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The origin of the liquid element has been hard among scientists, who do not come to a logical explanation for the existence of the essential complement to the life in this planet debate, and how it is happened. A new study by U.S. researchers in the journal “Science” suggests that water is originating in the same meteorite that once fell on the ground.

The moon was created following the collision of a giant object against the earth there are 4500 million years ago, causing a debris disk from which the sun would have been formed. The tremendous heat of the impact would have caused the boil in the space of hydrogen and other elements, ensuring that the moon continues his training, although completely dry.

However, the new study conducted by researchers do not agree with this hypothesis. For their part, scientists at Brown University have observed inclusions from a merger, miniscule pieces of volcanic glass trapped in the crystal, so they do not share at all the case previously cited.

These melt inclusions contain a lot of water, just like the lava forming terrestrial ocean. By analyzing the isotopic composition of hydrogen embedded in the inclusions, Saal and his colleagues found that the deuterium-hydrogen is relatively low and similar to the proportion found in carbonaceous chondrites: meteorites from the asteroid belt near Jupiter, which explains the origin of water on the Moon is indeed in primitive meteorites and comets, not because they have an isotopic fingerprint, completely different.

Recent research has shown that up to 98% of the water on the surface of the earth comes from primitive meteorites have collided against the world, confirming the presence of liquid on the planet too. According to Alberto Saal, a professor of geological sciences at Brown University and author of the study: “The simplest explanation of what we have seen is that there was water in the proto -Earth at the time of greatest impact. A portion of this water survived the impact, hence its presence on the moon. Somehow, water was not lost on impact, but I do not know what was the process that this operation had to take for this result. “

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The post Can we predict the destiny? appeared first on MBC Times.

“One Christmas night was there a strange light (…) Finally, the administrator get courage and with a young man, armed with a ladder and a saber, get to castle. Everywhere was a deep silence, just wind blowed in the rocks. But when they reached the ruins, they saw a light in the high rock tower. Administrator took a ladder, climbed up and cautiously peered inside. He saw a small irradiated room, where pale old man with long snow-white beard and hair partiality read the ancient book. Then, in the chapel of the castle struck midnight bell, a light suddenly went out and the castle was again dark and desolate.”

Can Dvořák in this legend really show us an old man who decides our destiny? And is actually possible that name predestine our life? Kabalarian Philosophy is convinced that yes. According to this philosophy is our name mathematical combination that has subsequently determine our destiny, respectively experiences, health, relationships, wealth or opportunities. Other theories, however, says, that name does not determine destiny, or the soul of man, it only affects our character and greatly influences behavior. But on our decisions have also affect ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status or specific geographic location where the person was born.

To sum up, it is even possible to have our destiny written somewhere? Some of us can read destiny in Library of palm leaves, that represent 12 libraries in India, in which are situated several thousand records on individuals, their past and present lives. Because of the short lifetime of leaves are fates transcribed on new ones, or, are writing fates of new people who shall come. However, for reading the leaf are needed interpreters and of course a translator.

It should be noted, that Libraries of palm leaves are often criticized, since many of the predictions, for example devastating terroristic attack in Germany in 2008, did not hapen and often individuals do not get any new information. First, interpreters and translators are talking about the creation of the world and the position of the planets at birth. But when they pass to more specific information, they rather focus on what people want to hear or paraphrase information that they already get as the name of the father or mother or birth date.

Another source that may help us uncover our destiny are stars. Specifically, the aim of astrology is the search for relationships among celestial bodies and the various processes on the Earth or human destinies. Of course we can not assume that certain characteristics covered every people born on a particular day, because fate, or the next life, is unique to each individual. As noted astrologer Emil Václav Havelka: “At the moment when person is born, he/she gets into his/her genetic code imprint of planetary position which decide for example the length of life, eating habits or health.” Although, in this age many people do not believe astrology, in 16 century people had such deep faith in astrologers and their prediction, that the kings often used predictions of astrologers to obtain the endorsement of the people to adopt controversial political decisions.

If we have destiny already set, may we change it any way? In this case we can talk about karma. Simply karma is founded on the principle that every action that we do in this life determines our next life. It would seem that karma is rather a privilege of Eastern philosophy, but it is not. We can find

similarities in the other cultures, for example in Nordic mythology we meet the tree Yggdrasil with three roots. Near one of them are Norns who decide on human fate and watering root with water from a well, where fell every human act. So, water, that Norns watering Yggdrasil containing all acts of people and affecting their future.

On the basis of this, many of us might think that our actions in this life can not influence us, or that they will wait on us in the next life. However, according to some researchers, at the end of the last millennium was karma stronger. We can mention the practice of Dr. A. C. Dollard, who focused on the treatment through the karmic sin. As Alan Carter reported:

“Dr. Dollard is (…) convinced that at the end of the last millennium occured to a faster karmic revenge for wrongdoing and a sharp increase in personal disability of each person, as evidenced by a surprisingly consistent statistical observation of this phenomenom…”

So, karmic punishment may wait on us earlier than in the next life. Thus, we can say that for move our life in a positive way, it is important to follow our conscience.

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The post The Dilemma of Democracy appeared first on MBC Times.

So the experiments in democracy, globally has failed inhibiting human progress. People often wrongfully glorify freedom, equality and justice as the cornerstones of democratic rule. These seminal allurements of democracy can be established as the guiding principles of governance under any form of government, including dictatorship.

Though, some rudimentary characteristics of democracy were present in the tribal societies, democracy as an organized form of governance originated in Athens in sixth century BC. The legendary Solon is considered to be the founder of democracy. On his foundation Cleisthenes, Pericles and Ephialtes built the system of democracy in Athens championing the virtues of freedom and equality, around 508 BC. In seventh century BC there was a great public upheaval in Sparta, in response to which the lawgiver of Sparta Lycurgus wrote the first written constitution of the world. Lycurgus suggested many changes to satisfy all strata of the society. It is believed that Athens’ promulgation of democratic rule was an effort to prevent a Sparta like revolution.

However, the meaning or definition of democracy is still used very vaguely attributing freedom, equality and justice as the most important virtues of this form of governance. Further, it is stated that in democracy the sovereignty remains with the people– a ridiculous mockery. The so called indirect democratic governments of the world are prized as popular and representative governments enjoying the confidence of the majority.

THE CONCEPT OF MAJORITY

Because of its core maxim– government by people’s mandate, popular government, and confidence of the majority and so on; in underdeveloped countries with widespread poverty and illiteracy the mantle of power has fallen into the hands of  mediocre leaders, with very little education and vision for their nations. On the other hand in advanced nations the power of governance has slipped into the hands of a minority segment of such societies, who has the financial muscles to control the power of the state.

The idea of majority is a misleading idea for any society– whether advanced or underdeveloped. It may look a little presumptuous, but to say unhesitatingly, the majority in any society represents foolishness, lethargy with a strong herd mentality. Over emphasis on it results in degeneration of the human capital in any society. Again, the resistance of the majority to accept new thoughts and ideas under democratic governance poses formidable impediment to rapid social change, with every possibility of social stagnation. Human history is witness to the fact that only a small minority has always determined the fate of the society with its innovative ingenuity; and has steered human societies in the direction of progress — such as writers, poets, philosophers, scientists, artists and a host of thought leaders. Hence, when the national executives are the elected representatives of the majority, the quality of leadership is a compromise for inferior and indecisive leadership.

The minority intellectuals in democratic setups always feel out of place, as the leaders of the nation are the mirror images of the majority whom they represent; the innovative ingenuity of the minority is always challenged and buried by the whims of the unthinking majority. In a democratic society, therefore, the intelligentsia and the elite intellectuals have very little role to influence the governance of the nation. Hence, what flourishes in a democratic setup is unchallenged mediocrity.

