The old neighborhoods in Pakistani cities are considered grimy, derelict, and impoverished. In truth they are undoubtedly a treasure trove of history, traditional heritage, and urban design wisdom. Narrow streets lined by two-to-three story buildings create natural shade making it easier to walk during the heat of day, courtyards in homes are an effective provision for natural light and fresh air, whilst high ceilings and multiple stories form a natural means to regulate temperature; these are but some of the wisdoms of old which we have discredited over the years. As cities expanded outwards tradition was replaced by, at first colonial, and eventually, western methodologies of urban design and architecture – deemed signs of progress and social status – but were never properly contextualized to blend with our social fabric, climate, or environment.

Strolling through cities in Morocco one becomes aware of the lack of heritage in our own. Cities such as Fes, Tangier, Essaouira, and Marrakech boast whole areas of old neighborhoods – the medinas – where heritage is in abundance while newer parts of the city, although characteristically different from their medina counterpart, still harbor a semblance of character and identity with their past. Unfortunately in Pakistan it is rare to find a city where such a tangible and pervasive sense of culture and heritage exists. They exist in pockets – primarily in the historic districts – but rather than being an influence for the expanding city, those areas have been relegated to the sidelines of society and consciousness, their existence instead threatened by the modern expansion of the city.

Lahore’s androon shehr is a fascinating example yet a tragic affair of powerlines cobwebbing the views of the sky, peeling paint, crumbling infrastructure, dilapidated roads, garbage strewn around, drains open to the sky, unregulated and illegal construction, and signboards that are more of an eye sore than informative. It takes a persistent imagination to see past the dereliction to acknowledge the potential it harbors. Instead of wires crisscrossing overhead one could picture the countless wooden balconies jutting out from pastel colored facades, cobblestone streets devoid of cars and bikes allowing pedestrians to walk freely, shop owners with their wares on display out on the street, and the smell of delicious desi food wafting through the air.

These scenes are prevalent in the medina of Marrakech – sans desi food smells – as elsewhere in the country, resonating how heritage rehabilitation can breathe life back into a neighborhood. Roads repaved with adequate sanitation and garbage disposal, walls with fresh coats of plaster and ochre red paint, wooden awnings with intricate patterns above storefronts for shade from the elements, mosque entrances framed by exquisite calligraphic and geometric stucco carvings, historic landmarks renovated into museums and tourist attractions; each aspect aiding in preserving heritage as well as inadvertently welcoming further investment. The space itself becomes a melting pot of cosmopolitanism where tourists and locals throng the streets and squares. Adding to the character of the medina are the fortification walls that skirt it, delineating it from the rest of the city. The entrances into the medina are punctuated by elaborate archways, similar to the ones of other medinas such as Fes, Tangier or Rabat.

Just like Marrakech, androon shehr is a mix of residential neighborhoods interspersed with bazaars as well as workshops for different kinds of trades. Historic landmarks are scattered throughout the area such as Wazir Khan Mosque, Sunehri Mosque, the Shahi Hamam, Barudkhana, not to mention the countless havelis. Imagine what it would be like to walk along a reconstructed wall skirting androon shehr and entering through one of the many restored darwazas to explore a space brimming with aesthetic beauty and intrigue hearkening back to a long-forgotten dream.

The Shahi Guzargah – the area around Delhi Gate leading up to Wazir Khan Mosque – is one of the few examples of rehabilitation efforts that have been carried out within androon shehr. Headed by the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) and in collaboration with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and other development agencies, it is a step in a promising direction.

However the efforts pale in comparison to the concerted efforts by the Moroccan government to rehabilitate Marrakech, or the countless other medinas in the country. Androon shehr is also a much smaller affair, a meagre 2.6 sq. km swath of land compared to Marrakech’s 11.1 sq. km medina. There is more that still needs to be done to revitalize androon shehr, and cities such as Marrakech are a great case study to learn from.

Tourism has played a pivotal role in the medina’s rehabilitation, whether as a direct effort by the government to promote tourism and commerce, or as a consequence of the resulting gentrification. This becomes evident from the variety of economic activity happening in the medina: multitudes of restaurants cater varying cuisines, luxurious spas and hammams offer services to weary travelers to indulge and relax, numerous riads (somewhat like havelis) provide comfortable and luxurious accommodations, shops in the souks sell artisanal handicrafts – carpets, jewelry, bags, ceramics and the like – to haggling tourists, skilled artisans labor away in their workshops on said handicrafts, local bakeries offer sweets and bread, roadside stalls offer juices or delicious cheap food, henna artists set up in the square to tattoo tourists, snake charmers and monkey wranglers use their animals as attractions, and the numerous fruit and vegetable markets where the locals grocery shop, all are present in the sprawling medina. By granting private enterprises the opportunity to set up businesses creates an environment that attracts tourists and customers, which in turn promotes local businesses already present as well as allowing for newer businesses to be established as well.

However it is important to incentivize the preservation of heritage and have regulations and policies in place to ensure the historical and social fabric of the area is maintained. Otherwise if left unchecked the very gentrification intended to help the locality can end up consuming it entirely, driving residents out due to disparity in income, economic opportunity, and affordability.

One of the problems the medina faces to this day are real estate price hikes. Riads end up being bought by foreign investors who renovate them into holiday homes or hotels, resulting in a reduction of available property. This drives many residents who have been living in the medina for years to the peripheries of the greater city where rents are cheaper. Those who remain end up in homes repurposed by illegal constructions: either more living spaces are added on the roof or the homes are subdivided into smaller units to cater for more tenants. These constructions end up using subpar materials and techniques which take away from the heritage as well as the structural integrity of the building. Incidentally this issue exists in both the medina and androon shehr.

Realizing the need for equitable rehabilitation led the Moroccan government to establish the Initiative Nationale de Développement Humain whose aim is to rehabilitate not historic landmarks – which had been the mandate of previous initiatives – but focus instead on the preservation and social uplift of buildings and areas of historic value. Perhaps it also helped that the entire medina is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site which gives an added incentive for such initiatives.

However there are still areas of the medina in Marrakech that are derelict and income disparity prevalent. A dynamic forms where shop owners use aggressive tactics to sell their wares to customers, where locals help out tourists with directions only to later ask for money, some people resort to begging, and young teenagers try to discreetly sell hashish. A deeper dive into the economic lives of the residents sheds some more light on the issue. Most have blue collar jobs either in the medina or out in the city, making barely enough to support themselves and their families. In the case where there is no minimum wage or job security regulations this can lead to the exploitation of labor. As many businesses are primarily invested by people living out of the medina the profits do not end up being invested back in the area. This is the ugly truth of gentrification that cities the world over are struggling with and proper regulation and planning is required to create an equitable economic and social policy.

To that effect the WCLA can learn from these methodologies and outcomes to form a holistic approach of rehabilitation where heritage preservation is part of a grander policy involving economic regulation and social uplift. Longer term the WCLA could even become a model for other such heritage rehabilitation initiatives in cities such as Rawalpindi, Multan, Karachi, and others across the country.

Pakistan is a treasure trove of beautiful and diverse heritage. It is important we invest in preserving and restoring our heritage but not just for the sake of aesthetics, beauty, and economic potential. By embracing traditional and cultural knowledge of our architecture and urban design we can begin to contextualize new methodologies with these frameworks and create robust solutions that preserve heritage and also fit better into our social fabric and environmental and climatological context.

But with the arrival of science these supernatural phenomena began to be explained away as natural, comprehensible occurrences in the Universe. Scripture began to lose its foothold as the inaccuracies and fallacies it held in its folds began to be questioned and countered. Science began to provide the intellectual tools to explain and unveil the Universe. It made for a better framework and methodology to gain and expand knowledge and understanding, shunning authority and unwavering obedience, replacing it with questioning, experimentation, empiricism, and observation.

It is tempting to altogether dismiss religion as fallacious, based on this demystification of the Universe. However, these are not the only reasons for obviating religion from one’s life. Moral inconsistencies such as how a good and just God could allow pain, misery, and evil to exist in the Universe, or the disdain towards theological exceptionalism are other reasons for which people disregard religion. Such stances are categorized under humanistic atheism, where the argumentation against the existence of God stem from the social sciences and the humanities. Another strand is that of scientific atheism, which bases its argumentation on the natural sciences. [1]

Many contemporary atheists who could be categorized under the label of New Atheism adhere to scientific atheism. With people such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the late Christopher Hitchens lending their voices against ‘unreason’, vociferous attacks are made against the irrational and delusional beliefs of religious people, how religion primarily breeds intolerance and extremist behavior that poses a risk to the lives of people around the world, and how the world would be a better, more rational place with religion eradicated. New Atheists tend to make claims with a high degree of certitude, assuming an epistemic high ground due to adhering to rationalism. There is however a major logical fallacy that exists in their apparently rational proposition, ‘There is no God’.

Knowing The Knowable, Inferring The Inferable

The categorization into humanistic and scientific atheism is a logical separation to create a distinction between the metaphysical and material argumentations used to posit the nonexistence of God. These arguments have existed for centuries, although scientific atheism gained traction in more recently history, post Enlightenment. Due to its reasoning based on empirical evidence it lent even stronger credibility to the claims of atheism, as it purportedly refuted the material claims of scripture about the Universe.

For all the vastness and intricacies of the Universe what is most fascinating - and also downright perplexing if you come to think of it - is how we, insignificant specks in the infinity of spacetime, have been able to comprehend it using our intellect. It is a true marvel, and kudos goes to the numerous sages, intellectuals, philosophers, scientists, and thinkers who have made us a tad bit more aware. What must also be conceded, however, is that we have but finite knowledge of the Universe. Even though we continue to learn more about the Universe as time progresses, we do not know everything.

But how much do we know? Is it possible to put a number to the total attained knowledge about the Universe? Can we ascribe a percentage to how much we know versus how much we do not?

But why is having a total even necessary? Is it not enough that any explications made by religion, about subjects such as the origin of the Universe and of Man, have been refuted through scientific unravellings such as the Big Bang, evolution, and the inner workings of the brain? Why bother with epistemic accounting?

To understand why it is necessary, we need to delve into the basis of rationality: the linchpin of the scientific method. In order to make any inference there are two major methods of reasoning: deduction and induction.

Deduction moves from a general statement, such as:

All planets in the Solar System orbit around the Sun

and applies it to a particular premise

Mars is a planet in the Solar System

to arrive at the conclusion:

Mars orbits the Sun.

The base statement is a truth claim used to ascertain the validity of particular premises.

Induction, or inductive reasoning, on the other hand moves from particular observations and facts to formulate a general proposition. Tossing a coin a hundred times and always getting heads could make one infer that the next toss will also land heads. If the sample size is small, say 5 tosses, then we would feel less certain of the next toss turning up heads. However if after a hundred, a thousand, a million tosses and all of them landing heads we would have more certitude that whenever the coin is tossed it lands heads. We could even further infer something about the object itself, such as:

• The coin is loaded.

• The coin is double-headed.

Without knowing the nature of the coin we would be unable to conclude with certainty any of the above propositions. It would require further probing. If the coin turns out not biased (not loaded or double-headed) then perhaps we could infer the coin tosser is extremely lucky!

However, just because the unbiased coin continues to land heads each time, even after a million tosses, does not mean it will never land tails. The overly large sample size of observations would make one infer it will continue to land heads in the future too. But, although landing heads is most likely true, it is not necessarily true. Essentially the propositions inferred through induction have an epistemic uncertainty attached to them. In fact, inductive reasoning is not a claim of truth, but instead a claim of probability: how likely is a proposition to be true, or not.

All I Know Is, We Know Nothing

The proposition, ‘There is no God’ is an inductive inference. It is supported by different theories, such as the origin of the Universe from the Big Bang, and the evolution of humans from chimpanzees. These essentially provide proof refuting the theological versions of the same phenomena. But technically this only warrants the proposition to be plausible.

If we were to concede the total attained knowledge we have about the Universe proves there is no God (which it does not necessarily) then the question that logically follows is, how much do we not know? Is there potentially still knowledge to be attained that could provide a hint or insight into the existence of God? Let us dredge along in a thought experiment: say we were able to peg a number to the total attained knowledge about the Universe. Let us assume it at 40%, and none of the knowledge supports an argument for the existence of God. However, with the remaining 60% of knowledge still unaccounted for it would be an inductive leap to make the proposition, ‘There is no God’.

But, alas, such epistemic accounting is not available, and perhaps might never be attainable. How would we ever know how much we already know? And how much is remaining to be discovered? Therefore due to the epistemic uncertainty that revolves around the proposition, ‘There is no God’ it is fair to claim that it is not a rationally sound argument, but a plausible one. It does not warrant absolute certainty of the nonexistence of God, nor even an improbability of the existence of God. Anyone claiming it to be truth or having certainty in it is thus taking a leap of faith.

