Hacking website—New Tool of Bangladeshi Islamic Parties

Forty two years after liberation, Bangladesh is at a crossroad—the nation is literally on the verge of a civil war because of Islamic extremism. On 14th August, 1947, Pakistan was created in two distinct regions, East and West, separated by India, on the basis of religious divide. Only a few months later, Pakistan's Father of the Nation Mohammad Ali Jinnah addressed a huge public rally at the Ramna Race Course Maidan, currently known as Suhrawardy Uddyanon. On 21st March 1948, Jinnah emphatically declared, “Let me make it very clear to you that the state language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and no other language.” In his arrogance, Jinnah was totally insensible that Urdu was spoken by only about 3% of the Pakistanis, while Bangla was the vernacular of over 52% of the populace.

Two days later, Jinnah repeated his assertion of Urdu as the language of Pakistan at convocation of Dhaka University at Curzon Hall, and there was immediate protest from the attending students, astounding Jinnah. The commotion created from Jinnah’s proclamation incited spontaneous protests that later turned into language movement, popularly known as bhasa andolon. By 1952, the movement grew strength. On 21st February of that year police fired on a protest rally at the heart of Dhaka city, four students died, and the language movement spread to all corners of the country.

Two things happened on that day: it was clearly established that a country could not be founded on the basis of a religion and a strong national identity on the basis of language and culture took wings that would ultimately result in the birth of a new nation nearly two decades later.

Bangladesh became a free country in 1971, but its birth was bloody. Some Bangalees blinded with religious zeal collaborated with the Pakistanis, and together with Urdu-speaking migrants from Bihar, India, formed rajakar forces and participated in raping and killing of ordinary Bangladeshis. Pakistani army guided and protected the rajakars. Most heinous of their crime was participating in the murder of prominent Bangalee intellectuals on the eve of surrender of Pakistan army, 16th December, 1971. The very first government of Bangladesh had set up a tribunal for the trial of war criminals, but that tribunal was disbanded when Sheikh Mujib, the Father of the Nation was killed, and his government overturned by a military coup.

A new tribunal was constituted under the present government, and the first verdict of that tribunal came out only recently, when Abdul Kader Molla , a notorious rajakar was awarded life imprisonment. A spontaneous protest by young Bangladeshis soon mushroomed into a grassroots movement called projonmo, at projonmo chottor, at Shahbag in Dhaka. The movement initially spread through active participation of a few bloggers, who built a network of young activists primarily through the internet media. The political wing of the Islamic fundamentalists in Bangladesh, the Jamat-e-Islam party and its student front Chatra Shibir sensed immediate danger, and began anti-projonmo activities almost right away, by spreading rumors. They labeled the projonmo activists as anti-Islam and falsely accused them of hurling insults on Prophet Mohammad. They literally began a campaign of mendacity, hacked web-site of prominent bloggers to discredit them and blame them for sacrilege of Islam. The Islamic fundamentalists killed Rajib Haidar, a young architect and Shahbagh protest activist, accusing him of blasphemy. Jamat began inciting nation-wide violence against the Hindu minorities, destroying their properties, attacking their temples, and killing them. Jamat and other rightwing Islamic fronts receive strong support from, Saudi Arabia Turkey, and other Muslim countries, and they are awash with funds and arms.

When Delawar Hossain Sayedee, a grocer turned Islamic scholar, who had personally taken part in atrocities committed against common people in 1971, was awarded death sentence, Jamat was joined by the other pro-Pakistani party, BNP, and the violence spread all over the nation. Bangladesh’s Opposition leader Khaleda Zia, a former collaborator who spent the whole duration of Bangladesh liberation war under the protection of Pakistan army, revealed her true character lately by coming out openly in support of the Islamic fundamentalists and demanding a shutdown of the Shahbag protest against Jamaat-e-Islami war criminals. She branded the protest, a platform of “atheists and spoilt people,” which was a plain broadside against the national spirit and forces of freedom in Bangladesh.

Over hundred people have died so far from the ensuing violence and there is no end in sight of the hartals and bloodshed. On one side there are fanatic Muslims bent upon carrying out Islamic jihad, on the other there are moderate Muslims, who are nationalists and want to see their country as secular. Jamat's main assault has turned against the minority Hindus and their places of worship, making their safety at stake. Condition of the minority groups in Bangladesh is getting worse by the day, they are living under trepidation, as religious fundamentalism is threatening to consume their religious freedom, in line with the philosophy of the Taliban's and the Al Qaeda's.

