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Revolution in Tunisia
Tariq Ramadan
All honor and praise to the people of Tunisia ! Their resistance and non-violent civic revolutionary action, their determination and sacrifice, has shaken the dictatorship to its foundations. President Ben Ali has fled—he and his close collaborators should have been put on trial—and the country's prime minister (a long time Ben Ali's support) has taken the helm…but for how much longer ? What we are witnessing is the first stage ; the stakes are high, the situation fraught with danger. Anything can happen : an attempt by the regime to play for time or to manipulate the people's demands (with a sham "new" government) ; shadowy maneuvers by internal or outside forces. Vigilance is essential ; there is no place for naivety ; we must remain alert, and beware of hasty expedients. Tunisia's informal citizens' revolution has revealed an extraordinary power, but the new counter-power's strength can also become a weakness if confronted with political forces that will attempt to use the constitution, international political alignments or profit from a cooling-off period simply to reshuffle the deck. We must be equally vigilant about the role of the army. The people may be offered the appearance of freedom minus the dictator, followed by a new clampdown on Tunisian political life. Let us indeed hail this first victory—but be aware that the outcome is far from settled.
The people of Tunisia have taken to the streets in a spirit of non-violence, and have said "No !" The end of the dictatorship has come. We must salute it, respect it, and commit ourselves to supporting it. Without bending. We must pay close attention to all the new voices promising their "support ;" voices that were perfectly silent under Ben Ali yet today present themselves as "democrats" without a past. Likewise, we must draw up a balance sheet of the individual and international accomplices who would like nothing more, now that non-violent resistance has triumphed, than for us to forget their treachery, their lies and their hypocrisy. Lives have been lost ; men and women have been tortured, suffered exile and humiliation : these are the people we must stand shoulder to shoulder with. Their sacrifices, their suffering and their tears have not been in vain. The lesson is a beautiful one ; the historical moment, a great one : a people have overthrown their dictator. Now, that people must have done with his system, his lackeys and his partners in crime.
------ Forwarded message ----------
Birth centennial of poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz will be observed on Feb 13, 2011. A great oriental Urdu poet of versatile qualities who showed deep social consciousness for the downtrodden. He was basically a rebellious poet who was seen as a threat to the establishment. He grew up surrounded by literature with a father who was a friend to many writers, including Allama Iqbal. His schooling took him to Lahore where he studied Arabic and English literature. His literary studies laid the foundation for him to create a modern Urdu verse that took on larger social and political issues of his times yet retained the polished style and diction of the ghazal. He began his career as the editor of the leftist English-language daily, Pakistan Times, as well as the managing editor for the Urdu daily, Imroz. Although his first volume of poetry, Naqsh-e-Faryadi, was published in Lucknow in 1941; he became widely known after the 1952 publication of Dast-e Saba, poems written during his imprisonment by the Pakistani Government. After the military coup led by general Zia ul haq in 1979, Faiz lived in self-exile in Beirut writing for the Afro-Asia Writers Association journal, Lotus, until his return to Pakistan in 1982.
As a Marxist Faiz Ahmad Faiz rejected the notion of "art for art's sake". He has been described as a "committed" poet who used his simple verse to probe not only beauty and love but also humanism and justice. His imprisonment was evident in more than his two collections of poems written during his political detention. His translator Shiv K Kumar sees his imprisonment as a "metaphor that embodies his poetic vision." Aside from poet, Faiz was a journalist, songwriter, and activist.
In spite of his Marxist beliefs, Faiz did not burden his poems with ideological rhetoric. He fused classic traditional forms of poetry with new symbols derived from Western political ideas. However, in an interview Faiz has criticized the view that a poet "should always present some kind of philosophical, political or some other sort of thesis..." Like Muhammad Iqbal, he reinterpreted the most important theme in the Urdu ghazal, the theme of love. The word ghazal comes from Arabic and has been translated as "to talk with women" or "to talk of women." Faiz often addressed his poem to his "beloved", which can be interpreted as his muse, his country, or his concept of beauty or social change. "Your beauty still delights me, but what can I do? / The world knows how to deal out pain, apart from passion, / and manna for the heart, beyond realm of love. / don't ask from me, Beloved, love like that one long ago." (from 'Don't Ask Me Now, Beloved') The traditional beloved of ghazal cannot offer the poet answer to human suffering and social problems - "Bitter threads began to unravel before me / as I went into alleys and in open markets / saw bodies plastered with ash, bathed in blood. / I saw them sold and bought / again and again. / This too deserves my attention."
