unbelievable

in case you might be interested...
this is dr james watson's opinion on human intelligence... i'm amazed that someone could say these things in our day and age. read for yourself.

thoughts?

a song to go with today's post

Don't look in their eyes - Stabilo

Go now go get your guns
we'll all fight like cowboys and pray like nuns
then we'll dance around the open flames
if it gets too hot well we have no shame
no shame

they say we talk too much
cause nothing changes,nothing changes
and I say we don't talk enough
cause nothing changes, nothing changes
and oh, oh oh, oh oh

so we're here, sound the alarms
throw up your arms
we brought the entire army
and we're starving so don't try anything smart
theres plenty of ammunition and we've got our guards

look now he's on the run
i'm glad he tried its much more fun
if we chase him till the sun goes down
we can take him out with noone else around
no one else around, no one else around
no, no, oh no no

so we're here, sound the alarms
throw up your arms
we brought the entire army
and we're starving so don't try anything smart
theres plenty of ammunition and we've got our guards

stick around i got a hunch
we'll bomb this town and stop for lunch
and never,nevermind these awful cries
it's not as real if you don't look in their eyes

don't look in their eyes, don't look in their eyes, oh no
oh no no

so we're here, sound the alarms
throw up your arms
we brought the entire army
and we're starving so don't try anything smart
theres plenty of ammunition and we've got our guards

don't look in their eyes, don't look in their eyes, oh no
don't look in their eyes, don't look in their eyes, oh no



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Now playing: Stabilo - Don't Look In Their Eyes
via FoxyTunes

To whom it may concern

I just got out of a Native Studies seminar.  Today was especially interesting, as our seminar leader announced that many students were just barely passing the participating component, the result being that people are being forced to talk.  This is good; the discussion was much more lively!  Anyway, we had read an article about decolonizing schools, though it really didn't provide any method of decolonization or say that it was even necessary... In any case, regardless of how non-commital the article was, we started to discuss the school system.  Of course, my ideas are slightly radical, so I'm sure many students are now walking away going "man, does that kid piss me off". 

Here's the case: a country with a large, marginalized population that is everyday attacked on the basis of race, language and culture, and has been for over 100 years.  This population is now trying to empower itself, and is tired of being given solutions.  That being said, a portion of that population, namely its young people are unsure as to what exactly to believe.  The question comes up: should we even care about past wrongs?  Can we not just move the hell along?  Who am I talking about?  Why Canada and its Aboriginal population, who else? 

We look at a lot of stats in this course, and it all points to the need for transformation.  Not only for social transformation, but also personal transformation.  Of course, these are things that I cannot say in class.  I suggested that all students, not just Aboriginal ones should learn about Aboriginal culture.  So I got asked: why?  and what should they learn about Aboriginals and their culture?  I said in class that it's because of the racism that exists.  But I don't think that person understood.  Let me explain here. 

I am not Aboriginal.  I lived in an area of my city that is predominantly white-middle class.  My school was so white that my Chinese French teacher would often ask me for the Iranian perspective to balance out the opinions in class.  I think her intentions were in the right place, but really, it was racist, and I hated that class as a result.  But you get the picture.  That all being said, we did learn about Aboriginal people in History - but that's only because we had a French History class.  None of my Anglophone friends learnt much about this population, and if they did, it was minimal.  What I learnt, I have now come to realize, was Eurocentric and inaccurate.  You know, if school is where we learn about stuff we don't learn at home, like other cultures, and on the news we hear bad news about Aboriginal people, and the "Aboriginal section" of the curriculum hasn't existed for long - tell me, how exactly are people to be able to understand them?  Or anyone for that matter? 

Do you think if my French teacher had understood that I just wanted to be normal that she would have put me on the spot so much?  Did I ever have the guts to tell her off? 

The thing is that we cannot allow misconceptions about others to continue.  It doesn't matter who they are - prejudice, racism - you know, just plain old ignorance - it cannot go on.  Our society is falling apart, piece by piece.  Yes, maybe it is tough for people to hear that we have to learn about them, but you know, we have to learn about everyone.  And maybe it's not that every student should be able to recite the alphabet in Cree, but more that children will grow up realizing that every person is a  person in their own right, that they have a soul, that they are challenged and tested, just like I am or you are, and that we need to respect them, whether they live on the street or in a mansion or next door.  You know, right now, many different cultures live in my area.  No one knows zip about the person next door - they just know what's on the news, if that!  So now, if my neighbors saw Iranians on television and thought I was like them, do you think they'd talk to me? 

Next problem - how do we get there?  How do we cause a change in the system?  Is it possible?  Aren't there forces that are propelling us in an individualist, profit-driven direction?  If the answer to the last question is "yes", then isn't resistance futile? 

This is why I talk about personal and social transformation.  The idea is not my own - it is clearly written all over the Baha'i Writings, and that's where I've been learning about this from.  See, here's the thing - you can't transform either one on their own or "first".  Our world's systems are based on the fragmented idea that you can... quite frankly, that makes no sense.  Let me give you an example: UV radiation, it is widely acknowledged, can cause cancer.  What happens is that the radiation messes up our DNA - even just one tiny, infintesimal base in our DNA in one cell can result in a tumor forming.  When that mutation (the messing with the base) occurs, the entire system in the cell is affected, and that results in bad news - the cell either dies or it becomes immortal and divides, hence the cancer...  The tumor, in turn takes over the body, crushing organs, destroying blood vessels - it is so destructive that the interior of the tumor actually dies because nutrients can't get to it.  So we can see how small changes to an individual component of an environment can result in changes in the environment.  Similarly, we see how global warming, a change in our environment, is affecting plant and animal life, which is affecting how we live, which affects, etc etc etc.... So now, if we see so many examples in nature, how is it that we don't see that society and the individuals within it function in the same way?  How could we ever imagine that we could create a just and fair society if the individuals within it, even just a small segment, are corrupt?  How could you say "I am truthful" when the place you work in requires you to bend the truth, or even to lie?  You see, we have to change both society and individual at the same time...

And I'm running out of time, so I'll continue this later.  

today's funny

this is a conversation between my sister (farah) and i today - she happens to be 3 and a half years old.

me: farah, make sure you finish your food
farah: i already did (note the obvious inability to align her understanding with reality - her plate was full of food)
me: uh...
now, in many previous conversations i have explained to my sister that if she eats, she will get big and strong...
farah: taleleh, are you small?
me: no, i'm not little, farah
farah: are you big?
me: yes
farah: then why are you eating?
[at this point my father and i are dying with laughter]
farah: what's so funny?