A Crisis of Egos

From the review of 'Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience':

Take, for instance, a 2007 study at Pennsylvania State University's Smeal College of Business, conducted by two economists. They wanted to know if there was a correlation between narcissism in CEOs and volatility in that company's performance. As they were unable to kidnap the various CEOs and put them through extensive personality testing, they examined "the size of the leader's photograph in company documents, the length of entries in Who's Who, the frequency with which the CEO was mentioned in corporate press releases, and the number of times the CEO used the first-person singular (I, me, mine, my, myself) in interviews." What they found was that the more narcissistic the CEO appeared to be, the more detrimental they were to the company. And, of course, the results are now clearly visible to everyone who has been following the news of the United States financial system in the past two years.

Oh how pleased I felt after reading this. How immensely pleased. It's like being hit with a jolt of self-validating revelation. Isn't it fascinating, ladies and gentlemen, that the doctrine which promotes individualism, self-centeredness and egotism as virtues to be rewarded (in this case by becoming a CEO); isn't it fascinating that this model had a recent near-death experience due, among other things, to the very virtues it advocates?

I'm not suggesting that narcissism or self-centeredness are the only qualities the CEOs in question had: they may have been the top of their class for all I care.

Oh, and before advocates of narcissism get thrilled; while most CEOs might be narcissistic, not all narcissists are CEOs.

This one is for Algeria

oh departing traveller, where are you heading?
your journey is bound to failure
how many travelers before you
have sought the path with similar results?

how many cities and barren deserts have I roamed?
how much time have I wasted
touring from one place to another?

oh lost one, no matter how much you run away
your destiny will end in exhaustion
time had passed you by
and you have yet to notice it

Why have you got the sadness in your heart?
And why are you staying there miserable?
Hardship will end and you'd no longer learn or build anything
The days don't last, just as your youth and mine didn't
Oh poor fellow who missed his chance just as I missed mine

Algerian fan holding a Palestinian flag with "We will not forget Gaza" written over it.

Photo courtesy of Al Chorouk Online

All I wish for the World Cup is.....

.....for Algeria to be as good as Cheb Khaled's appearance at the opening ceremony: cool, energetic, surprising, reminiscent, and most of all, will leave you dancing despite yourself.

Feminine Propaganda

A woman is an experiment in propaganda. A PR machine with its own hierarchy and chain of command. Sophisticated lies designed to maintain image and deflect suspicions. Lies; self-proclaimed to be of the white variety. Words are manipulated as easy as men. Even with parted lips, sighs, and barely audible mumblings; the credibility is ought to be questioned. A man is left wondering which side of the conflict he is on. Did he fall prey to the hype, the publicity and deranged obsessions? Did he ever manage to take a glimpse into the real thing; the ulterior motives, the hidden agendas, and the dungeons of torture?

A woman is an experiment in totalitarian rage. An embodiment of bloodless coups and sadistic indoctrination. Stability is a static tectonic plate on the roiling, molten magma. A man could only wish to be the insipid creature in her vibrant habitat, or the stereotypical camel to her proverbial, elusive desert mirage.


A woman is an erroneous weather forecast that will ruin your weekend or leave you stranded in a thick forest. A relief mission that proselytizes and discriminates. A gift to the unrepentant flock by the non-existent gods.

A woman is an evocative manifestation of mobs and illicit trade. Of highly coveted smuggling routes and turf wars. Of territorial conflicts and nuclear stand-offs.

A woman is like a lean-to structure; she’s only as good as the mountain of excuses she’s built her life upon. She’s only as good as the fan-base she’d grown through her theatrics. A woman is an experiment in primal rage. Of the inarticulate neurotransmitters or the lack there-of.

A woman stands in defiance to international inquiries and fact-finding missions. It’s the timeless and most outrageous bias of history; that a woman is always granted the permission to self-investigate wrong-doings.

A woman is an experiment in propaganda; sweet, hypnotic and brainwashing propaganda. And we, men folks, will always fall for it.

___________________________________________

P.S. Just so that the TRA don't think I'm posting porn and block me for it; the above are artistic impressions of Blaqis (the Queen of Sheba), Hatshepsut (the Pharao queen), Cleopatra and Zenobia (queen of Palmyra).

A Tribute To Our Turkish Martyrs تحية إجلال لشهدائنا الأتراك

As Marcel once said
we wrap you in green
we wrap you in red
we wrap you in white
and we wrap you in black,
O our dead

But this time around,
the sacrifice had come
from up north,
They came sailing
Through the night,
But the treacherous hand
of evil and barbarity
is long and it's shameless,
And it'd come upon them,

I watched the live feed,
All through the night,
I slept on a happy note,
Having seen the cheerful faces,
Of those who'd come from all places
To lift the siege
to end the collective moral handicap
of an apathetic world

but when I woke up,
I heard of the dead,
of the martyrs,
of the selfless
of the fearless
of those who'd put their lives
on the line
For Gaza
And Palestine

So this time around
our dead,
we wrap you in red
we wrap you in white
we wrap you in the crescent
and we wrap in the star, instead



LONG LIVE THE MARTYRS

Cevdet Kılıçlar
Çetin Topçuoğlu
Necdet Yıldırım
Furkan Doğan
Fahri Yaldız
Cengiz Songür
Cengiz Akyüz

Never forget. Never forgive.