Monday, February 9, 2009

Exploring a Silk Trip

I have been staring at the world map lately and discovering countries I have never heard of before. Kyrgistan is my favorite.

I read few articles about recent travelers who followed the silk road, and then how much they learned and enjoyed the journey.

So I am exploring what it would take to follow the trail of Ibn Battouta and Marco Polo.

Here are my first notes about the trip:
- Unlike Ibn Battouta, I would need a lot of visas.
- Recent travelers observed that the silk road population is dominantly muslim and the experience is sometimes tricky as the locals may be reluctant to interact with Russians and Westerners, and a minimum of understanding of the muslim habits is important to avoid upsets.
I still did not encounter any documentation about a muslim silk road traveler.
- There are different alternative silk roads, some of these roads should be avoided at this time for security reasons. (e.g. Afghanistan, Georgia)

Do you know anybody who walked this path before?

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

A Proposal to the Arabs

It is well documented and understood that the best innovations happen at the time of crisis. Wars pushed to the extreme the human mind to think and create. The Arab world has been struggling since 1948 and has been losing it all. Where is the Arabic mind? What did the Arab mind create on the last 60 years? Who are the best doctors? Best journalists? Best engineers? Best students? Etc. The Arabs have a slim share on the “bests” club.

History is rich of examples where countries stood up after failures (Japan, Germany, Spain). Even today, we can learn from countries that are successfully emerging from poverty (e.g. China, India). The Indian family is proudest when the son is a famous surgeon; the Chinese kid spends most of his childhood preparing for the university exam, etc.

Do we really value education? How many books do we publish? How many movies do we produce? Who stopped us!

Do we really value hard work? Check the level of cheating and corruption at all levels? I remembered cheating on my high school exams. Everybody did. And I was a very good student.

Our problem is not only the Governments and the West. A big responsibility of the failure lies on you and me, on the people.

Instead of pointing finger to the west and blaming it for all the misfortunes, it is time for a serious and frank introspection. We should all do an open self-evaluation, and draw concrete conclusions, then change ourselves.
Here is a proposal. Tell me what you think:
1- Say: I lost. Feel embarrassed and accept the loss. (Loss of Palestine, Iraq,our situation, etc)
I am born in 1978. I am 30, and lost every single war, and there were a lot of them. I remember crying when Baghdad was invaded on 1991. I remember how I forgot 1991 then 19xx and 20xx and now 2009. Why did I forget? Because we never really lost, we were somehow persuaded that the real war is not over, or even that we actually won the war, or sometime that it is not our war.
It is time to say: “We lost!” , or rather “I lost!”
The simple fact of declaring the defeat is a mixed feeling. From one side, it will free us from the chronic feeling of agony, and on the other side, it will enable us to breath and look back.
2- Create your own Marshall Plan, or cultural revolution.
Do not rely on the west and the government. Spend time to think how to prepare your kids (in 30 years) to be the world best.
3- Become the best at whatever you are doing: Fill this statement:
“I will try my best to do ….”
Write in a piece of paper, and when you meet with your friends and family during every Eid, show off on how much you are contributing to the best.

We have been trying hard on manifestations and talks, and that failed too. Maybe it is time for a new approach, and if it fails, it is ok, we are used to defeat.