tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-127197852011-11-24T05:55:24.600ZWords Are All I HaveMohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.comBlogger1061100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-44957266379787192562007-03-01T13:56:00.000Z2007-03-01T13:57:38.130Z

Like a vagrant with a pen, I've moved on once again, my pen and paper as my only possessions. I hope you'll come with me.My new blog is at: http://motalib.wordpress.com/

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-50129371151425614382007-02-27T16:07:00.000Z2007-02-27T16:19:07.353Z

Like a first meeting with an estranged uncle, my introduction to American law has been a timid process. There is a certain sense of familiarity; they use English concepts, are a common law country at heart and use the jargon of law, even if they missed the rash of modernization in language that is all the vogue in reforming English law (the left the United Kingdom 250 years too early to benefit).

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-50330802550076518652007-02-25T06:55:00.000Z2007-02-25T07:05:03.317Z

I have received numerous complaints about the vagueness of my last few posts, and I tender a most heartfelt apology to my reader. They have been evasive, rambling and have much else in default besides. I offer no excuses. I learned long ago not to offer excuses. I offer an explanation. Distinguish excuses and explanations by the fact that one is an attempt at justification – which I do not

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-27704327618745067772007-02-20T11:40:00.000Z2007-02-20T11:46:58.971Z

Those who advise me tell me that the world is an unplanned and spontaneous place, where event can overtake their cause, ends flow into beginnings with infinite variability and possessing the virtue of predictability only in the cryptic assurance that they are predictably unpredictable. That the ebb and flow of events can be such that we must sometimes, if we are to keep our head above the crest

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-56220723684945654532007-02-13T23:46:00.000Z2007-02-12T15:39:09.461Z

The clock strikes midnight, and although no bells now echo with Westminster chimes, I don’t need them to let me feel the lateness of the hour. The tiredness of being beyond my routine weighs me down, though I do have the compensation of not being required to play squash and I already anticipate sleeping just a little while longer. It suffices as consolation, as does the reason I wait. I’m

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-28908183273432806862007-02-11T00:30:00.000Z2007-02-10T16:39:41.582Z

What a topsy turvy week it has been. I am a man of simple prejudices and even simpler notions. One such basic idea that I harbour can be summed up as days are for doing things and nights are for sleeping. A simple notion, an elegant if rather prosaic division of the day into two parts and a formula that would be rather easy for even an idiot like me to adhere to. So you would imagine.If there has

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-73375648493746840122007-02-08T12:16:00.000Z2007-02-08T04:33:22.826Z

It is the strangest of motives that drive me now to write. I have nothing to say, no thesis to argue no path to suggest no words, perfectly crafted in my mind, that compel me to put them to paper and develop some sort of rationalization or organization. Yet I cannot avoid the compulsion to put words to paper, to meander across the page looking for solace in the comfort of words.I don’t normally

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-91652323347382608402007-01-15T13:10:00.000Z2007-01-15T05:18:59.008Z

Today I did something that I didn’t see myself ever doing: I left FMGamer a website that I’ve been involved with for almost the last five years. I did it very much on the spur of the moment pushed by a feeling of futility. It’s an odd thing to get upset about, but I was very involved in both the actual and the abstract that was FMGamer, and I’m going to sorely miss the place and the people that

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-88183666351703581452007-01-14T18:43:00.000Z2007-01-14T10:52:24.237Z

My media consumption runs in cycles, to have peaks and troughs and swings in a bi-polar way between different types of entertainment. This weekend represents one of these fluctuations so there is no better time to put it to paper. There is a baseline for all my entertainment needs, and that baseline is the book. I’ve blogged before I believe on how central books are to my life, and how

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-52003833261484643882007-01-08T23:45:00.000Z2007-01-09T08:59:47.946Z

Poised over the keyboard with more random thoughts to commit to paper then I have the structure to hang them together or the wit to wind them together in a shape that I could pass off to the unsuspecting reader as worthy of their most precarious commodity it’s perhaps time to make another post. A thought that I found interesting, and really what other criteria can I have for mention here, is

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-22489701889053153742007-01-01T15:30:00.000Z2007-01-05T03:32:09.927Z

Its a new year, a new beggining, a fresh start, all that crap. Congratulations if you care, and if you don't then congratulations on having a bit of perspective. As you may well imagine, I shall continue the year where I left off the old one, in the best of bah humbug spirits.People who celebrate dates perpelex me. How can you meaningfully celebrate the date on the calender? What exactly is it

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-9589055686274532542006-12-22T15:16:00.000Z2006-12-22T15:20:07.419Z

A wise internet page (it was most likely this one,) once gave me the sage advice that the most important thing in life was laughter. It is wisdom that I have recently taken to heart. The happy go lucky laugh along confident approach to life is enviable but not something that most of us can attain. We live life with different perspectives, different attitudes and different emotional reactions.