This conclusion is not a dismissal of scientific atheism, or the arguments put forward by proponents of New Atheism. It is to point out the logical fallacy that exists in their propositions, and the intellectual dishonesty pervading the rationality of its adherents. Such blind faith in the scientific method - no pun intended - and its presumed superiority to other forms of knowledge lends a smugness which is unwarranted, inappropriate, and quite frankly dogmatic. Scientific atheism does traipse into the realm of the irrational. It involves a leap of faith. Just because its knowledge is built on reason does not warrant every claim it puts forth is equally rational. Therefore, at least it would be fair that its adherents have the intellectual integrity to accept it and reconsider their self righteous, dogmatic attitude.

References

[1] Hovdkinn, E. (2016, October 19). New Atheism in Social Media: More than entertaining mockery? Retrieved from http://religiongoingpublic.com/archive/2016/new-atheism-in-social-media-more-than-entertaining-mockery

Further Readings

Draper, P. (2017, August 07). Atheism and Agnosticism. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/

Clark, K. (). Religious Epistemology. Retrieved from https://www.iep.utm.edu/relig-ep/

Deductive vs Inductive Reasoning: Make Smarter Arguments, Better Decisions, and Stronger Conclusions. Retrieved from https://fs.blog/2018/05/deductive-inductive-reasoning/

Lee, L. (2018, September 27). Why Atheists Are Not As Rational As Some Like To Think. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/why-atheists-are-not-as-rational-as-some-like-to-think-103563

Related Posts

If what has brought you here is a search for answers then unfortunately you will not find any. Best case scenario, some clarity shall be attained but most likely you will go away with further questions.

That, however, IS the goal.

To spawn a trajectory of thought about the state of affairs in the field of technology and how we ought to begin peeling away the flashy layers to look at its effects on society and the environment. This is the beauty of philosophy; that no matter how far we dig, we can and will keep on digging. To some it might be frustrating and seemingly futile. But that is the crux of our existence. Technology is a tool that extends our capabilities and so it raises the same dilemmas and moral questions that have existed for us ever since we became homo sapiens. Just as any tool it can be used in a variety of different ways, for good and for ill. Which is why it is important to think what place ethics serves in the age of technology.

Negligent Design

In 2012 Apple launched its infamous Apple Maps to provide an alternative to Google’s own offering which had a behemoth following and to move away from the reliance on a third party/rival company's service. It soon became obvious that the app was released earlier than it ought to have. Complaints began to arise of inaccuracies in data, a lack of transit directions, mislabeled locations, bad renderings, and in some cases an odd choice of satellite imagery.

In Australia, for example, drivers were being driven off into the desert due to faulty location information, stranding people in the middle of nowhere during the hot summer months. Local authorities had to issue a statement urging people to stop using Apple Maps for navigation purposes to avoid any untoward incidences. [1]

In the 1980s Canadian and American hospitals had been using the Therac-25 as a therapeutic option for cancer patients. Nicknamed the ‘cancer zapper’ it was a radiation therapy device, then in its third generation. Its predecessors, the Therac-6 and Therac-20, had a computer terminal but were primarily manually operated. The differentiation of Therac-25 was it relied solely on a computer terminal to operate the device. During development the manual overrides and the hardware interlocks from previous versions were removed, leaving the computer code to handle safety mechanisms.

Between 1985 and 1987 a few incidents with the machine stirred up a controversy. While undergoing therapy six patients complained of experiencing significant pain accompanied by a burning sensation. Three of those patients ended up dying, the others left with permanent injuries. Upon investigation a plethora of negligent behavior was uncovered.

A software bug due to a concurrency issue would, in certain circumstances, leave the device in a malfunctioned state. Because of the removal of hardware safety mechanisms and the lack of software mechanisms to handle such a situation, the device would end up blasting patients with high doses of radiation. The software engineer who had written the code had no prior experience of writing real-time systems, allowing for such an error to pop up. Bugs are part of the process of programming and mistakes are only human, however there are methodologies in place - such as code reviews and unit/feature tests - to catch and mitigate most issues. Certainly a medical device would need to meet stringent quality and safety control requirements in order to be approved. Yet no experts were consulted and neither code reviews nor unit tests were adopted during the development cycle of the Therac-25. It is most baffling such negligent behavior would be conducted while building a life-critical medical device! [2]

Both these examples highlight a question that I feel is not asked often enough:

As programmers and technologists do we have a responsibility towards what we create, and also towards the people who use them?

An Oath to Well-Being

Sometime between the 5th and 3rd century BC lived a man whose words resonate even today in the medical community: Hippocrates. His oath became the basis for the ethical standards expected of medical practitioners around the world to this day, defining ethical standards such as the respect of medical confidentiality, doing no harm to the patient, and the health and recovery of the patient being the primary goal.

This is understandable. As a caregiver one forges an intimate relationship with the other person, especially at a time when they are vulnerable. It demands a responsibility where their best interest is sought for.

Technology also forges a similar intimate bond with the individual, and broadly at a collective, societal level. Our reliance, dependency, and trust in such systems has risen to the point where not having it, or it malfunctioning, can be even detrimental. And unlike in the medical field where the bond is limited to a time of ailment, technology is pervasive in our lives - "in sickness and in health" - through time and space.

So why would that not warrant a need for ethical standards?

“I promise to work for a better world, where science and technology are used in socially responsible ways. I will not use my education for any purpose intended to harm human beings or the environment. Throughout my career, I will consider the ethical implications of my work before I take action. While the demands placed upon me may be great, I sign this declaration because I recognize that individual responsibility is the first step on the path to peace.” - Joseph Rotblat [3]

“Technology, science, and business should be founded or created or innovated, shaped, on the basis of what is actually good for human beings. Part of the problem is this idea that an individual can create a better world by him or her (and usually him) self. This idea of rugged individualism actually goes back a long time in American history, and is one of the problems that we're seeing in science, technology, and business.” - Greg Epstein [4]

Both these quotes refer to having a holistic view of the world where we should not see ourselves as trailblazers looking to make a quick buck but as parts of a grander whole, an intricately tied system – society, the environment – where thought and empathy are essential ingredients for creating responsible and ethical solutions.

The Importance of Being an Ethicist

Currently a lot of talk about ethics in technology is being driven by the increased application of artificial intelligence in our daily lives: autonomous vehicles, predictive policing, or targeted marketing being some examples. This is for good reason as computers making decisions and judgments based on a mix of algorithms and historical data opens up a Pandora’s Box of ethical dilemmas which need to be addressed. Is the historical data inclusive of different demographics of society? Who is liable if a human is injured or killed by an autonomous machine?

However, as the prior examples of Apple Maps and Therac-25 suggest, talking about ethics in technology is just as important regardless of the presence of AI. And as Douglas Rushkoff states in his article, it is fancier to think and talk about these science fiction scenarios of killer robots or a global zombie pandemic but when it comes to ethics, justice and the human condition are we willing to ask even the most basic of questions?

The question of ethics spans not only the product or service being used by people (deployment), but also the way they are developed and produced (design and implementation), and dealing with the unintended negative outcomes (maintenance) that entail from the existence of such a system.

Take, for example, Google’s ‘Don’t Be Evil’ or Facebook’s ‘Move Fast and Break Things’ motto (which incidentally have been changed). These words are a work ethic inculcated and espoused by employees at these companies. If we were to take the leap of faith and consider such taglines to be a dictate for an ethical road map then we rather quickly fall into a quagmire of loose ends. One statement has a moral basis (Google's) whereas the other (Facebook's) is completely devoid of any morality. With no clear guidelines it is only expected that a selective interpretation and application will follow.

‘Move Fast and Break Things’, the ethos championed by Facebook, originates from a mold smelling garage where a hacker is furtively working towards the next big thing. The idea is to quickly prototype a concept and test it out; if it breaks you chuck it, if it sticks you iterate on and improve it. However such an ethos applied to a product/service being used by millions of people around the world can have unexpected consequences (once again Apple Maps).

Consider the ‘social experiment’ Facebook conducted back in 2012 where they manipulated the information people saw on their news feeds. By suppressing positive or negative emotion content for over 689,000 people they were able to make people feel more or less positive. And although Facebook claimed it was to improve their services (and I can imagine many people agreeing with this statement) and it was consistent with their own data usage policies, internet activists, politicians and researchers alike found such whimsical decision-making 'disturbing' and 'scandalous'. [5]

The issue here lies with ‘informed consent’, a prerequisite for carrying out any research. The person who is to become a participant of the research is informed and asked if they would like to take part and have to actively choose to opt in or out. In the case of Facebook's experiment this was assumed under their Terms of Use policy. This is clearly a violation of the aforementioned clause.

However it also sheds light on a more troublesome work ethic: the willingness to go to any means necessary in order to achieve the desired outcomes (increasing shareholder value and profits) without considering or taking on the responsibility of the entailing consequences.  Could it not have been possible that, due to this experiment, someone already in the throes of depression and contemplating suicide could have been led to follow through with their thoughts? Such a lack of empathy on the part of those working on this experiment (and features like this) is egregious for it reduces the people using their product into the prevalent, dehumanized concept of a "user", not a being with inherent emotions and feelings.

Back in March, Gizmodo featured an article uncovering a contract between Google and the US Department of Defense where they were helping analyze drone footage using artificial intelligence. Google stated its own infrastructure was not being used for the work, nor was the tech being used in any active drone warfare (as if to diminish complicity), instead lending their knowledge and expertise of computer vision and machine learning to carry out tasks such as to "identify vehicles and other objects in drone footage, taking that burden off analysts". [6]

Google attempted to downplay their involvement but internal emails among upper management revealed a want to formulate better ties with the Pentagon in order to receive lucrative military contracts in the future as well. When this became public Google received a lot of flak, externally as well as internally. A petition was signed by over 3000 employees demanding Google rescind its involvement from the project, and a dozen employees even resigned due to inaction. Although Google was on the receiving end of the ire of the people for winning the bid for the contract it should be noted that the likes of IBM, Microsoft and Amazon had also been in the running.

One could argue it’s simply business and that the technology is not being used to make autonomous weaponry. But if a machine learning algorithm is being used currently to identify objects, is it certainly not possible that in the foreseeable future it could be expanded to make decisions to neutralize targets as well? After all, a machine learning algorithm does "learn" and the decisions that drone operators would make could be used in a feedback loop to give it more relevant targeting data. Are we willing to open that can of worms and pave the way for a future where drones can decide who is an enemy combatant and threat and neutralize accordingly, or act after calculating what amount of collateral is acceptable? That would be the ultimate transfer of responsibility, where any human culpability is relegated instead to a surrogate that has no conception of guilt or emotions.

It won't stop at the military either. Such weaponry could eventually be added to the arsenal of police forces. How can we be sure an autonomous police drone will not make erroneous decisions at times and put innocent civilians in its crosshairs? Such a possibility is not far fetched, nor is it impossible to occur for such wrongful justice exists even today with humans as cops. And although one could also argue that it could potentially reduce erroneous decisions that human cops make, but then how would we hold an autonomous drones liable if it does make a wrong decision?

Would the responsibility be of the drone? How would we hold it accountable? Would it be decommissioned after a subsequent systems investigation? Or would attempts be made to rectify its heuristics before putting it back into the field? Would the data scientists who trained the drone be responsible? Or the programmers who wrote the AI for the drone? Or the company who built it? Or the police department who owns the drone?

All this lands in the realm of science fiction and conjecture but if we do not start thinking along these lines then, just as always with technology, we'll be lagging behind in formulating a discourse around the political, social, economic and ethical effects of it and be addressing them after the fact. For all we know it may even evolve the way we perceive justice but the discourse needs to take place for that to happen.

However there is a certain mythic aspect about AI and machine learning that needs to be debunked.

The Fault in Our Machines

Undeniably machines are faster at computation, sifting through mountain hordes of data with relative ease, and generally better and more efficient at certain cognitive functions that we humans partake in. It would be a misnomer to conflate this into believing machines are better and more adept than humans at everything, one of those being they will make judgments free of cognitive bias that plague humans.

The truth is they are best at replicating and exacerbating the very biases that humans have. Being the creators of such systems we end up imparting our very imperfections to our creation. The training data curated by data scientists and engineers used to build the models contain the subjective reasoning their human teachers hold. Facial recognition systems harbor such issues where the gender of white males is identified to a 99% accuracy while dark-skinned females were identified only up to a 65% accuracy. Another find was that facial recognition systems built in Asia were better at identifying Asian faces than white faces (similar to how systems built in Europe and America were better at identifying white faces). [7] These biases are not intentionally baked into the models but due to the use of non-inclusive training sets and assumptions of race and gender that are simplified to a fault.

Similarly even historical data carries such preconceived notions and biases. Take for example the concept of predictive policing where historical records of reported crimes in a city are used to predict the time and location range of future crimes in order to deploy patrols more effectively. According to a report by Upturn crime reporting in itself is skewed (between 2006-2010 52% of violent crimes and 60% of household crimes went unreported) and enforcement also ends up being subjective (even though the the usage of marijuana is similar between white and black communities more black Americans end up being apprehended for possession). Not only is the data skewed, but it is also not representative enough, meaning the creation of an inaccurate predictive model that only reinforces existing biases. [8]

As with Tesla’s Autopilot crash fatalities an investigation by the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) was kicked off after a pedestrian crossing the street was fatally run over by an autonomous Uber vehicle in Tempe, AZ. A safety driver had been present who had not been paying attention to the road. The blame was being shifted onto her (similar to how Tesla claims that Autopilot users ought to still be attentive and keep their hands on the wheel) but with the NTSB’s report it seems there is more than meets the eye.