The leaders in a democracy enjoy an enviable advantage: to manipulate almost all aspects of the life of their citizens with the conscious knowledge that they are managing mediocrity and the intellectuals of the society are too meek and insignificant to pose any challenge owing to their inconsequential presence. These manipulative advantages of the leadership tend to make any democratic set up autocratic and corrupt as well.  More importantly, to perpetuate their power, the leaders resort to populist policies in the name of social welfare endangering the growth potentials of some section of the citizenry permanently. Through such policies of appeasement they invariably succeed in creating loyal vote banks for themselves. The members of these sections of the societies, who are the beneficiaries of appeasement politics, follow their leaders as messiahs, least realizing that in the process they are made defunct social parasites, a veritable cattle population. This symptom is pathetically discernible in developing nations worldwide.

The idea of majority has come under scathing criticisms since the inception of democracy; and importantly from the great philosophers of the place of its birth– Athens. Socrates was of the view that justice, freedom and equality cannot survive under democracy. Socrates was a great votary of rationality, logic and philosophy. Democracy suppresses these essential qualities of governance. Majority does not understand the matter of importance of the nation and their supremacy only leads to grave danger for the nation; similarly, when a state is devoid of rationality and logic– which only a minority section of people possess– the democracy tends to be an irrational and illogical system, operating more on verbose emotional emptiness, thereby turning unjust, antithetical to freedom and equality. It turns out to a mindless system ruled by the vices of appeasement and compromise. The dominance of the majority cripples all progressive ideas resulting in a stagnant or regressive society. In their insecurity owing to the periodic change in leadership; the leaders in democracy cannot distance themselves from malpractices and shall inevitably be corrupt which will lead the society towards anarchy– sooner or later.

The constitutions of the democratic countries have the flexibility for amendment from time to time. Any political party voted with landslide majority by irrational popular emotions of the mindless majority, can amend the constitution beyond recognition and the party in power can easily usher in dictatorial rules, with deep rooted corruption, nepotism, inequality, injustice and the cruel bondage of the citizens.

MACHIAEVELIAN CYCLE

Democracy with its inherent flaws can never provide good governance to society. The inevitable outcome of democracy is anarchy, and anarchy will invariably be succeeded by Tyranny. Machiavelli’s cyclic theory sums up this experience. He observed that “monarchies always decay into aristocracies and then decay into democracies, which decay into anarchy, then tyranny.” Machiavelli was very accurate in his prediction and the so called glory of the democratic rule will witness stark realities of anarchism, sooner than later.

In 1947 when India and Pakistan were granted independence from the British rule, Churchill had made some oracular prophesy which has come true without even a grain of difference. He had stated “Power will go to rascals, rogues, freebooters. All leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and the two countries will be lost on political squabbles. A day would come when even air and water will be taxed”

Is it not the experience of every conscious Indians living in the so called largest democracy of the world? Democracy as a form of Government tends to encourage the whims of the majority and the educated minorities are always marginalized. In this context I am reminded of the Gresham’s law– “bad money tends to drive out good money out of circulation when both are in use” At the initial phase, democracy is the whim of the people and gradually it is taken over by the rich and the powerful section of the societies. This pattern is visible everywhere in all democratic setups.

SYMPTOMS OF DECADENCE

In America, only 1% of the population, with their fabulous wealth, practically control everything, including the government policies. America has already become a plutocracy with one percent ultra-rich people amassing such huge wealth unheard of in history. All democracies in the world are on the path of their plutocratic journey and finally towards anarchy and tyranny.

The current exposure of NSA’s secret spying over people’s privacy is a strong body blow to all known democratic values. Only saving grace is- American society is not that corrupt like the societies of the developing democratic nations. But the rising unemployment, the economic disaster and the debt burden that America is confronting today, unless addressed with dedication and ingenuity, will give way to anarchy, and consequence upon that the government will be tyrannical to prevent such anarchy. I have no hesitation to say that economic turmoil that the advanced democratic nations of the world are confronting today will exert serious impact on their social orders. It will not be surprising if these societies emulate the corrupt practices of the developing nations with whom they have to be more closely integrated owing to economic compulsions.

The decadence of democracy is visible in various countries in various ways, depending upon their economic progress, literacy and cultural traits. For example, America, despite the current economic trouble, is a more affluent society than India or many African nations who claim to be democratic. So the symptom of decadence of democracy will be different in American society than in a developing country like India or in Africa.

In American society, the rise of irresponsible capitalism is a disturbing symptom. When a very small minority enjoys the enviable concentration of wealth at its disposal, many pillars of the democratic institutions crumble visibly or invisibly. This minority group with its economic muscle would tend to influence the political, economic as well as the foreign policy decisions of the country. America’s engagements in several wars, causing serious damage to the economy, stem from such influences otherwise known as lobbying. Large and influential Corporations engaged in manufacturing arms and ammunition would always try to drag the nation towards war and even try to destabilize the international peace with clear commercial motives. This trend, unless arrested effectively, is likely to lead to irreparable damage to the economy and shall have very detrimental effect on the social order. All dangerous social evils have their genesis in economic factors. Economic turmoil which is already apparent in the US economy is likely to result in more violence, discrimination and worst of all indulgence in corruption by the underprivileged citizens. Once corruption becomes a way of life, the degeneration of the society will be beyond repair, which is the biggest problem confronting the developing countries. To control social evils and violence, the governments will be forced to promulgate draconian laws leading to the end of democracy. Against such draconian laws and curtailment of citizens’ liberty, public upsurge and revolt cannot be ruled out. Thus, a phase of anarchy will precede the emergence of tyranny. In my opinion this holds good for all democracies of the world, including the advanced countries.

As such, the democratic ideals are very fragile in underdeveloped countries. Firstly, these countries do not deserve to be populists or adopt democratic forms of governments, as the poor, illiterate or deficiently educated majorities in these countries hardly value the so called liberty, equality and justice, as their focus is on basic survival needs. Under the circumstances, the symptoms of political decadence in these countries are very peculiar. It is to be borne in mind that these countries are also corrupt to their core; hence, can never grant the professed– equality, justice and liberty to their citizens in any effective manner. If in the opinion of Jimmy Carter the US is a “hollow democracy”, these developing nations are “pretentious democracies”. Like the advanced democratic countries, the concentration of wealth, in these countries, also remains with minority groups that influence all walks of life.

SEPARATION OF POWER

To my knowledge, every democratic country in the world emphasises on separation of powers between executives, legislature, judiciary with the press as the watch dog. What destroys the independence and separation of the four pillars of democracy is the interdependence of the main three pillars- the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. The elected members of the legislature are governed and guided by the undemocratic and authoritarian party whips and leaderships. The political parties in any democratic country in the world are structurally very undemocratic and demand unflinching loyalty from the members, as it is often stated– “we sink or swim together”. Particularly, in the indirect representative democracies of the modern world, the so called democratic principles are sacrificed by the political parties, which act like standardized groups, with complete obedience to the coercive party decisions and ideologies by its members. This makes me to believe that democracy as a system is just a misnomer. Somewhere in the democratic process, the elements of authoritarianism creep in, without which democracy will turn into chaotic anarchism immediately.

The executive functioning in democracy is also not free from authoritarianism. The executives in any democratic setup enjoy or wield authoritarian and sweeping powers within their constitutional frame work. They are like George Orwell’s “Some people are more equal than others”. My observation is: whatever popular and participatory election process may be followed in democracy, the governance cannot ever be participatory or popular. Governance by its very character involves authoritarianism. Regrettably, the authoritarian powers in the democracy are enjoyed by mediocre leaders due to the popular and participatory election process followed in the democratic setups and the citizens are largely hoodwinked.

The judiciary in a democracy is supposed to be independent. But in reality it is not. How are the judges in various democratic countries appointed? In their appointment the executives or the legislatures play very significant role. Hence, the judiciary cannot be absolutely independent in the separation of powers.

