Timming up the calories

If you are a Timmies fan like myself it is imperitive that you check out how many calories you eat there. Wow I did not know that each choclate tim bit had 70 calories in it.

Okay I will write more later. I might just go to Timmies right now :-)

Iraq oil ownership

Interesting to hear on BBC radio today about Iraq's oil ownership process which seems to be heading in what I think is a pathetic direction.

Quoting from this this CBC report:

The Iraqi government plans to introduce a law that will give Western oil companies rights to the country's huge oil reserves, a British newspaper says.

The government is drafting a law based on "production sharing agreements [PSAs]," which will allow major oil companies to sign deals of up to 30 years to extract Iraq's oil, the Independent on Sunday reported

Over the top of what is happening right now in Iraq, I hope it does not become another Nigeria.

Mooselim

Some retired senior MSA-ers from Waterloo decided to get together and start a blog called Mooselim.ca . From what I have seen there are a lot of quality posts on a regular basis.

And knowing almost all of the bloggers individually, I think they will cotinue to make me think by writing about what they think in what they think is the best way to communicate about what mulims might think or might not think.

In fact they also made it to the Toronto Star.

Canadian Temperature conversions

Forced marriage

A sad twist to Arranged marriage can lead to the problem of forced marriage.....as this Boston Globe article dicusses:

Forced marriage is the ugly flip side of arranged marriage, a widespread and valued tradition in South Asia. In arranged marriages, parents typically help their son or daughter choose a suitable partner -- often along lines of class, education, or wealth -- but leave the ultimate decision to the child.

Forced marriage, however, has no consent, just a brutally imposed social contract. The problem is widespread in the region, said Khalida Salimi of Struggle for Change, a Pakistani women's organization.....................

healthy eating

A few tips from Psychology today on how to stay healthy...( yes we should eat whole wheat roti!)

1. Kidney beans: Fiber lowers cholesterol and fosters a steady energy supply to the brain. Folate lowers artery-damaging homocysteine and boosts neurotransmitters to improve alertness, memory and mood. Iron aids cognition by making enzymes essential for neurotransmitter function. Thiamin (vitamin B1) aids attention and memory by boosting the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Tryptophan is a precursor to the neurotransmitter serotonin.
2. Whole Wheat Bread: Fiber. Thiamin (B1). Ferulic acid is an antioxidant that prevents cognitive decline. Glucose furnishes energy and neurotransmitter components. Iron contributes to enzymes essential for neurotransmitter function. Riboflavin (B2) contributes to acetylcholine. Vitamin E is a brain antioxidant.
3. Apples: Pectin fiber. Epigallocatechin is an antioxidant that may prevent cancer. Quercetin is an antioxidant that preserves brain function, prevents Alzheimer's disease and boosts oxygen supply by aiding lung function.
4. Oranges: Folate. Thiamine (B1). Carotenoid antioxidants preserve nerve-cell membranes and prevent vision degeneration. Hesperidin flavonoid preserves blood-vessel function, reduces cholesterol and acts as an anti-inflammatory. Vitamin C is a brain antioxidant and aids neurotransmitter production.
5. Red Grapes: Anthocyanin antioxidants preserve nerve cells and prevent cancer. Resveratrol antioxidant protects the heart and especially the brain.
6. Milk: Calcium influences neurotransmitter release. Carnitine prevents aging by boosting mitochondria. Choline is a precursor to acetylcholine. Cobalamin (B12) also contributes to acetylcholine and to nerve-cell insulation. Niacin (B3) supports nervous system function.
7. Fish: Choline. Cobalamin (B12). Niacin (B3). Omega-3 fatty acids protect the heart, lower cholesterol, preserve nerve-cell function, relieve depression and fight inflammation. Pyridoxine (B6) contributes to acetylcholine.
8. Red Pepper: Pectin fiber. Pyridoxine (B6). Vitamin C. Beta-carotene antioxidants preserve brain function. Beta-cryptoxanthin antioxidants protect against vascular disease. Hesperidin and rutin flavonoids preserve blood vessels, reduce cholesterol and act as anti-inflammatories. Luteolin antioxidants help prevent heart disease and stroke.

Water and Development

Water is an essential need. One of those things we take for granted every day. It is essential in almost everything we do. Water and development have a close connection which this article discusses.

