*Divorce Socrates Wife.....by Jamil Shawwa

Socrates wife was very famous, not as famous as her husband was, the great Greek philosopher but she was famous. She was well known not for enriching the world with science and philosophy but for her terrible temper, bad manners and the daily dose of mental torture of which she used to supply her husband.

Some claim that if it were not for her mental torture and abuse, he would not have been the great philosopher who gave humanity a wealth of information on all subjects of life; Theories historians and modern scientists built on. He was famous of trying to get answers to anything and everything, loved to argue and discuss, of course, this style did not set well with the wife.

I do not want to judge Socrates wife, I was not there to witness the treatment. Maybe he was terrible with her, maybe he never understood her, maybe she was very demanding -or not at all- in bed and elsewhere, and he did not enjoy making love with her, maybe his type of women are different.

Again, the maybes go on and on. The main issues here, regardless if it was his or hers, that there have been problems and the problems are, why we humans or some of us at least keep associate ourselves with people who torture us, mentally I mean. Why do we stick with them? Why Socrates did not divorce his wife, and why she did not ask for a divorce, maybe she did, I am not sure.

We tend to accept the norms, we tend to stay with what we think is secure; probably we do not know any better or mostly we are lazy to make a change, that is sometimes a drastic however so important change.

A woman who does not love her companion once said that she is with him until someone else or better comes along. What logic is this and what character is hers. That woman is not alone, probably most of us share the same mentality or opportunistic approach, and that is why most people are still married or in relationships.

We tend to accept the comfortable, and to accept destiny without questioning. Again, it is laziness more than anything else-in my opinion, probably that is the main thing, or there are other people that depend on the relationship to continue. Socrates was the exception to the rule, we are not; we are just normal humans.

Mr. Putin Runs Moscow.....by Jamil Shawwa

A relative once told me: Son,  Intelligence Services rule the world. This statement is at least true when it comes to the star of this article, the former KGB officer and the former Russian president and the current Prime Minister of Russia under his protégé the Russian president Medvedev, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

Putin has become a Russian phenomenon. People of Russia love him, trust him, and in the same time are afraid even to question him not out of fear but out of the unknown. the Russians have used since and before the Bolshevik revolution to have a father figure to run the country, the Cesar was until the bloody communist revolution erupted in 1917 and ended the Romanov Family reign of power and it continued with the communists.

Mr. Putin is what some writers and philosophers refer to as the "just dictator" that societies are willing to surrender some of their rights to that one person who they can trust that will provide the basics for them, shelter and security.

I think Russia is moving away from this social contract. Putin will continue to govern the Russian Federation either as number one or number two or he might just at some point withdraws from the scene once he feels comfortable about the stability of Russia.

I was talking the other day with a Russian, originally Ukrainian, woman at work and she said that she does not think that Putin wants to be president again, she said that she believes that he is more comfortable in being the king maker rather than the king himself. I am not sure that I agree completely with her views, I think he might run for president again after the term of Mr. Medvedev ends in 2012. He after all might not follow the conventional wisdom.

Prime Minister Putin has succeeded to a certain degree in stabilizing Russia after the transitional period of president Yeltsin. He controlled to a certain degree but to a comfortable degree the outlaws that run havoc of the country kidnapping and killing the innocent and each other.

Moscow and Russia are much safer right now more than they have been through  the first few years following the collapse of communism, the departure of the last communist president, Gorbachev and the reign of Boris Yeltsin.

Still, investors need to have more rule of law to invest heavily in Russia and more due process to ensure that the mood swings no longer exist and that capital can invest freely without the fear of a government takeover or confiscation.

Putin and the Russian government control directly or indirectly the oil section and it will continue for a while; it is in their opinion the lifeline of Russia. In the United States, our oil companies are controlled by their boards of directors, in Russia Putin is the board of directors.

The most recent and ongoing challenges for Putin have been the terrorists coming from Chechnya and this is Russia's focus now. The terrorists can be defeated, it is not a dreamer's wish, but it is a reality, however, their defeat cannot be done by ignoring the basic needs of Chechnya's and the other republics that felt for ages that the central government in Russia treats them like, correctly so, third class citizens. Russia and Putin must embrace diversity and by doing that, he will isolate the terrorists. Terrorism strives in unjust societies; it feeds on the suffering of the masses. Cut that carbon monoxide from the people, the masses, allow the oxygen to come in their veins and the terrorists will disappear. This is not wishful thinking, it is a way that deserves to be tried and examined.

Russia is a vast country with multiple ethnic groups, republics, cultures. Putin's job is to recreate the Russian identity and build bridges and tunnels to connect the country. He can do that maybe by living to the name of Russia, The Russian Federation, by creating the states system as we have here in the Untied States with each state having an elected governor and parliament to run its affairs while the federal government maintains the overall harmony and sovereignty.

With the state system, you can have a federal government, a federal high court and a federal police and military. Each state, again as in the US, will have its own local state and county law enforcement powers and local or state high court. This system if done and agreed upon in a referendum would ensure Russia's future and will establish Putin as a world and historic leader. I think, as little as I know, that Putin has the seeds to be a great leader, he has the charisma, the experience, the temperament and the popularity. What else does Putin need, one thing, action and actual  show of leadership.