Brewing storms
Raza Rumi laments the tragedies of our times, and says that the state cannot be absolved of its responsibility to protect citizens against terrorism (The Friday Times)
Lahore has finally been encircled by the layers and tremors of violence. If the events of March 2009 were not enough, there is now a concerted effort to create panic in the city. In the past few weeks, girls’ schools have been threatened that they would face the music for educating girls and promoting co-education. How can children and their middle-class urban parents survive these gruelling times? (pic left:Pir Baba’s shrine is now closed to visitors )
Say no to war
by Raza Rumi
Little did we know that the imminence of war between India and Pakistan would once again become a possibility, howsoever faint or misguided? The ruling political junta in India is talking war following the media frenzy over Mumbai carnage. Once again it is time to be ‘tough’ with Pakistan. This is a surprise given that the interlude of peace under General Musharraf and all the offers of conflict resolution were either stalled by the red-tapism of Indian bureaucracy or a victim of political inaction. At home, we have the air-force planes hovering the wintry skies of Lahore causing consternation not only to the peaceniks, shrinking each day, but to the overwhelming majority of the common citizens. After all what have they got to do with the power game in Islamabad and Delhi, the media hysteria or even the terror cartels?
True that circumstantial evidence points to the fact that the metaphor of our times, Ajmal Kasai socially upgraded as the Urduised Kasab, is linked to the little Faridkot in the Pakistani Punjab. However, much of the international community has reminded India that there is little or no evidence of any direct involvement of the Pakistani state let alone its fragile civilian government. Yet, the rhetoric of unilateral strikes by the Indian foreign minister and now the venerable Sonia Gandhi is having the right effect here. Of war mongering, preparedness assessments and the much trumpeted security strategy through the nuclear option.
We can smile in adversity too – the Biharis in Bangladesh
I took this photo at a Bihari camp in Dhaka. Thousands of 'Pakistanis' are stranded in Bangaldesh since 1971 and both the states refuse to acknowlegde their existence. Hence, a few generations have been born in the refugee ghettos who live in sub-human conditions.
I was extremely happy to read this report in the NEWS today that is a little ray of hope:
BD court gives stranded Pakistanis citizenship right
DHAKA: Bangladesh's High Court ruled on Sunday that some 200,000 Urdu-speaking refugees have the right to be Bangladeshi citizens, a lawyer and a news report said.
Rafiqul Islam Mian, the counsel of a group of refugees, said the court made it clear that they also have the right to cast their votes in upcoming polls, expected to be held in December. "The refugees who were minors in 1971 or born after the independence of Bangladesh are citizens of Bangladesh," the court said in its ruling.
How the Pentagon manipulated the media to promote the Iraq war
On April 20, the New York Times published a lengthy article by investigative reporter David Barstow detailing the US Defense Department’s extensive and ongoing program of manipulating news coverage of the Iraq war. The article provides a glimpse into the intimate connections between the government, military and mass media and the means by which they have attempted to package and sell a neo-colonial war to the US population.
Barstow writes that the record indicates a “symbiotic relationship where the usual dividing lines between government and journalism have been obliterated.†Essentially, the US mass media has allowed itself to become little more than a propaganda instrument of American militarism.
According to the April 20 piece, more than 75 retired officers have been coached by government and military officials to ‘spin’ the news about Iraq—or simply lie—on countless network and cable channel news programs and talk shows over the course of the past five years or more. Fox News has led the way in presenting these individuals to the public, but NBC, CNN, CBS and ABC have followed suit.
Dear Che – A poem by K.G. Sankarapillai
A Poem by K.G. Sankarapillai
Dear Che
Dear Che,
you came to our university campus
in mid sixties
with a comrade and a modernist friend
with visuals of jungles past and present
with a vision of a new battle for justice.
Like a fresh wind of October
you joined us
moved us
renewed us
and smoothened our entry into history
with love, dreams and plans.
You told us about the sleeping rebel powers
of mountains and forests of the new minds;
quite often you talked of the day when
‘the Andes would become
the Sierra Maestra of America.’
Our modernist friend said:
you are the red star over the world
tarnished by America;
you are the future of the world
crippled by America;
you are the Jesus of the modern age
crucified by America.
Although you remained evergreen in us
showed us the exit to the oceans
from the lyrical ponds of our
post Independent Indian youth;
the exit to the storm from the water lily breeze
of our weeping romantic poems;
dear doctor, you redefined us
living with us
living for us
living in us
passing the confidence of torrents into our deserts
weaving sunlit paths into our prodigal nights.
You brought world into our words
and future into our past.
You opened blast-furnaces for our ore.
Stop demonising China
Globally, the Tibet issue has been blown beyond belief by the media. I am compelled to ask that over one million civilians are dead in Iraq for no reason - no weapons of mass destruction and no chemical weapon stockpiles have been discovered - there is a stench of corpses and ashes everywhere. A civilisation has been destroyed, ruined. Has anyone inquired about this barbaric conduct of the so-called "civilised" West?
Has anyone questioned why all laws, rights, Geneva conventions are being violated at the Guantanamo Bay; and why there is a genocide of sorts underway in Afghanistan.
M F Hussain’s exhibition raises hackles of Bajrang Dal
The India International Centre, where Hussain's 'Mughal India' painting series are on dispaly, suspended the exhibition for Saturday after it received the threats from Bajrang Dal, sources said.
The IIC had received the Bajran Dal threat which said it has to face ‘serious consequences’ if the capital's high-profile cultural organisation continued to exhibit the works of the controversial artist, they said.
