Thursday, October 4, 2007

Army of Love

A spirit that is One; an army that cannot be crushed.
Nay, a belief its shield,
The shield itself the enemy cannot even touch
A siege that no fortification can repel.
An advance which no walls can hold in
A fire burning bright
An ignited heart surely conquers the mind
With love,
uniting it
For Truly a heart pure is the greatest weaponand its potency is the degree
Of the faith
in a promise
A covenant made in Gardens with rivers flowing beneath
In His Infinite presence
This Trust in Him, the armor.
And His Love the force bound to conquer all.

March then onwards,
For Truth hath come
And with it the power of all that is Good
To cleanse falsehood from among us
The undoing of lies
To light a fire within
For all to see


March then onwards,
March.

Is Beauty from Truth?

For those who forget the Truth,
Beauty is the chief reminder.
Like night which reminds us of the galaxies and stars
That are outside the bounds of our hands.

Beauty has the power to move.
Upset the inner equilibrium of a feeling being.
It causes man to think again,
To question
Gently sing him out of his trance


This questioning leads man back to a search for a misplaced Truth.
And it is only when one questions, that one can separate that which is from that which is not
Questioning helps man to distinguish.
Between right and wrong
Darkness and light.
Freedom from captivity.

For this Is what man has, which animals do not possess
The freedom to ponder,
The privilege to contemplate,
The endowment of reason
The ability to reflect
a capacity to wonder
The power to imagine

The blessing that is the soul.

Whether knowingly or unknowingly, it is only when one is questioning that one finds the Answer. For the question and the answer are forever bound to each other. Inseparable.

And with this intuition,
With instinctive questioning, is when one wanders in search of the Answer.
For it is through the Creation itself, that the Creator is found.

Angels, they are made of light.
They are like the stars in a beautiful night sky.
But man, man Is no star.
Man is like the moon.
Going round in circles by a set order.
Running a course set for him.
With craters as scars
Marking his past
Struggles, successes, and failures.

But in this moon is the potential.
That from being invisible and seemingly insignificant, it can reflect.
Reflect the Light.
Though it takes it a number of days, slowly charging up.
It is after it has journeyed a certain amount and reached a certain point,
That it glows like a lamp in the sky
The Light covering up the craters
And one looking at it cannot help but stare in awe at
Its majestic Beauty.
This Beauty, that is a reflection of the Truth.
For metaphor and reflection are the only means
to understand the Truth
bask in It
glow in It
reflect It
and be One with It.
Atleast in this life.
Which in itself is a big reminder, full of little ones
Urging man to remember a time
When his soul was in the Divine presence
And was bound to a Promise.

“Those who forget, will be destined to remember”

Presentation on the Iraq war in UWO

For societies that profess to be secular, one is surprised to find the large number of people who still believe in myths, magic, and miracles.

Myths about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction

Hammered in by the powerful magic wand that is the media

And the notion that Iraqis would welcome the coalition forces as liberators, which if it were true, would’ve been nothing short of miraculous.


Respected professor, ladies and gentlemen, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, was a mistake, but not only a mistake. Strong evidence suggests a case of government dishonesty, the outcome of which was an illegal war, and a major foreign policy disaster.




The illegality of the war Illegality and its ramifications (the loss of credibility
):




In May 2005, the Downing Street memos were leaked to the times of London. The memos revealed that two weeks before the war was launched, Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, Blair’s chief legal advisor, counseled that regime change could not be the objective of military action. He further added that even if Britain were to limit its goal to ending the WMD program, it was still up to the UN Security Council to assess whether any such breach of those obligations had occurred, not individual states. Lord Goldsmith went on to add that the US had a rather different view: I quote “they maintain that the fact of whether Iraq is in breach is a matter of objective fact which may therefore be assessed by individual member states but I am not aware of any other states which support this view”.

In short, he advised Blair to show some respect for international law.

Given the patent criminality of regime change by invasion, Lord Goldsmith advised that conditions had to be created which would justify military action against Iraq. Despite bombing 391 targets in Iraq in the 9 month build-up to the war, London and Washington failed to provoke the desired reaction from Saddam and carried out the invasion regardless on the sole pretext of WMD’s.

A second official memo was from Blair’s meeting with top adviser’s in the July of 2002. It showed that Washington had already decided to go to war before hoodwinking US congress. In addition, the decision had been made prior to an invitation to the UN to either endorse Washington’s plan to use violence or become irrelevant.

Needless to say, occasions of such flagrant disregard for International Law and bodies like the UN which administer it, undermine and trivialize the very notion of Human Rights.



Evidence of Connivance on the part of the Bush administration:



According to National security and intelligence analyst, John Prados, Bush had a ‘ scheme to convince America and the world that war with Iraq was necessary and urgent”. He described it as a “case study in government dishonesty…that required patently untrue public statements and egregious manipulation of intelligence”. The planners knew, in his opinion, that Iraqi WMD’s were nascent, moribund, or non-existent—exactly the opposite of the presidents repeated massage to Americans. To carry out the deception, actual intelligence was consistently distorted, manipulated, and ignored---in service of a particular enterprise under false pretenses.


