Covid

 The whole word is fighting an invisible enemy - the Covid 19. 

The world suffered several pandemics before: Black death, Spanish flu, Influenza, and many others. Now, we are fighting against this virus that infects the lungs and takes over the organism.

Virus are not very smart, once they take the organism and kill their host, they will die too.  

It's very unfortunate for people that lost their jobs, that feel suffocated in their homes, that have children to support, relatives that died, and the panic they are feeling of not knowing how to deal with this.

I feel their pain, but, for me, honestly, the world became a better place to live.

- People cannot sit next to each other anywhere: supermarket lines, bus, hospital, cinema, restaurants. It should be always like this, not having a stranger right next to me, in my personal space.

- Lockdown. Please have to stay home just going out for necessary things. It is so nice to experience the city not crowded and silent. 

I guess I should live in my own island..

Travelling and Hotels - Society' weird practices - part IV

 

Traveling is a current very popular leisure activity. To change environment, relax and discover another culture and foods.

When people go on vacations to another city or another country, they book an hotel.

And hotels can be very expensive depending on how trendy is that country for tourists.

I wonder how people never realised how non-hygienic is to sleep in a hotel's bed..sleeping in a mattresses were hundreds or thousands of people slept there before...sweating there, having sex there...urg!.. and paying expensive for that...not even talking about the pillows..

I want to believe that in the future, people will realise how non-hygenic that is and hotels will change their cleaning methods.

The non-hygienic celebration of birthday - Society' weird practices - part III

 When someone celebrates their birthday is normal to invite the closest family and friends to sing the happy birthday song that will end with the birthday person blowing candles from a birthday cake and sharing slices of that cake with everyone!

Well, I wonder how people never noticed how non-hygienic this practice is!

Eating a cake that was spread with microbes from the blow of the candles on the cake? Hopefully the birthday person is not ill and wont have a flu, cold, Covid 19 and others!

As people say " what doesn't kill you, makes you strong!"

When Being Spiritual is a Trend

 

Meditation, Yoga, Gratefulness, Mindfulness.. are trendy practices in Western countries, these days.

And because of that many western followers want to visit India, but Buddhism came from Nepal. 

The majority of people doesn't know nothing about India. And they get really surprised when they visit India. Is one of the countries with more population of the world, with a high rate of poverty, poor food hygiene, dirty and smelly streets, with high crime rate, specially girl and woman group rape.

But its is also one of the most ancient civilisations in the world, with an unique culture, food and religion. 

The main religion of India is Hinduism. While the rest of the world moved from a religion worshiping several gods to just one god, India kept its ancient religion of worship several gods and a new god is created, once in a while.

Buddhism is also very ancient but more recent than Hinduism. In fact, Buddhism  isn't really a religion because there is no god. But more of a way of life.

Westerns found Buddhism in a time when western societies want to be more free from the rigid christian church. Western don't want to  feel guilty  anymore to "sin". Because western mentally changed and marriage is no longer the main goal of their lives, but careers, the pursuit of love and  the pleasures of life.

But Buddhism is more than yoga and meditation and working in oneself  to achieve a state of well being and mind peace - the Nirvana.

The Buddhism is a spiritual philosophy. An analysis of the society and their reason of suffering. According to Buddhism, people suffer because of the desire of owning things that cannot have. So Buddhism came with the solution by training the mind to repress those desires and feeling happy with what one already have. Using the daily repetition of sentences to change the mind set (meditation).

In order to not suffer, a person should not have desires or expectations and consequently won't feel frustrated and won't suffer. Learning to control the mind and feel in peace.

Westerns just use Buddhism to work in their self esteem and to feel good about themselves. But there is much more about Buddhism:

• a daily fasting, 

• the refrain from alcohol and drugs;

• the refrain from lying, stealing, immorality and sexual misconduct; 

• not killing any living being- including mosquitos!;

• the karma - what people do with bad intentions will come back to them;

• the reincarnation. Buddhist believe in many lives till reaching the Nirvana; 

• Women should reborn as a man before they can reach Nirvana. Being born a woman is result of bad karma. And as a wife, women are expected to be obedient and submissive to their husbands. 
• And more.

Westerns feel more free, now, to do whatever they want because in Buddhism there is no god watching all their moves everywhere and judging them anymore. And they keep being the villains in some people´s lives, free of punishment.

In the end, for westerns is just a pretending  of being spiritual. 

Religious stories and Parallel reality - Part 1

The Sacrifice of the son of Abraham  - Old Testament 

Religious story: God order Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac to test his faith and obedience.

Parallel reality: Human sacrifices were a common practice in the ancient civilisations. Human sacrifices were part of a ritual of praising deities, to prevent natural disasters, to ask for rain for the harvests, others.

"In early Mesopotamian society, it was considered an high honour to be sacrificed and the afterlife was not something to be feared."

Or maybe the son did something very disappointing and the father wanted to kill him but regretted. In that time, there weren't many moral conducts. 

The 10 plagues on Egypt - Old Testament

Religious story: After the Egyptian pharaoh refused to free the slaves, God sends plague after plague to pressure the pharaoh Ramses. 

1st plague - The Nile river turned blood

2nd plague - Frogs infestation

3rd plague- Lice Infestation

4th plague - Flies Infestation

5th plague - Livestock pestilence

6th plague - Boils

7th plague - Hail

8th plague - Locusts

9th plague - Darkness

10th plague - Death of the first-born children

After the last plague, the slaves were released and followed Moses to the promised land.

