Sunny and Cloudy Days

Today I woke up to a fairly cloudy morning following an overnight heavy rainfall here in Beijing.  Rain is always welcome as it clears the air and the pollution typically drops to manageable levels to make breathing safe again!

Thinking to myself, a cloudy day in the wake of a heavy rainfall night heralds more rain, definitely good news!

Prompts me to think again, how often do we welcome cloudy days?

Do we ever have songs or poems about cloudy days?

On the contrary, in our minds we associate cloudy days with gloomy feelings.  Cloudy implies somber, overcast, dismal, dull, mucky, etc. all having negative connotations.

My mind races again and prompts me to think: Apart from my feeling that I and other Beijingers may be happy to wake up to a cloudy day, where else would praiseworthy thoughts be aired about cloudy days? I am sure that under drought conditions and desert living, cloudy days will bring renewed hope of rain and better days ahead.

Let’s balance the above against the impact of waking up to a Sunny day!  Perhaps it is a universally agreed upon notion that Sunny implies fine, brilliant, pleasant, radiant, etc. and Sunday is that day off where we are expected to have a “Sunny” day!

In all languages the Sun and Sunny days are praised in many refrains and the examples are too many to list here.

Upon researching clouds and cloudy days in as far as songs and poems of praise are concerned, I found out, as expected, that there are only a few and far between worthy of mention.  

Clouds are upset and are sending us the following message:
 “How can you say that you are on “cloud nine” when you’re happy, develop advanced computing and call it “cloud computing” and yet continue to associate us with gloom and doom?”!!!!

Remember, every cloud has a silver lining after all!

Hani Badawi,
June 30, 2016

What is more important, Democracy or Good Governance?

There is evidently some ambiguity in both terms, and there are no clear cut metrics that would enable us to unequivocally answer that question.

What we do have are results of different aspects of life in different nations whether they define themselves as "democratic", "socialist" or "communist" and under diverse forms of rules such as "republics" or "monarchies". I have intentionally used parentheses for the above definitions to reflect that within each there are wide ranges of variables which are too large to cover in this note.  Quoting Aristotle (384 - 322 BCE): "The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal".

Yesterday (or today depending on where you are in the world), July 1 commemorated the 95th Anniversary of the formation of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and also the 149th birthday of Canada. Congratulations are in order to those 2 nations whose progress over the years is phenomenal in spite of the difference in their ideologies and forms of rule!

Hani Badawi
July 1, 2016

Ducks, Geese and Terrorism

 If it looks like a duck, moves and swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, it must be a duck and, I add, certainly not a goose!

By the same token, if any group, by whatever name it chooses to label itself, behaves like a terrorist group (TG) and acts like a TG, then it must be a TG and not an organization!

We, and any media resources, instead of referring to any TG as the "so and so group" should refer to it as the TG that calls itself the "so and so group"!

In my opinion, if we refer to any group by the "so and so group" name that it has labeled itself, then we are endorsing its legitimacy!!

The world is in a dire need of a true and unified eradication of terrorists by all the names that any have chosen to brand themselves.

Eradication of these groups is a tall order and can only be achieved if and only if the eradicators pluck courage and accept that there is a cost of achieving their goal. Slogans and condemnation are simply postures and are not effective in achieving the world peace that the vast majority of people would like to enjoy.

Religion has been used as a crutch over the centuries and has ultimately led to many reforms to eliminate many misconceptions and misinterpretation of the supreme words and/or teachings.

Reforms must continue to evolve otherwise the world will go to hell in a hand basket and our goose will be cooked!!!

Hani Badawi
July 6, 2016

When Bullies Take Center Stage

It is an undeniable fact that we encounter bullies from our early school days and throughout the rest of our lives.

It is interesting to note that many of these bullies, through their manipulative bullying tactics, successfully make their way into society and often reach high places.

They outwardly seem to garner supporters but I pose the question: Is it their charm or fear of their venom that supporters rally around them?

Characteristics of bullies are diverse in nature and have been a topic of study, discussion, essays, books, etc. over the ages and yet treatment and cures have not been too forthcoming!

I guess you may have surmised where my note is leading to!

Yes, Politicians! I hasten to add that I do not want to single out any particular one by name or nation, but here are the metrics that you may wish to use to identify who fits the bill and who doesn’t.

