Monday, September 21, 2009

Greek Gods and Goddesses

OK, i keep getting asked to list Greek gods and goddesses in a basic format, so with out any introductions here is what i know in short summery :-

The ancient Greeks believed in different Gods and Goddesses and they described them the immortals, how ever many of them were believed to have feelings and emotions, such as love and hate. With these gods being  concerned with aspects of life and death, there feelings and emotions are often shown to drive there judgment on many things.
below is a list of the most important or shall i say famous once :-

AEOLUS

the keeper of the winds. in most stories he is reported as helpful but some times he can’t keep the winds under control.

APHRODITE

daughter of Uranus and Hephaestos, goddess pf love and beauty. she was born in the sea and came to land in a shell ! naturally she was very charming but also vain, a combination that won her many admirers. she is also thought to have provoked the Trojan war by promising Helen to Paris , if he judged her to be the most butiful goddess. she was know by many symbols like :  the rose, doves, sparrows, dolphins and the rams.

APOLLO

the god of the sun, light and truth (prophisy too), he controled the sun’s movement across the sky, he loved art and was a musician. The twin brothere of Artemis his sister, witch he was very protective of along with his mother, so much so that he killed the serpent Python at the shrine at Delphi, and made Delphi his oracle.
his symbol was a laurel tree.

ARES

the god of war ! , likes to pick fights and has a short fuse, he was everyt thing a greek woman wanted , young , strond , handsome an expret in weaponry and the tactics of war, but he was a jealous lover.
his symbolse are : flaming tourch, a spear, dogs and vultures.

ARTEMIS

naturally if Apolo is the sun god then , this makes her the moon goddess. she was also the huntress, merciless in her vengeance, so bad was it that here silver arows brought plague and death.
she was also the protector of young girls and pregnant women. and she hand healing poweres.
she is the mistress of wild animals and her symbols are the cypress trees, deers and dogs.

ASCLEPIUS
god of medicine, the sun of apolo and coronis. he was a mortal ! but a hell of a doctor, but he crossed the line by bringing the dead back to life. he was killed by Zeus , but then was revived to become a god.

To Be Con. …
 

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Saturday, September 12, 2009

What’s the intention?

There use to be a time when kids learn what’s right and what’s wrong by observing the world around them and being inquisitive about events that force emotions upon them, when this happens the kid seeks an adult he feels is trustworthy and wise to try and help him explain how these events make him feel and to know that it’s ok , that an emotion , a feeling that arises as a result of witnessing an event is your body’s way of telling you how you feel about it , mixed emotions that should be discussed and put into perspective to help this kid express him or herself , because confused emotions could lead to many complexes and future mental obstacles.

It use to be the parent’s job or the teacher’s at school, but in today’s world it’s the ever entertaining  house hold’s most treasured member of most families the Television !

I know what you’re thinking!  I know you probably heard about the effect of TV on children at one point or another and parental control and all that stuff, like the report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) that states: that most kids plug into the world of television long before they enter school.

Under the age of 8 years, most kids don’t understand that commercials are for selling a product. Children 6 years and under are unable to distinguish program content from commercials, especially if their favorite character is promoting the product. Even older kids may need to be reminded of the purpose of advertising.

So when a big telecommunication company puts an add about a boy, that is attending a foot ball game and sees that the game is going slow and suddenly decides to slip through security (cops) and enter the field as the security (police) shout out to him to stop and run after him to stop him and he completely ignores them and race to kick the ball only to be man handled (dragged by both cops from either side of him by holding his arms) out of the football field and a message is displayed on the screen : something like “take the challenge !”Ok challenge who? The authorities! Break the law if you feel like it, people will cheer for you if you disregard the rules and break the law, and if cops are preventing people from entering a location you are some sort of hero to outsmart them and slip past them? I’m sorry, I really don’t’ get it , it’s just a cheap way of getting people to send SMS messages to collect money with no regards to what sort of example are they setting for children.

With that said I’ll recommend that you talk to kids about what they see on TV and share your own beliefs and values. If something you don’t approve of appears on the screen, you can turn off the TV, then use the opportunity to ask thought-provoking questions such as, “Do you think it was OK when the boy broke the law and ran passed the police men and didn’t stop when they told him to do so?’’ Or “Do you think it was OK when those men got in that fight? What else could they have done? What would you have done?” Or, “What do you think about how those teenagers were acting at that party? Do you think what they were doing was wrong?” If certain people or characters are mistreated or discriminated against; talk about why it’s important to treat everyone fairly, despite their differences. You can use TV to explain confusing situations and express your feelings about difficult topics (sex, love, drugs, alcohol, smoking, work, behavior, family life).