Previously published on Technorati

With Sequester Recession Looms Large

On Friday, the President signed $85 billion spending cut that will phase in different stages, starting in a few weeks. The fledgling economy which barely grew out of recession is now looking at it once again, but the most serious impact of the sequestration is going to be on the unemployment numbers, which is bound to rise.

Only yesterday I wrote , “At one side is the T-party led Republicans who are totally bent upon preserving the interest of the superrich, on the other side is Wall Street led Democrats who pretend to be the savior of the little guys.”
Some of you who read my article were unhappy that I had branded the Democrats in the same breath as the Republicans. Because the mindset, “Democrats as the savior of the little guys” is too deep rooted in many of you and those of you are unable to get out of the groove.

In contrast one reader responding to Robert Reich’s The Sequester and the Tea Party Plot saw through the charade, and commented, “Don't be fooled. The President is in on the plot. Democrats and Republicans, most of them in on it too, are playing good cop - bad cop so as to keep us people against each other, and for us not to realize the U.S.A. is not a democracy, but all Washington answers to a couple hundred psycho billionaires who rule over us, and these psycho billionaires have decided us common folk here in America have been having too good for too long and it’s time to put us in our place along with the rest of the common folk living on five bucks a day in third world countries. Yes we are utterly screwed.”

The problem is, this reader is still in minority, and the vast majority of sheeple is unable to see through the sham game the politicians play to keep their control. You want proof?

For several weeks Obama traveled the country declaring that all hells are going to break loose if the sequester comes into play. His base, the progressives were in the seventh heaven—they got their revolutionary leader back! They never even realized that all Obama was doing was pandering to his base, throwing a few bones to chew.

On Friday, the very first day of the evil sequester, the President said , “Jedi mind meld could prod the GOP into compromise, and the dumb automatic across-the-board cuts taking effect Friday are the fault of Republican resistance to a reasonable deal to avert the sequestration's budget reductions(throwing another bone to his dimwit base).

Now mark this, his (Obama) profound observation, “We will get through this. This is not going to be an apocalypse, I think, as some people have said. It’s just dumb. And it's going to hurt.” This is the codeword—get used to it people—this is going to be your future.

Reich compared the impact of sequester with “Imagine a plot to undermine the government of the United States, to destroy much of its capacity to do the public’s business, and to sow distrust among the population.”

Reich further maintains, “Sequestration is only the start. What they set out to do was not simply change Washington but eviscerate the U.S. government — ‘drown it in the bathtub,’ in the words of their guru Grover Norquist – slashing Social Security and Medicare, ending worker protections we’ve had since the 1930s, eroding civil rights and voting rights, terminating programs that have helped the poor for generations, and making it impossible for the government to invest in our future.”

The sequester will slow the economic growth by 1.5 percentage points this year, at a time when it was barely growing at the rate of 2 percent. The Republicans paint a dooms day scenario if the deficit is not brought under control whereas the deficit is now down to about 5 percent of GDP, the same rate where it was when Bill Clinton became president.

So why is this sudden hue and cry?

Talk show host Thom Hartmann calls this “Double Santa Claus theory;” when in power Republicans give it to the rich in the form of tax cuts to the superrich and when out of power they force the Democrats to cut spending, again to benefit the rich.

Sequester!

As the much-hyped “sequester” is upon us, and the two apparent wayward political fronts are deeply entrenched against each other, the question is, who is going to blink first?

At one side is the T-party led Republicans who are totally bent upon preserving the interest of the superrich, on the other side is Wall Street led Democrats who pretend to be the savior of the little guys.

So why is this showdown?

Does it matter who wins?

To be honest, it does. Truth is, today’s Democratic Party is well on the right of our father’s Republican Party—the party of Eisenhower was more progressive in comparison. The other day Obama himself admitted on a Spanish language TV that he would be called a moderate Republican only a few decades ago. And as a good moderate Republican, he is making efforts to arrive at a compromise.

This morning’s White House meeting lasted less than an hour, making sure that no new deal is happening before the government shutdowns start in less than four weeks. The anti-tax conservatives make it sound like there is no revenue problem and the solution lies in cutting spendings that benefit the middle class and the poor.

So far Obama has acted very credibly. Describing the Republican efforts in the Senate, he said, “They voted to let the entire burden of deficit reduction fall squarely on the middle class.”

