This is an excellent comparison that anybody following events in the Middle East should read. Unfortunately I didn't save the link so the date maybe wrong. The Authors Name is Correct and I post it with the consent to use I found it with.
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By Imran Garda
Exactly 41 years ago to the day the great British philosopher Bertrand Russell died. Among the countless works that will continue to bring him posthumous recognition, are his various treatises on human psychology and the one thing he considered the principle driving force in social life - power.
As Hosni Mubarak addressed the millions of Egyptian people, marching, protesting, bursting with revolutionary fervour intent on seeing him vacate a Presidential seat he's occupied for 30 years, I pondered over what Russell would think of Mubarak, and his address, wherein he promised to step down - eventually.
Below are extracts from Russell's articles on political power and the book, "The Conquest of Happiness", offset with extracts of Mubarak's latest speech:
BR: The statesman who has gradually concentrated all power within himself in order that he may be able to carry out the high and noble aims which have led him to eschew comfort and enter the arena of public life, is amazed at the ingratitude of the people when they turn against him.
HM: "Those protests were transformed from a noble and civilised phenomenon of practising freedom of expression to unfortunate clashes, mobilised and controlled by political forces that wanted to escalate and worsen the situation. They targeted the nation's security and stability through acts of provocation theft and looting and setting fires and blocking roads and attacking vital installations and public and private properties and storming some diplomatic missions."
BR: It never occurs to him that his work may have had anything but a public motive, or that the pleasure of controlling affairs may have in any degree inspired his activities. The phrases which are customary on the platform and in the Party Press have gradually come to him to seem to express truths, and he mistakes the rhetoric of partisanship for a genuine analysis of motives.
HM: "I have never, ever been seeking power and the people know the difficult circumstances that I shouldered my responsibility and what I offered this country in war and peace, just as I am a man from the armed forces and it is not in my nature to betray the trust or give up my responsibilities and duties...Hosni Mubarak who speaks to you today is proud of the long years he spent in the service of Egypt and its people. This dear nation is my country, it is the country of all Egyptians, here I have lived and fought for its sake and I defended its land, its sovereignty and interests and on this land I will die and history will judge me and others for our merits and faults.
BR: Power, like vanity, is insatiable. Nothing short of omnipotence could satisfy it completely. And as it is especially the vice of energetic men, the causal efficacy of love of power is out of all proportion to its frequency. It is, indeed, by far the strongest motive in the lives of important men.
HM: "My primary responsibility now is security and independence of the nation to ensure a peaceful transfer of power in circumstances that protect Egypt and the Egyptians and allow handing over responsibility to whoever the people choose in the coming presidential election.”
BR: In any autocratic regime, the holders of power become increasingly tyrannical with experience of the delights that power can afford. Since power over human beings is shown in making them do what they would rather not do, the man who is actuated by love of power is more apt to inflict pain than to permit pleasure. If you ask your boss for leave of absence from the office on some legitimate occasion, his love of power will derive more satisfaction from a refusal than from a consent. If you require a building permit, the petty official concerned will obviously get more pleasure from saying 'No' than from saying 'Yes'. It is this sort of thing which makes the love of power such a dangerous motive.
HM: "I am now absolutely determined to finish my work for the nation in a way that ensures handing over its safe-keeping and banner ... preserving its legitimacy and respecting the constitution.
"I will work in the remaining months of my term to take the steps to ensure a peaceful transfer of power
"I will entrust the new government to perform in ways that will achieve the legitimate rights of the people and that its performance should express the people and their aspirations of political, social and economic reform and to allow job opportunities and combating poverty, realising social justice.
"I also demand the judicial and supervisory authorities to take immediately the necessary measures to continue pursuing outlaws and to investigate those who caused the security disarray and those who undertook acts of theft, looting and setting fires and terrorising citizens.
"This is my pledge to the people during the last remaining months of my current term: I ask God to help me to honour this pledge to complete my vocation to Egypt and its people in what satisfies God, the nation and its people”
BR: Disgusted and disillusioned, he retires from the world after the world has retired from him, and regrets that he ever attempted so thankless a task as the pursuit of the public good.
HM: "I say in all honesty and regardless of the current situation that I did not intend to nominate myself for a new presidential term. I have spent enough years of my life in the service of Egypt and its people.”
