"If you read Nómoi, the Laws of Plato, in the dialogues, there were three speakers, all elderly men: an unnamed Athenian, who was assumed to have had experiences. The second one, was a Cretan named Clinias, and a Spartan called Megillus. Clinias was a citizen of Cnossus, once the ‘capital’ of Minos, and had a family connection with the famous medicineman, Epimenides. Megillus, belonged to a Spartan family, in which the office of proxenus of Athens was hereditary. These facts were intended to explain the readiness shown by both to communicate their business to an Athenian and asked his advice on it.In the First Book of Plato's Law, there are three propositions: that a state should be permanently organized with a view to peace, not to war; that to be so organized, it must make 'complete goodness’ its ideal of character for its citizens; that the moral training which is to issue in such complete goodness demands exposure to the seductions and blandishments of our ‘pleasant vices,’ said Chihuahua, after saying a salaam and the opening kalimah."I don't want to talk about this Plato's amazing book. But first of all, allow me to introduce myself." Chihuahua went on. "Thanks to the birds for inviting me in our meeting today. My name is Pedro, my ancestors, from Mexico, but I was raised by my master, and I live, in Germany, formerly known as the "Land of the Berlin Wall." Do you know what "Pedro" means? This word, comes from the Greek, "petra," means "stone." I'm not going to talk about stones or rocks either, but I want to tell you a story. A story about, not something "hard" or "heavy" like a rock, but something "soft" and easy to "explode," like dozens of balloon on their way to the horizon.I'm not good at singing, but I'd like to sing a song for you. By the way, according to the Plato's Book, music, or rather, rhythm, was a vehicle for the training of taste and intelligence. Rhythm and poetry, used to be, a vehicle of moral education. There are no fixed standards of good and bad in rhythm, good rhythm meaning simply that which, at any time, is found pleasing by the majority of an audience, and the best musician, the composer or performer, who is most popular and most successful in ‘putting it across’. It will be the duty of the State, to discover the true standards for the various forms of Rhythmical composition. Rhythm being an ‘imitative’ art, and it is essential to good rhythmic, both that the object it ‘imitates’ should be beautiful, and that it should imitate that object rightly," enounced Chihuahua, then, in adorable act, he swayed, and singing in German,Neunundneunzig Luftballons[Ninety nine balloons]Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont[On their way to the horizon]Hielt man für Ufos aus dem All[Was thought to be UFOs from space]Darum schickte ein General[That's why a general sent]'Ne Fliegerstaffel hinterher[A squadron behind]Alarm zu geben, wenn's so wär'[To give the alarm if it were so]Dabei war'n dort am Horizont[And there were on the horizon]Nur neunundneunzig Luftballons *)[Only ninety-nine balloons]He stopped and delivered, "O my brothers and sisters, listen to this,One day, in a Bee Colony, two little bees was walking on the street. On that day, apparently, there was a celebration, the bees swarmed in a place. These two little ones, pushed their way into the crowd, until they reached the front place. In their sight, there was a magnificent decoration. Uncounting red balloons were presented in various shapes, flowers, animals and as many as red balloon ties. At the highlight of the event, Mr. Mayor cut the ribbon, then the balloons were set free, and one by one they were gone. The bees, cheering and clapping.Dozens of red balloons, floating in the summer sky, went by. The wind, loved the balloons, blew on them, on and on, until the balloons, crossed the border of the Bee Colony, and entered the Flies Colony. And this was one thing, lead to another.And about the fly, let me tell you about the flies. You know, they’re frustrating when you’re trying to enjoy your time in the sun. It's annoying, like the buzzers bother you, when a familiar buzz of a fly, echoes in your ear. And so the onslaught begins. You swat and they just come back, gluttons for the punishment of your lazily swiping hand. The question is, why do you find it difficult to catch flies? The answer is easy, because flies can hover, move vertically, and even fly backwards, tantalizing you with your inability to catch the little buggers. Most flies, flap their wings over 200Hz, or 200 cycles per second. A tiny fruit fly beats its wings once every 4 milliseconds—faster than neurons can fire.Once, our beloved Prophet (ﷺ) said,إِذَا وَقَعَ الذُّبَابُ فِي شَرَابِ أَحَدِكُمْ فَلْيَغْمِسْهُ، ثُمَّ لِيَنْزِعْهُ، فَإِنَّ فِي إِحْدَى جَنَاحَيْهِ دَاءً وَالأُخْرَى شِفَاءً"If a house fly falls in the drink of anyone of you, he should dip it (in the drink) and take it out, for one of its wings has a disease and the other has the cure for the disease." [Sahih al-Bukhari]The Prophet (ﷺ) ordered, the fly that falls on our drink or food, be dipped in it, thus killing the fly, especially if the food is hot. The purpose behind dipping the fly in the drink, is to extract the antidote from its other wing, just as the poison was extracted from the wing that fell on the food.Flies quite literally eat poo, but they also clean up other waste too, helping clean-up after us humans.They can eat our household waste and divert it from going into landfill. The black soldier fly, for example, can