She died. My cousin. Just like that. A phone call; my dad crying on the phone: she is dead, hira, don't tell anyone yet, okay, we'll let them know when the dead body arrives.

Four months gone and I still can't comprehend the meaning of it. It feels strange to write about it. Like I am making use of her death somehow. For writing.

But writing is all I have, to relive, the pain, the grief; to understand the meaninglessnes of it.

What are these hollow words going to do anyway? She is dead. Nothing is going to change that. The finality of it. Her eyes. Her voice. Her laugh. The images of all these pass by like an unending stream. All gone. Where? And then the words: she is dead. The same words, ringing always. Dead, Dead, Dead. And yet they do not register. How can she be gone. She was just 22. God? A live person, their heart beating, their lungs breathing. Gone, in an instant.

Maybe its because I had always thought of death as something in the abstract, that I do not get its meaning when its here. Why do we think that we are going to continue forever as we are, things are always going to be the same, never change?


I can't stop wondering where she would be. Where is she in Death's other Kingdom. Is she happy? Then I think of her body, buried; probably decaying slowly; I try to imagine her hands, her face, in that soil. And I close my eyes, with a strange terror. God let her be okay, wherever she is.

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Is she alive in some other world? I have so many dreams where she comes back and somehow everything is back to normal again. Had one today once again. She was coming from somewhere, I was waiting for her. Thinking I would beat her into a pulp orchestrating this drama. Or perhaps just hug her tight. But it can't be real. One cannot create a fake body of their own. Why is it that I cannot accept her nonexistence? She was alive, I can hear her voice as clear as anything. If a phone were to ring just now, and there would be her voice at the other end, no shock would jolt me. Death is strange. One feels. Sees. Smells. And its gone. Just like that. How? Why do we feel so much if it goes away like this. Why can't we know whats on the other side. Its cruel.

My memory isn't good. But there are still things that I remember. I remember, as kids, setting up that makeshift tent in our backyard lawn. Or going up to the roof early in the morning and eating chips and coke. Or watching Cinderella, or Beauty and the Beast or any of those Disney movies. Or fighting, there was one so bad we ended up with scars. Or looking up for the crescent, one night before Eid every year. Or filling up those transcription pages we were given as summer homework in grade 3. Or flying those kites on Basant. Or when there were power failures, making those shadow bunnies and fish with our hands, in the candlelight. Or eating oranges on the roof, in the winter sunlight. Or playing hide and seek. Or hopscotch on the roof. Or 'kho kho' or 'barf pani' or 'pithoo gol garm' or hopscotch or any of those games they used to play in those days. Or taking swings in our neighbour's lawn.

Think I should probably stop. I know perhaps there's no one that visits this blog now. But if you are reading this and you believe in prayers, please pray for her soul.

The AHRC (Asian Human Rights Commission) has received information from the National Council for Human Rights, Faisalabad that a 17-year-old girl was abducted by police officials and kept for almost 16 days in private custody where she was raped and tortured to confess her involvement in the murder of her fiancée. Her elder sister was also brought in police lock up and held, naked for three days naked to pressure the sister to confess to the charges.

CASE DETAILS:

A 17-year-old girl A (her name is not being disclosed to protect her identity), the daughter of a labourer Manzoor Ahmed, resident of block C, Millat Town, Faisalabad, Punjab Province, was arrested on March 14, 2008, from her home by Ghulam Rasool, by Sub Inspector (SI) of Police Station Nishatabad on the suspicion of the murder of her fiancée. Her fiancée was killed by the deceased's rivals. The SI took A to a private room situated near the Police Station and held her there for 16 days, from 14-03-2008 to 29-03-2008. He thereafter he produced her before the first class magistrate for judicial remand. During that period she was kept naked at all times and the SI along with constables Iqbal 4934/c, Ameer Watto1755/c and Shehbaz 4994/c physically teased and tortured her to force her to confess to the murder. After the physical torture a lady constable, Nargis would massage her to remove the marks of torture, particularly the bite marks on her body. During this period Shujat Ali Malhi, a Sub Inspector of Investigation of the Nishatabad Police Station raped her twice. This SI threatened her that if she did not confess to the murder she will be raped by all the staff of the police station. On the direction of SI Investigations, SI Ghulam Rasool arrested the victim's elder sister of from their house and both the sisters were made to sit in front of each other naked for three days while Ghulam Rasool, Iqbal, Ameer Watto and Shehbaz constables teased them, touched their private body parts and tortured them brutally. The name of the victim was never mentioned in the first information report (FIR) and after one week of her illegal detention a supplementary statement was taken by the investigation officer from the father of deceased implicating victim ‘A’ in the murder.

Read more.

Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.

This is how D.H.Lawrence's novel 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' begins, I've only just started it.

Lyrical as always, his writing.

Loved this quote so thought I would post.

Into the Wild

Photo by Gauravanomics at Flickr

I just saw 'Into the Wild' a few days back. Its based on a true story told by Jon Krakauer in his book 'Into the Wild'.

After graduating as an honours student, Christopher McCandless (portrayed brilliantly by Emile Hirsch in the movie), gives his trust fund to charity, abandons all his possessions and embarks upon a self-discovering journey under the pseudonym of 'Alexander Supertramp'. Eventually to reach his final destination, the Alaskan wilderness. In search of freedom from the oppression of society. And its materialistic obsessions. He sheds all the extraneous needs this civilization inflicts. And thus seeks to find himself by returning to that elemental human existence in the vicinity of nature.

But dies in the attempt, of starvation apparently.

Native Alaskans shake their heads and think of him as, as Jon Krakauer puts it, "half-cocked greenhorn who went into the bush expecting to find answers to all his problems and instead found nothing but mosquitoes and a lonely death". And some think that Chriss McCandless is needlesslessly being romanticised by his protagonists Sean Penn (who wrote the script and directed the movie) and Jon Krakauer.

