a mock a stupid fish right and one day
the lake wasn't big one day a fisherman
came and he started casting his net so
the intelligent fish the brilliant one
he said it's time to head for the sea
because the lake is too small and will
get caught in the net eventually so he
left went to the river down to the sea
the smart one he said that's the most
intelligent fish in the lake and if he's
heading for the sea I'm gonna head for
the sea the stupid wasn't said to him
it's a long journey to the sea
and it's a big lake small net we should
just stay here enjoy what we have
nothing much has changed he disagreed he
took off for the sea so the third one
the stupid fish he got caught in the net
and then the fisherman took him out and
he was frying him and in the frying pan
as he was frying he said if I ever get
back to the lake I'm heading for the sea
okay so don't be like that last fish
life is a journey to the ocean you're
not meant to just stay in your limited
understanding expand your you don't get
trapped in the trivialities of in in in
in suffice if an or more the Arabs call
it low things said OB Tsui please don't
let these dark forces pull you away from
your higher calling to be productive
intelligent human being that actually
has something to add to the world and
you're not just filling space too many
people filling space and not benefiting
others alright in terms of the parents I
hope you take seriously the the advice
about television televisions a major
problem
these games are a major problem you
should read some of the studies about it
PlayStation nation is a good book to
read about serious studies that have
been done about the negative effects
that these games actually have on
neuroplasticity on attention deficit
disorder there's a lot of work that's
been done in this area obviously it's
not published because the same companies
that owned the newspapers right own the
shares in Nintendo stocks right really
there was a book written in 1958
called the evil eye which took me a long
time to find I read about it as a source
book in another book I found a copy in
Australia on the internet because it
wasn't ever reproduced this book had
documented research from the 1950s about
the negative effects on television on
children that were done serious
scientific studies one of the studies
that was done found
that small children will not watch
real-time television they get bored so a
three four five year old they won't
watch a movie like regular they just get
bored so that's why if you look at
children programming it's speeded up
it's not in real time so Sesame Street
it's all quick things changing images
now we have the MTV phenomenon which is
children that grew up on that that type
of programming cannot watch normal films
if you watch a film from the 1950s
they're very slow if you watch them from
the 40s they're very slow they're driven
by dialogue not by movement now all the
films are driven by quick moving car
crashes bombs exploding it's all
stimulation because young people can't
watch if you watch plots like crash
older people that watch those films
can't even keep up because it's just too
fast for them this is what's happening
and then we have in touch it attention
deficit disorder is a major problem in
an Indian in the developed nations and
increasingly a problem in in other
places one out of every 58 males in the
United States of America is now
diagnosed with autism two out one out of
58 it's a disease that wasn't even
identified until the 50s and very
handful of people now after that since
the 1980s there have been a massive
explosion of Asperger's disease autism
and you're starting to see autism now in
the Arab countries children are
overstimulated there they're becoming
hyperactive because you're putting them
in front of all these interactive things
so they can't sit in a classroom without
fidgeting and getting completely you
know their train of thought is lost they
can't concentrate for long periods of
time they won't be able to read books a
book like The Brothers Karamazov and
English English literature is a long
book there's a lot of plot changes
there's a lot of characters that you
have to keep in mind if you've read ever
read Russian literature you have to
memorize several names
to keep up with what's going on it and
some of the characters have three or
four different names you won't have
students are able to read that they
won't be able to read the great
literature of the Arabs Moton FB video
samanid hamid ani al-hariri even omo
kapha they won't be able to read the
hamas a minimum bharat you know any of
these things because it takes directed
thought to do that so there's a massive
responsibility now and you can't just be
like sheep that kind of accept
everything that happens and just oh yeah
and the papadum so a lot of these things
are not progress they're quite the
opposite there's a study going on right
now it's a major long-term study on the
effects of cellular phones but the
American Association of Pediatrics
physicians says that children before
their skulls are developed shouldn't be
