Tag: EKSPost

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EKS China Post: The Great Learning

This is going to be among my final posts on this site, so I want to talk more about The Great Learning, one of my most favorite readings/China topics of the entire semester. I revisited it this evening while listening to a podcast about the current state of affairs of American society as it relates to COVID19.

So obviously, this virus sucks. It has completely killed our economy and our people, totally disrupting our way of life well into the foreseeable future. I also believe leadership at our highest federal levels are lackluster and not really doing enough in my mind to minimize the impacts of this virus. The Great Learning has a number of important points and or values that I think are somewhat relatable or identifiable in some capacity in today’s modern political landscape. The fifth bullet point discussing virtues in the kingdom is something I wish was actually happening for the federal government. I feel like their bold, standoffish behavior with states that don’t necessarily agree with political beliefs were adversely affected in the recovery process. New York is the prime example of one of the ‘States’. Success with this virus should have started with consulting states, but that obviously did not happen. To a lesser extent, California and New Jersey parallel New York’s dire situation.

The 12th bullet point talking about states being rightly governed is also a concerning area for me. In April, it was explained by our leaders that the recovery journey will mostly be left up to the states, opting to take a more hands-off approach to handle this situation. It wasn’t (and still isn’t) a very widely accepted idea; there are protests happening in states like California and Michigan with protestors wanting change to what they see as ineffective emergency policy at the state levels. Thankfully i don’t think that will become any bigger than it already is, but it screams of civil unrest because of a general lack of direction from our P.O.T.U.S. This would not be happening if the Executive branch had a more firm presence (if I were a betting man, i would bet my car on this, but that will never happen). As mentioned in the 14th bullet point, ‘it cannot be, when the root is neglected, that what should spring from it will be well ordered’. I really don’t think we have any true unity anymore, which really sucks. Unity I feel is now more of a ‘pay to play’ or you have to give something to get someone’s loyalty or you only unite when not doing so would lead to something bad happening. If anybody sees unity, its probably from the protestors, who I don’t honestly think really fully understand the situation.

The ‘root’s of our country are divided with left and right, blue and red; its fairly obvious and it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. If only Confucius was here; his wisdom and sage advice would be a godsend to many of our leaders not only nationally, but internationally as well to countries like China and Russia. He may not have been able to prevent the virus or prevent deaths, but without question he certainly would have done more good than bad if we’re comparing him to the White House.

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EKS Middle East Post 4: Learning About Hajj

Today I read the step-by-step guide by Aljazeera on how to participate in what is known as the Hajj (the Muslim pilgrimage). In my previous GHS class Modern Middle East and North Africa (a great GHS class to take by the way if you need one more GHS to satisfy the GHS curriculum), we talked briefly about what the Hajj is in a broad sense, but not exactly getting down to the nuts-and-bolts about the important little things of it. Not that it means anything, but we were supposed to go over it in class in the middle of the semester, but thanks to some unfortunate winter storms, we never were able to hear the professor delve deeper in the topic.

This guide was a quick read about the what seemed like a long and somewhat tiresome process of paying homage to the Prophet Muhammad. It was a good baseline i’d say for the documentary i watched over it. It showed devout practitioners of Islamic faith and those looking to complete the ‘journey of a lifetime’, people who were willing to be in such close proximity to other because of their faith. I found the most interesting part of the Hajj was the stoning of the devil, symbolic for Allah casting away the devil. I saw some people chuck the rock, while others just tossed it. I took it as people trying to truly emulate their God would try to throw it harder (maybe i’m just overthinking it?). I found the gesture strange, but the fact that everyone was doing it made it seem normal.

Overall, the documentary was the best way for me to bolster my understanding of this incredible pilgrimage. It gave me the impression that many followers of Islam have an unwavering faith in their religion, and the Hajj is the perfect example of such devotion.

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EKS Middle East Post 3: No Papers no Problem, Right?

I saw some news online late this evening about something terrible. People who do not have any form of identification papers available for healthcare workers are not eligible to receive tests for the corona virus in Lebanon. Timour Azhari of Aljazeera came out with the topic in question yesterday, stating that the state-run healthcare system has implementations in place such that only those undocumented workers/people who are in need of ’emergency care’ were the only people in this situation who had the possibility to obtain professional care. Denying healthcare to those who would potentially need the care due to COVID-19 is downright deplorable, regardless of the circumstances.

