If You Do Not Change …..? – Changes and You!

Like I said so many times before, if you do not change with the on-going-times you have no one to blame but yourself only – and you will get what is due to you somehow by either your actions or inactions – or by default and inadvertently even!

**** See Below What I Had Said!

Change Before Change Changes You!

Iranians Celebrating Overthrow of The Shah

Nobody ever thought The Shah would be overthrown – and he was by Khomeini!

Some for Ferdinand Marcos of Phillipines!

Some for Augusto Pinochet of Chile! Chileans ‘celebrating’ him being in Court!

Nobody ever thought Saddam Hussein would be hanged by the same soldier who would shit in his pants if he saw Saddam in better times – but he was hanged by the same soldier cursing him to ‘go to hell’ in the same process.

Nobody ever thought Hosni Mubarak would be brought to Court by his own previous saluting Commanders and Soldiers – but he was! Nobody knows what his fate will be – if not Saddam way! And cheering citizens of Egypt where their families were killed in The Spring Uprising!

Then you have Ben Ali of Tunisia etc… Now Syria, Before Libya and Yemen.

And like some of us in Zanzibar then in the 1960s – we thought nothing will happen to us – or touch us – and we had  verything and under British Protectorate – yet it did – and thousands were butchered and massacred!

The scene above is of a mass killing of Arabs in a cemetery following the 1964 bloody Zanzibar Revolution. This shot is taken by video camera from a helicopter and featured in the 1966 film  Africa Addio.

This sequence of film is believed to be the only known visual documentation of the killings which followed the bloody Zanzibar Revolution of January 1964. First Ethnic cleansing in Africa!

This applies to all of us – even at the Individual Levels. And many of us have still not learnt the open lessons shown!!

Some individuals think Nothing can touch them – or happen to them! Time to wake up!

No one is blinder than one with eyes – but cannot see!

No one is deafer than one with ears – but cannot hear!

No one is more mute than one with a mouth – but cannot speak!

The Romans have also said – Those that the gods are out to destroy – they make them not see, hear –
or speak!

 **** Live and Let Live!

A – My Earlier Articles – Keeping Up With The Changes – July 23rd – 2003 – 8 years ago!In this article  I had written –

Quote – One of the traits of ever successful, smart, pragmatic and proactive peoples is their ‘ability to be able to vision and predict changes’, and to be able to adjust, accommodate and even make these changes work for their advantage! They are able to even predict when these changes will come, in what format and their consequences and repercussions too! They are able to make the changes become as ‘a friend and as a Support’, rather than as an adversary and blockage cum detrimental to them per se! Proactive and pre-empt to be exact!

• I have also said – if you have something working for you – keep it, preserve it, protect and defend it – and do not spoil things for yourself and those near you and you love! Do not spit on your food – and do not put sand in your coconut pudding – as The Swahilis of East Africa like to say!
• Or have you heard of the expression – ‘Bite the hand that feeds you, and lick the boot that kicks you!? If not I am telling you now – has happened so many times – but people still keep repeating the same approaches, techniques and dealings with others – especially thinking they are scattered, docile and weak! But the Arab Spring Uprisings should wake up a lot of us people still slumbering and sleeping! – Unquote.

B – The Need To Change Article – November 19^th 2009 – In this article I had said – Quote – People who have accepted changes have come are always going for the higher road in accepting and in bringing in changes – to be a better person – to think outside the box – and to be able to see the forest from the trees! You do not need to be a nuclear physicist to realize and know that change has come – and to be ready for changes to come in.-

Some of the changes need not be that big or universal. It could even be at the individual level – and even small and insignificant at first glance and analysis – but it is still change all the same in all spheres and aspects – and cannot be discounted, ignored or marginalized even. In all my books there are cautionary tales and articles on Changes – and their coming in – Unquote.

 Today I want to go on the bigger picture – I watch the news and see what is unfolding before us. I have noticed what is unfolding is this – people have very strong comments, rigid views, outlooks, perceptions and opinions on many things – but the worst part is that they think they are always right, ethical and correct – and want to impose them on others. I now understand why some people outside our societies (or even within) hate and despise us so much. I now also understand fully what it means to say ‘opening a can of worms’ really means.

There is also no respect and esteem for those older and senior to us – especially in such affairs. I want to bring the subject out in the open – so we can discuss it rationally, unemotionally, pragmatically and with hopeful signs of reconciliations, remedy, peace, harmony, understandings, live-and-let-live outlooks and scenarios.

Time and time again, History has proved this point. The days when you could scare people away by words and acts  of threats, aggression, bullying etc are now over. Even if you go to the basics at home. What my grandfather could do to my father – to what my father could do to me – and what I can do to my son (and hopefully his son too) – have been  reduced from time to time. My late father could scold me in front of my wife – his father could beat him my father in front of his wife – but I will think twice before I even contemplate to scold my son – especially in front of his  wife.

Times have changed.

Take Care!

Ramadhan Kareem!

By Majid Al Suleimany