Post-crisis-reforms
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Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Eight Lessons by Imam Ghazali
YOUNG MAN reflect upon the story of Hatim the deaf who was the companion of Shaqiq al-Balkhi (may the mercy of Allah be upon them both). One day Shaqiq enquired of Hatim: "For 30 years you have been my companion. What, pray, have you gained from it?" Hatim replied: "I have gained eight benefits with which I am contented and from which I expect my salvation and my deliverance." "And what are they?" Shaqiq asked. Said Hatim:
"THE FIRST is that I looked at creation and noticed that to everyone there belongs a beloved. And a part of that which is beloved to him accompanies him to his death - sickness, while another part accompanies him only to the edge of his grave. But none (of the above) enters with him. So I reflected and said to myself: "The most beloved is the companion accompanying one into the grave! I found this companion to be none other than Righteous Deeds. So I embraced her as my beloved to be a shining light and an intimate friend never to abandon me when I would be most alone.
THE SECOND is that I looked at man and found him guided by his whims and fancies, forever hastening to the fulfilment of his lower desires. So I meditated upon the verse: "But as for him who feared to stand before his Lord and restrain his soul from lower desires; his abode will be the Garden.." and came to know, with the knowledge of certainty, that the Qur’an was indeed the Truth. Then swiftly I moved to free myself from its vain desires until they rested, contented, in obedience to Allah, the High, the Exalted and finally consented to His Will.
THE THIRD is that I noticed every single person greedily striving to gain for himself the vanities of the world. Then I reflected upon the verse: "What is with you must vanish and what is with Allah must endure." So I spent my life’s earnings in the way of Allah and divided them amongst the poor to be as a treasure for me in the care of Allah.
THE FOURTH is that I saw a number of people who thought that their honour and strength resided in the sheer abundance of their clan and kinsfolk. Others claimed and boasted that it was contained in the amount of their wealth and children. Others reckoned that it was to be found in the extortion of wealth, oppression of others, and the shedding of their blood. Yet another group believed that strength and honour was to be found in extravagance - in the wasting and squandering of money. Then I thought about the words of Allah: "Verily, the most honoured of you (is he who) is the most righteous of you." I then chose righteousness for myself for I had come to know with firmness of belief that the Qur’an was indeed the truth and that their opinions and assumptions were false and ephemeral.
THE FIFTH is that I saw people finding fault with each other and back-biting one another. The root of this I discovered to be envy (hasad) - envy of wealth and rank and knowledge. So I reflected upon the verse: "It is We who portion out between them their livelihood in the life of this world.." and came to know that apportionment was from Allah, the Sublime, and ordained in eternity. With this I envied none and contented myself with the allotment of Allah, the Most High.
THE SIXTH is that I saw people feuding - for one reason or another - amongst themselves. But after reflecting upon the Verse: "Verily Satan is an enemy to you; so treat him as an enemy..." I realised that hostility to other than Satan is not permissible.
THE SEVENTH is that I saw people striving so earnestly in search of support and livelihood that they debased themselves and diminished their self-respect by falling prey to the dubious and the prohibited. Consequently I thought about the words of Allah: "There is no moving creature on earth but its sustenance depends on Allah..." and realised that since my sustenance depended solely on Allah the Most High, He indeed would ensure it. So I turned my attention to the devotion of Allah, the Most High, and may Him alone the object of desire.
THE EIGHTH is that I saw everybody dependent on created things. Some depended on the dirham or the dinar and others on wealth and possessions. Some depended on a craft or vocation while others depended on people like themselves. But after I reflected upon the verse: "And he who puts his trust in Allah, sufficient is (Allah) for him, Allah will surely accomplish his purpose. Verily, for all things has Allah appointed a due proportion." I firmly placed my trust in Allah for He, most certainly, is sufficient for me and the most excellent of those in whom we can trust. Shaqiq then said: "May Allah grant you success. Indeed I have looked into the Torah, the Injil (Gospel), the Zabur (Psalms), and the Furqan (Qur’an) and found that these eight principles constitute the essence of that which is contained in these four books. He who acts in accordance with these principles acts in accordance with the teachings contained in these books."
YOUNG MAN From these two examples you can see that there is no need for a vast increase in your learning. I will now explain to you what is necessary for those who choose to travel upon the path of Truth. Know that it is essential for you to attach yourself to a Spiritual Guide and Teacher who, through his spiritual instructions, will purify yourself from evil tendencies and replace them with nobility of character. And the definition of this "spiritual instruction" may be likened to that of the husbandman who removes the thorns and plucks out the weeds from the young plantation so that it may grow to perfection. It is necessary for the traveller (salik) to attach himself to a spiritual master to guide and instruct him in his journey to Allah the Most High, for Allah Himself sent to His worshippers a Prophet to guide them along His path. The Prophet in his turn has left behind those who act as his successors and who guide to the way of Allah. The necessary condition, which qualifies the guide to act as the viceroy of Prophet, is that he has to be deeply learned. But this condition is not sufficient, for every learned man does not by virtue of his learning alone qualify as a successor of the Prophet. I will now explain to you in a general manner the signs by which you may recognise the true guide, so that not just anyone can lay claim to this position. We say: He who renounces love of the world and the desire for rank; and he who follows an enlightened guide whose spiritual chain extends in unbroken sequence to Muhammad, the Lord of the Messengers (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him); and he who excels in refining himself by observing modesty in eating, speaking and sleeping, and by much praying, almsgiving and fasting; and he who, in imitation of an enlightened guide, makes virtue his way of life-amongst which are counted patience, prayer, prayer, thanksgiving, dependence on Allah, certainty of knowledge, generosity contentedness, inner peace, clemency, humility, knowledge, truthfulness, modesty, reliability, sobriety, tranquillity, and perseverance. He who meets these requirements may be considered as a light of the lights of the Prophet and worthy of emulation. However, the existence of such a one is rare, and, if found, is mightier than red sulphur (al-kibrit al-ahmar). If good fortune helps the seeker in finding such a guide, then it behoves him to respect him both outwardly and inwardly. As for outward respect it consists in refraining from argumentation with your guide and from vying with him in the derivation of proofs even if you know that he is wrong. You should also refrain from placing your prayer carpet in front of him except during the times of obligatory prayers. As for the extra prayers, do not prolong their performance in his presence. Lastly, do what he orders you to do according to your capacity. Inner respect, on the other hand, is not to reject inwardly in deed or in word - that which you hear and seem to accept from him outwardly. For that is the sign of the hypocrite. Furthermore, in order to avoid the influence of the Satans of the jinn and of man, one should refrain from the companionship of he who is of ill repute. In this way one becomes purified (and saved) from all satanic evils. One should also, under all circumstances, choose poverty above richness. Know, too that sufism (tasawwuf) embraces two important characteristics:
ONE: Righteousness (istiqamah) and
TWO: To be at peace with (the rest) of Creation. He therefore, who perfects his morals and treats others with kindness and gentleness, is indeed a true sufi. And righteousness is to sacrifice his personal pleasures in order to attain the pleasure of Allah, the Most High. As for moral excellence it is to judge others- as long as they do not violate the Sacred Laws - not in terms or the excellence you assume in yourself, but in terms or the excellence you assume in them.
Source:http://www31.brinkster.com/ak4thanvi/8_lessons.htm
"THE FIRST is that I looked at creation and noticed that to everyone there belongs a beloved. And a part of that which is beloved to him accompanies him to his death - sickness, while another part accompanies him only to the edge of his grave. But none (of the above) enters with him. So I reflected and said to myself: "The most beloved is the companion accompanying one into the grave! I found this companion to be none other than Righteous Deeds. So I embraced her as my beloved to be a shining light and an intimate friend never to abandon me when I would be most alone.
THE SECOND is that I looked at man and found him guided by his whims and fancies, forever hastening to the fulfilment of his lower desires. So I meditated upon the verse: "But as for him who feared to stand before his Lord and restrain his soul from lower desires; his abode will be the Garden.." and came to know, with the knowledge of certainty, that the Qur’an was indeed the Truth. Then swiftly I moved to free myself from its vain desires until they rested, contented, in obedience to Allah, the High, the Exalted and finally consented to His Will.
THE THIRD is that I noticed every single person greedily striving to gain for himself the vanities of the world. Then I reflected upon the verse: "What is with you must vanish and what is with Allah must endure." So I spent my life’s earnings in the way of Allah and divided them amongst the poor to be as a treasure for me in the care of Allah.
THE FOURTH is that I saw a number of people who thought that their honour and strength resided in the sheer abundance of their clan and kinsfolk. Others claimed and boasted that it was contained in the amount of their wealth and children. Others reckoned that it was to be found in the extortion of wealth, oppression of others, and the shedding of their blood. Yet another group believed that strength and honour was to be found in extravagance - in the wasting and squandering of money. Then I thought about the words of Allah: "Verily, the most honoured of you (is he who) is the most righteous of you." I then chose righteousness for myself for I had come to know with firmness of belief that the Qur’an was indeed the truth and that their opinions and assumptions were false and ephemeral.
THE FIFTH is that I saw people finding fault with each other and back-biting one another. The root of this I discovered to be envy (hasad) - envy of wealth and rank and knowledge. So I reflected upon the verse: "It is We who portion out between them their livelihood in the life of this world.." and came to know that apportionment was from Allah, the Sublime, and ordained in eternity. With this I envied none and contented myself with the allotment of Allah, the Most High.
THE SIXTH is that I saw people feuding - for one reason or another - amongst themselves. But after reflecting upon the Verse: "Verily Satan is an enemy to you; so treat him as an enemy..." I realised that hostility to other than Satan is not permissible.
THE SEVENTH is that I saw people striving so earnestly in search of support and livelihood that they debased themselves and diminished their self-respect by falling prey to the dubious and the prohibited. Consequently I thought about the words of Allah: "There is no moving creature on earth but its sustenance depends on Allah..." and realised that since my sustenance depended solely on Allah the Most High, He indeed would ensure it. So I turned my attention to the devotion of Allah, the Most High, and may Him alone the object of desire.
THE EIGHTH is that I saw everybody dependent on created things. Some depended on the dirham or the dinar and others on wealth and possessions. Some depended on a craft or vocation while others depended on people like themselves. But after I reflected upon the verse: "And he who puts his trust in Allah, sufficient is (Allah) for him, Allah will surely accomplish his purpose. Verily, for all things has Allah appointed a due proportion." I firmly placed my trust in Allah for He, most certainly, is sufficient for me and the most excellent of those in whom we can trust. Shaqiq then said: "May Allah grant you success. Indeed I have looked into the Torah, the Injil (Gospel), the Zabur (Psalms), and the Furqan (Qur’an) and found that these eight principles constitute the essence of that which is contained in these four books. He who acts in accordance with these principles acts in accordance with the teachings contained in these books."
