Ramadan 1429

So the water's round my ancestral end of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta are swelling as they are prone to. Bihar in India has been flooding (MAJOR river channel change) and Nilphamari and Sylhet areas of Bangladesh were trouble when I last read. Despite the summer peaks in water throughput over the last hundreds of years, the BD government still issues its budget in June, totally out of synch with nature. Speaks volumes.

As we start Ramadan, the month of the Quran, not only have more people been flooded, but i reckon thousands will have had the land on which they stood and lived eroded away, and not for the first time. Please remember them in your duas, everyone else who is struggling, and everyone else over all time and all space. In your conversation with the All Knowing there's an aspiration ... the human desire for openings to become apparent, spiritual, social and scientific, in the society so it can stand firm, develop its virtues and protect itself.

A friend told me the other day, that the word tarawih can be understood to connotate 'pit-stop'. Something light, like a fuel break, not like a marathonic ritual but something altogether more potent. Just putting that one out there.

Ramadan has broken out everywhere.. including Somalia...

Lies, Development and Aids

My droogs I present to you a piece emanating from the Bangladesh Harvard Conference, communicated self-servingly in the Dhaka's 'White Studies' paper.

is it the appeal to certain kinds of institutional kudos in the 'take me seriously build up'?
is it the comical meaning of the y-axis on the figure?
is it the appeal to 'donors' to save the brown man (again) from drowning in his own poo?
is it the appeal to the biggest joke in the development industry, the ever-quoted Millenium Development Goals?

or maybe its the total absense of spirit.....

or maybe i am jealous because this Imperialism is not 'mine'.....

Several Beautiful Matters

I saw Hellboy 2 today, directerd by Guillermo del Toro (of Pan's Labyrinth) it really knocked me up. So many films have ostentatious displays of visual technical wizardry that dont essentially mean anything. If you are the kind of person who looks for the the work of those elect who have some funny access to Upstairs, watch this, not Batman. Zhang Yimou is another member of this elect group. Hero and the recent Olympic ceremonies are a testament to that.

Special effects in Hellboy 2 were actually special. For instance, in a scene depicting the death of a 'Forest God (naudhubillah)', the very blood of the creature speaks so clearly about its generous, powerful nature, everything it touches transforms into live greenery.

Then theres the grace of the elves, who despite being superior to humans in everyday, prefer ultimately to fade away and sacrifice themselves despite the dissentor's best efforts. How very Jesus. The pro eco, capitalism sucks ethos was generally well expressed but my thoughts were most invaded with its message on technology of mass destruction.

The Golden Army was an invincible forced designed to destroy mankind, but was boxed for a while. At the end of the film the key for this army is destroyed. I am jealous of this. If only it were possible to unlearn technology so rancid. Yes, I'm talking to nukes. What elven magic is needed to unlearn this beast?

Eid programming and the Alimpics

The problem of the religious fool, is that he causes damage to good causes.  

Take for example the issue of just nikah and marriage, or perhaps moonsighting or lets even stretch it to desalaphication.  We would all like more beautiful married relationships and fewer squashed female dreams, cohesive celebration would be nice and a blossoming of phronetic creativity. The manner of movement towards these objectives needs to rock. You dont write crap articles for the white liberal press about your rendering of 'Ye ol cowering Musalman' through your technocratic legalese, fiqh stick 'fix'. You take a leaf out of the School of Deoband, back in the day they did something about widows being unmarried by a whole bunch of scholars and students going a head and marrying them.

Its not a great idea to take out one's anti wahabiness on the significant institutions which had us nearly doing coincidental Eid's a few years ago. We saw how low HT went as they split families over Eid, now we are seeing how other allegedly superior types arent actually any better. The right day may not matter as much as really putting on a great show and sharing the joy on whatever day it happens to fall on. The pindus will always follow pakland, as will their progeny. We must accept that because they are our brothers. The bengies in the ganj and those who watch pictures from Makkah in real time will always push and andolon their big mosques to follow saudi. Nigeria will always call the hilal a few days earlier! but the funniest thing is how Saudi does have the trumpcard on this matter... the bloody occupiers.

Its complicated to say the least.

If unity is desired, there is an easier way to start with. It is as simple as organising an Eidghah, an arena where the multitudes can pray Eid namaz at the same time in the same place. This is the norm in the more established Ummah, but here its hard. Already town councils dont want us to have mosques and put up barriers to every piddly thing, even when our own lamoness is accounted for. They don't understand how our capacity requirement is so uneven, from Eid , to Jumma, to Taraweeh to .... Fajr. Carpark technology can't cope and we are too petrol addicted.

