Unguided Blog

Does the world need a new guidance, a fresh perspective, a spiritual uplift? From where I stand, all of our systems, be it economic, political or spiritual, are miserably failing. But what really worries me most is the failure of human intelligence. I unhappily observe billions of people who are attached to beliefs, any belief without exception, without a critical analysis of it. Some are bold, yes bold enough to claim theirs is supreme because… There is no because, as a matter of fact, and that is exactly why it is bold. It is above and beyond judgment and criticism.

Systems, even good ones can fail eventually. It is up to the critical mind to test, constantly evaluate and pass judgment. As Popper said, we progress by falsification. But what if we are so afraid to falsify? What if falsification is out of question? What do we do then?

On this last day of 2008, I wish you all reflect on what went wrong so far, in your life, in your environment, anything really. Without fear and prejudice. Without being bold.

It may all of a sudden occur to you that you have to go to Nakhichevan (Azerbaijan) while traveling in Turkey. Your first option is calling me from somewhere in Turkey I have not been before and ask for directions. Alternatively you can do a Google search and stumble upon this post (I recommend the latter).

The best city with frequent buses (couple of times a day) to Nakhichevan is Igdir or with the exact Turkish spelling Iğdır (notice the change g -> ğ and i -> ı). Failing that (for whatever reason), Kars is also a good option.

Yes, you can get a visa at the border.

Yes, there are flights to Baku from Nakhichevan.

Brought to you by Unguided, public service at its finest!

There are few authors who can tackle the issue of coincidence or luck if you will, more striking than Paul Auster. In almost all of his novels the element of chance is ever present. But is it not the same in real life, too? You are born in one place and find all the good things, change the place of your birth to a few hundred kilometers to any direction and you are in deep shit.

Greenpeace had an amazing photo story about e-waste, titled Scraplife: E-waste in Pakistan, written and photographed by Robert Knoth. In June 2008 Greenpeace tracked a shipment of e-waste from Europe to its final resting place - Pakistan. This is the story of what happens to that e-waste and the people it affects. You might want to see and read what happens to those who are less fortunate than you are and take action to tell Philips to take back and recycle. You could have been born there.

I had to give a hiatus to blogging due to a sickness of a relative of mine. Well, she is still sick but better at least. Same, however, can not be said for our beautiful government; they are simply getting worse. This lovely government with sweet ministers who are not even worth standing next to them in the same room, has finally added their most democratic endeavor to their score card: all access to blogger.com and blogspot.com domains has been blocked as of last Friday.

Of course, despite a few geniuses who claim this is a liberal government and will continue to say so, I have never shared their view. I am usually good at analyzing people, 25 plus years of management experience in weird and wonderful places gives one an edge, I believe.

I have always watched my language here. Yet, I can not find a more appropriate word for these people:

Assholes!

Come on, block this blog, too.

Have I told you that Unguided is hosted in New Orleans? Visitors of the last 24 hours only saw a message saying “Error in establishing a database connection” and possibly never guessed why. Now you know the reason. Although the main site including mail and ftp servers were up and running, the database went haywire. The staff at the hosting company, well, they all evacuated the city. They were kind enough to say at their site they would continue to give support remotely by e-mail, but I decided to wait instead. After all, the Earth would not stop turning if Unguided blog did not function a day and it would be selfish, if nothing else, to annoy them in the middle of all things they were going through, or so I thought.

Today, I am glad to see my problem solved with no intervention on my part. My best wishes go to the people of New Orleans or Louisiana I should say, and I sincerely hope they are safe and sound after Gustav’s unwanted visit.