The parts which I find most interesting are quoted below:

The documentary’s look at Coca Cola (Coke for short) company’s activities in India highlighted problems also seen around the world. Because Coke had been pumping water from local wells and aquifers, this led to farmers digging deeper and deeper to search for waters, under sometimes dangerous conditions. Some farmers were digging as deep as 450 feet without finding water. The documentary noted that they wanted Coke to leave for they brought them nothing but misery. Indeed, earlier in 2000, violent protests by farmers in the state of Kerala led to the closure of Coke there.

The documentary also noted that for each liter of drink from Coca Cola, some 3 liters of water was needed.

When asked, Coke noted all the activities they were pursuing to be a more responsible neighbor. Coke also claimed that government figures showed they did not cause the drop in water levels, yet those figures showed otherwise. They also noted that agriculture is responsible for more water usage than Coca Cola. While this is partly correct, this applies more to industrial agribusinesses, not small farmers.

Furthermore, farmers are arguably using the land for more productive (and necessary) purposes than Coke. In addition, Coke, typical of many global companies, have used the lands (and, in this case, water) of the poor countries, to produce products to be mainly consumed by people in wealthy countries.

n Tanzania, the documentary noted the hardships and struggles of the poor when the country followed rich-country and World Bank advice and privatized their water services. In a region where currently 11 million lives are at risk from water shortage, these policies are having serious impacts. Privatization led to increased prices and lack of access, rather than increased access.

In Bolivia, even though much of the major city covered by the documentary was connected up by the global water company, the poor could not afford the connection charges. Some 200,000 people in that city—a quarter of the population—were not connected. (The French company that owned the water services there said in the documentary that the poor “chose” not to be connected.) Numerous health and social problems developed, especially for the children and the poor were resorting to illegal connections. (We can often see such actions by poor as being “illegal”, but when the system itself encourages such last-resort actions and “corruption” we hear less of that aspect.)

In Detroit, USA, the documentary noted that the poor in the richest country in the world were also affected by similar global problems. Like families in Tanzania, many African Americans in Detroit were finding they needed to make daily trips to get water. The documentary followed the struggle of a woman who had fallen behind on her water bills because her disabled husband’s medical bills had grown so much. Yet, some 40,000 households (some 100,000 people) in Detroit were facing water shortages in similar ways, simply for being too poor to afford the bills. In this particular case, city officials were also accused of running down the water service so that it could be privatized and thereby reduce their accountability.......

..Throughout Latin America and Asia, massive industrialization in rural communities is affecting the balance between humans and nature. Water use is being diverted from agriculture to industry. Huge corporate factories are moving up the rivers of the Third World, sucking them dry as they go............

Many of the world’s most water-stressed areas will get less water, and water flows will become less predictable and more subject to extreme events. Among the projected outcomes:

• Marked reductions in water availability in East Africa, the Sahel and Southern Africa as rainfall declines and temperature rises, with large productivity losses in basic food staples. Projections for rainfed areas in East Africa point to potential productivity losses of up to 33% in maize and more than 20% for sorghum and 18% for millet.
• The disruption of food production systems exposing an additional 75–125 million people to the threat of hunger.
• Accelerated glacial melt, leading to medium term reductions in water availability across a large group of countries in East Asia, Latin America and South Asia.
• Disruptions to monsoon patterns in South Asia, with the potential for more rain but also fewer rainy days and more people affected by drought.
• Rising sea levels resulting in freshwater losses in river delta systems in countries such as Bangladesh, Egypt and Thailand...........

............Agribusinesses growing crops for export are claiming more of the water once used by family and peasant farmers for food self-sufficiency. The global expansion in mining and manufacturing is increasing the threat of pollution of underground water supplies and contaminating the aquifers that provide more than 50 percent of domestic supplies in most Asian countries.

To feed the voracious global consumer market, China has transformed its entire economy, massively diverting water use from communities and local farming to its burgeoning industrial sector. As the big industrial wells consume more water, millions of Chinese farmers have found their local wells pumped dry. Eighty percent of China's major rivers are now so degraded, they no longer support fish. Economic globalization and the policies that drive it are proving to be totally unsustainable.

School of the Americas

When at Waterloo, I attened a lecture about the School of the Americas. I was shocke dto learn that the US actively trained Latin Americans who later go and torture their own people. Wiki bhai has more information on this School ( no wonder there is a rise of the left in Latin America..well this is one of the reasons away):

The SOA was established in 1946 with the purpose of training Latin American men to promote democracy in their native lands, but, according to SOA Watch, graduates of the school have perpetrated many of the worst human rights violations in recent Latin American history and demand its immediate closure.