Further, the so called Fourth Column of democracy–press, can tend to be irresponsible and play mischievous role in any democracy. They have the power to influence legislative, executive and judicial process by their wide reach to the citizens, particularly in the present day world, owing to the exponential growth in communication. Now in view of all these, I feel that the separation of power in democracy ultimately leads to power struggle between these four pillars of democracy resulting in chaos, stalemate and more and more inefficiencies.

I am tempted to cite the example of India, supposed to be the largest democracy in the world. Indian constitution is otherwise known as “Lawyers’ Paradise”. This criticism itself is enough to demonstrate the democratic predicament of a nation with a population of 1.25 billion people. In contrast to the US, India has abject poverty and illiteracy. The total number of people below poverty line in India is larger than the entire population of the US. This is a grim story. The elections are fought with money power, muscle power and manipulation of the poor and illiterate people of the country. Political parties, in their intoxication for power, manipulatively defunct a segment of the population into cattle population, ironically as their loyal and assured vote banks, as I have stated before. They divide people on caste and religion lines for their success in democratic process of election. The judiciary which is supposed to be an independent pillar of democracy is entangled with the executives and the legislatures. Justice is bought and sold. Corruption in judiciary is no more a matter of exception.  This is not merely the story of India. This is the hapless state of democracy in all countries of the Third world.

The most recent political development in Indian speaks volume about the debacle of democracy in the most populous democratic nation of the world. From this development one can easily gauge the functioning of the major pillars of democracy. The Supreme Court of India, pronounced an advisory debarring people with criminal records or convictions from contesting in the general elections. The ruling party in power in transgression of the Supreme Court verdict passed a resolution to bring in an ordinance to allow such candidates to contest elections. This can be seen as a clear power struggle between the Judiciary and the Executive/Legislative functioning for supremacy. But in the ultimate equation of the power game the Vice President of the ruling party overruled the executive decision of the Cabinet of Ministers. Dose this not reveal utter disharmony and chaos and the inevitable massacre of the so called democratic values?

To add insult to the injury, the media resorted to a public campaign, inciting public opinion against the Executive decision. However, I have no scruple to accept it as a healthy democratic process, and maybe Indian democracy is coming of age, as some would suggest. But does this not show how chaotic, disharmonious and anarchistic the democracy could be; and how the power struggle between the four pillars of democracy shall, in its ultimate expression, morph into nothing better than anarchy. To see it from another perspective: from where does the Vice President of the ruling party wield his authority to veto and alter the decision of the legitimately elected people’s representatives in the Cabinet? What democratic norms give him such sweeping power to which the Prime Minister of a large nation had to meekly yield? It will not be an exaggeration to say that the party chiefs in parliamentary democracy are the autocratic “Fifth Column” of democracy.

PROPAGANDA AND MISINFORMATION

If we look deeply, all that we say and believe are carefully learned ideas in course of our social interaction since our childhood. Psychologists say that our world view is formed at a very early age– by the age of six. The rest of our life, we look at the world around us through this filter which is formed so early in our childhood. Again our individual characters are nothing other than our repetitive habit patterns. In view of this, some ideas when repetitively forced into our mind they turn sacrosanct truth for us. That is how the political parties operate with their weapon of propaganda. That is how the erstwhile Soviet Union was trying to disseminate communism in the world by using their broadcasting media as the tool. The Soviet broadcasting media was airing news, literally in all languages of the world. Mao, the Chinese stalwart believed that, “repeat a lie for hundred times, it would turn into truth”. The leaders of the democratic nations are no exception to using this device of false propaganda. The engagement of the US and Britain in the Iraq war is a recent example of the propaganda politics. The entire world for sometimes believed that Iraq possesses the weapons of mass destruction.

Precisely, by the same logic, the eulogy of democracy is a repetitive false propaganda acquiring widespread acceptance as the best form of governance. The purpose of saying all these is that we are forced to live in a world of misinformation. For example the present crisis in Syria— what do the media say? What information is disseminated worldwide as the cause of the crisis and what is the real reason? We are living in the Age of Information and one that controls the information wields the power. That is why the US is trying to tap on the information that the internet world exchanges globally; and in the same vein the access to secret information made Snowden a hero overnight. This information manipulation was always there in our human societies.

I know, many will disagree with me. But I staunchly believe that democracy, like the baggage of many other institutions human race is carrying from the past, is a system propagated carefully through information management, by tantalizing the stupor masses with very lofty ideals of equality, liberty, justice etc– like the empty but verbose slogans of the politicians all across the globe.

The reason for this is to perpetuate “mediocrity’ as against “meritocracy”. The human society is always afraid of thought leaders and geniuses. Therefore, such people always have lived lives of miseries or have faced serious social sanctions. Galileo after denying his own new theory of the Solar System, as a compromise, told one of his close disciples “We are a race of inventive dwarfs, who can be bought for anything”.

FALLING NATIONS

A report says that nearly six trillion US$ representing ill-gotten and illicit money has been exported out of the developing countries, in the first decade of the twenty first century. This report itself is indicative of the economic chaos that is imminent in the world. It is important to observe here that the population of the developing countries far exceeds that of the population of the developed nations. It is pertinent to note here that majority of these developing nations profess or aspire to be democratic in their political setups. I am surprised why these countries are euphemistically called “developing” countries; whereas they appropriately deserve to be called as the regressive and the falling nations of the world.
The social and political scientists least realizes the powerful disintegrative undercurrent that may explode in these falling nations, leading to a serious threat to the present world order. The symptoms are quite visible in many countries.

Moreover, by resorting to the vote bank politics, the political parties unabashedly resort to dividing people on various lines, and in the name of welfare of the poor and the weaker sections of the society, promulgate such laws finally inviting economic bankruptcy. At this stage, it is a conscious robbing of the national exchequer in connivance of the wealthy and powerful minority with the poor and the illiterate pressure groups (vote banks)– irrespective of minority or majority status of these constituents of the society.

As a grim fall out of such measures the economies of many such nations have regressed from gold standards of the past to almost absolute paper standard or fiat money of the present day economies This is also an indicator of the disaster, the economies of the world are likely to face. The artificial creation of money without intrinsic value will take its toll in no distant future. The wealth creation by any nation depends on growth in productivity of goods and services. The artificial creation of money or the bills of exchange in disregard to the growth in productivity is an ominous sign for any economy.

COMMUNISM—THE CONCEPT OF ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY

I have an observation to make here about the rise and fall of the Communism in the world and its incoherent vestiges still found in some countries. The rise of Communism in the world scenario in twentieth century was considered as an alternative to the democratic and capitalist political system. This philosophy was zealously practiced and propagated by some nations, and divided the world into two so called blocks. However, in reality the emptiness of this pretentious philosophy to achieve a standardized socio-economic order is in reality a close cousin of democracy – a further shift towards an incongruous mix of the shortcomings of the democracy and the dictatorship. It was more democratic than the known forms of democracy and more dictatorial than the evil designs of dictatorial rules.. Despite its harmful effects in countless ways, it swept the world for more than five decades. Why?