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
A Weekend of Dreams
As usual I start todays post with the same old excuse that I have not kept to my resolution of posting something everyday. This particular post was prompted by three straight nights of weird dreams and encouragement from a very warm and nice human being I met a few days ago.
It started after Friday I had been back at the half way home for a two weeks and was trying to complete the project I had undertaken for my office. I ran into a problem and try as I might couldn't debug what should have been very easy for me. Anyway that evening I was taking about this to one of the staff members, whom I met first in May last year when I came back here to the half way house after my last relapse. ( To think we hated each others guts with a vengeance at that time and strangely now are very close friends ) She pointed out that I shouldn't pursue any work that day and get some rest. I remember telling her that I just intend to spend not more than an hour that night and have a crack at it the next day. My intentions were to finish by the weekend so that I could go to to Colombo and present my output to my office and get a feed back on my efforts on Monday. So around 9 PM I thought I will target 10.30 PM as bedtime and switched on my Notebook. I worked for some time on the net looking for an answer and tried various search algorithms and got so many examples for what I should do but nothing worked. After sometime ( I believed I was at it for an hour or so ) I had to visit the loo and when I came back and looked at the time it was 1.30 AM!!!. I was stunned... I had not only spent over four hours on the Internet, not found a solution and didn't even know what time it was! I realized the folly of what I had done. This was something my friend had warned me about in the evening, and this was not the first time she had made this observation about my obsessive nature and the third person who had done so in as many months. I changed my idea of visiting Colombo the next week, deciding instead in spending one more week at the half way home, seek some assistance to resolving my problem and do it the following week after resting for couple of days without thinking about the project at all.
My best buddy had repeatedly advised me about taking up Yoga and I thought I would do so that day and and managed to lay my hand on a DVD of a Hatha Yoga routine for a beginner. I asked my friend, who also did Yoga instructions at the halfway home, to join me so that we would practice together and she could give me her input as to see how this might help me relax. It went as planned but I couldn't quite complete the entire 45 minutes but resolved that I would do so as a regular routine of my day from then on.
I watched the news, cheering the Egyptians as I saw the dramatic turn of events in Cairo and turned in around 10 PM. I did fall asleep pretty fast but I don't for how long it was before I was seeing images of all my dead relatives. I can't quite remember the circumstances in which they were associated in my dream but when I was startled with one particular image of an aircraft crash, my brother in law died in one, I woke up. I looked at the time it was 5.30 AM, my usual wake up time. I had not thought of any of my dead relatives for quite some time and I was pondering why I suddenly had to dream about them now. I was a bit perturbed as it had been after quite sometime that I had such a vivid dream and with such clear images of these people. Even awake their memory is a haze unless I look at a photograph.
Anyway the next night I did go to bed around the same time and ended up with an even bizar dream. I was in the third story of an apartment with one of my old girl friends and she was frying an egg hopper ( A flour based Batter as the base ) on one burner of a cooker and frying another egg on the other both were sunny side up and I remember wondering why on earth she was frying two eggs this way at the same time. She looked very much her old self, pretty and sexy, not the person I had seen some time back when I thought and almost exclaimed in shock " Why on earth have you let this happen to you ? " but very much the attractive girl I had a short but memorable fling. I hear a voice from outside and lo behold its the Parents of another of my old flames. Somehow I understand that I am to bring down a set of keys and hand it over to them. One the Parents had died a long time ago but that fact didn't quite register. It turns out the only way down to the ground was a cement ladder attached to the wall with no handrails. For someone who doesn't venture six inches above the ground these days unless there is a hand rail and somebody to cling onto for dear life attempting this feat quite calmly even in the dream was pretty absurd and I was going down not facing the wall but seeing my feet below and looking at the ground making out the minescular figures a great distance away somehow in fine detail bravely cursing the Architect and the Mason for this absurdity in construction. I find myself on tera firma and in comes the next actor, and old Man Servant of mine. I had fired him long years ago, he is dead now, who takes the keys to park a vehicle, which I didn't notice in the scenery thus far and drives it into a garage. Incidentally this guy never had been behind a wheel of car and I didn't even own a vehicle when he was in my employment!