using cell phones because the the the
the skull is too thin and the radiation
is reaching their brain at higher levels
we don't know if they're gonna have to
MERS in 10 15 20 years because this is a
guinea pig generation and we have
something which called the cautionary
protocol the cautionary protocol which
is used by Europeans and Canadians and
the Americans just because of our kind
of capitalistic enterprise and stupidity
refused to follow that cautionary
principle the cautionary principle
states if you're unsure about the
harmful effects of something then you
should have precautionary measures
before you actually do it until you find
out whether or not it's harmful if in
the in the volcano in in Europe that was
based on the precautionary principle
because the Europeans practiced that a
lot of the American commentators were
saying they should have let the
airplanes fly but the Europeans were
saying no we don't want to risk
airplanes crashing and people dying
because we're not sure the effects of
these that the the volcanic ash is going
to have on these airplanes yet that's
intelligence its intelligence who though
Heather come in
be be precautious so you have to really
think about what's happening because
you're gonna have problems with your
children before you know it if you don't
and and in Korea now they're thinking
about Bandung broadband after 10 o'clock
because so many of the Korean children
are addicted to these video games and
they're flunking out in school having
major prompt these are social problems
that are going on all over the planet
and their new social problems and
they're not being addressed
intelligently and a lot of the parents
are completely ignorant about them so
that's all I have to say right now if
anybody has any comments or questions
you can feel free and any of the young
men out there if you have any questions
feel free okay go ahead you would you're
the only mother your hand up go ahead
yeah
with that
a videogames there's several now young
people have died from playing video
games for extended periods of time
literally one child in Japan had a heart
attack because he kept playing for
several days and couldn't stop I mean
obviously those aren't the majority of
kids aren't gonna be doing that but
there are kids that get addicted or
early
I personally my kids don't play any
video games I just don't have them in
the house
you know sometimes they go to their
friend's house and they do think but I
would not recommend video games
personally I know it's some people think
you know it's unreasonable but I've read
too much of the research about it you
know I wouldn't do video games I don't
think they're healthy and a lot of them
you know they're just total waste of
time there's nothing there's nothing
educational about them at all go ahead
yeah I mean look you know when I was a
kid you went out and played you know you
did things you went out and played I
mean it's much more life is much more
interesting than a video game really I
lived with Bedouin kids in the Sahara
they're they're some of the happy as
well-adjusted kids I ever met they spend
their whole time outside outdoors you
know go outside and play say it's too
hot or something like that get used to
the heat you know really get used to the
heat most of your Arabs the Arabs say a
shrimps will hammam it out on the Sun is
the sauna of the Arabs Arabs that's why
your skin color is the way it is so you
go out in the Sun I can't go out I get
skin cancer God knows what he's doing
where he put people and how they look
and how they can handle their
environments you guys all in
air-conditioned I lived in a lion in a
lion for four years without air
conditioning in a cinderblock house
between 20 and my I was 20 and 24 I
lived in a lion for four years without
air conditioning the whole time because
I don't like air conditioning half these
guys are getting rheumatism now you know
look at the older
people in this country they're all
suffering all having problems these
things aren't you know you guys are
gonna you'll see eventually but you know
a show she nope in an amateur that's a
doom you know say now almost said be
tough on yourselves because you won't
always have blessings Western most
Western people can't sit on the floor if
you see Western people try to sit on the
floor there their knees are all they
can't put that they don't have any why
because they never sit on the floor they
always sit on chair I can sit I've been
sitting on a floor all my all my adult
life since I became Muslim I can sit on
a chair of the chairs there but at my
house I sit on the floor because I
choose to I can do a full notice at my
age there's a yoga position that most
young people can't do it's only because
I've always been sitting on the floor so
I have elasticity now there was just a
study done about just stretching and how
important stretching it was you can
learn things from cats have you ever
watched cats cats are always stretching
you know cats are the most flexible
animals in the world and just watch them
humans used to stretch now they're just
