Entries from June 2006 ↓

In the Future, There Will be Robots is a theatrical production mentioned on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City’s in-game radio station. The on-air dialogue proceeded thusly:

Emanuel: Hey, it’s Emanuel from Prawn Island. I love the show. Yeah, I want to talk about technology enslaving us. You know that play In the Future, There Will Be Robots? Well, that’s a true story; in the future, there will be robots. And I’m going to hack them all. I’ll make them say funny things. You know, I can move satellites around with my computer.

Gethsemanee: Computers are evil. The Luddites of ancient Briton knew this. That’s why they destroyed the computers that created things faster and more efficient and took their jobs.

Emanuel: Oh shut up! Computers aren’t evil. It’s the people that programmed the computers that are evil. That’s a pretty big difference. I’m talking to you through a computer right now. In fact, I am a computer.

Pretty reassuring, you will agree. But is there any real cause for concern?

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“And if ye fear that ye will not deal fairly by the orphans, marry of the women, who seem good to you, two or three or four; and if ye fear that ye cannot do justice (to so many) then one (only) or (the captives) that your right hands possess. Thus it is more likely that ye will not do injustice. “ An-Nisa 3

In A Treatise on the Family, Gary Becker (whose blog makes for fascinating reading) argues that it is preferable for a society to allow polygyny than to enforce monogamy. His reasoning is that by allowing men to marry more than one woman, it would increase the demand for women. This, in turn, would mean that the ‘price’ that a man must now pay for a wife increases. Of course, by ‘price’ one does not mean only the mahr (dowry), in the case of Islamic marriage contracts, but, more importantly, the overall ‘package’ that the man must offer his prospective wife. For example, the quality of life that he can offer the prospective wife, his status in the society, or his physical appearance (less attractive women could attract disproportionately handsome men).

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The issue of consanguineous marriage (marriage between relatives) in the Muslim community is, for obvious reasons, a rather sensitive one. There are many people in the community who are in such relationships and even more who are the product of these relationships. Indeed, we know that such marriages are permissable under the shariah because the Prophet (saw) himself married his cousin, Zainab bint Jahsh. We also know that first cousins are allowed to marry under Australian law. There is absolutely no argument about the the legitimacy or legality of such marriages.

Whilst Western culture might view consanguineous marriage as somewhat distasteful, these marriages have been a common feature of Arab and some Muslim societies for thousands of years. The marrying of one’s child to a family member was seen as a means of maintaining the wealth of the family within the family, and mitigating against the risk of marrying one’s daughter or son into a family with which one might not be fully familiar.

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Friend Rabbit asks his guest, Winnie Pooh Bear:

“Would you like condensed milk or honey on your bread?”

“Both,” Pooh replies. “But never mind the bread.”

After his lunchtime gluttony, Pooh Bear gets stuck in Rabbit’s doorway. Half in, half out, he sits, receiving advice from all the creatures of the wood.

Could there be a more apt metaphor for the modern, nay post-modern, new age Muslim? His worship is all recreational, he skips the spiritual discipline and laps up the honey. He is stuck between worlds, accepting advice on his predicament from any stray that happens to pass, and only dimly aware of his life’s trajectory.

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I was recently told a story — possibly true — about a girl in the United Kingdom who, on seeing her elderly grandfather collapse, attempted to call the ambulance service by dialing 911. The implication being, of course, that the proliferation of American television programs on British screens had led the young girl to believe that the emergency number used in the United States was the same as that used in Britain. I have little reason to doubt the veracity of the story given that the popularity of American crime shows such as CSI and Law and Order has meant that even some Australians are themselves unaware that 911 is not the emergency number here (for the benefit of any such people reading this article, the number in Australia is 000).

These stories highlight something that would be obvious to most of us: that television has become an increasingly important part of our lives and especially the lives of young Australians. We have, as TS Eliot ominously warned in 1950, become consumed by the “television habit”.

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It speaks volumes that the country where the Da Vinci Code film has taken the least money relative to GDP is Nigeria – a country nowadays most well known for its perfection of the internet scam. The Nigerians, obviously no strangers to scams, are not about to be duped by an amateur like Dan Brown.

It is also instructive that the country that has proven the most gullible is Iceland: hardly surprising given this is a country that apparently counts mutton smoked in its own dung as one of its national delicacies. If one will eat such a supposed delicacy, then Dan Brown’s syntactic swill will be a familiar taste.

However, what is most interesting about the film is not the film itself but rather the reaction of the Catholic organisation, Opus Dei. For those Nigerian readers and others who may not have seen the film, Opus Dei are portrayed as a murderous, secretive cult whose albino assassin Silas travels the world murdering people who may be getting too close to the “truth”. Naturally, the figure was not very flattering to albinos or the real life Opus Dei group. However, the offended albino community might take some comfort in the fact that whereas albinos often have very poor eyesight, Silas the Murderous Monk can drive a car and shoot a gun with pinpoint accuracy.

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