Mirage A' Trois

Somedays I Feel Like ...

2012-01-30T13:55:00.000+02:00

(Image source: google)

A Moroccan Women

2012-01-25T13:26:00.000+02:00

(http://www.muslimwomennews.com/n.php?nid=6571)

A Tumultuous Start To 2012

2012-01-15T22:00:00.004+02:00

It has been a while since I last blogged. It seems the universe well aware of its mortality (thanx to Mayan predictions) has decided to grant me 'over-living'.

Apart from a funeral there has been love, pain (ordered as a side dish like fries or salad with a fast food meal to remind us we're alive), a good book and too much food.

The person we lost lived every single day to the max and compromised on nothing. She taught us that life was for celebrating and I hope that now that she's gone we remember that.

I always find it surprising that even though death is the only definite life offers us we are always shocked and unprepared when it happens. Life is so transient at times and then at others it seems like forever. Why is it that we never enjoy the present as the only guaranteed time we own?

i was reminded of the companion of the prophet (swt) who dug a grave next to his home so he would constantly be reminded of death and that in turn would force him to live the best life he could. There's a lesson in that, after all how we spend the few years we have on this earth will dictate how we will live out eternity.

For My Old Friends... Some New Meat!

2012-01-01T00:37:00.000+02:00

The return of the Desert Demons Calender...

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

Have Happy New Year Everyone!

(all the photos were sources by randomly sticking key words into google and now with google's image search you should have no problem popping them in and finding out who took the picture and who the eye candy is)

Hard Times For Dreamers...

2011-12-27T13:32:00.000+02:00

* (I guess as 2011 draws to a close I'm feeling a little jaded)

I miss being 21 and believing that anything was possible and that I could be the catalyst for any change I perceived . I miss believing without a doubt that it was all there in my subconscious waiting to be written into reality by my actions. Believing in unlimited chances to fix and change and learn and do. Knowing that despite being human and fallible we are divine and beautiful. I miss knowing that despite incredible odds I could create the reality I desired.

I guess I will always remain an idealist about love and freedom but more and more the dreamer seems to accept that she resides only in my head.

'Tis The Season...

2011-12-24T11:24:00.000+02:00

Sacred days from the Abrahamic faiths are usually both about remembering a special event and a commitment to social justice.

So whether it is Easter and you're commemorating the death of Christ and remembering what he strove to uphold or Eid–ul- Adhaa and remembering Abraham’s commitment to obey God’s command to slaughter his son and sharing your meat with the poor, It is safe to say that it is never just about a party.

However humans often forget the bigger picture (of course this is not related to religious days specifically it seems to be a chronic behavioural pattern of life in the time of Lady Gaga).

So this year as we kick back and enjoy the festive season let us think back to what Jesus stood for and since only dates, names and places change let us also think about what his teachings mean for life on earth 2000 years later and how we can implement his lessons to ensure that Christmas is more meaningful than crass consumerism and fake wishes.

Maa Tughe Salaam By A R Rahman

2011-12-23T08:47:00.000+02:00

And Now For A Word From My Pedestal...

2011-12-21T09:27:00.000+02:00

Libya has been liberated but I am not happy...

2011-12-19T14:53:00.000+02:00

Yet another revolution betrayed by western interests how can I be happy?

 
I watched the young Libyans dancing in the jammed streets, their guns pointing towards the skies where NATO unleashed its terror and I wonder what there is to dance about?

 
The rebels have taken Tripoli, they proclaim, yet they remain quiet about the multi-state coalition that will take the oil. Should I be pleased?


The African leaders are as impotent as their Arab brothers against the mighty west how can I sing with joy?


The ummah embroiled in strife did nothing to help the fasting masses in Libya how can I feast at dusk?


And the bombs? Well the bombs are not advanced enough to tell rebel from Gadaffi loyalist... or are they?


Do I celebrate the no fly zones that gave the UK, US and France a  space to test their new toys?


Or maybe I can feel joy at the grand names with which the war mongers have labelled the theft and disempowerment of a nation. If they were honest then NATO's Operation Unified Pacifier would be called: Protecting Libyan oil from Libyans and the US's Oddessy Dawn would be called: Ensuring a new base closer to the Middle-East and the AFPAK.


And please warn France that one day the real Harmattan* will come. It will blow from Africa and it will not be bound by the AU or the UN or fear or a slave mentality. It will come with the vengence of the slaves who were taken from the West Coast of Africa and with the Fire of the Mau Mau. It will come from South Africa and Nigeria and Rwanda and Somalia. It will come from the Congo and Sierra Leone and the Sahara and it will destroy those greedy western delusions. It will reject all the dollars they pay it to stop. It will wreck their plans and it will force them out of our lands.

It will break all the chains and it will set us free.

And that day my friends I will have something to celebrate!

*The Harmattan is a dry, dusty easterly or northeasterly wind on the West African coast, occurring from December to February. It is also the name France has given to its intervention in Libya.

*(This is a re-post from 0ctober when my friends at attempting unison used to blog)

Portrait Of A Rajasthani Man

2011-12-17T18:33:00.000+02:00

(Pranit Patil)

No Place for 'I'...

2011-12-15T08:37:00.001+02:00

Makkay gayaan, gal mukdee naheen

Pawain sow sow jummay parrh aaeey
Going to Makkah is not the ultimate
Even if hundreds of prayers are offered.

Ganga gayaan, gal mukdee naheen

Pawain sow sow gotay khaeeay

Going to River Ganges is not the ultimate

Even if hundreds of cleansing (Baptisms) are done

Gaya gayaan gal mukdee naheen

Pawain sow sow pand parrhaeeay
Going to Gaya is not the ultimate
Even if hundreds of worships are done.

Bulleh Shah gal taeeyon mukdee

Jadon May nu dillon gawaeeay

Bulleh Shah the ultimate is

When the “I” is removed from the heart!

(Bulleh Shah, 1680–1757)

Save The Dugong...

2011-12-13T08:21:00.001+02:00

What Goes Around...

2011-12-12T08:51:00.000+02:00

A dirty deal coming down in Durban

2011-12-11T09:48:00.002+02:00

What, now, are the prospects for a climate deal by Friday?

The biggest problem is obvious: COP17 saboteurs from the US State Department joined by Canada, Russia and Japan, want to bury the legally-binding Kyoto Protocol treaty. Instead of relaxing intellectual property rules on climate technology and providing a fair flow of finance, Washington offers only a non-binding ‘pledge and review’ system.

This is unenforceable and at current pledge rates – with Washington lagging everyone – is certain to raise world temperatures to four degrees centigrade, and in Africa much higher. Estimates of the resulting deaths of Africans this century are now in excess of 150 million. As former Bolivian Ambassadar to the UN, Pablo Solon said at last week’s Wolpe Memorial Lecture, “The COP17 will be remembered as a place of premeditated genocide and ecocide.”

Within the International Convention Centre, everyone in their right mind should resist this. First, it is patently obvious, after the 1997 Kyoto negotiations where Al Gore promised US support in exchange for carbon trading, and after Hillary Clinton’s 2009 promise of a $100 billion Green Climate Fund – both reneged upon – that Washington cannot be trusted. Lead negotiators Todd Stern and Jonathan Pershing should be isolated, an international climate court should be established, and preparations made for comprehensive sanctions against US goods and services.

Second, it appears that the European Union, South Africa and the Climate Action Network – the latter representing big international NGOs mostly without any commitment to climate justice – are pushing what is called a ‘new mandate’. And not surprisingly, Pretoria’s team and the biased pro-Northern chair, SA foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, appear ready to sell out the African continent.

Some countries, led by Mali and Egypt, are holding firm on demands by the African Group, the Group of Least Developed Countries and the Latin American ‘Alba’ countries for binding northern emissions cuts of 50% by 2020 and 95% by 2050. These are critical targets to get the overall climate change to below 1.5 degrees. At 2 degrees, the UN estimates, ninety percent of current African agricultural output will cease.

If African countries fold in coming hours, even the traditional leaders of science-based demands – Bolivia, Tuvalu and a few others – probably cannot block a sleazy Durban deal.

Unfortunately, the SA and EU delegations are behind-the-scenes managers devoted to bringing emissions trading markets into this new mandate, largely because of the vast investment that Europeans have made in now-failing carbon markets. Jacob Zuma’s endorsement of the World Bank’s ‘Climate Smart Agriculture’ scheme last week is a return to nakedly neoliberal management of society and nature – an approach that over the last decade proved so disastrous in water privatization and carbon trading.

Explains Anne Maina of the African Biodiversity Network, “Climate Smart Agriculture comes packaged with carbon offsets. Soil carbon markets could open the door to offsets for genetically-modified crops and large-scale biochar land grabs, which would be a disaster for Africa. Africa is already suffering from a land grab epidemic – the race to control soils for carbon trading could only make this worse.”