Though undeniably pseudo in its tenet, it spoke about “economic democracy” which was a paradigm shift from hitherto known ideologies of political democracy. Immediately it appealed to the same mindless mobs that were over a period of time disillusioned with their supposed sovereignty in political democracy.  This idea of “economic democracy” in Communist philosophy was no doubt a challenge to the hypocrisy of the political democracy. When many nations of the world adopted this form of governance, the common citizens were not aware that they were throwing their weight in favour of a system which is again another stem of democracy in disguise. But whatever it may be, it drove an established exploitative order, controlled by some rich and powerful people, paranoid. The world saw a divide between an old failed model called political democracy and a brand new equally inefficient, equally exploitative model cunningly professing “economic democracy”. The era of cold war and the emergence of Big Brothers—Super Powers, was highly symbolic of a hysteric world characterized by ubiquitous insecurity. The votaries of both the systems knew that they spoke the same language with identical motives. Each blocks had the identical fear that the other block could expose its hypocrisy. This mutual suspicion not only divided the world, but also became the seminal cause of the notorious arms’ race, surreptitiously paving the way for socio-economic disasters in both the known systems of governances in the world. Further, instability, hostility among the nations of the world, rise of dictatorship in some countries emerged from this conflict and the chaotic notions of political democracy and “economic democracy”. These chaos, conflicts and suspicions that characterized the twentieth century stare remorselessly at the economic and political aspirations of the current century. The economic meltdown experienced by the major economies of the world is a legacy of the twentieth century inherited by the new millennium. Sadly enough, many skeletons still remain carefully hidden in the cupboards.

Communism (“economic democracy”) as a system failed, as it unwittingly promised a quantifiable democracy. I say quantifiable because economic equality and justice are measurable objectively. In contrast, all promises of political democracy are abstract and cannot be measured objectively. Therefore, the political democracy survived the battle against economic democracy; and the economic democracy in its desperate effort for survival either adopted policies of opaque nationalism or tyrannical rules; or in the extreme perverse form, a strong combination both.

STATIC HUMAN SOCIETY

I have no hesitation to say that the romance with the political democracy for a long time, and experiment with its supposed alternative—“economic democracy” (Communism) during the major part of the twentieth century have done more harm than good to the world. The story of the mankind in the modern day world is no way better than its despicable history of grim and gory battles, exploitations of the poor and the weak, barbaric cruelty, racial discrimination, slavery, injustice etc. All these exist in same degree and intensity; maybe in a little more cunningly disguised forms.

Our transformation from our primitive order to the so called modern day existence is only a journey from the jungles of trees to the jungles of concretes. Everything else remains the same. This is primarily due to the neurotic fear of the masses, inclusive of the dumb and mindless political and ruling classes. These political classes by and large personify the aggregate of the violent and mindless mobs they resorting to ruthless suppression of the nonconformist voices of the meritorious individuals. These meritorious individuals are always an insignificant minority in the midst of a very potent and consequential majority that is devoid of vision and direction.

Democracy, at best, can only be a temporary arrangement in any polity, but in the long run is bound to give way to some more sustainable and stable form of governance through a preceding phase of chaos. We are standing at a crucial juncture of human history where a new and more effective political system looks very imperative. What form of governance next to democracy, though, is a million dollar question? To me, the idea of “Meritocracy” or “Talentism” appeals significantly.

MERITOCRACY

A well-groomed “Meritocracy” of well evolved human beings with visions and unshakable human values is the prerequisite for a stable, prosperous, just and peaceful mankind. “Meritocracy” is different from aristocracy or oligarchy. In the past, many civilizations of the world have experienced the governance under aristocracy and have overthrown the system for its minority character and the oppressive nature of governance. More importantly, aristocracy tends to end up in oligarchy– a purely minority governance with all concomitant evils associated with it. “Meritocracy” or “Talentism”, to my knowledge, as a form of governance has never been experimented, though the idea is as old as democracy. Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher and his student Plato had mooted the idea of “Meritocracy”; particularly Plato’s concept of “Philosopher Kings” comes very close to “Meritocracy” or “Talentism”. As such, no significant and fully developed theory on “Meritocracy” has ever been propounded; because of the acceptance of democracy in its Utopian form has been the goal and allurement for mankind ever since the concept came into vogue.

“Meritocracy” needs to be experimented. But prior to that its theory and the philosophy are to be exhaustively developed, debated and understood. At this stage, I can only surmise that the rapid power -shift towards knowledge and information is promisingly leading the world towards “Meritocracy”. I am very optimistic that a full-grown “Meritocracy” will be the ladder to our next phase of evolutionary growth.

CONCLUSION

We are standing at an epoch in time that portrays a bleak picture of our survival on this planet. But we are not prepared to wake up from the deep slumber and take proactive actions. The reason being– the greed of the mankind is surfacing everywhere as the impediment; literally, this greed has corrupted our conscience; we are unable to see or evaluate clearly. In the name of economic progress we have destroyed, blindly exploited all beauty and bounty of life. We have devastated the finer sensibilities of human character. But it is glaringly ridiculous that we have hardly made any significant progress, as– “half the world does not know, how the other half lives”. Is majority rule the answer to our widespread owes?

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The post Muhammad: The inside story of the last prophet appeared first on MBC Times.

After the death of two people most beloved to him, first his uncle, Abu Taalib (who had protected him from the people of Makkah), and after a couple of weeks, the death of his wife Khadija (who had been by his side throughout his mission as the Messenger of Allah), the emotional impact on the Holy Prophet (S.A.W) was so severe that this year was called ‘the year of sorrow’. And if these two incidents were not enough, the same year, a third incident occurred, and that incident is known as the ‘Incident of Taif’.

There is a city close by to Makkah, around 80 km away, and is known by the name Taif. After preaching Islam in Makkah for 10 years, the Prophet (S.A.W) decided to leave and try somewhere else. He thought that maybe the people of Taif would perhaps listen to the message and maybe they would be more inclined to accept the truth.

Once Aisha (R.A), the wife of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W) asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, was there any day more difficult to you than on the day of the battle of Uhud?” (For those who don’t know, on the battle of Uhud, the Prophet (S.A.W) was wounded, blood was coming from his blessed face, his teeth were dislodged, and even an arrow came and hit him. Much happened on the day of Uhud).

The Prophet (S.A.W) said, ‘Yes, the day of Taif was worse for me than the day of Uhud; that was the most difficult point of my life’. (I.e. This day of Taif had a very profound impact on the Prophet (S.A.W))

When the Prophet (S.A.W) approached the tribe of Saqeef (the inhabitants of the city of Taif), he asked to meet the chief of the town, and the chiefs of the town were in fact three brothers (Their father was once the chief of the city, but once he died, the brothers decided to share the power among each other). So the three chiefs agreed to meet the Prophet (S.A.W) as they didn’t know why he (S.A.W) wanted to meet them. When the Prophet (S.A.W) introduced him as the Messenger of Allah, told them about Islam, about worshipping only one God, and leaving idol worshipping, the three brothers ridiculed and insulted him in the worst possible manner. One of them said, ‘If you are a Prophet, I might as well destroy the Kaabah’ (meaning what’s the point), another said, ‘Did Allah not found any one better than you to send? You are the one He has chosen?’, the third one said, ‘If you are a Prophet, then you are too Holy for me to speak to, and if you are not a prophet (i.e. if you are a liar), then you are too ignoble for me (a noble man) to speak to’ (i.e. either way, you are somebody I cannot speak to.)

But this wasn’t the end of it, the three brothers then commanded their slaves and the youth to ridicule the Prophet (S.A.W) and make fun of him. Also, to physically harm him by throwing stones at him, by pelting him as he was leaving the city. So, the Prophet (S.A.W) was forced to leave the city while the people are ridiculing him, insulting him, and throwing stones at him, so much so that the blood began to pour from his body and that his shoes became soaked with his own blood. As he ran outside the city, he himself narrates to Aishaa, ‘that I could not remember where I was going’. He was in such a state of shock that he did not know where he was until he reached a garden a few kilometers outside of Taif. The people of Taif had stopped chasing him, and he sat down, tired and bleeding, being tortured and humiliated by the people of Taif, all alone under a tree. There he (S.A.W) made a dua (call) to Allah (S.W.T) and said:

“O Allah! I complain to You of my weakness, my scarcity of resources and the humiliation I have been subjected to by the people. O Most Merciful of those who are merciful. O Lord of the weak and my Lord too. To whom have you entrusted me? To a distant person who receives me with hostility? Or to an enemy to whom you have granted authority over my affair? So long as You are not angry with me, I do not care. Your favor is of a more expansive relief to me. I seek refuge in the light of Your Face by which all darkness is dispelled and every affair of this world and the next is set right, lest Your anger or Your displeasure descends upon me. I desire Your pleasure and satisfaction until You are pleased. There is no power and no might except by You.”

