Life, Dreams and Reality -- Sohel's Blog

He "could have ended up in Guantánamo Bay. Instead" he "ended up at Yale." This is the fascinating real life story of Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, the very famous face of Taliban, the "roving ambassador" of Afghanistan in the time of one-eyed Mullah Omar. A Talib at Yale. Like all the other of his classmates, he is learning critical reasoning, arguments, political science, philosophy, etc. Here is a memorable sentence from this article attached below: "He had been raised in a faith, buoyed at every turn by the certainty of a higher order, a purposeful universe, and now here in this shrine of critical thinking he was learning to doubt, not to believe." Doesn't it show that changing circumstances, devoid of visible destructive wars, bombs and violence, can present a man, even with a clear Taliban background new hope in life? A peaceful environment where mind can soar, heart can flutter with every new steps toward broadening one's hori...

When the apparently smooth marching toward a prosperous connected world turns into a giant mess, it is time to rethink our previously held notions of a pristine world molding in our favorable image. David Ignatius comments on the perplexed states of Westerners seeing the contradictory imageries in the Middle East, where the high skyscrapers and suited-booted Arabs with similarly matched colorful knotted ties with their counterparts shines the light on Western nations' generated "democracy". Violent protests on the streets by the "unconnected" on the very same Western policies propped up by the client rulers and monarchs on the indigenous citizens and their livelihoods in the name of "globalizing" the "uncivilized" Arabs illumine the necessary stark contrast between reality and elitist hyperboles. Rage over injustice is not as bad as the willful creation of diversion is. Prophesizing and dictating "others" while not holding on t...

Now that The New York Times editorial has taken up the issue that is quite an old one from last year, perhaps some heads will begin to roll. Powerful lobby groups are involved from lucrative food and other related industries in favor of Aspartame for many years whose one of the pioneer was in-"credible" Donald Rumsfeld, the current U.S. Defense Secretary. For the sake of public safety, and to save millions of people from unnecessary deaths from cancer which is most likely linked with this seemingly hazardous but camouflaged as innocuous sweetener is not a mundane issue. Perhaps, aspartame is as safe as any other supposedly safest products in the market. But, still, we the people have the right to demand an absolute fair scientific investigation on aspartame. Regards, Sohel Note: More information on aspartame can be found from the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame The Safety of Aspartame Aspartame, an artificial sweetener used by more than 200 m...

The argument in Fareed Zakaria's following article is powerful. Europe is in decline in almost every aspects of human civilization. Dwindling human resources, aging population, fierce trade competition from India and China, its constant hold of massive farm subsidies, political unwillingness in needed social and economic reform, these all are contributing to the slow progression toward fall from old "colonial grace". Add the growing anti-immigrant bubbles into this linear equation, and the proverbial "final solution" becomes clearer. During the time of Hitler, it was the Jewish folks who were categorically put into linchpin for Germany's misfortune. Move forward close to seven decades into a new century, and the ever wobbling political wheel of exploitation slowly but surely trudging along toward the new "enemy", the darkened colored, "freedom of speech denying", embassy burning, "terrorist" Muslims. Perhaps, cartoons are the...

Behind all these visible agitations in the Muslim nations and Western citizens' growing discomfort on violent reactions by extremist Muslims on the cartoon issue, lay dormant the calculated plans and strategies of neocon masterminds. Islamophobia, like other types of phobias in the past is part of that same historical ploys where the political and intellectual thugs are engaged in brutal chess like game, invoking "modernity", in the present scenario as "Freedom of Speech", in the past, "blood libel" and other crowd inciting provocations to further their grandiose plan. Extremists of all forms are in the forefront, from Iran's Ahmedinizad and ubiquitous lingering shadow of Bin Laden, to Europe's anti-immigrant right wing political blocks along with American despots in the highest government echelon, they are all playing with fire, quite masterfully one may say. Regards, Sohel The Cartoons and the Neocon Daniel Pipes and ...