Zuma is not well advised by is climate team, for the carbon markets upon which the strategy rests are dying. The Union Bank of Switzerland, Europe’s largest, last month estimated the price per tonne collapsing to just 3 euros in 2013, down from a peak of over 30 euros five years ago and around eight euros at present. If forest credits are also sold into the markets, as proponents hope, it will swamp supply and crash the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme to the level of Chicago’s: around zero.

By all accounts we need prices of at least 50 euros/tonne for market incentives to begin substantively switching us out of carbon and into renewable energy and public transport. Can we trust maniac bankers to deliver the planet’s salvation?

Face it, the neoliberal strategy is failing on its own terms. As a result, Trevor Manuel’s idea that half the Green Climate Fund should be drawn from carbon markets instead of stingy Northern governments and corporations is fatally flawed.

There is a tiny remaining hope for COP17, but only if we soon see a 1999 Seattle-style move by African delegates who know their constituents will be fried if the rich countries and SA have their way. Exactly twelve years ago, the African delegates refused to let the World Trade Organisation do a deal against Africa’s interests. SA’s trade minister at the time, Alec Erwin, tried but was unable to prevent this sensible obstructionist approach.

This time it will be harder, not only because Nkoana-Mashabane presides over COP17, but also because of Ethiopia’s tyrant ruler Meles Zenawi, a top African Union negotiator who ‘sold out’ the continent in 2009-10 by halving finance demands and endorsing the Copenhagen Accord, according to Mthika Mwenda of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance.

Since the African Group represents 53 countries, the Group of Least Developed Countries represents 48, and there are a half-dozen more in the Alba block, it is not impossible that this shifting alliance can overcome the rich countries’ power and the tendency of the four leading middle-income countries – Brazil, China, India and SA – to represent their own national interests.

As German NGO activist Rebecca Sommer of Ecoterra sums up, “Developed nations are trying to shift their responsibilities for drastic emissions cuts onto developing countries that have done the least to cause the problem. Rich industrialized countries are busy trying to carve out new business opportunities for multinational corporations and their financial elites. It would be disastrous if the internationally binding emission reduction commitments would lapse or end altogether in Durban.”

Most likely, our city will go down in infamy as the site that the temperature was dialed up on Africa. Against that, a spirited march on Saturday passed the ICC but its impact was tempered by what climate justice activists called the ‘Green Bombers’ (named after Robert Mugabe’s paramilitaries).

Complained march organizer Des D’Sa of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, “About 300 protesters, dressed in official COP17 volunteer uniforms, tore up placards, physically threatened and attacked activists participating in the march. In spite of heavy police presence throughout the march, including mounted police, riot police, air-patrol and snipers, and requests to address this disruption, police did not take any action.”

The group had “green eThekwini tracksuits with city branding and emblems, but acknowledged themselves to be ANC Youth League supporters, displaying pro-Zuma and anti-Malema placards,” says D’Sa, with the message “100% COP17”. And that tells you all you need to know about the stakes and dirty politics in play here in central Durban.

Patrick Bond in The Mercury on 6 December

Happy Jumuah !

2011-12-09T07:25:00.001+02:00

(Cartoon from : thinkchristian)

Stereo Hearts ...

2011-12-08T08:16:00.000+02:00

I love it , the tune is so catchy and it's totally dance-able :)

It shall be my ring tone!

16 Days Of Activism

2011-12-07T07:11:00.003+02:00

(Woman with a make-up made to look like a bruises during a protest against violence towards women in front of the Parliament building in Bucharest. Reuters)

The global 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign, runs from 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women)through to International Human Rights Day on 10 December.

The objective of the campaign is to reinforce a plan to fight abuse. Lets try to take some time out during these 16 days and get involved because judging from the statistics we probably all know someone who is a victim of domestic violence.

*For more information: http://www.southafrica.info/services/rights/16days.htm

Today Is Ashura

2011-12-06T08:38:00.000+02:00

(Turkish Shi'ite women take part in a religious procession in Istanbul, AFP/Getty images)

Muhurram is not just for ten days, and then going back to the old business as usual. For a Muslim "who stands up to strive in the cause of God, for him the place is Karbala, the month is Muhurram, the day is Ashura. He is Imam Hussain and his opponent is Yazid.

-Dr. Ali Shariati

The Tools Of Social Justice ...

2011-12-04T15:59:00.000+02:00

Instant Activist Just Remove Clothing!

2011-12-02T09:12:00.004+02:00

Much has been said about Aliaa Magda Elmahdy the 20 year old, Egyptian that stripped for nude photos and then blogged them. According to her the photo: "screams against a society of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment and hypocrisy".

A self-proclaimed 'feminist' and 'activist' like Elmahdy should know that there are more authentic and involved ways to be an activist for women’s rights that don’t include stripping for photos that look like cheap porn. Undressing to be liberated feeds into the western idea that to be unclothed translates into being free - I am certain that the over 8 million women and girls trafficked for sex globally will probably have another view-.

She is doing this for art and free expression in response to the terribly repressive Muslim country in which she lives. I find the entire action inciteful and opportunistic she has made herself a western darling and will probably get entrance into the American art school of her choice and an easy, unlimited visa unlike the millions of other Egyptian students trying to reach hallowed American ground for further education.

Of course her controversial facebook group in which she began calling for men to wear the hijab goes back to the old idea which requires men to act and speak on behalf of women. It's as if the millions of women who wear hijab as resistance globally need men to do the same in order to make their actions meaningful.

With almost 3 million hits which include praise, insults and death threats her bold move cannot be entirely ignored even if it does smack of gaining entry into the 'Islam Industry in the West' where anyone (preferably Muslim and female) that can show how oppressive and repressive Islam is to women is a hero.

Surely activism and resistance come in ways more than stripping of your kit? The photo is a black and white full frontal with her wearing only stockings, red shoes, a red bow in her hair and it feeds entirely into the western concept of beauty and sexiness. Now if there was even an ounce of activism to her nude scene maybe I could attempt to understand her action. I was thinking maybe if the background was Tahrir Square or an anti-military slogan or anything remotely Egyptian or Arab.

So the question remains who speaks for the Muslim woman and how? And my answer is… PLEASE LET IT NOT BE HER.

On World AIDS Day...

2011-12-01T08:16:00.001+02:00

(http://welovetypography.com)

This world AIDS day let us force the pharmaceutical company cartels to see that, the more than 35 million, people living with AIDS are more important that their profits!

Expect Little

2011-11-30T09:00:00.000+02:00

She watched from their fourth floor window as his car pulled away. Warm tears gliding down the sides of her face and making dark maps as they fell onto the concrete ledge below.

She hoped that someday far away from now after the pain subsided those maps would lead her to new places and new emotions. Places where all those dreams for two she had envisioned were possible as dreams for one.

Loving was a trial by fire and expectation was its Achilles heel. But how could you not have expectations as you handed over your soul to someone who claimed that if they didn’t believe in God they would worship you?

The other lesson she had learnt was that words came cheap.

Rock Stars Of The Desert , Tinariwen

2011-11-29T08:42:00.000+02:00

Thinking About You

2011-11-25T17:49:00.000+02:00

For Syria

2011-11-23T08:12:00.000+02:00

(Images : Google)

For Syria where the revolution began on the 26th of January 2011.

And where 3500 protesters ,as well as military personnel who refused

to do the regime's bidding, have been massacred since.

The Assad regime will fall it is only a matter of time,

the will of the people must be done!

Monday Morning Lounge

2011-11-21T09:18:00.000+02:00

UNHATE

2011-11-18T09:57:00.001+02:00

We're always trying to steer away from the actual issue so like the in-your-faceness of this campaign and the fact that they didn't choose to steer clear of the 'big' western leaders like Obama, Pope Benedict, Netanyahu and Merkel after all leaders from the global South are ALWAYS fair game. Despite all the criticisms I must admit I think the idea is pretty cool.

Sonepur Mela

2011-11-17T10:12:00.001+02:00

(Photos: google)

The Sonepur Cattle Fair is held on the full moon day, in the month of November. Located on the confluence of river Ganges and Gandak It is the biggest cattle fair in Asia and stretches on from fifteen days to one month. It has its origins during ancient times. At one point it used to attract traders from as far as Central Asia.

True Self-Esteem

2011-11-15T10:32:00.000+02:00

Critically Endangered

2011-11-14T09:59:00.000+02:00

(picture source : google)

The beautiful Iberian Lynx is one of the world's most endangered species with around 200 of them living around the South of Spain and Portugal often in captivity. If they die out it will be one of the few feline extinctions since the 'Saber-tooth' about 10 000 years ago.

Qarara Rasha

2011-11-12T08:57:00.000+02:00

Turn me into droplets of rain so I dribble the pretty face,
Then coat me with dearness so I wander around the baked face

I adore and love the crimson layer on her lips,
And I seek the company of my friends for I'm world-weary.