At this point, the Prophet (S.A.W) said ‘I saw a cloud hovering above me, and lo and behold, I saw Jibreel (Angel Gabriel) came down from that cloud, and besides him was an angel that I had never seen before.’ And Jibreel said to the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W), ‘O Muhammad (S.A.W), your Lord has seen how your people have responded to you, your Lord has seen what they have said to you, so he has sent me with the angel of the mountains to place at your disposal.’

The angel said, ‘O Muhammad (S.A.W), if you want, command me and I will cause the two mountains of Taif to collapse upon them.’ (For those of you who don’t know, Taif is situated on some type of plateau, and the city is in between these two mountains, and the angel asked the Prophet (S.A.W) if he should just squash the people between the same mountains whose pebbles they used to stone the Prophet (S.A.W) with.)

The Prophet (S.A.W), still bleeding and his shoes still wet with blood says, ‘No! Rather, I pray that Allah (S.W.T) blesses their children to be Muslims and worship Allah (S.W.T) alone. Even if they have rejected Islam, I pray that Allah (S.W.T) blesses their progeny to be Muslim.’ SubhanAllah!

This was truly one of the greatest miracles and one of the most compassionate moments of the Prophet (S.A.W). So many are the lessons we learn from this incident. First and foremost, look at the trials and tribulations the Prophet (S.A.W) was afflicted with, all of this so that he could spread the word of Allah (S.W.T) and so that he could spread the message of Islam. He was physically tortured, ridiculed and insulted by an entire city. Nobody was there to support him except Allah (S.W.T). Look at the prayer that the Holy Prophet (S.A.W) made to Allah! That O Allah, as long as you’re not angry with me, as long as your anger is not descending upon me, I don’t care what happens with me. His main concern was the pleasure of Allah, not how mankind treated him! His main concern was that Allah (S.W.T) sends His blessings upon him. Just imagine for a second, the Prophet’s (S.A.W) ears were still ringing with the torture and the taunts of the people, the sarcastic comments and remarks had not been forgotten, the blood had not yet dried and was flowing, and yet in that state, he still forgave and made a prayer for the people of Taif, and he said at least let their children be Muslims O Allah (S.W.T). Just look at the love and concern he had. He showed the side of mercy and leniency, and that is why Allah says in the Quran,

‘We have only sent you as a means of mercy for the entire world’. (21:107)

My friends, the miracle here is not that Allah sent the angel at the Prophet’s (S.A.W) disposal to crush the people of Taif, the miracle isn’t that Allah responded to the prayer of the Prophet (S.A.W) instantaneously, no! The real miracle is the forgiveness of the Prophet (S.A.W) at this time. The real miracle is that the Prophet (S.A.W) overlooked what the people of Taif had done, and he chose to forgive and forget, and to make prayer for the people of Taif because if the Prophet (S.A.W) had willed, there would be no city of Taif right now, but instead he made a prayer for them, and to this day, Taif is a city of Islam. To this day, it is a holiday resort where families go to take their children, it’s a place where Muslims go to celebrate, it’s a place for Muslims to go to enjoy the beauty of the people and the surroundings, and if Allah (S.W.T) had willed, there would be no city of Taif today, but such is the mercy of our Prophet (S.A.W) that the city of Taif continues to remain and thrive to this day.

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The post The Witches of Africa appeared first on MBC Times.

Witchcraft deaths have plagued Central African Republic, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Congo, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Gambia. In these countries, the power and fear of sorcery has gripped everyone right from the villagers to governments. A person’s misfortunes, health issues or financial ills are usually attributed to witches in the vicinity. Even the slightest suspicion is enough to mobilize a mob or an entire village against the suspect. Such fears create anger, hatred, vengeance and violent attitudes leaving the victim at the mercy of brutal tribalism. The alleged are usually women, elderly people, orphans and children who are accused by their parents of witchcraft.

Bengin, a former French colony sandwiched between Nigeria and Togo, records high rates of child infanticide. Unless a baby is born head first and face upwards, communities believe the child is a witch or a sorcerer. The infant is killed immediately sometimes by dashing its brains out against a tree trunk or leaving the baby to die in the bushes. Also, if the mother dies in childbirth, or if the child fails to grow the first tooth before the age of eight months, or if the first tooth appears in the upper jaw, the consequences are similar.

Another case of high child infanticide is northern Ghana, where ‘spirit children’ are murdered every year.  Physically disabled children and babies born at the same time as their family’s misfortune are often accused of being possessed by evil spirits and are killed before the ‘ evil spirit’ could harm further.

Whereas in Tanzania prevails a sinister trade of Albino organs and body parts. Albinos are murdered and mutilated for their body parts which are used for making paranormal wares believed to be effective in witchcraft rituals. Since 2008, at least 62 albinos have been killed in Tanzania, 16 have been violently assaulted and had their limbs amputated and the bodies of 12 albinos have been exhumed from graves and dismembered.

Simultaneously, Ghana harbors ‘witch camps’ in which hundreds of women, mostly elderly, accused of being witches are given refuge. Currently up to 1,000 women live in huts with no electricity or running water.  Although the witch camps are unique to northern Ghana, the country shares the same rampant belief as other African countries with famine, illness and other natural disasters blamed on witches.

Causes of Witchcraft Beliefs

Such endemic dogmas have social and religious influences. People are traditionally raised to associate evil acts and misfortunes with myths. Poverty, misery and frustration have further driven many Africans to look for scape goats to hold responsibility for personal or society’s ills. Also, contemporary influences of African movies and film genres reinforce these tribal outlooks.

Many diviners and spiritual heads have capitalized on the African mentality and their desperate conditions.  Majority Africans are more accessible to spiritual healers than health services or police. Churches, shrines and houses of faiths practicing lucrative businesses of divinations and exorcism endorse sorcery accusations and killings. They believe a witch should be tortured and suffered to die as written in the religious scriptures.

Need for International Assistance

Laws of countries like Cameroun, CAR and Zimbabwe recognize witchcraft as an offence. But despite international outrage and repeated attempts by African governments  and NGO’s to stamp out these practices, the sinister body part trade, infanticide, and witch killings continue. Education and removal of tribal ignorance are the main ingredients which are likely to bring changes in attitudes.

The Witches of Africa

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The extenction of men

The male is only instrumental in procreation in a superficial way, participating in conjugation for seeding; whereas the role of the female is much more significant and complex. She participates in the entire creative process of the Nature in formation and development of the species; added to that her role in nurturing the new born is equally pivotal for the preservation of the species. Therefore, the biological construction of male and female is seminally very different to suit their role models.

It is Nature’s implied doctrine that the best shall proliferate for evolution of species to higher and higher levels in evolutionary ladder. As a matter of fact, there is undefined mental magnetism which both male and female share in equal degree in their attraction towards the opposite sex— invariably, every male is attracted towards the beauty, youthfulness and attractive disposition of the female, and similarly the female’s attraction is towards the masculine attribute of the male.

Uncannily and unconsciously, this magnetism works conflicting with the disorder created by any superimposition. Let me clarify here that in human male and female the entropy is the society and the social norms superimposed upon the members in contradiction to the purposive instinct endowed by Nature.

Now the question arises that within this harmonious procreative law of Nature, how does the dysfunctional discord in male and female equation set in? What are the causes leading to the degeneration of women’s right to dignity and equality all over the world?