Based on the logs of the vehicle an ‘unknown object’ was noticed on the road 6 seconds prior to impact. Due to low light conditions the vehicle was unable to accurately ascertain the trajectory of the object, or what the object was for that matter. It was only about a second before impact, once the pedestrian was in view of the headlights that it identified a bicycle (which she had been rolling along on her side).

Although the car had its own emergency braking system it is deactivated when the car is in autonomous mode so as to reduce erratic vehicle behavior. On top of that no visual or auditory cues were provided to the driver in order to alert them to take evasive maneuvers. The car’s sensors also were not effective in detecting objects in low-light conditions, which could have been avoided with the use of thermal sensors. Uber is not the only autonomous vehicle tech lagging in this regard however. Such negligence on the part of Uber ought to have been addressed before putting the cars onto the streets for testing.

Dawn of the Planet of Ethical Tech

Not all is sour in the valley of silicon and glitter. In recent months greater scrutiny has been placed on companies the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Google. Congressional hearings although have focused more so on the political effects of these technologies, a wider public debate is ensuing about the ethical issues that lie beyond just the political. And work is being done across different companies to rectify prior transgressions.

Consider Jigsaw, a technology incubator founded in 2010 at Google (now a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.), whose mandate lay at the intersection of technology and geopolitics. Termed a “think/do tank”, Jigsaw looks at issues such as extremist indoctrination over social media, DDoS attacks, and internet trolls, and ideates and implements solutions to counter them.

One such solution is the redirect method for countering extremist indoctrination. Instead of filtering out extremist/objectionable content that people would search for online, which makes sense as removing such content will not stop people from searching for it elsewhere, the algorithm surfaces content that counters such views is also presented around the search results. This way the person has the opportunity to read up on views, on their own volition, that could mitigate the indoctrination. And services like YouTube have been making use of the method in production. [9]

Such an effort is a recognition of the double-edged sword of tools like search engines and social media: they can be used to democratize and disseminate information (which is what most techno-utopians solely focus on) but can also be used to spread misinformation and hate. Recognizing the issue and trying to find ways to counter the issue is a step in the right direction.

NOTE: During the talk an audience member did share his disdain about Jigsaw’s methodology, stating the way they define (and thus ascertain) extremist content is narrow and limited. An issue that would arise due to that would be the redirect method working in only certain cases. This is a valid concern and one that should not be taken lightly as this is one of the things I am actually advocating against, i.e. creating half-baked solutions that work only in particular instances. It implies a lack of time and effort put to understand the problem in its totality to create an effective solution, or equally worse, an ignorance that is blinding.

Ever since the advent of the iPhone the smartphone industry has seen yearly release cycles of new phones, each trying to out best the other with better processors, slimmer form factors, and bigger sizes. This of course has led to phones’s becoming less and less repairable along with the use of materials that hinder easy recyclability. Consumers are enticed to buy a new phone each year, creating a plethora of waste as they discard their old ones. The questions ‘is this necessary?’ or ‘do I need this?’ are subdued as consumers are coddled by the mention of faster processors, better cameras, and other sleek and glamor-inducing visuals.

Claiming to be the world’s “first ethical and modular smartphone”, the Fairphone 2 is a paradigm shift in an industry plagued by hyper-consumerism and unsustainable practices. To achieve their aim of long-lasting design the phone is built of modular components, enabling repairs or upgrades when necessary. Striving to be ethical they made efforts to ensure their supply chain for minerals such as tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold is obtained from conflict-free mines. And due to the phone being modular it makes it easier to repair as well as recycle. [10] Their efforts hopefully will spawn conversations among major players in the industry about the need for more discretion in acquiring raw materials so that communities are nurtured instead of left in strife, about building things to last longer rather than churning out products each year to garner more profits, and about having more environmentally sustainable business practices rather than adding to problems of e-waste.

Another rocking of the boat, mentioned earlier in this post, came in the guise of the backlash Google received after signing a contract for Project Maven with the US DoD. This resulted in an online petition signed by over 3,000 Google employees, and a few resignations as well. In June 2018, Google announced the contract would not be renewed, expiring in 2019. [11] The company also unveiled a set of ethical principles to guide the development of AI, stressing on areas such as avoiding reinforcing bias, testing for safety, and not using it to build weaponry or surveillance systems.

Recently another petition has been going around at Google, this time about a censored search engine for China. Irked by this latest venture by the company, employees are protesting the work being done as they consider it to be a violation of human rights and free expression. Feeling the ethics principles defined after the Project Maven petition were not encompassing enough, they have been demanding more transparency and oversight as “Google employees need to know what we’re building.” [12]

Although this bit was not in the talk I recently learned about a feature introduced by Facebook in fall 2017, and felt it would be important to mention here. It certainly is not absolution for their prior mistakes, but just as in the case of Jigsaw, it shows the desire to make more empathetic decisions.

The feature is an AI system that can ascertain if a person has suicidal intent. It determines this based on different signals such as if a friend leaving a worried comment on a post, or if someone expresses such intent in a post or a live video. Upon ascertaining such a case authorities are notified in order to take appropriate preventative action. [13]

Consciences have been stirred and conversations, albeit delayed, have begun. As with the aforementioned examples, an article published in Vanity Fair last month corroborates a growing trend of people working at Silicon Valley companies taking stronger ethical stances in recent times.

However for this to become part of our regular discourse and take hold in our collective consciousness we need to start thinking about ethics much earlier on. It requires rehashing current utopian conceptions of technology, which always tend to frame it as an upward progression for human civilization. By shutting down that myth technologists can start looking at technology for what it really is: an amoral tool that can be used in whatever creative capacity it withholds. Without having principles to guide the creation and usage of technology it is not a certainty that progress (used in the broadest sense of the term) would follow.

Including ethics in the computer science discipline at universities is a first step towards ingraining such a discourse. University of Texas, Austin has an offering on the Ethical Foundations for CS, while Harvard/MIT have formulated a joint course on ethics and AI. Stanford is also working to incorporate ethics into their tech curriculum by this fall semester. [14] Other universities however need to join in on the bandwagon as well. Courses exploring ethics in technology need to become a standard and essential part of a computer science curriculum, just as Algorithms and Data Structures or Object Oriented Design are, in order for such conscientious thinking to arise in a technologist.

Ethics Inc.

Individual responsibility is a necessary ingredient for creating collective responsibility. However it is also imperative that tech companies create standards that direct their employees in thinking about their work from an ethical standpoint, factoring in social, psychological, economic, and the political dimensions of technology.

Such a holistic approach towards the implications of technology may sound idealistic, a tall order, and debilitating to the ‘move fast’ motto. However that is exactly what companies need to move away from. More thought needs to be put into, for example, how the introduction of a new technology effects people, what socioeconomic disruptions arise due to it, if yearly release cadences for products/services are necessary, how the primary stakeholder of a technology ought to be the end user and therefore any features added be geared towards their benefit, or if a technology is misused for harmful purposes what to do in order to mitigate or resolve the issue.

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) recently updated their code of ethics in order to provide clear guidelines, to students and professionals in the technology industry, in how to bear responsibility in different facets of their work - conceptualization to implementation to maintenance - ensuring it be driven to achieve public good. It is a good basis upon which tech companies can build their own contextualized ethical frameworks.

I highly recommend going over it as it provides a strong base to understand one’s responsibilities to society and how to understand and apply those principles. Here are a few points that stood out to me:

• Contribute to society and to human well-being, acknowledging that all people are stakeholders in computing.

• Honor confidentiality

• Strive to achieve high quality in both the processes and products of professional work.

• Foster public awareness and understanding of computing, related technologies, and their consequences.

• Recognize and take special care of systems that become integrated into the infrastructure of society.

I’ll end with a quote from a sage man from 13th century Persia whose spiritual poetry, read by millions the world over, bear the wisdom of love, harmony and union. May it serve as a helpful reminder that for paradigms to shift we inevitably need to take that first step.

References

[1] Eördögh, F. (2012, December 11). Apple Maps Glitch in Australia Shows Why We Have To Stop Blindly Following GPS Navigators. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/12/11/apple_maps_mildura_australia_glitch_strands_drivers_in_dangerous_area.html

[2] Fabio, A. (2015, October 26). Killed By A Machine: The Therac-25. Retrieved from https://hackaday.com/2015/10/26/killed-by-a-machine-the-therac-25/

[3] Rotblat, J. (1999, November 19). A Hippocratic Oath For Scientists. Retrieved from http://science.sciencemag.org/content/286/5444/1475

[4] Kraus, R. (2018, April 28). These 8 Books Are Required Reading For Anyone Who Wants To Change The World With Tech. Retrieved from https://mashable.com/2018/04/28/tech-leaders-reading-list-greg-epstein

[5] Booth, R. (2014, June 30). Facebook Reveals News Feed Experiment To Control Emotions. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/29/facebook-users-emotions-news-feeds

[6] Cameron, D. and Conger, K. (2018, March 06). Google Is Helping the Pentagon Build AI For Drones. Retrieved from https://gizmodo.com/google-is-helping-the-pentagon-build-ai-for-drones-1823464533

[7] Lohr, S. (2018, February 9). Facial Recognition Is Accurate, If You’re a White Guy. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/technology/facial-recognition-race-artificial-intelligence.html

[8] Koepke, L and Robinson, D. (2016, August). Stuck In A Pattern: Early Evidence On "Predictive Policing" And Civil Rights. Retrieved from https://www.upturn.org/reports/2016/stuck-in-a-pattern

[9] Bort, J. (2018, August 25). Meet The Little-Known Group Inside Of Google That's Fighting Terrorists And Trolls All Across The Web. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/google-alphabet-jigsaw-terrorists-trolls-2018-8

[10] Fairphone: Our Goals. Retrieved from https://www.fairphone.com/en/our-goals/

[11] Conger, K. (2018, June 01). Google Plans Not to Renew Its Contract for Project Maven, a Controversial Pentagon Drone AI Imaging Program. Retrieved from https://gizmodo.com/google-plans-not-to-renew-its-contract-for-project-mave-1826488620

[12] Dave, P. and Menn, J. (2018, August 16). Google Employees Demand More Oversight Of China Search Engine Plan. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-china/google-employees-demand-more-oversight-of-china-search-engine-plan-idUSKBN1L128O

[13] Terdiman, D. (2017, November 27). How Facebook’s AI Is Helping Save Suicidial People’s Lives. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/40498963/how-facebooks-ai-is-helping-save-suicidal-peoples-lives

[14] Singer, N. (2018, February 12). Tech’s Ethical ‘Dark Side’: Harvard, Stanford and Others Want to Address It. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/12/business/computer-science-ethics-courses.html

Influences for the article

Rushkoff, D. (2018, July 24). How Tech's Richest Plan To Save Themselves After The Apocalypse. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/23/tech-industry-wealth-futurism-transhumanism-singularity

Pancake, C. (2018, August 11). Computer Programmers Get New Tech Ethics Code. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/computer-programmers-get-new-tech-ethics-code/

West, D. (2018, April 19). Why Tech Companies Need a Code of Ethics for Software Development. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/311410

Ito, J. (2017, November 15). Resisting Reduction: Designing Our Future With Machines. Retrieved from https://jods.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/resisting-reduction

Dvorsky, G. (2018, February 21). New Report on Emerging AI Risks Paints a Grim Future. Retrieved from https://gizmodo.com/new-report-on-ai-risks-paints-a-grim-future-1823191087

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Okay that is me being quite facetious. In my opinion it is a waste of breath, time and sanity. I won't be surprised that some neurons in our brains, upon recognizing the absurdity and futility of the interaction, commit apoptosis to save themselves from misery. 

Welcome to TrollLandia

According to a poll conducted by YouGov 45% of people reported noticing troll-like behavior at least once per week on forums and chat boards like Reddit, while 39% reported the same kind of behavior on social media such as Facebook, Twitter and other blog sites. Posts on politics or religion faced the most troll-like behavior, 49% and 38% respectively, followed by 25% on sharing of emotions (e.g. trauma, death, etc). [1] Such behavior is aided and exacerbated by the anonymity granted by the internet and the inhibition of empathy due to the lack of human interaction with the other. This phenomenon is referred to by psychologists as online disinhibition [2].  

In 1995 Dave Grossman, a retired lieutenant colonel of the US Army and a former West Point psychology professor, wrote a book called On Killing which delved into the psychology of killing in the context of the army and law enforcement. It expanded on studies conducted during World War II which proposed that contrary to popular belief and perceptions a majority of soldiers were prone to not firing their weapons due to an inherent sense of not wanting to kill someone else. 

