(arse)Holbrooke asks Moni for troops in Afghanistan, the bloody cheek!

The US Occupation forces of Afghanistan have requested troops from Bangladesh to cover their arses while the US leaves.

The foreign minister promises more talks, the oppositions advise against and the Taliban issue a warning (dunno if its really them, or just some US 'intelligence' website picked up by the Daily Star).

The hand it over to 'Islamic Countries' withdrawal strategy narks me off for a number of reasons.

The invasion of Afghanistan was wrong and hasnt been apologised for. The regressive part of the West has done what it does best, messed things up in a vain attempt to reproduce itself in every nation. Human rights is a bloody two faced lie of an excuse and occupation is NOT an appropriate means to prosecute a transnational criminal investigation.

Will this Bangladesh government try to curry favour with the US by collaborating with them in some heinous way? I hope not, because it cannot generate any essential value.

I read the end bit of the Daily Star article where partisan hack Shahriar Kabir talks of tying up loose ends from the Afghan jihad in Bangladesh. Then I imagine between the lines. Secular social forces from Bangladesh do not presently welcome open collaboration from allies overseas to prosecute their common agendas, it loses them local credibility, their preference is other means, including:

• developmentia,
• intelligence support,
• assassination, and
• defamation.

Anatomy of a Rudeboy

Fried chicken, football and (degenerate) hip hop do not a rudeboy make.
However they are easily identifyable features of:

• eating
• tribal idling, and
• cultural sub-literacy

De rudeboyification is a challenge of our times. lest our communities be defined by Ch(av)asians, innit girls as well as Brown Sahebs.

Imagining a Quit Afghanistan Movement

Having rained down hot metal and 'rights-based approaches' on the people of Afghanistan, the occupying powers mull over how to blunder onwards. Uncounted occupees have been killed, and a few occupiers too, their obituaries and causes well documented, qualified and quantified for the nationalism industry back home.

I wonder how the political initiative could be seized from these dinosaurs. And momentum built to draw an indelible, jagged decolonial line through the arrogant ideas, personalities and institutions through the Empire's Millenium Destruction Goals.

Acounting for the reproduction and amplification of bias, and proportioning responsibility in the courts of the irresponsible

Now find me a method amidst this great madness
To calibrate our misgoverned and exploited senses,
Lay seige to immoral established defenses,
By dispensing justice through progressive tenses

Against the NGOisation of Ummahtic Mojo

Its inspiring and heart warming that social engagement is on the increase. However, I feel so is development delusionalism amongst our people. I probably share it.

Just like we do not need to prove ourselves not to be paedophiles and register on naff 'mentoring schemes' to be effective brothers and sisters to our youth, we do not need to create development industry NGOs to affect transformation in our societies, at home and abroad.

We can construct alternative, superior arrangements for Islah. We are.

Some reasons to seek alternative means to development industry NGOs.

• They depoliticise people and problems, stifling the development of powerful, internally fueled socially valued positive change.
  
• Subverting the development of an effective state with their sticky plaster/intravenous drip approach they legitimise hegemonic homogenising secular liberal ideology through an NGOised class of people. Without foreign funds they wouldnt have the ability to do operate.
  
• They most often appeal to values drawn from imperial global frameworks and the unjust status quo, not necessarily local history, dignity and aspiration.
• Are essentially distractions from whats real and lend their adherents a dangerous sense of righteousness and practicality.
• Erode the basic human skill of social discernment, the ability to identify whats wrong and respond with heart, tongue and hand, without need for an intermediary.
• Create power complexes which are in turn unjust, unearned and uncontestable.
• Have played a critical role in the establishment of a multibillion dollar industry that perpetuates the problems it publically seeks to address.
• Work contained in corporatised, managed projects is often inflexible to local reality, "Plough your field with this lollipop brother".
  

Some reasons to not be so harsh on NGOs and their people

• It is difficult to imagine how to act collectively outside them.
• They provide facility girls with opportunities they might not otherwise have.
• 'They do a lot of good work'.
• They employ a lot of people, including graduates, who otherwise might be un(der) employed.
  
• Many do good work and its important to be able to tell.
• Getting involved with the state is LONG.
• We may not have the symbolic power, trust and connections to pursue alternative means.
  
• They are drenched in an intoxicating vocabulary of virtue.
• Large ambitions of decolonisation, autonomy and systemic supersession are not always shared by people who unpretentiously want to 'do good'.