Christmas in Fallujah
This is a poignant song by Cass Dillon and Billy Joel - sometimes such glimmers of hope make one happy in a dark world.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNHF5p4bV_k]
The Other Half – divided hearts meet in Kashmir
Thanks to Beena Sarwar's updates, I read this moving account, THE OTHER HALFÂ in 'Srinagar diary' by Kalpana Sharma.
... the Indo-Pak peace process, the people to people exchanges, the opening up of meeting points along the Line of Control have
raised some hope that permanent peace is possible. Apart from the larger questions, what concerns the ordinary person is finding ways to increase communication between divided families and communities straddling the LoC. This was the question that engaged a group of almost 50 women from both sides of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
Fourteen women from the Pakistan side of Kashmir crossed the Wagah border in mid-November, travelled by road to Jammu and then flew in to Srinagar to meet their counterparts on this side of the border.
This was the first time such a meeting was held between women from the two sides.The result was unusual and memorable. For the women from the Pakistan side, it was a deeply emotional moment. Many of them came with preconceptions. They had heard of the sufferings of people on this side of the border. They were upset at seeing the soldiers on the street. They were even more perturbed that they could not call their families and inform them of their safe arrival.
Taslima Nasrin – the “outcast”..
Taslima Nasrin is now a "sensation" of another kind in India. She has attracted the attention of those segments of Indian media that love to sell anything that brings Islam and Muslims related controversies into the public domain.
‘There are none so deaf as those who don’t want to hear’
Liked this excellent editorial from The News:
Remembering Neruda on Support Burma Day
The monks in Burma have resisted the oppression with grace and immense selflessness. I am reminded of a poem The Dictators by Pablo Neruda that captures the hollowness of arbitrary rule and violence that haunts our collective conscience..
An odor has remained among the sugarcane:
a mixture of blood and body, a penetrating
petal that brings nausea.
Between the coconut palms the graves are full
of ruined bones, of speechless death-rattles.
The delicate dictator is talking
with top hats, gold braid, and collars.
The tiny palace gleams like a watch
and the rapid laughs with gloves on
cross the corridors at times
and join the dead voices
and the blue mouths freshly buried.
The weeping cannot be seen, like a plant
whose seeds fall endlessly on the earth,
whose large blind leaves grow even without light.
Hatred has grown scale on scale,
blow on blow, in the ghastly water of the swamp,
with a snout full of ooze and silence
(available online)
An online petition by Avaz can be found here. This group is now placing ads across the global newspapers to raise the pressure on Burmese authorities.
The new slave dynasty in South Asia?
"Writer Arundhati Roy said in an interview last week that at least India’s growing middle class was reared on a diet of radical consumerism and aggressive greed.
Egyptian Blogger Sentenced
Blogosphere faces another question - is it "free" enough?
An Egyptian court has sentenced a blogger to four years' prison for .... read here for more
Admittedly, Soliman was a little harsh in his verdicts on Al-Azhar and the President, but then neither are Divine and infalliable.
Abu Ghraib Horrors by Botero
Came across the chilling works of Colombian artist Fernando Botero last night. A friend at Berkeley University forwarded me this link that led me to the moving images of the recent paintings by Botero called Abu-Ghraib
Botero, 73, is the modern master of Latin American art. His cheerful magical-realist paintings are well-acclaimed in the West and feature in major museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Lies, Half Truths and Deceit
There is talk of war again. There is a familiar web of lies, half-truths and deceit. As if the smouldering cities and dying civilians in Iraq were not enough to quench the blood-thirst, the global war machine now wants another victim. Full entry here >>
Hazrat Ali’s letter – testament of human rights and equality
Ali bin Abi Talib, the fourth Caliph and son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed, wrote a long letter of guidance after appointing Maalik al-Ashtar to be Governor of Egypt.
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Posts Archive
Raza Rumi @ flickr
- Asim Butt's mural for T2F, Karachi
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- Asim's friends will always miss him
- George recites his poem
- Sabeen speaking about Asim Butt
- In attendance -
- The tribute to Asim Butt
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- Another mural for The Second Floor-Asim Butt
Pak Tea House
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- Now India and Pakistan Can Get Down to Business
- So What Is PML-N Going To Do About This?
- Never A Lamentation
- Wake up Punjab
- Zardari signs 2 laws aimed at protecting working class
- “Hakeem” Zaid Hamid
- Wake Up Call For Civil Society
- Technology Betrayal Continued
- Technology Betrayal
Development Industry
- Learn from the UK. Open up data sources in South Asia
- Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge
- State of research in Pakistan…
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- Newinpk
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- Dissent as Democracy
- Pakistan 4th on regional list of adult illiterates
- International Development Law Organization on Davos
World music on NPR
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Pages
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- I will meet you yet again – Amrita Pritam
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- Kafka Country published in the Friday Times
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- Peace to Beirut with all my heart… 2/3
- Petal to Petal …..More of Parveen Shakir
- Qasmi – Urdu literature mourns a giant 2/4
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- Rare objects discovery points to ruins treasure
- Raza Rumi
- Revisiting Kabir – the Weaver, the Myth, the Master
- Sadequain 20 years later
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- Standing Alone in Mecca (book review)
- Surveys show that Pakistanis (and Muslims) reject “terrorism”
- Teray Ishq Nachaya – Bulleh Shah – full text
- The Lost Jewel – Rediscovering Hazrat Ali’s Letter
- The roar of Rumi – 800 years on
- The Sultan of Hearts – Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya
- This world without Dr. Schimmel… 2/3
- Tum bilkul hum jaisey nikley
- Ustad Bismillah Khan is no more
- Web resources on Qurrutalain Hyder
- Why I love Pakistan? Top 5 reasons
- Darwin and the grand unity of life
- Khusrau: The shadow of power
