I am living on the margins of life. My pain, a voiceless song, my being a nameless mote. If only my pain could speak, I’d know who I am. And if myself could find its essence, I’d unravel the mystery of this world. If I could seize this hidden mystery, my silence would find expression (Faiz Ahmad Faiz)
Faiz Ahmed Faiz is amongst the most famous poets of last century. Faiz, who was hounoured by Lenin Peace Prize in 1963, was seldom subjected to arrests by the right-wing pro-imperialist military regimes of Pakistan. Once, during the dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq, he was arrested and taken to the police station in front of the public. In this context, he wrote 'Aaj Bazar mein'. Aaj bazaar main pa ba jolan chalo aaj bazaar main pa bajolan chalo let us walk in bazaar in shackles Chashm-e-nam, jaan-e-shoreeda kafi nahin wet eyes and restless soul is not enough Tohmat-e-ishq-posheeda kafi nahin being charged for nurturing concealed love is not enough aaj bazaar main pa-bajolan chalo let us walk in bazaar in shackles Dast afshan chalo, mast-o-raqsan chalo let us go with afshan in hand, in trance and dancing Khak bar sar chalo, khoon badaman chalo go with dust on head and blood on garb Rah takta hai sub shehr-e-janaan chalo Go as the city of my beloved is waiting Hakim-e-shehr bhi, majma-e-aam bhi City’s ruler and crowd of commoners Teer-e-ilzam bhi, sang-e-dushnam bhi arrow of false charge, stone of accusation Subh-e-nashaad bhi, roz-e-naakaam bhi morning of sorrow, day of failure Unka dum-saaz apnay siwa kaun hai who is their friend except me Shehr-e-janaan main ab baa-sifa kaun hai who is untainted in the city of beloved Dast-e-qatil kay shayan raha kaun hai who deserve the killers or executioners hand Rakht-e-dil bandh lo, dil figaro chalo get ready for the journey of heart, go wounded heart Phir hameen qatl ho aain yaro chalo let me go to be executed
LET VOICES BE RAISED THROUGHOUT INDIA AND PAKISTAN AND THE WORLD TO FREE PROFESSOR G N SAIBABA JUSTICE HAD A VOICE IN FAIZ AHMED FAIZ YESTERDAY AND IN GN SAIBABA TODAY.
The United States thinks its South Korean running dog has got off the leash and must be punished with 53% tariffs on Steel. Are we faced with a new crisis engineered by US to bring down South Korean Economy as in Asian Financial Crash in 1997. Meanwhile North Korea is trying to normalize relations with South Korea. Will 2018 see the South Korean running dog be put back on its chain or will it run loose ?
India - Saibaba - Political Prisoner 7th February 2018. A letter to dear students and my fellow teachers, I dream of being in my classroom day and night fettered behind the strong iron beams of my tiny solitary prison cell I see you, talk to you and hug you by the force of my frail land challenged life in my unchained mind’s eye as the desire for freedom flows through the sinews and veins of my blood stream even as I am caged far away from you Teaching is my forte’, breath and life, you know I embraced literature for it clasps us with our troubled histories, philosophies and economics of pangs of pain, tears, fears and hopes for a bright new day The cage of lies, seditious clauses and conspitorial confabulations confine and keep me away from your intimate and critical engagement with knowledge and warm affection for the liberty of the trampled earth. Dear friends, I have lived all my conscious life on the campuses of learning and teaching in search of knowledge, love and freedom. In the course of this search, I learnt that freedom for a few was no freedom. I began to study histories, philosophies and literatures with more eagerness and critical engagement. That led me to look around myself closely. I travelled across and met people living in sub-human conditions. I realised that they never tasted freedom very much like me. I understood that castes and freedom can never co-exist. I began to speak to myself. Then I slowly started to speak to my fellow beings on my journey. I grasped of a great void of silence around me. I saw a society of silence. I dashed myself against the boulders of silence. I brutally wounded myself. A vast majority of the multitudes have never been allowed to break their silence. Centuries of silence solidified in our lives below the high and barren rocks of argumentative India. I desired to break the prison house of silence. I struggled within myself. The rocks were hard to move. I realised that I carried within myself our silent society. It wasn’t an easy journey. It was such a long journey, strenuous and painful. Eventually, I thought I gathered a voice myself. I wanted my fellow beings also to have a voice of their own so that we could converse. In the process, my voice gradually began to emerge. I bewildered to see that my voice was heard. After some time, my voice even started to rise a bit. Then, suddenly fell an axen on my throat. My voice was silenced in one stroke. Friends, today, I reel under excruciating pain relentlessly. The closure of my voice within me exploded my crippled body from each of my organ. One after the other, my organs started bursting. The silence within me explodes into shooting pain. My vocal cords acquired lesion making my voice a thin and inaudible shrill. My heart broke with Hypertrophic cardiomayopathy. My brain has started having blackouts with a condition called syncope. My kidneys are silted with pebbles; gallbladder gathered stones and pancreas grew a tail of pain called pancreatitis. Nerve lines in my left shoulder broke under the conditions of my arrest, named as brachial plexopathy. More and more organs of silence replaced the original. I have been living with explosive and shooting pain day in and day out.