Despite that this is a moving tale.

In his own words:

Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause "the West is the best." And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.

Alexander Supertramp
May 1992

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Here is the original article Jon Krakauer wrote about the guy. It is worth reading.

And this is another article I found: The Cult of Chris McCandless.

Praying Not Playing by Maki al-Nazzal and Dahr Jamail

DAMASCUS, May 19 (IPS) - In the struggle now just to stay alive, everyone has forgotten that Iraq has lost, among other things, its tradition in sports. Some of its best sportsmen are now refugees.

"No one seems to care about us," 20-year-old footballer Ali Rubai'i told IPS. Ali fled Iraq with his family to Syria like countless other young Iraqis. The young from Iraq, born after 1980, have grown up amidst three major wars, 13 years of strangling economic sanctions, and now five years of occupation.

Through all this some still manage to keep up with sports. But it has begun to seem to many others like an indulgence.

"I was one of the best soccer players in Anbar province, and my coach expected the brightest future for me," Ayid Humood from Ramadi, 100 km west of Baghdad, told IPS in Damascus. "I struggled to keep my training together with my work as a construction labourer, but then I had to give up playing because work brought survival for the family."

"Despite the Iraq-Iran war of the eighties, and the UN sanctions later, there was some support for sports and youth in Iraq," a senior member of the Iraqi Olympics Committee told IPS on condition of anonymity on telephone from Baghdad. "Iraq produced many Olympic teams and stars because of the organised system that was founded in the early days of the Iraqi state. It got worse during the UN sanctions, and then the very worst came with the U.S. occupation in 2003."

Read more.

"outcast on a cold star, unable to feel anything but an awful helpless numbness. I look down into the warm, earthy world. Into a nest of lovers' beds, baby cribs, meal tables, all the solid commerce of life in this earth, and feel apart, enclosed in a wall of glass." ~ Sylvia Plath

Israel at 60 by Uri Avnery

Every time I hear the voice of David Ben-Gurion uttering the words "Therefore we are gathered here…" I think of Issar Barsky, a charming youngster, the little brother of a girl-friend of mine.

The last time we met was in front of the dining hall of Kibbutz Hulda, on Friday, May 14, 1948.

In the coming night my company was to attack al-Qubab, an Arab village on the road to Jerusalem, east of Ramle. We were busy with preparations. I was cleaning my Czech-made rifle, when somebody came and told us that Ben-Gurion was just making a speech about the founding of the state.

Frankly, none of us was very interested in speeches by politicians in Tel Aviv. The city seemed so far away. The state, we knew, was here with us. If the Arabs were to win, there would be no state and no us. If we won, there would be a state. We were young and self-confident, and did not doubt for a moment that we would win.

But there was one detail that I was really curious about: what was the new state to be called? Judea? Zion? The Jewish State?

So I hastened to the dining hall. Ben-Gurion's unmistakable voice was blaring from the radio. When he reached the words "…namely the State of Israel" I had had enough and left.

Outside I came across Issar. He was in another company, which was to attack another village that night. I told him about the name of the state and said "take care of yourself!"

Some days later he was killed. So I remember him as he was then: a boy of 19, a smiling, tall Sabra full of joie de vivre and innocence.

* * *

The closer we come to the grandiose 60th anniversary festivities, the more I am troubled by the question: if Issar were to open his eyes and see us, still a boy of 19, what would he think of the state that was officially established on that day?

He would see a state that has developed beyond his wildest dreams. From a small community of 635,000 souls (more than 6000 of whom would die with him in that war) we have grown to more than seven million. The two great miracles we have wrought - the revival of the Hebrew language and the institution of Israeli democracy - continue to be a reality. Our economy is strong and in some fields - such a hi-tech - we are in the world super-league. Issar would be excited and proud.

But he would also feel that something had gone wrong in our society. The Kibbutz where we put up our little bivouac tents that day has become an economic enterprise, like any other. The social solidarity, of which we were so proud, has collapsed. Masses of adults and children live below the poverty line, old people, the sick and the unemployed are left to fend for themselves. The gap between rich and poor is one of the widest in the developed world. And our society, that once raised the banner of equality and justice, just clucks its collective tongue and moves on to other matters.

Most of all he would be shocked to discover that the brutal war, which killed him and wounded me, together with thousands of others, is still going on at full blast. It determines the entire life of the nation. It fills the first pages of the newspapers and heads the news bulletins.

That our army, the army that really was "we", has become something quite different, an army whose main occupation us to oppress another people.

Read more.

Denying Palestininans Free Movement by Stephen Lendman

This article summarizes an August 2007 B'Tselem report now available in print. It's one of a series of studies it conducts on life in Occupied Palestine to reveal what major media accounts suppress. This one is titled: "Ground to a Halt - Denial of Palestinians' Freedom of Movement in the West Bank."

B'Tselem has a well-deserved reputation for accuracy and integrity. It's the Jerusalem-based independent Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). It was founded in 1989 by prominent academics, attorneys, journalists and Knesset members to "document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in (Occupied Palestine), combat (the Israeli public's) denial, and create a human rights culture in Israel" to convince government officials to respect human rights and obey international law.

Read more.

Ten Minutes of Fame by Andrew Lam

Future historians may very well look back at the beginning of the 21st century as an era in which the human mind developed into a split screen, with one eye on real space and the other ogling the electronic mirror.

This morning on a crowded bus I counted six people within my immediate view, texting, talking on the cell phone, checking e-mail, listening to iPods. In other words, they were trying to keep the bus from being their only space, their only reality. And what was I doing? I recorded what I observed in my laptop, of course.

If modern technology has been created to enhance our daily lives, something has dramatically shifted: More and more, our daily lives are enslaved to the electronic world.

Read more.