But the evil is so imprinted in their complaints. I remember when the status of my local mosque came up. They complained that Muslims would wear out the pavement. Anyway...

Alympics

I am worried that Mayor Boris is going to declare war on china during the Alimpic handover. Its funny, Ken is the one who got them for us, now he has been pushed aside by this other character, who has now assumed he role of the new party animal. Ok, humour happens when he does open his mouth, but he still calls africans piccaninnis with water melon smiles. (but tbh he's probably not as colourist as an Indian).

Ive been most interested in the Badminton and Gymnastics this time around, have not had much chance to watch much else. It was amusing to see BMX biking on the roster but there was an interesting incident in the martial arts which had a lot to do with ethics and politics. Its a bit like when brother Zinnedine did that head butt...

"I apologise to the Chinese spectators, but justice must come first"

Olympic official changing the result of a tae Kwon Do match in favour of a british girl (Sarah Stevenson) fighter after judges didn't score a lady's match properly the first time. The chinese lady (the unbeaten Chung Xiong) was taken out of the semi finals after clear evidence was presented to them (video of Sara's foot landing in her opponents face) following brit protest.

Going Qadr...

so and so instigated so and so which brought in so and so to invert so and so's original intention and so the will of the people was recognised and democratic forces triumphed in a hail human rights mutterings and it was a very utterly profoundly historic day.

shut it, you know nothing... even you know next to nothing. ahistoricise yourself.

what do you hold dear? what are you going to do about it?

61 years on...

Cowasjee writes, wrt the slogan values of the Muslim Nation State...

Unity, Faith and Discipline were his catchwords, not one of which has been honoured in either spirit or deed. This country, barring its politicians, is disunited as never before. Faith is split between the various vitriolic schools of thought and has but provoked intolerance, bigotry and violence, and as for discipline it is nowhere to be found.

He focusses on a different political geneology to that which I sometimes reflect upon. It is startling though that the Muslim Nation States have developed in the way that they have. Ummahtic overstretch, Violent communal conflict, Souring relations with India, Electoral ugliness, Political mistrust and self love, War in which so many of its people were killed by those charged to guard them, Capitulation to great power games, Total destruction of nobility and of course my favourite, Forgetfulness of collective purpose.

But then that is a negative view, inshAllah the best days are to come. There have been many many ace scholars and institutional innovations, even if these have generally been products of the prepartition phase, when the Millat had a better impression of who is was.

Partition split many of the traditionalists and modernists. It ironically situated the Muslims away from their institutions of higher learning and included the Old Empire's military recruitment center. The South Asian Muslim inteligensia has never recovered. South West Asian Muslim soldiery has had a boom time. Satan is probably laughing his arse off. He probably laughed especially hard when the Muslim Nation state became two in that way.

I read products from Alighar dissing partition aloofly and coughing up Congress platitudes, I hear superficial anti Indianism from the western armpit and I know that forgetfulness and national parochiality is even deeper in the eastern one. ( I hope it has a silver lining somewhere).

So we didnt translate our values... and have warped national mythologies that empower the most capitive political elites through; the consent of middleclasses battling for social position and regular people battling to fill their stomachs. The 'nobility' are busy at some party sniffing eachother's arses, that is they have no character and dont care.

Zia Sardar made an intelligent quip at the recent Tehelka Summit in London, I think it is broadening of the historical imagination,

"Civilisational India is mine, you can keep your nation state"

Daily Star, I know what you are.

BD specific post, again.

"Between the billboard self-adulation across highways of metallic isolation there lies the deafening screaming of the millions wiping out the diseased pages of apathy that bleed our innocence..."

This slightly modified spoken word lead-in to the Manic Song 'Love's Sweet Exile' is what i remembered when clicking through tomorrow's Daily Star AKA the Daily Ondhokar, Dhaka.

The caption reads

"Street urchins sit dangerously on the guard rail of a foot bridge in front of Dhaka Polytechnic Institute in Tejgaon yesterday. Photo: STAR"

Street Urchins? are you telling me that beneath all that eastern wiberal development rights secularspoken platitude ridden safety blanket you havent even purged that Victorian Value yet? or maybe you don't recogise it as a dehumanising guffridden term. They are of course born not to be able to read youre blessed paper as your ilk's language ideology would find that worrisome.