I am living on the margins of life. My pain, a voiceless song, my being a nameless mote. If only my pain could speak, I’d know who I am. And if myself could find its essence, I’d unravel the mystery of this world. If I could seize this hidden mystery, my silence would find expression (Faiz Ahmad Faiz) Eleven long months have passed. I continue to languish under the brutal conditions of incarceration without any relief. I am forced to live without any human dignity and bodily integrity. The conditions under which I am living have reduced me to sub-human and inhuman levels. You think of the crime attributed to me: I have lived for freedom, I have tried to find the voice of the voiceless and I tried to find my voice. I wrote about them, I spoke about them, those my fellow beings who are not allowed to have the voice of their own for centuries. This is my crime. Degrading my body and mind is not simply removing humanity from me alone, it is an act of dehumanising our entire society; our civilizational existence. I hope none of you feel sympathetic to my condition. I don’t believe in sympathy, I only believe in solidarity. I intended to tell you my story only because I believe that it is also your story. Also because I believe my freedom is your freedom. Yours With love and regards G.N. Saibaba Andacell, Central prison Nagpur IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE FREE SAIBABA NOW !
Democracy and Class Struggle says there is much confusion amongst US liberals about Trump and Russia and this debate above confirms it. Jimmy Dore issued a warning about the confusion. Our view from the beginning is that Trump is compromised by a money trail to Russian Oligarchs which goes back decades - the Russian Government knows all about that - but that shoe has not dropped yet in the Mueller investigation. We felt from the beginning that Russia acting like America interfering in Elections would be politically counter productive and create more problems for Russian Diplomacy and Lavrov's work than it would solve. What Russia might have perceived as short term influence success is a long term nightmare.
Democracy and Class Struggle warns against any reassurance about Mattis from former US Minister of Defense and a pre emptive strike on North Korea - as Trump faces challenge to his Presidency in 2018 expect the unexpected and think the unthinkable !
Surprise ! Surprise ! Russia does what the US does interfere around the world in other people's elections. Also indicates that FBI and US Intelligence has deeply penetrated Russian Intelligence. Also a lot of financial forensics tracing money - augurs a bad year for Trump.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — After two days of high-level security meetings between US and Turkish officials, US Defense Secretary James Mattis pointed out that Washington is supporting NATO-ally Turkey, in part, because of the threats it faces internally. "Let me just hit on Turkey right up front. Turkey is a NATO ally. It is the only NATO country with an active insurgency inside its own border," Mattis told reporters late Sunday night. Mattis stated the two countries' militaries are meeting daily right now, describing the "legitimate security concerns" of Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey as a "very complex campaign" and "tough." Specifically, he explained: "We are assisting Turkey, a number of the nations are assisting Turkey, in terms of missile defense and counter-terrorism." Mattis highlighted that already after a year into the presidency of Donald Trump; NATO members have reversed what was a "downward trend" on defense spending. [Y]ou see it with the number of nations that have already achieve 2.0 [percent of GDP], or will here this year, and you see it in the number that have national plans to get 2.0," he said. Mattis, who heads the Department of Defense, made his remarks after Trump's national security advisor, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, met on Saturday and Sunday in Istanbul with Turkey's Ibrahim Kalyn, deputy secretary-general and Turkish presidential spokesperson. "Long-term strategic partnership relations between Turkey and the U.S. were reaffirmed and the two countries’ priorities and sensitivities were discussed," stated Kalin, calling the two countries "long-standing allies." The Turkish statement did not single out any terror groups. "[M]atters, which negatively affect bilateral relations, were discussed in detail, and ways of developing joint fight against terrorism in all its forms were investigated," added Kalin. The White House statement was nearly identical to Kalin's. However, they "explored ways to expand the joint fight against all forms of terrorism." As ISIS has been militarily defeated in Iraq and northern Syria, its foreign militants have often tried to flee through