Earth Day - 22nd April

An article by George Monbiot:

It wasn't meant to happen like this. The climate scientists told us that our winters would become wetter and our summers drier. So I can't claim that these floods were caused by climate change, or are even consistent with the models. But, like the ghost of Christmas yet to come, they offer us a glimpse of the possible winter world that we will inhabit if we don't sort ourselves out.

With rising sea levels and more winter rain - and remember that when the trees are dormant and the soils saturated, there are fewer places for the rain to go - all it will take is a freshwater flood to coincide with a high spring tide and we have a formula for full-blown disaster. We have now seen how localised floods can wipe out essential services and overwhelm emergency workers. But this month's events don't even register beside some of the predictions circulating in learned journals. Our primary political struggle must be to prevent the breakup of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets. The only question now worth asking about climate change is how.

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Green consumerism is becoming a pox on the planet. If it merely swapped the damaging goods we buy for less damaging ones, I would champion it. But two parallel markets are developing - one for unethical products and one for ethical products, and the expansion of the second does little to hinder the growth of the first. I am now drowning in a tide of ecojunk. Over the past six months, our coat pegs have become clogged with organic cotton bags, which - filled with packets of ginseng tea and jojoba oil bath salts - are now the obligatory gift at every environmental event. I have several lifetimes' supply of ballpoint pens made with recycled paper and about half a dozen miniature solar chargers for gadgets that I do not possess.

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Read more.

Info on Earth Day.

Was thinking of the poem recently, thought I would post.

Lines Written in Early Spring

by Wiliam Wordsworth

I heard a thousand blended notes
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.


To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.


Through primrose tufts, in that sweet bower,
The periwinkle trail'd its wreaths;
And 'tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.


The birds around me hopp'd and play'd,
Their thoughts I cannot measure,
But the least motion which they made
It seem'd a thrill of pleasure.


The budding twigs spread out their fan
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.


If this belief from Heaven be sent,
If such be Nature's holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?

Such a sweetly simple poem.

Amnesty International: Thousands lost in Kashmir Mass Graves

Hundreds of unidentified graves – believed to contain victims of unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, torture and other abuses - have been found in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

Amnesty International has urged the Indian government to launch urgent investigations into the mass graves, which are thought to contain the remains of victims of human rights abuses in the context of the armed conflict that has raged in the region since 1989.

The findings appear in the report Facts under Ground, issued on 29 March by the Srinagar-based Association of the Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP). The report details the existence of multiple graves which, because of their proximity to Pakistan controlled-areas, are in areas not accessible without the specific permission of the security forces. Since 2006, the graves of at least 940 people are reported to have been discovered in 18 villages in Uri district alone.

The Indian army has claimed that those found buried were armed rebels and "foreign militants" killed lawfully in armed encounters with military forces. However, the report recounts testimonies from local villagers saying that most buried were local residents hailing from the state.

The report alleges that more than 8,000 persons have gone missing in Jammu and Kashmir since 1989. The Indian authorities put the figure at less than 4.000, claiming that most of these went to Pakistan to join armed opposition groups.

In 2006, a state police report confirmed the deaths in custody of 331 persons, and also 111 enforced disappearances following detention since 1989.

Unlawful killings, enforced disappearances and torture are violations of both international human rights law and international humanitarian law, set out in treaties to which India is a state party. They also constitute international crimes.

Amnesty International has called on the Indian government to unequivocally condemn enforced disappearances in Jammu and Kashmir and ensure that prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigations into all sites of mass graves in the region are immediately carried out by forensic experts in line with the relevant UN Model Protocol.

All past and current allegations of enforced disappearances must be investigated and, where there is sufficient evidence, anyone suspected of responsibility for such crimes must be prosecuted in fair trial proceedings, with all victims granted full reparations.

Press Release: One Democratic State Group

Gaza: The Holocaust Continues

The latest Israeli war crimes in the besieged Gaza Strip have resulted in the brutal killings of 21 Palestinians, including 6 children, within the last 12 hours. More than 40 have been injured. Fadel Shanaa, a Reuters cameraman, was amongst the dead. His visibly marked car was targeted by an Israeli missile in an attempt to cover up crimes committed in day light. The areas targeted are Shijaeyah, Beit lahia, and Bureij refugee camp. Al-Salam Mosque in Shejeyah was demolished; Al-Wafa hospital was rampaged; and houses were set on fire. In Juhr El Dik, eastern of Bureij, a group of civilians, including children, was targeted by an Apache helicopter. 14 of them died on the spot.

This comes as the number of terminally ill patients who have died as a result of the imposed heinous siege has reached 135. The latest victims today were two toddlers from the Nusairat camp. The Israeli authorities denied both of them permits to be treated in the West Bank and Jordan.

As 85 per cent of all transport in Gaza has come to a stand still due to shortages in fuel, and as universities and schools have shut down, the people of Gaza are bracing themselves for worse days to come. Israel seems to get the wrong message, not only from the international community, but also from the Arab world as well. Its Foreign Minister is being welcomed as a hero in Doha, while Jimmy Carter is denied entry into the besieged Gaza Strip. With this international conspiracy of silence and the complicity of the UN and EU, the people of Gaza are left alone to face the ongoing Holocaust. All warnings and photos of dead bodies of children and women seem to have failed so far in making the Arab and Islamic worlds translate their words of support into action. We ask: what is needed more than the photage of Mohammed Burai and the toddlers of Nusairat to convince the Arab world to break this unprecedented, medieval siege? Has the existence of Palestinians become a burden, not only on Israel, but also on the Arab World? Are Palestinians, especially Gazans, left with the option of surrendering, or dying like cockroaches?

This slow-motion genocide must come to an end now before Gaza explodes.

Another revealing article on the causes behind the escalating food prices.

Excerpt:

Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the San Francisco-based Oakland Institute, which has done exhaustive studies on issues relating to food trade and agriculture, told IPS that various causes for the current crisis are being cited in policy circles, including increased demand from China, India and other emerging economies.

