As promised, here is the continuation of the topic (check Part 1...)
Most Arabs believe changing your mind or beliefs is an example of deviousness. They bring up their children with the concept that a "Man is worth his word." I accept this saying when you give a promise to someone else... you should keep it. However, I oppose the extended application of this sentence which prevent an individual from changing their mind or beliefs to the better.
For example: The Baathi leaders, especially in Syria, believe that their ideas, that were developed in the 1960's, are still applicable today. They take pride in the belief that they never change their stand point. That their old beliefs are still firm and strong. Everyone around them have changed their standpoint but not them. They are proud of this stand. While, in my opinion, these leaders are committing a crime against themselves as well as their people. They did not learn from History or Politics. They are not willing to learn to change. They cannot comprehend that they did not achieve their objectives (their land is still occupied, freedom was not achieved, unity was not achieved and socialism is far fetched. These are the objectives of their regime!). Their people are suffering, and they left the country in a bad situation... Why? Why they are afraid of change? Why they are not ready to evolve their "culture"? Is it because they do not know how to learn? (again, check my definiton!)
Another Example: Some Moslems of today, espcially the fundemantalists, refuse to revisit ideas of their beliefs that were formulated at least 200 years ago (Yes. Check Islamic history. The fundematalist beliefs evolved many centuries after the death of the prophet! Check history my friend. They still refer to ideas and wisodm of individuals who died few centuries ago). They refuse to question any illogical concept that contradicts the saying of these elderly wisemen. They are afraid of facing a new realities if it contradicts a saysing by any of these old wise men. Why? Why they do not want to look at enriching the Islam to meet the challenges of new realities? is it because they do not know how to learn?
Yet another Example: In Lebanese politics, many leaders accuse other leaders that they change their mind based on new situations? (Please note that I do not refer to the hypocrites who change their mind for their personal gains... I am refering to leaders who are ready to meet the challenges of new political situation.) Why is this a mistake? Why shouldn't a leader change his mind when he discovers a better way or if politics of today dedictates a new mindframe? Why shouldn't Lebanese Forces partner with the Moslems? Why shouldn't the Moslem vote for the Christians? Is it because the Lebanese donot know how to learn?
These are questions I am leaving them for myself hoping to get an answer sometime in the future.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Do Arabs Learn?
Going back to learning. My definition of learning is "the process of converting information to knowledge", where knowledge is self generated information that we personify for ourselves. Based on this, do Arabs learn?
First, little philosophy: Learning does not happen at school only. In an ideal scenario, a person should be learning continuously. It should be a natural longlife process where whenever we get exposed to an information (which could be written, an experience, an interaction with other, or otherwise) we should reflect on this information and translate it to something that relates to us thus converting it to knowledge that pertains to us. This process is learning.
Ideally, this process should happen continuously as long as we live. Weirdly enough, I notice that most religions beleive that this is the essence of death! For example, the concept of the the purgatory in Christianity is an example where suffering leads to personal change (based on my definition of learning), similarly, in Islam, the period spent by believers in suffering after death is an example of a necessary change required to move to heaven. Obviously, the concept of reincarantion aligns with the same idea where change an evolvement happens after death. religions!
One obvious outcome of learning (again, according to my definition) is change, hopefully to a better self. Whenever learning happens, something in our character changes. In my opinion, a lifelong learner is someone who changes and evolves (or devolves?) whenever he or she is exposed to an new learning experience. In such an evironment, change in any form is virtue.
However, in the Arab culture (and yother world cultures as well) this did not happen in the last 300 years! To the contrary, it is basic to the Arab culture that change is a crime. In some cases, it is a capital punishment (fro example if an Arab discovers that opening a dialogue with an Israeli is a good idea, then, in most Arab coutnries, this person is considered a traitor that might lead to death!)
-- I have visitors now and have to leave... this will be continued later... sorry!-
First, little philosophy: Learning does not happen at school only. In an ideal scenario, a person should be learning continuously. It should be a natural longlife process where whenever we get exposed to an information (which could be written, an experience, an interaction with other, or otherwise) we should reflect on this information and translate it to something that relates to us thus converting it to knowledge that pertains to us. This process is learning.