It has long been understood that there is a direct relationship between the empathic and physical proximity of the victim, and the resultant difficulty and trauma of the kill. This concept has fascinated and concerned soldiers, philosophers, anthropologists, and psychologists alike. [3]

Conversely an increase in distance diminishes the ability to empathize with the other. 

"... from a distance you don't look anything like a friend. From a distance, I can deny your humanity; and from a distance, I cannot hear your screams." [4]

This dehumanization, aided by distance, is evident from the ease with which soldiers operating drones are able to bomb targets without actually seeing whom it is they are killing.

Although trolls tend to say inflammatory things intentionally to get a rise out of people, their behavior is instructive of the effect of this physical and emotional divide imparted by social media.

The Empathic Divide 

My focus however is not on trolls but on people who resort to dehumanizing with intent. Extrapolating the concept of dehumanization to the realm of social media we can see that apart from the obvious spatial divide, an inherent distance between people exists due to the design of these platforms. Most social media platforms and forums are based on text to create and comment on posts. Even a platform such as YouTube, whose primary method of communication is video, is heavily reliant on text for comments.

The major limitation of social media is the reliance on a medium of expression - textual language - ill equipped to transmit tone and inflection in a way that is immediate, concise and unambiguous.

Textual language is a beautiful means of expression and after all has been the basis for the preservation and dissemination of knowledge over the course of written history. However writing something with nuance requires time and space, which unfortunately is something not afforded by social media culture, thus moving away from the realm of immediacy and brevity.

Attention spans have also been greatly diminished making people skim over things and not having the patience or wherewithal to focus on one thing, leading to an inability to truly experience the other person we interact with; that requires time, patience and the full gamut of human expression. I say experience because we do glimpse a sliver of their being through text (and in some cases audio and video) but other cues, bodily and aural, that are essential to understanding and relating to the human experience are not relayed effectively (video), or at all (text). This gives rise to the possibility of denying the other their humanity. 

Such dehumanization results in the usage of disparaging remarks, obscene language and threats of violence (physical and/or sexual). The psychological harm inflicted on the other person is also lost in translation for we do not see the other's reaction, shrouded by the digital divide.

For those who wouldn't fall into the category of trolls, an unwillingness to engage with ideas differing to their own beliefs is still present. That in itself is human nature. Once a belief is ingrained critically analyzing it and finding flaws in it can be a disruptive experience. Social media, rather than being a medium to help overcome such dissonance, aids in exacerbating it further. The outcome being a devolution of the discussion into personal attacks and vilifying behavior. 

Let's Have a Face(book) to Face(book)

Considering all the limitations for having a nuanced and empathic discussion/debate over social media that we have thus far expounded upon, let's focus on Facebook's design to contextualize this line of argumentation. The other possibility would be Twitter but let's face it, you cannot have an intellectual discourse over a platform whose basic premise is brevity. Imagine Aristotle or Ibn Sina having to write a philosophical treatise as tweets. I suppose they would be referred to as a "tweetise"? That said they all share a similar mechanism so it is very much applicable to any other platform as well.

Facebook was built as a platform for sharing, not for debate. The center of this virtual universe is the individual where they can share their views, thoughts and events in life. The audience: their friends, acquaintances, perhaps some randoms added after a drunken party, or the "entire" world,  depending on how willing they are to share their life with everyone.

When a post is shared, whether publicly or to a limited audience, a certain segment of social media sees and responds to it - as an emoji and/or a comment. There is no guarantee that anyone wishing to provide a rebuttal will be able to reach the same set of people. The comment can and most likely is buried away by comments that are posted afterwards. And the people who already read the initial post will not necessarily become aware of this rebuttal. Either they continue to scroll along or they disengage from the platform.

This asymmetric dissemination of information exists even if a person shares the post on their timeline and gives a rebuttal there instead. The people having this "argument" might not have the same friends, and in the case of a public post, might not have the same level of influence and social outreach. Here the problem of non-intersecting populations arises, where the same people might not receive and see the rebuttal post.

A truly unbiased debate gives an equal footing to the person making a claim as well as to the opponent(s) in order for a holistic discussion of ideas and views to occur. Those receiving the information can therefore formulate their thoughts after hearing the different sides to the argument. Both aforementioned mechanisms - commenting and re-posting - do no simulate this level playing field.

And we haven't even touched upon in detail the other systemic problems of social media: attention span deficits, or the deluge of information we are subjected to (although we would need to take some liberty to label most things as such), which create problems of their own. 

So if someone comes around and touts how amazing social media is and how it has brought the world closer together, I won't deny that. It definitely has allowed for people from anywhere on earth to be in touch with each other, aids people with similar views to connect, as well as allow people of all stripes of views and ideologies to be heard and interacted with it. Yet to claim it brings us closer empathically I would strongly disagree.

Should we give up on it entirely? Not necessarily. But at least we need to come to terms with the constraints its design puts on our interactions, and accept that in its current manifestation social media is not cut out for effective debates and argumentation.

O, what a Brave New World we live in. 

References

[1] Gammon, J. (2014, October 20). Over A Quarter Of Americans Have Made Malicious Online Comments. Retrieved from https://today.yougov.com/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2014/10/20/over-quarter-americans-admit-malicious-online-comm

[2] Stein, J. (2016,  August 18). How Trolls Are Ruining the Internet. Retrieved from http://time.com/4457110/internet-trolls/

[3] Grossman, D. (1996). Distance: A Qualitative Distinction in Death. In On Killing 
(pp. 97). New York, NY: Back Bay Books

[4] Grossman, D. (1996). Distance: A Qualitative Distinction in Death. In On Killing 
(pp. 102). New York, NY: Back Bay Books

Influences for the article

https://dialogmagazine.com/culture-society/the-human-condition/technology-dehumanizing-society/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/380051/topics-witness-trolling-behavior-internet/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/378629/reactions-to-racist-posts-on-social-media-us/

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When I arrived in Seville I found myself in the midst of Christmas celebrations. Still a few weeks away, the city had started preparations, adorning streets and plazas with decorations and lights, creating a warm and cozy ambience. Carolers would stroll the streets beating drums, playing trumpets, and singing, beckoning people to join the festive mood. Nativity scenes could be found set up at plazas around the city. As much as I appreciate Christmas festivities, which on occasion I allowed myself to relish, my intentions for visiting Seville were different. What I had really come to discover was the influence Muslims had left in Spain. And what better place to do so than in the capital of Andalucia.

I got the chance to witness this quite literally the moment I stepped off the bus near my hostel. By the bank of the Canal Sevilla Bonanza, surrounded by palms trees, arose a stout tower – Torre del Oro, the Golden Tower. The engravings spanning the walls, the parapets, archways and sandstone colored bricks all were reminiscent of the Almohad style I had seen in Morocco. It was a bizarre feeling of déjà vu, considering I had just come from Morocco giving me the feeling I had not even left.

This past does a dance for those who seek it as you walk along the narrow streets of the city, revealing itself on occasion as you gaze up at windows and balconies to find some adorned with the iconic design of Al-Andalus: the horseshoe arch. At other times a church tower would rise up, its cuboid structure seeming vaguely familiar to the Moroccan minaret. But eight centuries after the last Muslim kingdom occupied the city these are mere traces amongst the mixture of Renaissance, Baroque, modern and other styles that have come to define this fascinating city.

Like the Eiffel Tower for Paris, the Badshahi Masjid for Lahore, or Brandenburg Gate for Berlin, the landmark that defines Seville would be the Seville Cathedral and the Giralda. Being the world’s largest Gothic cathedral its presence is quite evident when one strolls along Avenida de la Constitución. When the city was under Muslim rule it used to be the site for the grand mosque of the city. But after the Reconquista, when the Christians reconquered the Iberian Peninsula, it was repurposed into a church. Not much is visibly left of the old mosque however, partially because of an earthquake that greatly damaged the building back in the 14th century. Subsequently the ecclesiastic authorities of the city decided to construct a church and legend has it they joked they ought to build one “so large [that] future generations [would] think [they] were mad”. Not only were they ambitious but they also had a sense of humor.

One of the entrances of the cathedral is adorned with a horseshoe arch while the doors, although replicas of the original, still maintain Arabic inscriptions all across their towering presence. The courtyard it leads into was where prayer goers used to go to perform ablutions. It has now been transformed into the Patio de los Naranjos, the courtyard of orange trees. Remnants of the drainage system from the ablution fountain still run underneath the feet of tourists who are taken aback by the majesty of the tower visible through the branches. The Giralda, as it is called, used to be the minaret of the mosque. Constructed in the same style as the Koutoubia in Marrakech, a cuboid structure with intricate engravings and blind arches across its facades, it was later embellished and adorned with Gothic elements at the top along with a bell tower to give it a distinctly Christian feel.

Across from the Giralda is another spectacular landmark of the city: the Real Alcázar. Those who watch Game of Thrones might recognize the interior as the palace of Dorne. But it is possible you might have forgotten all about it due to the spectacularly mesmerizing Sand Snakes storyline.

The palace was first built by the Ummayads and later expanded by subsequent rulers. With construction and expansion spanning over 500 years, a variety of architectural styles can be witnessed – from Mudéjar to Renaissance to Baroque. The palace becomes a visual journey through history as you make your way from one building or room, modeled for example in the Mudéjar style, to another styled in Baroque. Although the shift can be jarring at times it is fascinating to see the confluence of such varying styles in one place. Surprisingly enough it still serves as the summer residence of the current king and queen, although those areas – as one would expect – are cordoned off from the public.

The Mudéjar style was heavily influenced by Muslim architecture and design that preceded the Reconquista. One major reason is the craftsman and artisans employed to build the palace were Muslim – referred to as mudéjares, or ‘those permitted to stay’ – and were drafted to utilize their skills and experience to construct the palace. The walls of such buildings are adorned by beautiful mosaics similar to the Almohad style, as well as stucco engravings with geometric patterns and Arabic inscriptions. One inscription in particular stood out and puzzled me: “There is no conqueror except Allah” specifically since the construction occurred after the Reconquista. The explanation for that varies.

After defeating the Muslims in a major battle, King Alfonso XI had the Hall of Justice built in the Mudéjar style particularly to spite the conquered Muslims. Unlike his father however, Pedro I found it aesthetically pleasing but also particularly Iberian and preferred to promote that over the Gothic elements – which he felt to be foreign – that had been incorporated by previous kings for the association it had with the Christian north.

As my friend and I were leaving the Real Alcázar, two women approached us, holding stems of rosemary. Before I could react one of them had thrust the rosemary into my hand, and started speaking to me in Spanish while holding my hand and tracing the lines of my palm with her finger. My repeated attempts to wrench my hand away and tell her I could not understand her predictions of my future, and for that matter that I understood what her intent was, went unheeded. Upon finishing she stuck her hand out to reveal her bare palm. I looked at it sheepishly, my annoyance rather apparent. She walked off only when a euro was safely nestled in it. My friend chuckled at me for he had managed wiggle out of the trap with a little more assertiveness. Perhaps I was destined to lose a euro in exchange for some rosemary.

One thing to keep in mind when in Spain is the custom of the siesta. In the middle of the day stores and shops close for a few hours, giving business owners respite during the day. Luckily this does not apply to bars and restaurants, which provide settings for locals to come together and socialize over food and drinks. Stepping into an establishment is a sure way to get to know locals for the Spanish are quite friendly (and rather talkative) and will almost always initiate a conversation, as long as you can surpass the language barrier.

So it goes without saying if you find yourself in an establishment that offers food, you must try tapas. For those uninitiated to this cultural phenomenon, it is a way of eating, not just a small plate of food. In around PKR 350 one can order a tapas plate which honestly offers only a few morsels to eat. But, like sushi, the idea is to order several different plates to try a variety of flavors and in the process also helps regulate how much one eats. It might sound like a bizarre notion to a Pakistani though for why would one not eat until they pass out after all?

Tapas restaurants can be found anywhere in the city. There are several around the cathedral although they offer food at tourist prices and their quality can be hit or miss. Instead, take a short stroll through the city and head over to Alameda de Hercules, or La Alameda. Establishments surround this picturesque promenade flanked by trees and bookended by Roman columns over 2000 years old. Typical for any European city, tables and chairs pour out from the surrounding restaurants where people can be found sitting, enjoying their meals or simply relaxing. The Triana neighborhood across the canal is also another great place to eat, with a variety of bars and restaurants to choose from.

Another cultural phenomenon that Seville is famous for and should not be missed is flamenco. Thought to have originated in Andalucia during Muslim rule this art form is a collaborative expression combining music and dance to create a spiritual and evocative experience. Over the centuries the music and type of instruments used changed as Christians and Jews, and later the Romani people who found their way to the region, adopted and influenced it.