The high per capita income growth of some of these countries has resulted in changing appetites.

Additionally, she noted, the price increases are also attributed to rising fuel and fertiliser costs, climate change, and the new emphasis on converting crops to biofuels, which are being held responsible for almost half the increase in the consumption of major food crops in 2006-07.

"What is not being mentioned is that in the last few decades liberalisation of agriculture, dismantling of state-run institutions like marketing boards, and specialisation of developing countries in exportable cash crops such as coffee, cocoa, cotton, and even flowers has been encouraged by international financial institutions backed by rich countries like the United States, and also by the European Union," she pointed out.
Mittal said these reforms have driven the poorest countries into a downward spiral. "Removal of tariff barriers has allowed a handful of Northern countries to capture Third World markets by dumping heavily subsidised commodities while undermining local food production," she said.

This has resulted in developing countries turning from net exporters to large importers of food, with a food trade surplus of about 1.0 billion dollars in the 1970s transforming into an 11-billion-dollar deficit in 2001.

She also said the situation has been worsened by the dismantling of marketing boards that kept commodities in a rolling stock to be released in event of a bad harvest, thus protecting both producers and consumers against sharp rises or drops in prices.

P.S. Sorry for my cut-and-paste practices, but can't write.

Why Food Costs are Climbing by Eric Reguly

Rome - Fatal food riots in Haiti. Violent food-price protests in Egypt and Ivory Coast. Rice so valuable it is transported in armoured convoys. Soldiers guarding fields and warehouses. Export bans to keep local populations from starving.

For the first time in decades, the spectre of widespread hunger for millions looms as food prices explode. Two words not in common currency in recent years - famine and starvation - are now being raised as distinct possibilities in the poorest, food-importing countries.

Unlike past food crises, solved largely by throwing aid at hungry stomachs and boosting agricultural productivity, this one won't go away quickly, experts say. Prices are soaring and stand every chance of staying high because this crisis is different.

A swelling global population, soaring energy prices, the clamouring for meat from the rising Asian middle class, competition from biofuels and hot money pouring into the commodity markets are all factors that make this crisis unique and potentially calamitous. Even with concerted global action, such as rushing more land into cultivation, it will take years to fix the problem.

Read more.

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In Pakistan,

says Sahib Haq, an official with World Food Programme’s Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Unit in Pakistan, food prices rose at least 35 percent in the past year compared with an 18 percent rise in minimum wages. “There is a very big gap between the increase in prices and increase in wages … the purchasing power of the poor has gone down by almost 50 percent,” Haq said. The price of wheat flour is expected to shoot up by 40 percent or more in the coming months, according to grain industry officials. “There will be a big crisis,” Haq said. The new coalition government, which took power last month, raised the support price it pays farmers to buy wheat to ensure adequate supplies, but Haq said the move would result in sharply rising flour prices in the months ahead.

Winds of Change by Pablo Ouziel

Fragmented and divided, we are all individually searching for the freedom which allows us to be ourselves and follow our dreams. All of us who are on this planet today have different realities, different abilities and different points of view. Some feel satisfied with what they have, others do not. Some are happy with the current states of affairs in the world and others are trying to change things. I personally fall into the category of people who do not feel satisfied with the world in which I live. From a personal perspective, I have to admit that ‘western democratic capitalism’ has been good to me on the material level, however, on the personal level it has generated in me such contradictory emotions and reflections that I have been drawn towards the spirit of revolutionary existence.

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Society overall has accepted a system which leaves behind those who do not matter, who cannot make it. They don’t matter, because what matters are the statistics of humanity, statistics that are thrown at us on a daily basis with the sole purpose of dehumanizing social reality and promoting the interests of the rich and powerful. Again the important thing to me is not how these powerful individuals are able to maintain this situation, what is interesting to me is why the common people are so tolerant of this reality.

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It is important for westerners to be able to defend the fight of the Dalai Lama for Tibet against the monstrous China, because China has no right to commit the same kind of atrocities we commit. Only democracies are allowed to determine what belongs to whom, only democracies are allowed to overthrow governments, or police the world. Only ‘us’ because we are better than ‘them’. The problem for the common people is that there is no ‘us’ and ‘them’ because we have no say in what is happening. The people in power are laughing at our individual indifference, if we can understand that, then things can change. I have no answers, I just have one question: Where are the winds of change?

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Read more.

Sunehri Mosque

Read an interesting article recently




Photo by abro on Flickr

Sunehri Mosque and fading myths by Majid Sheikh

Of all the mosques inside the Walled City, there are two that stand out as outstanding in their artistic content and architectural value ... them being the Mosque of Wazir Khan and the Sunehri Mosque.

The Badshahi Mosque is huge, very huge, but definitely not in the league of the first two in terms of beauty and finesse.

Of the two mentioned above, the Mosque of Wazir Khan is definitely in a class of its own. Its intricate brickwork and marble settings are unrivalled in the entire city of Lahore and the northern part of the sub-continent. But then it also goes without saying that the Sunehri Mosque is not only exceptionally beautiful, but is unique in its simplistic beauty. On a rainy moon-lit night, its golden-coated brass covered domes shine for miles around.

Its simple lines and golden domes stand out. If you happen to have lived inside the Walled City, it serves, from the roof tops, as the compass for the rest of the old city. But there is much more to this unique mosque, for the stories associated with it add to the myths that abound among the old folk inside the old Walled City.

Read more.

Fitna, the film

Fitna, the much talked about movie can be accessed in Pakistan, over here. At the moment, at least, before the ISPs block YouTube again.

It is ignorant in the truest sense of the word. Wonder what the fuss was all about. Nothing constructive can really be expected from anyone who thinks someone else's culture is 'retarded'. I don't know why did I even bother.