O! serenity embrace me! O serenity, embrace me!..

Begone are melancholies as the angel face rears it's head,
And when it subsides back, melancholies rejoin..

I'm 'ghani' for I long for the goblet of beloved's lips
I'm 'maftoon' for I break through sanity for the sake of my love

I'm 'Khatir' for my love is pure
I'm 'Ismail' for I love with my dripping blood

O! serenity embrace me! O serenity, embrace me!

Indigenous Nations' Games, Tocantins

2011-11-10T09:32:00.005+02:00

The aim is to preserve and celebrate native sports and victors are presented with hand-carved medals made from natural materials taken from local forests.The games are the biggest indigenous sporting event in the world. Currently 1,400 Brazilian Indian athletes, from over 30 different ethic groups, partake in the games, but it is hoped that the event will turn international.
Ten traditional and Western events are currently incorporated into the games, with male and female categories. Native-style wrestling, in which the competitor must knock down the opponent, and the tree-trunk foot race, where runners must carry a 90kg tree trunk on their shoulders, are two popular events. Other activities include archery, swimming, river crossing, and “huka huka”, a type of soccer in which players must only use their head and not allow the ball to touch the ground.

(images sourced @ google)

When ?

2011-11-09T13:40:00.004+02:00

When will the blood of our children no longer be measured as if it was liquid in a baking recipe?

Will a time come when the corpses will not be counted like students in a class but as actual lives to be mourned?

Does the moment arrive when God will not be blamed for the powerful men who have forsaken us?

Will the greedy men who stole our lands, ravaged our bodies and annihilated our indigenous peoples be called to justice?

And when will the millions of victims of imperial power games get to go back home?

An Artsy Eid Mubaruk

2011-11-06T00:33:00.000+02:00

(These are by Hassan Musa, he was born in Sudan and lives in France)

A Gujerati Bride

2011-11-04T08:06:00.000+02:00

Revolutionary Daughters

2011-11-02T14:32:00.002+02:00

We are constantly learning about horrible things that happen to human beings on our planet every day and then we change the channel and watch the sports or Modern Family and just like that after our 5 seconds of ‘feeling bad’ life goes on. After all what can we really do to fix it …right?

Last week I watched 2 documentaries about the plight of sex workers in India. I was dumb struck. It was like an asteroid hitting earth in those Hollywood end of the world style movies.

The Day My God Died, is a documentary which covers the plight of young Nepalese girls who are drugged and stolen across the border and then forced to work in brothels in India. It is names after a common phrase used by sex-workers to describe the day they were sold into the business. Listening to their stories of torture, pain and entire childhoods spent hiding under beds in brothels until they are old enough to be sold into prostitution themselves, was enough to make me want to will myself to death at the fact that I share the earth with people who would do this to children.

But then this woman appears and she runs an organisation called Maiti, which patrols the Nepalese border and frees these women, gives them a home, medical care, sends their kids to school and gives them a second chance at life. Ok so maybe there is some hope, just a sliver but hope nonetheless.

And then I saw Revolutionary Daughters. It was a revelation!!! 2 Indian women in their twenties that house daughters of sex-workers. They give them a home and send them to school, counsel them and teach them English, self-defence and current affairs. Their aim is to raise revolutionaries. At least 100 of them in the next 5 years.

I was overwhelmed. This was much more than a glimmer. Far more than sitting on their asses feeling bad and uncomfortable but doing nothing. A few women who are going out there against a massive enemy for no personal gain and fighting the sex-trade head on.

There are at least 8.4 million child slaves in the world today, many of them in the sex trade and the brothel owners don’t stop selling them for a single minute so we should be out there fighting for them every second !

Please watch :

* Revolutionary Daughters: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/activate/2011/09 /20119201347556456.html

*The Day My God Died: http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DBV5W6F4L5i8

Occupy Wall Street !

2011-10-31T12:35:00.002+02:00

Impossible Is Nothing

2011-10-28T08:37:00.000+02:00

I saw this advert for the first time in 2005, I was touring the north of India and the adidas advert which starred Sachin Tendulkar was EVERYWHERE. I have loved it ever since and reading Ridwan's post about the 100 year old marathon runner last week got me thinking I should blog it.

Women Of Central Africa

2011-10-26T10:38:00.000+02:00

(Photo:www.middle-africa.com)

Sita Sings The Blues

2011-10-24T11:31:00.000+02:00

I really enjoyed watching this animated film. The story of 2 love stories one human and one divine. Brought to life with the help of the smooth soulful blues of jazz singer Annette Hanshaw and some hilarious memorable narrators. Nina Paley showcases her talent perfectly. It's a must watch! Sita Sings The Blues was an official entry at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Is Libya Free Now?

2011-10-20T16:40:00.003+02:00

They killed Saddam five years ago. They hung him on international television between the afternoon soapies. There was a mock trial, the stars and stripes and their accomplices nominated themselves to be judge, jury and executioner. Is Iraq better off since they ‘liberated’ it? Was Abu Ghraib just a ploy by Muslim terrorists to give Operation Iraqi Freedom bad publicity?

No body bothered about the judge’s track records. The world was silent about the millions of bodies in Hiroshima, in Vietnam and in Africa.

And today again between the afternoon soapies history repeats itself as they parade Gaddafi’s body on every channel and every show. There it is half naked in the streets of Libya, bleeding, broken, lifeless. How would things have been without western intervention? Will Africa be allowed to make its own choices again?

Those same western powers decided that he was ‘evil’. They said nothing of their bloodied hands reaching greedily for pure oil. They spoke of a dictator and a human rights violator but they say nothing of their whores the gulf states and nothing of Saudi Arabia that pumps for them black gold.

They sing hymns about freedom and liberation and of the international justice systems that have allowed the Israelis to wreck their havoc on Palestinians after many, many meaningless judgments. They speak of freedom for Libyans when they mean assets for the G8.

Every democracy must be brought to book by its own people. Gaddafi was no saint but unlike other countries in Africa his people were educated (highest literacy rate on the continent), medicated and housed. He financially assisted many countries in the global south and no one was able to make the west cringe like he did.

In the civilised world, that we claim to live in, no one deserves to die this way.

Blue Man Of The Desert

2011-10-18T12:26:00.000+02:00

(Photo:Moroccanbling @ wordpress)

Traditionally a Tuareg father would give a Silver Cross, the Southern Cross from Agades or Iferwan, to his son saying “Son, I give you the four directions, as no one knows where your path will end.”

The Woman Warriors Of Japan

2011-10-16T23:42:00.000+02:00

(Indomitable: Hangaku Gozen rides into battle swinging her bloodstained naginata and wearing yoroi armor symbolic of leadership during the siege of Torisaka Castle (in present-day Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku) in 1201, after her clan rose up against the powerful Minamoto Shogunate in a (losing) medieval power struggle. ©ILLUSTRATION BY GIUSEPPE RAVA, FROM "SAMURAI WOMEN 1184-1877" BY STEPHEN TURNBULL, REPRODUCED WITH THE KIND PERMISSION OF OSPREY C OSPREY PUBLISHING LTD. TO FIND THIS BOOK AND OTHERS LIKE IT, VISIT WWW.OSPREYPUBLISHING.COM)

"Ah, for some bold warrior to match with, that Kiso might see how fine a death I can die!"

(Inviolable: This 1848 print by Kuniyoshi, titled "Ishi-jo, wife of Oboshi Yoshio, one of the 47 loyal ronin," shows the naginata-armed spouse of one of the disgraced Lord Asano's 47 former samurai who, in 1703, killed the court official he was said to have offended and for which he was ordered to commit seppuku. RAMA)

Tomoe Gozen was the prototypical Japanese female warrior.

She had "long black hair and a fair complexion, and her face was very lovely; moreover she was a fearless rider, whom neither the fiercest horse nor the roughest ground could dismay, and so dexterously did she handle sword and bow that she was a match for 1,000 warriors, fit to meet either god or devil."

A woman so dashing deserves to be better known. She figures, all too fleetingly, in the "Heike Monogatari," the 13th-century chronicle of the 12th-century Genpei War, the classic confrontation between the Taira and Minamoto military clans.

Minamoto won, which resulted in a power shift from Kyoto, the ancient capital, to the remote eastern encampment of Kamakura.

Tomoe Gozen was — what? the mistress? wife? servant? the extant descriptions vary — of a Minamoto ally whose insubordination got him eliminated fairly early in the campaign. This was Minamoto Kiso Yoshinaka, who, surrounded and facing certain death, called Tomoe to him and said: "As you are a woman, it were better that you now make your escape."