Does he/she exhibit the following negative features?
• Blackmailing
• Use of foul language
• Hatemongering
• Spreading rumors
• Manipulating
And yet exhibit the following positive features:
• Superficially charming
• Assertive
• Competitive
• Intelligent

When I used the foregoing criteria to determine which politician fits the bill, I found out that it’s difficult to find any who don’t!!!!

Hani Badawi

May 13, 2016

The “isms” in our lives!

We encounter many “isms” in our lives to span our lifetimes many times over! These isms manifest themselves in many tones, circumstances, environments, moods, beliefs, leanings, etc. to name but a few!

Take optimism, pessimism and realism for example. A few will argue that these lie on the same spectrum covering from one extreme (optimism) to the other (pessimism). I argue that realism does not fall on the same spectrum and that each of these extremes has their own mini-spectrum! You can have extreme, moderate and slight pessimism or optimism but you cannot apply that to realism!

Other isms that fall into the same category as realism, i.e. they do not conform to having degrees or, in other words, they either exist or not, include: racism, fascism, nepotism, radicalism, sexism, anarchism, humanism, individualism, etc… They belong to the same notion as “You can’t be half pregnant!!!”.

Subscribing to an “ism” does not mean that it cannot be changed. Politicians do it all the time!! Perhaps when it occurs we should refer to it as “wasm”!!!
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P.S. “ism” as defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: a belief, attitude, style, etc., that is referred to by a word that ends in the suffix -ism

Hani Badawi

May 10, 2016

Stress Me Not!

Many moons ago, when I was growing up I learned about the superstitious approach of conducting my own, so called, “fortune telling” by plucking the petals of a flower and alternately uttering the words "love me" followed by "love me not" and relying on the last plucked petal to predict which of these will seal my fortune!

As I grew older and came to terms with the fact that this was only a game of chance and hope, I, nevertheless, continued to model other life alternatives in a similar gamely fashion, knowing that, although they are just games, this process does have merits in allowing me to review the different facets associated with any challenging situation.

In light of the above, I am sure you will agree that stress plays a prominent role in our lives and is therefore worthy of consideration and thus prompts me to address the title of this note "Stress Me Not!"

This phrase, unlike my childhood flower petal plucking game, signifies several connotations, and I list below the ones that readily come to mind:

Prayer: Lord, I beseech You to make my life comfortable and I beg You to Stress Me Not!

Threat: Challenged by circumstances that are imposed by social, business or financial factors, using that phrase followed by "or else" carries the threat implication that it is intended for!

Plea: When the going gets tough in relationships and when arguments become difficult to resolve, one may resort to saying Please, Stress Me Not because I am at the end of my tether!

Question: How many times have I told you to Stress Me Not?

Command: I order you to Stress Me Not!

Reflecting on the above, and, in as far as stress is concerned, I pray that, in the adult equivalent of the petal plucking game, the “Stress Me” option never presents itself in any of its varied connotations to any of you!

Hani Badawi

April 14, 2016

Reading, Writing and Making History

Whether we like it or not we are all students of history (family, national, international, sports, music, science, economics, etc.). Our levels though will vary depending on our, desire, interest and aptitude in learning about days gone by.

Some students will keep personal memoirs which may be read by a select few, some will commit events to memory and verbally relate them to their inner circle of friends and family and some more advanced students will write essays or books in areas of interest to them to be shared by a yet larger audience of students.


It is a no brainier that, to write history it is mandatory that one be well read and versed in the discipline of interest to oneself. Conveying history accurately though is a subject of another discussion that is beyond the scope of this article!

Moving on to the topic of "making history", I think most of you will agree that the path towards that end, whether followed deliberately or not, is very intriguing and is worthy of deeper analysis.

Like reading and writing history, making history can take many forms and shapes. It is more likely than not, that out of one's personal experience and passion combined with reading and writing history, that a few will end up in making (either good or bad) history! Written books or current events are replete with examples of those who have attained fame or infamy!

Strange as it may be, disciples of those who have made good or bad history continue to carry banners in writing and in action too that, more than likely, leads to factions, cults, ideologies, resolutions, etc. that ultimately continue to add reasons for world unrest and wars.

I would be remiss if I do not address the role of religion and politics in our world strife! The former is often misinterpreted and misused and the latter often relies on the misinterpretation and misuse aspects for their own personal benefits!

The saga has been with us for ages, and, alas, the saga continues!!!!


Hani Badawi
April 9, 2016