Turkey. Additionally, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has re-ignited an armed insurgency against the Turkish state, seeking greater political, cultural, and minority rights for Kurds and others. Washington and Ankara list the PKK as a terrorist organization. The US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS has supported Kurdish fighters in their Syrian campaign. Most belong to the People's Protection Units (YPG) and are the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Turkey considers the YPG as an extension of the PKK. The YPG denies any organic links to the Turkish political party. However with no credible reports of an ISIS presence, the United States did not prevent Turkey's Operation Olive Branch assault on the Kurdish canton of Afrin in Syria; but at the same time, has said it understands that people in Afrin want to protect their homes. The UK-based conflict monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported four civilians killed in Afrin canton by Turkish strikes on Sunday, bringing the total to 74 since Turkey launched the operation on January 20. Kurdish officials have claimed the death toll is at least as high as 160. Turkey denies targeting civilians, but YPG Commander Sipan Hamo claims that 90 percent of the Turkish strikes target civilian populations.
The NRA and the American Civil Liberties Union say that people with mental issues should have guns - it is the NRA and the American Civil Liberties Union are defending the indefensible.while school children continue to die.
Democracy and Class Struggle says a major Turkish Offensive Against Afrin "coincides" with Mattis and Tillerson meeting with Turkish counterparts.
Ankara is pushing Washington to cut its ties with the Kurdish YPG, the dominant force in the SDF – the coalition’s chief ally fighting ISIS in Syria. Turkey believes the YPG is a Syrian branch of the PKK, a named terror organization. “We demanded this relationship be ended. I mean we want them to end all the support given to the Syrian army of PKK, the YPG,” Turkey’s Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli told reporters in Brussels, a day after meeting US Secretary of Defense James Mattis. “We demanded this structure be removed from SDF,” Canikli said. Mattis spoke positively of progress in ongoing talks with Turkey. “I believe we are finding common ground and there are areas of uncommon ground, where sometimes war just gives you bad alternatives to choose from…” he told reporters at the NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels. “We continue to collaborate on ways to ensure their legitimate concerns are addressed,” he added. US officials have said they understand Turkey has security concerns on its border with Syria, but has maintained its relationship with the YPG, providing arms and training in the war against ISIS, despite Turkey’s concerns. Ankara has demanded the United States take back any heavy weapons given to the YPG, alleging that the arms have been used by the PKK against Turkey. The United States has “never given heavy arms to the YPG so there is none to take back,” US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday. Tillerson has arrived in Ankara for meetings with Turkish officials. He will meet Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Friday morning.
The spokesman for the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Afrin, Brusk Hasakah, said that they do not oppose any party if it wants to support them, pointing out that their forces did not formally invite the forces of the regime or Russia to enter Afrin. This came during a telephone call to the spokesman of (YPG) in Afrin, Brusk Hasaka, during his participation in the news of Ronahi channel. He said “We are not fighting only one side, but we are fighting several sides. We are fighting Turkey, the second force in NATO, and those who claim to be a free army and al-Qaeda.” Brusk explained that Afrin is Syrian land and its Kurdish people are part of the Syrian people. He pointed out that the rumors that the People’s Protection Units and the Syrian Democratic Forces demanded that the forces of the regime or Russia enter Afrin are not correct and said that “the rumors that have emerged are far from reality and we did not formally request them to enter Afrin.” He stressed that they do not oppose the offer of any party, support, as happened in Kobani when the international coalition supported them in the fight against IS. He pointed out that the whole world was looking at Afrin and its forces with a “small eye,” and referred to the Turkish statements to enter Afrin within two days, but the resistance shown by our forces and the people, amazed the world and proved the contrary. He concluded by saying that they took their will from the resistance shown by the martyrs and the people in confronting the aggression
