The Trial of the Old Watchdog

In my german lessons, I was given this story to translate. As I found it quite interesting, I thought of writing it here with a couple of comments.


The Trial of the Old Watchdog
in James Thurber Stories and fables of our time

An old experienced collie, who had been a faithful country watchdog for many years, was arrested one summer’s day and accused of the first-degree murder of a lamb. Actually, the lamb had been slain by a notorious red fox who had planted the still-warm body of his victim in the collie’s kennel.

The trial was held in a kangaroo court preside over by Judge Wallaby. The jury consisted of foxes and all the spectators were foxes. A fox named Reynard was prosecuting attorney. ”Morning, Judge,” he said.

“God bless you, boy, and good luck,” replied judge Wallaby jovially.

A poodle named Beau, an old friend and neighbour of the collie, represented the accused watchdog. ”Good morning, Judge,” said the poodle.

“Now I don’t want you to be clever,” the Judge warned him. “Cleverness should be confined to the weaker side. That’s only fair.”

A blind woodchuck was the first creature to take the stand, and she testified that she saw the collie kill the lamb.

“The witness is blind!” protested the poodle.

“No personalities, please” said the judge severely. “Perhaps the witness saw the murder in a dream or a vision. This would give her testimony the authority of revelation.”

“I wish to call a character witness,” said the poodle.

“We have no character witness,” said Reynard smoothly,”but we have some charming character assassins.”

One of these, a fox named Burrows, was called to the stand. “I didn’t actually see this lamb killer kill this lamb,” said Burrows, “but I almost did.”

“That’s close enough,” said Judge Wallaby.

“Objection,” barked the poodle.

“Objection overruled,” said the Judge. “It’s getting late. Has the jury reached a verdict?”

The forefox of the jury stood up. “We find the defendant guilty,” he said, “but we think it would be better to acquit him, nonetheless. If we hang the defendant, his punishment will be over. But if we acquit him for such dark crimes as murder, concealing the body, and associating with poodles and defence attorneys, nobody can ever trust him again, and he will be suspect all the days of his life. Hanging is too good for him, and much too quick.”

“Guilt by exoneration!” Reynard cried. “What a lovely way to end his usefulness!”
And so the case was dismissed and court was adjourned, and everybody went home to tell about it.

Moral: Thou shalt not blindfold justice by pulling the wool over her eyes.

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After reading this ridiculously funny story, I thought there are many parallels to reality. I imagined the Egyptian Housing minister as the blind witness testifying “No country on earth provides drinkable water to 100% of the population”

I imagined Tony Blair in his new mission as peace maker in the Middle East as Judge Wallaby saying to the Palestinians ““Now I don’t want you to be clever. Cleverness should be confined to the weaker side. That’s only fair.”

Or as Olmert started his assault on Lebanon, and Bush saying to him as Judge Wallaby “God bless you, boy, and good luck”

I also imagined the States and the EU crying, just like the fox prosecuter Reynard, while they condemned Hamas, “Guilt by exoneration! What a lovely way to end his usefulness!”

How to read a Book

Here I'll write my own opinion, a brief summary and some excerpts from the book called "How to read a Book - A Guide to Reading the Great Books", By Mortimer J. Adler (1965)

Important questions:

Why did the author write this book? What does he want me to do, believe or experience?

The writer wants to guide the readers to how to read and understand a book. It’s just, as he mentions, like listening to a symphony or watching a piece of art. One cannot really understand and feel it, unless he knows how to.
However, I’m afraid that the writer was very verbose, lamenting a lot about the failures of the educational system more than the objective of providing a how-to-book. He also gave long examples which were completely unnecessary. I’m afraid I sometimes yelled at the author for the completely unnecessary long parts of his book.
A mind map summary, which represents the necessary skeleton of such a book, in my opinion, is attached at the end of this report. He unfortunately covered it with “a mass of fat” as he himself criticized such books.
He then goes on giving some advice on reading different types of books, like novels or history books. For these, the same rules apply, but there are some additional points to note.

Did he succeed in his intentions? Am I convinced?

To some extent. The unnecessary length of the book concealed the original message (at least the one that I was all the time digging throughout the book and trying to get.) I guess he could have written a better book if he was direct and to the point.
I have, nevertheless, to point out to the fact that I did find some very good quotations in the book which are quite useful.

What is the take home message?

The take home message is summarized in a mind map.









Quotations

“In the first place, there is initial inequality in understanding. The writer must be superior to the reader, and his book must convey in readable form the insights he possesses and his potential readers lack. In the second place, the reader must be able to overcome this inequality in some degree, seldom perhaps fully, but always approaching equality with the writer. To the extent that equality is approached, the communication is perfectly consummated …. In short, we can only learn from our betters.”

“Listening is learning from a living teacher, while reading is learning from a dead one.”

“The most successful how-to-book cannot take you by the hand or say at the right moment, "Stop doing it that way. Do it this way."

“The secondary teacher is simply a better student …. He should not act as if he were the primary teacher ….. He should not masquerade as one who knows and can teach by virtue of his original disvoceries, if he is only one who has learned through being taught”

“Any art or skill is possessed by those who have formed the habit of operaitng according to its rules. In fact, the artist or craftsman in any field differs thus from those who lack his skill. He has a habit they lack .... There is no other way of forming a habit of operation than by operating ….. Knowing the rules of an art is not the same as having the habit.”

