Why I have nominated Wikileaks for the Nobel Peace Prize

It is always easier to support freedom of speech when the one who speaks agree with you politically. This is one of the “tests” on liberal and democratic values that governments tend to fail. For instance, western governments have a long history on tolerating oppressive regimes that are “friendly-minded”. Internet companies assist China in censoring search engines. And many countries respond to Wikileaks‘ obvious right to publish material that is of public interest, by seeking to “shoot the messenger”.

Publishing material that is deemed classified by the government is an obvious right that newspapers and media have practiced for many, many decades. This way, the public has become aware of abuses of power that governments should be held accountable for. The internet doesn’t change this – it merely makes information more accessible, easier to distribute, and more democratic in the sense that virtually anyone with an internet connection can contribute.

Riz Khan - Uprising in Egypt

If your government shut down the internet,

shut down your government.

On Speech, Race and Melancholia An Interview with Judith Butler

The subject is constituted in discourse, and I received several criticisms and queries about that: what does it mean to be constituted as the subject only by discourse? What is the mechanism of that constitution? What do we mean when we say constitution? So I think Bodies that Matter sought to understand constitution through the notion of materialization. But then I was in a bit of a bind because I felt that the predominant Foucauldian frame that I had been using didn't give me a precise enough account of what it meant for a subject to be constituted in discourse given that a subject is only partially constituted, or is sometimes constituted in ways that can't quite be anticipated: how do I talk about the failure of subject constitution? How do I talk about its tenuousness or vulnerability? How do I talk about its unpredictability? People also wanted concrete instances ± for me to give an example of what it meant ± so it seemed to me that although the Althusserian frame relies upon this verbal address, this being hailed by another, at least it produces the possibility of a subject not answering, of a subject being constituted along certain kinds of fault lines. Althusser's work gave me a scene, as it were, with which to start to ask the question: what does it mean to appropriate the terms by which one is hailed or the discourse in which one is constituted? And sometimes in Foucault it just seems too unilateral. In Discipline and Punish, perhaps one of the places where the theory of subject constitution is too unilateral, it's clearly too unnuanced. It's as if the prisoner is simply made, it's as if somehow the prisoner is constituted almost mechanistically. The central chapters there about the body strike me as problematic because they can't accommodate a theory of the psyche, and they can't accommodate the vulnerability or the unpredict- ability of subject constitution. There's not enough give in Discipline and Punish. So I suppose that's why I was recalled to the Althusserian scene, so that I might meditate a bit about when and where the discourse through which one is constituted fails to hit its mark.

Al Jazeera

If it weren't for Al Jazeera, much of the unfolding Egyptian revolution would never have been televised. Its Arabic and English language channels have provided the most comprehensive coverage of any network in any language hands-down. Despite the Mubarak regime's attempts to shut it down, Al Jazeera's brave reporters and camera crews have persevered. Six Al Jazeera journalists were detained briefly on Monday, their equipment seized. The US responded swiftly to their detention with the State Department calling for their release. "We are concerned by the shutdown of Al Jazeera in Egypt and arrest of its correspondents," State Department spokesperson PJ Crowley tweeted. "Egypt must be open and the reporters released."

the flow of energy

unbalanced emotions -depression, anxiety, obsession, sadness, open up a pathway through which noxious pathogens can enter.

If heart becomes distracted and unclear your path will become congested, and severe harm to the body will result. If we lead lives that are centered around distracting thoughts and activities, harmful consequences will result.

If the heart does not abuse its superior position, if it remains centered and focused on the essential matters, the jing will flourish and the qi will be steady, noxious intruders will always be fought off, the dantian will be full with treasures, and every part of the body landscape will be light and at piece.

The heart relationship to the other organs is hierarchical; not only do the twelve channel networks attune their respective qi [functions] to the directives of the heart, but they offer their entire jing [material essences] as tribute to nourish the heart.

The heart is connected to the kidney. Due to this interdependent relationship between the heart and the kidney, there are two methods of nourishing and protecting the heart: First, there is the method of nourishing the heart qi directly. This means: do not burden yourself with depressing thoughts, do not get anxious about future events that may never happen, do not dwell on things that are well in the past -all of these emotions dissipate the brightness of shen. If we overextend our heart we will harm its qi. If this happens, the heart jing will also suffer damage, and the shen, consequently, will lose its abode. If we take a look at the doctrines of Confucius -do not will, do not strive, do not be inflexible, do not be egotistical -and his student Mencius -do not be self-righteous, do not expect things, do not force things- we see the art of nourishing the heart. Understand how to nourish the heart.

Second, there is the option to foster the heart by nourishing its jing via the kidney network. If there is no protective maintenance of the kidney, the kidney jing will be harmed. If the kidney jing is harmed, then its qi will also suffer detrimental influences. Water, then, will be unable to restrain fire, yin will be unable to provide shelter to yang, and pathological water qi will enshroud the heart.

The seven emotional reactions (joy, anger, sadness, grief, fright, apprehension, worry) and their involuntary expressions (facial expressions, body movements, gestures, sighing, moaning, giggling, sobbing) are manifestations of shen.

self-awareness and self-control mechanism -associated with the liver
the body's basic reactive instincts -associated with the lung
the ability of thinking and remembering -associated with the spleen
the function of memory -associated with the kidney
the function of processing all incoming sensory and intuitive information and supervising the body/mind reaction to it -associated with the heart.