Parallel reality: A natural disaster happened that coloured the water in red. The drought was already affecting Egypt and because of that the water level of the Nile river was very low. So allowed a  red toxic red algae to be abundant and to suck the oxygen of the water, killing the fish, plants and  forcing the frogs to leave the water and dying in land.Without predator - the frogs to eat the insects,  and lots of dead frogs decomposing in land, the lice and flies overproduced, spread to people and infected the livestock that without proper water do drink get sick.

The boils - a skin irritation in humans - were caused by the contacted with the algae in the water and the insects.

Scientists found volcanic residue in Egypt at that time, that explains the hail, the locusts and the darkness.

In Egypt  was tradition of the first-born son to be the first one to eat and to have more quantity of food, so they died from eating contaminated cereals by the insects.

The promised Land - Old Testament

Religious story: After 40 years walking, Moses found the promised land for the slaves. But Moses was not allowed to enter as a punishment of God for some episodes of disobedience. Dying in the place he saw the promised land.

Parallel reality: after walking decades,  Moses was very very old and dying so before he died he pointed somewhere he saw, as the promised land. The slaves took the land, killing the people that were living there. 

The Virgin Mary - New Testament

Religious story : Jesus was born from a virgin - a  miracle of God! 

Parallel reality: Mary got pregnant from Joseph before marriage, what was condemned at that time. So the Church created the beautiful story of the miracle of the virgin Mary for Jesus and his family  to be a proper role model to follow . to mirror the role model they wanted for the church and the people to follow

The Last Supper - New Testament

Religious story: During the last supper, Jesus told Judas, one of his disciples,  that he was going to betray him in that night. That happened. He couldn't live with that and hanged himself.

Parallel reality:  During the last supper, Jesus told Judas, one of his disciples,  that he was going to betray him in that night. Judah followed Jesus orders and did it. he couldn't live with that and hanged himself. Jesus wanted to be captured.

 

Best quotes of Schopenhauer

 “Reproduction is the ultimate purpose of every organism, and its strongest instinct; for only so can the will conquer death.

And to ensure this conquest of death, the will to reproduce is placed almost entirely beyond control of knowledge or reflection: even a philosopher, occasionally, has children.”

“Truth is most beautiful undraped.”

“There is not much to be got anywhere in the world. It is filled with misery and pain; if a man escapes these, boredom lies in wait for him at every corner. Nay more; it is evil which generally has the upper hand, and folly that makes the most noise. Fate is cruel and mankind pitiable.”

“It often happens that we blurt out things that may in some kind of way be harmful to us, but we are silent about things that may make us look ridiculous; because in this case effect follows very quickly on cause.”

√“They tell us that Suicide is the greatest piece of Cowardice... That Suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in this world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.”

“A man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something that he thinks will make him so; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbour with mast and rigging gone. And then, it is all one whether he is happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over.”

My Short Thoughts

The Blow - R. Dores

There aren't superior people, but people that feel inferior.

Competing with others is limiting our intelligence to the others.

Why people pretend to value moral ideals?

Who has more, is who cares less.

Marriage for love is an invention of the poor, that have nothing else to offer.

Free the innocent!

Os pobres são um meio de fazer os ricos, mais ricos, através da mão-de-obra e do comsumo.

The poor are a tool to make the rich, richer through labor and consume.

In society, everybody is selling something. It can be a product, it can be a service, it can be an experience..it can be a dream.. and everybody is buying..

The religion of Men

We follow a God that just one person saw. Why God don't talk directly to all of us? 

Too much trouble? Is God testing us? Is God shy? Maybe he likes secrecy!

We believe in what God said to just that one person. And God always say to follow that person  - the messenger - and do what he says and do - he is the perfect role model. That one person has the power on all the others. Why does God need that? Why does God needs a human to talk for him?

We need to believe in stories to prolong our mortally. We are not ready to live so shortly.

Why some many western women marry arab men?

Well, in arab cultures, relationships between man and woman happen through marriage. Sex should just happens after marriage.

Traditionally, in Arab cultures a man and a woman should marry before having sex.

Arabs should get married to be able to have religious, social and moral accepted sex. Many Arabs lovers are having sex without getting married, but discretely, in secret.

In western cultures theres is the dating time that allows people to get to know each other - spending time together and having sex, before marriage. 

Dating can take years, before a marriage proposal. 

Even if dating goes well, some western couples cannot get married if they are still studying. They will just be prepared for marriage after finishing studying, have a job and a place to live together.

Dating in the adult life makes marriage easier, as both, normally, have their life already settled.

For western people, there is no point in getting married to live in separated houses or to live in parents house. 

When a western woman meets an arab man, she will feel overwhelmed by all the attention he will give her. He will give all the compliments, show lots of interest in her life, be very present in her life, show some jealousy (some women think it is a sign of love) and he will talk about marriage very soon. She will feel special.

For arab men marrying a western woman relieves them from the burden of the mahr (dowry). So, marriage with western women feels less of a business and more about love.

Arab men also experience a freedom of speech they are not used to have with an arab woman.

BUT because being the first men to kiss and take the virginity of a woman is a matter of honour, most of arabs consider western women promiscuous, easy and cheap.

And they just use them to have free sex before marrying a virgin arab girl.

But, why do western women marry arab men from such a different culture and religion?

 Arab men take women more serious and marriage more serious. Because of their marriage culture. So, western women that live in a dating culture and are used to go through failed relationships that hardly gets to marriage and her heart was broken so many times.. she will feel special and so desired and loved by the arab man.

In western culture is so easy to meet people and nobody is special.

But will this marriage last? It might depend how religious and culturally open both are..