There has just been (or around 2 hours or so ago) news of a bomb at our university. They evacuated us all out. Most probably a rumour. Don't know the details at the moment. Was fervently praying for a day off ever since morning. Had a test. Funny way for a prayer to be granted. A friend said I should specifically mention, while asking, no bomb blasts God.

Just a related link ==>More bomb hoaxes at schools:Rumour mill grinds on.

Where are the Iraqis in the Iraq War by Ramzy Baroud

Five years after the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, mainstream media is once more making the topic an object of intense scrutiny. The costs and implications of the war are endlessly covered from all possible angles, with one notable exception -- the cost to the Iraqi people themselves.

Through all the special coverage and exclusive reports, very little is said about Iraqi casualties, who are either completely overlooked or hastily mentioned and whose numbers can only be guesstimated. Also conveniently ignored are the millions injured, internally and externally displaced, the victims of rape and kidnappings who will carry physical and psychological scars for the rest of their lives.

Read more.

Earth Hour

From the WWF page: Earth Hour is a global event created to symbolize that each one of us, working together, can make a positive impact on climate change - no matter who we are or where we live.

Created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, Earth Hour has grown from a single event into a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 35 US cities will participate, including the US flagships--Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco.

Earth Hour brings together communities, local governments, corporate and nongovernmental organizations to heighten awareness about climate change and to inspire our nation to take practical actions to reduce their own carbon footprints.

Earth Hour: March 29, 2008 8 - 9 PM

- Cities around the world will join together in literally turning off the lights for one hour to offer leadership and symbolize their commitment to finding climate change solutions.
- Lights will be turned off at iconic buildings and national landmarks from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
- Local businesses and restaurants will also be asked to turn off their lights.
- People at home can take advantage of the hour by replacing their standard light bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs.

"This is the perfect opportunity for individuals, governments, businesses and communities around the world to unite for a common purpose, in response to a global issue that affect us all."
- Carter S. Roberts, President and CEO WWF.

Visit Earth Hour's website over here.

World Peace or Pax Americana by Mir Adnan Aziz

President John F Kennedy made a commencement address at the American University in Washington. The day was June 10, 1963. Later, US intelligence reports had the Soviet Communist Party Secretary, Nikita Khrushchev, term it the best speech ever by a US president. The speech had a profound effect on world opinion as it reflected a total commitment to a future of hope and the possibility of real world peace.

An excerpt from that famous address has President Kennedy describing the road to world peace as: ' I have therefore chosen this time and place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and truth is too rarely perceived - yet it is the most important topic on earth - world peace. What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave.
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In today's world, the search for a tragically missing four year old, Madeleine McCann, creates worldwide media frenzy and the recent Tibet unrest attracts immediate undivided global attention and condemnation. Mind numbing though is the global acceptance of thousands of human fatalities in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Chechnya and Gaza. These barbaric horrors are callously described as collateral damage; a hateful euphemism invented to justify killing of the defenseless.

In this 'strategy of annihilation', out of a total Iraqi population of about 27 million, more than 700,000 have been killed, millions wounded or maimed and 4.5 million have become refugees. In more just times this could have well been termed a holocaust - a genocide. The capital cost of the Iraq war to date is in the $500 billion bracket and as some economists suggest, might end up in the $5 trillion one. Oil, at $36 a barrel before the Iraq war, has been traded at a record high of $111 this month.

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The current American claims of standing up to 'evil' religious groups in the name of universal values are extremely bitter and deeply ironical. It was precisely their earlier disregard of democracy in the Middle East and South Asia which helped give rise to a layer of apparently 'radical' Islam. This was the logical result of elevation of its own powerful interests over the needs and desires of local people everywhere. What we have today is not a World War between a principled America and 'psychotic' groups from another civilization. It is rather the messy bloody residue of their decades of meddling the world over.

Initially justified by false claims about WMDs in Iraq, the war is now being redefined as a 'decisive ideological struggle' of our time. This oracle though is impossible to fathom logically. The perpetually shifting cross hairs are focusing on Pakistan too. With a constantly increasing shriller pitch our tribal areas are being referred to as the most dangerous place on earth. This has been accompanied by a constant litany to do more, meaning thereby, to annihilate our own to rid America of its phantasmal demons.

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Read full article over here

US steps up missile strikes in Pakistan

Owner of the truck involved in FIA blasts dies mysteriously

Owner of the truck involved in FIA blasts dies mysteriously:

From the page: LAHORE-The owner of a mini-truck that was used in the suicide attack on FIA Headquarters building on March 11 was mysteriously found dead in the Sabzazar police lock-up on Wednesday.

Muhammad Afzal was being considered as an important suspect who could have helped the investigators get a major breakthrough and find the culprits behind this gory incident.

He was was kept in Sabzazar police station for interrogation.

The DSP Sabzazar Ashiq Jutt told The Nation that the accused was in good health and was not tortured by the policemen. He said, Afzal was depressed and on Wednesday asked an on-duty policeman that he and his family are going through deep crisis after his arrest in this high profile case. He later asked the policeman to arrange a cup of tea for him.

The DSP further said that the cop informed the SHO about his demand of tea, which the SHO permitted.
However, when the policeman returned with a cup of tea, he found the accused Afzal lying unconscious in the police lock-up. Other policemen present outside his lock-up rushed inside but at that time it was too late as he had already died, he said.

The body has been sent to the morgue for autopsy, he added.

A police source said that the Muhammad Afzal died due to severe torture during interrogation while police high-ups have denied the allegation saying that he died under mysterious circumstances.
Police further said that the body has been sent to the City morgue for autopsy and his post-mortem report would establish the real cause of the death.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Muhammad Afzal was the only accused arrested by the police in this case.His death in police custody has exposed police acute negligence and carelessness which the provincial capital’s senior police officers showed while interrogating such a high-profile crime accused.

Afzal’s arrest was also being thought to be the only ray of hope for law enforcement agencies to extract important information. His death has also put up a question mark on police ability to handle such a high profile case.