YOUNG MAN From these two examples you can see that there is no need for a vast increase in your learning. I will now explain to you what is necessary for those who choose to travel upon the path of Truth. Know that it is essential for you to attach yourself to a Spiritual Guide and Teacher who, through his spiritual instructions, will purify yourself from evil tendencies and replace them with nobility of character. And the definition of this "spiritual instruction" may be likened to that of the husbandman who removes the thorns and plucks out the weeds from the young plantation so that it may grow to perfection. It is necessary for the traveller (salik) to attach himself to a spiritual master to guide and instruct him in his journey to Allah the Most High, for Allah Himself sent to His worshippers a Prophet to guide them along His path. The Prophet in his turn has left behind those who act as his successors and who guide to the way of Allah. The necessary condition, which qualifies the guide to act as the viceroy of Prophet, is that he has to be deeply learned. But this condition is not sufficient, for every learned man does not by virtue of his learning alone qualify as a successor of the Prophet. I will now explain to you in a general manner the signs by which you may recognise the true guide, so that not just anyone can lay claim to this position. We say: He who renounces love of the world and the desire for rank; and he who follows an enlightened guide whose spiritual chain extends in unbroken sequence to Muhammad, the Lord of the Messengers (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him); and he who excels in refining himself by observing modesty in eating, speaking and sleeping, and by much praying, almsgiving and fasting; and he who, in imitation of an enlightened guide, makes virtue his way of life-amongst which are counted patience, prayer, prayer, thanksgiving, dependence on Allah, certainty of knowledge, generosity contentedness, inner peace, clemency, humility, knowledge, truthfulness, modesty, reliability, sobriety, tranquillity, and perseverance. He who meets these requirements may be considered as a light of the lights of the Prophet and worthy of emulation. However, the existence of such a one is rare, and, if found, is mightier than red sulphur (al-kibrit al-ahmar). If good fortune helps the seeker in finding such a guide, then it behoves him to respect him both outwardly and inwardly. As for outward respect it consists in refraining from argumentation with your guide and from vying with him in the derivation of proofs even if you know that he is wrong. You should also refrain from placing your prayer carpet in front of him except during the times of obligatory prayers. As for the extra prayers, do not prolong their performance in his presence. Lastly, do what he orders you to do according to your capacity. Inner respect, on the other hand, is not to reject inwardly in deed or in word - that which you hear and seem to accept from him outwardly. For that is the sign of the hypocrite. Furthermore, in order to avoid the influence of the Satans of the jinn and of man, one should refrain from the companionship of he who is of ill repute. In this way one becomes purified (and saved) from all satanic evils. One should also, under all circumstances, choose poverty above richness. Know, too that sufism (tasawwuf) embraces two important characteristics:
ONE: Righteousness (istiqamah) and
TWO: To be at peace with (the rest) of Creation. He therefore, who perfects his morals and treats others with kindness and gentleness, is indeed a true sufi. And righteousness is to sacrifice his personal pleasures in order to attain the pleasure of Allah, the Most High. As for moral excellence it is to judge others- as long as they do not violate the Sacred Laws - not in terms or the excellence you assume in yourself, but in terms or the excellence you assume in them.
Source:http://www31.brinkster.com/ak4thanvi/8_lessons.htm
Monday, May 17, 2010
If Not Us, then Who?
Some psychologists say that abuse, whether physical, emotional or sexual, tends to leave a mark on those that were abused, sometimes causing the abused to become abusers. I tend to think that this tendency can also be carried on to groups of people, even entire nations.
In the last century, one good example of abuse that left the victims to become abusers is the former USSR. The government and the media, especially during the last century glossed over the fact that an estimated 20-25 million Soviets, military and civilian were killed in the Second World War by their enemies and by Stalin’s purges. We almost completely forget that other nation’s that belonged to the Axis powers by choice, such as Romania, Bulgaria, many Ukrainians and other Eastern European nations that believed in Hitler and had their own Nazi apparatus. They contributed to Germany’s war effort by providing their own divisions of soldiers and their resources against the USSR, therefore it was not surprising that the Soviets kept a firm boot heel on these nations during the Cold War. I dare say that the reprisals could have been much worse, but whether it was pragmatism or the recent slaughter of so many people during the war which was the prime factor for restraint is open to speculation. Either way, the situation could have been much worse.
The Jewish people also suffered under the Nazi’s. This may have been a factor in the way they violently removed the Palestinians from their homeland and the many senseless killings that contributed to the formation of the Jewish State. The question I have is that 65 years after the end of WWII, why does the carnage against the Palestinian people persist? How long does it take for a people to realize that violence begets violence? The sad truth is that it wasn’t the people of Palestine that committed the atrocities against the Jews, but the Nazi’s.
Israel has become its own worst enemy. The very thing that they cite as an example of man’s inhumanity to man, the Holocaust, has been replaced by the wanton violence against a people that lived side by side with the Jews since antiquity. DNA studies have proven that the Jews and the Palestinians share the same bloodline; they are closer to the Palestinians than they are to the Eastern European Jews that migrated to Israel after the war. Why the insatiable bloodlust they display toward the people of Palestine? When will the carnage stop? From the decimation of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, led by Ariel Sharon on the Israeli side and the Lebanese Christian Militias, upwards of 2,500 men women and children of these squalid camps were mercilessly slaughtered in 1983 while the world did and said nothing. The recent “Operation Cast Lead”, the brutal assault on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Defense forces using white phosphorus and napalm and cluster munitions supplied by the United States was an act of abject horror.
The Goldstone Commission led by a South African Jew, stated categorically that many war crimes were committed on a basically defenseless population with a median age of 14 by a professional military with the most modern military aircraft and armor that money can buy, most of it supplied or given by the United States of America, used against a people that have never lifted a finger against our people. The rest of the world also contributed to the Israeli atrocities by remaining silent after it was over. The United Nations Secretary Ban Ki-Moon delivered a speech to the world from Gaza as white phosphorus munitions lay smoldering behind him, in the middle of a UN Relief Compound.
We castigate Neville Chamberlin for desiring “Peace in our time” as he enabled Nazi Germany to swallow Czechoslovakia without a fight. We ask members of NATO to join the United States against a ragtag group of Taliban in Afghanistan and tell them that it is their “moral duty” to support us in this war for a petroleum pipeline through the country. We called Iraq a rogue nation and invaded it under the guise of removing “weapons of mass destruction” that the UN inspectors insisted that Saddam never had. After we defeated their gutted military that was decimated through years of sanctions and air attacks, we disbanded their government, police forces, fire departments and municipal maintenance units on the pretext of de-Baathification and left the Iraqi people without any government services, electricity and a bombed out infrastructure and wondered why most of the population became “insurgents”.
We have used nuclear weapons in three areas of the world, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan and call these weapons “depleted uranium”. Meanwhile, the rods inside these munitions work so efficiently is because they produce an atomic reaction when used against armor, turning white-hot and slipping through armor like a hot knife through butter, vaporizing into particles smaller than a micron and having a nuclear half-life of over 400,000 years. This radioactive dust gets into the soil, the air, the water. It is ingested by humans and animals. Radioactivity in the atmosphere has been detected over Northern Europe. Parents in Iraq, after the birth of a child no longer ask if the child is a boy or a girl. They ask if it’s “normal”. Birth defects are up 400 percent in Iraq. Babies are born without heads or their eyes missing or their nose in the middle of their foreheads. Yet the media says nothing and our government denies everything. Soldiers returning from Iraq, transfer this radioactive poison to their wives through their sperm. There is a rash of incidents where babies are born to service members that appear to be normal, but after eight months or so the infant’s heart explodes because the heart muscle is too thin. Veterans develop bone degeneration, cancers and other side effects of radiation, depending on the amount of radioactive particles ingested. The government denies this also.
If abuse creates abusers, then when were Americans “abused”? To this writer, I just don’t see it. It seems that we have never suffered to the extent the Russian people and the Jewish people suffered. What is our excuse? Is the mission of “bringing democracy to the world” that so many government officials claim worth killing innocent civilians that have never attacked us? The perpetrators of 9/11 according to our own government (if you believe the “official” story) were mostly Saudi Arabian, yet that nation is the second largest recipient of military aid behind Israel. Why do we have military bases in over 90 countries? Why do we need 800 military bases? Why are we spending 47% of the world’s military expenditures? Why isn’t the media screaming about this?
In fact, why do I feel like I have to write about all of this? If this were 20 or 30 years ago, it would be on the front pages of the New York Times and Washington Post. The TV news media would be talking these facts to death. Senators would be demanding investigations. The uproar would have been deafening. The truth is that the media is an agent of the corporate world and the corporate world controls the government. These military expenditures are great for GE and Westinghouse, giant media conglomerates besides being large defense contractors. It all works hand in glove. The days of the independent journalist on a major media outlet are gone. What you read on the internet (including this piece) is as close to the truth as you will get.
People decry the cost of the recent healthcare bill, yet we are spending about 1.5 trillion dollars this year on the military. Where are our priorities? Where is the logic in this?
Nothing I’ve written here is something I haven’t written about before. I could go on. In fact I have written one book with two more on the way on exactly what I’m writing about today. Maybe I am boring some people, but I feel that what I’m writing about must be said again and again. This is not what I would have wished for my country. I feel responsible. The only way I know to fight against what is happening is to write about it, if I have to, again and again and again. We have so many problems that challenge us that need to be addressed. Issues such as Peak oil, the vanishing Middle-Class, our crumbling infrastructure, the corruption of our financial industry and the outsourcing of American industry to name but a few.
Sorry if I bored you with this. If I piqued your interest I succeeded. If I made you angry, check out the facts and write to me, you may find out, unfortunately for you, it is all true. To those that know all about what I’ve written here, keep telling others. If not us, then who will speak the truth?
timgatto@hotmail.com Read Tim's Political Novel "From Complicity to Contempt" and his new novel "Kimchee Days, or, Stoned Cold Warriors" from Oliver Arts and Open Press at all online booksellers.
Source:http://liberalpro.blogspot.com/2010/04/if-not-us-then-who.html
In the last century, one good example of abuse that left the victims to become abusers is the former USSR. The government and the media, especially during the last century glossed over the fact that an estimated 20-25 million Soviets, military and civilian were killed in the Second World War by their enemies and by Stalin’s purges. We almost completely forget that other nation’s that belonged to the Axis powers by choice, such as Romania, Bulgaria, many Ukrainians and other Eastern European nations that believed in Hitler and had their own Nazi apparatus. They contributed to Germany’s war effort by providing their own divisions of soldiers and their resources against the USSR, therefore it was not surprising that the Soviets kept a firm boot heel on these nations during the Cold War. I dare say that the reprisals could have been much worse, but whether it was pragmatism or the recent slaughter of so many people during the war which was the prime factor for restraint is open to speculation. Either way, the situation could have been much worse.
