kidashraf

kidashraf
Originally uploaded by Ashraf Ghoniem.

one of the many benefits of my parents digitizing old photos.

The Future of this blog

I have noticed that of late my posts have been very erratic and my blog doesn't really have an identity much like my mind it goes all over the place. It goes from politics, to philsophy, to whining about my past, to just idle nonsense about my day, and than back to just a place to share my pictures. So in an effort to keep this blog organized I will be starting a new blog for my political / current events nonsense. The domain will be posted here shortly. The idea is to keep this blog more about personal stuff and use the other one as a forum for some intresting debates.

The Failure of a Revolution

The Peoples revolution has failed and I am not just talking about the socialist revolution I am speaking of the the revolution to a republic in general. When one looks at modern history you see the dawning of the cold war. A basic fight of Communism vs Democracy. And how communism has failed and it seems at this point in time democracy is falling ill to the same disease that infested communism. No matter how you form a government power will corrupt. Men who are placed in power will eventually use it for their own gains and not the will of the people.
So in throwing off the totalitarian regimes of emperors, kings, sheiks, and Tsars. We have replaced them with presidents, prime ministers, and chancellor's. In the United States of America we have a government system that is no longer representational to the will of the people. An electoral system that is flawed and a governing body that is at the complete whim of special interest groups. This is an unbiased fact that in our current system Corporations have more say than the common people on what happens. That money is power and no matter what system you are operating in you can grease some elbows to get the job done.
So one could ask why I would say the revolution is failed. Look at Cuba, Fidel Castro has been in power longer than any other man in the world. Isn't that a totalitarian government. The revolution for the people of Latin America started with Fidel and Che. Che was killed and Fidel became the establishment. So how do you rip away the power of the corrupt and not replace it with a new despot. How does one create a government that reflects the will of the people.
Another interesting thing what if the will of the people is not what is needed. Look at Iraq the majority of the people in Iraq want an Islamic state much like Iran. Is that the freedom of democracy at work. Is allowing another totalitarian Islamic state the answer. Obviously the world would like to see a secular government exist in which all religions can be practiced uninhibited. But is it not majority rules. So if the majority wants this is it not the will of the people. So now people must think about protecting the minority. And this conflict of what direction the government will go has caused the political quagmire that Iraq is in today.
Forgive me because I am going to go out on a limb here. But I think all of the worlds ills can be attributed to a few factors. First of which is economy, globally there is a huge disparity between the rich and the poor. A middle class essentially doesn't exist. I am not talking statistically per country. I am talking globally. Most of the people in China, India, Africa, and The middle east are poor. So that represents most of the world's population and the world's government's failure in helping them.
The world is essentially destroying itself and using religion as an excuse. Any government that uses religion or ethnicity as a qualifier for rights is flawed. In the middle east secular voices have been drowned in a new wave of religious zealots. The scary thing is that the zealot's are getting results. It is a very complex issue these organizations and their relationships with their communities. Most people are adverse to terror and to the killing of innocents. But it is happening in their backyard all the time. If you look at Lebanon the only group who was fighting the invasion by Israel was Hezbollah so if you think about it all that war has done is give Hezbollah more credibility as a resistance force. They fought off for the second time the largest and most modern military in the middle east.
Most reasonable people do not want a Islamic regime but these people with these ideologies are the ones who are doing something about the injustices that exist even if their methods are misguided, brutal, and dishonorable. But in war when is it ever anything else? Israel and Iran are both examples of flawed systems of government Israel's Zionist dream is misguided because it creates a 2nd class of citizen who because they are not Jewish but are Israeli are treated differently. And Iran is obviously flawed as well by forcing it's people to follow certain religious rules they have created a state of fear.
Ironically enough the only leader in the middle east who blatantly was against religious extremism was the extremely brutal Saddam. I heard some were about Saddam's rise to power and it is a very brutal story. I do not know how much of it is factual since I heard it second hand. But it seems to make sense. Saddam was involved with the revolution to throw off the king of Iraq. This king came out of his palace with a Koran and his family and begged the revolutionaries to allow him and his family to leave Iraq. Instead of allowing this Saddam's predecessor shot a canon at them and blew them up. After awhile Saddam decides he wants to rise to power and eventually decapitates his predecessor with a scimitar and becomes the new leader of Iraq. I am not saying Saddam is a good leader actually he deserves everything that is coming to him he is part of the problem his wanton slaughter of the Kurds, and the marsh Arabs is enough to put him away for good.
But what is the solution we dipped into the middle east problem we know the ills of the western world. Obviously communism is still surviving in the far east. But all of these governments seem to be flawed. Maybe the answer is simple. Maybe it as simple as not trusting the government to do everything. Obviously this is all opinion based but I think as soon as the government has so much power that it doesn't have to listen to the people it spins out of control. Basically when the few govern the whole.
But simply speaking the problem is human nature and the nature of corruption. People are inherently selfish and the sense of the community falls aways when there is personal gain involved. And if you think about it the ideals of communism / socialism are not that far from democracy. It is more of a distance between the ideas of capitalism vs communism. Probably the optimal government would be something in the middle. If you look at the political trends of the rest of the world that is were things seem to be headed.

So will there be a new revolution of thought and tolerance that picks up were the old revolution failed, or will all these small wars merge and become one huge fire that engulfs the world in war. I guess the rest is up to us.

Digging through old pictures

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Originally uploaded by Ashraf Ghoniem.

Still love this pic. I took this the first weekend I got my Digital Rebel.

View from the heli pad.

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Originally uploaded by Ashraf Ghoniem.

So I found my new favorite place to smoke my pipe. At work we got a heli pad ontop of the parking structure. I must say it offers a very good view of the area.

Boredem

You know what I am damn bored. I travled for a month straight pretty much. Guess what still bored. So I think I need a new hobby any suggesetions? Also what the hell is going on in the world is it just me or are we steadily approaching self-destruction. It is scary to me that nobody even cares that over 500 people have been killed in Lebanon.

The Splendor of Las Vegas

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Originally uploaded by Ashraf Ghoniem.

Isn't it wonderfull, look at that urban sprawl it felt almost like LA. But without the water.