After his death, it is being said that this has put the investigators in a dark alley.

A police source said that the victim Muhammad Afzal was arrested during investigations of the blast incident. The officials of the law enforcement agencies traced him through the registration documents of the mini-truck (used in the FIA blast) from Excise and Taxation Department and later arrested him. According to department’s official record, Muhammad Afzal was the owner of the truck.

When contacted the CCPO Lahore Additional IG Malik Muhammad, said that accused of the case, Muhammad Afzal was found dead in the police lock-up and to establish real cause of his death police was waiting for his post-mortem report.

About the report, he said that a board comprising senior doctors would conduct his post mortem on Thursday(today).

He said that three policemen have been suspended immediately. A case has been registered against the suspended policemen Muhammad Naeem (Muharrar), and two constables Amjad and Sadaqat, the CCPO said.
According to the police handout, Muhammad Afzal, a resident of Bilal Gunj, Lahore was arrested after the official record established him as the owner of the vehicle used in FIA building blast.

During investigations, police came to know that Afzal purchased the vehicle (ST 3985) from Toyota King Motors, Abbot Road but during interrogation he failed to produce evidence that to whom he has sold the said vehicle.

On Wednesday, during course of interrogation Afzal was found dead under mysterious circumstances, the handout further revealed.

Hum Dekhain Gay

I came across this ghazal the other day, Hum Dekhain Gay (We shall see) by Faiz Ahmed Faiz sung by Iqbal Bano. There is such pure intensity in the words, I loved it.

Here is a version on YouTube.



Full song can be downloaded from here too.

Translation by Ayesha Kaljuvee:

Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see
Lazim Hai ke hum Bhi Dekhain Gay
It is necessary that we shall also see
Woh Din ke Jis ka Wadah Hai
That day which has been promised
Jo Loh-e-Azl pe Likha hai
Which is written with God's ink
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see

Jab Zulm-o-Sitam ke Koh-e-garaan
When the mountains of cruelty and torture
Ruii ki Tarah Urd Jain Gay
Will fly like pieces of cotton
Hum Mehkumoon ke Paun Talay
Under the feet of the governed
Yeh Dharti Dhard Dhard Dhardkay gi
This earth will quake
Aur Ehl-e-Hukum ke Sar Uper
And over the head of the ruler
Jab Bijli kard Kard Kardke gi
When lightening will thunder
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see

Jab Arz-e-Khuda ke kabay se
When from God's Mecca
Sab but Uthwaaiy Jain gay
All the idols will be shattered
Hum Ehl-e-Safa Mardood-e-Haram
Us people standing in the mosque
Masnad pe Bithaaiy jain gay
Will be elevated to a higher platform
Sab Taaj Uchalay jain gay
All the crowns will be tossed
Sab Takht Giraaiy Jain gay
All the thrones will be toppled

Bas Naam rahay Ga Allah ka
Then only God's name will remain
Jo Ghayab Bhi hai Hazir Bhi
Who is both absent and present
Jo nazir bhi hai manzar bhi
Who is both the observer and the view itself
Uthay ga Analhaq ka Naara
When the anthem of truth will be raised
Jo Main bhi Hun aur Tumbhi ho
Who I am and you are as well
Aur Raaj karay gi khalq-e-Khuda
And the people of God will reign
Jo main bhi hun aur tum bhi ho
Who I am and you are as well

Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see
Lazim Hai ke hum Bhi Dekhain Gay
It is necessary that we shall also see
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see


I am not familiar with Faiz Ahmed Faiz as a poet. Not very familiar with ghazals/Urdu poetry/Urdu literature as a whole. Things happened in such a way, that I got farther and farther away from Urdu. I feel that I am losing myself in this process, of forgetting, losing my bearings. A sense of the external world.

I suppose I should start reading some of the works, as my brother never fails to tell me. I really should. Losing, have lost, so much.

Gillani vows to free judges

Its funny that he vows only to free, and not to re-instate. Not being a cynic, I really am happy they were released.But I am having second thoughts about the resolution. Such is our history, you cannot be sure. Should we celebrate. For this apparent restoration of democracy. Or should we not.

I got across this late: Aitizaz Ahsan advising his lawyers to forget the May 12th incident. I find it very disturbing. Even though, now that MQM is forming an alliance with the PPP, it might be forgotten anyway.

I do not really understand this PPP's alliance with the MQM. At the provincial as well as the national level. MQM needs it but why PPP? Doesn't signal much stability. Cracks are bound to appear. And then of course there is our dear old General present (why can't he resign) , waiting to exploit them. He's waiting, he's waiting. He will not resign.

Pakistan resists capitulation by Abdus Sattar Ghazali

11 fresh US demands:

1-The US military and auxiliary personnels should be granted a status that is accorded to the technical and administrative staff of the US embassy in Islamabad. Meaning diplomatic immunity.

2-These personnel be allowed to enter and exit Pakistan on mere National Identification (for example a driving license) that is without any visas.

3-Pakistan should accept the legality of all US licenses, including the arms licenses.

4-All these personnel should be allowed to carry arms and wear uniforms as they wish, across the whole of Pakistan.

5-The US criminal jurisdiction be applicable in Pakistan to US nationals. In other words, these personnel would not be subject to Pakistani laws.

6-They should be exempted from all taxes, including indirect taxes like excise duty, etc.

7-They should be allowed inspection-free import and export of all goods and materials.

8-Allow free movement of vehicles, vessels including aircraft, without landing or parking fees.

9-Selected US contractors should also be exempted from tax payments.

10-Free of cost use of telecommunication systems and using all necessary radio spectrum.

11-A waiver of all claims to damage to loss or destruction of others' property, or death to personnel or armed forces or civilians.