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-4375888904309620782006-12-20T11:13:00.000Z2006-12-20T11:20:29.829Z

This weekend I had to reformat my laptop after some sort of critical software screw up essentially made it impossible for it to boot up successfully the whole way. Invariably on every start something would go wrong and I would get the once ubiquitous, now thankfully less, Blue Screen of Death; whereby Windows told you in a rather incomprehensible way why a component had failed you at a critical

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-23692880515277509782006-12-18T15:38:00.000Z2006-12-19T03:41:18.839Z

It seems strangely odd to say it, but it is a sentiment that I have been repeating to many others when I mention my slightly busy time in the run up to exams, with the revision that needs to be done and the writing that needs to be done for my two other assessments, but it really is nice to have some work to do again.My time so far at HKU has been less then satisfactory, and I've made that rather

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-49972197038727386162006-12-15T11:08:00.000Z2006-12-15T11:10:00.513Z

I have started becoming more of a committed Formula 1 fan in recent months. I was never one before I went to the UK, it only featured on my map of the sporting world because it was Sumer's sport, the sport that he was the most interested in and talked about an awful lot. And as one of those de facto things that litter life, if your friends talk about something a lot, you learn a lot about it

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-86077174926665896592006-12-13T13:24:00.000Z2006-12-13T13:34:17.951Z

I have a tendency to performance. I have a sensation that I am coming to realise something here that I did not come to realise before. This explains much of what I found myself doing and perhaps where I want to go with things.I am referring to the desire that I have for public approbriation and performance. It is a rather recurring theme if you wish to look at it with an extended perspective. MUN

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-75012220977016123842006-12-11T14:56:00.000Z2006-12-11T12:57:50.756Z

We have a new word of the year, courtesy of the eminently qualified people at Merriam Webster, who have pronounced Dr. Steven Colberts phrase truthiness as the embodiment of this annus horribilis. Those of you unaware of the good doctor's work, truthiness is a satirical term which refers to person who claims to know something intuitively, instinctively, or "from the gut" without regard to

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-2100343989520030962006-12-08T11:19:00.000Z2006-12-08T03:41:05.097Z

I've been contemplating my passive interventionist approach to leadership these last few days. My 'method' loosely put is that I don't like to take the lead from the outset in any endeavour. There are always those who see themselves as in command, or have done the necessary work or effort to deserve command out of a sense of seniority, and so I prefer to take up a number two position . This

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-63146535383457534332006-12-07T14:01:00.000Z2006-12-07T06:02:24.027Z

We recently got Fox News at home, the first chance for me to get a glimpse at that much reviled channel on the American right wing, which is an attempt to counter that noted allegation that reality has a liberal bias.It's a very interesting channel to watch, and as a general trend it's probably getting as much air time at home as the proper news channels such as the venerable BBC News.You may

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-91187640572709568802006-12-01T13:38:00.000Z2006-12-01T15:12:50.340Z

Sometimes inspiration can be found in the most surprising places. Sometimes it comes from the most obvious, just when the most obvious was looking like the most despairing. It seems miraculous, almost incredible, but I've found something in a University of Hong Kong class that actually interests me greatly.This miracle maker is the area of financial derivatives. Now normally financial products

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-51737758294312682362006-11-29T13:35:00.000Z2006-11-29T10:12:52.588Z

I've been thinking about getting up bright and early lately. Back in Hong Kong, with the pressure off, I'm getting up leisurely at around 9:00 AM, drifting into the day at a leisurely pace before trying to get things into gear for a semi-productive four hour run into the evening with a view to getting enough work done to satisfy me.What I've realised as I canter through life at this undemanding

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-71071180099380152852006-11-27T23:34:00.000Z2006-11-28T01:35:26.336Z

I've gone off fiction. That is a sweeping statement, so perhaps I should hedge my bets and clarify a little. I've gone of gritty, realistic fiction; set in the real world, with tight storylines, credible characters and tragedy anticipated in every page. They do not have the grip that I could rely on to be evoked by such works. I say this as someone who consumed Tom Clancy popcorn by the thousand

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-85589088311483715942006-11-20T14:09:00.000Z2006-11-20T14:15:55.269Z

So I have this trimmed down and tailored contact list, and found myself in the same position very nearly that I had trimmed down the contact list to avoid. I was talking to the same few individuals, initiating the majority of my conversations with them and not really using the opportunity that I had to talk to the wider range of people left behind from the radical purges of June.It seemed to me

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-4196259881108200372006-11-17T15:25:00.000Z2006-11-17T07:35:57.844Z

I recall a conversation with a teacher in the midst of my second year of university, where he sought to assure me that a mistake I made in class would not live long in the memory of others and I should not diminish my participation in class because of it. I recall it because of my reaction, which to him was surprising: why should I be ashamed of making a mistake?If the response is perhaps not as

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-41930383383210772302006-11-13T18:50:00.000Z2006-11-13T10:15:33.432Z

I've been reading a biography of Gaius Julius Caesar, a man of tremendous ability uniquely positioned at what he was to make one of the defining moments of history. I know that the 'great man' theory of history has fallen out of vogue with the modern establishment, instead capitulating to the notion that great potentialities create the necessary people to rise to the challenge inherent in their