Flamenco has many aspects to it but essentially it is music accompanied with dance. Somewhat like jazz improvisation is an essential part of the performance; the musicians – a guitarist and singer – lay the basis to which the dance is performed. But unlike ballet, where the dance is dictated by the accompanying orchestra, flamenco is a mutual performance where the dancer and musicians take turns in leading each other resulting in a dynamic experience. Hit up one of the many cultural centers that have been established in recent decades around the city, some which can be found at La Alameda, that offer intimate settings for audiences.

A city is more than just its landmarks. It is its neighborhoods, its quirky cafes, its stores, its restaurants, and most importantly its people. A few days of visiting can only provide a glimpse of what it truly constitutes of. But just like any dance the performance must come to an end. I watched the city slip by as the train I was on pulled away from the station. I wondered of the things I had not had the chance to discover: Plaza de Espa­­­ña, the Maestranza bullring, the Metropol Parasol, the Casa de Pilatos palace, the museums, and so many other things that were impossible to experience during a short stay. But the city was now left behind, replaced instead by a beautiful countryside of rolling hills and farmlands. I propped open my book to learn more about the history of Al-Andalus as I awaited to arrive at the next destination on my itinerary: Córdoba.

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The process however spawned a broader realization that I did not need to be one, a software engineer, or the other, a writer; the notion I had set out with in the beginning.

The world we live in today does not particularly cater for people who do not wish to be pigeonholed. Contemporary society dictates and expects a person to have a single-track 'career'. If a person wishes to do other things as well they are expected to conduct them on the side and as 'hobbies', 'extracurricular activities' or 'moonlighting activities'. We have gotten so drawn into the world of specialization and focusing on a specific domain of knowledge that it becomes difficult to acknowledge or take seriously someone who does not want to conform to that way of living or viewing the world for that matter. I conjecture it makes us even more myopic and have a higher chance of losing sight of how things fit into the bigger picture. 

Philosophers of antiquity and medieval times were generalists. They did not speak and explore just one aspect of knowledge. Many great minds such as Aristotle, Plato, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Maimonides, Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Kant,  to name a few, wrote over a wide range of topics such as metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. Their ideas tied together into a grander paradigm they attempted to formulate, each part intrinsically consistent with the other. 

The beginning of this way of being for me was when I was in undergrad, most likely prompted by my creative side. Instead of taking the expected Mathematics minor route for my Computer Science major - for I loathe math - I enrolled myself in courses of philosophy, psychology, sociology, political science and literature, inadvertently ending up with a social sciences minor. Although at the time these choices seemed rather inconsistent and arbitrary for they were driven more by whim than a plan, my ways of thinking and horizons were inevitably moulded and broadened.

Which brings me to now.

After a year of leaving my job I have come to the realization that my life does not need to be separated into one or the other. I quit because I wanted to focus on writing and explore my creative side. But as time progressed I started to feel an existential lack - to borrow the concept from Sartre; a feeling that something was amiss. I was quite familiar with it for it had happened before. When I was working at Microsoft I had felt the same feeling, which  drove me to write more creative fiction or work on short films. I had felt that same pang when I was in university, during both my undergraduate and graduate studies, which had compelled me to exercise my creative side. But it was a surprise that I would feel that very same lack from the absence of programming in my life. 

It made me think of how I applied my engineering knowledge and logic-driven analysis to enrich my processes for writing; whether as simple as creating Excel sheets to track where I had sent my stories, to creating a streamlined task list to manage the different things I was writing or what I needed to address in a narrative, or as inspiration for story concepts. And similarly I pondered over how my creative side had enriched the way I addressed programming problems as well as how it provided me an imagination that aided me in seeing the broader narrative from the particular context I was working on.

I know I want to and will continue writing. I will continue pursuing the various other art projects that I have conceptualized during my time at Queens Collective. And I also want to continue programming. I now know that I would rather have these aspects of me be in a symbiotic relationship, aiding and nurturing each other to become more than just what they are as individual elements. 

I would like to acknowledge Queens Collective for granting me the opportunity to be an artist-in-residence with them without which this and the other creative endeavors I have explored over the past 6 months would not have been possible.

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As a writer it is natural to imagine different possibilities that exist in a narrative, similar to the diverging branches of a tree. A conventional story however expects all other possibilities to be dropped except the one that leads the story to the conclusion desired for the final draft. For a while I had been wanting to create a program that would allow a reader to play out an interactive story, somewhat like a digital version of a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book or a narrative-driven video game.

I started to develop a Windows UWP app for the exhibition which would allow a writer to retain the different possibilities and expand them to their eventual conclusions. This changes the approach of a writer towards the narrative as they need to consider where they wish to provide choices to the reader, which subsequently causes a numerical explosion of different paths and outcomes. This makes the creative and imaginative process of writing more cumbersome and demanding. Yet at the same time it is also exciting for it stretches the limits of the imagination.

For the person reading the story the element of choice can be exciting. At the same time it can also be unclear if that would make a difference as we are not conventionally used to a narrative changing based on the choices we are provided. By knowing a choice can change the narrative the reader can then feel compelled to read the story again to see how it changes the next time around.

The app was coded to have an extensible framework that allows for different media to be used to create an immersive narrative. Currently it only allows for sounds as the premise of the story I was writing was more reliant on aural input. Eventually I plan on expanding it so text and images, and possibly even videos could be used to create an immersive, dynamic and interactive narrative. 

It is still in the prototypical stage and not fully stable - programmer speak for 'it has bugs'. I'll continue working on it further, fixing bugs, making performance improvements, and enhancing its functionality to make it an even better experience. Look out for my next post in a few months following months when I'll publish the app to the Windows Store for anyone to experience it.

I would like to acknowledge Queens Collective for granting me the opportunity to be an artist-in-residence with them without which this and the other creative endeavors I have explored over the past 6 months would not have been possible.

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In the medina time flows, evident by the movement of people and goods through the narrow, congested streets. It has an air of cosmopolitanism; locals and tourists alike merging into a confluence, some with a clear idea of where to go, others lingering and taking in the space. At the same time however it also feels like time has stood still within the confines of this space; the walls and pathways leading to countless souks reminiscent of a city still existing in the 14th century of the Islamic world. The reverie is suspended when you notice shops selling the quintessential item of the 21st century: selfie sticks.

Shopkeepers display wares that flow out onto the street, at the same time hindering the progress of tourists and capturing their attention. For the uninitiated the panoply of items on display – from colorful pocket-sized coin wallets, to shoes that resemble khusas, to wooden chessboards and camel statues, ornate pedestal tables, handbags, jewelry, spices – are enough to distract and slow them down, which the shop attendant takes full advantage of and begins to cajole their potential customer to buy something. And thus ensues the battle of wits; the shopkeeper pitching an exorbitant price which the tourist deflects and the haggling continues until a price is settled upon.

Welcome to Marrakech.

Nicknamed as the “Red City” because of the ochre dye used to color fortifications and buildings, Marrakech is rich with culture and history. Established as the capital of the Almoravad caliphate back in the 12th century, the city has seen many cycles of development and destruction which can be observed through the varying architectural styles of buildings that survived.

A Pakistani will immediately feel at home walking through the busy streets of the souk: shafts of light peeking through cracks in the makeshift roofs shading the streets, shopkeepers raising their voices to attract attention, motorcyclists whizzing by, cars not bothering to stop when you cross the street. The narrow streets and storefronts in the medina – the old city – and the atmosphere share a striking similarity with andhroon shehr of Lahore or Pindi. And one will find many cats lingering around, being fed by the community as they are considered the bringers of good fortune.

Jemaa el Fnaa is the focal point of the medina. Referred to as the big square, or just the square, during the day it is littered with juice stands and numerous large umbrellas under which sit henna artists, snake charmers, monkey wranglers, teeth pullers, amongst other trades. Local cosmetics are displayed on rolled out blankets. People dressed up in colorful attires and large hats that look like the lid of a tajine walk around with brass cups and jugs dangling off of them, offering water to passersby.

French and Darija (Moroccan Arabic) are the primary languages spoken in the country. In the more touristy parts of the medina one will hear people conversing in either of these, but Spanish, German and English, are also spoken by several shopkeepers indicative of the countries where most tourists visit from. If you take a turn to a more local neighborhood Darija becomes the medium of expression. One can get by with French but it is more appreciated if you attempt to converse with the locals in Arabic. The assalamoalaikum and keefa haal definitely brings along a familiarity, but labays, the Darija way of asking how are you is almost always greeted with a smile and a hamdolillah. Note: Moroccans tend to skip enunciating the ‘al’ when speaking. In the newer neighborhoods of the city, however, French is the language of choice.

Tourism is the likely reason for the cosmopolitanisation of the medina bringing along with it a diversity of cuisines: from pastas, to pizza, to burgers, to the more local dishes like tajine and couscous. Road side stalls offer the Moroccan equivalent of the unda shaami burger and parathas for reasonable prices. But one can also step into the one of the numerous trendy tourist spots for a refined eating experience if they prefer.

Due to the number of tourists visiting each year many shopkeepers have developed an aggressive demeanor when conducting business. It is understandable in some ways for times are tough for them with most stores selling similar artifacts and handicrafts. Their priority ends up being to seal the deal before losing a customer to another shop down the street. But a liveliness exists amongst these very people of the medina. If you linger long enough and make conversation with them a friendliness develops and the true hospitality of Moroccans becomes evident.

One element of such Moroccan hospitality not to be missed during your visit to Marrakech should be a trip to the hamaam. Found near any major junction or small market square a hamaam is almost as frequently situated as a mosque. Its use still prevalent today it is open to both men and women – the timings and spaces being different. One sits or lays in a steamed room – which looks like a cavernous shower room sans showers – and using black soap, a kessa glove for scrubbing, and a mix of hot and cold water, peel away the accumulated dirt and grime . With some extra money you can also request to be scrubbed by an attendant.  But be forewarned: it will be excruciating. Nonetheless one comes out feeling rejuvenated. The local establishments are simple and functional.  Many modern day spas and hamaams catering tourists have established around the medina that tend towards an Orientalist view of the Islamic world, with silk drapes, intricately patterned screens, and lush decor adding to the feeling of luxury.

The mosques in Marrakech are also interesting to note; the minaret a cuboid structure unlike the octagonal or cylindrical columns to be found in Pakistan. Many are somber in their ornamentation, mostly reserved for the interior ceilings and archways. The Koutoubia Mosque is the most famous and the largest in Marrakech built back in the 12th century during the Berber Almohad caliphate. A somber building colored in sandstone hue and with little ornamentation on its exterior walls, it more than makes up for by the sheer height of its minaret – elaborate carvings across its facades – that dwarfs anything around it in comparison. I also noted, at least in the medina, there is a distinction between a Jami’ mosque and regular neighborhood mosques, which are closed during Juma’a requiring people to flock to the Jami’ for prayers. And almost all mosques have a separate door and a significant sized space for women to pray.

Outside of the medina the neighborhoods resemble those in Pakistan.

Wide boulevards and roads punctuate the urban design, connecting one neighborhood with another. This does make the city more vehicle dependent. Men and women alike navigate the streets on their cars or motorbikes. For riders on a budget the city has a decent public transit system to offer. And then you have metered taxis but some drivers prefer to haggle prices the old fashioned way. So if you want to avoid paying exorbitantly make sure the meter is running before you are locked in a hurtling taxi.

The new city is where all the major malls and stores can be found. One will also find the city’s nightlife: the bars and nightclubs.

As I mentioned earlier almost all the building facades I observed are painted in a similar hue as the ochre red the region is famous for, but accent colors highlight windows, borders, parapets and grills creating an aesthetic contrast and distinction.

There is much more to the city apart from the vibrant life of the medina. If you are interested in experiencing the atmosphere of itwaar bazaar head over to Bab el Khamees. It is one of the entrances to the medina where a flea market is set up every day. But every Thursday the space blossoms into a festival teeming with goods and people.

One can visit the Tombeaux Saadiens, the ornate tombs of the Saadi family. The Palais El Badi, a grand palace built in the 16th century for royalty is perfect for a stroll during the day. Another palace built more recently in the 19th century, the Palais Bahia, is a beautiful experience with its grandiose courtyards and gardens, decorated by various motifs and styles of Moroccan and Islamic art.

 A few lanes away one will stumble upon the Mellah quarter, a historic district where Moroccan Jews used to live. One can still visit the Slat Al Azama synagogue to learn more about Moroccan Jewish life which existed around the Atlas Mountains that loom in the hazy distance of the city’s horizon.

The city has a considerable number of parks and gardens so when you are in need of respite from the city there won’t be one too far from where you are. Jardin Agdal, Jardin Menara and Parc Lalla Hasana are spaces open to the public where one can take a stroll and soak in the oasis-like environment. Jardin Marjorelle, adjacent to the new Yves Saint Laurent museum, is splendorous but entrance comes along with a tourist-priced fee.

For those inclined to the arts or wanting to view different aspects of Moroccan and ethnic Berber culture, there are many museums and art galleries to visit. Voice Gallery and Le 18 feature interesting artists and exhibitions so if you are ever in town you should definitely visit these spaces. Also note, another place to visit where you will meet loving and fascinating artists and people is the Queens Collective, which is where I am also doing my artist residency currently.