To my understanding, there is a significant historical perspective to this subjugation of women in the society. Gender inequality has perverted historical reasons. Women, in different degrees, have been victims of this all over the world. This ceaseless violence has not stopped till today, though we are boastful of our material and technological advancement. The strong hold of patriarchal mind set is yet to loosen its hold on human society.
In the ancient agrarian societies men and women lived in harmony with distinct division of labour.

The recent archaeological discoveries in Europe stretch back the antiquity of such societies to 7000 BC as against our earlier understanding at 4000 BC. It is an intriguing fact that suddenly world witnessed the emergence of many new models of civilizations emerging almost contemporaneously at various parts of the world with marginal differences in their antiquity.

Some such old civilizations are: Egyptian, Sumerians, Babylonians, and Indus Valley civilization, to name a few. Interestingly, all these civilizations worshiped feminine power and the fertility cult associated with it. The Nature was personified as feminine and worshiped as Mother Earth–Gaia.

Then came the invaders; those who became instrumental in demolishing these peaceful civilizations and ushering in violence in the society as the means of survival. The typical example is the advent of the Aryans– a pastoral and nomadic people. Till date the debate about their origin has not been settled, but the supposedly magical superiority of these people, despite their enormous contribution to antiquity, are necessarily to be accused of having ushered in violence into early human societies. These people were warriors and their engagement in war and territorial expansion established the patriarchal model of societies, consequently women lost their position to male warriors. At this early stage of civilization, the woman’s body was also treated like man’s territorial right for exploitation, drawing mental imagery of violence and subjugation of the weak in war and territorial expansion. Men carry these collective memories of superiority for thousands of years, from their god like glories in war and strife; which subconsciously deter them from accepting women as their equals, though, in many respect women are undeniably superior to men.

These war mongering ancient tribes—Aryans and others, established a social order with underlying violence—in other words physical might is right—as the mainstay of survival. Ironically, this idea penetrated so deep into the social order that despite some pioneering efforts by social reformers, religious preachers, spiritual leaders, this mind set could not be obliterated.  And in post-mediaeval period this expression reached its culmination in Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” and Karl Marx’s “dialectical materialism” and “class struggle”—modelled after the implicit dynamics of violence as the cornerstone of the societal existence. Women, obviously, lost out in this race of violence. A few centuries before Darwin and Marx, even the great thinkers and writers like Francis Bacon and Shakespeare were vocal about the inferiority of women.

It may appear a little presumptuous; but undeniably men are biologically more unsecured than the females for a very complex psychological reason—as paternity is a sheer introduction as against the certainty attached to maternity. This makes men more unsecured, suspicious and jealous in their sexual behaviour; though apparently it appears otherwise in a male dominated society awarding more sexual freedom to men over women. It is interesting to observe that since ancient time chastity of woman has been overemphasised almost in all societies, which stems unambiguously from man’s perceived sexual insecurity or more significantly (individual) irrelevance, which I have described towards the end of this article.

The Romans, Greeks, Arabian tribes, Indians in the ancient world had laid down the cannons of chastity for women, failing which they were subjected to inhuman torture and even honour killings. Unfortunately, though reduced in number, honour killing is still prevalent in many regressive societies of the world. In India the “Sati” and child marriage were widely practised in Hindu tradition and even in recent times some groups glorify these traditions and resort to honour killings for deviant behaviour, despite stringent laws prohibiting these practices. In the tradition of “Sati” women were not even supposed to see the shadow of another man other than their husbands. On the death of her husband, the woman was thrown into the funeral pyre of her husband alive as a very pious ritual. The Hindus in India are neurotic about woman’s chastity till today, though many women have proven their calibre in all walks of society, yet the idea of “Sati” lingers on. There are certain rituals welded to religious ceremonies to impress upon the feminine folk about the value of chastity and acceptance of the husbands as the Lord of their lives for seven incarnations. From this perception of a patrilineal system many concomitant evils originated, the list of which can be very long indeed. Bride burning, sacrificing female child and in some section of educated modern society aborting female foetus on determination of sex is not very uncommon.

The most shocking discrimination against females in Hindu society was the tradition of “Devdasi”—literally meaning the servant of the God. The poor parents, mostly from low caste Hindus, in honour of the God, offered their daughters to the temples as a sacrosanct religious offering. These girls, on reaching their biological maturity for sexual intercourse were incessantly abused sexually by men. Strangely, in the name of God prostitution was encouraged in the temples. Many ancient Indian temples had podiums for dance where these “Devdasis” were required to perform erotic dances for amorous amusement of the male gentry. Even in present day India this practice is perpetuated in some parts—though illegally.

The story of the women in Islamic world is no better. Let me make an exception here that contrary to the popular belief about the discriminating Islamic law against women, the Quran is more protective and progressive in its tenet about the rights of the women. Unfortunately, the misinterpretation of the Islamic tenets, and regression of the Islamic culture to the pre-Islamic Arabic tribal culture have resulted in fettering of women in all respect. Prophet Muhammad was very progressive in his outlook for the women’s right some fifteen centuries ago. Before the advent of Islam the conditions of women were deplorably pathetic in Arab society; they were treated like domesticated animals or at best as properties of their husbands. The role of the woman was to satisfy the oppressive lust of the man and to produce children—particularly male children to suit the warrior archetype. No doubt Prophet Muhammad made some positive changes in the condition of the women by instituting rights to property, inheritance, protection, education etc. But this did not give equal status to women to any considerable degree. The men still remained the protectors and the women were required to be devoutly obedient to their husbands, thereby making them slaves to their male overlords. For proliferation of the clan and to build protective forces for the tribe, men married many women at the same time to the agonising discrimination of women. After Prophet Muhammad the practices also relapsed to the pre-Islamic era. Even today the women under Islamic culture have very little semblance of equality with men.

Compared to the women in the Western world the atrocity against women in Islamic nations is disproportionately high. Even the right to life of woman is definable on the basis of her conduct and obedience to many archaic traditions.

In the Western world, the pre-Christian time was no better for the women in respect than in the other parts of the globe. As I have already mentioned, the Romans and the Greeks were extremely discriminatory about women like their Indian or Arabic counterparts. In ancient Rome and Greece, chastity of woman was equally emphasised for similar reason linked to assertion of biological paternity. The pre-Christian world also was decidedly patriarchal. Though, these two ancient civilizations are renowned for learning and intellectual activities, yet war and strife were not uncommon to their cultures, resultantly the proverbial warriors were dominant in the social milieu.  The preponderance of male warriors had its emphasis on brawn and force. The men emerged as the protectors of the society.

It is generally believed that like Prophet Muhammad, Jesus was equally sympathetic to the cause of women. The scholars who subscribe to this view make reference to an issue of adultery resolved by Jesus in favour of a woman (Gospel of John) whose life was in danger. Even it is argued that there were many women in the inner circle of Jesus. Reverence for Virgin Mary in Catholic tradition is seen as reverence for women in general. However, in Palestine of those days the status of women was deplorably low and Jesus’ kindness for women was never received with any sympathy.

Christianity emerged from the strongly entrenched tradition of Judaism, which again was a staunch patriarchal society putting man in the position of authority; as a result, the advent of Christianity could not make any dent on the discriminatory practices against women. The male chauvinists interpreted Biblical tenets with emphasis on divine wish associated with male superiority. God first created Adam, and Eve was created out of the ribs of Adam; hence man is a creation of God and woman is a creation of man. Not being a direct creation of God woman is imperfect in the divine scheme of things. Further, in the Garden of Eden it was Eve who coaxed Adam to eat the forbidden fruit of knowledge and was responsible for perpetrating the Original Sin and the fall of mankind from the Garden of Eden. So the advancement of Christianity did not make any perceptible change to the position of women in society. There are many other verses in Bible which support the idea that women should be submissive to men, cover their head—a tradition strikingly similar to the Islamic tradition of ‘hijab’ and Hindu tradition of “pallu”—the effort to veil women from the sight of other men—a distinct male insecurity in the game of sexuality. Like other religions, Christianity also assigned the role of bearing children to their women for ridding themselves from the burden of the Original Sin.