Ideally, this process should happen continuously as long as we live. Weirdly enough, I notice that most religions beleive that this is the essence of death! For example, the concept of the the purgatory in Christianity is an example where suffering leads to personal change (based on my definition of learning), similarly, in Islam, the period spent by believers in suffering after death is an example of a necessary change required to move to heaven. Obviously, the concept of reincarantion aligns with the same idea where change an evolvement happens after death. religions!
One obvious outcome of learning (again, according to my definition) is change, hopefully to a better self. Whenever learning happens, something in our character changes. In my opinion, a lifelong learner is someone who changes and evolves (or devolves?) whenever he or she is exposed to an new learning experience. In such an evironment, change in any form is virtue.
However, in the Arab culture (and yother world cultures as well) this did not happen in the last 300 years! To the contrary, it is basic to the Arab culture that change is a crime. In some cases, it is a capital punishment (fro example if an Arab discovers that opening a dialogue with an Israeli is a good idea, then, in most Arab coutnries, this person is considered a traitor that might lead to death!)
-- I have visitors now and have to leave... this will be continued later... sorry!-
Trans-Paradigmatic
Yesterday, I faced a situation which showed me that I still have to work a lot to become a "trans-paradigmatic" person. This means, to become an individual who can understand individuals from different paradigms.
Etienne calls the paradigm: Learning Communities. This is a concept where he classifies individuals into groups who have common value sets, knowledgebase and experience. Individuals within the same learning community can understand each other with no problem. The vocubulary used has the same connotation to all. An individual from the outside who joins the community will face difficulty understanding the termonology used although it is common spoken language.
Uptill now, I though I was able to develop a width of understanding that would allow me to gel well with any learning community. My move to Canada was a great successful proof, at least for me, that I am able to do it. It worked well with the new Fort Mac community where I was able to fit so well with all its social strata. Even I was able to communicate and understand the aboriginal community although I have never been exposed to them except through movies. I was happy. Until yesterday when I had to perform a "conflict resolution" excercise with one of my employees... to discover, after 2 hours of discussion, I was not able to get to his paradigm... consequently, I was not part of his learning community. And this caused more conflict for me than any solutions... so, I still have to work on it.
When I analysed the situation... and I am still... I discovered that I had many influences from outside that made me inclined to be on a different paradigm... This eye opeener made me rethink about the decision triad... are they 4 actually? Or are the external influences part of the passion instigator? This will require further soul searching.
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Etienne calls the paradigm: Learning Communities. This is a concept where he classifies individuals into groups who have common value sets, knowledgebase and experience. Individuals within the same learning community can understand each other with no problem. The vocubulary used has the same connotation to all. An individual from the outside who joins the community will face difficulty understanding the termonology used although it is common spoken language.
Uptill now, I though I was able to develop a width of understanding that would allow me to gel well with any learning community. My move to Canada was a great successful proof, at least for me, that I am able to do it. It worked well with the new Fort Mac community where I was able to fit so well with all its social strata. Even I was able to communicate and understand the aboriginal community although I have never been exposed to them except through movies. I was happy. Until yesterday when I had to perform a "conflict resolution" excercise with one of my employees... to discover, after 2 hours of discussion, I was not able to get to his paradigm... consequently, I was not part of his learning community. And this caused more conflict for me than any solutions... so, I still have to work on it.
When I analysed the situation... and I am still... I discovered that I had many influences from outside that made me inclined to be on a different paradigm... This eye opeener made me rethink about the decision triad... are they 4 actually? Or are the external influences part of the passion instigator? This will require further soul searching.
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Wednesday, June 22, 2005
My Definition of Learning
[The below discussion is a philosophecal discussion that pertains to my beliefs]
To me, learning is the process of converting information to knowledge. Below is a clarification.
Information, is a meaningful data that is accessible to everybody. Examples of information would be written text, audible sentences, an experience that is observed, a feeling that touch us or any other instigation of our senses. Usually our brain process this information and store them in its memory space. This information could be retained in our memory or it could be forgotten.
Knowledge, on the other hand, is a an information that goes beyond the mere storage in the brain... it becomes an integral part of the person whether in the conscience or the subconscieous. It becomes a personified information that affects the individual-self and that relates to him or her only. For example, when you learn driving, you are told that you have to stop at the Stop sign. You can handle this information in one of two ways: either you will remember it and everytime you see the sign, you have to make the effort of stopping consciously (an if usually, if you are busy with something you would forget!) or the information will become part of your subconscious which becomes a natural reflex you do whenever you see the sign. The first case is merly information, while the second case is knowledge. Mostly, knowledge is constructed (i.e. rediscovered) by the individual... but this is another topic about constructivism...
Basically, information is public (accessible to everyone) while knowledge is private that relates to the individual. When a person expresses knoweldge thorugh any medium (written, oral or otherwise), the knowledge become transmitted to the the other person as information. The recepient either take it as information (consequently store it in the memory) or personalize it to make his or her individual knowledge.
Teaching is the act of transmit knowledge to another individual. The other indivdual will either store as information in the memory (thus we have route learning) or s/he will interact with the information moulding it previous knoweldge to create a new knowledge thus evolving into a newer personal reality (thus learning takes place.)
So, learning is the process of converting information to knowledge.
Examples will follow in another blog applying this concept to teaching and learning... that is if I remember!
To me, learning is the process of converting information to knowledge. Below is a clarification.
Information, is a meaningful data that is accessible to everybody. Examples of information would be written text, audible sentences, an experience that is observed, a feeling that touch us or any other instigation of our senses. Usually our brain process this information and store them in its memory space. This information could be retained in our memory or it could be forgotten.
Knowledge, on the other hand, is a an information that goes beyond the mere storage in the brain... it becomes an integral part of the person whether in the conscience or the subconscieous. It becomes a personified information that affects the individual-self and that relates to him or her only. For example, when you learn driving, you are told that you have to stop at the Stop sign. You can handle this information in one of two ways: either you will remember it and everytime you see the sign, you have to make the effort of stopping consciously (an if usually, if you are busy with something you would forget!) or the information will become part of your subconscious which becomes a natural reflex you do whenever you see the sign. The first case is merly information, while the second case is knowledge. Mostly, knowledge is constructed (i.e. rediscovered) by the individual... but this is another topic about constructivism...
Basically, information is public (accessible to everyone) while knowledge is private that relates to the individual. When a person expresses knoweldge thorugh any medium (written, oral or otherwise), the knowledge become transmitted to the the other person as information. The recepient either take it as information (consequently store it in the memory) or personalize it to make his or her individual knowledge.
Teaching is the act of transmit knowledge to another individual. The other indivdual will either store as information in the memory (thus we have route learning) or s/he will interact with the information moulding it previous knoweldge to create a new knowledge thus evolving into a newer personal reality (thus learning takes place.)
So, learning is the process of converting information to knowledge.
Examples will follow in another blog applying this concept to teaching and learning... that is if I remember!
GMA - How Do I see him Today
GMA is the internet name for General Michel Aoun... Today, I was reading about him and felt I need to write down what I felt today... I might change my mind tomorrow... which is a sign of evolution... but today, this is what I feel:
GMA is still living in the "independance" paradigm. He did not elevate to the "interdependance" level (check Steven Covey arguments.) The "independance" is much better than "dependance" but worse than "interdependance."
GMA creates enemies with those who disagree with him even if they agree with 80% of his line of thought... he needs to evolve to make alies with enemies based on the common things they agree on...
He rejected the offerings of Junmblat and Hariri although the 3 of them agree on 90% of the principles... while he made aliances with Franjieh and Al Mur (who traditionally disagree with GMA physical presence in Lebanon) simply because they declared that they agree on all his program... Every one in Lebanon knows this is not true... How can Franjieh create a new Lebanon if he braggs about being representative of Zgharta dominion only rather than a nationalestic representative? I cannot understand it... How can Al Murr agree on Lebanese reforms if he considers Al Maten his small empire? I do not know... GMA wants to have a nation wide multisectarian representation while he aligns himself with religeously driven, small circle infleuncial players and he fights those who created alliances with different "old time enemies" from all sects, religeons and geographic locations... I cannot understand...
So, GMA is one of two things: either he is naive and he is driven by his passion (see my Triad blog) which makes other deceptiv players manipulate him or he is machiavellan who aligns himself with any one who "bluffs" him on obedience... which makes him another dictator (like his old protege Saddam)...
As of today, with Lebanon emerging into the "interdependance" dawn... (see my other weblog), I see GMA is an obstruction rather than a solution... As I said... I might change my mnd because my history with Lebanon made me change my stand point a lot...
What do you think?
GMA is still living in the "independance" paradigm. He did not elevate to the "interdependance" level (check Steven Covey arguments.) The "independance" is much better than "dependance" but worse than "interdependance."
GMA creates enemies with those who disagree with him even if they agree with 80% of his line of thought... he needs to evolve to make alies with enemies based on the common things they agree on...
He rejected the offerings of Junmblat and Hariri although the 3 of them agree on 90% of the principles... while he made aliances with Franjieh and Al Mur (who traditionally disagree with GMA physical presence in Lebanon) simply because they declared that they agree on all his program... Every one in Lebanon knows this is not true... How can Franjieh create a new Lebanon if he braggs about being representative of Zgharta dominion only rather than a nationalestic representative? I cannot understand it... How can Al Murr agree on Lebanese reforms if he considers Al Maten his small empire? I do not know... GMA wants to have a nation wide multisectarian representation while he aligns himself with religeously driven, small circle infleuncial players and he fights those who created alliances with different "old time enemies" from all sects, religeons and geographic locations... I cannot understand...
So, GMA is one of two things: either he is naive and he is driven by his passion (see my Triad blog) which makes other deceptiv players manipulate him or he is machiavellan who aligns himself with any one who "bluffs" him on obedience... which makes him another dictator (like his old protege Saddam)...
As of today, with Lebanon emerging into the "interdependance" dawn... (see my other weblog), I see GMA is an obstruction rather than a solution... As I said... I might change my mnd because my history with Lebanon made me change my stand point a lot...
What do you think?
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Ideation and the Deception of Intelligence
Ideation... is one type of talent very few people posses... it is a talent owned by a person who thinks... whose brain generate ideas as the speed of thought... ideas here and ideas there... a certain situation creates multitude of probababilities....
Ideation is the core talent required for creativity, lateral thinking, logical analysis, high IQ, problem solving, and few thousand other virtues... we are brought up with the concepts that we should all have these virtues for success... or should we? Buckigham in his book: "Now Discover your Strength!" has identified ideation as one of the 34 talents. Since every a person would have 5 dominant talents, rough calculation suggests that 1 in every 170 persons around us has this ideation talent... this means, on a globe of 4 Billion people, at least 23 Million have ideation as their talent...
Here is my point: ideation without thought control becomes hindrance... in one scenario, an ideation person can be creative in creating problems rather than solutions (this is tagged as a negative person!). In another possibility, an ideation person might create a virtual reality that superseeds real reality (tagged as dreamer!) In a third scenario, which is an extreme case, an ideation person might live the virtual world created by his ideas... which many might call schizophrenic. A person who believes in the "conspiracy theory" is an ideation person whose brain can link together coincidences, relate them to actual facts then conclude that these concidences are based on a well plotted scheme... I can give a lot of negative examples of applying ideation (email me if you want a complete list!)... In all these cases, the ideation person genuinly believes he or she is living in the real world. An excellent demonstration of this fact has been portrait in the 4 Oscars winner movie "A Beautiful Mind"....
As you can see, the misuse of a virteous talent can lead to a deceptve intelligence!
In my opinion, and experience, the only way to make ideation work for you would be to learn to practice to "shut down" your brains just in time to avoid getting into the negativity realm (again, watch Beautiful Minds to see an example)... to do this, you need to learn the basics of meditation (in any form). Meditation, for me, is the excercise of controling your thought. It is a practice to discover that you, as a human being, have a higher (maybe a lower?) thought reality that you need to bring forward to control the conceived thoughts...
The simplest meditation excercie to control your thougt would be to focus one thought (it could be an idea, a sound youmake, a seen you see, anything... you choose).... when you are doing that, your thoughts will deviate you to other idea (usually a problem on your mind... this is normal)...once you recognize that, refocus on the original thought. ... practicing this excercise for a while, will give you the consciousness to control your thought and make focus on the positive ideation and not the negative... There are many other different techniques that are popularly practiced (TM, Yoga, Ziker, etc...) that would be as effective... it is yor choice....
Am I making sense? Tell me.... more tocome later.
Ideation is the core talent required for creativity, lateral thinking, logical analysis, high IQ, problem solving, and few thousand other virtues... we are brought up with the concepts that we should all have these virtues for success... or should we? Buckigham in his book: "Now Discover your Strength!" has identified ideation as one of the 34 talents. Since every a person would have 5 dominant talents, rough calculation suggests that 1 in every 170 persons around us has this ideation talent... this means, on a globe of 4 Billion people, at least 23 Million have ideation as their talent...
Here is my point: ideation without thought control becomes hindrance... in one scenario, an ideation person can be creative in creating problems rather than solutions (this is tagged as a negative person!). In another possibility, an ideation person might create a virtual reality that superseeds real reality (tagged as dreamer!) In a third scenario, which is an extreme case, an ideation person might live the virtual world created by his ideas... which many might call schizophrenic. A person who believes in the "conspiracy theory" is an ideation person whose brain can link together coincidences, relate them to actual facts then conclude that these concidences are based on a well plotted scheme... I can give a lot of negative examples of applying ideation (email me if you want a complete list!)... In all these cases, the ideation person genuinly believes he or she is living in the real world. An excellent demonstration of this fact has been portrait in the 4 Oscars winner movie "A Beautiful Mind"....
As you can see, the misuse of a virteous talent can lead to a deceptve intelligence!
In my opinion, and experience, the only way to make ideation work for you would be to learn to practice to "shut down" your brains just in time to avoid getting into the negativity realm (again, watch Beautiful Minds to see an example)... to do this, you need to learn the basics of meditation (in any form). Meditation, for me, is the excercise of controling your thought. It is a practice to discover that you, as a human being, have a higher (maybe a lower?) thought reality that you need to bring forward to control the conceived thoughts...
The simplest meditation excercie to control your thougt would be to focus one thought (it could be an idea, a sound youmake, a seen you see, anything... you choose).... when you are doing that, your thoughts will deviate you to other idea (usually a problem on your mind... this is normal)...once you recognize that, refocus on the original thought. ... practicing this excercise for a while, will give you the consciousness to control your thought and make focus on the positive ideation and not the negative... There are many other different techniques that are popularly practiced (TM, Yoga, Ziker, etc...) that would be as effective... it is yor choice....
Am I making sense? Tell me.... more tocome later.
The Elections
For the last few days, I was following on the elections in Lebanon. It was a thriliing experience. Seeing my fellow Lebanese going to vote... Here are some thoughts that came to my mind:
1- It is energising to find out that a new leader, Saad Al Hariri, emerged so quickly to lead a huge portion of Lebanese so swiftly... Brilliantly, he mobelized, the otherwise "politically lazy*" sunnis all over Leabanon to go and vote... At the same time, attracted the otherwise "politically cautious-to-cooperate with moslems" christinas ... If you re-listen to his speeches, announcements and motivation instigations... you discover that he never used "sunni" vocabulary to agitate suni "3asabiah"... or religeous instigations... To the contrary, he even made them vote for their "all time enemies" like Lebanese Forces and Kataeb... to me, this is a dawn of a good leadership... Is it him or the advisors around him... no one knows...
2- Saad, or Sheikh Saad, has one sin: he is young, which means Lebanese politics might change him to become an "old lebanese mota3aseb"... I pray not! He has one virtue: he is young, which means if he keeps this atitude and thought line, he can take Lebanon to new levels... . Up till now, he showed more maturity than the other young Lebanese leaders who inhereted leadership from their parents (like Sleiman Franjieh, Talal Irsalan, Farid Al Khazen, Walid Junblat in his early days, Pieer Eljumail, etc...) He used the right diplomatic vocubulary, he avoided alienating the enemy, he was talking about choices and not fears, he acted swiftly when it is needed to defend his position, he retracted when retract was wisdom. Till now, it shows that he chooses his battles wisely (for example, he did not retaliate when Hezbullah did not vote for his list in Beirut!)... Is it him or his advisors... I do not know...
3- General Aoun is another story... He excels in driving my feeling from one side to the other... Once, he made me hate him (when he bombarded my neighbourhood and mercilessly killed many inncent people because he thought he is right and everybody else are wrong), at another time, he made me proud being a Lebanese (when he mobilized the Lebanese youth against the Syrians for the last 15 years!) at others, he made me feel he is disgusting when he uses wrong machiavellan tactics to reach his aims... At first, I felt he had a real nationalestic program... which I fully support... at other time, I am convinced he aims at power and he is ready to change his program just to get to the "chair." Now, I feel he is the 70 years old little bully who fights you in the school yard simply because he wants to bully around... when he has strong buddies, he aims at the strong student... if he is on his own, he goes to the week one... and only for one reason... to release his self anger which he does not know how to release except by hurting others... Or is it Alzheimers... I do not know....
4- General Aoun has a basic problem: he thinks he knows all and there is only one truth, which is his truth... and that others are not allowed to have fears, opinions, insecurities and beliefs... this is a dangerous paradigm... this is what most dictators believe... General Aoun, although claims he believes in democracydoes not bow to democracy... when he wins the elections with 30,000 votes... he is a hero and the Lebanese can make the right choices... but when he loses the election, he accuses the 100,000 Lebanese who did not vote for him as ignorants... illiterates... driven by 3asabiah and religeon... and that his lose is victory although he allied with the enemy that his program... this reminds me of Saddam... Saddam always thought he knows the truth for his people... when he lost "the mother of all the battles" he considered himself the winner!... is there a similarity? Is this why Aoun aligned himself with Saddam in the late 80's? Is this concidence or is it a trend? Is Aoun a "demilitarized" Saddam? I do not know...
more later...
1- It is energising to find out that a new leader, Saad Al Hariri, emerged so quickly to lead a huge portion of Lebanese so swiftly... Brilliantly, he mobelized, the otherwise "politically lazy*" sunnis all over Leabanon to go and vote... At the same time, attracted the otherwise "politically cautious-to-cooperate with moslems" christinas ... If you re-listen to his speeches, announcements and motivation instigations... you discover that he never used "sunni" vocabulary to agitate suni "3asabiah"... or religeous instigations... To the contrary, he even made them vote for their "all time enemies" like Lebanese Forces and Kataeb... to me, this is a dawn of a good leadership... Is it him or the advisors around him... no one knows...
2- Saad, or Sheikh Saad, has one sin: he is young, which means Lebanese politics might change him to become an "old lebanese mota3aseb"... I pray not! He has one virtue: he is young, which means if he keeps this atitude and thought line, he can take Lebanon to new levels... . Up till now, he showed more maturity than the other young Lebanese leaders who inhereted leadership from their parents (like Sleiman Franjieh, Talal Irsalan, Farid Al Khazen, Walid Junblat in his early days, Pieer Eljumail, etc...) He used the right diplomatic vocubulary, he avoided alienating the enemy, he was talking about choices and not fears, he acted swiftly when it is needed to defend his position, he retracted when retract was wisdom. Till now, it shows that he chooses his battles wisely (for example, he did not retaliate when Hezbullah did not vote for his list in Beirut!)... Is it him or his advisors... I do not know...
3- General Aoun is another story... He excels in driving my feeling from one side to the other... Once, he made me hate him (when he bombarded my neighbourhood and mercilessly killed many inncent people because he thought he is right and everybody else are wrong), at another time, he made me proud being a Lebanese (when he mobilized the Lebanese youth against the Syrians for the last 15 years!) at others, he made me feel he is disgusting when he uses wrong machiavellan tactics to reach his aims... At first, I felt he had a real nationalestic program... which I fully support... at other time, I am convinced he aims at power and he is ready to change his program just to get to the "chair." Now, I feel he is the 70 years old little bully who fights you in the school yard simply because he wants to bully around... when he has strong buddies, he aims at the strong student... if he is on his own, he goes to the week one... and only for one reason... to release his self anger which he does not know how to release except by hurting others... Or is it Alzheimers... I do not know....
4- General Aoun has a basic problem: he thinks he knows all and there is only one truth, which is his truth... and that others are not allowed to have fears, opinions, insecurities and beliefs... this is a dangerous paradigm... this is what most dictators believe... General Aoun, although claims he believes in democracydoes not bow to democracy... when he wins the elections with 30,000 votes... he is a hero and the Lebanese can make the right choices... but when he loses the election, he accuses the 100,000 Lebanese who did not vote for him as ignorants... illiterates... driven by 3asabiah and religeon... and that his lose is victory although he allied with the enemy that his program... this reminds me of Saddam... Saddam always thought he knows the truth for his people... when he lost "the mother of all the battles" he considered himself the winner!... is there a similarity? Is this why Aoun aligned himself with Saddam in the late 80's? Is this concidence or is it a trend? Is Aoun a "demilitarized" Saddam? I do not know...
more later...
Friday, June 10, 2005
Law in Canada Part 2
I just attended a "Safety Workshop"... it talked about safety at the work place... it was very informative... I learnt quiet a lot... one thing shocked me: As a manager, I am supposed to hold a 5 min meeting every morning with all my team, everyday, for the whole year, just to remind them about safety... Working with computer, I have to remind them that if they fall off the chair or trip over a mouse cord, is hazardous... if I do not do that and someone trips over his chair I will go to jail... yes to jail... If I do it... I am off the hook... This is the Law...
My solution: I am sending an automated email everymorning... I hope no one chokes with my emails... I might go to jail! What is incredible is that it is being done religeously all over Canada... is it because the lawmakers think Canadian forget stuff easily??
My solution: I am sending an automated email everymorning... I hope no one chokes with my emails... I might go to jail! What is incredible is that it is being done religeously all over Canada... is it because the lawmakers think Canadian forget stuff easily??
Law in Canada
An interesting experience I faced recently here... a dealing with a lawyer... We just purchased a house and part of the regulation is to consult a lawyer... we felt good about it because we felt we will have some one to protect our interest... we understood this would coast us $2000 but felt it is worth it... However...
After frustrating delays... we had a chance to meet him... he gave us 15 min... he is so busy.... he had a big pile of papers in front of him... he wanted us to sign them all... the first paper we had to sign said something like "I, the lawyer, do not hold any responsibility for representing you..." Ouch... the next one, he summarized the whole document in less than 10 sec.. he sounded like those who run auctions... I think it is a course lawyers should take... the documents listed set of modofication to our contract... when I asked the lawyer... should I sign it? He said... "I cannot tell you... it is up to you"... I asked for advise, he said "Sorry, I cannot advise you..." I asked him, is it for my advantage, he replied, "I cannot answer this", I told him that you represent me... should I sign it he replied: "You are wasting your time, if I do not finish all the papers in the next 9 minutes, your purchase will be delayed... so either sign or forget about buying the house... He was not ready to represent me... all he did was practically talk like an auctioneer and put an "x" where I am supposed to sign... and I signed... I can do that without a lawyer... I do not know why the regulation requires a lawyer... I practically lost $2000 for nothing... I could have signed the papers myself (an I can ask my son to put the "x"') since this lawyer did not change anything...
One week after that, still he did not finish our paperwork... not only that, he is charging us $50 per day for the delay he is making...
In my opinion, this is organized theft... but this is the new way of the "law"... and there is nothing we can do...
After frustrating delays... we had a chance to meet him... he gave us 15 min... he is so busy.... he had a big pile of papers in front of him... he wanted us to sign them all... the first paper we had to sign said something like "I, the lawyer, do not hold any responsibility for representing you..." Ouch... the next one, he summarized the whole document in less than 10 sec.. he sounded like those who run auctions... I think it is a course lawyers should take... the documents listed set of modofication to our contract... when I asked the lawyer... should I sign it? He said... "I cannot tell you... it is up to you"... I asked for advise, he said "Sorry, I cannot advise you..." I asked him, is it for my advantage, he replied, "I cannot answer this", I told him that you represent me... should I sign it he replied: "You are wasting your time, if I do not finish all the papers in the next 9 minutes, your purchase will be delayed... so either sign or forget about buying the house... He was not ready to represent me... all he did was practically talk like an auctioneer and put an "x" where I am supposed to sign... and I signed... I can do that without a lawyer... I do not know why the regulation requires a lawyer... I practically lost $2000 for nothing... I could have signed the papers myself (an I can ask my son to put the "x"') since this lawyer did not change anything...
One week after that, still he did not finish our paperwork... not only that, he is charging us $50 per day for the delay he is making...
In my opinion, this is organized theft... but this is the new way of the "law"... and there is nothing we can do...
Tuesday, June 7, 2005
When will I do the leap?
This morning, I was thinking about the sturcutre of this weblog... I discovered I still have a lot of leaping to do to move to a newer learning paradigm... or as Etien calls it, new learning community...
I have a strong belief that "Organized Chaos" -- or what I call Google Way, -- is the new trend of living, thinking and working. This means, do not store items incategories, just throw them anywhere in any order, and use technology to sort them out, exactly like Google or Gmail do. The "structured approach" popularized by the Industrial society is becoming obsolete. I believe in that. It is part of my "knowledge"... yet I do not apply it... so it did not elevate to become applied knowledge-- i.e. Wisodm.
As a proof to this, is the structure of this weblog. Instead of having the ideas thrown in with no order and allowing the search engine to organize it, I still use cateogries to organize my thoughts... When will I do the leap? Days will tell!
If you are reading this, please comment on them and tell me I am not crazy!
I have a strong belief that "Organized Chaos" -- or what I call Google Way, -- is the new trend of living, thinking and working. This means, do not store items incategories, just throw them anywhere in any order, and use technology to sort them out, exactly like Google or Gmail do. The "structured approach" popularized by the Industrial society is becoming obsolete. I believe in that. It is part of my "knowledge"... yet I do not apply it... so it did not elevate to become applied knowledge-- i.e. Wisodm.
As a proof to this, is the structure of this weblog. Instead of having the ideas thrown in with no order and allowing the search engine to organize it, I still use cateogries to organize my thoughts... When will I do the leap? Days will tell!
If you are reading this, please comment on them and tell me I am not crazy!
Monday, June 6, 2005
Why Knowledgiate and Wisdom
In this space I will address some of my passion... learning is my passion... my own learning as well as the learning of others...
Classical Education define learning as the ability of retaining information. I consider learning the transformation of learning to knowlwdge... thus knowledgiate (bil libnani!) while Wisdom, in my opinion, is the application of knowledge in everyday situations...
So expect some wisdomw through applied knowledge...
Classical Education define learning as the ability of retaining information. I consider learning the transformation of learning to knowlwdge... thus knowledgiate (bil libnani!) while Wisdom, in my opinion, is the application of knowledge in everyday situations...
So expect some wisdomw through applied knowledge...
Why Canadieh
I am training to become Canadian. Almost two years passed since my family and I decided to become real Canadian. This is a massive mental leap that I am passing through... frankly, I am enjoying this metamorphosis... In this space, I will try to express what I pass through during this change. Canadieh is the Lebanese way of saying Canadians...
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