The strange thing is that polls show Obama has lost some public support in his handling of the economy. People have short memory, the self-destruction that the nation has embarked upon only began with Reagan tax cuts. Of course, to redress the shortfall of revenues from the reduction of top tax brackets Regan raised taxes on the middle class eight times or so.

Bill Clinton had shown that with only a nominal rise of few percentage points on the top tax brackets the nations’ economic health could be restored in a short time, but it seems ever body has forgotten that lesson and no one is making that case.

Obama forwarded a plan to raise $580 billion in new revenue over 10 years by eliminating the tax loop holes, the idea that was much touted by Mitt Romney in the last Presidential election. In exchange for the new tax revenues, Obama offered to reduce spending in health care programs such as Medicare by $400 billion over 10 years, change an inflation formula for government benefits by accepting the concept of chained CPI index that would result in lower cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security and other programs, but the GOP stood ground to save their masters, the 1% whom the serve, and rejected the idea.

Yet, the media is portraying Obama as the recalcitrant one!

So much for the liberal media!!!

Violence Has No Role In Islam

There is no role of violence in Islam—the target of Bush W’s new Jihad indeed preaches peace, one of the few among the organized religions, though has become much maligned today because of its overt political exploit. Only time Koran condones violence is in self-defense.

Let’s examine the Koranic verses in regard to violence:

You may fight in the cause of GOD against those who attack you, but do not aggress. GOD does not love the aggressors. [2:190]

You may kill those who wage war against you, and you may evict them whence they evicted you. Oppression is worse than murder. Do not fight them at the Sacred Masjid, unless they attack you therein. If they attack you, you may kill them. This is the just retribution for those disbelievers. [2:191]

If they refrain, then GOD is Forgiver, Most Merciful. [2:192]

You may also fight them to eliminate oppression, and to worship GOD freely. If they refrain, you shall not aggress; aggression is permitted only against the aggressors. [2:193]

During the Sacred Months, aggression may be met by an equivalent response. If they attack you, you may retaliate by inflicting an equitable retribution. You shall observe GOD and know that GOD is with the righteous. [2:194] And in a wonderfully compact expression Koran defines what shall be the true characteristic of a Muslim. Indeed this one sentence captures the whole spirit of the religion, and most followers found wanting measured with this simple yardstick:

You shall spend in the cause of GOD; do not throw yourselves with your own hands into destruction. You shall be charitable; GOD loves the charitable. [2:195]

In politics the goal is to achieve power in any manner, questionable techniques are no bars, that is why I reject the role of Jamat in Bangladeshi politics. Politics seeks power, the end justifying the means. Undoubtedly, power corrupts.

Politics gets dirty, down and dirty where nothing is unfair, however nefarious the means may be. That urge to succeed motivated Jamat to conduct unprovoked carnage of Bangladeshi intelligentia in the end days of Pakistani reign in Bangladesh.

Islamic history is bloody, even before Prophet Mohammed’s body had turned cold; his followers were shedding blood over who should be the next leader. In a beautiful renderation, Hasan Mahmud had captured this scenario in a book called Sharia Ki Bole Amra Ki Kori, which is freely downloadable from his site . I wish, He had published it in English.

The Unfinished Revolution Of Bangladesh

People, who kill God’s creation in the name of religion, neither serve God nor religion. Forty two years after independence Bangladesh is in search of its soul once again. When in 1971 Bangladesh achieved its freedom, for many it was a definitive proof that a country formed on the basis of religious affinity could not sustain in the civilized world. At that moment, it was natural that the US, the greatest democracy on earth, established with the promise to give its citizens freedom from religious persecution, would side with the new nation. Unfortunately, America was found on the wrong side of history in that seminal moment.

The freedom movement, ignited by the fiery speech of Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was spontaneous. Only a handful minority of Muslim fundamentalists, blinded with their religious zeal betrayed the spirit of freedom and collaborated with the oppressive Pakistani forces, abetting them in their heinous crimes against Bangladeshi people. The most vicious of those native collaborators, known as rajakars and albadrs, competed with the occupying army in pillaging, raping, setting arsons, and murdering innocent people to intimidate the freedom fighters. The most notorious of those rajakars killed hundreds of people, and they were well known and marked.

It was expected that those collaborators would be brought to justice for their atrocious actions in the new nation. But for the rulers of the war-ravaged country, which was facing a major famine and scores of other problems, ‘ the other priorities’ took precedence, and the lion-hearted Sheikh declared general amnesty for all those rajakars, which later proved to be a blunder that he had to atone with his own life .

