MMXIII: Happy New Year

!نوی کال مبارک

Created in Tagxedo.

Peace. Hope. Prayers.

 !سال نو مبارک
!نیا سَال مبارک

MCDXXXIV - 1434 - ۱۴۳۴

1434 Hirji. New Year. Moharram. Peace.

Sheikh Zayed Masjid, Abu Dhabi. 

Photography by me.

Discordia

Discordia was the Latin incarnation of Eris, the goddess of strife in the Greek mythological traditions and right now, there are many examples of strife around us. 

Without going into a 'depressingly' exhaustive list of trouble spots around the world, the wars in Libya and Syria serve to illustrate a key point. Both countries have resistance movements that stem from this year's Arab Spring and in both places the opposition threaten an older political tradition of despotic rule by singular individuals. Libya and Syria, had so far, manage to avoid general expectations around accountability at home, because, like the remaining Arab world, they are not democratic. The truth is that however Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar Al Assad choose to view this, the resistance is a form of People Power and undoubtedly both will recognise the significance of this. 

It is this combination of People Power and Discordia which bring me right to India, the world's largest democracy.

Of late the international media is beginning to pay more and more interest to news threads around Anna Hazare, an ex-military political activist in his 70s, who seems to have mobilised the masses and troubled the Indian authorities with his calls for accountability. The government's reaction to Hazare and his followers suggests that feathers indeed have been ruffled and the crack down is drawing both domestic and international comment. Arrested, and on hunger strike, Anna Hazare, seems to have challenged the established belief that India might not also be as draconian as the rest.

People Power and Discordia, live here too.

Dulce Et Decorum Est

 Dulce et Decorum est

Wilfred Owen, 1917

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! — An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime. —
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, —
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est  

Pro patria mori.

IX.XI

Remembrance And Hope

Nine years ago, this date - 9/11 - became immortalised in our common knowledge and the lexis of probably most the languages on the Earth.

I love the American spirit.

I always have. Feisty, independent, accommodating and where people can live the dream. Nine years ago, The United States of America was hurt. There, I've said it.

I love the Afghan spirit.

I love the land of Afghanistan because the history is in my blood. The land that is and was Afghanistan gave rise to the Pashtoon people, my present and past. I love the Pashtoon way, no-nonsense, independent, accommodating, and a people who dream of so much more than they have. Nine years ago, the events in the US meant that the Americans invaded Afghanistan. The country is still hurting. For so many, the wounds are open, exposed and infected.

For that dynamic alone, we should remember 9/11.

For now, that is.

But one day, I hope we can free ourselves from this past. One day, I hope, that we learn to understand that ordinary Afghans had nothing to do with the events in New York and Washington. I hope that people are allowed to mourn their losses in private without a date being used to divide us into polar opposites.

I hope that in letting go, we reach an understanding that all is not what it appears. I hope that the innocent are not punished for that that they didn't do. I hope that those with power understand that we must ensure the safety of each other, but allow people to find their own way. I hope that people are not so poor that they are vulnerable to being manipulated for the selfish motives of others.

And I hope that one day when we are free, we fully understand that collectively we are the custodians of the Earth and that collectively our freedom, prosperity and peace are mutual.

Tor_Khan تور خان

Note: The title for this entry is IX.XI. I have used the Roman Numerals to indicate today's date. Whilst I'm sure that others have discovered this before me, note that in Roman Numeral form, the date is of course a Palindrome and is read the same reading from the left or the right.

Falsum in Omnibus

I'm a democrat - in that I subscribe to the idea of free citizenry and the right to vote. I live in the UAE, where I am not a citizen and where there is no real tradition of voting, but in the UK, where I was raised, voting has long been a tradition.

Or rather an ever decreasing tradition. There has been a major shift away from voting in all the major Western democracies since the 1960s with the exception perhaps of places like Australia (where benefits of citizenry and the duty to vote are closely linked - even then, it's not what I would call a free choice, which is what one would expect of a democracy.) Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama writes in Trust: The Social Virtues and The Creation of Prosperity that social welfare and government involvement in people's lives reduces voter participation. When your bellies are full and the problems seem far away, there's less inclination to vote. If there was a hypothetical election on the Gulf, where nationals are well taken care of - from cradle to grave - I wonder if people would just vote for the status quo? In the UK, the increasing interference in peoples lives by the government has not gotten any easier in all the time that I've known. I wonder, at times, if a society like that can actually call itself truly free?

Political Blur: Falsum in uno, falsum in omnibus*

Distant governments, perhaps, are better at motivating people to want change. The UK, voted this week and recieved in return a hung parliament. No outright majority and a scramble by the political parties to form coalitions, partnerships and to play a game of watchmanship and secret meetings. To my distant eyes, it might be fair to say that voter turn out may be influenced (as well as by busy lives) by the perception that at the top it makes no difference. Be it Labour, Conservative or Liberal Democrat, they will find ways of interfering in individual lives. Political choice is like choosing between McPlasticFoodBurgers and McMoreoftheSame. I guess it was easier when the parties represented widely differing philosophies, but in today's politically safe world of middle-ground electioneering, plastic food for plastic people is the sole political offering.

Mmm ... political blur ... not a very exciting menu, I think.

* false in one thing, false in everything