No doubt that in the history of every religious and cultural groups some women had rose to the position of remarkable eminence in various walks of life. These stray instances are quoted by the orthodox analysts to deny discriminatory treatment meted out to women all over the recorded history.

The world witnessed the upsurge of feminist movements in the middle of the nineteenth century and gaining momentum in the early and later part of the twentieth century. However, its intensity and agendas varied from nation to nation, from cultural group to cultural group. The Governments of many countries passed legislations to provide political, social and legal equalities to women.  Under the sway of this movement the US and Britain granted women’s suffrage rights in 1920s.
The feminists struggled to address to issues such as domestic violence, sexual harassment, inequality in employment and remuneration etc. including changes in male centric vocabularies.

The impact of this movement is appreciably visible in the Western world, with gradually women outnumbering men in many fields. But the movements in Asia, Africa and Middle East have still remained woefully sluggish; women’s social position has not come up to any considerable level of equality with men. The atrocity on women is distressingly pronounced in these societies in various degrees. The inhuman act of mutilation of female genital, honour killing, gender bias at workplace, domestic violence, male authority in family circle etc are very much in presence across theses countries and cultures. In stark contrast to the feminist ideology in the West and other parts of the world, the feminist movements in the Islamic nations demand rights of women by appropriate interpretation of Quran and Islamic teachings, which in the opinion of the feminist leaders have been lopsided and male centric over the centuries; so the equality of women in the Islamic world has not evolved beyond Islamic personal law. Mysteriously, the voice of this movement is more subdued than radical in the Islamic world; may be because of certain rights enjoyed by women in Muslim societies since long—such as consent in marriage, divorce and remarriage, accumulate and administer personal property etc. From a different angle, the cause for this passive feminist  movement can be ascribed to the rigidity of the social fabric where the voice of dissent is viewed mercilessly. To my mind, the latter is more plausible.

To conclude

I am tempted to describe a futuristic idea that comes to my mind, particularly based on the success of the feminist movement in the Western world; and I am convinced that the countries, cultural and religious groups who are falling behind now will certainly match up to the success story of the Western world maybe a little later in time, and the dominance of women instead of equality will be a universal scenario.

A world order dominated by women and with the progress in science and technology men will be rendered useless by losing their position as protectors, bread earners and warriors—a complete marginalisation of masculine strength and brawn. Under the circumstances the women may not need men for their sexual satisfaction, which will be taken care of by artificial machines, maybe more effectively. As regards man’s role in procreation, the artificial insemination can be a viable alternative, which will further emancipate women in the arena of reproduction—no abortion, no compulsion, no unwanted pregnancy, no domestic violence, no overpopulation on earth. Through genetic modification the women can even have designer children of their choice, preferably female children—a complete feminine takeover.

• Where will the men go? Will they be extinct owing to their redundancy? | Picture: Traboulay Photography

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The post Dwarfs, gnomes, trolls and others. Are they real? appeared first on MBC Times.

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth, Buddha.

According to Josef Jiránek:

“One late evening he goes through his district and saw on one of the plain burn a small fire. (…) Around the fire were five small men with white beards wrapped around their waists. They were so small (…) He knew that they were dwarfs of the forest. He reached down and listened to their talk. They talked about forest wildlife, the trees, the flowers, the forest and about everything what that day in the woods happened. (…) When they met another day again, they were very upset. They found that mushroom pickers harm forest. They devastate mushrooms and must be punished. One of the dwarfs took out a black wand and three times waved with her over his head and uttered the magic formula. At that moment, thunder, storm started and hid all the mushrooms. Little people disappeared and since then nobody have seen them.”

Furthermore, through Nordic mythology we can see dwarfs as the skilled smiths. Brothers Brokk and Sindri made Thor´s hammer (Mjölnir), which is unbreakable, always hits its goal and return to Thor. Freyrs ship was also made by dwarfs and always had a good wind. Except these and others examples, dwarfs also helped in the fight, which led the Normans against Wendols, and which was also attented by Ahmad Ibn Faldan. Normans had in this fight many problems and they visited dwarfs, skilled smiths, closed in furs. One of the oldest has provided valuable advice on how to proceed in hard fight.

Dwarfs, gnomes, trolls

According to some theories, dwarfs don´t need to be some type of unnatural humanoid beings, but, as reported Otomar Dvořák: “they may be a specific energy beings or astral projections that receive shape in contact with the human information field.” We could therefore expect, that it is a sort of a natural force, energy, which is in natural objects. From a historical point of view existed many various religions or cults that honor energy and power which dwelt in natural objects as trees, hills or rivers. Whether are these creatures just energy projections or not, there are still information about dwarfs who were and still are more real than could anybody want, because they can be sometimes aggressive, for example as it depicts the following story….

The sighting of group of teens happened in 2008 in Suncho Corral, Argentina. Teens were about one in the morning outside. While the majority entertained, young man, Juan Carlos Roldan, filmed the talks with camera on mobile phone. Suddenly, they heard strange sound. Juan, who filmed also the creature said: “It was walking sideways and was wearing dark clothes. But it was impossible to see its face because its face was covered in shadows.”

Zdroj obrázku: whofortedblog.com

Although some skeptics think that the creature may be just some animal, witnesses claim that the strange creature walks, and later run on two legs. As introduced Tony Hart-Wilden “Another resident, who described the culprit as a tiny man with pointy ears and an “enormous hat”, was violently knocked off his bicycle by the creature, and when he tried to run away, it blocked his path and shouted, “you shall not pass through here”. The gnome then proceeded beat the rider unconscious.“ Teens, as well as neighbours in the area, was after sighting of gnome afraid to go out during night.

Dwarves (and their more or less distant relatives) may be discover even today. Let us look closer at the some of them…

Troll (Iceland, Scandinavia)

In Nordic mythology we can find creature called troll. Troll may have on side huge dimensions, but, on the other hand, his height may be even equal to dwarfs. These creatures with long arms and legs, without mercy, are often dangerous to human beings.  So, although there are a number of little people, who seek to help people, they are also some who are not very good. Troll is often described as an old, strong and slow with dark skin, hairy, large eyes and long nose. This creature is active at night, because it may turn into the stony, if it is caught by the sun´s ray. Because of this reason we can find them living in the caves or in ravines. These, not very clever creatures, often harms people and although it seems impossible to meet them, it is not so unlikely as one might think.

One of such events reported Jennifer Cienfuentes. In her children´s room used to be inexplicable coolness and her dog was afraid to enter in Jennifer´s room. But besides this, one day happened something terrible:

One particular day she was awakened (Jennifer´s mother), heard me screaming and bolted to my room to find two troll-looking things throwing me back and forth to each other! She described as being 3 ft. tall with massive dreadlock-like hair with enormous hideous teeth that were fixated into maligant, evil grins. My mother stood frozen, shocked in horror as they proceeded to throw me in the air like a beach ball. (…) My mother´s body was being levitated in the air in my room as the evil trolls proceeded to continue to toss me back and forth! (…) She always kept a cross above me door and when she reached for it, she found herself towards me and caught me in mid-air. She held me in her arms and repeated the prayers and when she opened her eyes the trolls had vanished.

However, there also other, more or less known, stories about how some uknown creature came into the village or house, where it seeked for something. Of course, it is possible, that similar to some animals, they are searching for places with good or bad earth energy. The strange story of meeting troll happened in March 2010 in the farming community of Chiquimitio, Mexico, where was people afraid of the strange creature that goes around the place. Villagers attacked him and snapped his head with a machete and body put lacerated to dogs. Of course, it may not be clear that this creature was a troll. At present and in the past we could find a number of examples that describes the strange cases of animals which suffered various diseases and therefore may/might look like mythical creatures. But they are usually just one and they do not live for a long time. But, as Greg Newkirk states:

The interesting part about this case is that the eye witnesses claimed the creature walked into town on it’s own, and they had reported prior sightings of similar “monsters”, meaning that if the witnesses are to be trusted, this little guy (and possibly others) have been wandering around for awhile (…)..