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-2405616646775728202006-11-10T16:19:00.000Z2006-11-10T08:54:08.828Z

The concept of judgment is an unavoidable part of the life of both legal practioner and theologian. It is perhaps in fusion of these two distinct approaches to a common word that I craft my contextual understanding of the word when I talk of it now to you. We both crave to judge, be judged and to receive dispensation from judgment. As if humans weren't complex enough.At the heart of many a human

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-11995947407077428572006-11-09T15:17:00.000Z2006-11-09T14:51:40.464Z

Think of a person. Not a stranger. Preferably a friend. Now imagine them with no clothes on. Imagine it in detail. Bumps, curves, folds of fat, body hair. Now Imagine them taking a dump. Imagine them having sex. Imagine them having sex with someone specific. If you're particularly daring, imagine it with you. You are no doubt feeling awkward by now, so I will desist. If you're not, do it with a

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-44651002344648127092006-11-08T16:25:00.000Z2006-11-08T08:22:16.951Z

I confess to being confused. If you've ever perchance stumbled on to the beating geek epicenter of the Internet vanguard, the tech blog dubbed slashdot.org you will have run into a variety of jokes and references to the actress Natalie Portman as a sex symbol. Now I appreciate that the audience I refer to is not the most discerning outside of technical specifications but I'm beyond perplexed how

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-85255042482564262192006-11-07T15:06:00.000Z2006-11-07T07:22:41.583Z

Inspired by the comments and suggestions of some people, who comprise the most effective people that I know off, I've recently adopted a little efficiency gimmick that has made for an interesting change.The rule simply stated is: Anything that requires less then five minutes of your time to do should be done instantly. This means that a lot of small stuff is done straight away. And you'll be

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-2469638268208604862006-11-06T15:21:00.000Z2006-11-06T07:12:42.843Z

The Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) recently published one of its most bite sized bits of propaganda for those who wish to organize their forays into the ivory towers of academia. The annual ranking of universities proposes to authoritatively distinguish between the competing thrusts of universities to be the premier academic institution in the world. Now my interest is not with

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-18799673217316258272006-11-03T18:30:00.000Z2006-11-03T13:37:59.666Z

Peeping through my keyhold I see within the range of only about 30 percent of the light that comes from the sun; the rest is infrared and some little ultraviolet, perfectly apparent to many animals, but invisible to me. A nightmare network of ganglia, charged and firing without my knowledge, cuts and splices what I see, editing it for my brain. Donald E. Carr points out that the sense impressions

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-23851451991525991432006-11-02T14:40:00.000Z2006-11-02T14:51:19.073Z

If you haven't done so already, I invite you to cluster around the latest musical phenomenon to be enabled by the Internet. Now this is neither a Myspace Record Label nor is it the newest pirates cutlass designed to liberate copyrighted works from the nasty financial clutches of their owner. Instead it is a pairof projects that are designed to use the power of the Internet to change the way that

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-13492235990859953352006-11-01T07:42:00.000Z2006-11-01T07:42:51.731Z

I read sites like this and I can't help but wonder if anyone still undestands the concept of an immune system. The link summarised briefly points out what a scam drinking water is when sold in bottles for the price of an expensive drink. We know that water costs peanuts when taken from home and our taps. Usually in the Civilized world, this water is far in excess of potable standards. In fact the

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-76660680239430005352006-10-31T11:23:00.000Z2006-10-31T11:23:11.862Z

If you are literate and capable of empathy, then I feel it incumbent upon you to read this. Not later, not soon, not when you have the spare time; you need to read it now. If you wish any real appreciation of what the poor go through, in the richest parts of the planet, then you need to read this. If you have the inclination, read the comments that span vast tracks of the bottom of the page,

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-57039082558647941072006-10-30T08:04:00.000Z2006-10-30T08:06:53.654Z

A "whatsit" is perhaps the most endearing gimmick you will stumble across this sleepy Monday. A simple concept designed for a simple end. Put succinctly, a 'whatsit' is an item worn which is either anomalous, individual or calling for further information provided by the person garbed in it. Its purpose is to give people who want to talk to you, a reason to talk to you, and to give people a reason

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-86798786950625543572006-10-29T14:12:00.000Z2006-10-29T14:21:37.058Z

I wish to draw you attention to perhaps the most interesting website that I have ever found on my short sojourn accross the world wide web. TEDTalks are a series of highlight speaches given at the semi-famous TED Conference.TED is an invitation only conference with a very simple premise: gather the 1000 most brilliant minds of the year, the people doing the most signficant and innovative things,

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-16799307837800507682006-10-09T07:23:00.000Z2006-10-09T07:51:22.584Z

O Allah, This is the month of Ramadan, in which descended the Holy Quran as guidance to mankind, and a divider [between truth and falsehood]. O Allah, bless us in this month, and give us Your help and accept our prayers, for certainly you have power over all things. There is no God but Allah, we seek His forgiveness. O Allah, we ask you for Paradise and protection from Hellfire - English