shriveling up really you see people that
are 50 they look like they're 80 you see
people that are 20 and they're behaving
like they're old people in America we
have people they're dead at 25 buried at
75 really living dead people that have
really they're hollow people because
they're spending so much time we have we
have pornography is a major problem in
the United States I just was at a
conference in Princeton University and
there's published papers I delivered a
paper at that conference on pornography
one of the major problems in the United
States of America pornography addiction
it destroys families it causes impotence
males become impotent after they get
addicted to pornography ten years of
addiction
they've lost their their you know their
their their potency so what got them in
it ends up being destroyed anyway these
are major problems that are going on now
and you know you're from a culture who
didn't want me to hold women upside of
him
you know that's the this culture is a
culture of modesty and modesty is a
beautiful quality Europeans and
Americans used to be very modest people
and there still are some modest people
on undeniably there's many good
Christian people there's many good even
secular people that have basic modesty
and things but many people now they've
completely lost their sense of shame and
do things publicly that would have never
been done even 20 years ago even 20
years ago I mean I see bumper stickers
all over California would foul words on
them as if children weren't around you
know I mean my kids sometimes ask me
I've got a five five-year-old kid that's
starting to read and he sees words that
you know I can't even explain to him
what they mean because there's no shame
and I believe in preserving innocence of
children I don't want to see a
sexualized culture where naked women are
naked men are all over the place and
before children are ready to even grasp
what these things mean there's not like
Aboriginal cultures because there's
Aboriginal cultures that don't have the
same problems in a culture that's
manipulating people sexually go ahead
yeah there are like four if you're gonna
go into surgery then there's certain
decks you know manual dexterity skills
like you get very good at certain skills
that you can do if you're going into law
enforcement a lot of kids that play with
those video games get very accurate in
fact we had a kid in Virginia who shot
eight kids at school and he got head
shots on every single one of the kids
when the FBI came to examine it they
were amazed at this kid's marksmanship
it turned out that his father had bought
him as a present a game that you got the
the head shots were given the highest
awards in the game so he had actually
mastered killing people in a video game
and then he just went to school one day
with his father's gun and he killed all
these kids with headshots that he
learned on the video game so if you're
gonna go into the army it's probably
there's some benefits like that but you
know those those benefits to me are that
the harm is greater and and in in our
tradition and muscle high which is
benefit is always looked at masada you
way the to what's called da da da da was
yell belma's la avoiding harm and
accruing benefit if the harm is worse
then you avoid it and if the benefits
greater then you then you do it and to
avoid harm is preferred over accruing
benefit so harm is considered first
before benefit so there are benefits
undeniably mmm-hmm go ahead study what's
that some people are poor yeah what how
could they go study a lot of them can
there's children all over the world now
that are daily they're laborers as
children is happening all over the world
South Africa has a massive problem with
child labor
India has a massive problem with child
labor really even in Egypt you know
there's a baboon the people the kids
that go out and collect garbage we have
this problem everywhere in Morocco
there's kids that are your age that are
working full-time 15 hour days you know
and that comes with social justice and a
concern for others so people like you as
you get older you have to
of commitments to changing those
conditions first in your own place it's
always better to fix the place that
you're at and then extending that out
but you're lucky you're fortunate that
you don't have that problem you're here
so utilize your time
Oh
well yeah there there's a lot of books
in the United States have been written
on this that I wish the Arabs would kind
of look at and translate into Arabic
like 365 things to do with your children
that don't involve television you know
that's a book you know it gives you a
lot of ideas like things you can
actually do young people like to do lots
of things you know my kids do archery my
two oldest sons are black belts in
karate you know they've been doing
martial arts there's a lot of things
that you can do that are really
interesting one of my son's is a painter
you know he has oil paints he actually
paints amazing things and he's 15 years
old you know that was something he was
interested in we encouraged it because
