Sunday, November 15, 2009

Burnt...

I would lay down over a raging fire on your path
so that you may pass by unharmed,
and you my love
would not notice the smell of burning flesh in the air
as you walked over me.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Whose Tune ?



(Pictures Sourced At: http://www.tanialuiz.com/Oriental%20Dance-english.html)

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Language Trap

I’ve not really though about the issue before, but after listening to some opinions on the matter and considering the mammoth impact media hype has on humanities perceptions on the whole, I figured this issue deserved further thought.

Even though we have been moved by lyrics and poetry since time began we continue to under estimate the power of language. The revelation of the Quran more than 1400 years ago led to most of the known world submitting to the message it brought as the Arab peninsula was captivated instantly by the lyrical style of God’s word.

Words like ‘war’ as used in the current crisis in the Middle East to denote an equal battle-field an idea that couldn’t be further from the truth. US aid hardly means food for the starving but rather the opening of a pathway into a country to assess assets!

In the past the ‘branding’ of the unknown - read ‘not the west’- and the stigmatisation of such places as uncivilised and barbaric, -in fact not much has changed looking at the US’s campaign to ‘selflessly’ take on the mantle of liberators of the ‘backward’ Muslim nations and more importantly their subjugated and long suffering women.- Led to many believing that the world needed urgently to be rid of these ‘fundamentalists’ and ‘extremists ‘ (interestingly enough know one even remembers these words are English words and are not descriptions for Taliban style dressed Muslim men.)
So as ‘fact finding mission’ actually translates into UN employees on a five star holiday in a ‘developing country, let us take a pact to NOT do a dis-service to the struggle with our language!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

"Love is Reckless"

Love is reckless; not reason.
Reason seeks a profit.
Love comes on strong, consuming herself, unabashed.

Yet, in the midst of suffering,
Love proceeds like a millstone,
hard surfaced and straightforward.

Having died to self-interest,
she risks everything and asks for nothing.
Love gambles away every gift God bestows.

Without cause God gave us Being;
without cause, give it back again.
Gambling yourself away is beyond any religion.

Religion seeks grace and favor,
but those who gamble these away are God's favorites,
for they neither put God to the test
nor knock at the door of gain and loss.


- Mevlana Jelaluddin Balkhi (RUMI)

-- Version by Kabir Helminski
"Love is a Stranger"
Threshold Books, 1993

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Hich-Kas: Bunch of Soldiers


Love This Persian Rap!


Monday, October 19, 2009

Bra Burning Misogynists


Picture source: google.com


With the rise of feminism in the 60’’s, 70’s and 80’s women liberated themselves from their bosom-shackles and burnt their bras, symbolising their need for equality and freedom.

This week, women were “liberated” from their bras for different reasons – reasons I just don’t understand!!!!!

In Somalia the Al Shabaab are stripping women of their bras, making them shake what their mommas gave them and beating them if they wear one (cos u know u should be au naturale and have the firmness without wired support)…. All in the name of Sharia! Here we go again!!!!!! Idiots making up the Sharia as they go along.

Hmmm…. Doesn’t the Quran say: Sura 24:30-31. “Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and be modest. That is purer for them. Lo! Allah is Aware of what they do. And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands or fathers or husbands fathers, or their sons or their husbands' sons, or their brothers or their brothers' sons or sisters sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack vigor, or children who know naught of women's nakedness. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And turn unto Allah together, O believers, in order that ye may succeed.”


Now the way I understand it, and some interpretations I’ve read pretty much say the same about the stamping feet part - that is if thou stampest thy feet, them dangly bits shall jiggle and that shall bringest undue attention to thy bosom and hence thou shouldst cover thy bosom so as to show modesty and not go shaking what thou mamma gavest thou cos that’s just not on!!!! So if a bra is gonna help me from flip flopping more than me toes, I’m thinking it’d be a good thing!

Wonder tho, wat would Al Shabaab say about silicone implants?

Friday, October 16, 2009

Child of Sinai


Photographer: Barry Iverson