And when the bustle of the city has gotten to you, which it most definitely will, you can hop aboard one of the many tours on offer that escape into the mountains or the desert. Leaving Marrakech daily an assortment of activities are offered: from adrenaline-filled buggy rides, to hikes through the mountains to view waterfalls, to gorges and the more romantic camel ride in the desert.

As the sun’s descent approaches the horizon the center of Jemaa El Fnaa assumes the air of a construction yard. Trucks roll in with iron scaffolding, tables, benches and kitchen equipment. Food stalls are erected for those who have built up an appetite after a long day of exploration. If you find yourself in the midst of this bustling foodscape it won’t be long before a waiter comes your way and shoves a menu in your face. The festivity continues on till midnight where one will find an assortment of delicacies: harira and khobs (soup and bread), grilled fish, meat on skewers, lobia, lentil soup, even goat head and tongue if you are feeling adventurous.

The surrounding square also begins to attract crowds as the heat escapes up into the atmosphere, leaving people to enjoy the sights and sounds that were otherwise difficult to bear during the morning heat. Gnawa musicians spread out their rugs and begin performing for the crowd, henna artists stick around to draw under lamplight, an intriguing game of fishing rods and coke bottles can also be witnessed.  Thankfully the snake charmers slither away come nightfall.

With the coming of dark activity in the souks begins to settle down. The passageways, cleared of pedestrians and wares, become easily navigable again. Storefronts shuttered off for the night, garbage cleared off the streets or piled up along the side through which cats rummage for their meals, a calm pervades the once bustling streets. It is then, in the heart of the medina, one can stand still and drift away with Time.

I would like to acknowledge and thank Queens Collective for providing me the opportunity to do an artist residency in Marrakech, without which neither this article nor all the inspiration I have received and artistic endeavors I have embarked upon been possible.

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The mall is strewn with memorials in remembrance of great figureheads the likes of Alexander Hamilton and Patrick Collins (the second Irish-born mayor of Boston), firefighters who lost their lives, a memorial commemorating the strength and valor of women, among others. 

I did not give a second glance to  William Lloyd Garrison. It, like the others, was standing mute and static; the only hint of color and dynamism showing in the flowers that some Samaritan had handed over in an act of appreciation. Yet as I walked past, the inscription on the side riveted me.

"My country is the world. My countrymen are all mankind."

These words, etched into the granite, are immortalized for centuries to come. Many before have espoused a similar strain of thought. Dating as far back as 5th century B.C. the Cynic, Diogenes of Sinope has been attributed with the following statement:

"Asked where he came from, he answered: 'I am a citizen of the world (kosmopolitês)'"

In the 2nd century A.D. the emperor of Rome, Marcus Aurelius, espoused this universalist philosophy as well, where an appreciation exists for not just the part (the state) but also the whole (the universe), recognizing their interconnected-ness: 

“As [emperor], my city and fatherland is Rome; as a human being, it is the universe; so what brings benefits to these is the sole good for me.”

Humans evolved to garner preferential treatment towards those deemed their kin. The most direct relation would thus be that of the family, bonded by blood. Then comes the community, the tribe, the ethnicity, and finally the nation. It is important to note all these concepts are imaginary manifestations of our intellect; how we decide to demarcate lines to distinguish ethnicity or nationhood are purely arbitrary. Even the notion of "blood" is a misleading for it is not sharing the same "blood" that ties a family together but the link forged by evolution that makes a mother fend and nurture her children, and for the children to be attached to their mother. 

Patriotism, for example, is a convenient concept used to forge an imaginary cohesion between a variety of different people, whether as a means to fend off foreign colonial invaders, struggling for a separate homeland, or fighting wars in far-off lands on flimsy premises; in essence to maintain the state and its interests. 

Yet this "truth" is constructed and inculcated into each and everyone of us through the culture we are brought up in. Whether by showing obeisance to the national flag, singing the national anthem everyday at the start of school, treating flags as sacrosanct objects that must not touch the ground or are used as shrouds for fallen soldiers, every aspect ingrains in our minds the respect and observance of gratitude towards the state. 

Culture differences are a reality; the history of a place defines and inherently molds us into having different outlooks from others. Yet such differences are learnt rather than innate. Culture is a dynamic and morphing abstraction composed of an assortment of artistic influences, language, rituals, behaviors and social customs that change with the passing of time and the shifting tide of minds. We can observe over the course of history a particular culture changing over time, influenced by other cultures it interacts with; influences that ride on the tailwinds of military advancement or economic progress. From the ability of cultures to vary we can hence surmise the affiliation an individual has to one [culture] or another is the roll of a dice - being born in a particular time and place - but also choice.

An awareness of self and a strong sense of moral responsibility is necessary to leap from the concept of ethnic or national affiliation to a global consciousness. Exposure to people of different cultures is helpful to counter such overzealous pride that we may tend to harbor for those we consider "our own".

Whether to impoverished communities, war-torn lands, or lands devastated by natural disasters we do see people donating money and resources across these imagined borderlines. It is during such moments the idea of nationhood diminishes, prevailed by a sense of camaraderie with humankind. 

But is such a way of thinking sustainable as a continued thought process? Can we always keep in mind the other beyond the wall when we make decisions that could potentially affect someone else in some distant land? 

The way the world is currently set up I would argue it is not possible. All our dealings are abstract and a-human. There is no involvement of empathy at a macro level.  That is the problem with the way the world's economic backbone is structured. We do not care how we are hurting each other, through environmental pillaging or the exploitation of labor, for example. If the burden of responsibility is placed on the individual to ensure the fair treatment of every other human, and that every decision made is the best possible with the least amount of empathetic dissonance, then it would be impossible for there would be too many choices to be made at all times of one's waking life (and perhaps even sleeping). All it would cause is one either being completely indecisive and unsure how to move forward or giving up all together for the choice being too overwhelming.

Indeed the burden should rest on the individual but for such a system to function it requires most, if not every, individual to inhabit such a viewpoint. Through empathetic individualism we may see a rise in a collective consciousness which is not merely an abstract pipe dream but a concrete reality as discourses and frameworks would develop to incorporate empathy.  These aspects need to be incorporated in the way commerce is carried out - how companies are established, the way they are run, how natural resources are used, how profits are made and shared; each stage being influenced by this fundamental concept that would ground each decision being made, thus not leaving the onus of empathetic responsibility solely on the individual.

In essence what we need to see is an overhaul of economic and financial models that are used to keep the global economy afloat, how we calculate economic growth and progress, and for that matter,  more fundamentally, how we perceive the concept of progress.

Regardless to say politicking would also need to be redeveloped.

So how do our choices affect people on the other end of the world?

Buy eating quinoa it might raise the purchasing power of farmers. But the longer term also means they will be more susceptible to price fluctuations. [1][2] 

Or by giving into the fast fashion industry like H&M, Forever 21 and Gap are we willing to accept the working conditions workers experience in Bangladesh or Vietnam because of our want for a new look every 4 months? [3]

Excessively using one's fossil-fuel driven car to commute may be increasing traffic congestion in one's city, causing stress not just to one's self but also to others. But it would also cause a rise in the amount of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere thus causing an increase in ocean acidification and a rise in sea levels in the coming decades due to melting polar caps. 

When we look at such examples, the amount of cross-cutting reasons can be overwhelming. But I conjecture things would self-regulate at micro-levels, while individuals may still harbor some macro-empathies such as environmentalism that would help them decide with greater clarity. And with larger entities like corporations and governments also having empathetic leanings then the policies they would formulate would also have those tendencies. 

I am rather critical of the shortcomings of Pakistani society and its government, and voice my concerns with my family and friends from time to time. Living in the US for almost a decade has definitely painted the way I view things, and although I am not all praises for the US either - for I see its problems with a unique lens as well - one would be led to believe I have an inclination for this figment called "the West".  

Which is why one day during lunch my mother rather bluntly asked where my loyalties lay after I had gone on a tirade about one thing or the other. I sat and pondered for a brief moment, not for my response for I knew what my answer would be, but rather on my mother's question which I found intriguing for it was tinged with that imaginary notion of belonging.

A smirk gradually appeared across my face.

"With no One," I responded. "With Everyone."

References

[1] Against the Grain, The Economist, https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21699087-fad-andean-staple-has-not-hurt-pooryet-against-grain

[2] Your Quinoa Habit Really Did Help Peru's Poor. But There's Trouble Ahead, NPR, http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/03/31/472453674/your-quinoa-habit-really-did-help-perus-poor-but-theres-trouble-ahead

[3] The True Cost, Documentary, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/771418456/

Influences for the article

The Expanding Circle by Peter Singer

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

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From afar I could see tumbleweed rolling across the road which I found odd since we were winding up along a hillside, not driving along a desert plain. As we approached the object, which had momentarily become stationary in the middle of the road, it became apparent what it was: a plastic bag. We drove past, whipping it back up in the air and causing it to flutter helplessly again before finding another resting place.

Pulling over on the side of the road where one could get a view of the city lying below I stepped out with my camera, ready to capture the breathtaking view. One might say my disappointment was palpable. On the ground amongst the shrubbery and trees was a pile of garbage that had found a home. Scores of plastic bags, bottles, cans, wrappers and other organic and inorganic materials had been discarded by tourists who probably mistook it for part of the scenery.

Littering is a universal concept, not specific to just Pakistan. Yet the extent to which one finds litter in developed countries is relatively negligible, and the percentage of people littering is quite low. In Pakistan we can safely consider it to be a norm of society.

This culture of littering permeates every aspect of our life. It has become so normalized that most people do not even flinch or take heed of the trash that sits gathering right before them, or when they take off the plastic wrap of an ice cream and nonchalantly discard it as they walk by. One can witness it while on the road, a hand casually sticking out the window of the car ahead of you, letting go of a paper cup which is scooped away by the air and carried magically into a garbage bin. One does wish that could happen. And then you have the suave smoker who flicks away the remnant of his lit cigarette not stopping to think twice that it too is littering and is potentially a fire hazard. Wherever we go, our trash follows. I wonder if people even stop to consider where their garbage ends up.

Although littering stems at the level of an individual for a variety of different reasons it becomes a social issue when a large segment of society exhibits such behavior. There is a personal cost associated to disposing garbage properly: an individual must seek out a garbage bin as opposed to the immediate convenience of littering. The tendency to litter increases if trash is already present in the vicinity. Seeing other people litter implies social acceptability of such behavior and that punitive action will not being taken. Consequently with larger amounts of trash already being present the individual may argue additional trash contributed by them would not make much more of a difference. All these factors suggest a lack of shared responsibility for the welfare of the environment and of their fellow citizens coupled with a lack of understanding how such behavior is detrimental.

There is evidence that education also plays a role in the acceptance of littering: the higher the education the lower the acceptability of such behavior. This of course does not necessarily exempt people from higher income and education levels to be more environmentally-conscious. By placing the burden of responsibility to clean up a place to someone else, for example a janitor or a public sweeper, it can create a mental block for people to not care.

Convenience plays an important factor in the culture of littering. If one is unable to gain access to disposal facilities it is highly likely that many would resort to littering. Urban design isn’t much of an afterthought with real-estate developers or city planners, and it shows in many things, one of them being garbage disposal. Or for that matter the lack of it, which in itself is indicative of the pervasiveness of such a culture.

In and around spaces with high pedestrian traffic, such as marketplaces and business plazas, public garbage bins are non-existent. In the off-chance a miracle occurs and there are some their numbers are insignificant (compared to the number of people who frequent the place in a day), their capacity to hold garbage inadequate (causing them to overflow rather quickly), and a lack of regular cleanup of such infrastructure. This exacerbates the phenomenon of littering.

If this wasn’t enough of a problem it is topped off with bins being placed in awkward places a few meters away from the sidewalk (instead of right next to it), or hidden from plain view making it inconvenient for disposing of garbage and in some circumstances making even the most adamant environmentalist give up the search.

Aesthetics aside, littering poses a health hazard for humans and animals alike. Garbage attracts vermin like rats and cockroaches which are known to be carriers of disease. Groundwater can get contaminated and creates a breeding ground for dengue. It is also known to affect the psychological health of people in the community.

Also just because litter is dumped in one place does not mean it will stay there. Carried away by weather garbage can block drainage pipes, causing flooding of streets and urban areas, but also find its way to streams and rivers and eventually the ocean. Much of plastic garbage eventually disintegrates into small pieces which gets consumed by fish. These then end up on our own plates and are consumed by us, which can lead to varying health problems.

 All of this seems much of a tall order to handle and many may argue nothing can be done. It is essential to break free from a fatalist view of life whether our own or the collective lives of society. Culture can change but it begins from behavioral changes of individual citizens. It requires each of us to take stock of our own actions and rectify them if need be. Other measures can be implemented to shift the cultural mindset in the proper direction.

Negative reinforcement in the shape of fines can be used to inhibit people from incorrectly disposing trash. This does require an active imposition of fines which can be done by targeting areas with high volumes of pedestrian traffic like marketplaces, parks and shopping malls. Social shaming is another methodology, albeit informal, that keeps everyone in check.