The Jewish people also suffered under the Nazi’s. This may have been a factor in the way they violently removed the Palestinians from their homeland and the many senseless killings that contributed to the formation of the Jewish State. The question I have is that 65 years after the end of WWII, why does the carnage against the Palestinian people persist? How long does it take for a people to realize that violence begets violence? The sad truth is that it wasn’t the people of Palestine that committed the atrocities against the Jews, but the Nazi’s.
Israel has become its own worst enemy. The very thing that they cite as an example of man’s inhumanity to man, the Holocaust, has been replaced by the wanton violence against a people that lived side by side with the Jews since antiquity. DNA studies have proven that the Jews and the Palestinians share the same bloodline; they are closer to the Palestinians than they are to the Eastern European Jews that migrated to Israel after the war. Why the insatiable bloodlust they display toward the people of Palestine? When will the carnage stop? From the decimation of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, led by Ariel Sharon on the Israeli side and the Lebanese Christian Militias, upwards of 2,500 men women and children of these squalid camps were mercilessly slaughtered in 1983 while the world did and said nothing. The recent “Operation Cast Lead”, the brutal assault on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Defense forces using white phosphorus and napalm and cluster munitions supplied by the United States was an act of abject horror.
The Goldstone Commission led by a South African Jew, stated categorically that many war crimes were committed on a basically defenseless population with a median age of 14 by a professional military with the most modern military aircraft and armor that money can buy, most of it supplied or given by the United States of America, used against a people that have never lifted a finger against our people. The rest of the world also contributed to the Israeli atrocities by remaining silent after it was over. The United Nations Secretary Ban Ki-Moon delivered a speech to the world from Gaza as white phosphorus munitions lay smoldering behind him, in the middle of a UN Relief Compound.
We castigate Neville Chamberlin for desiring “Peace in our time” as he enabled Nazi Germany to swallow Czechoslovakia without a fight. We ask members of NATO to join the United States against a ragtag group of Taliban in Afghanistan and tell them that it is their “moral duty” to support us in this war for a petroleum pipeline through the country. We called Iraq a rogue nation and invaded it under the guise of removing “weapons of mass destruction” that the UN inspectors insisted that Saddam never had. After we defeated their gutted military that was decimated through years of sanctions and air attacks, we disbanded their government, police forces, fire departments and municipal maintenance units on the pretext of de-Baathification and left the Iraqi people without any government services, electricity and a bombed out infrastructure and wondered why most of the population became “insurgents”.
We have used nuclear weapons in three areas of the world, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan and call these weapons “depleted uranium”. Meanwhile, the rods inside these munitions work so efficiently is because they produce an atomic reaction when used against armor, turning white-hot and slipping through armor like a hot knife through butter, vaporizing into particles smaller than a micron and having a nuclear half-life of over 400,000 years. This radioactive dust gets into the soil, the air, the water. It is ingested by humans and animals. Radioactivity in the atmosphere has been detected over Northern Europe. Parents in Iraq, after the birth of a child no longer ask if the child is a boy or a girl. They ask if it’s “normal”. Birth defects are up 400 percent in Iraq. Babies are born without heads or their eyes missing or their nose in the middle of their foreheads. Yet the media says nothing and our government denies everything. Soldiers returning from Iraq, transfer this radioactive poison to their wives through their sperm. There is a rash of incidents where babies are born to service members that appear to be normal, but after eight months or so the infant’s heart explodes because the heart muscle is too thin. Veterans develop bone degeneration, cancers and other side effects of radiation, depending on the amount of radioactive particles ingested. The government denies this also.
If abuse creates abusers, then when were Americans “abused”? To this writer, I just don’t see it. It seems that we have never suffered to the extent the Russian people and the Jewish people suffered. What is our excuse? Is the mission of “bringing democracy to the world” that so many government officials claim worth killing innocent civilians that have never attacked us? The perpetrators of 9/11 according to our own government (if you believe the “official” story) were mostly Saudi Arabian, yet that nation is the second largest recipient of military aid behind Israel. Why do we have military bases in over 90 countries? Why do we need 800 military bases? Why are we spending 47% of the world’s military expenditures? Why isn’t the media screaming about this?
In fact, why do I feel like I have to write about all of this? If this were 20 or 30 years ago, it would be on the front pages of the New York Times and Washington Post. The TV news media would be talking these facts to death. Senators would be demanding investigations. The uproar would have been deafening. The truth is that the media is an agent of the corporate world and the corporate world controls the government. These military expenditures are great for GE and Westinghouse, giant media conglomerates besides being large defense contractors. It all works hand in glove. The days of the independent journalist on a major media outlet are gone. What you read on the internet (including this piece) is as close to the truth as you will get.
People decry the cost of the recent healthcare bill, yet we are spending about 1.5 trillion dollars this year on the military. Where are our priorities? Where is the logic in this?
Nothing I’ve written here is something I haven’t written about before. I could go on. In fact I have written one book with two more on the way on exactly what I’m writing about today. Maybe I am boring some people, but I feel that what I’m writing about must be said again and again. This is not what I would have wished for my country. I feel responsible. The only way I know to fight against what is happening is to write about it, if I have to, again and again and again. We have so many problems that challenge us that need to be addressed. Issues such as Peak oil, the vanishing Middle-Class, our crumbling infrastructure, the corruption of our financial industry and the outsourcing of American industry to name but a few.
Sorry if I bored you with this. If I piqued your interest I succeeded. If I made you angry, check out the facts and write to me, you may find out, unfortunately for you, it is all true. To those that know all about what I’ve written here, keep telling others. If not us, then who will speak the truth?
timgatto@hotmail.com Read Tim's Political Novel "From Complicity to Contempt" and his new novel "Kimchee Days, or, Stoned Cold Warriors" from Oliver Arts and Open Press at all online booksellers.
Source:http://liberalpro.blogspot.com/2010/04/if-not-us-then-who.html
Shake off the Bystander Effect!
Social psychologists advance a concept termed as ‘bystander effect.’ It is an attempt to explain an observed phenomenon in which the number of people who act to intervene in an emergency tend to be less, the more bystanders exist at a 'scene' of an occurrence.
Bystanders are therefore passive spectators who tend to be contented with watching others taking practical steps to contain an emergency.
In our communities we have many individuals who choose not to be passive bystanders. They are the first at any emergency and take it upon themselves to make the difference out of any potentially disastrous situation. Through their timely intervention, they mitigate the consequences of such situations getting out of hand.
Voluntarism is part of our faith. In fact, when one considers the many injunctions of a Muslim’s obligations towards another, one realises that it is the duty every believer to be a volunteer in more ways than one.
Just as it the case with the life of every believer, volunteers are tested by situations they find themselves in. It is therefore important for one to adopt a sacrificial spirit that is shaped by a singular intention of earning the Pleasure of the Almighty Alone.
The ultimate volunteers were none other than the Prophets themselves. Nabi Nuh Alayhis Salaam appealed to his people: "O my people! I ask of you no wealth for it, my reward is from none but Allah (Hud, 11:29).
Voluntarism cannot be some sort of extracurricular engagements at our leisure only. Rather, it has to be part of our daily lives, as a way of nurturing our hearts, so as to attain spiritual growth through service to humanity.
Perhaps some of the most notable of volunteers are those who help us in burial rites, manage traffic or serve meals at gatherings. However, there are many roles requiring services of volunteers.
For example, professionals can spare their time to mentor youth. Students can give their time in helping charities. Others can contribute in mobilising resources for the destitute, orphanages and so on.
Making our environment safe, clean and secure should also count as our own civic duty for which we should volunteer.
Humanity’s social dimension is affirmed by an individual’s need to belong. Nothing attaches an individual to his or her society more than a benevolent gesture of kindness especially in times of great need. Hence, voluntarism that reaches out, brings about a social cohesion that builds communities.
May the Almighty inspire us with a spirit of sacrifice so that we stand up and make a difference in our communities. May He bless those who are regular and frequent at selflessly serving others. Aameen.
Source:http://www.jamiat.co.za/newsletter/online_newsletter_0519.htm
Bystanders are therefore passive spectators who tend to be contented with watching others taking practical steps to contain an emergency.
In our communities we have many individuals who choose not to be passive bystanders. They are the first at any emergency and take it upon themselves to make the difference out of any potentially disastrous situation. Through their timely intervention, they mitigate the consequences of such situations getting out of hand.
Voluntarism is part of our faith. In fact, when one considers the many injunctions of a Muslim’s obligations towards another, one realises that it is the duty every believer to be a volunteer in more ways than one.
Just as it the case with the life of every believer, volunteers are tested by situations they find themselves in. It is therefore important for one to adopt a sacrificial spirit that is shaped by a singular intention of earning the Pleasure of the Almighty Alone.
The ultimate volunteers were none other than the Prophets themselves. Nabi Nuh Alayhis Salaam appealed to his people: "O my people! I ask of you no wealth for it, my reward is from none but Allah (Hud, 11:29).
Voluntarism cannot be some sort of extracurricular engagements at our leisure only. Rather, it has to be part of our daily lives, as a way of nurturing our hearts, so as to attain spiritual growth through service to humanity.
Perhaps some of the most notable of volunteers are those who help us in burial rites, manage traffic or serve meals at gatherings. However, there are many roles requiring services of volunteers.
For example, professionals can spare their time to mentor youth. Students can give their time in helping charities. Others can contribute in mobilising resources for the destitute, orphanages and so on.
Making our environment safe, clean and secure should also count as our own civic duty for which we should volunteer.
Humanity’s social dimension is affirmed by an individual’s need to belong. Nothing attaches an individual to his or her society more than a benevolent gesture of kindness especially in times of great need. Hence, voluntarism that reaches out, brings about a social cohesion that builds communities.
May the Almighty inspire us with a spirit of sacrifice so that we stand up and make a difference in our communities. May He bless those who are regular and frequent at selflessly serving others. Aameen.
Source:http://www.jamiat.co.za/newsletter/online_newsletter_0519.htm
When It Rained Blood
By Nachiketa Desai
16 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org
Having covered Gujarat as a journalist for over two decades, Nachiketa
Desai was a witness to the Sangh Parivar's Fascist methods and its
devastating effects on the life and psyche of the people. He traces
the roots of Fascism that culminated in the genocide of 2002.