"As you are a woman!" He scarcely knew her, obviously. But then, Japan has always scanted its female warriors. They seem at times almost an embarrassment, their very existence a blow to masculine pride. Bushido, the "Way of the Warrior," is "a teaching primarily for the masculine sex," wrote Inazo Nitobe in his book "Bushido" (1900), the classic English-language text on the subject.

But to return to Tomoe, bristling at Kiso's blindness to her finer qualities, "She drew aside her horse, and waited," continues the "Heike Monogatari."

"Presently, Onda no Hachiro Moroshige of Musashi, a strong and valiant samurai, came riding up with 30 followers, and Tomoe, immediately dashing into them, flung herself upon Onda and, grappling with him, dragged him from his horse, pressed him calmly against the pommel of her saddle and cut off his head. Then, stripping off her armor, she fled away to the Eastern Provinces."

Nitobe's is the general view, but is it true? An old samurai tale, told by the novelist Ihara Saikaku (1642-93) in "Tales of Samurai Honor" is apropos.

Samurai boy and samurai girl hear of each other and, sight unseen, fall in love. The parents' objections are overcome; they marry.

When their lord falls ill and dies, the young husband is bent on seppuku (ritual suicide) to prove his limitless loyalty.

(Intrepid: The female samurai Tomoe Gozen pictured in action in an 1899 print by Yoshu Chikanobu. At the Battle of Awazu (in present-day Ishikawa Prefecture) in 1184, she beheaded the enemy lord Onda no Hachiro Moroshige of Musashi after grappling him off his horse.)

"Well, die bravely," says his wife. "I am a woman, and therefore weak and inconstant. After you're gone I'll look for another husband."

Embittered by this unexpected proof of worldly vanity, the husband is all the more determined to die. He commits glorious seppuku — and his wife follows him in death, having written: "At our final parting I spoke coldly, faithlessly, in order to anger my husband so he could die without regret at leaving me."

The moral of the story? Japanese men never knew their women.

The truth is, or seems to be, that women were every bit as imbued with the spirit of Bushido as men, though they got little recognition for it. All Japanese women were warriors.

What was a Japanese warrior?

"The idea most vital and essential to the samurai," wrote the 17th-century warrior Daidoji Yusan in "A Primer of Bushido," "is that of death." A warrior lived as though dead, because any minute he (or she) might be, by his (or her) own hand if not by an enemy's. "Think what a frail thing life is," said Yusan, "especially that of a samurai. This being so, you will come to consider every day of your life your last."

To that add one more concept, unconditional loyalty, and the ideology of Bushido is basically exhausted.

"Woman's surrender of herself to the good of her husband, home and family," wrote Nitobe, "was as willing and honorable as the man's self-surrender to the good of his lord and country. Self-renunciation ... was the keynote of the loyalty of man as well as of the domesticity of woman ... In the ascending scale of service stood woman, who annihilated herself for man, that he might annihilate himself for the master, that he in turn might obey Heaven."

"The good of his lord and country," said Nitobe, but in fact until modern times the concept of "country" was abstract to the point of nonexistence. Loyalty was purely personal. As for annihilation, there was that in profusion, notwithstanding the archipelago's security from hostile neighbors. Slaughter and self-slaughter mar the history of Japan — or brighten it, if you share the eerily necrophilic bushi ethic — from the Genpei Wars until the early years of the long peace of the Edo Period (1603-1867).

For the rest of the article by Michael Hoffman: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20111009x1.html

Afar Woman Of The Danakil Desert

2011-10-12T06:46:00.000+02:00

What Do You Think Of The Slutwalks?

2011-10-10T20:24:00.000+02:00

The slutwalk marches began on April 3, 2011 in Canada and have since become an international movement with massive marches taking place globally. Slutwalk protests aim to trash the idea that female rape victims are "asking for it".

The initial march was a response to the remarks made by a Toronto police officer who said that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized", and also in response to comments made by a Manitoba judge when giving a convicted rapist a sentence of house arrest.

Sadly the police perpetuated the myth and stereotype of ‘the slut’, and thus failed the victim. With sexual assault already a significantly under-reported crime, survivors have now been given even less of a reason to go to the Police, for fear that they could be blamed. Rape is not related to clothing or even to sex it is a show of power and control.

I understand the movment although I am not certain that objectifying women's bodies by taking them out onto the streets in 'sexy wear' is something that will benefit rape victims in the future even more so because we live in a world where women do 'sexy' to catch male interest when selling everything from cereal to deodrant.

(Images: google)
*For more info please check: http://www.slutwalktoronto.com

Is It Shopping If No One Knows?

2011-10-09T21:30:00.000+02:00

Rajasthani Men Of The Thar Desert

2011-10-07T03:43:00.000+02:00

(Photo:guindilla.eu)

The Beauty Myth

2011-10-06T00:38:00.000+02:00

The more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have come to weigh upon us... [D]uring the past decade, women breached the power structure; meanwhile, eating disorders rose exponentially and cosmetic surgery became the fastest-growing specialty... [P]ornography became the main media category, ahead of legitimate films and records combined, and thirty-three thousand American women told researchers that they would rather lose ten to fifteen pounds than achieve any other goal...More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we have ever had before; but in terms of how we feel about ourselves physically, we may actually be worse off than our unliberated grandmothers.

- Naomi Wolf , The beauty Myth

Loliwe By Zahara

2011-10-04T11:17:00.000+02:00

The 'Disappeared'

2011-09-30T23:06:00.003+02:00

The policy of “disappearances” is the cornerstone of all counter-revolutionary terror inflicted by state/military and para-military forces. It is the core of inflicting terror and fear in society at large – by ‘disappearing’ not only prominent politicized types, but also, as in places like Argentina (30 000), El Salvador (700), Iran (under the Shah) and Kashmir (10 000), whole generations of youth who even have the potential of being “infected” by the “virus” that calls for social change and an end to oppression and oligarchy.

Rather than simply framing the issue as one of targeting the most well-known political opposition activists disappearances are central to the strategy of simply terrorizing society at large firstly into submission and secondly into a state of utter despair and gloom that makes them think ten times about taking any stand for social change.

The most inspiring organisation that has emerged around the illegal abductions is the, Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Its members are the Argentine women whose children ‘disappeared’ during the Junta’s war between 1976 and 1983. These mothers have been protesting for more than 30 years and they have congregated at the Plaza de Mayo every Thursday and even today they continue to fight for their right to be re-united with their abducted children.

The latest manifestation of this phenomena are the extraordinary renditions that the US has been carrying out globally. Individuals are picked up off the streets of the US , UK , South Africa, Pakistan , Sudan etc and flown to undisclosed detention centres in countries that are notorious for their torture methods. The well-known centres of course being Guantanamo, Baghram and Abu Ghraib however there are many more of these centres in the Arab world, North Africa and Pakistan and their locations have been classified.

The reality is that not enough is being done to ensure that the US is answerable for those it 'disappears' and the criteria of ‘suspicion of terror’ that is used to arrest individuals is so vague and ridiculous that one can even be arrested for stopping to tie their shoelaces too close to a US embassy.

Mongolian Women

2011-09-28T14:20:00.000+02:00

(Photo Source : Google)

Remembering the Moghuls...

2011-09-26T15:47:00.001+02:00

(Picture Source:google)

Thou art in the Ka'ba at Mecca,
as well as in the (Hindu) temple of Somnath.
Thou art in the monastery,
as well as the tavern.
Thou art at the same time the light and the moth,
The wine and the cup,
The sage and the fool,

The friend and the stranger.

The rose and the nightingale.

(From Dara Shikoh's treatise on Sufism, The Compass of Truth)

Dara Shikoh (March 20, 1615 – August 30, 1659) was the eldest son and heir apparent of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal ( of Taj Mahal fame).He came to believe in the essential unity of Hinduism and Islam. and was led to this conclusion by another Sufi saint, Mullah Shah Badakshani. He had the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads translated into Persian as The Mysteries of Mysteries, and wrote a comparative study of Hinduism and Islam, The Mingling of Two Oceans.

A Pakistani Girl From The Cholistan Desert

2011-09-22T16:28:00.000+02:00

(Picture Source: Google)

The Cholistan Desert of Pakistan covers an area of 26,300 km². It adjoins the Thar Desert extending over to Sindh and into India. The word Cholistan is derived from the Turkish word Chol, which means Desert. The people of Cholistan lead a semi-nomadic life, moving from one place to another in search of water and fodder for their animals.

*(This one is for the fans from Bahawalpur)

State Of Recognition

2011-09-20T20:14:00.000+02:00

Palestinians have not historically lacked legal instruments to challenge Israel [EPA]
What is at stake in Barack Obama's vehement refusal to recognise Palestine as a mini-state with a disfigured geography and no sovereignty, and his urging the world community not to recognise it while threatening the Palestinians with retribution? What is the relationship between Obama's refusal to recognise Palestine and his insistence on recognising Israel's right to be a "Jewish state" and his demand that the Palestinians and Arab countries follow suit?

