Understanding the real value of things !!!

To know the real value of 10- 20- or 30 years.... ask a couple who just divorced.

To know the value of 4 years.... ask a newly graduate student.

To know the value of 1 year.... ask a student who failed his end of year exams.

To know the value of an hour.... ask some lovers waiting to meet.

To know the value of a minute.... ask someone who just missed his train or airplane.

To know the value of a second or a fraction of a second.... ask an athlete who won the gold,bronze,or silver medal.

To know the true value of a friend.... lose one.

Iran's role in the world,

Are we, and I mean the US and our administration's strategy vis a vis Iran, are we playing the Iranian hand to it's fullest,? are we not offering the Iranians the whole Arab masses, and most of the Muslim world opinion ??
Just by playing the Israeli policies against Iran with no clear objective as to how we could win the Iranian situation we are loosing the whole middle eastern situation.
there is nowadays a clear sentiment with most Arabs that Iran is the only force against Israel, as well as the sole defender of the Arab and Muslim pride.
In the past days, The west and the US specifically, instead of pressuring for some sort of start to the solving of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, we saw the administration totally give in to Israeli refusal of even temporarily stoping the settlements , so in the eyes of most Arabs and Muslims, cultured or masses, the administration's inability to resume any meaningful solution to the conflict,thus recreating and resulting in the same feelings that only force can solve the problem.
The Iranian regime, is playing a masterful and a winning game, even if we manage to restrict it's ability to maneuver, through sanctions and other international forms of pressure, (I hope that the Israeli option of bombarding Iranian nuclear facilities is once and for all out of the picture).

No Arab or Muslim can in all fairness not think of the double standards of the west regarding the Iranian nuclear program and it's counter part the Israeli actual nuclear achievements and their weapon arsenals, so wether we curb Iran or not,it is becoming irrelevant, as we are already on the full path of helping to make them the defenders of the greatest cause of the Arabic people as well as all Islamic nations.
Shiism and Sunnism conflict, is becoming a conflict between the rulers and regimes of the Arab world and only in their heads, they are more and more being isolated from their own masses and we here refuse to see that, refuse to address and solve the greatest conflict,ie the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, that could give us such upper hands in all future middle east issues.
I fully agree with the notions that we ought not succumb to different forms of mid east linkages, and that both sides;ie the Palestinian and the Israelis should start by offering step by step concessions to reach a comprehensible and livable two state solution, I strongly believe that the US should have pressured the Israelis to start the process this time by firmly asking the Israeli side to start themselves the process of the first needed concession, we would have gained enormous Arab confidence, cut the game on Iran, and would have started a real peace prospect, instead we are now back to point zero and Iran is way ahead of us in the game.
Maybe it is high time we look at the conflicts in the greater middle east with an eye considering our own interests and not others who could surely turn against us any time our paths or interests diverge.

A president and a reality !!

When Mr. Obama was elected for office back in Nov. many Americans as well as people of most countries of the world had a vision-like image of what this president means as a great possibility for change, change of many issues America and the world was stuck with for decades, and the need for a radical change to the policies governing them.

To mention some and maybe the most meaningful issues, let me name health care reform, the Iraq pull-out or policy, the Afghan destiny and our handling of it, and as well the middle east Israeli/Palestinian problem. These were issues/policies the president had visions and campaign promises for. Of course the president inherited a full scale economical catastrophe and an almost total melt down of our American system and the international one as well.

Every one of his supporters, the writer as well, were calling for giving the man some time, as every realistic person would, and in fact he seems to be doing quite some difference on the economical scene in America and subsequently the world, even his words that it's a long way to total recovery are appreciated against a possible euphoria of his accomplishments to date, but here I want to caution of the actual approach to the other issues now facing us all. The issues I've mentioned earlier affecting local or international arenas, the problem lies with a president that is very eloquent, intelligent, and civilized in manners and politics, but unfortunately not as forceful or doer as most of us have wished him to be.

The handling of the present administration to most major issues facing us is so timid, unpractical and so dangerous to the issues themselves, that no interested person could or should ignore the way they're being handled.

The health care reforms are now half stripped and possibly more is on the way, giving the republican side more command and a bigger hand in stopping them all together, and that's dangerous to all of us who support implementing the reform package in its original promised form.

The Iraqi problem looks now more as a continuation of the previous administration's unfocused and wishywashy implementing of no policies at all, and that's very dangerous to the US in the region and the future Iraq and of course to the Iraqi people.

The Afghan problem seems so far now from nearing an intelligent end than at any moment since we got involved, there I would share the president's idea that it is the war we can not afford to loose or get away from. And in my opinion, we have no right to abandon the scene before we totally cripple the Islamic fanatics power in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It could be a very serious danger to America and the world to leave a wounded and half alive party of God as they like to think of themselves to come back and gain control of either or both countries.