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1160126534080139082006-10-06T09:19:00.000Z2006-10-06T09:22:14.093Z

If you’ve looked at the links section on my blog, you may have grasped that in addition to an obsession with Football Manager (which sadly is fading away), I have a penchant for reading online comics. Its not confined to just the online ones, and dead tree comics with a offbeat twist, notoriously Calvin & Hobbes are great favorites of mine. Its not a trait I’ve found that anyone in my limited

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1159088304900836702006-09-24T08:47:00.000Z2006-09-24T08:58:24.963Z

I’ve been bouncing around a couple of writing sites, just looking for the odd tip hint or topic that might spark my fancy and give wings to my writing again. I went through a intensive burst a little while back, and it seems that I consumed all that was available to spend for the last few weeks. I found myself intrigued by a little auto-suggestion generator, that popped up topics that it

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1158146889577434402006-09-13T11:22:00.000Z2006-09-13T11:28:09.596Z

In the progressive liberal church in which I attended high school, it would be a rare assembly where our charismatic Welsh choirmaster did not preface or conclude the misdeeds of others without the memorable quotation of Edmund Burke; “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”. Recently, in the throes of a little historical revivalism and perhaps not a little

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1157641680088696822006-09-07T15:06:00.000Z2006-09-07T15:08:00.143Z

I’ve had this thought percolating in my mind for a while and it very much is a nascent idea still, but I’m starting to feel more and more dissatisfied with the concept of progress and the almost blind faith that people have that the West represents progress, and that progress itself, as defined by the western conceptions, is a good idea. The thought has been bought into sharpness by three

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1157542954684788572006-09-06T11:39:00.000Z2006-09-06T14:27:49.436Z

The scintillating nature of possibilities is a phenomenon that you are unable to comprehend until you find yourself in the midst of a situation where it rebounds upon itself, creating a heightened sense of its own importance. Causes, effects, options, differences, all shimmer before the eye of the mind in a mind numbing circle of slight variations all commendable in their own rights and equally

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1156949554587029142006-08-30T14:50:00.000Z2006-08-30T14:52:34.603Z

Back in the olden days, when GCSEs were significant exams worthy of veneration due to their nearly departed proximity and A-levels were imbued with importance due to their imminence and their clear life altering impact, I pursued history at both levels with a true sense of relish and with an abiding sense of enjoyment of the past. Then I loved the certainty, the sophistication and the

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1156698013839391932006-08-27T16:58:00.000Z2006-08-27T17:00:13.856Z

There is only power, and those who are too weak to take it. So says one of the most prominent fictional villains of all time, and it is this obiter dicta of a non-judicial Lord, that I have found myself compelled to spend a little while considering. I’ve not always been very interested in power. Power you see, in its most meaningful sense is power over people, and my reaction to the enforced

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1153293002265372932006-07-19T07:07:00.000Z2006-07-19T07:10:02.286Z

I would recommend to my reader, the book Vanity Fair by William Thackeray, if they wish to come to an understanding of the caustic cynicism that is currently my frame of mind. It charts in no uncertain terms, the progress of two girls, ostensibly friends, but ever different as they journey through the circus, the carnival fair, that humanity in its true nature is. It documents without flinching

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1152940912827513332006-07-15T05:19:00.000Z2006-07-15T05:21:52.846Z

The thin line between credibility and incredibility has become something of a resurgent issue, having been cast into my face by the realities of being back in Hong. A certain individual who wields considerable power and has great status has committed himself to actions that in my eyes have destroyed all his credibility and have made me very dubious and very cynical of him, his actions, his

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1151145177569121152006-06-24T10:23:00.000Z2006-06-24T10:35:15.733Z

While I'm not inclined to cut ties with anyone, those who spend the least effort in connecting with me is undeniably the logical place to start. I have recently been taking stock of MSN . You might treat it as the natural development of my rejection of facebook not so long ago. In essence, what I am beginning to notice, is that inspite the vast size of my contact list, that I only really use it

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1150814077835255842006-06-20T14:29:00.000Z2006-06-20T14:34:38.276Z

One of the oddest aspects of my stay in London has been the development of a growing attachment to the Radio both as entertainment and as an ideal. It became one of the great respites at Kings College Hall, and in subsequent places remained one of my main sources of relaxation and entertainment, displacing even the PC and TV in many instances, especially to listen to in the evenings while doing

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1149901431358071392006-06-10T00:59:00.000Z2006-06-10T01:03:51.376Z

With the dawn of June I have attained that exorbitant dose of freedom and perspective that opens up for all students. Days stretch out in front of you, a vista unparalleled in their possibilities and with a scale that inclines one to forget purpose and direction. The horizon is so vast and so open that to move in any direction makes no more likely the chance of success. It brings out a tendency

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1148249603131602832006-05-21T22:11:00.000Z2006-05-21T22:13:23.153Z

