understand and respect the gift that God has given us in having us to be from a country which has a different diverse group. Remember, remember we are all one.

Famous quotes

Nelson Mandela: Brothers and sisters, this is the time to build our nation!

Francois Pienaar: I was thinking how a man could spend thirty years in prison, and come out and forgive the men who did it to him...

Jason Tshabalala: According to the experts, we'll reach the quarter-finals, and no further.
Nelson Mandela: According to the experts, you and I should still be dead.

Brenda Mazibuko: This rugby, as a political calculation...
Nelson Mandela: It is a HUMAN calculation!

Nelson Mandela: I thank whatever gods may be /

For my unconquerable soul. /

I am the master of my fate /

I am the captain of my soul.

Can We Find Answers to Africa’s Poverty in Statistics?!!

There are some of us when we hear or read the word statistics we immediately hear the words such as standard deviation and variance. Some of us even hear there professor telling them how they could have used statistics when playing card games with there friends the night before examination day!!!. But to some such as Researcher and Doctor Hans Rosling its a whole new story, he shows us how some countries are pulling themselves out of the poverty and into better economies and better livening slandered using Statistics. i know i want to see how, do you?

Feel free to comment or even point our some issues you wish to discuss.

Technorati Tags: Africa, Poverty, Economics, Inspiration

Do you know who was President Obama talking to in Egypt?

 

      assalaamu alaykum ( peace be Upon you) is how president Obama speech started. a greetings of peace in a region that for long has been and is a region of many conflicts from the Palestine-Israeli conflict to the Darfur crisis. President Obama speech was broadcasted in many channels, it was debated in many online social network sites, it was broadcasted live through the Internet, and it was even send to cell phone users by SMS in four different languages to all of the world. I guess after all we truly live in a ubiquitous world. President Obama speech was magnificent, it was inspiring, uplifting and above all it was for a new start.

     To whom was President Obama directing his speech to? Was this speech to the middle east only, and last but not least, What were the reactions of Arabs in the Middle East toward his speech? I will try to answer these questions but first let's understand the environment of which this speech was giving at. President Obama message to the Middle East wasn't just about peace and democracy in the Middle East . It was more like starting a new chapter between the between the US and the Middle East,i was more like starting a new page and in that speech president Obama stated common grounds that all people from any religion who are in the middle east can understand and related to . his speech was for a fresh start and a new beginning. he pointed out many issues that have been for long tackled and debated in the hearts and minds of people in the middle east and today he opens a dialogue to help and promote new ideas to fix these issue and debate them.I did notice that most of the issues that President Obama was lecturing  on was targeting the youth of the Middle East, the young generation that is growing with new ideas of democracy, development and the mutual understanding between the East and  the West. In a sense president Obama speech was not only directed to the Middle East it was also directed to the Muslim world. Pointing out issues such as extremism, Palestinian Israeli conflict, democracy, and women right to education are all common shared issues founded in the Muslim world. I really was amazed at his knowledge of the Holy Koran when he pointed out this in his speech

“They have killed in many countries. They have killed people of different faiths - more than any other, they have killed Muslims. Their actions are irreconcilable with the rights of human beings, the progress of nations, and with Islam. The Holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind. The enduring faith of over a billion people is so much bigger than the narrow hatred of a few. Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism - it is an important part of promoting peace.” President Obama 

"The enduring faith of over a billion people is so much bigger than the narrow hatred of a few," President Obama said. "Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism, it is an important part of promoting peace." President Obama said.

I as a Middle Eastern and as Muslim person know that the issue of extremism does not only encompasses the Middle East but it also expands outward to many parts of the Muslim world I also believe that Islam does not preach extremism but there are some people who believe in violence and they don't represent Islam nor does Islam need to be represented by them. i don't agree with the concepts that the end justify the means nor do i agree that violence solves conflicts.I believe President Obama's message for the youth of the Middle East and the Muslim world to know that we are with you, that together we can combat ignorance, prejudice, poverty and most of all hatreds toward one another.

i underlined what i am going to talk about in the next paragraph.

“Finally, the Arab States must recognize that the Arab Peace Initiative was an important beginning, but not the end of their responsibilities. The Arab-Israeli conflict should no longer be used to distract the people of Arab nations from other problems. Instead, it must be a cause for action to help the Palestinian people develop the institutions that will sustain their state; to recognize Israel's legitimacy; and to choose progress over a self-defeating focus on the past.”President Obama

Way to go on this one president Obama, i always say that we need to not blame other for our shortcoming, to not look outward for our mistakes.we need not to blame the world for our short coming, we need to blame ourselves and only in that we can stop blaming the world and start getting in control of our world, our own development and most of all ending the seemingly everlasting conflict that raging all around us. looking inward for solutions to our problems and outward for way to mitigate them.we need to not look at problems that are crucial for our development such as improvement of standards of education,human right violation and violent extremism. most of all the straight to accepts constructive criticism even if it is towards a nation’s core system.