It is important to stress at the outset that whether the UN grants the Palestinian Authority (PA) the government of a state under occupation and observer status as a state or refuses to do so, either outcome will be in the interest of Israel. For the only game in town has always been Israel's interests, and it is clear that whatever strategy garners international support, with or without US and Israeli approval, must guarantee Israeli interests a priori. The UN vote is a case in point.

Possible outcomes

Let us consider the two possible outcomes of the vote and how they will advance Israeli interests:

The ongoing Arab uprisings have raised Palestinian expectations about the necessity of ending the occupation and have challenged the modus vivendi the PA has with Israel. Furthermore, with the increase in Palestinian grass-roots activism to resist the Israeli occupation, the PA has decided to shift the Palestinian struggle from popular mobilisation it will not be able to control, and which it fears could topple it, to the international legal arena. The PA hopes that this shift from the popular to the juridical will demobilise Palestinian political energies and displace them onto an arena that is less threatening to the survival of the PA itself.

The PA feels abandoned by the US which assigned it the role of collaborator with the Israeli occupation, and feels frozen in a "peace process" that does not seek an end goal. PA politicians opted for the UN vote to force the hand of the Americans and the Israelis, in the hope that a positive vote will grant the PA more political power and leverage to maximise its domination of the West Bank (but not East Jerusalem or Gaza, which neither Israel nor Hamas respectively are willing to concede to the PA). Were the UN to grant the PA its wish and admit it as a member state with observer status, then, the PA argues, it would be able to force Israel in international fora to cease its violations of the UN charter, the Geneva Conventions, and numerous international agreements. The PA could then challenge Israel internationally using legal instruments only available to member states to force it to grant it "independence". What worries the Israelis most is that, were Palestine to become a member state, it would be able to legally challenge Israel.

If the UN vote passes, the PLO will cease to represent the Palestinian people [EPA]

This logic is faulty, though, because the Palestinians have not historically lacked legal instruments to challenge Israel. On the contrary, international instruments have been activated against Israel since 1948 by the UN's numerous resolutions in the General Assembly as well as in the Security Council, not to mention the more recent use of the International Court of Justice in the case of the Apartheid Wall. The problem has never been the Palestinians' ability or inability to marshal international law or legal instruments to their side. Instead, the problem is that the US blocks international law's jurisdiction from being applied to Israel through its veto power. The US uses threats and protective measures to shield the recalcitrant pariah state from being brought to justice. It has already used its veto power in the UN Security Council 41 times in defense of Israel and against Palestinian rights. How this would change if the PA became a UN member state with observer status is not clear.

True, the PA could bring more international legal pressure and sanctions to bear on Israel. It could have international bodies adjudicate Israel's violations of the rights of the Palestinian state. The PA could even make the international mobility of Israeli politicians more perilous as "war criminals". This would render Israel's international relations more difficult, but how would this ultimately weaken an Israel that the US would shield completely from such effects as it has always done?

Implications of the UN vote

This presumed addition of power the Palestinians will gain to bring Israel to justice will actually be carried out at enormous cost to the Palestinian people. If the UN votes for the PA statehood status, this would have several immediate implications:

(1) The PLO will cease to represent the Palestinian people at the UN, and the PA will replace it as their presumed state.

(2) The PLO, which represents all Palestinians (about 12 million people in historic Palestine and in the diaspora), and was recognised as their "sole" representative at the UN in 1974, will be truncated to the PA, which represents only West Bank Palestinians (about 2 million people). Incidentally this was the vision presented by the infamous "Geneva Accords" that went nowhere.

(3) It will politically weaken Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homes and be compensated, as stipulated in UN resolutions. The PA does not represent the refugees, even though it claims to represent their "hopes" of establishing a Palestinian state at their expense. Indeed, some international legal experts fear it could even abrogate the Palestinians' right of return altogether. It will also forfeit the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel who face institutional and legal racism in the Israeli state, as it presents them with a fait accompli of the existence of a Palestinian state (its phantasmatic nature notwithstanding). This will only give credence to Israeli claims that the Jews have a state and the Palestinians now have one too and if Palestinian citizens of Israel were unhappy, or even if they were happy, with their third-class status in Israel, they should move or can be forced to move to the Palestinian state at any rate.

(4) Israel could ostensibly come around soon after a UN vote in favour of Palestinian statehood and inform the PA that the territories it now controls (a small fraction of the West Bank) is all the territory Israel will concede and that this will be the territorial basis of the PA state. The Israelis do not tire of reminding the PA that the Palestinians will not have sovereignty, an army, control of their borders, control of their water resources, control over the number of refugees it could allow back, or even jurisdiction over Jewish colonial settlers. Indeed, the Israelis have already obtained UN assurances about their right to "defend" themselves and to preserve their security with whatever means they think are necessary to achieve these goals. In short, the PA will have the exact same Bantustan state that Israel and the US have been promising to grant it for two decades!

(5) The US and Israel could also, through their many allies, inject a language of "compromise" in the projected UN recognition of the PA state, stipulating that such a state must exist peacefully side by side with the "Jewish State" of Israel. This would in turn exact a precious UN recognition of Israel's "right" to be a Jewish state, which the UN and the international community, the US excepted, have refused to recognize thus far. This will directly link the UN recognition of a phantasmatic non-existent Palestinian state to UN recognition of an actually existing state of Israel that discriminates legally and institutionally against non-Jews as a "Jewish state".

(6) The US and Israel will insist after a positive vote that, while the PA is right to make certain political demands as a member state, it would have to abrogate its recent reconciliation agreement with Hamas. Additionally, sanctions could befall the PA state itself for associating with Hamas, which the US and Israel consider a terrorist group. The US Congress has already threatened to punish the PA and will not hesitate to urge the Obama administration to add Palestine to its list of "State Sponsors of Terrorism" along with Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

All of these six outcomes will advance Israeli interests immeasurably, while the only inconvenience to Israel would be the ability of the PA to demand that international law and legal jurisdiction be applied to Israel so as to exact more concessions from that country. However, at every turn the US will block and will shield Israel from its effects. In short, Israeli interests will be maximised at the cost of some serious but not detrimental inconvenience.

The second possible outcome, a US veto, and/or the ability of the US to pressure and twist the arms of tens of countries around the world to reject the bid of the PA in the General Assembly, resulting in failure to recognise PA statehood, will also be to the benefit of Israel. The unending "peace process" will continue with more stringent conditions and an angry US, upset at the PA challenge, will go back to exactly where the PA is today, if not to a weaker position. President Obama and future US administrations will continue to push for PA and Arab recognition of Israel as a "Jewish state" that has the right to discriminate by law against non-Jews in exchange for an ever-deferred recognition of a Palestinian Bantustan as an "economically viable" Palestinian state - a place where Palestinian neoliberal businessmen can make profits off international aid and investment.

Either outcome will keep the Palestinian people colonised, discriminated against, oppressed, and exiled. This entire brouhaha over the UN vote is ultimately about which of the two scenarios is better for Israeli interests. The Palestinian people and their interests are not even part of this equation.

The question on the table before the UN, then, is not whether the UN should recognise the right of the Palestinian people to a state in accordance with the 1947 UN Partition Plan, which would grant them 45 per cent of historic Palestine, nor of a Palestinian state within the June 5, 1967 borders along the Green Line, which would grant them 22 per cent of historic Palestine. A UN recognition ultimately means the negation of the rights of the majority of the Palestinian people in Israel, in the diaspora, in East Jerusalem, and even in Gaza, and the recognition of the rights of some West Bank Palestinians to a Bantustan on a fraction of West Bank territory amounting to less than 10 per cent of historic Palestine. Israel will be celebrating either outcome.

Joseph Massad is Associate Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University in New York.

The Pushkar Fair

2011-09-19T11:54:00.000+02:00

(Photographer: Paul Beinssen- Allposters-)

Pushkar in Rajasthan is one of the oldest cities in India and legend associates Lord Brahma with its creation. The Pushkar fair is a massive event for desert dwellers. The fair continues for 5 days and is one of the largest cattle fairs in the country. Animals, including over 50,000 camels, are brought from miles around to be traded and sold.

Trading is brisk as several thousand heads of cattle exchange hands. All the camels are cleaned, washed, adorned, some are interestingly shorn to form patterns, and special stalls are set up selling finery and jewelery for the camels. Camels at the Pushkar fair are decorated with great care. They wear jewelery of silver and beads. There are silver bells and bangles around their ankles that jangle when they walk. An interesting ritual is the piercing of a camel's nose.

Romani Dreams

2011-09-14T20:04:00.000+02:00

It was their night and finally it had arrived. He wished Hassen was there with him, after all they had done this together but as usual he was off on some adventure, ‘testing his spirit’ as he liked to call it. Sometimes it takes years to fulfil your dreams, sometimes they all come rushing at you on the edge of fulfilment all at once.