The beauty of Urdu poetry may be called unparalleled for its presentation, pain and depth. Faiz took full advantage of this opportunity and used his exceptional capability in producing some of world's best poems. After Mirza Ghalib he was one of the foremost poets in Urdu language. There is a saying in Urdu that, chand sher mila diziye ghazal tho bunn jati hain, leking zigar ka khoon bhi chahiye asr kay liye. By putting some lines a ghazal can be made but to make it effective blood from the heart is necessary. Faiz put all the blood from his heart into his poems.
I will place here an original Urdu poem and its English translation
Original Urdu
Raat yunh dil mein teri khoee hui yaad aayee
Jaise veeraaney mein chupkey sey bahaar aa jaye
Jaisey sehra on mein howley se chaley baadey naseem
Jaisey beemaar ko bey wajhey Qaraar aa jaaye
English Translation
Last night, your lost memories crept into my heart
as spring arrives secretly into a barren garden
as a cool morning breeze blows slowly in a desert
as a sick person feels well, for no reason.
Another one is so touching,
Sham-e-firaq aab na pooch, aai aur aa ke Tul gai
dil tha ke phir bhehal gaya, jaaN thee ke phir sanbhal gai
bazm-e-Khayal maiN tere husn ki shama jal gai
dard ka chaand bujh gaya, hijr ki raat Dhal gai
jab tujhey yaad kar liya subha mehak mehak uThee
jab tera ghum jaga liya raat machal machal gai
dil se to her muamla kar ke chale thai saaf hum
kehney maiN onkey samney baat badal badal gai
aaKhir-e-shab ke humsafar "faiz" najaney kya hoey
reh gai kis jaga saba, subha kidhar nikal gai
Translation:
Ask no more (about) the night of separation; it came, and passed
The heart got diverted again; life found its feet again
in the salon of (my) thoughts, the candle of your beauty was lighted
the moon-of-pain extinguished itself, the night of separation slipped away
whenever you were remembered, the mornings became fragrant
when your pain was awakened, the nights grew restless
in the heart i had sorted out all the issues before setting out
(however) while recounting before her, (my) words changed themselves
who knows where the fellow-travellers of the end-of-the-night went, Faiz?
at which spot did the breeze get left behind? and which way did the dawn walk off?
Akbar Hussain
How often AL chamchas respond to these type of facts in Bangladesh?
Dear moderator at Alochona,
As a group whose mission is the well being of Bangladesh and its citizen, some of your members might be interested in the following.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dear Friends,
Professor Muhammad Yunus has recently come under criticism following a Norwegian documentary. He has tirelessly worked for the poor of Bangladesh and his micro-finance model has been replicated around the world. He has brought tremendous prestige for the country by showing a pioneering way to alleviate poverty, and by also winning the Nobel Prize.
We feel that these recent criticism tarnishes the image of both Professor Yunus and Bangladesh. The least we can do is to express how we feel on this issue, and render our support to Professor Yunus. To this end, we have drafted an open letter stating our feelings. If you share similar views, please read and sign the petition. In addition we encourage you to share it with your friends and social groups all over the world.
Thanks
http://www.petitiononline.com/a110115z/petition.html
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[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
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I was appalled to see the picture of a minor Bangladeshi girl hanging cold and dead from the barbed wire fence on the India Bangladesh border. No, I am not going to touch politics in this matter but I would definitely write something on the state of the mind of the people on the both side of the border. I find a serious gap between their perceived human culture and the realities of life. The concept of human dignity is a general term but it starts from a single human being. This unfortunate innocent girl whose brutal killing hardly made any wave in the conscience of the people of Bangladesh and India proves one truth that they are far away from the meaning of human dignity. Life is unpredictable but life is not something that can be wasted. This is a mockery of truth when people claim legendary wisdom from their ancestry but after thousands of years they are yet to know the implications of wisdom. Many enraged people who will blame the Awami League government for their inaction to this gruesome crime and will hold the Indian government responsible for not doing anything to ameliorate the charged feelings of the aggrieved but I would strongly advise them to look into this matter from another angle.
