They Don’t Care About Us

I am unable to hide my frustration from watching the dramatization of the role of Al-Qaeda, neo-conservatives, Osama bin Laden, George W. Bush, and so forth, when it comes to the so-called “clash of civilization”. They, and what they have done, are undeniably significant in affecting (not shaping) the future circumstances of the international affairs. However, they themselves are the outcomes of their periods’ events, and are vastly affected by them. What the radicalism, be it radical democratic or secularistic or islamic, did to all moderates of the world would pave the way for rising the people who could have become Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the like.

There is actually a clash of civilization; however, it is upon the global society how to respond to this clash. The Al-Qaeda does not represent all Muslims of the world; or even, if they represent any at all, they do so perhaps just a minority of Muslims. However, they represent a group of people, who may not be insignificant and may not be so small: the group of people who want to live different, and who want to think different.

No one is supporting extremism, but, what else could be expected as a reaction to extremism in the first place; be it, Al-Qaeda’s terrorism or the U.S.’s militarism. I believe most of those young Muslims, who are absorbed in extremist groups, have once experienced a failed moderate effort in being integrated and accepted as citizens of the society, where they want to just live in, but differently; and where, tolerance was not respected towards them.

Minimizing collateral damage

There are common things, deeply carved into his nature, between the human of pre-modern and modern world. One of them is the will of revenge. Friedrich Nietzsche in On the Genealogy of Morals brilliantly reveals how some of today’s most moral values of “good and evil” had once bases merely in this nature of the human being. In the past, humans were much sincerer in seeking this will, however, the human of our era has an incredible skill to justify revenge with bringing freedom, and thus, they name it “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, “Operation Enduring Freedom”, and so on; thus, they show incredible skills to cover the blood of their revenge.

And, you are not ready how to react to a person who, with all his sincerity, apologizes however asserts that they try to “minimize the collateral damage”!* They call it collateral damage, but we know that it means our little sisters, our little brothers, mothers, and fathers, and so on, but it’s nothing, just a “collateral damage”! Unintendedly, I remember Nietzsche who sarcastically says: “I consider it as an advance, as evidence of a freer , more generous, more Roman Conception of law when the Twelve Tables of Rome decreed it as a matter of indifference how much or how little the creditor cut off in such cases: ‘si plus minusve secuernunt, ne fraude esto.’”**

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* One of my professors at AUAF had about the same statement.
** “If they have secured more or less, let that be no crime.” (English translation from Walter Kaufmann’s footnote).

All that matters is power!

“[Our revolution] has been based on speech and logic, and hence, it is to promote, instead of the clash of civilizations, dialogues between civilizations and cultures,” said former Iranian President, Sayed Mohammad Khatami, addressing the United Nations General Assembly on September 21, 1998. As a high school student, regardless of my nationality, I was feeling proud and extremely cheerful when I was watching the live broadcast of President Khatami’s statement on TV. I was unfamiliar yet with the Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations”, however the thing that mattered for me, and perhaps many other students in Iran, was the difference we felt in the words of the new president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, the incident of 9/11, the U.S.-led coalition forces’ wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Iranian nuclear program, and the stories of collapse of such dictatorships as Saddam Hussain and Moammar Qaddafi, had little logic to me based on the “dialogue” President Khatami spoke of, fourteen years thereafter.


Again, as a frustrated student, from a third-world, war-torn country, I was watching Professor Noam Chomsky’s lecture at Harvard University. The words had the same rhythm and intonation, as President Khatami’s, in pleasing such a heart as mine. He was talking about “insincerity” of former U.S. President, George W. Bush, and his “war on terror”. He provided examples of similar “terrorist acts” of U.S. and Israeli governments against other nations. However, it is so inevitable for a person like me not to get excited. I have well come to the belief that the world has never been a sincere place, and is just a one-sided road coming from the sunset, where technologies, ideas, cultures, civilizations, and “International Human Rights Declaration” could come from. I now know there could be little possibility for dialogue between civilizations because there may be no trust and no equal position between them; because all that matters in the international scene is power.

Selecting budgetary system

Here is my paper on budgeting I talked about it a while ago.

Another hell week?

We're in the final week of the fall semester. Should I call it a "hell" week?! No, believe it or not, I have incredibly been organized this semester. Now, five days till the first final exam, Managerial Accounting, nothing pending I have in my school to-do list. This is not typical I guess for a student. But I could do it! YES!

Paper on budgeting

These days, I'm working on a research paper for Managerial Accounting class. Based on the guideline, we're required to compare and contrast various techniques of budgeting, as well as suggesting a suitable budgeting system for given conditions of organizational structure. I was told by some that these kinds of papers are typically given in graduate level. I'm happy though for I would have a chance to do some critical thinking, something that subjects like accounting apparently tend not to follow; at least as an important disciplinal element.

It's hard

It's hard but it will pass; and I will get over it.

Laugh

More than anytime else, I feel I need to put more time on laughing.

Just like when I was seven

I have taken five courses this semester. Economics, Managerial Accounting, Corporate Finance, Commercial Law, and Organizational Behavior. After having a relatively good result last semester with four courses, now I want to challenge myself a bit more with taking more courses. I will probably have a hard time also with a full time job.

Next Sunday is the first day of the fall semester, and I am nervous just like when I wanted to go to school when I was seven!

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Difficult days!