Tarawih with the Trees

It was a chilly night, but a great night in Mile End Park. We gathered between Burdett Road and Canal Road, north of the the path crossing the park and the canal, a little south of the grassy bridge over Mile End Road. Behind that eatery formerly known as Halalianos.

Londonistan was pre-occupied: with being familial, fundraising for a visionary new mosque for Cambridge, flood victims, Iftaring in other Parks, Tarawihing in the Built Environment and commemorating the death of Imam Ali (ra).

Yet a Jamat gathered for this 'Tarawih with the Trees'.
Allahumma accept our devotions and annihilate our pretentions.

The trees framed our space, a mihrab fit for Revelation. Horse chestnuts decorated the floor. It was as if we were wrapped in a semi-permeable membrane of His creativity, ruptured by the sounds and dancing lights from the roads and drunken Muslim youth of East London.

Our Imam's drew from The Cow, The Inevitable and the Last Chapter. And we gave thanks for His blessings, prayed for his forgiveness and called on His names on a night of possible Power, without amplification or fuss.

We think we were able to find some Taqwa amongst these Trees and hoped to meet again to continue our journey, most probably on Friday.

Tarawih with the Trees is one collective worship act in a series, around the theme of Fasting not Feasting.

[New Word] Yaarmy

There is a feedback loop amongst some of my brothers,

The country is dominated by the army, I will not invest in politics. I can rely on the competance of the army. The country is dominated by the army, I will not invest in politics. I can rely on the competance of the army. The country is dominated by the army, I will not invest in politics. I can rely on the competance of the army. The country is dominated by the army, I will not invest in politics. I can rely on the competance of the army. The country is dominated by the army, I will not invest in politics. I can rely on the competance of the army. The country is dominated by the army, I will not invest in politics. I can rely on the competance of the army. The country is dominated by the army, I will not invest in politics. I can rely on the competance of the army. The country is dominated by the army, I will not invest in politics. I can rely on the competance of the army.

[New Word] Egotesticle

When we lock ourselves into a train of thought that goes like this

( ( ( ((((((((((ccoo...................
meme-meme-meme-meme-memale

Naturally there are also Egovaries, but those are another matter that this keyboard cant express.

Ansar 2.0

Ramadan has begun.
Welcome, so glad you could make it.
We head towards Planet Taqwa, from wherever we might be.
Care to suggest a heading?

Asian weather systems are behaving in a bizzare fashion, subjecting its societies to conditions which are waaay out of the ordinary. Extreme flooding has displaced an estimated 10% of Pakistan's population, heatwaves and fires cloaking Moscow for days in a 40 degree BBQ and drought in Bangladesh severly impacting agriculture.

One big qustion that I wish I knew the answer to but havent recieved a decent answer for is.

You are from Pakistan and slightly clued up about it, about postcolonialism, developmentia, politics of aid, TWAT politics, Ummahtic mojo et al, so what do you recommend we do for the sisters and brothers afflicted in Pakistan?

DEC donations, else personal networks of khedmat. Duas.

Emergencies often cause people to throw all tentatively held principles out of the window and opt for the most seemingly actionable. Hence the radical pan asian arts movement holding a fundraising film night in ramadhan.

Yet what would be better?

We know that The Man is all over our money networks and every transfer out of whitey approved channels runs the risk of being impounded. US drones are targetting flood victims while their sister vehicles 'help' the pakistan military conduct relief ops. The Pakistan Taliban urges the rejection of USAID, while Sloane Ranger Apa uses allegories of dying men and 'get in there before the taliban to'.

Allah protect them. Make us adequate Ansar.

The Masses against the Glasses

"The masses wont get it", the friend responded, as I flung some pretty awesome/kooky ummahtic material upon her eyes. I wriggle, "Why must masses be the ones who are 'targeted' and constitute the quality controllers of Cultural J?".

These are the same assumed quality controllers who have co-created, as religious consumer groups, the syncretic cocktail of Londonistani tendancies so far. Lets give the public credit. These objections aren't real, they are figments of our unimaginations fashioned through experiences with folks who have been institutionalised in a certain way.

So lets keep it real, as we say so often. For the Haunting Masses.

Who remembers the Self-Salafizing Sepoys and the Personal Piety Police? Or the Hate-hungry Hizbi Havildars and the (wait for it) Indefatigable Injured Ikhwanis? Well thankyou, you are all in my head now. Be my guests, but I have to invite many more. Who knows you might even get along.