These however need to be aided with positive reinforcement strategies such as educational programs in schools and campaigns by municipal governments promoting the proper disposal of garbage and the benefits it has for the environment, and subsequently public health. Being in a religiously driven country it would also be helpful to invoke religious sentiment to accelerate the adoption of cleanliness.

And it is imperative that garbage disposal becomes a priority of municipalities. Providing adequate and appropriate placed disposal infrastructure in high pedestrian traffic spaces along with regular cleanup is crucial to ensuring such habits are reinforced.

An initiative by Volkswagen called “The Fun Theory” tried out an idea in Sweden where they attempted to make throwing away garbage fun. A bin was retrofitted with a sensor and a speaker and whenever something would be disposed a sound would be emitted making it seem the object was falling down a deep well, eventually hitting the bottom. This not only engaged citizens - making it more fun and intriguing to throw away garbage - but it also showed an increase in the disposal rate of garbage.

All these are societal factors that can aid in weakening the culture of littering. But as mentioned earlier it begins with the individual. We need to start being more conscientious when it comes to taking care of our environment. If we are unable to find a garbage bin then we ought to carry our trash back home. Perhaps pick up someone else’s discarded item and dispose of it properly. Advocating for better facilities in our city or neighborhoods by calling the mayor or relevant authorities is another step to starting this conversation at a governmental level. Forming community cleanup groups can also be a way to set an example as well as spreading the word to other citizens of the importance of environmental cleanliness.

Maybe once people have become conditioned to throwing garbage in bins can we even begin the conversation of sorting garbage based on type (recyclables, compost, trash). I’ll hold onto my garbage till then.

Influences for the article

Dur and Vollaard, [2012], The Power of a Bad Example - A Field Experiment in Household Garbage Disposal, https://papers.tinbergen.nl/12061.pdf

Oluyinka and Balogun [2011], Psycho-sociocultural Analysis of Attitude towards Littering in a Nigerian Urban City, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/253953143_Psycho-sociocultural_Analysis_of_Attitude_towards_Littering_in_a_Nigerian_Urban_City_1_Ojedokun_Oluyinka_and

Khawaja and Shah [2013], Determinants of Littering: An Experimental Analysis, http://www.pide.org.pk/pdf/PDR/2013/Volume2/157-168.pdf

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Every year as Ramzan (or Ramadan as pronounced in Arabic) approaches preachers that I have come across replay a certain playbook. In their sermons they level complaints of Muslims falling short of their religious duties, how they are not taking advantage of the "infinite" rewards showered by Allah during the month, and exemplify Muhammad, his companions, or certain saints over the ages, whose lead should be followed. Yet time and again a gentle reminder is provided of the impossibility to replicate or achieve such levels of piety and spirituality.

Muhammad and his companions have been mythologized in Islamic lore - the stories of their actions and deeds hovering in the consciousness of every Muslim - just as Hercules, Achilles or Odysseus have been in Greek mythology. These Greek heroes, however, still had weaknesses. Islamic lore, on the other hand, rarely portrays weaknesses or mentions them in passing thus promoting a notion of a perfect being able to do no wrong.

The intent of such rhetoric is to shame and emotionally blackmail people into action. Yet the preachers inadvertently stack the odds against people. By promoting mythical standards impossible to replicate they discourage people from attempting to better their lives; the task seemingly too tall an order. Rather than making religion accessible they tell incredible tales of virtue and piety, stressing on outward ritualistic manifestations instead of inner spiritual enlightenment.

What is more absurd is the stress to "make the most of Ramadan", with the rewards being "manifold". This utilitarianism of the soul unfortunately misses the real beauty and benefits of fasting. Providing reasons external to one's self defeats the purpose of it. This is essentially the problem with mainstream Islam as well - at least the Sunni strand that I am aware of: using the discourse of reward and punishment it diminishes the benefits the individual can gain with regards to willpower and character, which for all intents and purposes are the primary reasons for fasting. Such overtures are repeated year after year, and even if people make changes to their behavior, these end up being short-lived and temporary.

Another common behavior to be noted during Ramzan is people incessantly complaining of feeling hungry or tired. People also end up losing their tempers more readily. There is even an unusual expectation that no one eat or drink in front of them, wrapped in the shroud of "being respectful". Such misled notions are reinforced by state regulations demanding restaurants and cafes to close during fasting hours, while making it a felon to eat or drink in public, resulting in either a fine and/or being jailed in countries such as the UAE and Pakistan. Perhaps such "respect" ought also be considered in our daily lives towards the poor and the destitute as they  suffer from hunger on the streets while we walk past with our own disposable meals.

Fasting is essentially having the will to refuse, of one's own accord, food, drink and sex. These desires are natural aspects of human life but the point of giving up the right to each of these pleasures, during the ordained time, is meant as a reminder that life is more than just the material and physical world.

An egocentricism resides in the notion that the world ought to revolve around one's own whims and beliefs. A Muslim exceptionalism I would call it. It is an unwarranted demand that everything go easy on them for they are "fasting".  But the choice to fast is one's own hence the responsibility also lies on the individual, not on the world around them.

One ought to stoically observe their fast even if others around are eating or drinking. The sight or smell of food, rather than leading one into a frenzy, should be considered a gentle reminder of fasting for a grander purpose. Shaming someone else into submission has no benefit, except perhaps the feeling of self importance. Indeed someone may decide not to eat or drink while being around you but that is their choice and cannot nor should it be expected or forced. 

Perhaps the reason such a nuanced view is not adopted is due to the externalization of the reason to fast. Considered a "command of God", one of the pillars of Islam, it has assumed an air of obligation just because. Although that is the basis for fasting, it is not the reason for which fasting has been ordained. Some might claim it is to empathize with the poor by knowing their plight of hunger. Others will say it is to be reminded of one's privilege so as to become grateful for what one has. And so forth.

Each of these reasons are correct. But they still miss the mark on the fundamental reasoning behind fasting. All this suggests an underlying misunderstanding of the intent of fasting. So let us go to the source of it all, the Qur’an:

This is one of several verses that ordains fasting upon Muslims. As we shall see below, this verse has seen varying translations over the years, having morphed due to the interpretations of the translator:

Pickthall (1930): O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, even as it was prescribed for those before you, that ye may ward off (evil);
Yusuf Ali (1934): O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) self-restraint,
Sahih International (1997): O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous.
Muhammad Sarwar (2001): Believers, fasting has been made mandatory for you as it was made mandatory for the people before you, so that you may have fear of God.

Translations from: The Quranic Arabic Corpus

The verse speaks of the benefit of fasting and yet each translation seems to vary quite a bit with respect to the effects fasting induces. One speaks of staying away from evil, another of becoming righteous, one about fearing God, and yet another about acquiring self-restraint.

The key word here is تَتَّقُون (tattaqūn in transliterated Arabic) - the last word before the period. It is the verb form of the noun taqwā which means righteousness, or awareness/fear of God. We see both these translation variants being used in the Sahih and Muhammad Sarwar translation. But then where do the "ward off (evil)" and "(learn) self-restraint" translations come from?

It may seem at first the translators took some artistic license. But in fact those definitions are extracted from the Qur’an by cross-referencing other passages. In this particular case the cross-referenced passages refer to behaviors in tandem with taqwā (to keep things simple I will share just the Sahih International translations while highlighting the parts of interest):

You will surely be tested in your possessions and in yourselves. And you will surely hear from those who were given the Scripture before you and from those who associate others with Allah much abuse. But if you are patient and fear Allah - indeed, that is of the matters [worthy] of determination. (3:186)

But yes, whoever fulfills his commitment and fears Allah - then indeed, Allah loves those who fear Him. (3:76)

O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm for Allah , witnesses in justice, and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness. And fear Allah ; indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what you do. (5:8)

The theological viewpoint on the reasons for fasting are technically all of the above: acquiring patience and self-restraint, becoming aware and fearful of God, being righteous, and staying away from evil. But let us for a moment look beyond Islamic orthodoxy, especially when it comes to concepts of morality.

Fasting helps strengthen an individual's character by exercising one's willpower (correlated to self-restraint and righteousness from a theological standpoint). It in turn can translate to being good to others in society (theologically framed as fearing God and staying away from evil). Individuals espousing self-restraint and patience, from a societal perspective, also caters for the better maintenance of order and harmony; a good in itself. So even though fasting is meant to have an effect on the individual's way of living, it inherently also holds the key for societal flourishing. 

But perhaps because of the externalization of reasoning we are led to believe that the very act itself helps in magically manifesting the aforementioned attributes in ourselves. Fasting will not help us grow self-restraint if we do not allow ourselves the opportunity to be challenged, if we do not intend for such a transformation from happening. If we continue through it as an obligatory mechanical process then its effects will be lost on us.

In order to make fasting meaningful we need to enter into it with clear intent. Focusing on our self, on how and what we eat, reflecting on the plight of the under- and unprivileged, reflecting on our own behavior, pushing ourselves to the limit in order to physically, mentally and spiritually grow; these would be ways we could grant ourselves a transformation in Ramzan, and in our life.

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Perhaps it is the time of day, nearing sunset when most people have already settled in at home with their families or out for dinner with friends. This isn't East Coast America after all where life is work and work is life; where you could catch one of those interesting specimens just leaving the office, or god forbid going in.

Yet in some ways one cannot blame the typical east coaster for not knowing any better. For that is all they see around them; people hustling, rushing from one place to the next, putting in long hours at work whether to make money, or to gain favor at the workplace, or both. It becomes part of the culture. Anyone looking to succeed in such a setting would discover the path with the least amount of external resistance is by towing the line and donning the cultural attire surrounding them. This in turn reinforces the cultural myth, providing a potent meaning for most people on how to lead their lives.

In essence we are prone to following the dictates of the culture we grow up in or are surrounded by. Especially when there is no exchanging of ideas happening or there is a restriction of the free flow of different ideas. In a hyper-connected world as ours it might seem almost foolish to attempt to restrict the sharing and consumption of knowledge but it has never seemed to stop authoritarian governments from doing so. The intent being to stifle any opposing views and maintain the already existing status quo.

This is done even to this day. North Korea being the prime example of a police state that is ever watchful over what its citizens consume, China with its state authorized web search, Turkey with its Wikipedia ban, the Gulf states with their own web restrictions and so forth.

Almost 84 years ago the Nazi regime tried to achieve a similar effect at this very place, as well as at other universities in Germany. Twenty thousand books were burnt at Bebelplatz for the sole reason of being "un-German". They consisted of notable names such as Albert Einstein, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Ernest Hemingway, Heinrich Mann, Helen Keller, Rosa Luxemburg, August Bebel, Bertha von Suttner, Stefan Zweig, and many others.

In many ways the Nazis succeeded in creating a common meaning for most of its population to rally under. By repressing dissenting voices, imprisoning political opponents, by demonizing them they were able to gain control of the public mindset and dictate their own terms and views.

Helen Keller's response to the Nazi book burning is powerful and is a vivid reminder that information cannot be stifled through repression:

But information can be drowned out... through propaganda and the latest phenomenon that threatens its veracity: information overload. The Huxleyian world is our reality. We are bombarded with so much information: from our social feeds about other people's lives to news from all over the world - sensationalized and trivialized - that it has become impossible to take it all in. Any attempt to do so is futile, only flustering us further and either reduces our attention span or burns us out to the point where we disengage entirely.

But with information readily available, it is equally true for misinformation. How does one discern between what is real and what is fake? Do we dare to take out the time to verify the information we receive? Or have we become so attuned to believing that we need to constantly be consuming (whether information or otherwise) that any slowdown in that process would result in us somehow losing out?

The only way to break out of our cultural molds is by engaging views that differ from our own with curiosity and critical evaluation. Through this method one can question their own cultural baggage and determine what is their meaning in life and how they wish to pursue it without becoming complacent and mindless. For nothing is more dangerous than an unquestioning mind.

The words of Heinrich Heine, whose books were among those burned, are immortalized on a plaque in the square. They are quite prescient and a dark reminder for things to come if left unchecked. For he stated as early as 1820:

Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen.
It was but a precursor; where they burn books they will end up burning people.

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The struggle to experience the present while also documenting it on the go has been quite real. How much time should I spend capturing what just came to pass rather than living it to its fullest extent?

We are compelled by contemporary social standards to share our life immediately. The Instagram story? The Snapchat? What are they but momentary fragments of experience, sharing but the brief bursts of excitement and joy that we feel, frozen into an artificial tapestry with little context for others let alone for ourselves. 

By letting our thoughts and feelings simmer and coalesce over time and space they become more than just the sum of their parts. They become alive. They flow. From individual discrete moments to a continuous experience that harbors meaning. 

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The advertisements depict the profile of the recognizable yellow Berliner U-Bahn cars that worm their way through bored tunnels moving masses of people from one end of the city to the other. In the windows people from varying walks of life - men, women, old, young, gay, straight, Muslim, a bear? - are featured to celebrate the diversity of Berlin's population and to create a visual narrative of inclusion and acceptance.

