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?
Dear Adil,
First of all I hope you are aware of the list of people who can actually nominate people for the Nobel Prize. You- as a university professor- make the cut but rest of us don’t. Also you might want to lobby members of parliaments etc.
Secondly, there are no two opinions about the fact that Abdul Sattar Edhi deserves the Nobel Prize. Running the world’s largest ambulance service despite the fact that Edhi himself is from a humble back ground would be enough… But Edhi has spent an entire lifetime selflessly in the service of humanity in general and his people- the Pakistanis- in particular. Right from his teenage years, he has been involved in the political process as a concerned activist. Here is a humanist, a right thinking patriot and a social worker all rolled into one.
I have seen EDHI work growing up in Pakistan. I can say it from experience that if it wasnt for EDHI Pakistani society would have broken down. Creating the largest private ambulance service in the world for a third world country like Pakistan is not a small feat and our beloved abdul Satar Edhi has accomplished this task without comercializing his organization.
If God had a face in this world it would certainly be Abdul Sattar Edhi. He is my Hero and i respect him from the bottom of my heart. It is about time he recieves the nobel peace prize.
God bless him
In a country of 160 million, which is Pakistan, where there is virtually no ambulance service provided by the government, it is only Edhi whom people call in emergencies. And his ambulance service invariably reaches them. He does some, if not most, of the difficult and “dirty” work with his own hands. He is Mother Teressa and Florence Nightingale rolled into one.
My thanks to those who have left testimonials about Edhi Sahibs. I hope others will also come forth especially to share stories about how Edhi Sahib’s work has touched them. If not personally, then in the effect that it has had on Pakistani society. What is special about him. What is special about his work.
I want to reaffirm what Falcon said. The Nobel award is NOT a popularity contest. They are not moved by how many ‘votes’ someone gets on our blog (although the breadth of support probably does count). The NOBEL NOMINATION PROCESS is detailed here. As you will note, official nominations can only recieved from certain categories. I happen to know that nominations have been made for Edhi sahib in previous years and hope that others who fall into these categories will also nominate him this year.
I am right now preparing a nomination document. This is a detailed portfolio that makes a case for why a person deserves the recognition. While I am assembling other type of evidence – Accounts from those he has worked with, the nature of his work, the nature of its impact, the context in which he has worked, his life histor, evidence of scale and scope of work, testimonials, etc. (the formal nomination is a detailed and long document).
My goal here is not to get ‘votes’, since votes do not count. My goal here is to get testimonials from ordinary Paksitanis about why Abdul Sattar Edhi should recieve this recognition. Ideally, my hope would be to add these testimonials as an annex to the nominations document. I am hoping to demonstrate through this the deep and real trust and respect that he commands.
Abdul Sattar Edhi is truly the founder provider of active humanitarian services in Pakistan on an organised way. He is the one who germinated the passion and touch for humanity in the hearts of not only his nation but also in the hearts of people living on this planet. Though, it is an immaterial thing for him yet world needs to take due cognizanse of his efforts by the way of awarding him the noble prize.