Their reports had been accepted by the UN forum on minority issues. The years of research had finally paid off. The plight of the Romani would be heard. Well not entirely but this recognition and the funding to begin the project was a good start.

The children would no longer be forced into ‘special schools’, so that the other children wouldn’t have to mix with them. They would begin with a community centre and they would house 500 families in their own suburb. It was out of the way, but the conditions were miles better than the derelict farmhouses and broken down apartment blocks where they had been forced to take refuge in the past.

Tonight was the formal celebration and the handing over of the title deeds to the land and the cheques with which work could begin. It had taken 3 years to get these proposals looked at and another 5 to get them approved. This was their life’s work and it was finally moving of the papers and into reality.

Their family were convinced that they were insane. Who would buy this bullshit? Funding and recognition were reserved for countries and peoples who lived in the vicinity of natural resources wanted by the first world. Who would notice those that hadn’t been given a second glance after the Second World War -when serving survivors had become a bourgeoisie hobby-?

He thought back to the first time they had heard about the Romani. His grandfather had left them his diary in his will when he passed. Perhaps the old man had realised that this was the only way to give his beloved a living memorial.

Their meeting had been fleeting and fraught with danger. Her family was escaping across the border, his regiment was on watch, the place was remote and freezing. He was the only one on duty for the next 3 nights. Her pleading eyes, her desperation, passionate exchanges in the darkness with the constant fear of being discovered by her family but mostly her strength, yes it was definitely her strength! – of course her wild mysterious beauty helped a bit, his grandfather had added as an after thought –.

How could he possibly have refused her? Her image was burnt into his heart forever and the memory of those eyes haunted him always. His ‘foray into love at first sight’, he often called it. He became her disciple for life.

The phone rang; he thought it was his brother checking whether he was running late as usual and adding some points to his speech but mostly just the usual pep talk. Hassen was their spokesperson and he hoped he would do him proud in his absence.

He picked up the phone. It was his mother. She was crying. Where are you she asked him. Her voice was shaky. ‘On my way ma’, he replied, ‘there’s no need to be emotional ma, this is only the start, and there is much work to be done’. ‘Pull over; I have to tell you something.’ Her voice was urgent, robotic, Pained. He did as he was told. ‘Ok ma , I’m on the side of the road, what is it?’

‘There’s been a train accident she said, Hassen didn’t make it’.

Her voice trailed off…

His mind was racing, this was a nightmare, he would wake up and he would be at the gala dinner, they would be calling him up for the presentation…All that played over and over in his mind, was Hassen’s victorious smile, the day they had made it passed all the aunts and under the garden tap – they had been three years old then - and since birth they had been inseparable.

Danger

2011-09-08T21:01:00.001+02:00

An Ethnic Volksie ...

2011-09-05T10:53:00.000+02:00

(Image:google)

I couldn't resist posting this 1990s Volkswagen Beetle named "Vochol". It's part of an exhibition on Huichol culture at the Museum of Puebla. Its name "Vochol", is a combination of "Vocho," a popular term for Volkswagen Beetles in Mexico, and "Huichol", a Mexican indigenous group. The car was decorated by indigenous craftmen from the Huichol community living in the states of Nayarit and Jalisco, using traditional beads and fabric. This beauty will be auctioned and the proceeds will go to the Huichol community.

* Idd Mubarak

2011-08-31T22:13:00.000+02:00

(Picture Source: connect.in.com)

Muslim women offer Eid al-Fitr prayers in Jammu, India.

*Eid Greetings in Swahili

For Libya

2011-08-27T09:35:00.000+02:00

(Picture Source: Reuters)

Where the real war has only just begun!

Only Women Bleed: Menstruation And Prayer In Islam

2011-08-25T09:38:00.001+02:00

*I found an interersting piece @ wood turtle while blog-surfing. The excerpts below really got my attention and the entire article can be found back at her blog.

Despite being the spiritual equals of men, women are forbidden to pray during menstruation — and a woman who decides to pray is told she is sinning and committing sacrilege. The way in which this religious law is dealt with by many scholars, online literature, pamphlet Islam, multimedia lecture series, discussion forums and conferences, directly affects how women understand and relate to their bodies and is also used by men to help remove women from active worship and participation in the community.

Ask any woman why she can’t pray during her period and she will most likely tell you that because menstruation is painful, God has lifted the requirement to pray as a kind of concession. She might even follow that up with the argument that the blood flows freely, without end until the period is over, and is an impurity.

Now, it’s very true that many women have horrendous experiences with their menstrual periods. Migraines, pelvic pain, cramping, back pain, blood clots, fever, joint aches, and nausea are just some of the symptoms that can drive any woman into bed with a hot water bottle and her preferred method of pain relief. And this is exactly what many sources reference when producing literature on menstruation and prayer. Women are weakened by blood loss. Women are emotionally fragile. Women suffer in their biological pain. Women are naturally unclean. Therefore compassion towards women’s “condition” is required, and they have been granted a boon not to pray. We’re not even required to perform any make-up prayers.

The problem with this reasoning is that every person with physical capacity is required to perform the ritual movements for prayer. If you have mobility issues, you may use assistance like a chair, shorten the length of your prayer, or lessen the extent of the ritual movements. If you are severely incapacitated by illness or disability, you may use your pinky finger to perform the motions. If you cannot even do that, you may move your eyes. Failing that, you gain reward for your intention to pray. Reasonably, if I am bedridden due to my cramps, I am still physically able to pray.

The second argument relates to the potential impurity of blood. Ritual purity is required for prayer. From a worship standpoint, prayer is held within a sacred space, and ritual washing helps prepare a person mentally and physically by washing off the profane. For minor breakages, purity is gained through the light washing of certain body parts (wudhu) after a person farts, urinates, defecates, sleeps, or loses consciousness; and is gained through a full bath (ghusul) for major breakages after a person has an orgasm (self administered or otherwise) has sexual intercourse, or for women specifically, after menstruating.

**Thanx to wood turtle for allowing the repost!

Thinking Out OF The Box !

2011-08-23T11:27:00.000+02:00

My Kinda Americans

2011-08-20T11:49:00.001+02:00

(Picture:www.islandpacket.com)

According to John Henrik Clarke, The survival of African people away from their ancestral home is one of the great acts of human endurance in the history of the world. If this is true then the Gullah people are nothing short of amazing.

During the slave trade, captured Africans, destined for American plantations, were often retained in holding cells along the West African coastlines. This imprisonment brought together various Africans together under one roof and formed the basis for the outline and structure of Gullah culture. It is popular belief that the name Gullah is a distortion of the name Angola, a region that supplied some 40% of the slaves brought to and sold at the Charleston slave market.

Nearly a half a million Gullah live on a 500 mile stretch along the Atlantic Ocean. They are the descendants of the Africans brought to the Carolina Colony beginning in the late 1500s. For nearly five centuries, their lives have been economically and politically tied to this region and the "cash crops" needed for its success whether it be rice or tourism.

A Rajasthani Woman

2011-08-17T12:42:00.000+02:00

(Picture Souce: Shunya.net)

Britannia's Unruly Waves Of Rioters ...

2011-08-15T00:10:00.000+02:00

I think it’s time for the third world to head to the UK on a civilising mission due to the barbaric behaviour of Londoners over the past weeks.

I was surprised to see some people attempting to liken the London riots to the Arab uprisings … like hello am I missing something? The Arab uprisings were about the people wanting to bring about democracy and get rid of corrupt dictatorial leaders it had nothing to do with looting stores or burning down buildings to get the latest pair of Nikes free.

The more shocking part was that most perpeptrators where white and 'decent' people
, chefs, millionare's daughters, students at reputable institutions and a postman...is this what happens when they get tired of living their lives of white privilege?

A friend was telling me about an article she read on the riots and their cause and the writer was saying that this generation of UK youth basically have no real morals and most of them are recipients of the dole. There is no real ambition, no real role models and no religion apart from materialism and the next high. The pointless death and destruction in the UK is repulsive even more so, in a world where people are fighting for their lives everyday and so many wars are being waged simultaneously.

And I have to mention; that I find the accounts of South Africans who attempted to escape post 94, due to all the violence as well as the threat of ‘SA turning into the next Zimbabawe’ ,writing back to local newspapers saying how dangerous London has become and how much they miss the streets of Jozi, totally hilarious!

Here's to 3 years of blogging...

2011-08-13T00:16:00.001+02:00

(Photo Source: Frans Lemmens / SuperStock)

Algeria near Djanet Annual Tuareg festival called SBIBA Women playing drum Sahara desert.

Today mirage-a-trois turns 3 and it has been quite a journey. I’ve got the chance to write about all sorts of things and share what I hope is an alternate view of the world we live in, in all its beauty as well as its ugliness but most of all it has allowed me to celebrate the many 'unconventionally' beautiful women and their lives.