In addition to conducting its annual vigils and educating the public about abuses committed by graduates of the academy, the SOA Watch continues to lobby Congress to shut down the school.

In 2004, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez agreed to withdraw all troops from WHINSEC, which has trained over 4,000 Venezuelan soldiers. Several of the officers involved in the failed 2002 coup d'etat were School of the Americas graduates^[1]. In 2006, the governments of Argentina and Uruguay decided to stop sending soldiers to the school, as well [1]. SOA Watch is pressing other South American leaders to follow the examples of these countries...................

Read more about the School of Americas Watch here. and also here:

Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC or WHINSEC), formerly School of the Americas (SOA; Spanish: Escuela de las Américas), is a United States Army facility at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. Its motto is Libertad, Paz y Fraternidad (Liberty, Peace and Brotherhood). ^[1] It has a history of supporting controversial anti-communist regimes and guerrila organisations.

The institute is a training facility operated in the Spanish language, especially for Latin American military personnel. As of 2006 the school now offers its Command And General Staff course to United States military for whom Spanish is their primary language. The course which is formally called ILE is the same which United States military officers attend only in Spanish. Somewhere around 60,000 people attended the now closed School Of The Americas. Presently roughly 1,000 students per year attend WHINSEC which was created as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

The school has frequently in the past supported regimes in Latin America with a history of employing death squads and otherwise infringing upon human rights, something the school has staunchly denied. In response to this type of past criticism, the school in 2004 created a human rights protection training course, requiring each student to take eight hours. The school has also included in much of its course work training in the principles of democracy. Critics accuse the school of teaching these classes to only a few students and argue that the minimum of eight hours of ethical instruction mandated by recent law is not sufficient.

Dubai chalo

One hears a lot about Dubai being an awesome place and all. However one of the isues I have with Dubai is their Environmental record. Read this article for more details.....

Energy consumption in the Emirates runs high for many of the same reasons found in the United States: a feeling that the good life requires huge air-conditioned houses and cars, and a disdain for public transportation.

Making matters worse are Dubai's audacious developments, including artificial resort islands that have destroyed coral reefs and an indoor ski slope that still creates snow when it is 120 degrees outside.

"Of all the places to make artificial snow, this has to be the most absurd," said Jonathan Loh, a British biologist who co-authored the WWF report.

Little Mosque on the Praire-My opinion so far....

I just watched the 2nd show on Google videos and made a comment on Deenport of what I thought> Here is what I said:

Despite disagreeing with few things on the show, I actually lliked this episode ( and the last one).

Reminds me of the arguments ( on different issues) between MSA members in my MSA days ( when I was in university).

I dont think we should get stuck on the negatives of the show. I agree there are a few negatives but overall this is a step in the right direction. ( Muslim representation in mainstream entertainment which is one of the best ways to communicate with the masses at large).

If people disagreeing with Zarqa Nawaz are mobilized to make a show( of what they think) would be a better reprentation of Muslims then that in itself would be another positive of "Little Mosque on the Praire".

Altmuslim: What Islamists Think - And Why It Doesn't Work

Some good questions asked by the writer about Hizb and other organizations who seek innocent utopian answers to very complicated questions:

A few days ago, I got into conversation with an Islamist brother, and somewhat predictably, the conversation swiftly fell down some well-trodden paths. It was my duty as a Muslim, I was told, to work towards the full implementation of shariah, and to at least hope for the arrival one day of an Islamic State - if not actively working towards bringing it about.

The perceptive reader will have already discerned from this very short history that I was speaking to a representative of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, or whatever it's calling itself nowadays since it's been proscribed. Has it been banned? Not certain, but either way it's not flavour of the month down at the Metropolitan Police.

Al-Qaeda in Pakistan?

I just read this story on the BBC and having just come back from Pakistan, I feel I can shed some unique light on the issue.

First of all, I feel the problem of cause and effect and the failure of the US to understand this co-realtion is a big quagmire. For example while I was in Pakistan the issue of saddam's hanging made big headlines across the board on cable TV and in newspapers. By and large the local media there ( be it left or right), was appaled at the fact that Saddam was hanged so close to Eid ( or on Eid in some areas). While people there acknowledged the fact that Mr. Saddam was a tyrant no one could excuse the timing of the hanging and some even asked questions about the fairness of the trail. The point being that there is a feeling in Pakistan across the board that the US has a big agenda against the Muslims.