The refinement of moral senses is not a matter of time; it's a development which takes place in the human psyche through social development. The notion of social progress is not based on history; it's based on enlightenment and economic stability of life. If the number of people brings down the value of life than morality is a victim of ignorance.
When I look at the picture of this unfortunate girl hanging from the barbed wire fence in a desolate place, I find the human conscious hanging from there.
If such a thing would have happened in the western world the reaction and repercussion would have been totally different. A charge of murder and manslaughter would have followed against the culprit. The national conscious would have been questioned. The government responsible would have been sued for millions of dollars. The minister responsible would have resigned in shame and remorse.
Finally I would say societies that tolerate and appease such medieval barbarian actions end up being consumed by those actions.
Akbar Hussain
News Blaze, January 15, 2011
http://newsblaze.com/story/20110115083624zzzz.nb/topstory.html
Op-Ed Contributor
An Open Letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
Dear Prime Minister,
On Friday the 14th of January 2011, an activist of your party from Sher-e-Banglanagar in Dhaka was shot dead. The media reports suggest that the cause of the murder could be rivalry among your party men of that particular area. We do not know if the police could have prevented that tragedy. However, what we know is that our police forces have been wrongly used and been treated as your party musclemen since you came to power. They have shown complete loyalty to you and your party affiliates.
Without any official investigation, you suspended the officer-in-charge, Reaz Hossain, and a sub-inspector, Kamaruzzaman, of Sher-e-Banglanagar Police Station. (For more details, please see:
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=170111)
I highly appreciate your quick action if that was intended to stop unlawful killings in the country.
However, the crime records of the country since you came to power do not persuade us to believe that your intention was crime prevention. Your party hooligans and government forces have killed dozens of opposition political leaders and activists (many of them in broad daylight). But no police officers have ever been suspended or terminated for those killings. In the border region, the Indian BSF has killed hundreds of Bangladeshis, including my younger sister Felani, since you came to power. You have remained totally silent!
Dear Prime Minister, kidnapping and the culture of 'disappearance' was never the practice in the political history of our nation. You started that on 25th of June 2010. Your forces arrested Dhaka City Corporation ward councilor and BNP central leader Chowdhury Alam at around 9:30 pm while he was leaving the party's central office at Naya Paltan.
Dear Prime Minister, where is Chowdhury Alam? I know you have no satisfactory answer to this question. However, his family members now understand that he is no longer alive! We hear the stories of many other 'disappeared' opposition leaders and activists. We do not know whether or not they are still alive.
Dear Prime Minister, soon after you came to power, you established a good diplomatic tie with Tunisia, for which no previous governments felt any need. We comprehended very well the reason for that sudden diplomatic move. Tunisia has little to give to our country. The only thing Tunisia's Ben Ali could give you was a model to remain in power undemocratically for a very long time.
Dear Prime Minister, such grip on power always brings tragic end for the power-wielders, especially the one at the top of the hierarchy.
Dear Prime Minister, we know that your main strength lies beyond Bangladesh. Big powers are now with you and using you. They are the beneficiaries for the time being. But I warn you, once people rise up against your totalitarian practices. Once your police forces and party musclemen are overwhelmed by the courage of the people, your foreign patrons will desert you. They will discard you and will try to find new 'friends'. They discarded your father and his Iraqi friend Saddam Hussein. When your father was brutally killed, where were they?
Dear Prime Minister, France and America used to be Ben Ali's patrons and main supporters. When people forced him out from power and he tried to take shelter in France, according to the BBC's report, "President Nicolas Sarkozy had rejected a request for the aircraft to land in France." And US President Barack Obama applauded "the courage and dignity of the Tunisian people" and did not stand by Ben Ali.
Madame Prime Minister, please do not torture your citizens and never think that big powers will remain with you forever. Big powers will discard you after use, and only the people of Bangladesh will be there rain or shine.
One last word: please do not pin too much hope on people around you. They appeared extremely coward when your father was killed.
Yours,
A Citizen of Bangladesh and Your Well-wisher
We need many demos and meetings throughout the country similar to the ones as follows, remembering that actions speak louder than words:
Human chain in Chittagong against BSF atrocities
http://www.amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2011/01/14/63069
Press conference on border killings demands: BSF must stop killings and abductions:
http://www.amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2011/01/15/63228