Getting so far again from any practical vision or plan to start a meaningful peace momentum in the middle east, and caving almost totally to the Israeli way and interests, is putting the administration out of the game, or at least in a position where the actual status quo will prevail for a much longer time. The Arab side will loose confidence in this administration to try and get the conflict into even a semblance of a fair outcome, and this is very dangerous to the stability of the region and the world, especially if the Israeli side decide based on their renewed confidence of the American/Israeli partnership, to end Iran's nuclear facilities by force.

President Obama needs to start forcing his way into shaping his ideas and policies with more determination and if needed more arm twisting of some of his adversaries and allies as well. All successful presidents through American history, and in the world for that matter, had to sometime deviate a bit and work forcefully trying to implement right and just causes. Not doing so might show civic comportement, but not getting them implemented is damn dangerous to us all, as we could loose the issues themselves for good or for a long postponement at best.

A white house without the ability to effectively and decisively enforce their agenda and issues, is an institution without real effective power, and in regard to this administration, its president and its issues, this could be very dangerous.

A pure state of mind !

I would never trade my amazing friends, my exciting life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself, not that I was extremely demanding of myself through my youth, but I've become for sure my own friend, I don't come down on myself for eating a second helping , or for not making my bed, or for having that one more drink when I feel like it. I'm entitled to a treat, to be messy, and to all the extravaganza.

I have seen too many friends leave this world too soon, before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read, or listen to classical music until 4 am and sleep until noon ?? I will dance with myself to the wonderful tunes of my present life with total abandon if I choose to, despite the resentful glances from the others. They , too, will get old.

I'm so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my grooves on my face and my aching joints become a reminder of my little debauch and my forever youthful laughs. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could even turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive, you care less about what other people think.
I don't question myself anymore.
I've earned the right to be wrong.

So, and in my honest opinion, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I'm still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall have my evening drinks every single day , ( if I feel like it ).

May I always have that same big smile on my face and in my heart for ever and ever !! friends for ever !! salamat.

Authenticity and more.

Few days ago I came back from a trip to NY city that continued to Boston and it's neighbouring towns, as expected part of it was quiet and cultural, I mean by that lots of museums and galleries exhibiting all sorts of contemporary and classic paintings. An interesting observation though, after many days of this, and i should explain here that I'm talking about classical and mostly medieval works. The imagination of painters/artists was startling even when depicting serious and well documented scenes. I will explain myself by giving some examples, two different painters one Italian and the other representing a German school, painted La Piata, a known sculpture and theme, the surrounding Jerusalem, was a European typical paysage in both instances, with houses coming from middle ages Europe, the dresses as well, even the green pasture, another good example was when a Dutch painter decided to transport the french city of Lyon with it's cathedral and streets to the Mediterranean sea and it's waves, a third in Napoli with a Turk merchant in the harbor wearing everything Turkish including his turbans and moustache except his rather short skirt like an old roman war skirts showing his legs and knees, not Turkish or Muslim at all. Many more paintings depicted the Roman soldiers around the body of Jesus at the bottom of the cross in modern medieval armors and dresses, so was Mary and the rest of the group holding the body transported in time. Even ships at different known historic battles were transposed from different epochs. OK you get the picture. What bothers me with the whole affair is not the poor authenticity of the painters or their abundant imagination, we look at art more in terms of colour blending and details of drawing rather than historic facts, but think how many historians and writers of books ,stories, or even sacred books gave us through the times, images, scenes and ideas that were as colourful and imaginative as the painters/artists did in their paintings, themselves impressed by artists sometimes, or even less important sketches by less important painters some other times. It makes me wonder how accurate even some of the best historic books or some of the sacred texts are when written tens or even hundreds of years after the events took place. We do live, and in some instances greatly under the influences of many of these historical or theological ideas that were written and reedited many years after the events took place. Are we somehow diminishing our faculties and our cognitive minds accepting one aspect and ignoring the other, or looking at the same material with different eyes ??

Assessing oneself !!!!

Again, it's in my honest opinion. Every one of us should assess Himself/herself, in an honest way, and that shouldn't be too difficult nor impossible to reach within our actual intellect in our existence in today's world. Our knowledge ,social behaviour, or any form of interaction with others of our entourage, should give us enough thoughts and material to just stop for a moment and reconsider, we might often surprise ourselves with how mediocre and uneducated we could be about any subject, especially when interacting with others, anyone actually. This fact should with no hesitation drive us to some humility, or at least less pompous attitudes, less assertiveness, less stupid argumentation, and for sure less arrogance, the idea that one is not the most intelligent and learned ,should, and must give most of us a certain degree of humble behavior and acceptance that is necessary to make us better individuals. Somehow listening occasionally to others, whoever might they be, could be very enlightening, I believe we all think we do interact and listen fairly, but somehow we hardly do, and it's never enough. Salamat.