Thank you for reading, I wish you and your family a safe and healthy upbringing. 

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Kuwait’s bad seeds

throughout history some civilizations flourished while others have fallen, and there were many reasons for this, amongst these key factors that help a civilization grow and hold strong are things like, political stability, economic wealth, military power and above all knowledge and education that ultimately lead to industrial and innovative technology. But what is it that all these traits are built upon? The significant foundation that holds them together to create a unified coherent structure that is both balanced and satisfying? Well?…….. Who knows! , but if I had to make an educated guess or rather a lucky one I would have to say that it is a combination of things, like Morality and Ethics that give rise to many of the things mentioned above along with more sophisticated issues like Etiquette and Class. And now, up to this point if you are disagreeing with me so far, then I recommend that you stop reading, no really there is nothing in this post for you, so please come back some other time and I’ll try my best to have something more to your liking in the near future. Hum , still here I see , well thank you , this is the time where I would extend my hand to shake yours , smile and tell you how delighted I am to see that we are on the same page and that we see eye to eye, but we both know that that is physically impossible and that the alternative would be, asking you to hold up your hand and touch the screen but that is way to cheesy and would not accomplish anything what so ever, the point is I’m glad you’re still reading , if I have not already lost you with this silly paragraph!With that I out of the way , what is Morality? if you Google it you might get something like this : a  code of conduct or belief which is held to be authoritative in matters of right and wrong. Morals are arbitrarily created and subjectively defined by society,  phylosophy, religion, and/or individual conscience. (in short, the knowledge and discipline to know what’s right and what’s wrong based on a belief system). And Ethics : is an explanation of sub categories of Morality, or as Wikipedia puts it : a branch ofphilosophy which seeks to address questions about morality, such as what the fundamental semantic, ontological, and epistemic nature of ethics or morality is (meta-ethics), how moral values should be determined (normative ethics), how a moral outcome can be achieved in specific situations (applied ethics), how moral capacity or moral agency develops and what its nature is (moral psychology), and what moral values people actually abide by (descriptive ethics). Pretty heavy stuff if you ask me! But none the less very important to know, to understand, to recognize that these skills are the roots ,the foundation of any successful civilization. Skills that should be deeply seeded in today’s youth, and allowed to grow and thrive because if they don’t have it , then what do we expect them to pass on to their children. And it is the small things that make all the difference, things like having the decency not to park your car in a handicap zone or worse to break the law and park in a no-parking spot, or as very often seen in the streets of Kuwait and it’s universities, parking behind parked cars  and blocking parking lot’s exits ! Things like obsessively and repeatedly pushing an elevator button while waiting for it or when they are in it as it moves to the selected floor, or standing right in front of it to be the first one in regardless of who is trying to get off on that same floor ! , and for you who have not been to Kuwait I don’t know if this happens where you are but some people just stand in the door way of an elevator as  people are traying to get off and blocking people from getting in and peering their heads in to look at the button board and reach in and select their floor then turn around to look at the people behind him/her that are trying to get in take another look inside the elevator as people on the inside are asking them to please step aside , and they would just push themselves in as everyone inside the elevator tries to maneuver around them to get out as the people from the outside are trying to get in! (People I see this every day). Or the people who push both buttons (up and down) get in to the elevator to crowed every one and go to a floor they don’t’ need, have the elevator move back to the floor they were at before they got on (because they pushed both buttons be for they got on) then finally move to the floor they want ! How about driving wrong way and putting their life and other people’s lived at risk, racing past a car signaling to take a turn blocking there entrance to the turn, or racing in to take a parking spot a car was signaling to inter! Or worst yet baking up in front of a car horn honking and everything to take a parking place they have passed!  Yeas ladies and genteel men they will back up in to your car and say you hit them from behind if you are not careful to take a parking space they already passed! And if you stop to reason with them you risk being called names or even getting into a fight in the street because of it. It’s sad to see that, in a wonderful Islamic country like Kuwait this is the level of social and Moral Etiquette that some people have, and it pains me to think that this is what they were thought by their parents I heat to think what their kids are going to be like ! Dear reader forgive me for this long post but if you have ever been in such a situation or have witnessed any or similar events know that the future of your civilization resets in you , and not the misguided souls that you have witnessed, praise yourself and your parents for they have raised you well and know that if you respect the law and are considerate of others you are honoring yourself before any one. In the end I pray that God gives you the will to do what’s right, and that you find the wisdom to make morality correct choices and pass this wisdom to your children so that they may honor you with making the right designs too.
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