Back To The Point Of Departure
By John Pilger
June 26, 2009 "Information Clearing House" --
TS Eliot wrote that the point of any journey was to find out where you came from. As I bore my bulging canvas bag to the wharf at Circular Quay, not far from where my Irish great-great-grandparents had landed in leg irons, I hoped the point of my journey would become clearer once my ship had sailed. The Bretagne was my ship; it was white with blue stripes along the side and had a graceful bow, having been built in Saint-Nazaire as a modest version of the mighty Normandie. Alas, long veins of rust showed, and the crew looked morose. A Greek company now owned it, and the previous day had decanted 600 Greek brides.
The brides had been married “by proxy” in Greece to men in Australia they had never met. It worked this way. Young Greek (and Italian) men emigrated to Australia in the postwar years to work in the outback or at night in factories. When the authorities realised an entire gender was missing, they encouraged young women in Greece to write to their bereft male compatriots on the other side of the world. This often resulted in a wedding with the groom present only in a photograph pinned to the wedding cake. When a bride ship docked, anxious men and women would hold up photographs to identify the wife or husband they had never laid eyes on. Unfortunately, some hearts would change during the month-long voyage, producing a certain anarchy on arrival.
My Australian generation filled these ships on the return voyage to Europe, squeezing into six-berth cabins below the Plimsoll line in order to reach that mystical place called OT (“over there”). On the wharf that May day, aged 22, I told my mother I would be back in a year or two. “You won’t be back,” she said. With departure delayed 12 hours because Captain Nick was missing, we sang our umpteenth “Auld Lang Syne”, and the beer and tears ran dry; and finally we steamed out into the Pacific. I thought I could see my father’s silhouette on the headland; someone flashed their headlights.
I have read about fellow expatriates who insist that, from a tender age, they longed for cultural betterment elsewhere. Clive James comes to mind. As the bride ship slid into its first trough of green ocean, and salt spray cascaded over those of us still looking back, I was smitten with what I thought was seasickness but was really homesickness; rather like some tropical maladies, it recurs all your life and there is no cure.
Having made it to Singapore, Captain Nick missed, perhaps literally, the next port (Colombo) for reasons unexplained. As we crossed the Indian Ocean, with fresh water rationed for reasons unexplained, the horizon became a see-sawing line etched in my vision. The tiny, always empty dance floor remained at an angle and the Italian band were to be found at the rails, lime-green of pallor. Affordable alcohol ran dry for reasons unexplained, with the exception of sweet vermouth. Entertainment was provided by a fight between a Greek officer, known as Matinee Idol, and a New Zealander who had thrown him into the ship’s minuscule pool when we crossed the Equator.
Then, one morning, there were red cliffs and, beyond, the Suez Canal. At Aden, I paid £12 for a Hermes Baby typewriter, which accompanied me to places of upheaval for 30 years, minus only the letter “m”. When we landed at Genoa, I fell to the ground. Two years later, the bride ship blew up without loss of life, for reasons unexplained.
The journey taught me how immense the world is, and I remain in awe at the sheer magic of a flight that covers the same 13,000 miles in a day and a night. That said, when the pilot flying a cargo of rifles, ammunition, stockfish and me into the Biafran War at night bellowed, as we approached the ghostly outline of a dirt road littered with the wreckage of aircraft, “Turn the fucking lights on, so I know where to put this thing!”, I was also in awe at my own fragility and fear. Mind you, the art deco piano bar flying across the United States was no less surreal. You can take a shower on the new Airbus A380, after your massage. The magic has become routine, as if the epic scale of things no longer applies.
That is not quite true, and the trigger for these reflections is a poignant story of a journey that was on the front pages recently, but briefly, having now succumbed to Gordon Brown’s perennial crisis and the venality of his associates. Yet it lingers on. A backpack and a vaccination card were found, and a laptop, and there was a photograph on the web of a container holding the few bodies found floating where Flight AF447 went down on 1 June.
I have flown by Air France from Paris to Rio, the fatal route in reverse, and I remember the place where the trade winds collide and the ocean is sucked into the sky and becomes a vortex of a kind. My aircraft then – a Boeing 707 – rose and fell, rose and fell. The fake starlight window in the ceiling provided reassurance.
The news of Flight AF447 is now all but forgotten. I read a dignified statement by Jane and Robin Bjoroy, the parents of Alexander, aged 11, who had visited them during his half-term holiday and was on his way back to school in Bristol on AF447. They said their son’s death was tragic. It certainly was that, and perhaps a reminder of the epic scale of things.