As to the final question that I have stated in the beginning of this post, there have been lots of comments and news interviews about president Obama speech, some of them were optimistic and some of the pessimistic and some of them leaned to the aspect of let’s-wait-and-see what will happen in the upcoming days, months or even years of his presidency. And of course they are those who just want action and by doing so they withhold any comment for the time being. And then I need to not forget the extremist who did not believe anything of what he said,O well that the Middle East.

I would like to end this post with a wise and a wonderful joke that I have read in one of THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN New York Times Op-Ed Columnist titled Obama On Obama. I have quoted the joke of his article and here it is.

“There is this very pious Jew named Goldberg who always dreamed of winning the lottery. Every Sabbath, he’d go to synagogue and pray: “God, I have been such a pious Jew all my life. What would be so bad if I won the lottery?” But the lottery would come and Goldberg wouldn’t win. Week after week, Goldberg would pray to win the lottery, but the lottery would come and Goldberg wouldn’t win. Finally, one Sabbath, Goldberg wails to the heavens and says: “God, I have been so pious for so long, what do I have to do to win the lottery?”

And the heavens parted and the voice of God came down: “Goldberg, give me a chance! Buy a ticket!””

From Obama On Obama article by the Famous THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

I highly recommend reading this article Obama on Obama by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN. After reading it I hope to ask you a question, are you willing to buy the ticket, are you will to give him President Obama a chance.

Finally, I would like to thank you very much for reading this blog post and hope to see some of your comments and thoughts about this post, the speech, or anything you wish to point out. Please feel free to do so and please don't forget to till me if you are going to buy the ticket.

 

Side Note: Issues Addressed  by President Obama in Egypt.

1. violent extremism in all of its forms.
2. the situation between Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab world.
3. The third source of tension is our shared interest in the rights and responsibilities of nations on nuclear weapons.
4. democracy.
5. religious freedom.
6. women's rights.
7. economic development and opportunity

Technorati Tags: Middle East, Politics Obama Obama Speech

We all can be a role model for the middle east, Can we ?!!

     Yes we all can!!!. I believe that the Middle East is in need of new faces,of new role models and of new ideas. These new role models need to not give up the prospect of changing the Middle East, changing the way we view the world, changing the way we think about the future, changing who we blame for our shortcomings, for not being on the forefront of innovation and development, changing the prospect of remembering the past but also not holding tight to it, changing the prospect of looking at the future and not assuming that it is too late for change. we still have a generation that believes in the past, that believes in all the glories and civilizations and innovations that the Middle East had.

     I believe that one of the problems that we have in the Middle East is that we always tend to look to the past, we always talk about the past civilizations, about how the Middle East contributed to science and innovation. We always talk about how algebra origins comes from  Middle Eastern. We always talk about our contributions to science in the past, but all of this stops when we want to talk about the present, when we want to talk about the future when we want to talk about change. Yes we were, yes we were in the past .

     Now we are not, now we are not at the forefront of innovation, now we are not at the forefront of science & education and definitely now we are not at the forefront of civilization. We need to start looking at facts, we need to start looking at the present, and in fact the present draws an ugly picture of itself for the middle east. In the present some countries in the Middle East have some of the highest illiteracy rates around the world. We have some countries in the Middle East who have some of the lowest GDP and income per capita. we have some countries with the a very low educational level.We have some of the highest number of conflict zone in the world or i guess we are holding the title of having the highest number of conflict zone in the world. from Palestine and Israel conflict, to the current conflict in Darfur, Sudan and the list goes on. But that's not all of it, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Yes we need role models in the Middle East but we need them to look at the present not the past we need them to accept that there is this ugly picture of the Middle East that requires new perspective, new ideas, and foremost new mindset. We need them to look for our similarities and accept our differences.that requires us to accepts it and work with it and to find solution to mitigate it. Because it seems that whenever we look at the middle east, we always look for our differences.Tell me what you think, do we really need new role models or do we already have them???

here are some opinions please shear yours by a comment.

 

 

what are you waiting for till me what you think!!!! :)

Technorati Tags: Middle East, Politics

REACH an inspiration but i feel it is not complete!!!

 

Is there part 2 !!!