Roger Waters - "We Shall Overcome"سوف ننتصر- روجر واترس End The Blockade of Gaza

A song by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd. It's heartening to watch the support of humans from all walks of life for their brothers and sisters in Gaza. Support has come from the very famous to the normal person on the street. It has come from Muslims, Christians, Jews and from people of all beliefs and nationalities including Israelis. Support which can even cost lives as we saw last week, when nine peace loving Turkish nationals bravely and heroically lost their lives for this most human of causes.
People have spoken up for the truth and against injustice and the suffering of the Palestinians. This is all against the backdrop of overwhelming misrepresentation and misinformation from the major world media outlets which have neglected and in many cases lied or at best remained silent about the plight and the suffering of the people in Gaza.

It's peaceful endeavors like this and the heroic and courageous efforts of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla that show us the beauty and unity of the human spirit and that divisions are only created by a few to meet their evil agendas but these divisions are not meant to be and they will be broken down.

It's voices like yours Roger that bring down the prison walls and artificial divisions, you have helped do that before in Berlin when its wall was taken down. The truth will set us all free. Yes, we shall overcome, justice always prevails, history has shown us this and will show us again.

Thank you Roger and may the voices of truth and morality prevail and unite us all for the common good of humanity.

Below is what Roger wrote in the description of the above video:

"Over the new year 2009-2010, an international group of 1500 men and women from 42 nations went to Egypt to join a Freedom March to Gaza. They did this to protest the current blockade of Gaza. To protest the fact that the people of Gaza live in a virtual prison. To protest the fact that a year after the terror attack by Israeli armed forces destroyed most of their homes, hospitals, schools, and other public buildings, they have no possibility to rebuild because their borders are closed. The would be Freedom Marchers wanted to peacefully draw attention to the predicament of the Palestinian population of Gaza. The Egyptian government, (funded to the tune of $2.1 billion a year, by us, the US tax payers), would not allow the marchers to approach Gaza. How lame is that? And how predictable! I live in the USA and during this time Dec 25th 2009-Jan3rd 2010 I saw no reference to Gaza or the Freedom March or the multi national protesters gathered there. Anyway I was moved, in the circumstances, to record a new version of " We shall overcome". It seems appropriate.

Roger Waters

Many thanks to G.E Smith: lead guitar and Thor Jonsson, drum programming and whatever. Thanks guys!!!

PS. 3rd June 2010

And now piracy!!!!!!!

Inspiration ....... إلهام

Some videos that inspire,,,,,
Hamza Yusuf:

Nick Vujicic:

One of my favourite moments in the "Pursuit of Happyness":

Bloggers Against Hunger Campaign

Some facts from the World food program:

• Women not only cook food for their families, but also produce between 60 - 80% of food in developing nations.

• And yet, 60% of chronically hungry people are women and girls. We're asking people to send a message of solidarity at wfp.org/women

• This year, 60% of WFP beneficiaries will be women

• An extra year of education increases a girl's income by 10-20%

• Women produce 60 - 80% of food in developing nations

• When income is in the hands of the mother, the survival probability of a child increases by about 20 percent in Brazil.
  

• Experience shows that in the hands of women, food is far more likely to reach the mouths of needy children.

Get more facts at the WPF website, never underestimate your ability to help.

Did you know that by playing a simple online game called "Free Rice" you can feed the hungry at the same time? The game is very educational, it can improve your vocabulary and spelling. Try it:

WE WILL NOT GO DOWN (Song for Gaza)

Thank you Michael Heart for a wonderful song, God bless you. His website is here. You can download the above song (MP3) for free from Michael's site here.

Remember to donate to UNRWA and Islamic Relief or any charities that are helping the great and courageous people of Gaza.


This will be my last post ever, I will continue to leave the blog online. Thank you for visiting my blog and also for everyone's support.

The lyrics of the song:

WE WILL NOT GO DOWN (Song for Gaza)
(Composed by Michael Heart)

A blinding flash of white light
Lit up the sky over Gaza tonight
People running for cover
Not knowing whether they’re dead or alive

They came with their tanks and their planes
With ravaging fiery flames
And nothing remains
Just a voice rising up in the smoky haze

We will not go down
In the night, without a fight
You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
But our spirit will never die
We will not go down
In Gaza tonight

Women and children alike
Murdered and massacred night after night
While the so-called leaders of countries afar
Debated on who’s wrong or right

But their powerless words were in vain
And the bombs fell down like acid rain
But through the tears and the blood and the pain
You can still hear that voice through the smoky haze

We will not go down
In the night, without a fight
You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
But our spirit will never die
We will not go down
In Gaza tonight

Sir Ken Robinson: Schools killing creativity?