Despite the above mentioned feeling among people in Pakistan, it is very rare that someone would symphathize with anyone killing innocent people in the West or in Pakistan. If sympathy does exsist with Al-Qaeda ( the defination of Al-Qaeda is of course very subjective), it is most likely to be in the tribal areas next to Afganistan. The reasons for this symptahy are many-fold. It is not only because they hate America ( well most people there hate America anyways), its because the government in Pakistan is being a puppet of the US government and is seen to be acting like a headless chicken while taking a tough line on what it calls terrorists . A tough line is fine as long as you arrest the right people and prosecute them in the court of law. However it is not okay if you kidnap people and send them to Guantanomo. It is not okay if American Drones kill 80 teenagers in a Madressa just to kill one taleban sympathizer ( only to be followed by fake strikes nearby by Pakistani Helicopters to hide the fact that the Americans did it). It is not okay if 17 people including women and children are killled in an American airstrike before that.

The Afgan border area of Pakistan has always had poor relations with the government and the handling of this issue by both the US and Pakistan isnt helping either country. The question arises here as to what the solution to this problem could be?

I think for one the Pakistani government needs to build trust with the Tribal elders near the Afgan border ( A course of action that they were purusing at one point). While it is true that the tribal elders arent the easisest to deal with ( some of them oppose development of thier areas because that would compromise thier hold on power), killing them or thier people isnt the solution either. Moreover Pakistan needs to stand up to the US and protect the people within it's boundries. It doesnt help when the Pakistani army is seen to be covering up US airstrikes or supporting the US without thought or consideration for its own people.

In other words Pakistan needs to educate and build trust with both: the Tribal Elders at the Pak-Afgan border and effective Tribal elders of the US government.

Habib Al Jifri interview

One of the leading scholars of today gives an interview to Yemen Times touching on many pertinant issues. The answer to this question really struck a cord in me. ( I encourage you to read the whole interview):

YT: What’s your message to all the people out there who are angered by what is happening to the Muslims?

It is difficult for people who are angry to listen to a message. Our message is for people of understanding who live amongst the angry masses. Remind people
about the root of the problem … and the root is our turning away from Allah. The enemies of truth have been allowed to overpower us because of our sins and vices. We have to remind ourselves that with the deep pain which tightens our breasts because of the suffering of our fellow Muslims, we should feel an even greater pain for those who are being sacrificed on the knife edge of sins and disobedience of the Allah's commands. We need to shed even more tears for the Muslims who go to bed drunk and those who fill the dance floors. As long as our community feels more pained by these fatalities than it does by these sins, it will lag behind and not progress. In our golden era the community feared falling into sin more than it did being killed in a conflict, for a Muslim to die when he stands for the truth is martyrdom and an honour by which he can draw near to Allah.

What is more painful to my heart? Seeing a Muslim killed inside a mosque hit by a missile causing him to fall as a martyr or seeing a Muslim male or female betray one another or their community, people who bear false witness or take or accept bribes, or cheat, or spend the night dancing in a night club and consuming alcohol. I am not trying to belittle the magnitude of the disasters we are facing but we need to look at the reasons that have put us in this position.

A curry a day keeps docter saab away

Article from ScienceDaily ( I wonder what the health benefits of roti are?)

The chemical that gives spicy food its kick could hold the key to the next generation of anti-cancer drugs that will kill tumours with few or no side effects for the patient, say academics at The University of Nottingham.

A study by the scientists, published online in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, has proven for the first time that the chemical compound capsaicin -- which is responsible for the burning sensation when we eat chillies -- can kill cells by directly targeting their energy source.

It could mean that patients could control or prevent the onset of cancer by eating a diet rich in capsaicin and that existing products to treat conditions such as psoriasis and muscle strain, which contain the compound and are already approved for medical use, could be adapted to tackle this more serious disease.

Back in Canada now. Here are a few pictures from my flight begninig with one of Islamabad Airport ad goig through Afganistan and Central Asia. I might post a summary of my learnings/reflections on this trip later. Right now I am getting over jet lagness.

NIce Mosque

Img_1256, originally uploaded by hammadin.

A really nice mosque near my house.

EId Sacrafice

Img_1248, originally uploaded by hammadin.

We sacraficed for EId this morning.

The picture shows a cow in which the Din family was the majority shareholder. Seeing an animal die is not always a fun thing to watch. Kind of makes your reflect on death and think about sacrafice.

I have much more gruesome pictures but those would be rated PG-15 hence I will spare you guys.