Monday: Karaoke or The Quest for Meaning
Now as the title suggests I had two choices of free things to do on Monday, a lecture on "The quest for meaning" at the London School of Economics and Political Science or.....karaoke at Little Voice, where they have something called "Worthy Mondays", which are a free two hour karaoke booth for "people that work in charitys, doctors, nurses, teachers, firefighters, police officers or anyone else that dedicates their lives to the public service and/or the greater good" (for more info go here (http://bars.luckyvoice.com/promotion/worthy-workers/).
Now I had been to the Karaoke with friends from work before and I had a fun time but I'm in no way ashamed to say I can't sing and I feel it is in the benefit of others not to let me sing. Additionally, they changed the date whilst I was off work and I had already planned to go to the lecture with my friend Tom. Therefore, I chose to go in search of the quest for meaning instead.
The talk was given by Tariq Ramadan (ironically Ramadan starts today the 11th), a Professor of contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University and author of the book "The Quest for Meaning". It was a very eloquent speech and difficult to do it justice in a short explanation so I will just state some of the arguments.
He states that the quest of meaning must start with the acceptance that we are constantly in need. When we are first born we are in physical need, and then we grow older and begin to ask question why, we enter intellectual dependency. To find the quest for truth or the quest for meaning we must all admit that we are each on our own path (that is unique to us) that leads to the common truth. He gives the analogy that we are all on a ship looking out the window to the common truth (which is the ocean). Although we can all see the ocean we are looking at it from many different windows, each with their own viewpoints.
By respecting this "plurality" of viewpoints we can all find the common truth. He also reinforces the word respect stating that in the modern world we overuse the words tolerance and acceptance, which by their very nature are not respectful as they insinuate the western (and non plural) viewpoint of right and wrong (what he calls binary). By tolerating other religions, faiths, cultures and ways of life we are not respecting them, but merely accepting them as wrong in comparison to ours.
Nobody wants to be tolerated or accepted, they want to be respected; and to be respected you need two things, equality (or at least an equal footing in society) and knowledge (you cannot respect if you don't know or don't try to know or understand someone else's viewpoint). To respect me is to think that I could be useful in your life, I am as complex as you and I can be useful to you in your quest to find meaning and therefore better yourself.
Finally, he says after we have acknowledge that once we respect each others viewpoints, by pooling all viewpoints we will be closer to understanding the common truth (or the whole of the ocean). Then we need to find our freedom by finding our own way to the summit. Freedom is not an easy thing to achieve. It comes through mastering our emotions and natural reactions in our brain that are caused by society through fear, doubt and distrust.
He is convinced that we are all experiencing a profound loss of confidence. “Fear, doubt and distrust are imperceptibly colonising our hearts and minds. And so the other becomes our negative mirror, and the other’s difference allows us to define ourselves, to ‘identify’ ourselves,” he writes. Ramadan has experienced this personally. A powerful voice for reform in the Muslim world, he is routinely vilified in the west – often by liberals who decry the absence of any such “reformation” in Islam. The suspicion and insecurity that have come to dominate our politics frequently prevents us from seeing others clearly; the “other” becomes our shadow-self: a projection of everything that we believe that we are not – or fear subliminally that we are.
It is always a temptation to imagine that my truth is the only truth. But, Ramadan insists that there are universally shared truths that are arrived at differently in many systems of thought, secular and religious. If our choice of our own truth is at all meaningful, we must experience other truths as truthful: if our own truth is forced upon us by its uniqueness, it would lose its meaning. This perception of diversity is crucial to Hinduism, Buddhism, and the more profound forms of monotheism. The Koran, for example, endorses pluralism: “Had God so willed, he would have made you one single community.” (5.48). However, one may argue that within each tradition there is great difference between equality and freedom. For example, equality in Islam, which argues that all men are equal before God, and that all men were created from Adam, is different to equality in Hinduism, with its beliefs in the caste system. Additionally, the idea of freedom in religious traditions, with restrictions on the behaviour of women, is unlike the ideas of freedom for secular philosophies.