This article was originally written in 2002 and published on
Countercurrents.org in 2010
When I returned to Gujarat after eight years, in June 2002, the muddy
water of the Sabarmati River had already turned bloody. The sword of
the Saffron Brigade had drawn enough blood from Muslim men, women and
children to redden the azure blue water of the Narmada that had been
fed into the Sabarmati.
The Sangh Parivar, comprising the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),
the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal and the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP), had exploded the saffron bomb successfully in
Gujarat to prove before the world that Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of
peace and non-violence, can be defeated in his own home land.
The Sangh Parivar had been preparing to wage a war against the
humanity since 1920 when its ideologue Savarkar propounded the theory
of 'Hindurashtra' (Hindu nation). When in 1947, their dream to convert
India into a Hindurashtra failed, the Sangh Parivar contracted
Nathuram Godse to kill Gandhi, who symbolized universal brotherhood.
The next assault on secular India was made on December 6,1992 when a
fifteenth century mosque was razed to the ground by a fanatic mob, a
section of which had been trained in demolition techniques in a camp
in Gujarat.
Having covered Gujarat as a journalist for over two decades, I was a
witness to the Sangh Parivar's Fascist methods and its devastating
effects on the life and psyche of the people. I will try here to trace
the roots of fascism that culminated in the genocide of 2002.
A LEAF FROM THE MEIN KAMPF
One had only read about Fascism and Nazism in books of history and
fiction. But had never experienced living under a Fascist state. One
had lived under the constant fear of arrest and police torture during
the 19 months of the Emergency. But what the Muslims in Gujarat
experienced in 2002 must have been much more dreadful than that.
There were massacres of Muslims, gang rapes of Muslim women and
looting and arson of shops and establishments belonging to them.
Armed mobs, led by known Bharatiya Janata Party and Vishwa Hindu
Parishad workers, were on a killing spree, targeting Muslims to avenge
the burning alive of over 50 VHP volunteers returning from Ayodhya by
train on February 27 near the Godhra railway station.
Instead of providing protection to the Muslims, the police aided and
abetted the killer mobs. Worse, the police refused to file First
Information Reports in several cases and where it became unavoidable
to register a case, the FIRs were so doctored as to help the killers,
rapists, arsonists and looters escape unpunished.
Gujarat had become unsafe for Muslims. Hundreds of Muslims fled their
homeland, Gujarat, after the mayhem. Many enterprising,
forward-looking, well-to-do Muslims, like the members of the Chelia
clan from north Gujarat, who owned over 400 restaurants, most of them
serving only vegetarian food and bearing pronouncedly Hindu names,
sold their establishments to move to Hyderabad and Bangalore.
These popular restaurants, other shops and business establishments
doing flourishing business in Ahmedabad and elsewhere in central and
north Gujarat were singled out, plundered and then set on fire by the
Hindu mobs in the aftermath of the Godhra carnage.
PARTITIONING THE HEART
How could the armed mobs, out on the roads to retaliate the killings
of VHP activists, track down Muslim business establishments throughout
the state in a matter of hours?
The VHP leader Pravin Togadia's disclosure in an interview he had
given me for the Calcutta daily, The Telegraph, on January 10, 1992,
flashed through my mind. Togadia had boasted that the VHP had
undertaken a census and land record survey to take stock of the real
estate ownership pattern among Hindus and Muslims in over 18,000
villages, towns and cities of the state.
The survey, he said, would provide the VHP leadership with the
necessary data that would help formulate short-term and long-term
strategies for 'protecting' the interests of the Hindu community in
'sensitive' areas.
The survey, he said, would help the VHP draw up a 'boundary' line in
all the major towns and cities beyond which the Muslims would not be
allowed to expand. "We will establish border check posts manned by
Bajrang Dal volunteers to instill a sense of security among the
Hindus," he had disclosed in the interview.
The large-scale rioting that occurred in the run up to the demolition
of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 and thereafter
witnessed how property owned by the Muslims were mde target by
arsonists and plundering mobs.
By drawing up a boundary line, the VHP is trying to create a
'Hindustan' and a 'Pakistan' in almost all the villages and towns of
Gujarat, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi who lived and died for love,
peace and non-violence.
The VHP has put up signboards at the entry points of all major towns
in the state welcoming visitors to 'Hindurashtra's such and such
town.' The unstated message in these signboards is louder: The country
belongs only to the Hindus; all others have place in it.
HEY RAM
Savarkar had seeded the idea of partition by propounding the theory of
'Hindurashtra' in the 1920s, much before Mohammed Ali Jinnha came up
with his two-nation theory. When the country was partitioned in 1947
and India decided to remain a secular state, the followers of Savarkar
were angered that India had not become a 'Hindurashtra'. So, one of
them, Nathuram Godse, killed Mahatma Gandhi who was a living symbol of
universal brotherhood and secular India.
The Muslims who had opted for Pakistan were far less in number than
those who had chosen to stay back in India. It was their conscious
decision to opt for the citizenship of a secular and democratic
nation. But for the followers of Savarkar's ideology, a secular and
democratic India was neither palatable nor acceptable. They had no
reasons to celebrate either the Independence Day or the Republic Day.
When the Union government banned the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
and the Hindu Mahasabha after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi,
there was no sympathy for the Hindutva forces. The dogmatic Hindutva
was stoutly rejected by the country's diverse religious, linguistic
and ethnic people, who have had coexisted peacefully for centuries,
enriching their respective cultural heritage through inter-mingling
and sharing.
The Hindutva forces, represented in the political arenda by the
erstwhile Jan Sangh (renamed later as the Bharatiya Janata Party),
were rebuffed by the Indian electorate in all the successive elections
to the Parliament and various state legislative assemblies but for the
elections held in 1977.
The 1977 general elections proved a turning point in the
post-independence political history of India. The elections were held
under the shadow of a dictatorial rule. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi,
indicted by a court for indulging in corruption during her election
and facing a country-wide protest movement led by youths, had declared
a state of emergency and suspended all the fundamental rights of the
citizens, gagging the press, arresting her opponents and unleashing a
reign of terror.
The Indian voters expressed their anger against the dictatorial rule
through the ballot papers, routing the Congress party and electing to
power the Janata Party, a newly formed coalition of opposition
parties. Mainly because they had joined the Janata coalition that most
of the Jan Sangh leaders got elected to the Parliament.
It was a negative vote against the dictatorial rule of Mrs. Indira
Gandhi and not a positive vote for the Hindutva ideology that helped
the Jan Sangh gain political legitimacy in the country. When the
Janata government fell due to bickering among the constituentsand
fresh elections were held, people voted Mrs. Gandhi and her Congress
party back to power. The biggest loser was the Jan Sangh that had
renamed itself as Bharatiya Janata Party. Only two BJP candidates
managed to win their seats in the Lok Sabha.
From the subsequent events and developments, it would become clear
that the BJP gained more political mileage from the follies of the
Congress than from the popularity of the Hindutva ideology. It was
because of fragmentation of opposition votes due to the presence of a
large number of political parties in the election fray that the
Congress was managing to win a majority in the Parliament and in state
assemblies. Else, the popularity of the Congress party was fast
depleting on account of corruption in high places, rising inflation,
the culture of sycophancy and perpetuation of one family rule - that
of Mrs. Indira Gandhi.
SAFFRON SURGE
But it was chiefly because of some retrogressive action of the
Congress government like the decision to nullify the Supreme Court's
judgment on the Shah Bano case through an ordinance and Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi's move to throw open the Babri mosque for the devotees of
Lord Ram, that gave a shot in the arm to communal elements among both
the Hindus and Muslims.
It was Prime Minister V P Singh's decision to implement the
recommendation of the Mandal commission on socially and economically
backward classes that hastened the BJP to take up the issue of
Ramjanmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya, lest the coming together of all the
depressed classes - harijans, advisasis, other backward classes (OBCs)
becomes a formidable obstacle to the Sangh Parivar's dream of turning
India into a Hindurashtra.
The Sangh Parivar systematically went about recruiting and mobilizing
harijans, adivasis and members of other backward classes for the
Ramajanmabhoomi campaign. Through the campaign, the Sangh Parivar
managed to 'sanskritize' and bring under the fold of Hindutva members
of those communities who had been suffering the humiliation of
untouchability for centuries. When the bricks meant for the
construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya were consecrated in a Dalit
colony or a slum, those who participated in the ceremony felt equal to
the caste Hindus.
Simultaneously, the Ramjanmabhoomi campaign portrayed the Muslims as
'enemies' of the country who had no place in the Hindurashtra. The
Indian Constitution had rejected the two-nation theory by adopting
secularism. Hence, what could not be achieved through constitutional
means, the Sangh Parivar sought to achieve through unconstitutional
and extra-parliamentary means by driving a communal wedge in the
Indian society.
Polarization of society on communal lines has vastly benefited the BJP
as is evident from the increasing strength of its members in both the
Parliament and the various state assemblies. The communal carnage,
which triggered off the ghastly memories of Nazi concentration camps,
that shattered Gujarat between February and April 2002, was translated
into a mandate for chief minister Narendra Modi to rule the state for
yet another five years.
The Gujarat assembly election results porten a serious threat to the
secular India because the BJP and its extra-parliamentary allies, the
VHP, the Bajrang Dal and the RSS, have made it amply clear that they
will be trying out the 'Gujarat Experiment' in the elections to the
assemblies of six states later this year as also in the parliamentary
general elections the next year.
HATE CAMPAIGN
Though there appears to be a surface calm in Gujarat, the Modi
government and the Sangh Parivar continue to target the Muslims. The
state government is out to subverting the process of justice to ensure
that no one involved in the 2002 carnage is punished. The Best Bakery
case in a glaring example of this. In the Best Bakery case, the
session's court has acquitted all the 21 accused of killing 14 hapless
people, including women and children, after the key witnesses were
coerced by the local BJP MLA and his municipal councilor brother into
retracting their statement. Similar has been the fate of most of the
cases of heinous crimes in which BJP, VHP and RSS activists are the
accused.
While those who had committed murder, rape, loot and arson are roaming
fearlessly, the police is hunting down Muslim youths, foisting trumped
up charges against them and arresting them under the draconian
Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA). In most of the POTA
cases, the charge leveled against the detained person is the same that
he had been recruited by Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI, after
the Godhra carnage, taken to Pakistan, trained there in terror tactics
and brought back to Gujarat to attack Hindu places of worship and kill
leaders of the BJP and VHP.