------------
Comment posted
Every writer worth his salt writes from his own point of view - why else would I take the trouble to read the take of others like me - and you?
To me John Pilger's pensive piece, for one, is beautifully crafted with humor, wonder, pain, thought.
It is telling me how the world has changed from the days of his youth - and keeps on changing - at an UN-understandable pace.
How human and frail our lives really are.
How amazing is life - and death - that he is still alive, having lived an out-of-the-ordinary adventurous cum dangerous life, but a little boy simply going back to his grade school in a transport no longer considered anything but ordinary, should never again awake from his sweet slumber in a vehicle that had provided him with his every wish to make his journey comfortable.
And the sad bravery of his parents in a heart-wrenching reality in a world where 'reality' often is all but gone mad.
Then again, the little boy did reach his destination! From whence he had begun his original journey to visit this land, our earth.
PS: who say dis lil piece is a piece o' cake - no have no tinkerin an' no thinkerin to it?
salim e-a ebrahim
30 June 2009
28 June 2009
The Genius that Speaks the Aga Khan
May, 2009
The Genius that Speaks the Aga Khan
German Television documentary on Islam (part 3)
Aga Khan excerpts: total time: 10 minutes
English transcription by salim e-a ebrahim
The flash points of the modern world
Look at the flash points of the modern world. And you go back and you ask yourself what was the origin of those flash points. Most times you will find that (they were) not driven by faith FIRST. (They were) driven by political decisions: amongst countries, amongst groups of countries, post-war situations, conflict between the Soviet world and the Western world, and so on and so forth. We have inherited these situations. What happens in that context is that when a political issue remains unresolved year after year after year, all parties involved seek new resources. Therefore they use new arguments to harness these new resources. And therefore, you get an overlay of theological dimension to these situations which was not there at the origin of these situations. So it is not that those faith issues aren’t there today. They are there today but I am going back and saying, ‘What was the origin’. And I don’t think you can blame faiths for the vast majority of the conflict situations we have today. I don’t believe that. Indeed I would go further. I would say that IF those conflicts, which were essentially political conflicts, if they were resolved, faith, interfaith, relationships would automatically find their right place.
Give individual situations the honor, the thought, the analysis, and the reflection
The “Brotherhood,” yes. But brothers can be different and they are different and they want to be different. They don’t want to be dropped into some global melting pot as though every country had the same issues to deal with, the same history, etc. That’s simply not reality. There is no such thing as ONE Islamic world just as there is no such thing as ONE Christian world. If I were to turn around to you as a Christian and I were to say to you, you know, “How do I define my relations as a Muslim with the Christian.” “Well,” you would ask me, “What do you mean by the Christian world?” because you do not think in those terminologies any more, that terminology.
So, I don’t think that you can talk about conflict between the non-Muslim world and the Muslim world. I think what you can do is you can take individual situations and give them the honor, the thought, the analysis, the reflection, that EACH one of them deserves.
Plurality is also in geography, in history, in ethnicity, in quality of life, in . . .
You have got some of the most remarkable modern states of the world today in Islamic world. About two years ago, I think it was about two years ago, a survey was carried out by some international agency as to how populations across the world view their own governments. The country that had the highest . . . (a distortion in the sound) in the world was Malaysia. It is immensely plural. And because it is so plural - in geography, in history, in ethnicity, in quality of life, in interpretations of Islam itself (transcriber's additions: in culture, in language) - I think it makes it extremely difficult for the non-Muslim world really to understand the forces that are at play. I think it is all the more difficult because if we as Muslims were to look at the Christian world and we were to define it as the Christian world i.e. a world driven by a faith, we Muslims would find it extremely difficult to work consistently with the Russian Orthodox, the Greek Orthodox, the Catholics, the Protestants, the Church of England . . . I am not going into the details but I am just trying to illustrate the complexity of pluralist societies which relate to one faith of which there are many, many different manifestations.
So that’s one of the major problems.
“Inequities in society are due to absence of educational opportunity”
First of all you educate the individual to understand better the creation of God. Therefore education is part of the manifestation of faith because you seek to understand what you would not normally understand.
Secondly, Islam is very, very rigorous, very demanding on the elimination of inequities in society and my experience, at least, is that very often inequities in society are due to absence of educational opportunity. You can practically always relate enormous poverty with absence of access to education, to health care, etc.
Not one university in the world today is specialized on high mountain populations
Thirdly, there are special needs in human society and what happened is that I have a community or communities in high mountain areas: In the Pamir, in the Karakorum, and therefore the quality of life in high mountain areas is very important both in my own community and for other populations.