Only in four years the country was ravaged in bloodbath, the Father of the Nation was killed along with most of his family members, and the political power was captured by a former Pakistani spy, Ziaur Rahman. By that time Sheikh Mujib was a much despised man, an unprecedented fall from grace for a venerated leader, only for his nepotism and wide spread corruption. Zia, a man of many virtues, principled and financially honest in a country of abundant corruption was seen as a savior, as life had turned very hard for great many people, and the rampant corruption of Sheikh Mujib’s government didn’t help it at all. However, the minority religious extremist groups got a new lease of life with the reign of Zia, and the course of the new nation reversed from progressive, secular to conservative, religious.

Zia also resumed the unfinished work of the rajakars and albadrs, decimating the freedom fighters with merciless killings, and promoting the elements of anti-freedom forces, which came to an end with his assassination. The legacy of bloodbath did not stop with the demise of Ziaur Rahman, the assault of the religious fundamentalist groups on the forces of freedom lovers continued unabated through various successive administrations with support from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey and other Muslim countries. It took nearly four decades for a Bangladeshi Administration to form a special tribunal to prosecute people accused of committing atrocities during the country’s 1971 independence war.

The first verdict of the special tribunal awarded life imprisonment to Kader Mollah, a man who personally had been responsible for executing hundreds of killings, in a country where death penalty is awarded for committing a single murder. On Feb. 5, a movement began, led by a coalition of bloggers demanding death penalty for Kader Mollah. The movement has now turned into a nationwide grassroots movement.

Tens of thousands of people are demonstrating everyday in Shahbagh, which has been named Projonmo Chottor, in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. The movement has been further intensified after Rajib Haider, a leading activist and avid blogger had been murdered in a fashion that carries telltale sign of the Jamate-e- Islami (major Islamic fundamentalist party) cadres. When the coffin bearing the body of Rajib Haider was brought out for a public funeral at Shahbagh, a crowd of more than 100,000 people assembled there. Bangladeshi television showed mass of people kneeling in prayer, chanting slogans and waving banners bearing Haider’s image.

Bangladesh is at a crossroad, at the forefront of a major turn of history. The question is will the USA and its people be at the right side of history this time? We all have a role to play. The stakes are too high. We must choose between the religious fundamentalist and secular progressive forces. The memory of the 9/11 is still too vivid in our nation’s psyche. We must not let the lives of over three thousand people go in vain.

Elections are smokescreens to perpetuate political hold in the USA

Commenting on full Senate vote for Chuck Hagel’s nomination for US defense secretary, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Thursday morning, “It is tragic that they have decided to filibuster this qualified nominee. This isn’t high school getting ready for a football game, or some play being produced at a high school, in less than two hours, our country will be without a secretary of defense.”

Last time a senator was rejected for defense secretary was in 1989, when the Texas Senator John Towers’ nomination was stopped by a vote of 53 (against) and 47 (in favor); the difference was—it was not a filibuster but straight party line vote.

There were grueling five weeks of testimony and debate amidst strong accusations of extensive womanizing, heavy drinking, and substantial charges of conflict-of-interest for the ex-senator. In contrast Chuck Hagel came out like a perfectly deserving candidate after his testimony. The reason Republicans are holding up Hagle’s nomination is that they want to receive specific intelligence about the Benghazi attack, intelligence that Harry Reid claims he has already provided, and of course which has no relevance with Hagel’s nomination.

Now, going back to Reid’s school game comment—he didn’t really think that the Republicans should have treated it as high school football game—I ask, really?

I thought this Mitch McConnell-led Senate had always treated affairs of congress as high school football game! If not, how is it that the first term of Obama had seen nearly 400 filibusters?

And just think of it—Chuck Hagel—a former Republican Senator received only four votes from the Republicans while all Democrats supported him. Do you see anything wrong with this picture? To me this tells all about the current US politics. It tells what is wrong with our politics. Morals, scruples, principles have no values, it’s all matter of posturing for the benefit of the vested interest groups.

But if the Democrats are in this situation today, they have none but themselves to blame for it. At the beginning of this new senate session they had the opportunity to do away with the archaic filibuster rule and establish a policy of majority rule, which is the fundamental bedrock of modern democracy, but they did not.

Why?

The US never had democracy, what it has is plutocracy, where minority nobility wields overwhelming power over the commoners, the class of the peasants. The Electoral College, the filibuster rule, the highly politicized judiciary, they all are to protect the interest of the royal class.