I am then up in a flash outside the third floor which mysteriously now has a grill shouting at my ex to let me in and a pussy cat in my hand. My ex is listening to some loud music singing and dancing her cares away. ( She wasn't good at either then and hadn't improved in my dream ) I am screaming my lungs out through the grill but there is no sound from my throat. I am suddenly in the apartment and my ex has vanished with the cat and a Resident of the half way House is eating a Mango from fruit basket that has appeared on a table that was not there before. This enrages me as I find a knife and plunge it repeatedly with such venom at this guy, ( and mind you I like this guy and he is one of the more sedate people in this mad house and I am genuinely fond of him ), and wake up gasping for breath sweating like hell. When I put on the light it's 5.45 AM. My covering sheet and the blanket on it are the ground, it was cold that night, and the mattress had moved away from the wall! To say I was disturbed is putting it very mildly. Anyway my mood improved as the day progressed. When I recounted this to my friend later it prompted a wry comment that this is why she keeps her distance from me when she sees my hands stretch out in her direction especially towards her neck voicing her concern about my intentions of doing her bodily harm no doubt. I don't quite blame her for feeling these sentiments considering the way I bully her regularly !
The day was uneventful otherwise. I was waiting for the information I wanted to help me with my project and pretty much lazed around all day. My trip to Singapore had been confirmed and I was looking forward to the visit of my Sister and Mother from Canada on the 6th of the month. I had company in the night, some music transfers had to done, and ready after checking in on Egypt to hit the sack. This was the third day of Yoga though I could't see any noticeable improvement I did begin to understand some of the reasons behind the Asanas or poses. I was happy that I was keeping to the schedule. I had also spoken to my Mother and was in a good mood. I had enjoyed the Company I had, it had been fun. I tuned on to my favorite Radio Station and drifted away to Brad Paisley crooning away in 5.1 surround sound in the distance. It must have been
around 10 PM ?
The feeling was out of this world and the sensations so real. I was getting a blow job of my life. I knew the person vaguely but had never thought of her in any physical sense let alone giving me head. As recorded in my book I am finely in tune with my body and it gets turned on every where, and I mean head to toe, when I am aroused especially with an accomplished partner. My orgasms are total body experiences and never restricted to my dick alone. In the few occasions I have had wet dreams it has been hard to distinguish between the reality and the dream till the actual ejaculational when semen streaming down your thighs wake you up. This was heaven !!!. The scene shifts abruptly and I curse as I find my self at the Sri Lankan Independence square which has been replicated with a deep square well in between the structures. The square has four lions at each corner and at the replicated one, on the main platform stands one of the Residents holding a mannequin getting ready to throw it down to the well between the structures. The mannequin is about five feet in length and looks heavy and this Resident is a four feet no inch Midget. I am also very fond of her as she of me, when she is in a good mood that is. She is extremely powerful and I can say that with authority as once in an display of affection she practically extracted my arms out of their sockets when she embraced me and pulled at my hands. The pain was so intense I thought I would pass out! So her brandishing a mannequin bigger than her and waving it around effortlessly didn't surprise me even in the dream. I wake up cursing the Dream Dispenser for changing the scenery in what would culminated beautifully for me with this rather insipid drama that was going on. It has been more than a month since I have had sex and I have been yearning to get back to one particular person who's absence has been occupying my mind and a wet dream would have been the best substitute for the real mcoy rather than the image of a gargoyle waving a mannequin however amusing in retrospect that might be. It was 4 AM and pretty early even by my standards. Cursing I grumble calming my throbbing dick and try to grab some sleep.
It seems like the intermission. I am sitting at a table on the platform of the square with the Captain of the Sri Lankan Cricket team being quizzed about the progress of my project while being served sandwiches by another Resident who had made same thing for a Residents birthday party a few days back, the colors of the sandwiches I was chomping are is the same as that day , Pink and Green, I look down and my favorite Midget is standing on the head of one of the Lions waving a fan similar to what Royalty used to keep their head cool in the days when we were ruled by Kings. ( I tried to find the English term for this apparatus in a search of the Internet and I couldn't. I did find the Sinhala word from the Staff here, it's " Chamara " but failed in finding the English translation for it. ) The mannequin had been dashed to the the ground smashed with blood all over the place especially around it's head !