Zdroje obrázkov: whofortedblog.com

Mmoatia/Mmotia (Ghana)

Mmoatia or also Mmotia is a name for the little person, reaching a height of about 1 feet, who live in forests and is generally regarded as mysterious dwarf with magical powers. It is generally believed, that they have awesome knowledge of medicines. Mmoatia can be red, white or black and they are active only after dark. It is very difficult to trace them, because they could travel great distances quickly and they have backward pointing feet. These little people should work closely with priests or an African medicine men. When they move, they do it so without making a sound, during which they could stealing things but also babies. It should be noted that the Mmoatia considered to be hostile creature and against uninvited visitors can act hostile. It is said, that it is very dangerous to whistling in the woods, respectively where Mmoatia live, because they communicate with each other through a whistle language. Therefore it is believed that their home was once whistling rocks of Tongo, which made strange whistling sound during November and December, when wind from the Sahara blows through it.
Many may see Mmoatia as a legend created to scare the enemy, or an explanation of some supernatural phenomena. However, many natives believe in the existencie of “evil dwarf.” One of the stories, about a man named Saidu, is bringing us John Powell:
“Saidu´s work involved frequent journeys deep into the forest to record the growth and condition of trees selected for detailed study. One day Saidu returned to the campus in extreme distress; he had been struck dumb and could communicate only in writing. (…) Saidu had visited an area of forest that was new to him. Being unfamiliar with local custom he had gone to work on the da bone, the day of evil when work is forbidden, and after taking pepper with his evening meal he had lost the power of speech. He was convinced that he was taken captive by a tribe of mmoatia, small forest dwarfs with backward pointing feet. Saidu had been told by the people living in the place of his affliction that his speech could be restored if he returned to make sacrifices to the local gods. (…)”
Saidu´s speech return only after he brought sacrifice to these spirits. Although it may sound strange, especialy for the “civilized people” who do not come with supernatural forces into daily contact, Saidu actually can met the Mmoatia. As next states John Powell:

“In an effort to learn more about Saidu’s plight, the expatriate colleague made enquiries among the faculty of the university and found an elderly Ghanaian professor who was reputed to be knowledgeable in this field. The venerable gentleman explained that the mmoatia are considered to be intermediaries between men and the spirits of the forest, often employed by fetish priests to protect people from curses or cast out evil demons. ‘Make no mistake,’ pronounced the guru, ‘these creatures exist. I have seen them with my own eyes in this very room.’ ”

Nimerigar/Nynymbi/ Ninimbe (United States)

These dwarfs dwell in the Wyoming Mountains and caves near to the Wind River. These litle people, who reach a height from 20 inches to three feets, with large heads, usually wearing goatskins and their diet include deers, which are hunting with poisoned arrows. Although are these creatures healers, they are also aggressive and with poisoned arrows can also shoot at people. These destructive and violent little people are often seen as cannibals or originators of serious diseases. Next, according to Kathy Weiser: “The Nimerigar were also known to kill their own kind with a blow to the head when they became too ill to be an active part of their society.“

Although Nimerigar appeared to be only a kind of folk legend, discovery in 1932 shows us truer part of the stories about these creatures. Two gold prospectors, Cecil Main and Frank Carr, worked at that time in the area Pedro Mountains (Wyoming). After they found the golden vein and fired dynamite, before men opened 1,2 metres wide, 1,2 metres high and 4,6 metres deep cavity where they saw somebody sitting with crossed arms on the rock. When men looked closer they found out that tan wrinkled figure is actually a mummy, which strikingly resembled to a humanoid creature. They took this 6,5 -7 inches tall creature in a Casper city. At first, people looked on it skeptically and assume that it is a scam. However, Dr. Henry Shapiro from the American Museum of Natural History believed that the mummy is true. The X-rays showed, that this figure with the face of an old man, flat head, huge eyes and wide mouth, have developed male skeleteon, injured back, broke collarbone and skull which had been smashed by a heavy blow, died at age 65 years. On the head was also found congealed blood. The mummy of this little man  was displayed in sideshows for years. Then, it was purchased by Ivan T. Goodman, but when he died in 1950, his heirs divided his things, the mummy disappeared.

Mummies of little people was already found on different places of the world. Although X-rays and other tests reached a higher age of the mummies, skeptics believe that they are more an infants of some uknown tribe of Indians, prematurely born babies and so on. But, except the findings of mummies, people are still meeting alive little people. Another sighting of creature similar to dwarf have been captured on camera by night worker on the Texas gas lines. This documentary worker send photos at website Phantoms and monsters.com. As the man said:

Nov. 2012 – I was working the night shift on an x-ray crew at a material gas plant. This was around 3 am and there was only four of us in the plant at the time. I took this picture after seeing something swaying side to side out of the corner of my eye. I was in the basket of a man lift coming down when I took the picture. By the time I unhooked my harness to get out of the basket the creature was gone. The police were called and walked premises. The officer told me there were 26 UFO sighting calls throughout that night. If you zoom in you can see the silhouettes of eyes and elongated mouth. I have no doubt of what I believed I seen that night. The other person that saw it with me took off running for the truck.

In addition to these cases, we can look on other sightings of dwarfs. As reported Otomar Dvorák, sometimes in the middle ages saw the guard of the castle Sovinec (Czech republic) strange light in the opposite of mountain Tvarožná.

The light grew stronger and the man on the tower could not believe his eyes. At the side of the mountain opened a sort of rock arch, under which burned a huge bonfire. And around the fire were dancing transparent silhouettes of characters with short legs and great big heads. (…) Dwarfs held hands and danced in a circle around the flames. (…) Suddenly everything went off (…) The next day a guard climbed the mountain but he found there no track. In places, where was a cave with a fireplace, was only a large boulder overgrown with moss.

We can therefore assume that dwarfs, gnoms, mmoatia, trolls and many other creatures exist. Well, the interesting thing is that they are not good-hearted dwarfs, which can be found in European fairy tales, such as guarding treasures, protect nature and help people. Frequent observation in these times we might rather see in Africa or South America. But where are European one? Many stories about dwarfs say that they had problem with the sounds of church bells. In Asia, people using various bells for stripping off evil spirits. But dwarfs do not need to be evil spirits when they are going away from their places because of bells. It is possible, that bells create ultrasounds and infrasounds, that could actually work very damaging to the delicate senses of dwarfs.
So, little people are going away and it is not only because of bells. As reported Josef Jiránek one day, a young shepherdess in the Lužické mountains (Czech Republic) lost cow. Shepherdess found her and saw a dwarf with a long gray beard. “He was thoughtful and sad. He turned to the girl and said: “Times changed, forests are dissappearing, the country is devastated and people are becoming more evil. Therefore, we, dwarfs, are leaving these places.” He reached for her hand and gave her the key to the treasury of dwarfs with a request to retain it, if little people returned to the country.” The girl hid the key as the dwarf asked to, but they have not returned.
Could therefore be a natural force or energy that had to supervise on human evolution? Many people believe that there are hidden forces in the form of some kind of invisible beings, or rather the guards who supervise us. We can also mention the Gaia theory, which says that the Earth is a separate living and thinking organism that is capable of influencing the population of humans and animals. According to this theory, Earth may deliberately create energy that in contact with people transforms into some reasonable projections. However, the boom of civilization and ravages of country may all these natural, protective forces bring to ideas that they don not wanna to protect us anymore and go away…

Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught we will realize that we can´t eat money. Cree proverb.

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