The two-party system in the US presents a sham democracy where the political circus is only to con the ordinary masses, giving them false hope that the political power could be changed through regular elections. Failure to reform the filibuster process clearly demonstrates that both the Democratic and the Republican party are beholden to this two-party system and they do not want any major reform. They want to perpetuate their benefit from the rigged current system. If 99 percent of present Republican politicians are servants of the military-industrial complex, of which the great Republican president Eisenhower had warned us many years ago, the overwhelming number of Democratic politicians are the same.

Until money is removed from US elections through electoral reforms, things will not get better.

Pains Of Growing Up

How halcyon were those days in God’s good old earth
When the gentle fairies; knights with shiny armors of bygone days
On majestic white horses, all watched over me.
Only to protect me, that was their task, a solemn duty.
And people were all good, all around me, mostly that is.
The evil ones, being rare, didn’t count, they didn’t
Have a chance in God’s good old earth.

Growing up, the prophets awed me, all of them
The King who left his kingdom, the Sheppard man, the Carpenter
The Warrior of the desert, their teachings, the Almighty in heaven
And their discourses, like volume of seas and mountains majestic
The beautiful flowery words, and their magical specter.
Oh, how serene were those days, the evil didn’t
Have a chance in God’s good old earth.

Now it’s my own autumn, sages are all gone
Fairies in heaven, Alice in Wonderland—smoke mirror, nothing more,
Sycophants all around, and how I see through them!
How it broke my heart, the hurt and the anguish.
But I’ve my own shield, the universe within me
And my Father, not in heaven, not on a throne
Lives within me, and without, and I’ve my peace.

The Democrats Sell The Progressives Once More

I am writing the obituary of Obama Presidency even before it begins its 2nd term. For all practical purposes Obama’s fate is now sealed after spineless Harry Reid’s dismal failure to push through a filibuster reform . Five Democratic Senators led by Carl Levin, and strongly supported by Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, sold their souls to the devil to betray the American working class.

The Senate filibuster rule that allows a lone senator to hold up a bill unless 60 senators vote to end the debate was instituted by the founder fathers to entice the small states to join the union. In the past the rule was used judiciously, about once in a year, until the last senate in which minority leader Mitch McConnell made a mockery of the rule by using it nearly 400 time in four years. This stopped every major legislation the Democrats proposed.

It was up to Harry Reid to institute a major filibuster reform, which could be done only at the beginning of a new session, but he failed miserably. And with that failure we can be sure that no meaningful achievement will be made in this presidency. No greater heights will be scaled in social reforms, and no signature accomplishment will be accomplished. This presidency will not even succeed in arresting the horrible downward trend the nation is going through. Obama will occupy a position as an insignificant president in the history of this nation, who came at a seminal time, had unbound potential, but at the end was a colossal failure.

Talk show host Ed Schultz called it “a massive failure for the leader of the Democrats.” He said, “Harry Reid is letting the minority party run the country. He’s giving Republicans all the ammunition they need to block President Obama’s second-term agenda. And you know what? He’s going to regret it.”

Just the other day—all the progressives talk show hosts were so impressed over the 2nd inaugural address that they were calling it the most progressive agenda after President Kennedy. The liberal columnists were breaking their pens writing praise for his speech. Only in a week time—the reality struck hard, and proved one more time, speech-doesn’t-melt the ice. The idiom—empty vessels sound much, after all has passed the test of time.Obama was forewarned by the junior senator of Iowa, Sen. Tom Harkin. In Harkin’s own words: I said to President Obama back in August ... and I said to him the night before the election, Look, if you get reelected, if we don’t do something significant about filibuster reform, you might as well take a four-year vacation.

Adam Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee said, “This is a bad decision based on fear—a decision that will ultimately hurt millions of people who would have been helped by progressive bills that Republicans are sure to filibuster.”

Harkin further stated, “He (president) can go out and give wonderful speeches and things like that, but with the House in the hands it's in and the fact that in the Senate now you have to have 60 votes to pass anything, well, I dare say that Obama’s package—his very aggressive proposals—will not get very far.”

The political director of CREDO, Becky Bond, said, “It was George Bush who said, ‘Fool me once, shame on—shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again,' but sadly it's the American people who are going to pay the price.”

But I want the Democrats to pay a price too. Vote the enemies of the American people out next election. I believe, even a GOP control in all three branches will be better than what we have now—a totally dysfunctional government.