I've been ruminating on my favourite subject of soliloquy, that ubiquitous institution that is friendship, with its nuances and complications, and I've come to some understanding that explain a little more to me and make me feel that I've got some tools that help me understand what I perceive to be as anomalies in some of my deepest and longest friendships. I've come to the understanding that

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1146686865882463372006-05-03T20:06:00.000Z2006-05-03T20:07:45.893Z

Walking has always had special connotations for me, especially because of the way it has woven itself into the very fabric of my Hong Kong existence. There were very few times that I ended up making a significant journey from point to point on foot without a companion to share the journey with me. My best friends are defined by walks, Hunaid by the weekly trek to Wyndham Street, Craig and

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1146087568710374112006-04-26T21:36:00.000Z2006-04-26T21:39:28.726Z

It's an odd sensation that has been building up for the past 6-8 months for me, and in hindsight I can see the wide range of influences that are pushing me to consider this as a course of action.I’m not the type designated Artistic. I view art as something mystical and magical that is beyond my ability, that is something transcendentally mystical, that I have no ability to emulate. It is a

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1144258684401881922006-04-05T17:35:00.000Z2006-04-05T17:38:53.440Z

For all my championing of excellence, I said something in a conversation yesterday that made me come up short. A friend was telling me of the effort and will he was putting into a particular topic, and how determined he was to ensure that all turned out as right as it could be. To this noble sentiment I gave a callous response. You would be surprised, I told him, how far mediocrity would get

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1144185273031040482006-04-04T21:12:00.000Z2006-04-04T21:14:33.063Z

When they were friendly games of chess, I used to say often to my most favoured Opponent, that he had eyes, but he did not see. It was a favourite metaphor of mine for those moments when to the opponent the game looked inscrutable, where a move revealed neither rhyme nor reason. It appeared almost a casual move, nonchalantly taken to move a piece from one benign position into another, but in

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1143496064290039672006-03-27T21:43:00.000Z2006-03-27T21:47:44.306Z

If you know me, you know that I am the person most unmusical. All through high school, the one person guaranteed to not know the latest hit or have heard the rock classic was me. I never felt that music fit in within my framework, that it worked at a level beyond my understanding, that it wasn't amiable to be fit into the routine of my life. And so I never felt the urge to listen to it. It was

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1142890291425417442006-03-20T21:27:00.000Z2006-03-20T21:31:31.470Z

In my current use of stumbleupon, that most excellent Firefox plug-in, I've had it for a while set exclusively on the news setting, in an effort to bounce around from information source to information source to discover what is going on. The selector hasn't quite worked like I think it would, instead it has been sending me off to op-ed pieces that are much more about analysing the news. This has

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1142244284573031582006-03-13T10:03:00.000Z2006-03-13T10:04:44.586Z

After three years of Law, I think it’s finally starting to manifest its impact on the way I deal with the world. The nature of law as an academic discipline as well as an area of practice develops a certain way of thinking and imprints a trajectory of thought that guides the mind down a certain path of analysing the world that does not translate across into other disciplines, and that this is not

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1142014611607161532006-03-10T18:13:00.000Z2006-03-10T18:16:51.623Z

Is the reward of goodness aught save goodness?- The Quran, Surah Ar-Rahman, 55:60I just want to give account of a little gesture that made a difference. Such goodness does it represent, that it evokes an instinctive goodwill on my part to a person who can make such an honest and considerate gesture. Think of this as a way of acknowledging the blessing, and just one of the ways I can do that is

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1141593902442112352006-03-05T21:22:00.000Z2006-03-05T21:25:02.463Z

Fools rush in, where Angels fear to tread.I'm beginning to wonder about the relationship between change and knowledge. Specifically I'm wondering how much you need to understand something before it becomes right to change. Many people nowadays come and look at a social convention, a social regulation and conceive it to be ab initio wrong, that by the very nerve of something actually being a

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1141429077099899532006-03-03T23:34:00.000Z2006-03-03T23:37:57.113Z

If it needs introduction, Facebook is the service that uses people's official college email addresses and acts very much like hi5 or myspace. Basically it lets you fill in all your friends and to keep track of them when they disperse into the wide world by virtue of the internet. Its recently begun its roll out in the UK to universities and high schools here after tremendous success in the USA

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1140102660149987232006-02-16T15:09:00.000Z2006-02-16T15:11:00.170Z

I haven’t posted anything in a while, and its probably more symptomatic of traveling rather then any indication to abandon the written word, but recently its been hard to put things into words. I have many ideas floating ethereally but none have come within grasping distance and crystallized in to anything that I would feel warrants a mention over here. I have a sense that something big is going

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1136904793742714072006-01-10T14:50:00.000Z2006-01-10T14:53:13.763Z

Some days people shock me more then I should probably let them, and sometimes it is over the most trivial and minute details. However the narrowness of their perspective and conceptual focus surprises me. These are Elders, people with much more experience of the world then I have, who have travelled many thousands of miles and seen many countries. Surely they should not be making such simple

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1136263234951551262006-01-03T04:36:00.001Z2006-01-03T04:40:34.956Z