have up to 600 larvae, with each of these quickly consuming half a gram of organic matter per day. This small family can eat an entire household green waste bin each year.While there are certainly other flies and insects that make themselves at home in your home, 90 percent of all flies found inside are members of the specific species of fly musca domestica. The term "housefly" isn't just a generic term; it's a specific kind of fly that happened to find its evolutionary niche living among us.The problem with flies, isn't just that they irritate us by trespassing. Houseflies carry and spread a number of potentially, deadly diseases, including typhoid fever, salmonella, tuberculosis, conjunctivitis, leprosy and cholera, as well as intestinal worms and the bacteria responsible for dysentery. They feed and reproduce on garbage, feces and rotting flesh. And then, after picking up millions of microorganisms, they fly into our homes and land on our food, bodies and personal belongings, leaving behind the same germs.Now, back to the story!At the base of Flies Colony, there was a message, or might be, bugs in the computer software, flashing, "Something's out there!" Officer on duty, bustling in their room, ringing the panic bells, it was a red alert. Your Excellency, Mr President of the Flies, who had been appointed by the Flies' Queen, as head of the government, person in charge of foreign affairs, person with duties related to justice, person in charge of financial and economic issues, and recently as the head of a university, summoned all ministers, deputy-ministers, all the officers, and also, the Colony's paid buzzers and influencers. There were so many participants in the meeting, and if Mr. President asked you to count them quickly, just said, "It's 99!"it meant innumerable.After a long debate, closed by the words, "This is certainly, the UFOs! This is dangerous! It's a threat! This threatens the position of Mr. President!" Thus, ninety-nine decisions were issued by ninety-nine decision-makers. A general was assigned to take charge of the command, and declared the colony was in war.The war machines, awakened. Tanks and armored vehicles, deployed. The troops and policeman, gathered, listening to the commanders' orders. All soldiers were directed in all directions, on the street, in every government agency, and more. Not to forget, role of the buzzers was played. They cursed the UFOs and making pamphlets of love for the homeland, to defend the colony, and of course, to defend the President, instead of saying "In Allah we trust to save us!" they said "We trust Mr. President to safe us!" The politicians were indeed, the great eels, even though the colony was in danger, still had time to campaign.At the time, panic was everywhere. All number one pilots, were ready, waiting in their respective MiG-21 fighter. They were ready to fly and ambushed the UFOs, just like "Captain Kirk," you saw in the Television series.Ultimately, all weapons were pointed at the sky. All eyes turned to the horizon, anxious, waiting. Some cried, many saying goodbye to each other, some wrote a will, some kept making a phone-call or googling, and many more. But there were also those who cursed, saying, "If they were UFOs, they wouldn't have caught the radar!" However, it was strange, there was no crying of the mothers embracing their babies, as you see in the Drama films.Mr. President was on the line, receiving reports from the radar officers, reported that the objects was approaching. The atmosphere became even more tense when the radar officer announced that within one minute, the suspected objects would attack. All were asked to standby.Three ... two ... one ... the first balloon appeared, followed by the second, third and fourth ... tenth ... and unlucky thirteen ... countless of balloons popping up. The balloons, floating in the summer sky, as if to sing,Dabei schoss man am Horizont[You shot on the horizon]Auf neunundneunzig Luftballons[On ninety-nine balloons]Neunundneunzig Kriegsminister[Ninety-nine ministers of war]Streichholz und Benzinkanister[Matchstick and jerrycans]Hielten sich für schlaue Leute[Thought they were smart people]Witterten schon fette Beute[Sensed a big prize]Riefen, "Krieg!" und wollten Macht[Shouted, "War!" and wanted power]Mann, wer hätte das gedacht[Man, who would have thought]Dass es einmal so weit kommt[That it will come to this one day]Wegen neunundneunzig Luftballons *)[Because of ninety-nine balloons]Having run out of hydrogen, slowly and gently, the baloons descended, some popped on the tank, on the warplane, and even at the ends of the police's guns. Everyone just stared at each other, and limply returned home, except for the Minister of Finance, who had to stay up late, counting the stars and sizing up the budgets spent on the "big" incident.A fly, who had just returned from a visit to the Bee Colony, while looking at a balloon, muttered, 'Ninety-nine dreams I have had, in every one a red balloon. If I could find a souvenir, just to prove the world was here, here is a red balloon!' Then the fly, let the balloon go."As a closing, Chihuahua commented, "O my brothers and sisters, the educative system should not focus exclusively on cultivating courage in its citizens, but should develop virtue in its entirety, including not only courage, but wisdom, moderation and social-justice as well. And Allah knows best."
Reference:
- Plato, The Law, translatted into English by AE Taylor, MA D.Litt, LL.D., JM Dent & Sons Ltd.*) "99 Luftballoons" by Nena