it was he showed talent he was
interested in and I'd much rather
haven't doing that than doing wasting
his time doing other things because it's
creative it's imaginative Einstein said
if you want to have intelligent children
then then develop their imagination
painting is a great way of developing
imagine if he does amazing pictures
really creative things so there's a lot
there's lots of things you can do but
you have to be actively engaged with
your children a shelfie has a poem about
that your team is not the one whose
parents died it's the one whose mother
is ignorant and the fathers are too busy
to be taken care of and that's the real
orphan right so you have to be engaged
in raising your children but it's a it's
an Amana people should not have children
if they're not going to raise them to be
good kids
because we all have to suffer the
consequences of all these kids that grow
up without real parenting and real
education and they end up you know the
criminal class and all these Wall Street
people that have no morals at all where
did they grow up who was teaching them
you know who was instilling in them a
sense of right and wrong my mother
instilled in me right and wrong she's a
Christian woman with very strong moral
principles from an early age I was told
right from wrong not with religion she
didn't even associate it with religion
you just told the truth and she lived
that she always was truthful in
everything she did that's what that's
what I learned from my mother
be truthful be upright be honest you
know
expect other people respective of who
they are whether they're a South Asian
Indian some of the Arabs here treat the
Indians like dirt one day you'll find
when when India becomes a major power it
could happen in your lifetime you'll be
down there after all the oils gone and
there's nothing here some of the
Emiratis you might be down there trying
to get a job in an Indian corporation
and some of those guys are going to
remember how their father was treated
when he was working here what comes
around goes around
Sitka diam New Delhi we don't have a nun
s I mean that's not a reason to be good
to Indians but it's a reality so even
from a pragmatic point perspective it
might be a good idea just to treat
people a little better than you're
treating them Filipinos here some of
them are treated like dirt
some of the maids here are treated like
they're subhuman these are human beings
they had mothers and fathers you know
they have emotional I mean I asked a
maid in a house I was staying in in a
neighboring country I won't say which
one I just asked her how she was doing
and she started crying literally started
crying you know there's things going on
God knows what's going on but yomo Kiama
it's a big day at Iowa know that I gotta
know the truth or do manal mean people
don't think they're gonna be a Super
Nintendo and Yutaka sudha people think
they're just gonna be left without any
judgment it's not true
go ahead and what edge gets okay for
cell phones well cell phone like I said
the the research is still out they don't
know most of the studies that the
cellphone companies did were in ideal
situations because for instance if you
have a cell phone here it's coming
through your brain that's different from
when it's coming that way so it just
depends I mean there's ideal conditions
most of the studies that the cellphone
companies did were in ideal conditions
and I have a friend who's a CEO of a
cell phone company so I know I got this
from firsthand right
so we don't know if it's safe at all but
generally before the age of about 15
because the the brain the the Jim Jim
you know the the skull is developing so
before that if you're gonna use it even
for adults they should be used it's
better to use it with an earphone keep
it away from the body that's what they
say hold it away from the body or use it
with the voice on or text a lot of young
people prefer to text anyway texting is
safer than that but radiation is real
it's radiation its low-grade radiation
but it's radiation people keep it in
their pockets we don't know how it's
going to affect fertility rates you know
the highe aphid Dean the the male sperm
count around the globe is half of what
it was 50 years ago so we know that you
know fertility rates are being seriously
affected they think it has to do with
plastics because plastics are estrogen
mimickers and so all this plastic that
everybody's living in everything's
plastic your car's plastic a lot of
people wearing polyester that it's
actually affecting our bodies you know
so there's a lot of very troublesome
things going on but generally I'd be
very careful you should not be spending
a lot of time on a cell phone use it for
emergencies if you have a cell phone
they're useful tools but I would use it
for emergencies I have a cell phone in
my car I don't like to use cell phones
to talk on mmm-hmm no let me tell you
something there's a bomb all right in
America there's there's a bomb it's
called napalm they used it in World War
two do you know what napalm is it burns
the skin
it's a goo it's like gel all right it