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitelythe most important.-Sir Arthur Conan DoyleI used to think that it was a wise exhortation to never sweat the small things. It was unnecessary to be pedantic and exact in every aspect of existence. It was okay to be forgetful of small things and to bypass the trivialities that surround life. I have slowly learned that to think

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1135352176832921642005-12-23T15:33:00.000Z2005-12-23T15:36:16.890Z

Every so often in life, you come to a realisation that broadens your perspectives, which peel away minutely the infinite layers of complexity that surround living. They pierce the veil of social obliqueness that governs our collective behaviour. Things that were confusing before, benefit from an infusion of clarity. This collective process I suppose is some aspect of maturity, but is distinctly

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1133907145063345872005-12-06T22:09:00.000Z2005-12-06T22:13:29.530Z

How do you deal with the realisation that fundamentally, you are a boring person? It is a difficult idea to come to terms with when have to consider it all in real terms, what it amounts to and what it really means both in the short and long term for your own internal perspective. It is perhaps the most enduring remark that a person I once termed a friend made on me, was to term me boring. I

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1133627449946210762005-12-03T16:26:00.000Z2005-12-03T16:30:49.966Z

I’ve noticed a strong trend in when I post and what I tend to post about, and I don't think the correlation that I have observed really surprises me now that I’ve found the chance to think about it. I always see my posts as a way of formulating opinion, a way to work out what my own position is on something, to lay out in clear and precise nature what the arguments that are so loosely defined and

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1133471855419679412005-12-01T21:15:00.000Z2005-12-01T21:17:35.436Z

I think over the last few months, as I’ve become more aware of what I want to be and where I want to go, I have also developed another change, the import of which I am still trying to come to terms with, and especially to decide whether it amounts to a regression or a step forward.I had what might be called a declining sense of humour. For a long time, from about 15 onwards, I had what I

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1132436613591819902005-11-19T21:29:00.000Z2005-11-19T21:47:44.383Z

I'm watching a documentary on Nazi Germany, and it throws into sharp contrast the world of the free and the unfree, the danger of those willing to stay silent in the face of horror, those willing to let evil pass you by, because it doesn't concern you. The words of Father Martin Niermoller are famous in this context, and I won't repeat them.I want to say a little bit about freedom, and how

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1131921837986138982005-11-13T22:38:00.000Z2005-11-13T22:44:50.156Z

I just want to put up this link and invite you to read it. It is an abolutely fascinating piece about what is hidden in plain site. The moral of the piece is that your face says more then you think it possibly can. There is so much about basic and real knowledge that modern science has only the most peripheral understanding off. It reminds me how vast the sea of knowledge really is. Modern man

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1129810182225830232005-10-20T13:06:00.000Z2005-10-20T12:09:42.233Z

It’s a sobering realisation when you finally come to accept that certain limits are inherent in yourself. They beyond your control in an absolute way. I do not mean external aspects, the external world is hard to even pretend to comprehend at the best of times, but when these things relate to you, to your own outlook and your own perceptions, you perceive that you have some sovereignty over them.

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1128747616967131062005-10-08T06:00:00.000Z2005-10-08T05:00:17.000Z

The Power of Nightmares In 2003 the BBC showed a documentary entitled “The Power of Nightmares” which sought to identify the ideologies that underlay both ‘sides’ of the ‘War on Terror’. It identified the ideological basis of the neo-conservative movement in the philosophy of Leo Strauss. In a nutshell, Strauss argued that a nation needed a unifying myth to function as a rallying and launch

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1126791916496907692005-09-15T14:37:00.000Z2005-09-15T13:45:16.513Z

We live in an essentially complicated and dynamic world. It provides us daily with complicated and varied challenges, and these fluctuate both in their intensity and their results. Things are easier today, hard yesterday. Things that worked today will not work tomorrow. Through all of this, in the essential search through the distortion that life placed on the clear eye of the mind, a search

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1126365878038415632005-09-10T23:12:00.000Z2005-09-10T15:24:38.050Z

Two days. On Tuesday I get the special dispensation to pack up, sort out all my things, and become once again an exile in Her Majesties United Kingdom. I am hardly delighted at the prospect. Two reasons suffice. Firstly, I don’t like the UK and secondly, Hong Kong is home. I’m only going to focus on the first one. I never settled into the UK, I just got used to it. It feels odd, constantly

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1125664890925858972005-09-02T20:39:00.000Z2005-09-02T12:41:30.936Z

There are days when my structured moral code and my absolutist perspective on the world gives way to what can mildly be termed an extreme laissez faire attitude. It seems to be the most common course that people want to do, and are going to do what they want to do anyway. They’re not going to rationale analysis interfere, nor are they going to consider the long term consequences. But that’s what

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1125412588812720682005-08-30T22:30:00.000Z2005-08-30T14:37:17.533Z

The nature of labels, what you describe yourself as has long interested me. There are many perspectives that people have of themselves cannot be apparent to a third person looking in. No matter how open the person, and how close the relationship, there remains a little window of the soul that remains opaque. No insight is gained here, or rather all insight is to be gained, but none shall have

