Fox News is either evil or stupid for not mentioning that Alwaleed bin Talal is News Corp.’s largest shareholder.
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Lost in Translation
Aug 19
New cognitive research suggests that language profoundly influences the way people see the world; a different sense of blame in Japanese and Spanish
By LERA BORODITSKY
'The Tower of Babel' by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563.
(Please see Corrections & Amplifications below.)
Do the languages we speak shape the way we think? Do they merely express thoughts, or do the structures in languages (without our knowledge or consent) shape the very thoughts we wish to express?
Take “Humpty Dumpty sat on a…” Even this snippet of a nursery rhyme reveals how much languages can differ from one another. In English, we have to mark the verb for tense; in this case, we say “sat” rather than “sit.” In Indonesian you need not (in fact, you can’t) change the verb to mark tense.
In Russian, you would have to mark tense and also gender, changing the verb if Mrs. Dumpty did the sitting. You would also have to decide if the sitting event was completed or not. If our ovoid hero sat on the wall for the entire time he was meant to, it would be a different form of the verb than if, say, he had a great fall.
In Turkish, you would have to include in the verb how you acquired this information. For example, if you saw the chubby fellow on the wall with your own eyes, you’d use one form of the verb, but if you had simply read or heard about it, you’d use a different form.
Do English, Indonesian, Russian and Turkish speakers end up attending to, understanding, and remembering their experiences differently simply because they speak different languages?
Source: SuhaibWebb.com
Rain continues to fall and flooding is expected to worsen, as officials now estimate that more than 14 million people have been affected by severe flooding and landslides in northwest Pakistan.
A senior United Nations official said the scale of Pakistan’s floods is worse than the 2004 tsunami in Asia and this year’s earthquake in Haiti.
Islamic Relief workers are helping in the evacuation effort, administering aid, and helping serve thousands of flood victims, but the need is still immense.
Shortages of food, water, clothing, shelter, and supplies are making it difficult for the victims. Waterborne diseases like diarrhea and cholera have contaminated nearly all the water wells and the deadly diseases are beginning to infect the most vulnerable of the people. Children are especially at risk.
After devastating Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, floodwaters are now affecting areas of Punjab and Sindh.
Two million people are now homelessand more than 1,600 lives have been lost.
Flashfloods and landslides washed away entire villages and uprooted thousands of acres of farmland.
Due to the sheer magnitude of the rains, which caught most victims off-guard, many have lost their livelihoods and have no idea how they will survive after the disaster.
Islamic Relief USA’s Vice President of Programs, Adnan Ansari, is part of the IR team in Pakistan helping with aid efforts and assessing the needs of the people. He reported, “Outside the camps, many people were staying put in their villages, despite their homes being destroyed and the roads being cut off. ’This is all we have left,’ one of the victims who stayed home (which had no walls left) told me. ’I can’t risk leaving my belongings unattended.’”
“People’s dreams were hit hard by the floods. But their ability to overcome the hardship is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Still I wonder how long they can hold up.”
Read more of Ansari’s blog post here.
Adnan Ansari’s Interview with Al-Jazeera English
More information @ Islamic Relief USA.
What else can we do?
- Du`a’. Pray for them.
- Donate food and clothing. There are organizations that are working to ship in-kind donations to Pakistan.
- Spread Awareness. This can be as simple as changing your Facebook status.
- Fundraise. If you’re on campus, have a bake sale or pass around a coin jar in your classes. Have a fast-a-thon to raise funds.
- Brainstorm. What else can we do?
Source: SuhaibWebb.com
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A clean-shaven Jon Stewart returned from a long weekend last night to tackle the recent controversy over the building of a mosque at the World Trade Center site. Critics of the Islamic cultural center claim it would be built on hallowed ground, but it would actually be built several blocks away from Ground Zero on top of a former Burlington Coat Factory.
Stewart wondered: what distance from Ground Zero is it acceptable to build a mosque? He then showed clips of pundits saying everything from 5 blocks, to 20 blocks, to Woody Allen’s bulding on the “Upper West Side.”
“Woody Allen? That’s your go-to, out-of-touch, New York liberal Jew reference? What is it, 1976?” Stewart asked, adding “I’m right here!” before conceding that perhaps a mosque anywhere near Ground Zero was too close.
It turns out it’s also not OK to build mosques in Staten Island, Tennessee, Wisconsin, or California, as Stewart exemplified with clips of protests in each state.
“Why does everyone think America is divided?” Stewart asked. “It appears distrust of Muslims is the only thing that goes from ‘sea to shining sea.’”
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/11/stewart-takes-on-ground-z_n_678224.html?ref=fb&src=sp
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Rebekah Hwang/Guardian
By Editorial Board
Unless you’ve been cuddling rabbits in Pepper Canyon for the past month, you’ve probably noticed the ruckus on Library Walk.
Ever since the A.S. Council considered a resolution that recommended the University of California divest from companies supplying weapons to the Israeli military, tensions between Students for Justice in Palestine and Tritons for Israel have escalated, resulting in less-than-civil discussions.
When the MSA held Justice in Palestine Week — which took place May 10 to 14 and included the installation of a mock-Israeli division wall on Library Walk — a new flame was added to the fire.
In retaliation, Young Americans for Freedom, an otherwise unknown, politically conservative student org, invited slimeball pro-Israel commentator David Horowitz to speak on campus that same week. During a question-and-answer session, Horowitz dodged a legitimate request from MSA member Jumanah Albahri to back his claim that terrorists fund her organization. He also bullied Albahri into agreeing she would support a mass genocide of Jews, simplifying the issue into “for or against” language.
“As a faculty member at UCSD since 1986, I have rarely seen a more sophisticated and tempered demonstration of student activism as the Justice in Palestine calendar of events that took place last week. The centerpiece of the events–the impressive wall on Library Walk–was a superior educational experience that provided the campus community with both empirical and artistic data with which to analyze an extremely complex political issue. The students who maintained the “wall” area were always respectful of all opinions and courteous to spectators. I understand the other events were extremely well-attended. I was able to attend the Angela Davis lecture on May 13 that attracted over 500 people. It was both informative and stimulating; I especially enjoyed the movie and remarks made by a UCSD student who returned recently from the Palestinian territories. Overall, the week’s events must be viewed as a huge success (whether or not one agrees with the content of each event) given the fact that UCSD is a campus that rarely turns out large audiences. The Justice in Palestine calendar exposed our students to one of the major issues of the day and did so in a rational and pedagogically sound way. I congratulate the UCSD Muslim Student Association and all of our students who organized the events.”
Professor Jorge Mariscal
UC San Diego
May 16, 2010