In times of communial violence in Gujarat, the language press sheds
its yellow and dons deep saffron. The Gujarati press has proved time
and again that pen is mightier than a trishul (trident). With scant
regard for journalistic ethics, the Gujarati press has been adding
fuel to the fire by whipping up communal passions.
The Muslims in Gujarat are a hounded lot, condemned by the ruling
party politicians (BJP and its VHP-RSS allies), a partisan police
force and civil administration and a belligerent press. If this is not
Fascism, what is it?
COMMUNAL TRAP
A cornered cat pounces at the throat of the one who has cornered it.
Should the Muslims act likewise? Some of them did. The serial bomb
blast in Mumbai was in retaliation to the demolition of the Babri
mosque. So were several other acts of terrorism. But an act6 of
terrorism triggers off state terrorism of greater maginitude. Besides,
terrorism alienates the common people from a terrorist outfit.
An act of terrorism by members of the minority community helps
reinforce the propaganda by Fascist forces that Muslims are
anti-social elements who need to be dealt with an iron hand. It was
because of the attack on the Akshardham temple complex in Gandhinagar
and the assassinatioin of former home and revenue minister Haren
Pandya that the police could terrorize the Muslims by subjecting a
large number of youths to torture and then putting them behind bars
under the provisions of the draconian POTA.
Violence breeds greater violence. Similarly, communalism of the
majority community thrives on communalism of the minority community.
Some religious and political leaders seek to encourage and strengthen
orthodoxy among the Muslims on the plea that preserving a distinct
identity is the only way to survive the onslaught by forces that seek
to wipe out Islam. But by doing so, they add fuel to the fire of
communalism on which Fascist forces thrive.
Another tendency seen among a few Muslim leaders is to accept the
supremacy of the majority community and be rewarded with a share in
power. Such Muslim leaders, who accept positions in the government or
in the ruling party, play a second fiddle to the top leadership and
come in handy for the Fascist regimes to tom-tom their 'secular'
credentials. As happens with any fifth columnist, they become a
subject of abject contempt among their own community even as their
loyalty remains suspect in the eyes of the majority community.
A vast majority of Muslims are poor and illiterate, making them
vulnerable to the machinations of politicians and the clergy.
Politicians, irrespective of their party affiliations, view Muslims as
a conglomerate of various monolithic, closely-knit clans each
controlled by clerics and/or community leaders. In times of elections,
politicians seek the support of these clerics and community leaders,
who act as power-brokers.
Politicians, clerics and community leaders have shown little interest
in the welfare and uplift of the common Muslims. On the contrary, they
seem to have a vested-interest in keeping the masses illiterate and
their attention diverted from such burning issues as education,
poverty, unemployment, social and economic justice. The same holds
true for the Hindutva forces too.
Karl Marx had described religion as the opiate of masses. The
followers of Savarkar, Godse and Modi are proving Marx right in
Gandhi's Gujarat
RAM AUR RAHIM
When in 1906, young barrister Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi launched his
satyagraha in South Africa against the discriminatory treatment being
meted out to people of Indian origin, his chief lieutenants included
Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Dalits and Christians. Among his colleagues
were also Chines, British and Germans. Indeed Gandhi was a Vishwamanav
(global citizen) whose quest for truth could not be constricted by the
consideration of caste, creed or colour.
When he set up the Satyagraha Ashram on the bank of the Sarbarmati
river in Ahmedabad a decade later, Gandhiji nominated Imam Abdul Kadir
Bawazeer, a Muslim priest who had courted jail in 1910 as a Satyagrahi
in South Africa, as the vice-chairman of the ashram's managing
committee. Bawazeer succeeded Gandhiji's secretary Mahadev Desai as
the chairman of the ashram after the latter was arrested during the
Salt Satyagraha in 1930. And, when Gandhiji was arrested, he nominated
76-year-old Justice Abbas Tayyabji to lead the Salt Satyagraha.
Gandhiji's Satyagraha ashram was a global village. Its inmates
included Hindus, Jains, Muslims, Parsis and Christians. Even Miraben,
the youngest daughter of an admiral of the British Royal Navy, was an
ashram inmate, such broad was Gandhiji's concept of universal
brotherhood.
When in 2002, a group of concerned citizens gathered at the satyagraha
ashram to discuss ways to promote communal harmony, it was attacked by
a mob crying 'Jai Shri Ram'. A few days back, the mob that had
destroyed the mausoleum of Vali Deccani, a.k.a Vali Gujarati, the
great poet credited with founding the composition of shaayari, was
also shouting the same very war cry of 'Jai Shri Ram'.
Gandhiji had popularized the singing of the hymn:
"Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram, Pateet Paavan Sita Ram
Eeshwar, Allah Tere Naam, Sabko Sanmati De Bhagwan"
The Muslim, Christian and Parsi inmates of the satyagraha ashram sang
the hymn with equal devotion as it was a prayer to one God who was
known by different names and whose blessings the hymn sought so that
good sense prevailed among all human beings.
But since December 6, 1992, when fanatic Hindu mobs demolished the
Babri mosque at Ayodhya as an act of revenge against the 15th Century
Moghul emperor, Babar, the chant of 'Jai Shri Ram' has assumed violent
connotation, striking terror among the non-Hindus, specially Muslims
whom the Hindu fanatics chided as 'Babar ki Aulad' (Descendants of the
Moghul emperor).
Source:http://www.countercurrents.org/desai160510B.htm
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Yemen’s Sorrowful Options: ‘Revolt, Migrate or Die’
By Ramzy Baroud
13 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org
When the Soviets concluded their pull out from Afghanistan in February 1989, the United States government abruptly lost interest in the country. A devastated economic infrastructure, entrenched poverty, deep-rooted factionalism and lack of international aid caused the country to descend into complete chaos. Internal violence also worsened, but it was no longer an American concern. All that mattered was that the Cold War rival had been defeated. Mission accomplished.
Afghanistan remains the starkest illustration of how poor countries are used, then betrayed when their usefulness runs out. But Afghanistan is not an exception; US relations with many other countries, including Pakistan, Somalia and the Palestinian Authority remain hostage to this very model.
Yemen is now emerging as the newest casualty. Its government is desperate to hold on to the rein of power, amid corruption, extreme poverty and untold Western pressures. Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country’s president of the last thirty one years, has impressively negotiated his political survival through mounting challenges. The 1994 civil war left many thousands dead, and despite the north’s ‘victory’ the discontent of the south never waned. More, a Houthi revolt in the north is long running. Its latest manifestation lasted for sixth months and caused many deaths, most of which remained unreported. A mass migration of hundreds of thousands (270,000 by the recent estimates of the United Nations World Food Program) coincided with or followed the fighting. This is now temporarily in check, thanks to a fragile ceasefire.
According to some analysts, the ceasefire in the north could allow the central government in Sanaa to tend to the challenge growing in the south. Victoria Clark, author of the recent book Yemen: Dancing on the Heads of Snakes claimed that, "Southern disaffection has gone beyond the point of no return…Saleh's biggest mistake would be to crack down on southerners as hard as he has tried to do on the Houthi rebels."
However, under immense (and increasing) western pressure, Saleh is likely to crack down. Western governments, led by the US and Britain, run out of patience fairly quickly when the leaders of a poor, fragmented country opt for dialogue - even when such a choice might actually result in long-term political stability. When Afghan President Hamid Karzai merely mentioned of the possibility of engaging the Taliban, it generated much rebuke. A similar scenario happened in Pakistan. When Palestinian factions achieved the Mecca Agreement in February 2007 to mend their differences, the US immediately conditioned its financial backing of Mahmoud Abbas, and the agreement was successfully disintegrated. In the same vein, any Yemeni attempt at reaching out to the disaffected forces within the country, including tribes, opposition parties, and the various militant offshoots has been dismissed as an attempt to appease the terrorists.
Following a plot to blow up a US airliner over the city of Detroit on Christmas Day, the US renewed its interest in Yemen – in a predictable way. The administration of President Barack Obama issued an order early April authorizing the assassination of a US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim cleric linked to the plot. It seems like the Bush years all over again.
US Special Operation Forces have been at work in Yemen for years, following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Yemen was then declared “an important partner in the global war on terrorism,” and it remains so, whenever there is a need to chase the elusive militant groups partly or wholly linked to al-Qaeda.
The violent perusal of US enemies in Yemen comes at a heavy cost. On one hand it has undermined the central government, which is being increasingly challenged from the north, the south and the center. Naturally, no self-respecting government would allow its territories to be used either as breeding grounds for militants, or as a hunting ground for foreign forces. A raid involving US cruise missiles at an alleged al-Qaeda camps in December 17, 2009 killed dozens, including 23 women and 17 children, according to Yemeni sources.
Indeed, Yemen is to a great extent a battlefield in which the central government is hardly the central player. However, the so-called ‘war on terror’ has presented many self-seeking forces in Yemen with a golden opportunity to extract wealth. Much has been ‘invested’ to beat al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP). But little has been spent elsewhere, for example, in providing sustenance to the hundreds of thousands victimized by the ongoing violence.
When problems become insurmountable and there is no effective system of accountability in place, corruption becomes rampant. It is no wonder that Yemen ranks 154 of the 180 countries examined in the Transparency International Corruption Index. Corruption is often an outcome of poverty and lack of accountability, and it also contributes to them. Yemen is unable to escape this vicious circle.
Since Yemen is not officially an occupied country, donor countries can easily disown their financial promises. Such promises are only made when Yemen is set for some military operation or another, or to prop up the central government’s own proxy war on terror. However, when the Yemeni people are in genuine and dire need for help, Yemen becomes such a distant subject. It begets pity, at best, but no action.
According to the World Food Program (WFP), 7.2 million people – about a third of the country’s population - are suffering from chronic hunger. Almost half of them require immediate food assistance, but fewer than half a million are receiving it. They have been directly affected by the policies of western governments, and the central government’s own involvement in proxy wars on militants, tribes and other disaffected Yemenis.
How much money is the WFP is asking for in its latest appeal? A meager $103 million, out of which only $27 million has been received. A Tomahawk cruise missile – celebrated as both cheap but effective – costs around $600,000. The cost of the operation that killed dozens of innocent Yemenis last December could have, in fact, fed millions in need.
This is not a matter of mathematics; it is common sense. The ongoing miscalculations in Yemen are securing the very environment that lead to poverty, corruption, anger - and ultimately militancy and violence.
According to Emilia Casella, spokeswoman for the WFP, “people have three other options after that -- revolt, migrate or die.". Sadly, it is what millions of Yemenis are already doing.
- Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is "My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story" (Pluto Press, London), now available on Amazon.com.