It doesn’t help either that COVID-19 is only getting worse; the doubletime for the illness seems to be just under a week. In America (a far more advanced culture/society compared to Lebanon and many other MENA nationstates) we have the most cases of this terrible illness by a longshot; we have over 140k compromised patients compared to Lebanon’s roughly 440 compromised patients. At this point, it’s hard to say that we have a better healthcare system than they do, given our poor response time and late lack of mobility from our leaders in D.C. I can’t believe I just said that, but i’m starting to think it’s true. You know what makes it worse? Lebanon ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which guarantees “the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health”, including the “prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases” (in Azhari’s words, 2019). We still have to pay for simple coverage! That gets a big yikes from me…

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/undocumented-struggle-access-coronavirus-tests-lebanon-200328114859620.html

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EKS China Post 4: The One About Me Still Not Understanding Daoism

I finished rereading Excerpts from Chuang Tzu, which talks about Daoism. I am thoroughly confused about what i just read. To my knowledge, the idea of Daoism/Taoism is simply being (is that it, because i hope it is). There is nothing else to it; it just seems like everything is just being.

“Do you know what all things agree in calling right?”

“How would I know that?” said Wang Ni.

“Do you know that you don’t know it?”

“How would I know that?”

“Then do things know nothing?”

This was one of many confusing parts to this reading. Here is how I understand this part (feel free to correct me if my interpretation isn’t right). Say for example, there is a mountain. I call it a mountain, and someone else calls a different thing. We all understand that a mountain is a mountain is a mountain, but that someone else and me both understand that the mountain is in fact a mountain.

Another general bigger picture idea that I may or may not have been able to garner from the reading is that Dao kinda has to do with something like a never ending journey in a sense; always learning about the world around us. Because if you stop learning, you stop understanding how the world functions and is.

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EKS China Post 3: Why I Agree with Hsun Tzu

‘Man’s nature is evil; goodness is the result of conscious activity.’ This is the first line from Hsun Tzu’s Man’s Nature is Evil. I strongly agree with this philosopher such that people without a modicum of knowledge of ‘Good vs Evil’ when left unchecked will always act in their own self interest/s.  He masterfully uses the analogy of ‘warped wood’ on the first page of the PDF to liken that to how people act. I thought about his argument along the following lines as well; to do good, you must know good.

I think my beliefs link up with his especially well starting on the next page, where he criticizes the belief of Mencius such that people are able to learn because they are inherently good natured. Tsu makes what i believe to be a strong distinction between nature and the idea of ‘conscious activity’ (the idea of using effort to think about something). People are not born knowing what is good or evil, they are taught these ideas by ‘sages’ or other people in their lives.

In recent times, we’ve seen evil nature from people in our own community. A week ago I had seen a middle age women pull up her truck in front of a store to load up several boxes of toilet paper and disinfectant wipes. People were jeering at her because she and her husband in the truck didn’t give a rip about others; regardless of the store’s ‘1 per person policy’. Crisis seems to bring the most out of people i find; i was really too young to see it with 9/11, but I can see it with this pandemic. It allows us to see who’s a man/women of the people, who are trying to just get by, and those trying to profit/gain from this terrible situation. Extremes bring out extremes, but the worst part of all this is that we haven’t even started to flatten the infection curve!

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EKS China Post 2: Analects of Confucius

If Confucius was alive today, i am 100% positive that he would have a field day talking upon numerous aspects of our society (for me, i think he would be talking about COVID-19, and how [still] many young people aren’t taking it seriously). Re-reading Analects of Confucius (posted by Dr. McGrath) this morning helped me understand new things that I would otherwise not have picked up on in our first discussions over it.

[7:21] The master never discussed strange phenomena, physical exploits, disorder or ghost stories. I can’t think of any better applications better suited for this than the current executive office, who has spread a great deal of misinformation and helped create more disorder. We have often seen conspiracy theories pushed out to push a political agenda that also try to change the public’s opinion on the state of affairs nationally. Doing so has already led to huge repercussions not only in society, but (in my opinion) more so for our economy. I could write an entire post on this opinion, but it wouldn’t change the borderline recession we’re in.

This also falls in line with the following: [8:9] The Master said: “You might force people act according a certain principle, but you won’t be able to force them to understand it.” The current administration also seems dead set on returning to our recently abandoned way of life just because the economy attention. This idea of forcing us back into our old way of life so suddenly is incredibly dangerous and shows a clear lack of awareness for the current state of things in regards to the pandemic we face.

For better or for worse, COVID19 has inspired me to revisit things we’ve covered in the past, and in doing so has helped me find clarity in some of the topics we’ve talked about. Hopefully sooner rather than later however, i hope this pandemic becomes an afterthought, but I imagine that it would take years (unfortunately) to reach that point…

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EKS Middle East Post 2: I asked my friend about what has happened to his way of life.