A rule of the gutless brain-dead politicians beholden to corporate interests is the worst possible thing that can happen in a nation’s life, yet desperate time calls for desperate actions!

Whither God?

People visit churches seeking God, what they get in lieu is religion. Only the fools strive to encompass The Master of the Creation within the confine of four walls. How preposterous are they!

Only fools travel faraway lands to find what is within themselves, they don’t get what they want, they merely lose themselves.

Divide and mislead is the way of the false prophets, be warned; they only deceive and waste away the precious souls, the loving gifts of the Master.

If you want to see God, close your eyes, and delve deep down. When you drive away the little ego-the lone Satan within you, the universe within reveals all its myriad grandeur, and only then you receive grace that blows away the darkness of ignorance; the daylight dawns. You see God, and God only, everything else disappears, on this very earth.

Return of a Stolen Ring, Fifteen Years Later

If you were in Mr. or Mrs. Riphagen's shoes how would you react? Of course you would be happy finding the long-lost rings for which you would have given up all hopes, but how would you react to the person who had stolen it?

Just think of it, you could not find four of your gold rings on the morning following a party that you hosted the previous night. There were only invited guests, so the idea that someone might have stolen it would probably not even enter your mind. You would naturally think that you must have misplaced them, and since you probably had some sweet memories attached to the rings, you would have looked for them all over. And not finding them you would be pretty upset on yourself for being careless in placing them in some strange location.

Then you would rethink in your mind tracing the steps from the moment you last had possession of them. You would come up with some probable alternatives, your hopes of finding them would rise, you would rush to look for them, only to be disheartened again. Then you would repeat this umpteenth time, getting more and more discouraged with each failure, until you would sadly resign to the fact that you would never find them. The process would leave a vacuum in you.

Then one day, fifteen years later you find those rings with the letter of apology from the person who had stolen it—what would transpire in your mind? After the initial joy slowly fades over the next few days, what would you think? Would you start thinking, who could it be? Would you try to remember who were the people that had gathered at your home fifteen years ago, on that fateful night? Would you try to scrutinize each face, and think who could be the thief? Would you be shocked that the thief was one of your invited guests, a trusted friend? A relative?

Would that thought disturb you? Would you start suspecting someone? Would that force you to speculate? And, would you at one moment think that perhaps it would have been better not to get those rings back at all? For fifteen years you had a vacuum, but that vacuum had almost shrunk to a nearly nonexistent dimension. You had learnt to live without them. Now would their return perturb you so much, since you were afraid of accusing someone innocent in your mind, it would have been better, if the person would not have returned them to you? And most importantly, would you truly be able to forgive the person?

But for the thief, why this change of mind after 15 years? Why did it take the person such a long time for change-of-heart? Was it the sense of embarrassment that kept the person from returning the objects all these years? What did finally catapult the person to gather the courage to return the items? What was it that gave the person remorse, strong enough to act?

Previously published on Technorati.

To live a life in one moment

You ask me how to live a life my child
Life that is envy of the gods
And I tell you of the life that is eternal.
This is the truth and the only Truth
That I ask you to remember, all else
Of no significance in particular.

Give your last bread to the hungry
Give your last seep of drink to the thirsty
Give your only shelter to the homeless
On the night of cold and blizzard
And walk away with a smile on your face.
You’ll live your life in that moment.

Bring smile on the face of a child in grief
Plant a sapling that will shade
Weary travelers long after you’re gone
Save a creature from ruin
Be it the least among creation.
You’ll live your life in that moment.

Story Of Life

As she was beginning to perfect her walking, she’d walk around the house all day long, without purpose. Later, I’d learn that was nothing novel for her, she was just following her own script, her individual expression of life.

Practice makes one perfect—no one had to tell her that adage, and of course she was too young to understand that anyway. She was nevertheless born with that knowledge. The first day she’d learn a new word, she’d keep on using that word in almost every sentence, whether it made sense or not. Then I won’t hear her speaking it for some time and I’ll forget about it.

One day suddenly, when I’d forgotten all about that word, I’d hear her using it, and she’d do that in a perfect context. It was no surprise therefore that she learned to speak well rather early, and had a great appetite for listening to stories.

I wasn’t one of those fathers who’d read bed time stories from the classic children’s books, I was too lazy for that. Naturally, it wasn’t long before I exhausted all my stock stories, which were gifts from both my parents and grandparents.