I wonder what the fuck I am going to dream today ! Any dream interpreters out there I could use your help.
It started after Friday I had been back at the half way home for a two weeks and was trying to complete the project I had undertaken for my office. I ran into a problem and try as I might couldn't debug what should have been very easy for me. Anyway that evening I was taking about this to one of the staff members, whom I met first in May last year when I came back here to the half way house after my last relapse. ( To think we hated each others guts with a vengeance at that time and strangely now are very close friends ) She pointed out that I shouldn't pursue any work that day and get some rest. I remember telling her that I just intend to spend not more than an hour that night and have a crack at it the next day. My intentions were to finish by the weekend so that I could go to to Colombo and present my output to my office and get a feed back on my efforts on Monday. So around 9 PM I thought I will target 10.30 PM as bedtime and switched on my Notebook. I worked for some time on the net looking for an answer and tried various search algorithms and got so many examples for what I should do but nothing worked. After sometime ( I believed I was at it for an hour or so ) I had to visit the loo and when I came back and looked at the time it was 1.30 AM!!!. I was stunned... I had not only spent over four hours on the Internet, not found a solution and didn't even know what time it was! I realized the folly of what I had done. This was something my friend had warned me about in the evening, and this was not the first time she had made this observation about my obsessive nature and the third person who had done so in as many months. I changed my idea of visiting Colombo the next week, deciding instead in spending one more week at the half way home, seek some assistance to resolving my problem and do it the following week after resting for couple of days without thinking about the project at all.
My best buddy had repeatedly advised me about taking up Yoga and I thought I would do so that day and and managed to lay my hand on a DVD of a Hatha Yoga routine for a beginner. I asked my friend, who also did Yoga instructions at the halfway home, to join me so that we would practice together and she could give me her input as to see how this might help me relax. It went as planned but I couldn't quite complete the entire 45 minutes but resolved that I would do so as a regular routine of my day from then on.
I watched the news, cheering the Egyptians as I saw the dramatic turn of events in Cairo and turned in around 10 PM. I did fall asleep pretty fast but I don't for how long it was before I was seeing images of all my dead relatives. I can't quite remember the circumstances in which they were associated in my dream but when I was startled with one particular image of an aircraft crash, my brother in law died in one, I woke up. I looked at the time it was 5.30 AM, my usual wake up time. I had not thought of any of my dead relatives for quite some time and I was pondering why I suddenly had to dream about them now. I was a bit perturbed as it had been after quite sometime that I had such a vivid dream and with such clear images of these people. Even awake their memory is a haze unless I look at a photograph.
Anyway the next night I did go to bed around the same time and ended up with an even bizar dream. I was in the third story of an apartment with one of my old girl friends and she was frying an egg hopper ( A flour based Batter as the base ) on one burner of a cooker and frying another egg on the other both were sunny side up and I remember wondering why on earth she was frying two eggs this way at the same time. She looked very much her old self, pretty and sexy, not the person I had seen some time back when I thought and almost exclaimed in shock " Why on earth have you let this happen to you ? " but very much the attractive girl I had a short but memorable fling. I hear a voice from outside and lo behold its the Parents of another of my old flames. Somehow I understand that I am to bring down a set of keys and hand it over to them. One the Parents had died a long time ago but that fact didn't quite register. It turns out the only way down to the ground was a cement ladder attached to the wall with no handrails. For someone who doesn't venture six inches above the ground these days unless there is a hand rail and somebody to cling onto for dear life attempting this feat quite calmly even in the dream was pretty absurd and I was going down not facing the wall but seeing my feet below and looking at the ground making out the minescular figures a great distance away somehow in fine detail bravely cursing the Architect and the Mason for this absurdity in construction. I find myself on tera firma and in comes the next actor, and old Man Servant of mine. I had fired him long years ago, he is dead now, who takes the keys to park a vehicle, which I didn't notice in the scenery thus far and drives it into a garage. Incidentally this guy never had been behind a wheel of car and I didn't even own a vehicle when he was in my employment!
