Think On

Think within thee, till the light of day
Be as the darkness of very night---
Till the self-illuminated Way
Show thee the Darkness to be but Light.

Then shall the bounds of the solid Earth
Mingle with the liquid of the Sky:
Then shalt thou gain freedom from Re-birth,
Merging into Shiv the Self on high.

When the nectar of the waning Moon
Riseth to feed the awaiting Sun,
What is it aught but an empty boon?
Booty that the maw of Rah hath won.

Yet shall Self-illuminated Thought
Show another picture, late or soon:---
Ignorance blind---as a demon caught;
Rah himself as booty of the Moon.

There be that to know and to be known.
There be knowledge, too, to know them by.
By the Light in thee shall both be shown,
Thinking and thinking, if thou but try.

Rah it was came booty for the Moon;
Now shall the Moon be booty of thine.
Think on, and both shall a void soon:
Only shall remain the Thought Divine.

From: The word of Lalla the prophetess; being the sayings of Lal Ded or Lal Diddi of Kashmir

(Picture Source: google)

A Word On Reincarnation...

(Source: http://jeremynell.com/)

For Pakistan ...

For the people of Pakistan who suffer rains of fire from American drones above and seas of water flooding below. May God and humanity take mercy on you .

(Pictures sourced: google)

Eviction ...

(Picture Sourced: google)

Yesterday President Sarkozy gave the go ahead as France began the expulsion of Roma people. Currently about 15 000 Romani reside within France. Although the interior ministry has claimed that each case is individually considered there appears to be growing unrest at what the voices on the ground, are calling 'Nazi' style round ups.

The first plane load of those undertaking the 'voluntary return procedure' left France today. Each adult that leaves is being offered $380 and each child $100.

The Roma are one of Europe's oldest communties and are often targetted due to their nomadic lifestyle and negative stereotypes.

The Mask Of Anarchy

Rise like lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number.

Shake your chains to earth like dew.

Which in sleep had fallen on you.

Ye are many - they are few.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

(Picture source: google)

Ramadan & The 2008 Nobel Literature Prize Laureate

Since I’m such a Tuareg groupie I was extatic to find J.M.G Le Cle’zio’s ‘Desert’. It covers a wide range of issues from the lives of migrant labourers in Marseilles and life in the coastal Moroccan shantytowns to the lives of the North African desert tribes. It really is no wonder that this book won him the 2008 Nobel Prize for literature.

The book includes really painful descriptions of how these once powerful tribes fought hard to retain their autonomy until they were hunted down and treated as rebels and thieves and eventually massacred as French colonialism drew its lines in blood through North Africa.

The idea that the only thing that can be of any value to the tribes is water, and that everything they possess is carried with them as they trek through the desert from the time they are born till the day they die and the vivid descriptions of nomadic life left quite the impression on me.

Living in 2010 it is almost beyond us to truly comprehend that nothing of real value can be measured monetarily.

Ss as I wish you a wonderful Ramadan I would like to wish for your soul and for mine GRATEFULNESS because in a world so obsessed with accumulating wealth, to be content and to realise that the things worth owning are not paid for with money is to set yourself free.

PWCD (Post World Cup Depression)

I loved the world cup vibe. I even managed to attend a match at the Calabash and the atmosphere was electric! It was great to see South Africans jumping into the national pride pool head first and rallying behind a national sports team, the last time we did that – according to the movie Invictus - was during 1995 when we won the rugby world cup.

But as South Africa falls deeper into a depressive sulk after the festivities have drawn to a close, one wonders what long-term effects events of this scale have? Sadly the answer is not many. Although it must be stated that we now own a shiny new train, the rapid bus system seems to be working well and Durban now boasts a sea front, which rivals most of the world’s old favourites.

So apart from Fifa making a 2 billion rand profit and everyone’s holiday from the ‘real’ news in the world, I find myself asking what has changed for the better? The reality looks bleak.

With no more matches being played and most of the infrastructural changes completed, thousands of jobs have seized to exist as the last of the tourists begin to leave. The hundreds who were moved to places like Blikkiesdorp to hide our Gini coefficient are still without access to the most basic facilities and the sensational media count down to the end of the World Cup as the dates for the next lot of xenophobic attacks seemed almost ‘prophetic’.

It wasn’t as though the world cup made South Africans new people. It just made us put on our best face for the world. After all what else is the third world good for apart from jumping hoops for the first world?

Supa Strikers !

(Images: google)

Echo!

Nothing is lost, sweet self,
Nothing is ever lost.
The unspoken word
Is not exhausted but can be heard.
Music that stains
The silence remains
O echo is everywhere, the unbeckonable bird!

- Laurence Durrell