Then I remember Late Great Syed Husain Alatas's killer line...

"... somewhere along the line, a fool had left the imprint of his mind"

Neoliberal Salafism

...is the ultimate civilisational cul de sac.
It is the epitome of ummpotency.
The Solution is; to purge victorian values, ignore gulf wealth and sing.

Ta-Mar-Boota

Londonistan aches without you
It can't be just me
Hope the hunting is good out there
Oh crystaliser of community

Learn that jive and plant some seeds
That's what you always do
You won't turn into one of them
Because of you know who.

I'd like to write a rock opera
About that tree you planted
But, who'd play guitar, who'd play tabla?
Now that so many have departed.

Who will keep our lines so straight,
Who has the moves and kudos?
To institutionalise our dreams in life
Not cultish, inbred Judas.

It is sad what is unfolding in Georgia. One must avoid being a pawn in another's game of power even if it is sugar coated with 'liberty'. The powers that coax are those that need to be resisted, no matter what tricks one thinks they can pull. NATO and co will use you and make fools of you because you are a pawn in their game. Your apparent cluelessness concerning power mechanics is costing you dear. Short term, medium term, long term.... I can't help but think that you have screwed yourself.

There is a rather virile Notis song that has a line concerning duff leaders that lead their sheep to the wolves. Actually its the chorus,

Sheep, our turn is coming
And you little shepherds can go get a haircut
Sheep, wake up, reach the heights
Wolves will exist as long as sheep exist

But the sheep also share the blame in appointing fake shepherds and false herding techniques. I guess that the heartstrings of the 'International Community' will be pulled more and more in coming days as the Georgian situation and position becomes more desperate. Exhilaration for Russia. Middle finger to the US. Strange political timing, stranger geo-economics and bizarre streams of propaganda. No conceivable Georgian gain...

Nationalism really looks like a stupid idea when you see this stuff happening to small countries. Folks should opt out.

[New Word] Moronic Irrigation

It has been a while. I have my reasons.

The drenching of stale and dry, abrasive thoughts and folks with some kinda dewey stuff.

for example,

"Moronic Irrigation clears the most stubborn of groups of their harmfulness" agreed a panel of shoe shiners at their weekly get together outside Dhaka Central Jail today. Nobody bearing white english captive mind credentials was present and neither were any ugly people shoving microphones in people's faces. No government secretaries were present either, though the party could hear some kind of Fight Club noises emanating from the jailkhana, where celebrity thugs and corrupt politicians were being held in preparation for their eventual re-election. This was the extent of official presense at this landmark gathering.

or

The Millat of Britain was stumped. Many amongst them equated the most random of things with religious pride and took needlessly strong positions on matters they could not have a clue about. From Biofiqh to Grand Political Theory, from Theological Borders to Cultural Strategy, their wires were crossed in several places. It was cute that they had spirit, but it was really being wrongly directed. Folks, usually blokes, were willywaving embarrassingly and it was turning off the interest of people who were genuinely curious and kind of mind. Moronic Irrigation was the order of the day, but how?

Another generation of morons?

Having wasted a lot of the 90s with their displaced angst, certain forces are still hogging the millat. No such thing as a sacred space for this lot, its all to do will willy waving, argumentation, status symbolism and charisma for these folks. Our faculty for collective self correction had better kick in soon.

Take Brother Beardface for example. Born to a middle class bengali muslim setting and attending a decent uni in the 90s, he became salaficated. However his salafication did not hinder his capitulation to corporate greed industry. It was syncretic and messed up. He is now to be found in Dubai, servicing the Arabian petrobuck like a good Hindustani Manslave, disabling all those around him who are stupid enough with his incomplete rebirthing. Brother Beardface wasnt Sylatian.

The petrobuck induced stuppor is going to take a while longer to die methinks, perhaps another generation. It is reproducing itself in front of my eyes. It would be less distracting if we werent actually, at the end of the day, so bloody materialistic.

Brother Beardface thankfully at least withdrew from the equation and has some manners. We only need fear harm from the indirect social consequences of his continued existance and flourishing. Not so in the case of Brother Babyface. Hailing from the other armpit of south asia, him and his ilk invade those rare spaces of frank and exploratory muslim discourse, those spaces that people work hard to nurtre. They invade with arrogance, preconception and thuggishness ablaze and waste everybodies time and mood. We need a quietening down.

These people are messing up the millat and disabling its maturation. The Slap and Hug and Dignified Ladders for Backing Down strategies must be deployed with no further ado.