burns the skin they used it against the
Germans in World War two when they
bombed aerial bombing of Dresden and
Hamburg in these things in Vietnam they
were using napalm what the what the
Vietcong would do is in the village they
would make a big water basin and so if
the napalm hit them people would get hit
by napalm and they would run and go in
and submerge themselves and it would
stop the effects of the napalm
so their skin wouldn't burn so you know
what they did in the United States they
developed napalm that was waterproof all
right we have people like that they're
sick people they don't think about the
moral implications of what they're doing
so the same is true greed
you know the Arabs say Obama you live
you live it happen huh my greed makes
the intellect go away
you can't think when you're greedy a man
you know you can't think so people are
greedy and you have to be aware these
people could care less about you or
about your health there have been many
times where they know things are harmful
and they hide it from the people the
tobacco industry knew that tobacco was
addictive in the nineteenth early 60s
and they hid it from people we had
class-action suits in the United States
you know what the deal they made with
the tobacco industry in the United
States this is all history you can read
all this stuff the deal the United
States government made with the tobacco
industry in the United States of America
is that we're going to shut down tobacco
in the United States but we'll make sure
that you can export it around the world
you know we're the biggest now markets
for tobacco China India the Arab world
we don't smoke puffs in public it's
illegal in the United States of America
to smoke in public illegal you know why
now that all what out there are because
secondary smoke is more harmful than
primary smoke so you're actually hurting
other people when I go into these Arab
hotels here that are largely owned by
Western companies that in their own
countries they don't let them smoke but
here they're all smoking puffing away
without any concern about anybody else
you know what Thailand when Thailand
tried to outlaw tobacco do you know what
America said it would take away its
favored nation status because this is
just Machiavellian politics they don't
care about people they care about
profits and money they care about their
own people to a certain degree they
don't care about other people they could
care less if you guys all die of cancer
as long as they make a lot of money from
selling Marlboro you know and convince
you that the Marlboro Man is something
to emulate in America you know what our
Marlboro commercials are they show a
cigarette that's wilted and they say
cigarette smoking causes impotence
because they want people to stop smoking
it
have those ads over here seriously go
ahead when a person he starts playing
games and is soon afterwards he becomes
addicted and when he hears that games
are harmful he tries to give it but it's
impossible it's compulsory that's a good
question
addictions a problem if you're addicted
to something most of the video
addictions are low-grade a low-grade
addiction is like tea or coffee you can
give it up with a little willpower
cigarette nicotine is actually a it's a
high-grade addiction it's very hard to
give up nicotine some of the same things
because the the brain when you play
video games you get and Orphic releases
so it's it's it's like a drug very
similar to taking heroin or cocaine has
a similar effect the same type of things
are happening in the brain so you want
to do it again and again and again but
willpower is something God gave every
human being and the best thing that you
could do you have to get rid the most
important single most important thing is
to get rid of the stimuli you have to
you have to remove it from the house if
it's in the house you're gonna be
tempted it's like an alcoholic who has a
bottle of liquor in the cabinet
if he gets weak he'll get tempted the
best thing to do is avoid it just don't
don't get it out of the house and you
have and there's times when you'll feel
strong and say I want to quit this thing
those are the times when you should do
it and then you need help to be
consistent find a friend who's willing
to you buddy up with him and you both
make a commitment together we're not
gonna watch video get to it for six
months just do it for six months and see
how your life changes make a commitment
I'm gonna stop for six months when
Ramadan comes around say I'm gonna stop
TV altogether one month no TV at all
zero people now they watch more TV and
Ramadan than they do in other times
you're wasting your time Ramadan is a
precious time I am and might do that
might do that is what's called general
Kuna you know it's short days few days
mm-hmm
go ahead you
some people like it their body gets
seized to nicotine so much that if they
try to quit smoking or something they'll
die so are they supposed to at least
once a day
yeah no nicotine won't kill you there's
there's no nothing zero scientific
evidence that giving up nicotine will
