Adil Najam
These are distressing times. But this is not a time to be depressed.
This is a time, as Owais reminds us in his last post, to reaffirm our hopes for the future. True defeat would be to give up on those hopes. I have put up the splash image (on the front page) that I have to reassert and to remind ourselves that ultimately Pakistan will be what we make of it. Emergency or no emergency, no one can snatch our Pakistaniat from us. Not until we ourselves surrender it!
Back in May, at a moment of similar desperation, I had written a post where I had sought “solace in the one place where I always find it. In poetry. Especially in Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry.” The video clip I had used there is worth repeating here.
I had written then – and it seems even more pertinent today to repeat it:
Here is Faiz – in his own words, in his own voice. The second half has the same poem masterfully sung by Nayarra Noor. Enjoy this rare find of kalam i Faiz, ba zaban i Faiz. But more than that, think about what he is saying and how it relates to what is happening today.
What I had to say (including about US role) I said at length in an NPR Radio show today (or here). But what Faiz has to say is far more profound.
The words of Faiz certainly cut deeper than anything I can say. They are an invitation to action. But they are also an invitation to thought. An invitation to responsibility. An invitation to continuing the struggle no matter what. An invitation to keep moving onwards despite the odds. An invitation to celebrate the spirit of defiance of those who will not give up.
I had ended that post by reaffirming ATP’s committment “to celebrating all the diverse trials and tribulations of being Pakistan … the mundane as well as the profound; the sad as well as the gleeful; the immediate as well as the long-term.” It is time, today, to repeat that commitment.
This is our commitment to Pakistaniat. We love Pakistan not because everything is right in it. But despite that which is clearly not right. And with a commitment to make right that which has gone astray. Ameen.
You know the situation has gotten out of control when President Bush starts writing poetry about Pakistan. It’s not Punjabi poetry by any stretch of the imagination, but see what you think of Bush’s haiku:
http://www.newsgroper.com/george-w-bush/2007/11/06 /peace-poetry/
Yaar, let people be inspired by whatever source, this repeating Fiaz every Friday is painful. Save the Fiaz stuff, let us hear some Najam stuff.
In any case, since inception, Pakistan’s core strength has been to waste its time worrying about ‘external affairs’…. sooner or later the inside would atrophy. That process continues. I have so far only heard ‘democracy, democracy’ as though that will suddenly solve everything. Nothing will change until the ordinary Pakistani is educated, and two, the educated ones actually develop rationality, broadness and inward-vision. All lacking in the majority at the moment.
Do we have any fund to help those judges who resigns from courts. Nearly 70% of SC and 80% of Sind High court has been resigned.
Is there is a way we can help those judges. I am sure many of them live hand to mouth.
Adnan is right.
But there is more news.
The Justice Dogar Court sat and said: Eight Judges over rule the seven Judge decision.
While Justice Dogar had said:there is no such decision.
The wise man told about item 7 also but said it is a state secret.
He said that what happens on Nov.20 after that it can be talked about.
So, 13 more days.
hahaha javed aziz sahab!
I have two wicked news. First is American Ambasoddor met Chief of Election Commissioner and *ordered* him to issue time table of Elections. Kia beghairti hey. Ameriki Election Comm se freely mil raha hay aur order deyraha hay. Will it not be much better if we become next state of US? much better than this slavery.
Second pathetic news is that traders increased the price of house-hold goods. Bravo- Ayse qom per emergency nahi Genghis Khan ko rule karna chahye.