Ramadan’s message is urgent: our very survival depends upon our ability to build a harmonious, respectful global community. We have now entered the realm of emotional politics dominated by instantaneous public reactions. In this age of global communications, we are possessed by tidal waves of global emotions that inspired the mindless violence in the Muslim world after the publication of the Danish cartoons and the tearful ritual gatherings after the death of Princess Diana. Voters are now less interested in ideas and convictions but are mobilised instead “by their fears, their need for security, reassurance, comfort and clearly defined points of reference and identities”.
With populations kept in a constant state of alert, there is a mass feeling of victimisation, which erodes all sense of responsibility. Victims feel justified in blaming a “dangerous ‘other’ who is at once so far away, so close at hand and even among us that we no longer know who ‘we’ are”. The threat of terror is so great that ignoring human rights has become acceptable, so that surveillance, the loss of the right to privacy, summary extraditions and “civilised” torture camps are beginning to be taken for granted.
The remedy, Ramadan is convinced, is to reshape ourselves at a profound level. Time and again, he returns to this theme. The initiations devised by the religious, philosophers and the arts enabled practitioners to transcend the narrow confines of self-regarding, fearful egotism, in which “we” become the measure of all things. We need to understand what drives us, analyse our emotional blocks, wounds and anxieties and master them. Instead of blaming the other, we need to develop the critical ability to stand back and speak out against the abuses of “our” side, taking back full responsibility for our actions. We have to reacquaint ourselves with history, realising that there is no such thing as a “pure” personal or civilisational identity and that we have all been shaped by diverse influences.
But this, as Ramadan acknowledges, will not be easy. These days we expect instant transformation, instant makeovers, and the change wrought by conventional initiation is slow, incremental and imperceptible. We have lost the habit of inwardness and of open-hearted listening, and confuse emotion with spirituality. Ramadan is an important voice and his message could not be more relevant. But many will feel baffled by his eloquent plea for an empathy that makes room for the other in their minds and hearts: they would rather be right.
Initiation involves far more than an intellectual acceptance of a position; it has to reach a level deeper than the cerebral, so that we lay aside habitual modes of thought, abandon self-serving certainties, and realise how little we know about one another. If we cannot work assiduously to cultivate a profound sense of the unique sacredness of every single human being, we will enter a moral void.
So what did I think? As I said I felt it was eloquent the way he explained his ideas, and I was very respectful of some of his viewpoints, however, others I merely tolerated.
I then went home and had the remainder of my pesto, with pasta and vegetables.
Spent £136.33
Tuesday: Free Lions on a shirt
Today I was going to finish work late because I had a meeting with someone about how I could help him organise a potential fund-raising/awareness event on World Diabetes Day on the 14th of November. Usually, we get many requests by email and all I need to do is email back the options with a link to our catalogue (a collection of all the pamphlets, publications and merchandise Diabetes UK produce). However, the doctor that contacted me refused anything less than me meeting him at his Lions club meeting. he asked me to meet him at the club at 7, one hour before their meeting. I therefore, thought despite the pain of travelling up to Edgware, I could explain what we do, drop off the catalogue and be on my way. However, I was wrong. The man I met was an Indian retired Doctor, who told me he wanted some help in providing diabetes screening to members of Lion's clubs across the South England Region. He offered to buy me a drink at the bar, but I declined, expecting to make a quick getaway. After explaining what I do, I got up to leave and he stopped me.
"You must stay!! I want you to see what we do, so you have a better understanding of how to help us". So I stayed for the Lions club meeting. Now for those of you, like me, who had no idea about the Lions club until now, it is a bit like a rotary club, made up of wealthy business men who meet twice a month, whilst organising many fund-raising events and socials to benefit the local community. There are 5 million Lions across the world and 48,000 in the UK.