Source:http://www.countercurrents.org/baroud130510.htm
Skeletons Come Stumbling Out Of Modi Cabinet
By Nachiketa Desai
13 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org
In what amounts to a blatant case of contempt of the Supreme Court,
the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat took to streets on
Wednesday in support of a rogue police officer arrested by the Central
Bureau of Investigation on the charge of fake encounter killing of
Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauserbi. Deputy police commissioner
(crime branch) Abhay Chudasama was arrested by the CBI for having
played a key role in stage managing the fake encounter of the couple.
With the arrest of Chudasama, four top cops have landed in jail.
Other IPS officers arrested by the state CID earlier in the
Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case are DG Vanzara and Rajkumar
Pandiyan of Gujarat cadre, and MN Dinesh of Rajasthan cadre. The three
IPS officers along with 11 other policemen are still in
jail.Chudasama's arrest is the first to be made by the CBI after the
Supreme Court handed over the investigation of the case to the probe
agency on January 12, 2010. The apex court had asked the central
agency to probe if there was a larger conspiracy behind the killings,
and submit its report in six months.
At the time of killing Sohrabuddin, the Gujarat police had claimed
that he was on his way to Gandhinagar, the state capital, to
assassinate chief minister Narendra Modi. The bluff was called after
Sohrabuddin's brother moved the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat
police version.
Sohrabuddin, a known criminal, used to extort money from Udaipur-based
marble stone traders who, with their political connection, are alleged
to have contracted Gujarat police officer Vanzara to kill the
extortionist.
The arrest of Vanzara and 11 other policemen was first made by the
Gujarat police. At the time, the BJP did not raise any hue and cry.
However, the state BJP leaders were quick to react after the CBI,
entrusted with the investigation by the Supreme Court, arrested
Ahmedabad city crime branch officer Chudasama. According to the CBI,
Chudasama was a rogue cop who used to extort money from leading
businessmen saying he would engineer their encounter in the same
manner in which Sohrabuddin and his wife were killed, if they did not
pay him protection money.
The CBI also stumbled upon property in the form of two luxury
apartments in Ahmedabad worth at least Rs 2 crore belonging to the DCP
crime branch. What made the BJP leaders take to the street over the
arrest of that rogue cop? Was the cop so close to the ruling party?
Though the BJP accused the Union government of misusing the CBI to
tarnish the image of the Narendra Modi government, the party
conveniently forgets the fact that the CBI was handed over the
investigation not by the Manmohan Singh Government but by the Supreme
Court.
The Supreme Court has also constituted a special investigation team to
inquire into the role of the state government and chief minister
Narendra Modi into the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom. SIT has already
interrogated Modi and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia in
this context.
Source:http://www.countercurrents.org/desai130510.htm
13 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org
In what amounts to a blatant case of contempt of the Supreme Court,
the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat took to streets on
Wednesday in support of a rogue police officer arrested by the Central
Bureau of Investigation on the charge of fake encounter killing of
Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauserbi. Deputy police commissioner
(crime branch) Abhay Chudasama was arrested by the CBI for having
played a key role in stage managing the fake encounter of the couple.
With the arrest of Chudasama, four top cops have landed in jail.
Other IPS officers arrested by the state CID earlier in the
Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case are DG Vanzara and Rajkumar
Pandiyan of Gujarat cadre, and MN Dinesh of Rajasthan cadre. The three
IPS officers along with 11 other policemen are still in
jail.Chudasama's arrest is the first to be made by the CBI after the
Supreme Court handed over the investigation of the case to the probe
agency on January 12, 2010. The apex court had asked the central
agency to probe if there was a larger conspiracy behind the killings,
and submit its report in six months.
At the time of killing Sohrabuddin, the Gujarat police had claimed
that he was on his way to Gandhinagar, the state capital, to
assassinate chief minister Narendra Modi. The bluff was called after
Sohrabuddin's brother moved the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat
police version.
Sohrabuddin, a known criminal, used to extort money from Udaipur-based
marble stone traders who, with their political connection, are alleged
to have contracted Gujarat police officer Vanzara to kill the
extortionist.
The arrest of Vanzara and 11 other policemen was first made by the
Gujarat police. At the time, the BJP did not raise any hue and cry.
However, the state BJP leaders were quick to react after the CBI,
entrusted with the investigation by the Supreme Court, arrested
Ahmedabad city crime branch officer Chudasama. According to the CBI,
Chudasama was a rogue cop who used to extort money from leading
businessmen saying he would engineer their encounter in the same
manner in which Sohrabuddin and his wife were killed, if they did not
pay him protection money.
The CBI also stumbled upon property in the form of two luxury
apartments in Ahmedabad worth at least Rs 2 crore belonging to the DCP
crime branch. What made the BJP leaders take to the street over the
arrest of that rogue cop? Was the cop so close to the ruling party?
Though the BJP accused the Union government of misusing the CBI to
tarnish the image of the Narendra Modi government, the party
conveniently forgets the fact that the CBI was handed over the
investigation not by the Manmohan Singh Government but by the Supreme
Court.
The Supreme Court has also constituted a special investigation team to
inquire into the role of the state government and chief minister
Narendra Modi into the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom. SIT has already
interrogated Modi and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia in
this context.
Source:http://www.countercurrents.org/desai130510.htm
Battle For Dandakaranya
By Nachiketa Desai
11 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org
Bastar (Chhattisgarh): A fierce battle is raging along the Indrawati river in Central India. On one side of the river are deployed the para military forces of the Indian state. On the other side, in dense forest, are the Maoist guerrillas.
The Indian militia calls the battle, operation ‘Green Hunt’, which is aimed at flushing out the Maoists from the mineral rich forest land so that Indian and multinational corporations can fatten their bottom line by exploiting iron ore, coal and bauxite. The Maoists are fighting to protect the 40,000 square kilometers of dense forest land known as Dandakaranya from these marauding companies.
The Indian militia has deployed at the front a private army of teenaged adivasis raised under the banner of ‘Salwa Judum’ to provide local support to the Central Reserve Police force (CRPF). The police of Chhattisgarh operate from the safety of police stations, far away from the battle field. In the battle for the control of Dandakaranya, mostly the adivasis and the CRPF men drawn largely from the poor and socially backward class families from across the country die. Rarely do the senior officers of the police, the bureaucracy or the top executives of the MNCs get killed.
Maoists have ‘liberated’ the mineral-rich region where governments have existed only in the form of greedy contractors and corrupt policemen and forest officials, leaving the mass of tribals to suffer in poverty, disease and illiteracy while outsiders strip away Bastar's minerals.
“The country is on a boil. In the last 60 years, we have made the rich more rich and the poor more poor. The condition of over 60 crore people of our country is deteriorating day by day. If such a scenario continues, there would be great trouble, what kind of trouble is unpredictable,” says Professor Yash Pal, leading space scientist and former chairman of University Grants commission.
“Today, millions of people, mostly tribals, are migrating from their ancestral land to far off places like Mumbai, Delhi, Punjab and Gujarat to toil as labourers. There must be something terribly wrong with our development policy which is making this happen,” points out Prof. Yash Pal. “In the name of development, we are mining for minerals which we export to China, Japan and other countries. We dig land, we dig forest, we uproot people living in this land for the so-called development and progress,” he adds. “Having uprooted the adivasis, we set up highly polluting industries and destroy the most-beautiful and green forest land of our country. We are destroying the soil of India, we are destroying the people of India.”
Prof. Yash Pal was addressing a press conference in Raipur, the state capital of Chhattisgarh, on the eve of a peace march to Dantewada calling for talks and national debate to find an end to the civil war in the tribal-dominated mineral-rich forest-covered areas of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Prof. Yash Pal was among the group of over 50 concerned citizens who participated in the peace march from Raipur to Dantewada from May 6 to 8. Among the other participants were Swami Agnivesh of Bandhua Mazdoor Mukti Sangathan, Prof. Banwarilal Sharma of Azadi Bachao Andolan, veteran Gandhian Narayan Desai, chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith, Thomas Kochery of World Fisherfolk Forum and Radha Bhatt, chairperson of Gandhi Peace Foundation.
There was a consensus among the participants of the peace march that faulty development model of the country, which marginalized the vast majority of rural poor, the indigenous dwellers of the forest, was responsible for the civil war-like situation in not just the forested areas of central India but also in the North-eastern states and Kashmir.
There was also a consensus among them over the means of restoring peace in the country. “Gun versus gun is not the solution. Violence only would breed more violence. If the government thinks that it would be able to eliminate the Maoists by bullets, it is greatly mistaken. Look, what happened in Vietnam,” points out Prof Yash Pal.
“Are we going to annihilate the entire population of Adivasis, just like the Americans did with the Red Indians, to push forward development and progress?” asked Radha Bhatt of the Gandhi Peace Foundation.
“In the name of dam construction and mining, millions of people are getting displaced,” points out Thomas Kochery. “They are getting displaced from their land, forest and water”, he adds. This is the first kind of violence the poor people are facing, this is the first form of terrorism in the country.
“The second form of violence is by Naxalites who take up arms to retaliate the first form of violence. And the third form of violence is when the army and the para military forces use guns to put down the second form of violence,” he points out. “We are here to say that peace can be achieved by removing all the three kinds of violence from the country.”
“A long-lasting peace can be achieved only by holding talks amongst all concerned to find out a sustainable people-centric development paradigm,” says veteran Gandhian Narayan Desai.
Despite having spelled out the objective of their peace march from Raipur to Dantewada, the marchers faced ugly demonstration from a handful of supporters of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress as well as from some representatives of trade, commerce and industry bodies.
The first to react was Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh who ridiculed the peace initiative by mocking at them and obliquely referring to them as the sympathizers of the Maoists. “Why do these intellectuals wake up only when the government starts operations against the Maoists and keep quiet when the members of our security forces get killed,” he said.
Taking a cue from the chief minister’s statement, a handful of workers of the BJP, the Congress and the local chamber of commerce and industry held demonstrations in Raipur, Jagdalpur and Dantewada, shouting, “Naxal supporters go back, go back.”
None of these demonstrators was local adivasi and only represented the trading community of the district towns of Jagdalpur and Dantewada which has been exploiting the adivasis over the last several centuries and which thrives on the ongoing war against the Maoists. “The traders of Jagdalpur and Dantewada are the main suppliers of foodgrain, grocery and other essential commodities to the security forces. Their total turnover of supplies to the security forces is in the range of Rs2000 crore yearly,” points out a resident of Jagdalpur who was a student union leader of the local college about a decade ago.
The state government and members of both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress, with active participation of the police and local goons have been preventing independent journalists, lawyers and human rights activists from visiting Dantewada by organizing violent attacks against them.
