US Sanctions

Biden has a new wonder weapon…. sanctions are increasingly being used to promote American foreign policy goals. Yet all too often sanctions end up seriously damaging American and the economic interests of other countries without ever changing the target’s behavior for the better. Besides sanctions can really only be a sustainable method to conduct foreign policy if the sanctioner can some how manage to find a replacement for what has been sanctioned, but what if this cannot be done? There is after all only X hectares of arable land, Y reserves of fossil resources and Z oppurtunity in one calendar year……….. So at the end of the day. Where do all these sanctions lead too…… Who pays for it?

Now. No one. Or maybe not enough thoughtful folk seem to be asking this question about the undisclosed cost of sanctions. But winter is just around the corner. By the end of this year this question will grow so loud that it may even bring the whole house down.

Every religion has something good to offer

Islam recommends fasting which is good. Buddhism suggest reining in the ego, thats also good. Christians teach us the value of the truth and how it can set us free. So for one to restrict wisdom to only one religion has to be a form of myopia. But the worst form of short sighted has to be taking one’s religion too seriously. Besides what is seldom discussed – how serious could the maker have been when he made us?

Simple briyani

Russia vs West – who will win?

The question is not who will win? The question is simply this – can the west mitigate the Ukrainian fall out so that they lose small instead of big? Because we r already in lose / lose territory. To me. There is no win here. As the world is suddenly where it was before the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. So this means the Cold War is well and truly back along with the threat of a global nuclear war. To speak of winners and losers in the backdrop of a nuclear conflict is a bit like two ticks arguing over real estate when the dog is going to die tomorrow…….. So this to me is a form of madness. We don’t of course see it as that, but that’s only because it has been normalised by folk who simply don’t have an inkling of what’s lost against what’s gained to competently calculate expected pay outs against risk to derive a cummululative nett loss in real and opportunity cost.

I was very lucky

I gathered that working for others wasn’t my cup of tea very early on in life. So I devoted alot of time, money and effort into inventing a range of products that most sane people did not believe had any prospects of commercial success…. They were of course completely wrong. As a consequence of my inventions finding unexpected commercial success when I was still in my twenties. This not only gave me alot of confidence in my own capabilities (real, imagined and delusional) , but it also had the unintended effect of offering me many other opportunities in life that I wouldn’t have been avaliable to me if I was merely just another cookie cutter…. The moral of the story is this. When you are young – you must absolutely commit all of yourself into something meaningful. Because even if you just devote one year of your life out of an eighty year old lifespan to something great or uncommon and it happens to pay off handsomely, that one chapter of your life would color the rest of your lifetime……….. Today there is not a single commercial or military aircraft that doesn’t have one or two of my inventions. May not seem much to you, but to me, it was and still is everything and much more. Many ppl say money can’t buy happiness, but what these ppl don’t understand is if one has 10 problems and money can make 9 melt away, that in itself in all reasonableness has to be a form of happiness.

I have always found a place called home

Providing you are genuine about making organizational and personal progress and most importantly, you’re a sincere and honest soul. You will always find that doors will open for you. The most important thing about new beginnings is to NEVER allow past hurts and disappointments to haunt your new endeavours and to always believe – this time round. I will make it righter than right.

Worth trying

Hiking aall alone

It had nothing to do with striving to be a good team player or having the right attitude or being well versed in the right philosophies to perform it well.

Rather it had alot to do with the feeling of raw honesty that could have only come from being in the embrace of the wild……..like the feeling of being able to walk for hours with no reason other than to take in the trees, mountains, streams and rocks. The experience can only be described as powerfully silent and honest. As it seemed this was what it really meant to be alive.

What is an awaken state?

It has nothing to do with religion. If it features there, it still has nothing to do with it. Neither does it have anything to do with any movement and should it feature there, again it has nothing to do with it either.

If anything. The idea or concept has everything to do with only you and no one else – an awaken state is when you are no longer living in a dream world where you filter everything through your ego and see the world as it really is……. That’s all it is.