If you take a Central Asian area where we are working in, there are about 25 million people who are dependent on these mountain environments. Well, believe it or not, there is not one university in the world today that is specialized on educating high mountain populations. And THAT is the reason for which this University of Central Asia was created. It was to try and create an academic focus that could serve 25 million people living in high mountain environments in that part of the world.
“The respect that is due to women is a very important factor in the Islamic world”
I would say again we are looking at a correct position for women in society and education is clearly part of that positioning of women within society. And yes, we certainly are very concerned about the quality of education that women get but we are also concerned about the moral context in which that education is given. And I think that is often an issue that is not very well understood outside the Islamic world but the respect that is due to women is a very important factor in the Islamic world and in the history of Islam and in the faith itself. And my interpretation is: the better educated the woman is the more respect she is going to get in modern civil society.
Diversifying the process by creating capacity in the Western world
This is exactly what I meant by the hiatus (“hiatus” = an “interruption”; a “gap”) in the post-Ottoman situation where the Industrialized world moved massively ahead. Much of the Islamic world and other parts of the developing world were colonized. They did not move ahead in the same way. Professions developed. Research was a major force which we did not have. So, ultimately what happened, and this is only one of the reasons, there was a process in the Islamic world which said, “If you want to be in keeping with your time and if you want to modernize your capacities and institutions you have to draw from the West.” So, there was assimilation between occidentalization and best practice.
So, what did I do? I decided that rather than try to reverse that process I had to diversify it.
And that’s why I tried to create capacity in the Western world so that Western professionals, as well as Muslim professionals being educated in the West, could serve their own communities, their own cultures and their own populations. It is a sharing of knowledge and the Western world, as far as I am aware, has been very, very generous with that knowledge. We have received massive support in all these areas: in medicine, in education, in art. Massive support.
Islam does not ALLOW the divide between faith and life
Well, I think as a Muslim we don’t make the divide between faith and life in the same way as parts of the Christian world do, not all of it but there are large parts of the Christian world which make that divide. We don’t make that divide. Islam doesn’t ALLOW you to make that divide. You reflect your belief, your faith in the FAITH of Islam not only by your attitude to the faith itself but to the society in which you live: To poverty, to the family, to ethics in your civil behavior. It is part of your EVERY day life. You LIVE the faith. And I think that’s why many, many Muslims, not me but others, including myself, define the faith as, “A way of life” because it IS a way of life.
The Genius that Speaks the Aga Khan
German Television documentary on Islam (part 3)
Aga Khan excerpts: total time: 10 minutes
English transcription by salim e-a ebrahim
The flash points of the modern world
Look at the flash points of the modern world. And you go back and you ask yourself what was the origin of those flash points. Most times you will find that (they were) not driven by faith FIRST. (They were) driven by political decisions: amongst countries, amongst groups of countries, post-war situations, conflict between the Soviet world and the Western world, and so on and so forth. We have inherited these situations. What happens in that context is that when a political issue remains unresolved year after year after year, all parties involved seek new resources. Therefore they use new arguments to harness these new resources. And therefore, you get an overlay of theological dimension to these situations which was not there at the origin of these situations. So it is not that those faith issues aren’t there today. They are there today but I am going back and saying, ‘What was the origin’. And I don’t think you can blame faiths for the vast majority of the conflict situations we have today. I don’t believe that. Indeed I would go further. I would say that IF those conflicts, which were essentially political conflicts, if they were resolved, faith, interfaith, relationships would automatically find their right place.
Give individual situations the honor, the thought, the analysis, and the reflection
The “Brotherhood,” yes. But brothers can be different and they are different and they want to be different. They don’t want to be dropped into some global melting pot as though every country had the same issues to deal with, the same history, etc. That’s simply not reality. There is no such thing as ONE Islamic world just as there is no such thing as ONE Christian world. If I were to turn around to you as a Christian and I were to say to you, you know, “How do I define my relations as a Muslim with the Christian.” “Well,” you would ask me, “What do you mean by the Christian world?” because you do not think in those terminologies any more, that terminology.
So, I don’t think that you can talk about conflict between the non-Muslim world and the Muslim world. I think what you can do is you can take individual situations and give them the honor, the thought, the analysis, the reflection, that EACH one of them deserves.
Plurality is also in geography, in history, in ethnicity, in quality of life, in . . .
