Gojra
posted by Zakintosh at 8/02/2009 05:48:00 PM
Sunday, August 02, 2009
About Me
- Name: Zakintosh
- Location: Karachi, Pakistan
They laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at them because they are all the same.
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words of wisdom
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have scrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness - that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that the saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought and, though it might seem too good for human life, this is what - at last - I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
Bertrand Russell
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.
Noam Chomsky
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Albert Einstein
Each century seems to take on a particular character as we view it in retrospect. How will the 20th Century be remembered? My guess is that this dramatic span of 100 years will ultimately be marked not by computers or the Internet, but by the drive toward individual freedom, the breaking of human barriers of prejudice, and the opening of society to include all people.
John S. Spong
DESIDERATA
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
Max Ehrmann
21 Comments:
The week that behaviourists discovered that 'behaviour', in connection with living creatures, has never been defined, this is an apt post.
Tom Lehrer said it with a little more humour, though (from 'National Brotherhood Week'):
"...Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics,
And the Catholics hate the Protestants,
And the Hindus hate the Moslems,
And everybody hates the Jews.
But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week,
It's National Everyone-smile-at-one-another-hood Week.
Be nice to people who
Are inferior to you.
It's only for a week, so have no fear.
Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!"
02 August, 2009 18:36
How true! The description is so apt
I like the line "What is the color of our National shame".
It reminds me of everyone asking us "We must improve the 'image' of Pakistan". Note that we want only the 'image' to improve without real improvement! The answer to that is that the image will improve when we do. What people are asking for is to falsify & present a picture of what is not true. So let us lie away!! What a solution!
02 August, 2009 18:37
Our countries seem to follow similar fractured paths of hatred, violence, destruction. I identify with your words with great pain for what we have collectively become.
02 August, 2009 20:30
It will take us some time to be civilized as a nation...
and masterpieces such as the above will surely play an important role during this process.
Thank you for the poem Kidvai sahib.
02 August, 2009 21:05
Sources in the area said that there had been rumours about a young Christian man burning pages of the quran. A meeting of elders of the community (christians and muslims) had investigated these rumours, found them to be untrue, and the matter had ended there.
Then JI, ST and Sipah-e-Sahaba waaley from nearby madressahs came swooping in, looting, burning and killing, while the police stood by and watched.
This is pretty similar to what happened in Amarkot at Diwali / eid miladun nabi earlier this year. Uss incident meiN the instigator was an ISI waalah. We have proof, I could write about it too, but who will print it?
In both cases (Gojra and Amarkot), Muslims from the area put their lives at stake and tried to protect Hindus (Amarkot) and Christians (Gojra) who were under attack.
02 August, 2009 21:17
So it is unfair to say that our people (I hate using the word nation, because Pakistan is NOT one nation) are "uncivilised." They're not. The instigators in all these cases were State-sponsored elements. How do we deal with those? For one, get rid of the goddamned ISI -- I don't feel "safer" with it around. Quite the opposite, in fact. But who's going to bell the cat?
02 August, 2009 21:21
Great poem! Absolutely love the last line!
03 August, 2009 01:35
Am speechless … that was my nana's hometown
03 August, 2009 12:39
Toronto, 20090802
Dear Zaheer,
I take my hat off to you for such a brilliant composition. The last line was superb.
The facade created by Zia Regime and master-minded by my friend, Gen Mujib, to celebrate one month instead of one day, has perhaps no parallel in the world.
Gen Mujib's idea was to divert public attention from martial law and a plethora of other problems, so he developed it through radio and TV, which caught the imagination of Pakistani revellers so much that they do not realise why they need one month to celebrate a day.
The most foolish thing is the change of trade mark colours of all Pakistani TV stations from different colours to Green. Imagine HUM's rainbow coloured logo changing to green for a month.
Once while I was in India during August, I was surprised at the simplicity that marked the first half of the day with ceremonial parade - and that was all for 15th August.
What have Pakistanis achieved? A country that was given to them on a platter by the British? And more than half of that was lost within first 25 years? A President that even puts the notorious Godfather to shame?
Perhaps there is no colour in the huge spectrum of colours that could suit Pakistan's degree of shame.
Regards
03 August, 2009 12:48
It is really shameful not only for entire country but specially for Punjab Govt, Which did nothing. I really wonder what Punjab government is doing to quell protests and arresting the culprits? This incident shows the real face of PML-N. PML-N though claims and pretends to have secular agenda but always supported the right wing fanatics.
I really laud Zardari who took notice of the incident and ordered immediate inquiry to this incident. This incident has very much shown that PPP is the only secular party that always protected minorities and raised voice for them.
03 August, 2009 21:34
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04 August, 2009 00:36
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04 August, 2009 00:48
@Zakintosh, a beautiful but sad poem. There is truly no colour of our National Shame, as we are not a nation, but a motley collection of bigoted people who have oppressed the minorities especially since the introduction of the infamous Blasphemy laws. Till this outrageous law is not stamped out of existence, we cannot even begin to think rationally. This is not the first incident and will certainly not be the last. We have to DO SOMETHING ---- but what???
04 August, 2009 08:48
It kills me, it pains me, it hurts me, it angers me, it saddens me, it pinches me, it irks me, it maddens me and it aches me to see how blatantly and brazenly this law continues to be abused and misused with no successive govt or authority wanting to do anything about it.
Is it a sin to talk about a man-made law? what are we afraid of? and most importantly I want to know is this what religion demands of people - no questioning, no investigation, no commentary, no expression, no debate and no discussion? In a society infested with dishonesty and corruption at all levels, these laws act as perfect tools to coerce, suppress, oppress and persecute the weak, and the powerless. This is precisely what has been happening for the last quarter of century when this dastardly legislaion was introduced.
I am not surprised or anguished when people today turn around and ask whose Pakistan is it anyways? is this what Barrister Jinnah & his comrades fought for? what a shame this country has become.
04 August, 2009 17:59
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04 August, 2009 23:56
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05 August, 2009 00:00
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05 August, 2009 00:06
@arsalan - I have removed your comments because of a total lack of manners.
05 August, 2009 00:34
@bolshevik - sorry, but yours had to go because your correspondence with arsalan was more suited to your fb.
05 August, 2009 00:38
Is it not correct to assume that we have by virtue of our silence accepted these laws? it took an incident of this magnitude that provoked us enough to say a few words.. and then life will be as usual again.. how many more karbalas will it require for the state to act? and how many more karbalas will it require for the civil society, media and all pressure groups to sit up and initiate a movement for restoration of fundamental human rights and scrapping of these laws?
05 August, 2009 01:11
Zak, thanks for giving poetic expression to this grave injustice, all the more egregious, as it is repeated over and over again in the country. I am extremely angry at the Punjab Government's initial non-reaction to this collusion of state machinery in wanton killing. Shahbaz Sharif's reaction today to denounce the violence and visit Gojra are inadequate and late but at least better than total silence. Zardari's unambiguous and quick reaction to the incident and moving Rangers into the area should be appreciated, even by his many critics.
05 August, 2009 01:25
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