Reports have also found that had diplomacy been given a chance, UN weapons inspections teams led by Dr. Hans Blix, would have confirmed that Iraq did not in fact have weapons of WMD in around a month’s time.

Intelligence also confirmed, which the Bush administration admitted at the time, that there was no link between Iraq and the atrocities on 9/11.

It is important to note that here was no link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda prior to the war*.(revisit)

Interestingly enough, 8.8 billion dollars worth of Iraqi oil went missing in the first 14 months of invasion under American watch. The major benefactors from the invasion have been independent American companies that have largely assumed control of oil production in Iraq despite protesting local workers. Kellogg Brown and Root, which is the biggest of these companies, have strong ties with key officials, like Dick Cheney, in the Bush administration.






Foreign policy disaster:



Few still dispute today that Iraq is a foreign policy disaster. Since the start of the war, almost three quarters of a million Iraqis civilians have paid with their lives, 3.9 million have been made refugees, and 3000 continue to die every month. If this weren’t enough, more than 5 thousand collation troops have died and tens of thousands have been wounded or maimed. These figures are excluding the number of hired mercenaries, of which there are currently approximately 120, 000 operating in Iraq according to journalist Robert Fisk, who have been killed. It is interesting to note here that these mercenaries, a majority of whom are ex-British and American soldiers or nationals, are hired to protect the occupation troops and are almost equal in number to the coalition troops present in the country.



The presence of Al-Qaeda In Iraq and the spread of Islamic radicalism are also peculiar achievements of American foreign policy.

Before the war, the
-National Intelligence Council (NIC) advised that an “American led invasion of Iraq would increase support for political Islam and would result in a deeply divided Iraqi society prone to violent internal conflict”. That it would provide recruitment, training grounds, technical skills and language proficiency for a new class of terrorists who are ‘professionalized and for whom political violence becomes an end within itself”

Iraq has, since then, become a magnet for Islamic extremists and has replaced Afghanistan as the real-world laboratory for urban combat, destabilizing the whole region. This de-stabilization has seen a sharp increase in Islamic radicalism. Muslim youth in conflict areas are now more prone to radical views with the belief that their religion and very identity is under attack.


Fawaz Gerges concludes that after 9/11 “ the dominant response to the Al-qaeda in the Muslim world was very hostile, specifically among jihadis, who regarded it as a dangerous extremist fringe. Instead of recognizing that the opposition to al-qaeda offered Washington the most affective way to drive a nail into its coffin by finding intelligent means to nourish and support the internal forces that were opposed to militant ideologies like the bin laden network, the bush administration did exactly what bin laden hoped it would do; resort to violence in a grand sweeping gesture of retaliation.


Israeli think tanks and Saudi intelligence have reported that the vast majority of foreign fighters in iraq were not former terrorists but became radicalized by the war itself because it was perceived as an attack on muslims.


Centre for Strategic and and International Studies found that 85 percent of Saudi militants that went to iraq were not on any government watchlist, al-qaeda members or terrorist sympathizers, but were radicalized by the invasion.

Suicide bombings, which have their origin in secular tamil tigers, were non-existent in Iraq. However, since the invasion 400 bombings have been reported.

As is self-evident, the invasion has also succeeded in making the clash of civilization theory a self-fulfilling prophecy. Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim population in the world with over 200 million Muslims. According to a pole conducted in 2000, 75 percent Indonesians viewed US favorably. This number has plummeted to 15 percent after 2003’s invasion with 80% of Indonesians fearing an attack in the future by the US.




Conclusion:

We sat here yesterday drawing comparisons between Nazism and communism. Similarly, journalists and academics already find themselves juxtaposing Iraq under Saddam’s tyrannical regime with an Iraq ravaged by a brutal invasion. I cant help but ask, ‘should Saddam be the moral yardstick by which we measure our own moral inequities? For many, the war on Iraq is the past. This could not be farther from the truth. In a fast globalizing world, the harsh reality in Iraq is playing a large role in defining our present and shaping our future. To all those who still believe in myths, magic and miracles, let me assure them that ghosts too exist; and unless we’re honest in our commitment to Human Rights, this one will loom over our heads and haunt us for a long time to come.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

--In loving memory--

in loving memory:


suspenders.
internet account hogging,
stroking the couch and handles with his hands,
feet that would wag ednlessly like a tail when lying down,
legs that wont sit still,
punctual,
responsible,
critical in the cutest way,
short tempered,
gentle,hearty laugh,
'you see'.....main line
rubbing lips together making 'chpt' sound while talking,
long pauses involved,
emails and jokes,
imparting wisdom,
bread winner,
loving father,
husband, ask nani..lol
caring brother,
hospitable host,
khaana itna zaada kuon paka diya hai?:)
going asleep while watching tv,
picking me up and putting me to bed when i used to fall asleep watching tv
bathing me
putting up with my other nakhras
umra on his shoulders
random nights spent with nana,
nani asking me whether i came under the line of fire:):)
your scrap book. i wonder where it is now. piecing together your memories,
pining for your youth.
He's set you free.
you're free.

an honest man in a time
when honesty and a man are both so hard to find.