Being a lazy reader, I then resorted to make up my own stories. I was not endowed with many talents in life, and certainly wasn’t gifted with storytelling abilities, and therefore, my stories lacked coherence and substance. I became aware of my shortcomings, as I didn’t find any other child beside my daughter who’d pay attention to my stories.

There were times though, when I thought, not reading to my daughter Alice in the Wonderland, or, Hansel and Gretel, perhaps I was depriving her of an early education rich in imagination and mind broadening inculcation.

Soon however, I discovered, she was telling me stories. True that her stories were even more incoherent than mine, and they made even less sense, but she was using words flawlessly from a rich stock. In her stories, the blue elephants would have pink tails, and the tigers would make friends with small birds rather than their own kinds, nonetheless she’d the ability to make up endless sequences without being stuck in a groove.

In those days her world would revolve around me, and she depended on me to take her outside our house to introduce her to the world so that she could explore the unknown.

She would watch the flowers, butterflies, waves on the oceans endlessly, and ask questions nonstop. Her barrage of questions would sometimes create the impression that she was asking only for the sake of asking, and that thought brought irritation in me, but I forced to restrain my emotion.

The first shock I’d had was when she’d say, “But Daddy, you said it didn’t rain in the deserts in the summer, so how could it rain in Dubai in July?”

That stunned me, because several weeks ago I‘d told her it didn't rain in the desert in summertime, and I didn't think she was paying attention then. From then on I’d be careful while responding to her. No more casual comments.

I can quite relate to it now, that it was not my daughter who alone was growing up, I too was growing with her, and learning, and gaining wisdom.

Teaching her how to ride a bike, my own handling of it was getting better. Teaching her how to swim, I was overcoming my own clumsiness in water. Helping her with additions, multiplications and divisions, I was rediscovering the magic of numbers again. We indeed were growing up together.

Then, without even realizing I stopped growing own day. I first discovered this when she effortlessly installed an App. so that I could convert a YouTube song to mp3. She was still growing, but I wasn’t.

She was growing, if not outside, surely inside, since she was still asking me questions. But the nature of her questions was changing, and it was no longer easy for me to answer them.

One day she asked me, “Dad, you told me lies never win, but I can see all around me people who lie are the ones who move up all the time. What am I supposed to do?”

The question had shaken my own core conception and belief system, and I spent a long time dwelling on it, but still have not found the right answer.        

Then another day she asked, “If I’m supposed to forgive someone seventy time seven then why does our country sends drones to far-away countries and kill children and women who even don’t know us?”

I’m still searching for an answer to this question.

I was beginning to dread her questions. I was secretly hoping she would stop asking me questions.

And she surely did stop asking me questions, although I didn’t realize it first when she did that.

One day, watching TV together, as she came over to share the Thanksgiving week-end, she smiled at a politicians comment, “The proposed cut in the program is only to strengthen it…” She didn’t ask me any question, just smiled at me; that day I realized my daughter had truly grown up.

That day I also realized I was seeing her less and less for the last few years.

Once I was the center point of her life and she lived in my world, now I lie in the periphery of the world she has created for herself. Once she strove for my continual attention, now other things have taken over her priority, and I seldom appear in her focus. Our worlds are still connected, but only remotely.

When the transition occurred I even didn’t notice it, since it happened gradually, and we don’t perceive gradual changes.

I’d also failed to notice that when I was with her it was always she who was driving the car. I’d also failed to notice, it was I who was asking her questions when faced with any decision making.

Oh, how has it come full circle!

But that’s the story of life, isn’t that? It’s time to accept, and move on. That’s how it’s supposed to be.

What a fool I’ve been!

Had thought it all to be of my own,

Won with intellect and labor hard

And pride stole my innocence.

Only when the veil was lifted

I learned that all my possession

Was mere gift to me from nature

Loaned to me in Grace and Mercy.

But in turn I’d lost my humility,

The greatest gift to have

What a fool I’ve been!

Who Is A Terrorist?

If you were not born in privilege, perhaps you would be one. If your house was destroyed, your parents killed, sisters raped, brothers tortured, perhaps you would be one. If you had no opportunity to come out of the gutter that you had to live in, perhaps you would be one. If you were indoctrinated by people who controlled your life, and you knew no better, perhaps you would be one.

Every time I see a terrorist I realize there is a part of me that is to blame—it’s that part of me that prevented me to share a piece of my bread, a part of me that did not let me extend a hand to build a new house for you, a part of me that prevented me pulling you out of your gutter, a part of me that prevented me spreading education that could have illumined your mind.