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1125154553184741982005-08-27T22:00:00.000Z2005-08-27T14:55:53.190Z

I recently asked myself what made people change, and what could motivate them to want to be different to the person they are today. The answer to motivation, I'm sure there are millions, but it was with particular regard to how that I was more interested in.Interestingly enough I have found my answer within the very words that you're reading. What we all possess, somewhere within ourselves, is an

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1124877493921223672005-08-24T18:00:00.000Z2005-08-24T09:58:13.930Z

It is a famous slogan, standing prominently on the gates of Auschwitz. In a twist of the most profound, I feel that in some insidious manner, this conception has survived the invasion of the Nazi Empire, and exported an idea equally insidious as that of the dangerous idea that was destroyed in the embers of the second world war.In the modern capitalistic world, it somehow appears that in the

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1124725548227078712005-08-22T23:45:00.000Z2005-08-22T15:45:48.260Z

I've had the chance recently, to have a long conversation with someone who used their words in a really interesting manner. Instead of just using words in a banal manner, to convey meaning, they bought their conversation to life, they infused it with exaggerated metaphors, drew on references both mortal and mythological, and with every sentence sought to seek the boundaries of their language and

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1124616536592628762005-08-21T17:41:00.000Z2005-08-21T09:42:20.826Z

There is a tendency to play what is called the blame game. The idea is that if you can blame someone, anyone other then yourself that you can divest yourself of the taint of failure. There is something dangerous in the common conception of failure, that it critically undermines a person forever, or at least that seems to be the myth.Failure is an undeniable part of life, the world is not certain

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1124446371218810922005-08-19T18:11:00.000Z2005-08-19T10:12:51.226Z

There's a trite quotation that is amongst one of my favourites which states simply that "A mind is like a parachute, they both work best when they're open". Its a powerful illustration of what is needed to make a person functional in the world. The ability to hold an opinion, to hold strong opinions even, needs to be balanced against the relevant counter force, which is to be able to keep a mind

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1124252765309620642005-08-17T12:25:00.000Z2005-08-17T04:26:05.320Z

The most important question that one can ask about the world that one inhabits, the most powerful and the most meaningful is 'why'. I understand that its not the most common question to be asked, and in certain scientific circles the question is reviled as being redundant or even meaningless. I cannot accept this and I have no intention of doing so.There are two implicit questions asked when

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1124187920518337532005-08-16T18:10:00.000Z2005-08-16T10:30:51.056Z

It is without doubt one of the great virtues of the world, but its hard to understand what its limits are and where it properly fits into the balance of everyday life. The conventional wisdom goes along the lines of 'all good things come to he who waits' but at the same time, it seems that things only fall into place for the go-getters. The conflict is between where one waits, and where one stops

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1124106866420417472005-08-15T19:55:00.000Z2005-08-15T11:54:26.426Z

Its a common enough occurrence, to hear people say as if the most natural and logical of things, that religion ought to change with the times, that it ought to adapt to the particular foibles and perceptions of the modern age, that somehow modern man's great intellectual advances and tolerant society behoove that even God should modify his diktats to conform with our newly realized erudition.

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1124018819074724442005-08-14T19:26:00.000Z2005-08-14T11:26:59.226Z

There is no substitute in the world, for the industriousness of a man. There are no shortcuts, no quick paths, no untroubled glades by which to circumvent this most demanding edict. Intelligence is unhelpful, unsuccessful genius is almost a proverb, wealth is no panacea, squandered wealth is also a proverb, and wisdom is a resource unavailing, the poor and wise are cliché in many stories. I

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1123929281854104182005-08-13T18:45:00.000Z2005-08-13T10:36:26.836Z

I take no pride in acknowledging that at times I can be a pretty moody person, and that my mood swings can be swift and sudden. I often find that days can be like emotional roller coasters, brilliant mornings, happy afternoons, and a totally despicable evening. What aggravates this problem for me is my inborn cynicism which makes it more likely then not that a bad mood will continue for days.Its

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1123847590952105282005-08-12T18:53:00.000Z2005-08-12T11:53:49.410Z

It seems to go without saying, that we live in a world now where beauty is only skin deep in the general perception. Not in the sense that we only consider the exterior of a person, but that we give disproportionate weight to the exterior, and have been deluded in to believing that the exterior is of greater import then the interior.The conventional argument then proceeds to blame the media, but

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1120142453286623632005-08-11T22:00:00.000Z2005-08-12T00:15:28.846Z

I asserted a while back what our society ought to be basedupon, but simultaneously I wondered what I thought society was currently found open. And oddly enough I found that the answer I was seeking might best come from the field of economics. What suggested that to me was the famous quote by the father of Economics, Adam Smith in his seminal The Wealth of Nations. In it, in words that are

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1123681980401632732005-08-10T20:52:00.000Z2005-08-10T13:53:00.406Z