The blog has forced the demon to search (and I don’t just mean google). I am thankful for this platform and for the ability to share my views with ease but mostly I’m thankful to all of you for dropping by and sharing your views and your time because in this crazy urbanised, technological world that we live in time has become far too scarce.

So until I leave for the Sahara where I hope to lay peacefully beside an oasis, a good book in hand, watching the sunset over the dunes, listening for the voices in the sand and hearing the rhythmic melodies of Tinariwen as they waft through the air, I would like to wish you enough...

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough “Hello’s” to get you through the final “Goodbye.”

-Bob Perks

For Some Friday & Ramadan Spirit

2011-08-12T09:38:00.002+02:00

Alif allah chambay di booti, tey meray murshid mann vich lai hoo
My master has planted the fragrant seed of love in my heart

Ho nafi uss baat da paani dey kay
Which flourished with modesty, piety and acceptance of his existence

Har ragaay harjai hoo
My God is present in every throbbing pulse

Ho joog joog jeevay mera murshid sohna
My spiritual guide is ever-present

Hatay jiss ay booti lai ho
The one who blew life into me

(chorus # 1)
Pir meraya jugni ji
I have the spirit of my guide

Ae way allah waliyan di jugni ji
The spirit of all the messengers who brought His message to this Earth

Ae way nabbi pak di jugni ji
The spirit of Holy Prophet

Ae way maula ali wali jugni ji
The spirit of Ali and his followers

Ae way meray pir di jugni ji
The spirit of my saint

Ae way saaray sabaz di jugni ji
The spirit of all his words

Dum gutkoon, dum gutkoon, dum gutkoon, dum gootkun... karay Saeein
Everytime I think of you God, my heart flutters

Parhay tay kalma nabi da Parhay saeein pir merya
So I recite the kalma whenever I think of God

(chrous #1 repeat)

Jugni taar khaeein vich thaal
O my creation, share whatever you have

Chad duniya dey janjaal
Remove yourself from worldly concerns

Kuch ni nibna bandiya naal
There is nothing that you can get from other human beings that you can take to the after-life
(repeat)

Rakhi saabat sidh amaal
Just keep you actions and intentions pure

(chorus # 1 repeat)

Jugni dig payee vich roi
So absorbed was the creation that she stumbled into a ditch

Othay ro ro kamli hoi
There she wailed relentlessly

Oddi vaath naye lainda koi
But there was no one who enquired about her
(repeat)

Tey kalmay binna nai mildi toi
Remember, there is no salvation for anyone without remembering your creator
(chorus #1 repeat)

Ho wanga charha lo kuriyon
Put on your bangles, girls

Meray daata dey darbaar dian
Those that you get at your Master's shrines
(repeat)

Ho naa kar teeya khair piyari
Daughter, don't be proud of your youth

Maan daindiya galaryaan
Your mother scoffs and scolds you

Din din talhi juwani jaandi
That with each passing day, your youth slips by

Joon sohna puthia lariyaan
Even gold when put in the furnance moulds itself, there is absolutely no permanence

Aurat marad, shehzaday sohney
Women, men are like so beautiful

O moti, O laa lariyaan
Like pearls, like the gems

Sir da sarfa kar naa jairey
Those who are not self-centered

Peen prem pya lariyan
They are the ones who truly love the humanity

O daatay day darbaan chaa akho
Whenever you visit the darbar of any saint

Pawan khair sawa lariyan
God fulfils all your wishes and showers you with his blessings

(arif plus meesha)
(chorus 2)

O wanga charha lo kuriyon meray daata tey darbar diyan
Put on your bangles, girls ... Those that you get at your Master's shrines

O wangha charha lo kuriyon meray daata tey darbar diyan
Put on your bangles, girls ... Those that you get at your Master's shrines
(chorus 2 repeat)

Dum gutkoon, dum gutkoon, dum gootkoon, gootkoon gootkon
(chorus 1 repeat)
Jugni ji
Jugni ji
Jugni ji...

On Men & Evolution

2011-08-11T14:15:00.000+02:00

You have got to love Cyanide & Happiness!

For The Women Of Somalia This Women's Day

2011-08-09T09:38:00.000+02:00

(AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)

“Somalia: Nevermind”

black faces

white tongues

the smell of sea water

taunts with sarcasm

drink me

oh somalia

im sorry i couldnt be there for you

but while you were trying to to get your daughter

to drink her urine

a singer died

while your children

were falling from the tree of life

scattered bushels of rotten fruit

some whiter children were shot

oh somalia

only if your beautiful wasnt so black

only if you were

gaza or

libya or

bahrain or

egypt or

norway or

england or

japan or

america

or the moon

i would mention you in a poem

only if you had

oil or

poppy or

timber or

rubber or

gold or

white people

i would mention you in my prayers

oh somalia

only if your beautiful wasnt so black

the world has grown accustom to watching you die

since i was a child

somalia - synonymous with suffering

african meant adversity

an african struggling was like

a fish swimming

a dog barking

somalia meant starvation

nevermind the magic in your poetry

the glowing saints rising from your lands like a thousand moons

nevermind the beauty of your beaches

the utter perfection in the hips of your women

oh somalia

only if you didnt wear the resemblance of eve

like an ornate funeral shroud

we wouldnt see you as our sin

and avert our gazes

in shame

turn our faces

to blame

only if your lack of the worldy

didnt remind us

of our lack of the other-worldly

perhaps then we would mention you

oh somalia

only if your beautiful wasnt so black

-Amir Sulaiman

*(This is a re-post, I read it @ www.goatmilkblog.com)

“Should I Do It?” Women Struggle With Porn-Driven Sex

2011-08-07T19:56:00.000+02:00

Usually I address my writing about pornography to men, who are the majority of the consumers of sexually explicit material. But after a recent conversation with a female friend, I was reminded of how often women who raise concerns about the sexism of pornography are discounted as being overly sensitive, prudish, or unable to see things objectively. Since I’m a man, you can be assured, of course, that I am not overly sensitive or prudish, and that I’m completely objective.

So, if you are a woman who is struggling to get your husband/boyfriend/partner to understand your concerns about pornography, I suggest you send this essay to him with a note at the top that says, “It’s not just women who think pornography is sexist.” Then add a note at the bottom that says, “You shouldn’t have had to hear it from a man to take me seriously.”

First, to be clear: Everything I know about pornography I learned from women or discovered because of the feminism I learned from women. From the feminist anti-pornography movement that emerged in the 1970s and ‘80s, I learned to critique the system of male dominance and my own place in it. So, there is little that is original in this essay, but much that is important to keep saying.

When I present the radical feminist critique of pornography in public, I am often approached afterward by women with some version of this question:

“My husband/boyfriend/partner wants me to do [fill in the blank with a sex practice that causes pain, discomfort, or distress for the woman]. I love him, and I want to be a good partner. Should I do it?”

The “it” can be anything, but common requests include ejaculating on her face, anal sex, a threesome with another man or woman, rough sex, or roleplaying that feels inauthentic to her. Again, not all women reject those practices, but for many they are unwanted.

The answer to the question, “Should I do it?” is simple: No one has an obligation to another person, no matter what level of commitment in a relationship, to participate in any sexual activity that causes pain, discomfort or distress. People can discuss desires honestly and be open to sexual exploration, yet be clear about what crosses the line and is not acceptable.

Because I’m a man, women sometimes assume I can also provide a simple answer to their next question, “Why does he want to do that to me?” There is a simple, though not pleasant, answer rooted in feminism: In patriarchy, men are socialized to understand sex in the context of men’s domination and women’s submission. The majority of the pornography that saturates our hyper-mediated lives presents not images of “just sex,” but sex in the context of male dominance. And over the past two decades, as pornography has become more easily accessible online and the sexual acts in pornography have become more extreme, women increasingly report that men ask them to participate in sex acts that come directly from the conventional male-supremacist pornographic script, with little recognition by men of the potential for pain, discomfort or distress in their women partners.

The third, and most challenging, question is: “Why can’t he understand why I don’t want that?” The strength of sexual desire plays a role, but here the answer is really about the absence of empathy, the lack of an ability to imagine what another human being might be feeling. Pornography has always presented women as objectified bodies for male sexual pleasure, but each year pornography does that with more overt cruelty toward women. The “gonzo” genre of pornography, where the industry pushes the culture’s limits with the most intense sexual degradation, encourages men to see women as vehicles for their sexual pleasure, even depicting women as eager to participate in their own degradation.

After more than two decades of work on this subject, I have no doubt of one truth about contemporary pornography: It is one way that men’s capacity for empathy can be dramatically diminished.