"For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick, and you didn’t care for me. I was in prison, and you didn’t visit me.

Then these righteous ones will reply, 'Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and not feed you? And the Lord will tell them, 'I assure you, when you didn’t do it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you weren’t doing it to me!'"

How Long People?

How long will it be since we come to terms with our humanity and truly be the representative of our Creator Who sent us to rule this earth? If you are not religious, forgive my expression and rewrite it to suit your belief, just don’t shoot the message.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Israel has just suffered a historic defeat. One only had to watch the international news coverage. BBC persisted in its typically awful reportage on the Israel-Palestine conflict during Israel’s latest rampage. But tonight it had to acknowledge that the people of Gaza were out in the streets celebrating.”

Is the above paragraph written by a crazy antiemetic? No it’s written by Norman G. Finkelstein—if you live in the North America you perhaps have guessed that the name is Jewish, and if so, you are right.

“Norman Gary Finkelstein (born December 8, 1953) is an American political scientist, activist and author. His primary fields of research are the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the politics of the Holocaust, an interest motivated by the experiences of his parents who were Jewish Holocaust survivors, “ says Wikipedia . Finkelstein’s parents were Jewish Holocaust survivors—note that people—Finkelstein learned directly from his parents how terrible Holocaust experiences were. Would it not be natural for him to write and sing the praise of Israel?

In this article, Finkelstein wrote, “Israel suffered a double defeat. Its announced goal when it went into Gaza was to restore its “deterrence capacity. But at the end of the day its deterrence capacity had been drastically reduced: The once mighty Israeli army that caused the whole Arab/Muslim world to tremble could not even defeat the impoverished and weaponless tiny enclave of Gaza. Israel demanded an unconditional and unilateral secession of Hamas ‘rocket’ attacks. But Israel had to accept a mutual ceasefire. It also had to make promises regarding the siege of Gaza. It is highly improbable that anything will come of these Israeli promises, but still, Israel could not unilaterally impose its will.”

And that’s not it all folks, Finkelstein went on to write, “Let it, finally, be said: In praise of the ever-martyred but ever-heroic and ever-renascent people of Gaza. May they live to see the full brightness of dawn.”

WOW!

What’s wrong with Finkelstein? Is he a turncoat? An apologizer for Israeli oppressors of the Gazan people, who kills defenseless women and children without slightest remorse?

If you are one of those 57 percenters who blindly support Benjamin Netanyahu’s relentless war mongering, you might think so, but the truth is it is Finkelstein, Noam Chomsky and visionaries such as them that make the Jewish people great. If human race must be grateful to one religious group for augmenting human civilization—whether in the field of science, art, or name any intellectual pursuit, it is the Jewish people without any second thought.

So, why should it be a surprise that that group of people will have a Finkelstein? Is it a surprise that Albert Einstein was not too happy with the creation of Israel, and he refused the offer to become the first President of the newly created country? To me it’s not, people such as Einstein, or Chomsky are too big to be identified with any small sectarian group—they truly belong to the human race.

Jews as a race has been historically persecuted, driven out of their homes, imprisoned, tortured, burned alive in gas chambers and bore the brunt of savagery of human race—like no other group of people. No one race deserves a homeland of their own, more than the Jewish people. And what a turn around it is from the state of persecution to a state of honor, power and strength that they are in now. But when the oppressed turns the oppressor must the world remain silent and support them blindly? That is where this world has come to. The western, overtly Caucasian people who had persecuted the Jews only a few decades ago has now, only to overcome their guilt, become cheer leaders of the Israeli aggressors. When a war promoter such as Barack Obama mindlessly proclaims, we support Israel’s right of self defense—what of right of self-defense of the Palestinians?

American people need to learn that criticism of Israeli government is not criticism of Jewish people, and one does not become anti-Semite condemning abominable war mongering leaders of Israel who themselves persecute the honorable Jews. Ask the scientist who outed Israel’s nuclear secret, and countless other progressive Jews who want to promote humanity beyond the myopic view of a few self-serving politicians. Will the world let Yitzhak Rabin’s blood go in vain?

How long are we going to divide the world in race, religion, culture, and endless grouping? How long are we going to remain ignorant, fighting between ourselves while the manipulators skim the wealth of this beautiful earth for their own greed?

How long? Previously published on Technorati.