I would have to say when pressed, that I'm a lousy person when it comes to asking for help. I possess a firm desire to do things on my own, that my own merits and efforts ought to be enough to gain what I desire. Failing that I expect to be able to spend money to achieve that goal, or to otherwise achieve it. What I don't want ever is achievement by the kindness of others. In other words, I'm

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1123588766907580712005-08-09T19:00:00.000Z2005-08-09T11:59:26.933Z

It is the fundamental marker of our existence, the fourth dimension by which all others have meaning. Time is the barometer of our existence, all things have meaning through time. In the last year I've come to many realisations about time, and its nature given our varying and subjective perceptions of it.The first is that one never ever has 'spare time'. In fact the whole concept of spare time is

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1123427248431232562005-08-08T18:51:00.000Z2005-08-08T11:51:38.300Z

It says much about how little that I understand the world that we live in, that only now am I twigging on to the full importance of politeness, and how essential an element it is in our modern lives. It is needed more then we realize. It is the essential lubricant of the social world, the grease that keeps the cogs of interaction from jamming as they are wont to do, and preventing the friction

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1123384306543801802005-08-07T10:11:00.000Z2005-08-07T03:11:46.550Z

I’m on the record ranting about the amazing ability of people to say one thing, mean another and then do a third thing. I’m again left wondering what the hell this means, and why people have the time and energy for such pointless perfidy. My generation, certainly in my religious community, is the first that is free from the pervading nosiness that used to define us, and still does in the

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1123317856404822542005-08-06T15:44:00.000Z2005-08-06T08:44:40.773Z

You rarely meet people who know what they want from life, and I would be lying if I professed to be able to give any such comprehensive description of myself. But I have found over the last few weeks the work that I want to do. I think. The idea of being a barrister has always been part of my consciousness, through books and the like, but seeing the reality of the work, I realize that

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1123236935053465572005-08-05T17:15:00.000Z2005-08-05T10:15:35.096Z

I’m sure no one has noticed, but I seem to have abandoned my efforts at writing on this online tablet. So I’m starting what I consider an easy way to get back into it, by setting myself a simple target of getting a hundred words a day minimum out there. This will hopefully motivate me to get cracking on more longer stuff, but really its just to get me used to doing entries again. It’s been a

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1120142094356254282005-06-30T13:58:00.000Z2005-06-30T14:39:06.436Z

There are days when I am most aware of myself, when I realize that I am truly and absolutely human are the days when I feel the most despair over life. If one even seeks to comprehend for even a minute the great amount of humanity in the world, how much so much of it suffers, the poverty, the exploitation and the selfishness that typifies so much of human interaction with each other brings what

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1118505849376995522005-06-18T15:40:00.000Z2005-06-18T08:37:03.240Z

I recently asked a few people what they would do if they knew that they could not fail. I pondered this question because I wondered what I would be like if I was in that position, but more importantly to discover where I would go and what I would do. Instead I find myself unable to answer the question because it seems to be the type of question that misses the point almost, that fails to

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1118504091589901142005-06-11T11:00:00.000Z2005-06-11T15:34:51.593Z

Change. It is the perennial sign post of the human condition, and perhaps its eternal marker. We are beset on all sides by change, people change, the weather, the house and the time all constantly change, all slightly different then they were a little while ago, a few second elapsed and a magnitude of change incapable of comprehension to the human mind has occurred. Billions of atomic particles

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1118302611250548322005-06-09T14:50:00.000Z2005-06-09T07:50:11.840Z

It is perhaps the most famous of all Socratic quotes. As one reads thought Plato's "Apology" which writes out Socrates' defense of himself at his famous trial in Athens, one comes across what Henry Cary translates as "...[B]ut the life without investigation, is not worth living in". It is more often translated as "the unexamined life is not worth living". It represents perhaps the single founding

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1116357660432405272005-06-01T13:40:00.000Z2005-06-01T06:38:05.420Z

"Fidelity, is the sister of Justice" -Horace, Ancient Roman poet.Its been an interesting time in terms of loyalty for me. Again the question arises in terms of the forum that I'm associated with. It brings into focus a sharp question, and requirews me to ask what loyalty is and who or what is it owed to. A person who embodied tenacious loyalty to FMG, the organisation and its ethos, has been

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1116196329982485012005-05-25T18:00:00.000Z2005-05-25T10:42:14.400Z

I don't know how to quite to frame this post, because the precise thing I want to describe seems very hard to explain in any way. I suspect that most people will know what I mean, but I don't know how I can change it or alter it or bring about any progress in the position that I find myself with a variety of people. It's with this that I would seek your help.In the course of friendship, there are

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12719785.post-1116240095269233862005-05-21T15:00:00.000Z2005-05-21T15:04:26.436Z

In many a conversation that I've had with a friend, a common thread that we have shared is our aversion to politics in any form. It is a famous quotation that "Man is a Political animal", and while this is so, it is politics in its more specific sense that I find disconcertng. All this bickering, all the people saying one thing and meaning another, people making concessions that they have no

Mohammed Talibhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02694273402781023761noreply@blogger.com1