This particular branch was made up completely of 45+ slightly large Indian men and I felt slightly like a sore thumb being a 22-year old skinny white man. Needless to say many of the members were intrigued by my presence. Their meeting went on for over an hour and a half, with individual lions giving updates on various fund-raising events and socials (both past and future). All the money they raised was going to the community or charity. Although, I find the whole set-up slightly unusual, (the way they referred to each other not by first name but by their surname preceded by Lion, amused me slightly. Indeed, at times I thought they were going to bring out a paddle for initiation). However, they were all really nice people with some great characters, illustrated by the sheer extent of charity work they did. Despite not speaking Gujarati, I was very amused by the final part of the meeting entitled "tail-twisting", where one lion was in charge of telling jokes and making fun of the other members. Once over I got ready to leave, but the Doctor who had invited me wouldn't let me leave without eating a massive portion of rice and curry. It did mean a) I had another free dinner and b) I wouldn't have to cook when I got back to Clapham at 11:30pm. I finished the meal and talked with members about how I would maybe give a speech at a following meeting as well as personally helping with their awareness event. They told me they would be very grateful for all the help they could get, as they were hoping to raise around £10,000. After saying goodbye I left with a belly full of curry and a collection of flyers for various future Lion events.
Spent £136.33
Wednesday:
Literally nothing happened that I can remember except me buying lamb mince(£1.59) and Lloyd Grossman tomato sauce (£1) from Tescos. Bolognese part 1.
Spent 138.92
Thursday: To softball or not to softball
Thursday was our final softball game against Brookes, a charity that help to protect donkeys, mules and horses within the developing world. In our pre-match emails they were becoming unfairly the brunt of many jokes (I apologise in advance for the next few sentences). Unfortunately, they were not able to field a team, so we didn't have to make asses of ourselves. We finished the league in a stable position and can only bray that next year, instead of falling at the last hurdle, we will win one or two games more, preventing us from being saddled with not reaching the finals again.
I went home and finished part two of my spaghetti bolognese.
Spent £138.92
Friday: Free Tapas Take Two.
On Friday after work there was a celebration after work of one colleague leaving, and of Magda finishing her first full week.
After I left the pub I went to meet my friend Joao at the tapas restaurant. I told him of my recent experiences and apologised for not blogging for a while. I also promised to help him with his application for a Diabetes UK internship, he gave me a free chorizo tortilla (Spanish omelette), which I felt a bit guilty accepting. Before leaving and as a thank you, I told him some additional stories, that won't make the challenge page.
Spent £138.92
Saturday: Cycling, Saatchi and Sophy
Saturday I woke up late and had my sandwich and porridge. I decided if I was going to be biking to work to save money I should probably get some practice in, especially to improve upon my lack of fitness. Laith, still besotted by his bike, decided he want to come too. We met at Battersea park and went cycling around. We sat down for a while to watch a cricket match that was going on in the park, then decided to cycle on. We went to Kings Road and decided to go the Saatchi gallery.
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Saatchi is renowned for being slightly strange and quirky. It's no Tate Modern, but it still had some good pieces including the one (left) that was a pile of speakers all connected to one another, occasionally playing sounds.
I then went home, as it started to rain, stopping off to get some more bread and milk for the coming week. Then my sister called me up and told me if I cooked Macaroni Cheese for her she would supply the ingredients. I therefore caught the bus to tooting and we watched the blues brothers with our meal.
Spent £140.04
Sunday: The Ealing Mela
Now on Sunday I was working on the Diabetes UK Roadshow at the (free) Ealing Mela. Mela is a Sanskrit word that means gathering, to meet or Fair, and every year there is a London Mela. It is part of my job to be the lead on the day at the Diabetes UK Roadshows. Basically, my job is to look after staff and volunteers whilst giving free risk assessments for type 2 diabetes on our Roadshow van. It transforms into a something resembling a doctors waiting area that gives us space to do the risk assessments. For more info go herehttp://www.diabetes.org.uk/How_we_help/Roadshow/ or about the London Mela go here:http://www.londonmela.org/
Now I was very busy throughout the day but one of my colleagues had time to get me a free goody bag including a bottle of sunflower oil and a few bags of herbs and spices. Additionally, there was something in the bag called a water widget; you attach it to your shower and it can reduce the amount of water you use by up to 70%.
Spent £140.04
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