Spiritual Pilgrimage

One doesn’t have to carry a life size wooden Cross and walk bare footed all the way to Jerusalem to experience spiritual enlightenment. One could just as well experience the same intensity of spiritual awakening or be part of that all edifying feeling of being connected to something grander than the humble self by vacuuming the flat on a weekend, cooking spaghetti, washing the bike or just tending to potted plants……what’s important is to be invested in the moment there and then. As for the rest. It matters not.

Spiritual enlightment is truly somewhere in between rooms where clothes go to die and a pile of dirty dishes in the sink.

Whatever we have to go thru

Is not nearly as important. As whether we can face it with a calm and steady heart and mind……this by definition must include death. If for any reason death is not in the list…. Its just empty and meaningless words!

The illusion that is called happiness

The world is obsessed with happiness. Fix happiness to a thing and it would sell off the shelves….. but to me happiness will always be chimeric. This is in part due to having lived a very hard and spartan life in Africa where I have received an education in something that is even more valuable than happiness….. And it is simply the determination to do a task that is not very pleasant or happiness inducing with a cheerful heart. Not just once. But to do it again and again and again like a solitary man building a cathedral of dreams brick by brick. To me the feeling that comes from the honesty of sweat and grind when one dedicates the soul to a noble task far exceeds the vapidness of happiness.

Be Good

When one strives to be good. There can be no such thing as regret. And to live without the shadow of regrets is in itself to be a resident of heaven. But when one chooses the path that is the opposite of good. There can only be the shadow of regret in one’s haunted life and since one cannot undo the past, one can only suffer a sort of hell on earth.

Is it your reality?

If you are distressed by anything, the pain is not due to the thing itself. Rather it is by how you have scaled it and estimated it’s impact on your life ; only understand this! You have the power to negotiate it away with the weapon of Reason.

This power no one can take away from you!

Strategic slowing down

Often the mind is swept away like a leaf in the fast paced river of the world. When the mind is speeded up beyond its natural rhythm , there’s no opportunity to register the subtle, nuanced and detailed aspects of life………… Everything from conversations to relationships to problem solving just become a big blur – but when one learns to slow down that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Suddenly the field of possibilities just opens up. It’s a daily discipline that should be practiced……… Strategic slowing down

RIP

She was mothballed many moons ago…………. They said she was hard to fly and a nightmare to maintain. But increasingly the need for a multirole jet with both her incomparable speed and range is increasingly being felt………. It is only a matter of time before she will rise and take to the air once again. RIP. RISE IF POSSIBLE!

The man who claims to have only 127 things

There was once a man who kept on telling me and everyone who cared to listen that he has successfully managed to reduce all his worldly possessions to only 127. When this man recounted this to me. He was indeed surprised and later shocked that I showed no reaction at all…. Sensing something amiss the man asked – aren’t you impressed by my complete mastery of minimalism. I told the man – the fact you derive so much pride and joy from claiming to own only 127 things in this world demonstrates clearly that you have maybe 2 possibly 3 million other things in your life that you have not counted.

Beware of the things that you cannot see, touch or feel……. As nothingness is not emptiness.

How to deal with hard things

You must never try to swallow it whole in one go. You would only give up in despair. You must only concentrate on the next step, the next breath and the next, and the next. Nothing else.

Institutional Imbalance

We spend the best years of our lives ‘preparing’ ourselves for life by studying math, science, history, geography etc etc and thereafter we spend more time striving to get our degree – yet what is very curious (to me at least) is we rarely ever see the need to set aside some quiet time to study how to love and be loved…or even how to manage ourselves and others to get the very best out of relationships…. But most curious of all. We don’t ever see the need to journey deep into our core to get to know ourselves better.

Hence many remain strangers to themselves…….. Very curious indeed.

Needful and Important work

To work inorder to put food on the table is of course important. But it is not as jugular as setting aside time to work on the self…… that’s more needful and vital.