Anyone trying to find out what is happening in Bastar on both sides of the Indrawati river is promptly branded by the Establishment as ‘Supporter of Maoists’.
A Gandhian worker, Himanshu Kumar, who has been running ‘Vanvasi Chetana Ashram’ for the last 17 years, was dubbed as ‘Maoist sympathiser’ and his Ashram razed to the ground by the authorities after he raised the issue of mindless killing of innocent adivasis by the police-backed Salwa Judum private militia.
A couple of journalists have been detained by the police after they tried to cross the Indrawati river to find out what was happing in the deep forest.
Source:http://www.countercurrents.org/desai110510.htm
11 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org
Bastar (Chhattisgarh): A fierce battle is raging along the Indrawati river in Central India. On one side of the river are deployed the para military forces of the Indian state. On the other side, in dense forest, are the Maoist guerrillas.
The Indian militia calls the battle, operation ‘Green Hunt’, which is aimed at flushing out the Maoists from the mineral rich forest land so that Indian and multinational corporations can fatten their bottom line by exploiting iron ore, coal and bauxite. The Maoists are fighting to protect the 40,000 square kilometers of dense forest land known as Dandakaranya from these marauding companies.
The Indian militia has deployed at the front a private army of teenaged adivasis raised under the banner of ‘Salwa Judum’ to provide local support to the Central Reserve Police force (CRPF). The police of Chhattisgarh operate from the safety of police stations, far away from the battle field. In the battle for the control of Dandakaranya, mostly the adivasis and the CRPF men drawn largely from the poor and socially backward class families from across the country die. Rarely do the senior officers of the police, the bureaucracy or the top executives of the MNCs get killed.
Maoists have ‘liberated’ the mineral-rich region where governments have existed only in the form of greedy contractors and corrupt policemen and forest officials, leaving the mass of tribals to suffer in poverty, disease and illiteracy while outsiders strip away Bastar's minerals.
“The country is on a boil. In the last 60 years, we have made the rich more rich and the poor more poor. The condition of over 60 crore people of our country is deteriorating day by day. If such a scenario continues, there would be great trouble, what kind of trouble is unpredictable,” says Professor Yash Pal, leading space scientist and former chairman of University Grants commission.
“Today, millions of people, mostly tribals, are migrating from their ancestral land to far off places like Mumbai, Delhi, Punjab and Gujarat to toil as labourers. There must be something terribly wrong with our development policy which is making this happen,” points out Prof. Yash Pal. “In the name of development, we are mining for minerals which we export to China, Japan and other countries. We dig land, we dig forest, we uproot people living in this land for the so-called development and progress,” he adds. “Having uprooted the adivasis, we set up highly polluting industries and destroy the most-beautiful and green forest land of our country. We are destroying the soil of India, we are destroying the people of India.”
Prof. Yash Pal was addressing a press conference in Raipur, the state capital of Chhattisgarh, on the eve of a peace march to Dantewada calling for talks and national debate to find an end to the civil war in the tribal-dominated mineral-rich forest-covered areas of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Prof. Yash Pal was among the group of over 50 concerned citizens who participated in the peace march from Raipur to Dantewada from May 6 to 8. Among the other participants were Swami Agnivesh of Bandhua Mazdoor Mukti Sangathan, Prof. Banwarilal Sharma of Azadi Bachao Andolan, veteran Gandhian Narayan Desai, chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith, Thomas Kochery of World Fisherfolk Forum and Radha Bhatt, chairperson of Gandhi Peace Foundation.
There was a consensus among the participants of the peace march that faulty development model of the country, which marginalized the vast majority of rural poor, the indigenous dwellers of the forest, was responsible for the civil war-like situation in not just the forested areas of central India but also in the North-eastern states and Kashmir.
There was also a consensus among them over the means of restoring peace in the country. “Gun versus gun is not the solution. Violence only would breed more violence. If the government thinks that it would be able to eliminate the Maoists by bullets, it is greatly mistaken. Look, what happened in Vietnam,” points out Prof Yash Pal.
“Are we going to annihilate the entire population of Adivasis, just like the Americans did with the Red Indians, to push forward development and progress?” asked Radha Bhatt of the Gandhi Peace Foundation.
“In the name of dam construction and mining, millions of people are getting displaced,” points out Thomas Kochery. “They are getting displaced from their land, forest and water”, he adds. This is the first kind of violence the poor people are facing, this is the first form of terrorism in the country.
“The second form of violence is by Naxalites who take up arms to retaliate the first form of violence. And the third form of violence is when the army and the para military forces use guns to put down the second form of violence,” he points out. “We are here to say that peace can be achieved by removing all the three kinds of violence from the country.”
“A long-lasting peace can be achieved only by holding talks amongst all concerned to find out a sustainable people-centric development paradigm,” says veteran Gandhian Narayan Desai.
Despite having spelled out the objective of their peace march from Raipur to Dantewada, the marchers faced ugly demonstration from a handful of supporters of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress as well as from some representatives of trade, commerce and industry bodies.
The first to react was Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh who ridiculed the peace initiative by mocking at them and obliquely referring to them as the sympathizers of the Maoists. “Why do these intellectuals wake up only when the government starts operations against the Maoists and keep quiet when the members of our security forces get killed,” he said.
Taking a cue from the chief minister’s statement, a handful of workers of the BJP, the Congress and the local chamber of commerce and industry held demonstrations in Raipur, Jagdalpur and Dantewada, shouting, “Naxal supporters go back, go back.”
None of these demonstrators was local adivasi and only represented the trading community of the district towns of Jagdalpur and Dantewada which has been exploiting the adivasis over the last several centuries and which thrives on the ongoing war against the Maoists. “The traders of Jagdalpur and Dantewada are the main suppliers of foodgrain, grocery and other essential commodities to the security forces. Their total turnover of supplies to the security forces is in the range of Rs2000 crore yearly,” points out a resident of Jagdalpur who was a student union leader of the local college about a decade ago.
The state government and members of both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress, with active participation of the police and local goons have been preventing independent journalists, lawyers and human rights activists from visiting Dantewada by organizing violent attacks against them.
Anyone trying to find out what is happening in Bastar on both sides of the Indrawati river is promptly branded by the Establishment as ‘Supporter of Maoists’.
A Gandhian worker, Himanshu Kumar, who has been running ‘Vanvasi Chetana Ashram’ for the last 17 years, was dubbed as ‘Maoist sympathiser’ and his Ashram razed to the ground by the authorities after he raised the issue of mindless killing of innocent adivasis by the police-backed Salwa Judum private militia.
A couple of journalists have been detained by the police after they tried to cross the Indrawati river to find out what was happing in the deep forest.
Source:http://www.countercurrents.org/desai110510.htm
Drinking Water: An Escalating Crisis
By Devinder Sharma
11 May, 2010
Deccan Herald
First, industries guzzle up water and pollute water bodies, then they launch initiatives under Corporate Social Responsibility.
In this scorching heat, water is becoming a hot issue. With temperatures soaring, and with the major reservoirs drying, the battle for drinking water is becoming louder and bloodier, day by day. Unable to get their daily requirement of drinking water, angry protestors in various cities are taking to streets.
In the months to come, non-availability of water is sure to adorn the news. The warning bells have been ringing for over 15 years now, but nobody cared. Even now, when projections show that 70 per cent more groundwater has been depleted in the past decade than in the last decade of 1990s, and that water sources across the country have been contaminated in almost all the states leading to serious health problems like cancer and fluorosis that damages bones, teeth and muscles, the nation is not perturbed.
Parliament was informed that 1.80 lakh villages (out of the 6 lakh villages in the country) are afflicted by poor water quality. What these villages drink is nothing but slow poison. In addition, what parliament is not informed is that almost all the tributaries of our major rivers have become drain channels for the industry. Take, for instance, Ammi river flowing in the outskirts of Gorakhpur. For years now, over 1.5 lakh people who live on the banks of the river have been protesting against industrial effluents that have turned the river — the only lifeline for hundreds of villages on its banks — into a source of misery.
Ammi is not the only tributary that has turned into a drain. Almost all tributaries of the major Indian rivers flow dirty. Somehow the policy makers and planners treat the dirty rivers and tributaries as a misplaced sign of industrialisation, and thereby treat it as an index of development.
Returning to the issue of shrinking drinking water availability, a parliamentary standing committee has informed that while more than 84 per cent of households in rural areas are covered under rural water supply, only 16 per cent population gets drinking water from public taps. However, just 12 per cent of rural families have individual taps in their houses. This too is highly skewed in favour of the more progressive states. In Orissa, for instance, only 9 per cent households have access to tap water. If you travel to Kalahandi district, the percentage of population having access to tap water drops to a mere 2.76 per cent.
The picture isn’t very rosy for the urban areas. Only 37 per cent of the households have access to tap water. In other words, not only food entitlements, there is an urgent need to ensure right to safe drinking water.
Access denied
Isn’t it shocking that after 63 years of Independence, only 12 per cent of the rural households have drinking water taps? This is despite the National Rural Drinking Water Programme being operative, for which Rs 8,000-crore was provided just in 2009-10.
What is more shocking is that while the drinking water taps are going dry, there is never a shortage of water supply from tankers? In Mumbai, for instance, an estimate shows that nearly 48 per cent of the drinking water gets lost due to leaks from damaged pipelines. Some think it is simply because the tanker mafia is at work. Not only Mumbai, cities across the country are under siege by tanker mafia. In the rural areas too, the water mafia has been continuously at work. If the water sources are drying up across the country, I wonder from where the tankers get water. Every one knows that the tanker mafia is leaving the countryside parched and dry, but who cares?
Well, the corporate sector certainly gives an impression that it cares. It has to. After all, much of the water crisis is its creation. First the industries guzzle up water, and pollute the rivers and water bodies, and then they launch water saving initiatives under Corporate Social Responsibility. ITC for instance has launched a project in Gurgaon to teach housemaids on how to save water while cleaning the utensils. Teaching the maid servants on how to save one mug of water is surely some responsibility!
What the corporate sector refuses to point at is the recent decision of the Andhra Pradesh government to allocate 21.5 lakh litres per day from the Krishna River in Guntur district to Coca-Cola. While several hundred villages in Guntur district are grappling with acute drinking water shortage, the government perhaps thinks that rural poor can quench their thirst from drinking Coke instead. To justify its exploitation of water, Coca-Cola claims to be buying mangoes for its Maaza brand under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. Killing two birds with one stone, isn’t it? But who cares?