On my last day in Berlin as I was making my way to the DDR museum I walked past the ad that had become familiar to me. Yet I stopped in my tracks as this one was markedly different. A face had been torn off. Instantly I could tell it was of the woman wearing a hijab. 

Granted I had seen vandalism of other types on other posters of the kind - penned mustaches and spray paint tags - this one didn't seem to have the innocuous intent as the rest. I wasn't particularly alarmed or surprised by seeing this but a sorrow settled in me. There was someone, and probably others as well, roaming the streets of Berlin harboring resentment against Muslims and saw the advertisement as an opportunity to make a statement by vandalizing it.

I wondered: had anyone else noticed it?

Each terrorist attack strengthens the rhetoric of fear and anger against Muslims. Each attack also increases the fear in Muslims living in the US and Europe of reprisals from the public. The subsequent increase in security, intelligence and military action is fodder for jihadist recruiters, formulating a narrative of otherness and estrangement to compel Muslims to join their cause. And unfortunately there are some who fall prey to that ideology and way of thinking. Perpetuating the cycle anew. 

How do we break away from this vicious cycle? The militaristic response is clearly not the answer; the War on Terror being the perfect example of the failure of such an approach. The ideology has no centralized barracks, it has no one outpost. It is imprinted in literature propagated by extremist organizations and outlets and embedded in the hearts of minds of people who have strayed to the extreme fringes of society. This can be said not just of ISIS or Al Qaeda but also of the KKK, Eta, IRA and any other extremist group that promotes violence as a means to an end.

An idea can only be challenged by another equal or more potent idea.

As one woman I met during my travels put it to me: "Islam has a bad PR problem". I believe that to be partially true. When devastating and tragic events - the likes of the Manchester concert bombing or the London Bridge attack - occur the media and authorities label it a terrorist attack. Obviously these are terrorist attacks but another more implicit labeling happens under the surface in our collective minds. We immediately conclude the perpetrators are Muslim. As most terrorist attacks in the recent past have been carried out by Muslims an association between the terms [terrorism, terrorist attack] and [Muslim, Islam] has formed in the global mindset. Thus for people who have limited to no exposure to Islam or Muslims the words have become synonymous and interchangeable. 

The problem with this effect is it inadvertently paints the entire Muslim population with a broad brushstroke, stripping away the nuances and differences between them - based on sect and cultural backgrounds - as well as the individual identities that each person harbors. It also plays to the collective amnesia of the world populous suggesting terrorism being a recent and "Islamic" phenomenon even though such actions - and the use of the term - has existed for several decades, and carried out by groups from varying religious and political affiliations as well.

This article on Eta, the Basque-separatist terrorist organization that spawned back in 1959 in Spain, is a good example of the contextualization of terrorism and the conversations we ought to have about it . It delves into the perpetuation of violence by both Eta and the government (and its associated factions), the change in tide of the organization's support, and the importance of a "history of histories" which is inclusive of narratives from both sides and not solely defined by the victors. 
After Eta: Spain’s history of violence

Obviously there are Muslims who espouse a peaceful and harmonious narrative but do we really see or recognize them? Take Abdul Sattar Edhi for example, the philanthropist and humanitarian from Pakistan who established the Edhi Foundation in the 1950s which runs a private ambulance network for the country along with homeless shelters, orphanages and rehab centers; H.R.H. Aga Khan IV, a modernist spiritual leader and business magnate from the Ismaili sect of Islam under whom philanthropic and humanitarian efforts are promoted around the world; Malala Yousufzai, the fearless girl from Swat who stood up against the Taliban, champion of human rights and female education; Hasan Minhaj, the American comedian and actor, Maajid Nawaz, co-founder of Quilliam and a vocal opponent of jihadism; Reza Aslan, author of Zealot; Ayaan Hirsi Ali, even though she left Islam her input is important precisely because she can critically analyze it with the knowledge of an insider; Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish author who won the Nobel Prize for Literature; Elif Shafak, another Turkish author; Mohsin Hamid; Naguib Mahfouz; Zayn Malik, singer and former band member of One Direction; Fatima Mernissi, the feminist with an Islamic flair from Morocco; and the list does go on and on. Some of them don the more stereotypical concept of being Muslim but others are not as obvious, but it does not make them any less Muslim. By bringing these faces and voices to the fore of mainstream media, by creating more Muslim-centric stories in the arts and literature I feel we can start to shift global perspectives by breaking down the myth of a monolithic identity of Muslim-ness and reveal the beauty and diversity of its art, culture, thought and people. In turn by making these views more accessible I feel Muslim perspectives about themselves and their place in the world would also begin to change. 

But along with bad PR I feel Islam also has an "intellectual problem". Much of Muslim intellectual thought, at least when it comes to the Sunni sect, has seized to exist since probably the sacking of Baghdad. Sure we could blame the Mongols for being bloodthirsty pricks, and I am being somewhat hyperbolic when I claim there is no intellectual thought today but it is to a much lesser extent and is drowned out by mainstream Islamic orthodoxy.

Dissecting this can be an entire essay on its own but to put it as concisely as possible for now traditionalist and fundamentalist versions of Islam found a safe haven in colonized Muslim lands as they provided a unifying counter-narrative to oppose the foreign occupying force.
Note that this behavior is similar to the falling back to traditionalism/fundamentalism by Muslim communities abroad due to feeling threatened or ostracized by society. This is true not just for Muslim communities but for any minority group that feels its way of life is being threatened and challenged. 
 

Subsequently, after decolonization education in most of the Muslim world never truly became a public policy priority. The status quo maintained by orthodox Islamic intellectual thought remained and any dissenting voices or viewpoints would end up being shutdown by invoking the blasphemy card. What we end up with is a traditionalist view of Islam pervading the public Muslim sphere and a resistance to changing views and ideologies.

For Islam to become more relevant in the 21st century, and become more appealing and vivid for the current generation and the generations to come, it needs to have a reformation. Although initially Christianity found itself moving towards literalism with the Protestant movement it was the advent of making scripture more accessible to every person (by opening up the book to translations into other languages) which inadvertently allowed for the eventual evolution of secularized ideas. Yes fundamentalist Christians and Jews still exist to this day but the power they exert over society is not significant and their voices exist only on the fringes.

I do agree there is a need for stronger measures to root out harbors of jihadism in society, through rehabilitative and security programs, but true effective change will only come through better representation of Islam's moderate views. What Muslims need is a better voice. And an intellectual reform that brings its concepts and teachings out of medieval, nomadic Arabia and into the contemporary globalized and connected world. Only then will there be a potent alternate narrative to counter the fundamentalist, jihadist one. This obviously is a slow and gradual process that will take several generations for any kind of result to begin showing. That is our most constructive way forward.

Note: In the previous version of the article I suggested the reformation in Christianity moved the religion away from literalism. One of my friends pointed out that in fact Protestantism, the immediate by-product of the reformation, was in fact a literalist interpretation of the Bible. I have therefore corrected that above but still conclude that because the Bible became available in other languages it was freed from remaining an esoteric ideology, which required intercessors to interpret and help people understand their faith, into an accessible ideology where anyone could attempt to understand scripture.

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What we were met by instead was the world's happiest tune being played by the most unamused old man one could ever come across. As his hands hopped across the keys like bunnies his heavily bagged eyes stared at us with the look of a person who didn't give two shits about the world. His expression was so incongruous with the music that as we walked past him our laughter burst out like a premature firework.

Unfortunately I didn't take a photo to capture his expression.

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Ten years ago, or perhaps even longer than that, I recall having to use something called Babelfish when attempting to translate from one language to another. Needless to say it was not that great and is now probably in the graveyard of forgotten URLs.

Actually I just checked and it is still a functioning webpage but the UI is clunky, and the language options are severely limited. So yes, pretty much in its death throes. 

The other day I sat down at a cafe near my hostel in Kadıköy, a neighborhood in Istanbul to the east of the Bosphorus, to make some headway at a piece I have been writing about Ramazan (yes I'm still not done with it and decided to write this instead). The owner of the cafe is a seemingly nice, reserved man who does not speak much English. I had met him the night earlier when I decided to indulge myself in some delicious çay while also attempting to work on the aforementioned post. I attempted to strike conversation but the language barrier proved insurmountable so I resorted to enjoying the pleasant night breeze with my glass of çay.

Yesterday I decided to have another crack at that blog post. As I was feeling somewhat spent from all the roaming around and being touristy I decided to stay close to my hostel and recuperate. Sitting down on one of the sidewalk tables at the cafe I asked the guy if I could sit there and use the WiFi but not order anything since I was fasting. It took a few seconds to communicate this but once he understood he told me I was welcome to do so. 

So there I was. Minding my own business. Typing away like pusheen on his laptop. At one point the owner asks me something over the counter but the noise from the street washes away his voice and I am unable to tell whether he is speaking in Turkish, or in English with a heavy Turkish accent. I ask him to repeat several times yet each time his voice is drowned out by a passing car, a passing child or just my apparent inability to hear clearly. 

Somewhat irate at the inability to communicate with me he signals with his finger telling me to wait. Phone in hand, Google Translate fired up he begins to type away. As I read the subsequent translation I find myself scratching my head.

Are you orphaned?

Waaah? I'm pretty sure that is not what he is asking me since it is utterly random. Also it has happened in the past that my name gets autocorrected to Organ, or even Orphan. Yet this was no autocorrect blunder and he couldn't have mistaken my name to be orphan (which in any case is yetim in Turkish. Note: the word is the same in Urdu as well. Pointless trivia for y'all).

I shake my head and I probably looked quite confused for he looked at me inquisitively, scratched his bearded chin and then asked the guy sitting in front of me something. The guy also shook his head. 

The owner tried once more, typing away until the following was glaring at me from the screen:

U bi interested

I didn't need a question mark to ascertain I was being propositioned for gay sex. Over Google Translate. Yet, for a moment I sat there staring at the screen wondering if something was lost in translation. The sentence was quite self explanatory however.

As I shook my head and responded in the negative he walked off leaving me somewhat bewildered by the forwardness and absurdity of the situation. I suppose there wasn't a harm in checking with me. But at least I can tick off having been propositioned over Google Translate. O' the wonders of technology!

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That same month the Nazis were rounding up the remaining Jews in Amsterdam, where Mathilda and her family lived, for deportation. 7000 had been demanded to show up at one of the city's squares. Only 500 complied.

Was her family one of the few who had complied and been part of the first wave of deportations? Did they refuse, unwilling to leave their last bastion of home, of familiarity, of their selves and be sent off to camps? Or had they already been sent off earlier on? The details are unfortunately sparse but I conjecture they were probably still in Amsterdam in the summer of 1943. However, those who did not readily submit themselves to the Nazis were forcedly removed from their homes and inevitably deported to Auschwitz.

Mathilda, along with her husband Philip van Praag, her son Frits, her brother Juda and her mother Vrouwtje lived at Tilanusstraat 39 I, Amsterdam. Upon deportation the men were sent off to Dachau, the women and child to Auschwitz.

Unlike me she never had the good fortune to celebrate her 29th birthday. On October 14, 1944 (almost half a year before her birthday) she, along with her 4 year old son were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

As I walked through the camp on my birthday... on her birthday... I thought of her, of who she was, of what her life had been before everything... before having been relegated off to such a cruel death. In the hallways of a barrack I looked upon the pictures of some of the prisoners that had been at the camp, my eyes furtively dancing across the names and numbers in hope that I would catch a glimpse of her.

Is there anyone who would still remember her: a distant relative, a friend, someone carrying the memory of her on? Or was the memory of her extinguished along with her family and anyone else who cared and loved her?

Every waking moment of a person is a testament, and inadvertently a celebration, of one's existence. On our birthday I did not feel the need to celebrate myself. Instead I felt the need to reflect and remember: to remember her and the countless others who lost their lives in concentration camps during World War II. Through the act of remembering life, remembering the lives of all those victims is an act of defiance before the heinous attempts by the Nazis to rewrite the world and its history.

And so I remember life. I remember Mathilda van Praag-Cassutto.

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Another young man sat down a little while after and started playing a rendition of John Lennon's Imagine. At moments when neither my friend nor I had anything to say our silence would be suffused by the harmonious notes of the piano and our attention would drift off to appreciate the music.

During one such moment I found myself utterly captivated by the string of notes emanating from the piano. A girl was now playing with dexterity and delicate passion. I raked my brain in hope to find a hint of the melody embedded somewhere in memory. With no such luck I walked over to the man who had been playing earlier and asked if he knew what it was but the melody evaded his knowledge as well. Meanwhile, my friend had pulled out her phone and with the technical genius of Shazam managed to ascertain the song.

Luigi Rubino - Melancholic Lisbon

For whatever reason melancholic music stirs my soul more than any other kind. It helps that the weather is gloomy (almost as if I were back in Seattle) as it fits the mood perfectly. 

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