You have got some of the most remarkable modern states of the world today in Islamic world. About two years ago, I think it was about two years ago, a survey was carried out by some international agency as to how populations across the world view their own governments. The country that had the highest . . . (a distortion in the sound) in the world was Malaysia. It is immensely plural. And because it is so plural - in geography, in history, in ethnicity, in quality of life, in interpretations of Islam itself (transcriber's additions: in culture, in language) - I think it makes it extremely difficult for the non-Muslim world really to understand the forces that are at play. I think it is all the more difficult because if we as Muslims were to look at the Christian world and we were to define it as the Christian world i.e. a world driven by a faith, we Muslims would find it extremely difficult to work consistently with the Russian Orthodox, the Greek Orthodox, the Catholics, the Protestants, the Church of England . . . I am not going into the details but I am just trying to illustrate the complexity of pluralist societies which relate to one faith of which there are many, many different manifestations.
So that’s one of the major problems.
“Inequities in society are due to absence of educational opportunity”
First of all you educate the individual to understand better the creation of God. Therefore education is part of the manifestation of faith because you seek to understand what you would not normally understand.
Secondly, Islam is very, very rigorous, very demanding on the elimination of inequities in society and my experience, at least, is that very often inequities in society are due to absence of educational opportunity. You can practically always relate enormous poverty with absence of access to education, to health care, etc.
Not one university in the world today is specialized on high mountain populations
Thirdly, there are special needs in human society and what happened is that I have a community or communities in high mountain areas: In the Pamir, in the Karakorum, and therefore the quality of life in high mountain areas is very important both in my own community and for other populations.
If you take a Central Asian area where we are working in, there are about 25 million people who are dependent on these mountain environments. Well, believe it or not, there is not one university in the world today that is specialized on educating high mountain populations. And THAT is the reason for which this University of Central Asia was created. It was to try and create an academic focus that could serve 25 million people living in high mountain environments in that part of the world.
“The respect that is due to women is a very important factor in the Islamic world”
I would say again we are looking at a correct position for women in society and education is clearly part of that positioning of women within society. And yes, we certainly are very concerned about the quality of education that women get but we are also concerned about the moral context in which that education is given. And I think that is often an issue that is not very well understood outside the Islamic world but the respect that is due to women is a very important factor in the Islamic world and in the history of Islam and in the faith itself. And my interpretation is: the better educated the woman is the more respect she is going to get in modern civil society.
Diversifying the process by creating capacity in the Western world
This is exactly what I meant by the hiatus (“hiatus” = an “interruption”; a “gap”) in the post-Ottoman situation where the Industrialized world moved massively ahead. Much of the Islamic world and other parts of the developing world were colonized. They did not move ahead in the same way. Professions developed. Research was a major force which we did not have. So, ultimately what happened, and this is only one of the reasons, there was a process in the Islamic world which said, “If you want to be in keeping with your time and if you want to modernize your capacities and institutions you have to draw from the West.” So, there was assimilation between occidentalization and best practice.
So, what did I do? I decided that rather than try to reverse that process I had to diversify it.
And that’s why I tried to create capacity in the Western world so that Western professionals, as well as Muslim professionals being educated in the West, could serve their own communities, their own cultures and their own populations. It is a sharing of knowledge and the Western world, as far as I am aware, has been very, very generous with that knowledge. We have received massive support in all these areas: in medicine, in education, in art. Massive support.
Islam does not ALLOW the divide between faith and life
Well, I think as a Muslim we don’t make the divide between faith and life in the same way as parts of the Christian world do, not all of it but there are large parts of the Christian world which make that divide. We don’t make that divide. Islam doesn’t ALLOW you to make that divide. You reflect your belief, your faith in the FAITH of Islam not only by your attitude to the faith itself but to the society in which you live: To poverty, to the family, to ethics in your civil behavior. It is part of your EVERY day life. You LIVE the faith. And I think that’s why many, many Muslims, not me but others, including myself, define the faith as, “A way of life” because it IS a way of life.
23 June 2009
Book: "Seeds of Deception". . . . deception . . . . deception . . .
Between the Chapters: The Wisdom of Animals
Mice avoid eating GM foods when they have the chance, as do rats, cows, pigs, geese, elk, squirrels, and others. What do these animals know that we don't? At the end of most chapters is a one-page story describing how farmers, students, and scientists discovered that animals refuse to eat the same GM foods that we consume everyday.
Excerpt
The Washington Post reported that laboratory mice, usually happy to munch on tomatoes, turned their noses up at the genetically modified FlavrSavr tomato. Scientist Roger Salquist said of his tomato, "I gotta tell you, you can be Chef Boyardee and mice are still not going to like them." The mice were eventually force fed the tomato through gastric tubes and stomach washes. Several developed stomach lesions; seven of forty died within two weeks. The tomato was approved without further tests.
------------
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=63
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