Im here,
Im alone,
In a nightmare,
Far away from home.
Always knew no one knows when
What as to happen will have happened
all secuirty has been unhinged.
All my fear have come crashing in
His soul has defied gravity
I hope it finds a chance to visit me
This far away from home and
I hope heaven is not too beautiful for you to not come back occasionally
Every day, ill be waiting to go to sleep
When I sleep ill hope to be visited by you in my dreams

I don’t know where ive come,
I don’t know where you’ve gone
Ill pray for you when I look at the moon
Remember you in the light of the sun
And when I look up at the stars
Ill try to find which one you are

No one’s been this lucky I bet
No ones been so loved I know
And I hope you know I wont forget this
Where ever you and I go

In the back of my mind I was waiting for this time to come
But I didn’t know off your four shoulders id be the missing one
And so you leave me with just one regret
i would’ve lowered you into your grave
had a foolish me been there yet
to see you for one last time,
to tell you one last time,
to smell you one last time,
to taste you one last time,
an eternal picture in my mind,
oh come back above,
come back above.

sunk in tears, but this news hasnt sunk in with me,
its all happened so suddenly,
mometns like these make you realize the truth in a cliche,
seeing is believing, and i cant accept it from this far away.

but the truth is, even if i saw it, i probably wont believe,
because these eyes that see so often decieve,
so could it be true?can it?
that you're not here, but that youre with,
the one who created you and me and everything else,
sent down love,wisdom and help
epitomized in his form and self
youve left me with something to live up to,something to live for,
i hope i wont fail you because i know youre waiting for me at the otherside of the door,
gave me a watch, in more ways then one gave me the gift of time,
it still ticking,like my beating heart,
and when it stops ticking, we too wil have a new start
for the gift of time, my heart'll never let you out of my mind,
as they close your eyes, another curtain goes up for you,
you complained of being old well now you have your chnace to start out a new,
and while we get older, we'll wait..sometimes in the black, others in the blue,
to see whether whats been revealed is actually true
forgive me if this is blasphemy, my mentor my friend,
but i beleive more so for anything else because i have to see you again.


he passed on his wisdom,
he shared his love,
he gave his sweat and kept his dignity,
showed us the meaning of integrity,
gave me my mother, my aunt
gave me a huge responsibility,
of being honest and dealing with honesty,
gave me a skeptic amidst so much doting so i wont go completely astray,
gave me what was necessary,
your criticism will be remembered and missed ever so sweetly,
your short temper will made me smile ever so frequently,
the one man taking care of his family,
and i wish i couldve been
there and could have seeen,
how i hear they flocked to pay you their last respect,
but atleast you were there in the best of my years, thats more than any child can expect.
each birthday id worry,
this might be my last one with you, because i know all of this is so temporary,
and you told me, beauty is in that which must decline,
but still for an eternity with you i pine,
my constant reminder of whats really important in life,
directing us to help us four from taking a nose dive,
they took your body and cleansed it for one last time i hear,
one more reason for why i wish iw as there,
to see you in the last piece of cloth that you wore
covered in layers,
to see you go out of sight, out of sight till mine lasts me,
till my soul too escapes this reality.
my love for you wont wane, no it wont cease,
your absence un-nerves me but
it comforts me to know youre finally at peace.
waiting for us, and not deceased.
youre finally at peace.

I missed you today.

I’ve been in Vancouver for over a year now. It was only last year that my feet gave way to the news that God had sent for you. I don’t know what to make of it. It all seems like a haze until i start thinking about it. It all seems like another world to me, another life. For you it is precisely that; another world and another Life. Has it really been a year since I saw you? Since I entered into your house and saw you leaning back in your chair? Your body language always gave off such conflicting messages. On the one hand, your feet would be frozen in a constant wag conveying some form of unrest, but on closer examination one could see how at ease you were reclining in your chair. Each time I saw you in that chair, I wanted to buy one just like it. I wanted to buy that comfort, that relaxation. I know though that it wasn’t really the chair that made me want it, it was seeing how laid back you were in it. Such feelings cannot be elicited by a nana-less sofa.

So here I am, listening to I grieve by Peter Gabriel. Your last words to me still resonate though I have so far been unable to capture their wisdom. I believe though, that I one day, with the help of God and with aid of the ever present warmth and protection of your prayers, will not only realize the meaning, but have the strength to live it too--InshAllah.

------------------------------Till the closing walls of time re-unite us------------------
---------------------------------------------Till all are one-------------------------------------------