The Seven Demands of September 2001 were nothing compared with the 11 new demands given to Pakistan's Defense Ministry this time. What do they mean? Two of the demands are especially galling. The first is that the personnel posted in Pakistan be exempt from Pakistan's laws and instead be covered by the US criminal system. Tied to this is a demand for waiver from any claim to damages for loss of property or death caused by US personnel. This implies that the US troops would not be asked to account for killing Pakistani citizens, whether military or civilian, or destroying their homes, villages or fields. It is not a license to kill in a way?

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As if the US intrusion was already not enough of it, a set of new demands, which according to a contemporary Washington has come up with, portends making of Pakistan virtually a sprawling Wild West and its citizens another Indian aborigines of America.

The only difference is that instead of settlers, cattlemen and ranchers, here it will be the American diplomats, soldiers and private security militias, having a free run of the country, setting shop wherever they liked and the way they liked and poaching on whoever they want and wherever they want, and with a free ride to kill whoever they wish and maim whoever they desire, without any questions being asked and without being held to account at all.

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More in the link.

On Sarabjit Singh, the Death penalty and Khalid Mehmood

Where do we go from here by Kuldip Nayar

Why Sarabjit Singh should not be hanged by Beena Sarwar

On the subject of death penalty, I am reading ' The Last Day of a Condemned Man' by Victor Hugo these days (the little I can read before going to bed). Using a first-person narrative, it describes the mental and physical anguish of a man sentenced to death. Very moving so far.

Here are the first few paragraphs:
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Condemned to death!

These five weeks have I dwelt with this idea,--always alone with it, always frozen by its presence, always bent under its weight.

Formerly (for it seems to me rather years than weeks since I was free) I was a being like any other; every day, every hour, every minute had its idea. My mind, youthful and rich, was full of fancies, which it developed successively, without order or aim, but weaving inexhaustible arabesques on the poor and coarse web of life. Sometimes it was of youthful beauties, sometimes of unbounded possessions, then of battles gained, next of theatres full of sound and light, and then again the young beauties, and shadowy walks at night beneath spreading chestnut-trees. There was a perpetual revel in my imagination: I might think on what I chose,--I was free.

But now,--I am a Captive! Bodily in irons in a dungeon, and mentally imprisoned in one idea,--one horrible, one hideous, one unconquerable ideal I have only one thought, one conviction, one certitude,--

Condemned to death!

Whatever I do, that frightful thought is always here, like a spectre, beside me,--solitary and jealous, banishing all else, haunting me for ever, and shaking me with its two icy hands whenever I wish to turn my head away or to close my eyes. It glides into all forms in which my mind seeks to shun it; mixes itself, like a horrible chant, with all the words which are addressed to me; presses against me even to the odious gratings of my prison. It haunts me while awake, spies on my convulsive slumbers, and re-appears, a vivid incubus, in my dreams!

I have just started from a troubled sleep in which I was pursued by this thought, and I made an effort to say to myself, "Oh, it was but a dream!"

Well, even before my heavy eyes could read the fatal truth in the dreadful reality which surrounds me,--on the damp and reeking dungeon-walls, in the pale rays of my night-lamp, in the rough material of my prison-garb, on the sombre visage of the sentry, whose cap gleams through the grating of the door,--it seems to me that already a voice has murmured in my ear,--

"Condemned to death!"

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Very powerful.

Khalid Mehmood's dead body arrived at Wagah, in a sack, his body bearing torture marks. Such degrading treatment is despicable, heinous beyond words. They have some serious explanation to do. There is a strong anti-Sarabjit feeling over here, blood for blood you see. But the hanging, apart from being completely inhumane, really is going to make matters much more worse.

P.S There is something very odd happening with the font size of the last paragraph, dunno why.

Rachel Corrie's case for justice

Rachel Corrie's case for justice by Tom Wright and Therese Saliba

The darkness is infinite
As I leave the curtain's edge
It is filled with watchers
Silent judges
- Rachel Corrie, about 11 years old

As their plane touched down in Tel Aviv recently, Cindy and Craig Corrie marked five years since their daughter's death. On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, 23, was crushed to death beneath an armored Israeli bulldozer. The Corries are a short distance from Gaza, where Rachel was killed, and where in the past few weeks, an Israeli military incursion killed over 100 Palestinians, including many women and children.

Read more over here.

Check this out too: Excerpts from an e-mail from Rachel Corrie to her family on February 7, 2003

Another US strike inside Pakistan’s border region by Peter Symonds on WSWS

An air strike on Sunday on a compound in the Pakistani tribal area of South Waziristan that borders Afghanistan has left up to 20 people dead. While Washington has not acknowledged responsibility, there is little doubt that the US military or the CIA carried out the attack as part of a widening covert war against anti-American militants entrenched in the Pakistani border areas.

Up to seven missiles or bombs flattened the compound just south of the regional centre of Wana at around 3 p.m. “When I heard the explosions, I rushed to the place where it happened. I saw dead bodies scattered everywhere,” a villager Aziz Ullah Wazir told the Washington Post. Local residents and officials claimed that the house belonged to a Taliban sympathiser, Noorullah Wazir, and was frequented by “Arabs”—the term used to denote foreign supporters of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Veteran journalist Sailab Masood told the Guardian, however, that local tribesmen were angry that innocent civilians had been killed.

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Both Washington and Islamabad are deliberately playing down the attack, which will only further fuel anger at Pakistan’s support for the US-led occupation of Afghanistan. President Pervez Musharraf’s involvement in the Bush administration’s bogus “war on terrorism” and tacit approval of US operations inside Pakistan were a major factor in generating opposition to his regime.

The issue remains highly sensitive as the winners of last month’s elections—the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)—prepare to form a government. Whatever their limited criticisms of US militarism during the campaign, both parties have a long record of supporting Pakistan’s alliance with Washington and collaborating with the US military. Significantly, neither party has protested against the latest missile strike, an indication that the new government, like Musharraf, will acquiesce to US strikes in the tribal areas.

