Monday, June 21, 2010

Good Morning, Uzbekistan!

It's great to be here.

We'll name our new military airport

after your most famous son,

the great mathematician

Muhammad al-Khwarizmi,

who lived in the ninth century

of the Christian era --

sorry, the Common Era.



We'll build Firebase Algorithm,

a word derived from his last name.

The book he wrote, Kitab Al-Jabr,

christened the field of algebra.

Whoops! We should have said

Al-Jabr was its basis.



We'll add a lot more bases.

Your social problems might multiply

as we search for X, then Y, then Z,

the unknown quantities,

the solutions to our problem,



but we're grateful for your support,

glad that al-Khwarizmi

developed the “calculus of two errors.”

It will help us differentiate

terror from infinite justice --

make that “enduring freedom.”



We give thanks that al-Khwarizmi

launched the decimal system,

so we can keep easy body counts,

flash results on television,

and when the Great Game ends

post the scores in Arabic numerals:

Muslims, zero. Christians, zero.

Civilization, zero.
 
by Peter Desmond

2 comments:

Wafa said...

most amazing thing i have read in a while.
in clashes between people, no one wins and we all lose our humanity.

Uzbekistan said...

When people start killing human beings their animal nature is evident. Uzbeks are finest people in Central Asia but passing through a time when Uzbekistan Security Agencies are exploiting them and not allowing them to live a normal life. Uzbekistan has become the most horrible place on earth being ruled by Uzbek Security agencies where any body can be detained. I am a Pakistani and detained for 124 days. Read my story www.harleytourism.com/haroonchoudhry.html