Kufa upon Euphrates

I take this moment to thank Chowk Staff for showing the spine when censorship, deportations, racial profiling, ethnic and religious based discriminatory laws and illegal detentions are becoming a norm and not an exception.

Qatal-e-Hussain asl maiN marg-e-Yazid hay
Islam zinda hota hay har karbala kay baad

......Iqbal

Nothing has changed but the characters.

temp:
As I already said on the unplugged thread, this has so many dimensions. Plus the metaphors within the metaphors. Such subtle allegory can make a far potent comment than reams of anti-war propaganda.

Am glad you added ``Ik naya Karbala``...

Now let us see if the dusty words can act as marham over the red flow...

psb,
F

War of Karbala was between the forces of the good and the evil.Your assertion of a new Karbala does not hold good in view of the war between the forces of the two evils,as you yourself pointed out:
this hussain
who is to meet his yazid
is no hussain

takpj,
k

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Ref #2 by Urstruly

Chowk has been around for over 5 years, during this period much has changed in the world. Bulk of that change is for the worse.

Chowk has no nationality, bias, leaning and religion - it is just a Chowk where ideas and identities collide to create InterActions. If most of the ideas are of despair and most of the identities are suffering, Chowk cannot stay silent.

Chowk must raise its voice - gently, persuasively, confidently, rationally. We thank you for noticing the change - it is the people of Chowk that make Chowk and we are simply doing our duty.

Deportation is a small price to pay for speaking the truth and saving even one life. Yes, even one life.

Thanks

Chowk zindabad

faannoos ban kar jis ki hifazat hawa kare
woh shamma kia bhujjay gi jise roshan khuda kare.

No thank you. May God be with you.

#4:
The fire will push the people to syria , some say it has already happened but your theory can also be true

Sorry to interject, but would the Saudis, keepers of The Faith, agree with what you are trying to say, T?

Some UN facts about US actions in Iraq:

``Summary of Facts : Updated - Impact of the 8-year War on the People of Iraq

What UN Reports State

``The increase in mortality reported in public hospitals for children under five years of age (an excess of some 40,000 deaths yearly compared with 1989) is mainly due to diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition. In those over five years of age, the increase (an excess of some 50,000 deaths yearly compared with 1989) is associated with heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, liver or kidney diseases.`` Approximately 250 people die every day in Iraq due to the effect of the sanctions. - UNICEF, April 1998.

``The Oil-for-Food plan has not yet resulted in adequate protection of Iraq`s children from malnutrition/disease. Those children spared from death continue to remain deprived of essential rights addressed in the Convention of Rights of the Child.`` -- UNICEF, April 1998.

Seven years after the imposition of the blockade on the people of Iraq, more than 1.2 million people, including 750,000 children below the age of five, have died because of the scarcity of food and medicine. - Verified by the UN, June 1997.

``32 percent of children under five, some 960,000 children are chronically malnourished - a rise of 72 percent since 1991. Almost one quarter (23%) are underweight - twice as high as the levels found in neighboring Jordan or Turkey.`` - UNICEF, November 1997.

``There is no sign of any improvement since Security Council Resolution 986/1111 [``Oil for Food``] came into force.`` - UNICEF, November 1997.

``One out of every 4 Iraqi infants is malnourished. ... Chronic malnutrition among children under five has reached 27.5%. After a child reaches two or three years of age, chronic malnutrition is difficult to reverse and damage on the child`s development is likely to be permanent.`` UNICEF and World Food Programmed (WFP), May 1997

``Iraq`s health system is close to collapse because medicines and other life-saving supplies scheduled for importation under the `oil-for-food` deal have not arrived. ... Government drug warehouses and pharmacies have few stocks of medicines and medical supplies. The consequences of this situation are causing a near-breakdown of the health care system, which is reeling under the pressure of being deprived of medicine, other basic supplies and spare parts.`` World Health Organizations (WHO), February 1997.

``4,500 children under the age of 5 are dying each month from hunger and disease. ... The situation is disastrous for children. Many are living on the very margin of survival.``-UNICEF, October 1996.

``Since the onset of sanctions, there has been a six-fold increase in the mortality rate for children under five and the majority of the country`s population has been on a semi-starvation diet.`` -World Health Organization (WHO), March 1996.

``More than one million Iraqis have died-567,000 of them children-as a direct consequence of economic sanctions . . .. As many as 12% of the children surveyed in Baghdad are wasted, 28% stunted and 29% underweight.``-UN FAO, December 1995.

``Famine threatens four million people in sanctions-hit Iraq - one fifth of the population - following a poor grain harvest...The human situation is deteriorating. Living conditions are precarious and are at pre-famine level for at least four million people. ... The deterioration in nutritional status of children is reflected in the significant increase of child mortality, which has risen nearly fivefold since 1990.`` - UN FAO, September 1995.

``Alarming food shortages are causing irreparable damage to an entire generation of Iraqi children``. - UN FAO and WFP, September 1995.

``Sanctions are inhibiting the importation of spare parts, chemicals, reagents, and the means of transportation required to provide water and sanitation services to the civilian population of Iraq. ... What has become increasingly clear is that no significant movement towards food security can be achieved so long as the embargo remains in place. All vital contributors to food availability - agricultural production, importation of foodstuffs, economic stability and income generation, are dependent on Iraq`s ability to purchase and import those items vital to the survival of the civilian population`` - UNICEF, 1995

UNR 986 ``Oil for Food`` Deal ... in truth is the ``Oil for Nothing`` deal

UNR 986 allows for the limited sale of $2 billion of Iraqi oil every 6 months. Only 40% of the proceeds from the ``Oil for Food`` deal can be used to purchase food and medicine for the population of Central and Southern Iraq. These small and restricted sales allocate less than 25 cents a day per person, and provide, at best, less than a quarter of the minimum caloric intake.

``Children, mothers, the aged and sick were all cared for before 1990, but are now dying while the outside world mistakenly believes it has solved Iraq`s problems with the much-delayed oil-for-food shipments.`` The deal ``will barely keep the strongest of the population of Iraq on their feet.`` - CARE, September 1997
(http://www.iacenter.org/updatimp.htm)

Very nice! Thanks for sharing.

khamkhwa,
perhaps it is a naya , par bilkul hi mukhtalif karbala...a karbala where the fight is between two evils...yet another addition to the accumulation resulting from the fact that we have learned nothing from history...be it masada or karbala, or panipat or any battlefield, and it seems we never will.

t.,
i wonder if our god really is unbothered...i`d like to think not. and if so, then why shouldn`t our god be unbothered? When such people asserting themselves to be the best or greatest of the human race have not bothered..then why should we expect our god to come in and take care of our mess? Just a thought...am in cynical mode right now. :-)
made my feelings known about the poem already, those feelings still stand!
lve.
a.

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The imagery is vivid. ``Dusty words`` and blood shed for land, women, gods. There being no longer a Helen of Troy (``is this the face that launched a thousand ships, and shook the towering walls if Ilium``, or words to that effect in Goethe`s Faust when the devil shows hime Helen`s face) to die for, men are left with land and gods to provide them the reason for shedding blood. It would be nicer I think if they shed blood over a woman. At least there would be some romance amid the dust and the blood.

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Re: Temporal

Yaar, first of all, nice to see you back weaving words to express your thoughts!

Ciao