There are many signs that the Bush administration has expanded covert operations inside Pakistan since the beginning of the year. In early January, the New York Times reported that a top-level White House meeting, involving Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and other senior officials, discussed in detail “far more aggressive covert operations” inside Pakistani border areas.

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In its report of Sunday’s strike, the Times noted that Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence and General Michael Hayden, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, reached an agreement in January with the new Pakistani army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, to allow the US greater freedom to strike targets in the tribal areas without specific permission from the Pakistani Army. The article claimed that the US was receiving “better on-the-ground human intelligence” by providing “large cash payments to tribesmen”.

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At least two other US aerial attacks have taken place inside Pakistan this year. On January 29, a missile destroyed a compound in the village of Khushali Torikhel in North Waziristan, killing 13 people. US and Pakistani officials claimed that Abu Laith al-Libi, a senior Al Qaeda commander, was among the dead. On February 28, a missile strike destroyed an alleged Taliban safe house in the village of Kaloosha in South Waziristan, killing at least 10 people. A local tribal leader told the Washington Post that women and children were among the dead, and that at least six others were injured.

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It is not possible to confirm the identity of the victims of these attacks. In neighbouring Afghanistan, US officials routinely brand the casualties of US operations as “Taliban” and “Al Qaeda” and deny civilian deaths even in cases where locals have provided clear evidence to the contrary. On-the-ground intelligence provided by paid informants is often unreliable and coloured by local rivalries and animosities. Claims about the outcome of US strikes inside Pakistan are undoubtedly just as uncertain.

Other attacks on targets within Pakistan are taking place from US bases inside Afghanistan. Pakistani officials lodged a formal complaint with the US military after artillery fire from Afghanistan hit a house in North Waziristan last Wednesday, killing two women and two children. According to the Pakistani-based News, last Friday four missiles fell on the village of Botraki, just inside the Pakistani border.

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I've just quoted portions. Read the entire article over here

Palestinians in Gaza lose their livelihoods

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continues its tight siege and prevents movement of people and goods in and out of the Gaza Strip. This includes patients who are close to dying due to denied access to hospitals abroad. Sources from the Palestinian Ministry of Health have indicated that more than 100 patients have died since mid-June 2007. On top of this, the imposed siege has caused the economy to collapse, thereby robbing tens of thousands of Palestinians from their livelihoods.

More over here Palestinians in Gaza lose their livelihoods - Report, Al Mezan, 17 March 2008

The Only Lesson We Ever Learn is that We Never Learn by Robert Fisk

"Five years on, and still we have not learnt. With each anniversary, the steps crumble beneath our feet, the stones ever more cracked, the sand ever finer. Five years of catastrophe in Iraq and I think of Churchill, who in the end called Palestine a "hell-disaster"."

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"And I will hazard a terrible guess: that we have lost Afghanistan as surely as we have lost Iraq and as surely as we are going to "lose" Pakistan. It is our presence, our power, our arrogance, our refusal to learn from history and our terror – yes, our terror – of Islam that is leading us into the abyss. And until we learn to leave these Muslim peoples alone, our catastrophe in the Middle East will only become graver. There is no connection between Islam and "terror". But there is a connection between our occupation of Muslim lands and "terror". It's not too complicated an equation. And we don't need a public inquiry to get it right."

From The Only Lesson We Ever Learn is that We Never Learn by Robert Fisk

Dawn.com: MINGORA, March, 17: Two policemen were killed and five others were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself in police barracks in Mingora on Monday.

DPO Waqif Khan told Dawn that a young man posing as a recruit and holding a police uniform entered the barracks at Mingora Police Line. He went straight to the wireless room and blew himself up.

Timeline of those killed and injured in 2008 by bomb blasts alone. I was counting from March upwards to February 17th till I reached 156, and then lost count. Mixed up numbers. Then started up again, missed them again. Such are cold, brutal statistics. You lose count. Then go back to your normal lives.

I will try counting them again, one by one.

To be honest, I can't, these days (not that I was ever able to), put anything in perspective. You turn on the news and there is a blast, somewhere. There is shock, then numbness. Watching the news, you can't wonder who did it, you can't hope for answers. Who? Why? How? No, No, No. You can't know. You just sit entrenched in a circle of indefiniteness. A vagueness, everything unclear, shrouded in thick greyey clouds. You can't see. You grope, feel blindly. Nopes, nothing.

Fear, creeps in too. Bomb blasts happen. You lament, grieve. But when they happen close to you, very close, then there is fear too. My mother passes the Mall every day, and ever since it became a hub for bomb blasts, I fear. I really do fear. There was fear when the FIA building was struck. Perhaps, its then, that I come close, or partially even begin to understand the torture of families suffering. When they lose the people they love. Have them missing. For no reason.

Perhaps there is hope in the recently elected Parliament. They are corrupt, yes. But perhaps Benazir Bhutto's assassination has changed something. Perhaps they have abandoned their nepotistic, dishonest ways? Don't feel like hoping too much for that. There is, though, a cause of celebration in the fact that both PPP and the PML-N have agreed to re-instate the judges. A fair and just judiciary is not in their interest, at least not the interests they have chased for years. Don't know how far they are going to go with this.

But if there is nothing else, then at least there are the lawyers. God bless them. Never stopping. The only hope Pakistan has had for years.

Here is a revealing piece on Pakistan's disappeared, in the Guardian by Declan Walsh, thanks to FAST Rising where I found it.

Fehmida Mirza is set to become the first woman National Assembly speaker. Her husband is Zardari's friend and some are leveling charges of nepotism.

Anyway

Gotta go

Samabiya’s sacrifice by Anjum Niaz

I was moved by this. So I am posting it here.

A quiet hamlet north of Rawalpindi is the last resting place of a father and his two daughters. The graves are kacha and the air around them is sad. In a span of five months, Gul Zareen, the widow has buried two daughters.

Read more