I am then up in a flash outside the third floor which mysteriously now has a grill shouting at my ex to let me in and a pussy cat in my hand. My ex is listening to some loud music singing and dancing her cares away. ( She wasn't good at either then and hadn't improved in my dream ) I am screaming my lungs out through the grill but there is no sound from my throat. I am suddenly in the apartment and my ex has vanished with the cat and a Resident of the half way House is eating a Mango from fruit basket that has appeared on a table that was not there before. This enrages me as I find a knife and plunge it repeatedly with such venom at this guy, ( and mind you I like this guy and he is one of the more sedate people in this mad house and I am genuinely fond of him ), and wake up gasping for breath sweating like hell. When I put on the light it's 5.45 AM. My covering sheet and the blanket on it are the ground, it was cold that night, and the mattress had moved away from the wall! To say I was disturbed is putting it very mildly. Anyway my mood improved as the day progressed. When I recounted this to my friend later it prompted a wry comment that this is why she keeps her distance from me when she sees my hands stretch out in her direction especially towards her neck voicing her concern about my intentions of doing her bodily harm no doubt. I don't quite blame her for feeling these sentiments considering the way I bully her regularly !
The day was uneventful otherwise. I was waiting for the information I wanted to help me with my project and pretty much lazed around all day. My trip to Singapore had been confirmed and I was looking forward to the visit of my Sister and Mother from Canada on the 6th of the month. I had company in the night, some music transfers had to done, and ready after checking in on Egypt to hit the sack. This was the third day of Yoga though I could't see any noticeable improvement I did begin to understand some of the reasons behind the Asanas or poses. I was happy that I was keeping to the schedule. I had also spoken to my Mother and was in a good mood. I had enjoyed the Company I had, it had been fun. I tuned on to my favorite Radio Station and drifted away to Brad Paisley crooning away in 5.1 surround sound in the distance. It must have been
around 10 PM ?
The feeling was out of this world and the sensations so real. I was getting a blow job of my life. I knew the person vaguely but had never thought of her in any physical sense let alone giving me head. As recorded in my book I am finely in tune with my body and it gets turned on every where, and I mean head to toe, when I am aroused especially with an accomplished partner. My orgasms are total body experiences and never restricted to my dick alone. In the few occasions I have had wet dreams it has been hard to distinguish between the reality and the dream till the actual ejaculational when semen streaming down your thighs wake you up. This was heaven !!!. The scene shifts abruptly and I curse as I find my self at the Sri Lankan Independence square which has been replicated with a deep square well in between the structures. The square has four lions at each corner and at the replicated one, on the main platform stands one of the Residents holding a mannequin getting ready to throw it down to the well between the structures. The mannequin is about five feet in length and looks heavy and this Resident is a four feet no inch Midget. I am also very fond of her as she of me, when she is in a good mood that is. She is extremely powerful and I can say that with authority as once in an display of affection she practically extracted my arms out of their sockets when she embraced me and pulled at my hands. The pain was so intense I thought I would pass out! So her brandishing a mannequin bigger than her and waving it around effortlessly didn't surprise me even in the dream. I wake up cursing the Dream Dispenser for changing the scenery in what would culminated beautifully for me with this rather insipid drama that was going on. It has been more than a month since I have had sex and I have been yearning to get back to one particular person who's absence has been occupying my mind and a wet dream would have been the best substitute for the real mcoy rather than the image of a gargoyle waving a mannequin however amusing in retrospect that might be. It was 4 AM and pretty early even by my standards. Cursing I grumble calming my throbbing dick and try to grab some sleep.
It seems like the intermission. I am sitting at a table on the platform of the square with the Captain of the Sri Lankan Cricket team being quizzed about the progress of my project while being served sandwiches by another Resident who had made same thing for a Residents birthday party a few days back, the colors of the sandwiches I was chomping are is the same as that day , Pink and Green, I look down and my favorite Midget is standing on the head of one of the Lions waving a fan similar to what Royalty used to keep their head cool in the days when we were ruled by Kings. ( I tried to find the English term for this apparatus in a search of the Internet and I couldn't. I did find the Sinhala word from the Staff here, it's " Chamara " but failed in finding the English translation for it. ) The mannequin had been dashed to the the ground smashed with blood all over the place especially around it's head !
I wonder what the fuck I am going to dream today ! Any dream interpreters out there I could use your help.
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