I try my best to keep in contact to some extent as many of my friends in high school as i can. I talked to one recently about how he was affected by the Coronavirus. I’m gonna call him Jason, because he asked me not to use his real name on this post, so i’ll honor his request. Jason is an incredibly humble guy, devout in religious practices and in his studies at Vanderbilt University (he graduated at near the top of my class in high school; one of the smartest people my age I’ve ever known). He was well known for being religious and sporting a wide variety of turbans of different colors both in high school and now. I recently texted him and interviewed him for this post.

I asked him what his thoughts were on the Coronavirus, and he had mixed feelings towards it. He was happy to be at home again, but he was nervous about getting sick. He also mentioned that his parents have decided to not go to worship with others in our local Islamic community out of fear of being exposed to the Coronavirus. I wasn’t really surprised for them being cautious, but Jason had reservations about his parents mandate. He exclaimed to me that it would pass in due time, and that he would be protected by his faith. Jason’s confidence was incredible; i’m not nearly as hopeful about not getting the virus as he is. He did also mention that his community started encouraging him as well as others to convert unused spaces in their homes into an area to worship during times when they would usually go out and be together at their mosque. I asked Jason how he felt about that; ‘i hate it, its just not the same’. I’ve never heard him use the word hate before ever, so this stuck out to me. It just highlighted how devout in his religious beliefs he is i suppose. The rest of the ‘interview’ was catching up on his studies and his life in general.

I don’t believe in any religion like Jason does, but after talking to him i felt strangely emboldened about fighting the global pandemic we face. He uses Islam as his sword and shield as well as lots of hand sanitizer, where as i’m just here at home washing my hands twice as frequently as normal. My conversation with him helped remind me that everyone in the world is in this living hell together, regardless of backgrounds/beliefs.

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EKS Middle East Post 1: No God but God Ch. 1-2 Revisited

I hate to admit it, but i’m pretty behind when it comes to posting on this site, but I’m going to make the most of the unfortunate situation that we all find ourselves in with the global pandemic. We have almost all the time in the world right now, so nothing to it but to do it.

I revisited chapter 1 of No God but God recently in attempts to start to catch up with where the class majority likely is by now. It discussed Mecca, where it was described to be a hustling and bustling city full of pilgrims that traveled to pay homage to various religious deities and the Ka’ba. It was startling to read about how other god’s like Aphrodite, Jesus and various others here were worshiped here, too. Maybe this is a ignorant thing to say, but i never associated the Greek mythology and Christianity as having an especially strong presence in the MENA region, but Aslan was quick to prove me wrong in only a handful of pages. Hundreds of Gods were worshiped in Mecca, even gods in the ‘pre-Islamic Arabia’ had a modicum amount of presence.

The most interesting tidbit that i garnered however from rereading this chapter was revisiting God’s first command to Mohammad on pg 36; ‘neither to read nor recite, but to arise and warn!” The young prophet was reliant on his hallucinations and visions to spread the word about Allah and the heavens in which he ruled from. Although whatever he said could be argued to sound recited, I feel like that what Mohammad had spoken sounded like poetry to me (i couldn’t tell you why; it just feels like it to me, and i don’t really question it).

Its strange really to revisit this right now. If these gods really do exist, i’d like to ask them why allow the Coronavirus to exist and plague the world. If they really love their creations, why punish them? Maybe its beyond the scope of this class to ask such things, but I couldn’t help myself.

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EKS China Post 1: Yu Jang: Death Defying Honor/Duty

“The Biography of Yu Jang” was an incredible short biography of an incredibly loyal and honorable gentleman who was honor bound to bring justice to his former master, the earl of Chih. I found it incredibly telling that Yu Jang flew to the mountains to escape death, only to come back to Lord Hsiang’s land in attempt to repay his debt, in a manner of speaking. After running away to the mountains, i don’t think i would have tried to comeback in his situation. We learn later that Yu Jang made two attempts to attack lord Hsiang, and even lord Hsiang, who conspired with other nobleman to takeover the dead earl’s land, showed respect to this troubled man. Yu slashed the nobleman’s robes, and then after feeling that he had satisfied his debt, ‘fell down on his sword’.

If you ask me, i don’t really think we can find many people duty & honor bound to repay a debt in today’s day and age. This is especially the case I feel in modern day politics. I see many state politicians and even a neighbor of mine who successfully ran for the county treasury seat claim their successes as their own, even if they had help along the way or really could owe there success to someone. In the text, i found something really interesting that I will conclude with. “I’ve heard that an enlightened sovereign does not conceal the merits of a man, and a loyal servant has the duty to die for his name.” I loyalty in this regard incredibly different in today’s day and age, where loyalty has largely changed (in my view) from honor/duty to being bought out/honoring legal contracts. Maybe it’s an extreme view on my part, but this is just one man’s thoughts.