Unfortunately, providing clean drinking water is no longer a national priority. Somehow the government believes that the more pressing need is to make the water resources available to the mineral water industry. With the elite and the middle class satisfied at the easy availability of mineral water, the rest of the population continues to suffer. Over the years, the state and the Central government have shifted focus to the middle class, as if the rest of the country does not matter.
Source:http://www.countercurrents.org/dsharma110510.htm
11 May, 2010
Deccan Herald
First, industries guzzle up water and pollute water bodies, then they launch initiatives under Corporate Social Responsibility.
In this scorching heat, water is becoming a hot issue. With temperatures soaring, and with the major reservoirs drying, the battle for drinking water is becoming louder and bloodier, day by day. Unable to get their daily requirement of drinking water, angry protestors in various cities are taking to streets.
In the months to come, non-availability of water is sure to adorn the news. The warning bells have been ringing for over 15 years now, but nobody cared. Even now, when projections show that 70 per cent more groundwater has been depleted in the past decade than in the last decade of 1990s, and that water sources across the country have been contaminated in almost all the states leading to serious health problems like cancer and fluorosis that damages bones, teeth and muscles, the nation is not perturbed.
Parliament was informed that 1.80 lakh villages (out of the 6 lakh villages in the country) are afflicted by poor water quality. What these villages drink is nothing but slow poison. In addition, what parliament is not informed is that almost all the tributaries of our major rivers have become drain channels for the industry. Take, for instance, Ammi river flowing in the outskirts of Gorakhpur. For years now, over 1.5 lakh people who live on the banks of the river have been protesting against industrial effluents that have turned the river — the only lifeline for hundreds of villages on its banks — into a source of misery.
Ammi is not the only tributary that has turned into a drain. Almost all tributaries of the major Indian rivers flow dirty. Somehow the policy makers and planners treat the dirty rivers and tributaries as a misplaced sign of industrialisation, and thereby treat it as an index of development.
Returning to the issue of shrinking drinking water availability, a parliamentary standing committee has informed that while more than 84 per cent of households in rural areas are covered under rural water supply, only 16 per cent population gets drinking water from public taps. However, just 12 per cent of rural families have individual taps in their houses. This too is highly skewed in favour of the more progressive states. In Orissa, for instance, only 9 per cent households have access to tap water. If you travel to Kalahandi district, the percentage of population having access to tap water drops to a mere 2.76 per cent.
The picture isn’t very rosy for the urban areas. Only 37 per cent of the households have access to tap water. In other words, not only food entitlements, there is an urgent need to ensure right to safe drinking water.
Access denied
Isn’t it shocking that after 63 years of Independence, only 12 per cent of the rural households have drinking water taps? This is despite the National Rural Drinking Water Programme being operative, for which Rs 8,000-crore was provided just in 2009-10.
What is more shocking is that while the drinking water taps are going dry, there is never a shortage of water supply from tankers? In Mumbai, for instance, an estimate shows that nearly 48 per cent of the drinking water gets lost due to leaks from damaged pipelines. Some think it is simply because the tanker mafia is at work. Not only Mumbai, cities across the country are under siege by tanker mafia. In the rural areas too, the water mafia has been continuously at work. If the water sources are drying up across the country, I wonder from where the tankers get water. Every one knows that the tanker mafia is leaving the countryside parched and dry, but who cares?
Well, the corporate sector certainly gives an impression that it cares. It has to. After all, much of the water crisis is its creation. First the industries guzzle up water, and pollute the rivers and water bodies, and then they launch water saving initiatives under Corporate Social Responsibility. ITC for instance has launched a project in Gurgaon to teach housemaids on how to save water while cleaning the utensils. Teaching the maid servants on how to save one mug of water is surely some responsibility!
What the corporate sector refuses to point at is the recent decision of the Andhra Pradesh government to allocate 21.5 lakh litres per day from the Krishna River in Guntur district to Coca-Cola. While several hundred villages in Guntur district are grappling with acute drinking water shortage, the government perhaps thinks that rural poor can quench their thirst from drinking Coke instead. To justify its exploitation of water, Coca-Cola claims to be buying mangoes for its Maaza brand under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. Killing two birds with one stone, isn’t it? But who cares?
Unfortunately, providing clean drinking water is no longer a national priority. Somehow the government believes that the more pressing need is to make the water resources available to the mineral water industry. With the elite and the middle class satisfied at the easy availability of mineral water, the rest of the population continues to suffer. Over the years, the state and the Central government have shifted focus to the middle class, as if the rest of the country does not matter.
Source:http://www.countercurrents.org/dsharma110510.htm
Avoiding Climate Burnout
I believe that I and many other people around the world are suffering from "Climate Trauma." It's my own term. I am not a mental health professional, but I can identify plain as day the symptoms I recognize in myself and in my colleagues traumatized by our work to tackle climate change. And these symptoms are of course different from, but related to, the much deeper trauma of those who are already being directly impacted by climate change, whether through dislocation, drought, or the death of a loved one:
1. Anxiety and stress: We know we are facing a looming catastrophe of unparalleled proportions -- a truly existential crisis in that scientists predict that if we do not take dramatic action now, human beings will not be able to continue living on Earth as we have come to know it. This is not the place to detail the reasons or predicted impacts of climate change, but it is to say that a central motivation in pushing for climate and energy policy is our knowledge of that existential threat. And there has never been more urgency or intensity to our wish and our call, with the looming international negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009 and the critical need to have demonstrated U.S. leadership before we get there. We in the U.S. are literally dizzy with work, given the pace of the congressional calendar, regulatory action, and the Obama administration more broadly. Many of us are insomniacs and obsessive workaholics.
3. A parallel universe: We often feel like we are living in a parallel universe. Don't people see that we are headed straight off a cliff? How could they possibly continue to argue that there is legitimate dispute about whether or not the planet is warming? How could the ones who know that it is warming leave all their incandescent bulbs on? Leave their SUV idling? Blast the heat and open the windows? Toss their water bottle in the trash? And sit out this fight of a lifetime, this fight for our lives? We are obsessed and alone and sometimes we or our loved ones literally have to ban the topic from conversation rather than repeat ourselves again. And again. And again.
4. Depression, irritability, and anger: Flip sides of the same coin, we find ourselves alternately depressed, irritable, or angry. Who wouldn't under the circumstances? But these symptoms only get in our way, and diminish our power to be the leaders we must be to confront the greatest challenge of our generation, and perhaps of all time in life on this precious planet we call home. We need each other -- our colleagues, our teams, and the people who love us -- to keep on keeping on.
When Dr. Spencer Eth, a respected forensic psychiatrist, saw the interview I did with Dr. Van Susteren at the conference, he wrote a short article on "Climate Warriors and Emotional Burnout." He wrote:
The mission of a 'climate warrior' is demanding and may become self-sacrificing. The activist must articulate terrible truths about the coming ecological catastrophes. Indeed, future scenarios may approximate what psychiatrist Robert Lifton described as a death imprint -- the indelible images of the grotesque that the person cannot assimilate.
Dr. Van Susteren followed up with some advice on how to sustain ourselves.
And so, we find ourselves "surfing the apocalypse," as my friend Gary Cohen from Health Care Without Harm would say. We know that this crisis is an opportunity to reinvent the way we are living our lives, and to steer this troubled ship called Earth towards safer harbor. In our despair, we must surface all our passion and commitment and power to ensure that we come together as an unstoppable force for change, turning the tide back in the right direction, and lifting all boats.
Climate trauma survival tips from Dr. Lise Van Susteren
> Take care of yourself physically and spiritually, through healthy living and maintaining a balance in your professional and personal life.
> Physical exercise is essential -- endorphins, the body's natural pain killers, are secreted in response to exercise. Endorphins help fight psychic pain, too. Exercise also boosts your immune system. If you are stressed out and getting sick a lot -- you need regular exercise. Swimming can be very soothing.
1. Anxiety and stress: We know we are facing a looming catastrophe of unparalleled proportions -- a truly existential crisis in that scientists predict that if we do not take dramatic action now, human beings will not be able to continue living on Earth as we have come to know it. This is not the place to detail the reasons or predicted impacts of climate change, but it is to say that a central motivation in pushing for climate and energy policy is our knowledge of that existential threat. And there has never been more urgency or intensity to our wish and our call, with the looming international negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009 and the critical need to have demonstrated U.S. leadership before we get there. We in the U.S. are literally dizzy with work, given the pace of the congressional calendar, regulatory action, and the Obama administration more broadly. Many of us are insomniacs and obsessive workaholics.
3. A parallel universe: We often feel like we are living in a parallel universe. Don't people see that we are headed straight off a cliff? How could they possibly continue to argue that there is legitimate dispute about whether or not the planet is warming? How could the ones who know that it is warming leave all their incandescent bulbs on? Leave their SUV idling? Blast the heat and open the windows? Toss their water bottle in the trash? And sit out this fight of a lifetime, this fight for our lives? We are obsessed and alone and sometimes we or our loved ones literally have to ban the topic from conversation rather than repeat ourselves again. And again. And again.
4. Depression, irritability, and anger: Flip sides of the same coin, we find ourselves alternately depressed, irritable, or angry. Who wouldn't under the circumstances? But these symptoms only get in our way, and diminish our power to be the leaders we must be to confront the greatest challenge of our generation, and perhaps of all time in life on this precious planet we call home. We need each other -- our colleagues, our teams, and the people who love us -- to keep on keeping on.
When Dr. Spencer Eth, a respected forensic psychiatrist, saw the interview I did with Dr. Van Susteren at the conference, he wrote a short article on "Climate Warriors and Emotional Burnout." He wrote:
The mission of a 'climate warrior' is demanding and may become self-sacrificing. The activist must articulate terrible truths about the coming ecological catastrophes. Indeed, future scenarios may approximate what psychiatrist Robert Lifton described as a death imprint -- the indelible images of the grotesque that the person cannot assimilate.
Dr. Van Susteren followed up with some advice on how to sustain ourselves.
And so, we find ourselves "surfing the apocalypse," as my friend Gary Cohen from Health Care Without Harm would say. We know that this crisis is an opportunity to reinvent the way we are living our lives, and to steer this troubled ship called Earth towards safer harbor. In our despair, we must surface all our passion and commitment and power to ensure that we come together as an unstoppable force for change, turning the tide back in the right direction, and lifting all boats.
Climate trauma survival tips from Dr. Lise Van Susteren
> Take care of yourself physically and spiritually, through healthy living and maintaining a balance in your professional and personal life.
> Physical exercise is essential -- endorphins, the body's natural pain killers, are secreted in response to exercise. Endorphins help fight psychic pain, too. Exercise also boosts your immune system. If you are stressed out and getting sick a lot -- you need regular exercise. Swimming can be very soothing.
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