An idea for Afghanistan.

Is the united states, and all our Allies winning the war in Afghanistan?? I beleive The war against Taliban is dragging us into a non winnable situation, if the U.S popular sentiment changes we might have to cede the whole of Afghanistan to the Taliban. So let's imagine this different scenario. We offer the Taliban a part of the geographical land, it could be a quarter a third, even possibly a half, the U.S and the community of the world guarantees the independence of both sides /countries. Now a few conditions are de rigueur, first both sides can not have armies, only internal police, secondly allowing absolute freedom to all citizens or group of citizens or families or whole communities that would like to cross over and live permanently within the other sides, of course this would apply to both sides. One part would be a democratic and free (as much as can be expected) society, that we and the free world would help educate and prosper like any other country in the world, the other will be run I assume, under the ideas and principles of the new islamisation of certain societies, so let this part be run and managed by the Taliban, with firm guaranties by both sides to stop any outside hostile activity and not engage or help in any terrorists acts, the United States with the international community can better enforce and police both sides to ensure the respect of these rules. The general population will choose where to live , and will have a free choice to move anytime they so wish in the future.
Let the two models compete in all fairness, and let the world watch, I for one would be very interested to see how these two models could evolve, we might solve this growing islamisation wave, that is threatening our times and future.

Some sort of a modern sign !!

Don't we all deserve in our actual times a new sign from god, or call it a new message, a modern and up to date god's message. We are surely a more interesting population, more cultured all in all, more mindful, insightful, cognitive and accepting than most of our 2000-3000 years old ancestors.



So instead of just letting us argue and fight trying to make some sense of some 2000 years old primitive stories and metaphors that we doubt their authenticity and meaning anyways, don't we deserve that god, gods, or the whatever power, sends us a new intelligent, coherent,and compatible with our times message, book, son, or anything imaginative that could challenge and convince our intellect and our cognitive minds.



OH great something, !! I'm sure you can pull this one out for us, other wise we are surely justified in trying to reach our own conclusions by our own means.

credit cards,again and again !!

As expected, and because I've read an article just about that a week ago, I received a call from Chase today, advising me that they are raising my minimum payment on a fixed rate loan from the usual 2% to 5%, like many people my wife and I had a loan of about 13000$ which at the time a year ago they vividly encouraged us to go with them for a good rate of 3.99%, my last payment was in the amount of 273$ and now it will go to about 680$, I have a second loan with a different card lender, and I'm expecting them to follow suit, I might be able to meet those unproportional higher payments with difficulty or maybe not, but I'm sure many if not most people can not, what are you credit card companies doing ?? are you seriously trying to default most of your customers, or is it simply a revenge against all the people whom you seduced and begged originally to borrow your money, and where is your long term interest in making half your customers or most of the population stop using your cards and systems, I did try to relay this message to my Chase adviser, who insisted with sarcasm that Chase was actually doing me a favor by not increasing my rate but only my minimum monthly percentage payment. I still honestly can not see the advantage of the banks doing this, nor the benefits they are getting by defaulting and turning away many if not most of their customers, what's even worst, are our representatives, locally and federally, who keep bickering about politics and keep trying to fund those same banks, and not thinking about the minimum protection due to the people from those same banks. I'm sure bank managements have discussed these issues and decided to carry these measures, and I'm sure our representatives have heard as well of these grievances, that is if some of them were not hit themselves , could anyone please try and explain to me the logic behind what's happening in our system, and or how is it going to help our economy, the banks and the people of this country, thank you for listening and salamat.

what's salamat ??

You might have noticed I sometimes end my postings with the word salamat, I feel I should explain it, it is the plural of the word salam, meaning peace, the same word in Hebrew, shalom, and used as the word peace for many of us here in the states or around the world, especially younger people, so it could be used to say hi, hello, farewell, peace with a hand sign . I just use it in it's plural form, to say many hellos or see you later,or many bye bye, I thought I owe this explanation to some reading my comments, salamat.

uncle Walter !!!

Just listening to all of Walter Cronkite's stories and commentaries, can we imagine a person , involved everyday in such intensity, I don't see myself honestly in such a position on daily basis, think of presidents, or their advisers, think of Obama , living everyday, every hour, every minute as intensely as the situation might ask, and surely our times ask for every minute attention. WOW !!!! honestly at our level this is impressive , just a thought of how unengaged and free we are, and how critical and demanding we could be, salamat.

No particular title.

And I thought by now I would be reading tens or even hundreds of welcoming hello messages, maybe it is a solitary and lonely game.

Hello everyone, I'm new at this game.