Further to my post from May of this year about creativity and education, in which I posted Sir Ken Robinson's very funny and inspiring TED lecture on this subject (click here to see). I post below a recent two part interview of Ken Robinson by Riz Khan on Aljazeera English.
An excellent interview, I hope people of influence on Education in Libya are willing to learn a few points.
The problem with the Arab world generally speaking and specifically in Libya is that we are slow to pick up on modern educational methods.
Children are asked to cram enormous amounts of mostly useless information, which they will probably never benefit from, and are then asked to regurgitate it at the end of the year. This "information" is then quickly forgotten during the summer holidays and the flawed education cycle starts again the next so called "academic" year. This is true for almost all of the Arab countries.
The established Arab way of teaching is through indoctrination. Creativity is neither encouraged or rewarded. Teachers are poorly trained and the ones that do their jobs well are very poorly paid and are not encouraged to develop and maintain their skills. Our kids try to learn in a backward and harsh system in which their creativity at best is stifled or ridiculed.
The result, (leaving oil revenues aside) the entire Arab world has the lowest economical and scientific development contributions in the world, barring Sub-Saharan Africa.
Oil for me doesn't count, it's not hard earned money and it's a finite commodity, the real worth is in well educated, hard working, skilled and creative populations. In fact, oil has probably been more of a curse than a blessing. History will probably prove this.
Education is the key to future prosperity, and we are always behind. When our faulty system does produce people who are creative, intelligent and productive it's mostly due to their inherent talent not through the education they get, and the sad thing is the economical system is not geared to retain these people.
The people who end up being creative and productive tend to barely survive the system rather than being a product of it. And if they do survive it, they either go abroad to thrive or stay and die a slow intellectual and financial death. Look across the board, across all the Arab countries and you will see 22 very similar pictures. And I mean across all the Arab world, whether oil rich or not. In fact, ironically non-oil rich countries tend to do slightly better in comparison despite their very limited resources.
One example to prove that people can bring more prosperity than oil will ever do, is that Spain's GDP is more than that of the entire Arab world's combined GDP! 45 million people produce more than 300 million people, oil revenue included!!
I apologise if I sound harsh, I'm sure there are small exceptions in the system, but most studies and opinions on the Arab world are more harsher and critical. I sincerely wish things were better.
Unless the Arab world realises and tackles these challenges, the future of the whole region will be very bleak indeed.


Part 1:


Part2:


References:
1- The Arab World: Let the Numbers Speak! UNDP, 2002.
2- BBC News: Arab education 'falling behind', 22 Feb. 2008.

TED Lecture: Understanding and Thinking

Brilliant lecture by Jonathan Drori called "Why we don't understand as much as we think". I hope you enjoy it as much as I have, certainly makes you think, or should I say understand!

An Islamic History of Europe التاريخ الاسلامي في أوروبا

فيلم يروي تاريخ الإسلام في أوروبا و كيف ساهم الإسلام في التقدم العلمي و الثقافي الذي ينعم به الغرب الآن

Excellent documentary by the BBC, presented by the brilliant Rageh Omar (راجي عمر).
It tells the history of the Arab Muslim's presence in Andalusia and Europe, its Scientific/cultural influence and its tolerance at the height of Islamic progression. What struck me at the end of the documentary was the fact that the present day Spanish are slowly coming to terms with that important part of their history and are discovering and recognising how important that era was.
Rageh also said at the conclusion of the video that some cities around Spain are taking down monuments that celebrate the slaughter of Muslims and Jews, and are for the first time beginning to connect with their Muslim history and discovering "Convivencia" (spirit of coexistence) again.
In today's world we are all in desperate need for "la Convivencia". Andalusia's Scientific and cultural achievements are a true testament of what coexistence can achieve. Imagine what a better world this would be if once again like in Andalusia, Muslims, Jews and Christians can live together in harmony, justice, peace and respect.

NB: The above video contains Arabic subtitles.

Creativity vs Education (Ken Robinson)

A very funny and inspirational talk about creativity and education: "Do schools today kill creativity?" By Ken Robinson, "an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources".
You can find other TED lectures either on their official website: TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) or on the YouTube channel.
They are worth watching, they offer a fascinating look at some very important topics and all the lectures are from very intelligent and influential people. The video below contains Arabic subtitles only if you watch the video on the TED website, for some reason the embedded videos do not show Arabic as an option. If you want to watch it on the TED website click here.

A remarkable man indeed

Al-hajj الحج

It is that great time of the year again, Al hajj, may Allah bless the people who are performing it now and also bless the others who want to perform Al-hajj in the future.
May Allah make us all worthy of Al-hajj and make this journey of purification possible for all of us. We pray all our fellow Muslims Hajj is accepted and all to return safely to their homes.

لبيك اللهم لبيك، لبيك لا شريك لك لبيك، إن الحمد والنعمة لك والملك، لا شريك لك

I stand up for Your service, O God!
I stand up! I stand up! There is no partner with You!
I stand up for Your service!
Verily Yours is the praise, the beneficence,
and the dominion! There is no partner with You

The following video explains the whole process of Al-hajj in English: