Simple, Powerful

After two years, of pretending to be a blogger, I finally made myself sitdown to write another article so that my blog is actually a blog and not your one-article website.

I had/have alot of trouble finding inspiration to write about something so here goes.

We all can talk the talk. We love to talk! From politics, corruption to veena malik, mufti sahab, we all have something to say or opinions to lend.

However the essence of this article is to bring attention to the important question: "What can we do?"

Its my personal observation, but not a unique one, that although we can certainly talk, argue and debate about the reasons for our many problems, as Pakistanis we are united by the fact that we don't go to the very next level, and that is implementing the solutions to these problems. The same problems we chose to spend most of our times discussing.

You may bring to notice that we discuss problems such as the massive poverty and corruption the country is engulfed in, not to mention the war. And then you can rightfully ask: what can we do about these large scale problems if we are common citizens? How can we make any difference to these problems which require action on a national or international scale?

These are extremely discouraging questions but they are really good questions too. I have no intention of being your regular, obvious reminder: "little things/contributions can make a big difference." Someone has probably said that to you before. My real goal is to actually come up with a few ideas on what we actually CAN do. How can we make a little contribution?

I begin with two rules in mind:

1) the ideas should be easy to implement for anyone! They should not be things we do one day, but are unable to sustain the habit. Its the same concept as weight loss if you will. You need to make sustainable changes, dieting crazy for 2 weeks can be undone by 2 days of over-indulging when you can't bear starving any longer. Its been proved healthier and more efficient to make small but sustainable changes. Any ways rule number two.

2) My list can be completely wrong. Yes, firstly because I am making such a list for the first time so lack of experience, and secondly this list is one which I don't mind any criticism for. What I want to achieve is that we start talking and implementing solutions to our problems and start moving forward as a nation. So here it is:

Our country has such a large population, which causes a strain on our resources and possibly lead to the state of poverty. However, in our great numbers lies our miracle. We only need to make little changes on an individual level to cause a great impact since Pakistan has , the power of amplification.

Education is vital for our country. Literacy rates need to rise if we ever want to unite the two different view points we all feel exist within our country. One is that of the "educated", "liberals" and "moderates". The other is of the "religous extremists" ,"conservatives", "uneducated".

And surely we all sense that if all pakistanis had been to school, were fluent in our mother tongue as well as english, had been to debates, could understand what is written in "jungg" as well as BBC, CNN, there would not be so many conflicts or issues about things such as which political party is the least corrupt or was it right to kill Salman Taseer. I will not express any views as to what is the correct opinion about these issues , Im just indicating that if we all were educated, we might not argue so much about these controversies.

so the first thing we all can do is

1) educate a person. This may seem like an unsustainable long term commitment but think about it. Just educate one person. Or just make sure they get educated. It can be your maid's son, your driver, or a poor young servant. if you can't find anyone, donate enough for ONE person to an organization like TCF.

Money is obviously what you will need. We get enough on Eid, birthdays and other occasions to sponsor a regular primary education by just giving a small percentage away. If you do not have enough funds, ask your family and friends. But the main thing is, take the responsibility for a young pakistanis education. Take the duty of grooming an individual which benefits him/her and through that, your own country. So you don't need to get your own money or teach the person yourself neccessarily, all you need to do is to make it happen! And that is something we are all capable of.

2)

idea number 1) is a slightly long term investment idea. Idea number 2 should therefore suitably be something that makes a small but immediate difference.

Read a page of your Holy book every week. It will not take long, it takes 5 minutes to read a page. I think we too often say "im not so well informed about religious issues" and debates and arguements often reach points of "dude scholars are who will answer whether this is right" . The idea is to BECOME WELL INFORMED. Imagine 17 crore pakistanis all reading one page of translated Qur'an a week; understanding what the book we believe to be the word of God actually says. This small change can go a long way to eliminate the several differences in our nation due to religious misconceptions and wrong information. And if it does not have a huge impact, at the very least it benefits yourself as a person with more knowledge and wisdom.

3) keep a box, and collect 5 rupees in it everyday. You can afford to do that if you are reading this blog. 5*30 is 150. 150*12 is 1800 rupees. Multiply this number by say (assuming 25% Pakistanis can do this) 40,000,000(4 crores). 40,000,000*1800= 72,000,000,000. That is 7200 Crores of money/year which can really benefit any one who needs to be helped. This is money Pakistan can spend on ITSELF to improve itself if only a quarter of us give up 5 rupees everyday. Compared to a pepsi /or a cheap daily snack which costs more than this, its not much to give up. The difference is that by giving up 5 rupees a day that would have helped profit some company, you can gift a poor person 1800 rupees a year,an amount which say I may view as a weeks snacks, but for another person, its something which can really help ease problems. But the main idea is that if you actually take the intiative, and set aside a box for this purpose, you are more probable to collect and make your little contribution.

So there we have it, these might not be great ideas. Im sure , there being 170 million of us, some of us will come up with better ideas. As stated earlier, in our large numbers lies our power. I only wanted to start the chain. Please become both a leader and a follower in this cause.

inspiration for this article: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

What happens when an immoveable object meets an unstoppable force?

The question posed is quite the treat for the philiosophical mind. It can be pondered over.Hypothesis suggested.Then that word WHY appears in your head. That measly word. Use any adjective you like, it stays there. You proceed to disprove yourself not being able to decide whether to hate the annoying question or your own incapability to answer it. How you describe a question is quite imperative to whether you eventually answer it. You can call this one annoying, interesting, scientists might even curse the question saying that such things do not exist. Neither immoveable objects nor unstoppable forces. But what if?
I pose my favourite supposing question. I say God is an unstoppable force. And if He is God then he can certainly create an immoveable object. What would happen when these two entities meet? They are both imaginable entities in their own right. Yet it seems imagination is too small a place for both of them. Yes even imagination! The largest place known to man! It is like the room of requirement in the Harry Potter series. Your imagination can take any size you want. Anything is possible in your imagination. I can reach the peak of the everest over there. Eat my favourite food at all meal times. I can even get into Harvard. It is truly a heaven on earth. Not Dubai. Imagination is the real heaven on earth. And I have just proved how easy it is to deviate and digress when posed with a difficult question.
So what does happen when an unstoppeable force meetsa more than stubborn object; An immoveable one. Consider the concept of inertia. Inertia is defined as a body's tendecy to resist changes in a state of rest or motion. The objects in the question both have infinite inertia. Only, it is of different types. One body wont stop moving. The other will not move no matter what you do. What if these two collide? Momentum can help us describe motion and predict collsions and their outcomes. How strange that I can safely and confidently predict the collision of two bodies. Both unstoppable forces( considering both the unstoppables as equals). And also say that two immoveable objects will ofcourse never bother each other. Yet I cannot apply the physcis I know or the physics I think I will have learnt in the years of education ahead when I try to collide an unstoppable force with an immoveable object. What will I get?A headache! That is the current conclusion based on research and observed evidence.
Enough of humor. This is bad! How can I not answer this question. Its maths, physics and it can be made into many more things. This question has so many dimensions.Its amazing. It feels like the apocalypse of questions. You can't reply to this question with another question(if you hope to answer it atleast). Any peers whom I have asked this question have shed no more light than reflected by their frowning fore heads. My physics teacher evaded the question with a smirk. A similiar response my maths teacher managed to show. In mathematics terms had I posed this question. He was lecturing how numbers divided by infinity result in zero and how number divided by zero result in infinity. I, treating infinity as an unstoppeable forceand the number zero as an immoveable object asked what is zero multiplied by infinity.A smirk. Oh cmon you fat..
Infinity multiplied by infinity is INFINITY. Zero multiplied by zero is ZERO.Multiplications treated as mathematic collsions.However if we consider the two equations that ANYNUMBER/Infinity=Zero and ANYNUMBER/Zero=Infinity, cross multiply in both, We get to the conclusion that Zero*Infinity=ANYNUMBER. The respective substitutions give you the result that When an immoveable object meets an unstoppeable force, what can happen? ANYTHING. Hardly the answer I had expected or was looking for. Yet I learnt not to expect anything expectable on this little philosophical journey of mine.
I proceeded to search on the internet. I found many ridiculous answers, denials rather than real answers. People were more concernedwith stating that such quantities and phenomenon do not exist. One answer however was given in a humorous note by a person. She said simply,that the unstoppable force gets a hole punched in it and proceeds.Interesting! She might have been joking but she succeeded in thinking and I believe she possesesan extra touch of grey matter. This doughnut theory is still fundamentally flawed. It in essence awards the victory to the immoveable object as anyportion of the unstoppeable force that meets the object gets "stopped" thus making the hole in the doughnut. Wow, Im sure I will beat Thomas Edison at finding more number of ways of not succeeding at something.
A different sort of idea and situation which came to mind was that of religion. Religous beliefs are in many cases immoveable objects. That is essentially why the word dogma is used to describe it. Most of you reading this follow the religion which has been followed by your parents and their parents. And Im sure all of you believe whole heartedly you are on the right path. Now it must be agreed upon how as we all understand our own religions best, most arguements, if not all, that question the basis of our beliefs are disbanded by us. Are we all magically on the straight path, albeit different ones, or are our hearts stubborn? Why can I without having complete knowledge of my holy book, the Qur'an, assure any of my atheist readers that I will not be convinced to believe that there is no God no matter how hard they try. Simply, my belief is my immoveable object. I may have seen proof of God, but the atheist has "seen" proof of His absence too, and we are both standing half way in concrete( consider that an immoveable situation :-). However, many of you might be wondering now about converts, Aren't they the answer to my question. Hasn't there belief changed, there immoveable object moved? Rebuttal ? Yes! For example if they converted to Islam, then their beliefs were never immoveable in the first place, and Islam was the unstoppable force that moved them. And Islam which proved to be an unstoppable force to them, is my immoveable object too! What a wonderful thing, something which cannot be moved, but cannot be stopped either! I love being a muslim! As do you being a christian, jew, buddhist, or atheist.
Another interesting concept which helped me shed some light on the situation were black holes. While viewing a video recommended to me by my mother of Professor and Physicist Michio Kaku, I listened to him describing what might happen when black holes meet. Black holes are extremely dense points of mass. They posess the strongest gravitational force in our universe, sucking all matter around them. For the sake of arguement they can be called the unstoppable forces in our universe. What is different is that black holes create attractive forces as opposed to in my question where the unstoppable force is heading for impact with the immoveable object. So what would happen when two unstoppeable "sucking" forces prey on each other. Which one will consume the other? Will they merge? Only time will tell, but in a billion years. However if it is correct that we end in 2012, remember to ask God. (unless you're an atheist :-) then there no hope for you at all :P