“In learning to drive an automobile, you must know the rules but you do not have to know the principles of automotive mechanics which make them right. In other words, to understand the rules is to know more than the rules” ..... God has given us some rules, but he didn't say what are the principles behind those rules. Is it for us to find out? Are those principles time dependent or not, so that the rules can change or not.

“The reader tries to uncover the skeleton the book conceals. The author starts with it and tries to cover it up …. If he is a good writer, he does not bury a puny skeleton under a mass of fat. The joints should not show through where the flesh is thin, but if flabbiness is avoided, the joints will be detectible and the motion of the parts will revea) the ai ticulation

“There is a significant difference between books conveying knowledge and poetical works, plays, and novels ….. If the novel is any good at all, the idea is in the whole, and cannot be found short of reading the whole. But you can get the idea of Aristotle's Ethics or Darwin's The Origin of Species by reading some parts of it carefully.”

“Because language is imperfect as a medium, it also functions as an obstacle to communication. “

“The problem of reading the Holy Book—if you have faith that it is the Word of God—is the most difficult problem in the whole field of reading.”

“I like to think of the great books as involved in a prolonged conversation about the basic problems of mankind. “

A piece of Cake !!!

As I was about to eat a piece of cake one morning, it came to me that it was made from a bunch of organic molecules, some carbons, oxygens, hydrogens and nitrogens. These simple atoms are in a continuous state of "recycling" since the begining of time. Some may have formed the eye of an elephant, the stem of a tree, the tendons of a monkey, the wing of a mosquito, the fins of a fish or the petals of a flower. Some may have been parts of the bodies of humans, the ear of Ikhnaton, the tongue of Moses, the hair of Cleopatra, the belly of Julius Ceasar, the leg of Haron Alrasheed, or any body-part from millions of human beings whom we never knew anything about. They may also form parts of my body, and then end up as the lining-foam of an aeroplane crossing the atlantic (something which I couldn't do myself !!!), or stick as mere dust particles of the shoe sole of an astronaut on a trip to Mars !

I then looked again at the piece of cake, somehow puzzled, shook my head and continued eating !

What kind of difference ??

"What kind of difference?" is the question asked by Peter Jordan in NATURE (2007,447, 882). When I first read the article, i felt some kind of resonance. I was also thinking about the same idea, and when I read the article, I felt some other guys out there are suffering from the same problem, and have probably reached the same conclusion. Here is what the article is about .....

He said he believes his job is to make a difference in this world, however he admits that although his scientific work can lead to a difference one day, "the absence of a human face can disconnect us from those who have to endure the diseases we study." ..... He asks himself "Is the abstract awareness that I’ve contributed to the sum total of human knowledge going to be enough? Or is there something about improving the lot of a fellow human being directly — through medicine, counselling or other activities of the ‘helping professions’ — that promises an unmatched level of satisfaction?"

This article stresses the fact that a change through ones own research is perhaps very abstract, and if ever rewarding (the reward is to feel that someone did benefit from this) seems hardly tangible. A solution to this problems is to carry out additional helping activity. It will certainly maintain a contact to human suffering and create a motivation to make a change.

Here's the idea .... and I hope it will ne translated into deeds soon.

Tongue vision !!!!!

They have shown this on a program on the german TV. It was amazing to find that someone could think of something like this in the first place and even try to implement it. What an absolutely crazy idea !!!!!

The idea is based on the following:
a square carrying a grid of electrodes is placed on the mouth. A picture captured by a camera converts a simple image into pixels and these then stimulate the electrodes on the grid. The tongue feels this as if it were gas bubbles, and - as the blind test person described it - the mind makes an image out of what the tongue feels !!!!!!!! How marvelous our brains work. It can adapt rapidly and extract information quite efficiently. The test person said that he can even recognize a ball in a room and kick the ball.

2 important lessons from this story:
1) The incredibly crazy idea of helping the blind to see using the tongue. I really greatly respect the guy who thought of it and even worked to set it into application. An amazing example of thinking outside the box.
2) The great ability of our mind to adapt and exract information from any data input. Sob7an Allah.

Please forgive me

This post is not about the song by Bryan Adams !! ....... On the 11th of June I wrote those words .... I thought of copying them here

"Right now, I'm going through a very very rich experience ..... tomorrow, I'm supposed to carry out an operation under full anaesthesia ....... with the doctors informing me about all the possible complications, it just feels as if I'll be dying tomorrow ..... I just don't know what can I say to God (when I meet him) ...... may be I can tell him that for one day, my parents felt very happy and very proud (of me) ..... that they are still happy and proud ..... may be that I always tried to do something good ..... maybe I didn't try hard enough but I did ...... maybe that in most of the times I had good intentions ........ that i mostly didn't intend to harm anyone ..... maybe that there were nights, few they might be, but there were nights where I did prostrate and cry praying and sublicating for him ....... maybe that I did lots, lots of mistakes and sins, but that he is the most graceful and the most merciful ........... please please forgive me"

قال ربى اني ظلمت نفسى فاغفر لى فغفر له انه هو الغفور الرحيم (16) القصص

Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta is a well known traveler and explorer who lived in the 14th century and covered areas extending from West Africa to the Maldives, Sri Lanka and China. Despite the fact that this is relatively easier now than it was at his time, I'm sure I cannot dream of doing this. Yet I'm continuously traveling with my mind and soul with a book as a friendly companion, and occasionally with my body. I'll just write about my impressions and thoughts during those short trips.