kill you but they do have serious
withdrawal symptoms for some people you
know if they're addicted to smoking then
it's true nicotine can actually be like
a you know like a medicine for them
because they get so nervous so angry so
frustrated but they have nicotine
patches there's other things that you
can do they have nicotine gum that
people can chew because smoking harms
the lungs
you know nicotine is is not good but
it's better to chew nicotine gum than to
smoke a cigarette and it has a similar
effect on the on the on the brain that
smoking a cigarette does but people can
quit many people have quit cigarettes
you know I'm fortunate I never smoked
you know a few times I had cigarettes
when I was in high school just kids try
experiment because other kids smoke it
but I wasn't I was I played a lot of
sports when I was in high school so I
never wanted to smoke go ahead you yeah
as you pointed that in Ramadan people
watch TV more than any other normal day
but at that time many school Muslim
scholars started like saying about Islam
so what why shouldn't we I mean if yeah
if the program is worth watching like
that if it's a dollar or something like
that then you know but I would prefer
not you can you can go to the Masjid and
hear a talk or read a book or listen to
a tape cassette there are other ways to
get doodles than television
I want to ask you though do you think
the majority of parents have already you
know got something in their house at
computers yeah we you know everything do
you think that in these types of cases
that parents should exercise restriction
or just eliminate them completely from
the household even if they've been there
and their kids have been used to them
and
all their friends etc for most people to
eliminate it completely as impractical
that it's just it's difficult because
now there's so many things tied to the
computer a lot of people's jobs are
related to computer and internet access
things like that for most people it's
gonna be impacted I know many people in
the u.s. not just Muslims I know many
non-muslims that just don't have it in
the house because of the destructive
effects that it has a lot of the Waldorf
parents will not have them in the house
things like that but you know one of the
things that is recommended is to have it
in an open space don't have it in a
private space where people can go even
husband's because we've got a problem
with some of the men now that are
getting addicted to things in fact I had
a man asked me about it the other day
you know that he was having a trouble
with that we did a conference on
pornography in Toronto before we did
before I did the paper at Princeton and
I was amazed at how many of the Muslim
women in hijab came out to me afterwards
and told me that they were having
problems with their husbands there are
restrictions here obviously I think
there's some internet control for those
type things but there's DVDs and there's
other ways around that so there are
problems but you know I would say have
it in an open space with the screen
facing a public so like in a room where
you can see the screen itself so that
when the kids go on it you know what
they're going on and then also obviously
you can check searches and things like
that
so it's good to know what they're
looking at as they get older Trust is
very important you know and to spy on
your kids as they get older is actually
a breach and that can cause a lot of
problems because you're gonna create
deceptive child so it's dangerous to do
that I personally think I trust my kids
I've sat down with them I talked to them
about it I found some films once I mean
they weren't they were more like just
very violent films and I sat down with
my kids and I explained to them I said
I'm out here combating against these
things and I can't have it in my house
when you guys turn 18 you're on your own
you can do whatever you want but in my
house
this isn't happening and I trust you I'm
not gonna talk about this again but I
trust you and that that's the way I do
with my kids I've never I've never and
then I don't punish them if they do
something wrong and come to me I don't
punish them you know one of my kids came
to me and he just started crying he was
about 14 he start crying and I said
what's wrong he said I went on the
computer without your permission and
looked at some and he would really felt
bad about it and I told him I said look
that is your bummy oh you know it's your
conscience talking to you and always
listen to that because that will always
be truthful you know so I just used as
an opportunity to to encourage him that
when he knows something's wrong to
respond to that and don't don't ever be
ashamed of that that is the best thing
that we have working inside of us is is
that ability to know right from wrong
and to admit our wrongs and then to
commit to not doing it again
so you know that's what I would do and
and you have to have some restrictions
you can't have it open because kids are
gonna go on and now they have all these
allies games that are free on the
internet are de