To make this point in talks to college and community audiences, I often suggest that, “Pornography is what the end of the world looks like.” By that I don’t mean that pornography is going to bring about the end of the world, nor do I mean that of all the social problems we face, pornography is the most threatening. Instead, I mean that pornography encourages men to abandon empathy, and a world without empathy is a world without hope.

This is why pornography matters beyond its effects in our private lives. Empathy is not itself a strategy for progressive social change, but it is difficult to imagine people being motivated to work for progressive social change if they have no capacity for empathy. Politics is more than empathy, but empathy matters. Empathy is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the work that challenges the domination/subordination dynamic of existing hierarchies, and transcending that dynamic is crucial if there is to be a just and sustainable future.

For women who want to communicate their need for sexual integrity to partners, and for men who want to transcend the pornographic imagination and empathize with their partners, the feminist critique offers a critique of male dominance and a vision of equality that can help. Instead of turning away from the unpleasant realities about how pornography is made, rather than ignoring the inhumanity of the images, rather than minimizing the effects of men’s use of pornography -- we should face ourselves and face the culture we are creating.

As long as we turn away from that task, the pornographers will continue to profit. We need ask what their profits cost us all.

by Robert Jensen,
posted on MS Magazine, July 2, 2011

A Land Called Paradise

2011-08-05T23:00:00.000+02:00

I don't believe that as muslims we need to be apologetic or explain ourselves to anyone. I guess I do not fully understand the conflict and context of American muslims post 9/11. However it is not the song so much as it is the video.
I do love this video.

Ridiculous Irony

2011-08-03T23:07:00.001+02:00

In occupied Palestine the mayor of Jerusalem is currently defending the decision of the Israeli government to build the museum of “Museum of Tolerance and Human Dignity” on an old Palestinian graveyard (does one laugh or cry?).

The museum is sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and is an extension of the current MOT in L.A which was designed to examine racism and prejudice with a strong focus on Holocaust history. It also aims to foster tolerance within occupied Palestine’s diverse Jewish communities – are these guys serious???-

One of the primary criticisms of the museum is the excessive use of multimedia technology to appeal to and manipulate the emotions of children. The museum uses fast-paced skits, dioramas, films, and interactive computer-controlled exhibits in an effort to make an emotional impact on visitors and actual historical artifacts are absent for the most part. Other critisims range from the design to the location and of course the fact that the museum does not focus at all on building tolerance between Arabs and israelis, the more pressing issue one would think.

The Mamilla Cemetery whose land has been appropriated for the building of the museum is historical and dates back hundreds of years and contained the graves of many important Islamic saints and scholars, as well as several Mamluk tombs and archeologists have found 4 layers of graves within the cemetery.

Construction has been stayed a few times and in February 2010 fifteen of the oldest families in Jerusalem filed a case before the United Nations in Geneva and held news conferences there, in Los Angeles and in Jerusalem. Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University has members of his family buried there and calls it the further desecration of a cemetery that they have been nibbling away at for over three decades, despite many protests: "The fact that it was desecrated in the ’60s doesn’t mean that it’s right to desecrate it further.”

Woman of Baltistan

2011-08-02T12:02:00.000+02:00

(Picture taken by a friend in Altit Village)

Ramadan Is Upon Us !

2011-07-31T17:10:00.002+02:00

(Picture Source:www.deskofbrian.com/2011/07/famine-declared-somalia)

This year it feels like Ramadan crept up on me while I was staring it in the face.Ok so maybe it wasn't an entirely espionage type of 'creep up' mostly because I began carbo-loading after last Ramadan (one should always be prepared right?).

I want to use this post to wish you all a month of noor and spirituality. However while we carbo-load like tomorrow is the Comrades Marathon let us try to remember Somalia. Rich governments are guilty of neglect as the aid efforts to avert the catastrophe in East Africa crawl along due to an $800 million shortfall. Many Somalis have fled to Dadaab, a refugee complex in Kenya intended to house 90,000 but which is now bursting with 400,000 people.

Nearly half of the population of Somalia (around 3.7 million people) do not have the pleasure of fasting voluntarily this Ramadan and I hope that our prayers will remain with them. May Allah (swt) satisfy their hunger, heal those who are suffering from malnutrition and provide them with abundance but mostly may he give us the heart and the will to take action because dua on its own is not enough.

LIVE !

2011-07-28T17:07:00.000+02:00

(Photo: Anup J Kat)

Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.

- A Sachs

The Non-Muslim Fundamentalist

2011-07-25T12:30:00.005+02:00

It makes me sick to my stomach that even our most alternate news channel

ran around shouting ‘MUSLIM’ when tragedy struck Norway this weekend.

I understand the concept of ‘ a likely suspect’, however when we all know that the ‘likely suspect’ has been concocted by media sensationalism and the US propaganda machine surely we should attempt to look left and right and left again before we cross the road.

Anders Behring Brevik (not very muslim sounding) and his 1500 page manifesto entitled 2083- A European Declaration Of Independence which claims to want to protect Europeans, their culture and their lands from being over run by the rapid breeding muslim hordes, set of a bomb in Oslo and shot and killed 92 youth at a camp when he opened fire on them dressed as a policeman.

The interesting thing is that it is always these pseudo-liberal European governments masquerading as saviours of human rights where the worst racial profiling occurs and from where the worst Islamophobes and fascists are born. It seems Europe will have to start seeing bigotry as something more than racism against Jews.

Brevik a Christian right winger and politician wanted to teach a lesson to the Labour Party who according to him has a soft attitude towards Muslims and took it upon himself to save the Europeans and what a sad and misdirected saviour he turned out to be.

Of course Norwegian lives are of the more valuable white variety so they will be mourned internationally with flower wreaths, candles and moments of silence unlike the thousands who will die quietly of the famine in Somalia or the ongoing war in Libya.

GOTCHA!*

2011-07-20T16:49:00.001+02:00

The News of the World was notorious for its anti-immigrant and islamophobic stance and all its writing was either scandal, sex, sleaze or sensationalism. The paper was partially responsible for putting the Bush regime as well as Margaret Thatcher in power and held huge sway and power globally. Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has set the framework within which people think and how they see global events, personalities and wars.

A few weeks ago a lone journalist decided to blow the whistle on the unethical practises of the media giant. Sean Hoare was one of the first journalists to go on the record about the phone hacking at Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World. The scandal has so far led to 10 arrests and a parliamentary hearing.

Sean was subsequently found dead while an autopsy yesterday afternoon concluded that there was no foul play in his death I am certain that there is much to be suspicious about.

I would like to call a moment of silence for Sean Hoare the whistle blower that eventually led to the closing of News International, the British subsidiary of Murdoch's global conglomerate News Corp.

*The headline used by The News Of The World to announce the sinking of The ARA General Belgrano during the Falklands War with the loss of 323 lives. Losses from the Belgrano totalled just over half of Argentine deaths in the Falklands War.

The Indian Bride

2011-07-19T22:11:00.005+02:00

(An oil painting by Vibha Sahu)

67 Peoples To Raise Your Voice For !

2011-07-18T19:03:00.003+02:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADIBA !

In the Spirit of Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere and considering that everyone is thinking about what to do with their 67 minutes, here's a list of 67 issues to raise your voice for ...

Libyans
Kalahari bushman
Iraqis
Dalits
Abahlali Basemjondolo
Devdasis
Maoris
Aborignies
People of Rio’s Favelas
Native Americans
Palestinians
Ogaden
The tribes in Pakistan’s FATA region
Iranian Nomads
Farm Labourers
Sahrawi
Afro-Ecuadorians
Roma
Child labourers
Afghanis
Palestinians
Those that are trafficked
West Papuans
Uyghurs
Zapatista
Naxalites
Adivasis
Haiti
Congolese Women
Bosnians
Kurds
Rape Survivors
Batwa of the Great Lakes region
Kashmiris
Missing Children of Argentina
First Nations
Gullah/Geechee
Tanzanian Pastoralists
Asian Migrant Labourers in the Emirates
Sex Slaves
Syrians opposing Assad
Inuit
Alaskan Naives
North African Migrant Labourers in Europe
Tibetans
Tartars
Untouchables of India
Hazara
Guaymi
Surui tribe in the Brazilian Amazon
South African Black Lesbians
Baluchis
Ethnic Turks in Greece
600 000 slaves in Mauritania
Endorois of Kenya
Victims of Domestic Violence
Tajiks
Afro-Hondurans
The people of East-Timor
Chechnyans
The East Africans of lands in drought
Those forced into prostitution
Muslim minorities in Russia
The victims of Xenophobia in South Africa
Zimbabweans opposing Mugabe
Victims of NATO
Anyones that’s ever been bombed, maimed, killed wounded, ‘dissapeared’ or called collateral damage

Sing Me A Happy Song!

2011-07-14T18:14:00.003+02:00

These Boots Are Made For ?

2011-07-07T02:02:00.003+02:00