Adil Najam
My posts over the last few days have all been designed to build up to this (here, here and here).
Irrespective of whether Abdul Sattar Edhi is a Pakistani or not, irrespective of how much most Pakistanis hold his selfless zeal in reverence – and irrespective also of all the ways in which a few have tried to malign him – I believe that Abdul Sattar Edhi deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. I need your help in putting together a nominations package.
I do not wish to make this a nationalistic thing. He would not like that. For me it is a humanistic thing. As he has made clear again and again, humanism and humanitarianism is more important than everything else; certainly it is bigger than nationalism.
Here is a man who has dedicated his whole life to serving the most marginalized and the most wretched in society. The destitutes, the mentally ill, corpses left by the roadside, children abandoned at his doorsteps, women kicked out by their families. When there is no one to go to, there is always Edhi Sahib to go to.
As importantly, he has done this – in his words – ‘wholesale’. He has single handedly built – literally by begging – a social services structure at a national scale. Bigger than what governments have. He has never taken a ruppee as salary himself. He lives in a two room apartment that most middle class Pakistanis would not call home and he oversees the largest ambulance network in the world, now with airplanes and helicopters, a multi-million dollar enterprise of relief, of goodwill, and of humanitarianism. If he does not deserve the Nobel Award, I do not know who does.
As I had mentioned in the last post, the Edhi Foundation is collecting signatures on a petition that he be given the Nobel Award. I like other bloggers (here, here, and here) would urge you to sign that petition and join the thousands others who already have.
But I think we can do a little more. Here is how.
I checked out the website of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee and looked at their nominations procedure. It is not clear whether they accept petitions or not, but it turns out that they do have categories of individuals who can make nominations (which are due by February 1). One of those categories is “university professors of social science, history, philosophy, law and theology.” I am not sure if I have much standing with them, but I fit into that category, and therefore I believe I have the ability to formally send in a nomination, and I plan to write in a nomination letter over the next few days.
What I would like to do, then, is to ask you all to write your own testimonials to why Abdul Sattar Edhi deserves a Nobel Award in the comments section. We want to gather as many testimonials/comments as possible.
Personal stories and examples of how he touches people’s lives and meets the ideals of the Nobel Peace Prize are especially useful.
So let me please request you for your help. If you agree with me that Abdul Sattar Edhi deserves a Nobel Peace Prize:
- Please leave a testimonial in the comments section saying that he deserved the award why you believe that Abdul Sattar Edhi deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.
- Please email this post to your friends and ask them to do the same.
- If you are a blogger, please spread the word on your blogs and to your readers and ask those who agree with my proposition to leave a testimonial.
And to meet the deadline we need to do all of this in the next few days. I have no pretensions that a letter from one professor will do the trick. But since I have this ability, I want to at least give it a shot. At least we would be able to say, we tried.
What do you say, folks?
I think this is a very worthwhile effort you are making. Best of luck with it.
Myself, I think Edhi will be a great candidate for the Nobel because here is a person who lives the life he preaches, he works in the poorest and most violent part of town and has brought peace to them, he has developed a model that is all his own and more relevant to developing countries than those imported from outside, and he has now taken this model and made it work in some of the most dangerous and difficult places on earth: Lebanon, Bosnia, Somalia, Bangladesh and of course Pakistan. A Nobel will not only honor him, it will also propagate this idea of social welfare.
i don’t know of a person who deserves to be a nobel prize winner more than him. not that, i think, it matters to him.
noone ever formally introduced me to name of edhi. i think its one of those names that u just bcum accquainted with as u grow up. my nana once told me that edhi sahib said to him” everyone is willing to donate money to my organization but what we need are people willing to donate their time”
i think, that goes to say a lot about the state of volunteering in our country. sad na
There should be much bigger award for Mr. Sattar and his wife. They do deserve it.
Abdul Sattar Edhi is truly a beacon of light for all those opressed soles who have no hope in life. He is there for everyone from any race, religion and cast. The word distinction does not feature in his dictionary. There is no one LIVING who ven comes close to his stature. He truly deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.
he is the blessing from Allah to poor. His greatness lies in his passion and simplicity, and have a honor of having world largest eleet of ambulances in the world. whatever the condition or time, he is there to deliver. May Allah bless him and give him fruitful prosperous and long life.