Showing posts tagged Liberal

Only if there were ears that listen … and hypocrites that fail not the words they preach … things would get better and life would be more meaningful.

destinationjannah:

Dear ‘Cool’ People,

We all need to wake up. Seriously.

Today we are googly-eyed over the latest celebrities, our idols are now Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Drake, Lady Gaga…but do we really want to look up to people that have no respect for themselves, people that increase vulgarity, that promote violence, and egocentric thinking. [Is life] all about cash, drugs, or girls [and boys]—Really?

But take a step back, What has the outcome been of so many of these “role models” or “idols”…what was the outcome of Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Amy Winehouse etc..their lives revolving around drugs, addictions, and eventual death so is that how we want to end up? Is that all to your life? Honestly think about it, what kind of life is that?

Today we are enslaved to what others want us to look like. We are enslaved to trends, to following celebrities, to gawking over girls [and boys] because thats what ‘society’ tells us is cool. We are enslaved to the word ‘cool’—just wanting to fit in. We just want to be ‘cool’—even if that means losing our connection with the One who made us, who gave us the brain to even judge what’s ‘cool’, who gave us wisdom; and instead of choosing right, we voluntarily choose wrong.

Wearing mini shorts [or sagging pants] with your butt hanging out for everyone to stare like you are a piece of steak is NOT cool, even if society tells you it is. Going to parties every weekend and then not remembering anything after is NOT cool, even your friends tell you it is. Obsessing over the glitter and the fascade of this life while neglecting the one who blessed you with the glitter in the first place is NOT cool, even if the world tells you it is.

In the end, you’ll realize fitting in—these celebrities, these trends—were never worth the drool. Abandon your ‘role models’—Drake, Lil Wayne, Lady Gaga. Let go to all the dunya baggage and stop being enslaved to society.

Reblogged 7 months ago from tresordore

130 notes

Tags: Modernity, Tradition, Morality, Immorality, Good and Bad, Right and Wrong, Liberal, Conservative, Radical, Ethiopia, Cool, Not Cool, Do the right thing, Know your limits, Remain healthy both Mentally and Physically,

Egyptian Politics in the Aftermath of Revolution

Why did the scale of the Islamists’ triumph so surprise Egypt’s mainly secular pundits? Mostly this reflects the success of Egyptian governments, beginning long before Hosni Mubarak came to power, in denying that the bulk of Egyptian society has always been deeply conservative and fervidly religious. Whatever inroads secularism made in the 20th century, a generation-long, worldwide Islamist revival has washed much of it away.

Explore our interactive Arab league map

The reality is that most Egyptians remain grindingly poor, ill educated and alienated from a ruling class seen as more attuned to Western fashions than local custom. In a survey of attitudes in seven Muslim-majority countries in December 2010 by Pew, an American research organisation, Egyptians proved the most likely to prefer “fundamentalists” over “modernisers” as champions of Islam. More than half of Egyptians favoured separating the sexes at work, compared with just 13% among Turks. Only Pakistan matched Egypt’s enthusiasm for such traditionally Islamic penalties as stoning for adultery, amputation for theft and death for apostasy, despite the fact that Egyptian courts have shunned such punishments for a century. —more @The Economist

Posted 4 months ago

5 notes

Tags: Ethiopia, Egypt, Politics, Arab Spring, Secularism, Political Islam, Radical Islam, Moderate Islam, Muslim Brotherhood, Africa, Conservatism, Liberal,

Among the Wealthiest One Percent, Many Variations

The colossal gap between the very rich and everyone else — the 1 percent versus the 99 percent — has become a rallying point in this election season. … President Obama positions himself as a defender of the middle class, and Mitt Romney, the wealthiest of the Republican presidential candidates, decries such talk as “the bitter politics of envy.”

… In reality [the top 1% percent] is a far larger and more varied group, one that includes podiatrists and actuaries, executives and entrepreneurs, the self-made and the silver spoon set. They are clustered not just in New York and Los Angeles, but also in Denver and Dallas. The range of wealth in the 1 percent is vast — from households that bring in $380,000 a year, according to census data, up to billionaires like Warren E. Buffett and Bill Gates. —read more @NY Times

Posted 4 months ago

2 notes

Tags: 1%, 99%, Budget Deficit, Capitalism, Conservative, Corporate Power, Creating Jobs, Creative Destruction, Democratic Party, Deregulation, Economic Inequality, Fundamental Debate, Government, Great Depression, Greed, Investment, Lack of Opportunity, Liberal, Lobbying, Middle Class, Occupy Wall Street, Populism, Regulation, Republican Party, Social Democracy, Socialism, Unemployment, Upper Class, Voting, Wall Street,

Happy MLK Day!

In addition to MLK, some more people who have made a difference

Institute of Race Relations
2-6 Leeke Street
London WC1X 9HS
UK

Posted 4 months ago

Tags: Center, Change, Class Politics, Colonization, Conservative, Decolonization, Decolonizing the Mind, Ending Racism, Equal Economic Opportunity, Left, Liberal, MLK Day, Marxism, Moderate, Race Politics, Radical, Revolution, Right, Social Activism, Social Responsibility,

"Saudi Women Shatter the Lingerie Selling" --@nytimes

A SOCIAL revolution began in Saudi Arabia this month, and it has little if anything to do with the Arab Spring. Women are going to work in lingerie shops. The Ministry of Labor is enforcing a royal decree issued last summer ordering that sales personnel in shops selling garments and other goods, like cosmetics, that are only for women must be female. More than 28,000 women applied for the jobs, the ministry said. Anywhere else in the world, it would not be news that sales assistants in shops selling panties and bras were female. In Saudi Arabia, where women have always been excluded from the public work force, it is a critical breakthrough. This is not just about intimate garments; this is a milestone on the arduous path to employment equality for women in a country where they are systematically excluded from retail activity. —more @nytimes

Posted 4 months ago

1 note

Tags: Change, Conservative, Equal Economic Opportunity, Equality, Equality for Women, Ethiopia, Islam, Job Opportunity, Labor Union, Liberal, Making Progress, Medieval, Modern, Modernity, Muslim Country, Muslim Women, Progressive, Religion, Saudi Arabia, Traditional, Women's Rights, Work Force, Employment Equality for Women,

“In God We Trust”

The religious views of the Founding Fathers are of great interest to propagandists of today’s American right, anxious to push their version of history. Contrary to their view, the fact that the United States was not founded as a Christian nation was early stated in the terms of a treaty with Tripoli, drafted in 1796 under George Washington and signed by John Adams in 1797:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. I am continually asked why this is, and I do not know. I suppose it is possible that England has wearied of religion after an appalling history of inter- faith violence, with Protestants and Catholics alternately gaining the upper hand and systematically murdering the other lot.

Another suggestion stems from the observation that America is a nation of immigrants. A colleague points out to me that immigrants, uprooted from the stability and comfort of an extended family in Europe, could well have embraced a church as a kind of kin- substitute on alien soil. It is an interesting idea, worth researching further. There is no doubt that many Americans see their own local church as an important unit of identity, which does indeed have some of the attributes of an extended family.

Yet another hypothesis is that the religiosity of America stems paradoxically from the secularism of its constitution. Precisely because America is legally secular, religion has become free enterprise. Rival churches compete for congregations - not least for the fat tithes that they bring - and the competition is waged with all the aggressive hard-sell techniques of the marketplace. What works for soap flakes works for God, and the result is something approaching religious mania among today’s less educated classes. In England, by contrast, religion under the aegis of the established church has become little more than a pleasant social pastime, scarcely recognizable as religious at all. — Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (P. 39-41)