hussain defamed

ramayana made
into ramlila farce

By Kulamarva Balakrishna

Vienna,12-11-2007:A depraved Brahmana, that is ten headed monster King of Sri Lanka, the villain of Valmiki Ramayana, a creative work, over written several thousand times by as many prose and poetry writers in different parts of South and South East Asia, Ravana is known for his piety and craze for beautiful women.In fact most of the fantastic versions of the =adi kavya= (the first creative literature),with the exception of a few show him to be a bad character of the worst type.He made austerities to accumulate power and use that power to satiate his sensual lust. (In contrast, Lunar King Yayati married asura guru Shukra´s daughter Devayani, with two thousand servant maids including Sharmistha.He wanted to borrow a son´s youth.All the sons, excepting the youngest born of the servant maid Sharmistha, Puru would not oblige.Puru lent his father his
youth for a thousand long years so that his father could enjoy sensual life for much longer.In return, Yayati nominated this youngest son to be the inheritor to the throne as recorded by Mahabharata, considered itihasa,history.)

allah is not visual

My Artist friend Maqbool Fida Hussain got India in Berlinale International Film Festival for India the Goden Palm award for his =Through the Eyes of a Painter= silent film.That recognition made him respectable and enabled him,then the father of eight, the last being Owais, to make Haj.Then he got interest to paint gods and goddesses.( Since in Islam god is invisible nobody can paint god.
Even though it is not permitted to represent the Prophet, artists who do not care have adorned the Holy Q´uran in Persia and India under Mughals have made his illustrations in manuscripts. Today these are objects of art cost in millions of dollars. If Hinduism abstains from gods representation then there is sense in objecting god´s paintings. Not other wise).Hussain began painting Ramayana commenced since many of his friends wanted the gods painted by him in their collections.It was, we should remember, a Hindu business man, who contracted Hussain to turn out almost a hundred million dollars worth paintings a year for their joint venture.That was how he was persuaded to paint Hindu themes.Ramayana was the first theme in the early seventies as for his religious painting soon after he returned from Haj.At the time, I published his sketches of Ramayana in my Hi young people´s newspaper, then new to India, as leading =underground= newspaper,with the heading = Ramayana by Haji=.Long before that,in his early career Hussasin made posters for cinemas made on mythological themes.That was the time he was studying art.At that time,he lived in a garrage on the Grant Road,bordering of Bombays red light district, as he could not afford expensive apartment.His posters included Ravi Varma type realistic paintings of the heroines meant for then unborn Bollywood marketing.

basics of painting

Any student of art is aware a painting is not substitute to photography.He learns it is a creative work taking the bare minimum of the suggestive lines presenting colours visually for an aesthetic appeal.The grammar of painting involves composition of balancing figures, or points of contrast or matching colours,shades,texure, mass order and disorder as if a visual orchestra.Just as only those who have an idea of music can appreciate musical compositions,creative works of art are inspired and appealing only to those,who know the rudiments and understand the fundamentals of visuals created on paper or canvass with different media.

I am confronted by a several round forward forwards published in the blog of The Times of India´s fundamentalist columnist Tarun Vijay.There is a painting of the ten headed monster brahman Ravana,standing erect naked.A naked beauty shows her back to him her buttocks almost touching his torso.A bit safe distance a monkey,obviously Hanuman in search of Sita in Ravana´s harem.The monkey is naturally naked,can not be otherwise, just because some people like to believe that the particular monkey is god.He was elevated to god hood because of his perforamnce in Ramayana later. I would like to point out that so many Indians believe the cow is mother.But how many Indians dressed their mother cows with saris? Does Tarun Vijay´s cow mother wears a Banarasi or Kanjeevaram sari I am curious to know this to estimate the level of the columnist´s i.q. In the first place it is stupid to think a monkey as a dressed up tail wagging human.His complaint that monkey is shown as monkey to defame Hinduism can be described nothing less than mental derangement.

Abdul Karim Khan

Does Tarun Vjay know that the founder of Kirana Gharana of Khayal Singers, Abdul Karim Khan
died in 1948 singing on a railway platform between Madras and Calcutta the praise of Hindu
gods? Has he cared to listen to Dagar Brothers dhrupad singing =udho kare= for Hindu gods?
Taradevi, Sitara Devi, Gopikrishna who made Kathak popular how do you consider them? Hindus or Muslims? Prejudices are not qualities in an intellectual even of the Hindu variety.

Just about the Hussain painting scene.In Ramayana Sundara Kanda section is were Valmiki describes Hanuman monkey´s search for hijacked Sita.He goes all over the beautiful Sri Lanka
city, created by Mayas.Every house he enters first by taking a minute form,since he had the knowledge of =ashta siddhis= (eight achievements including being minutes and the largest) then when excited jumping like a monkey kissing his own tail.The monster brahmana King Ravana´s inner harem was designed like a plane.There was a mini theatre for the king to enjoy with his harem mates.There he saw female instrumentalists, singers,dancers,maids and of course play girls side by side the most beautiful woman known in her time, Mandodari, the daughter of Maya,the queen of the monster brahmana king. He was excited. It is said Mandodari was the biological mother of Sita and she looked like the daughter.In some versions of Ramayana Sita is openly depicted as the daughter of Mandodari,born of the monster brahmin.Because astrologers making baby´s birth charts,who turned the shells moving their palm around them predicted this girl would cause the father´s death, she was abandoned in a field superficially covering the baby child by plough soil,from where she derives the name Sita.Yogi King Janaka, who was preparing the field for =havan=,fire sacrifice, found in the field the abandoned female baby. He took her home as his own daughter of luck.Monkey Hanuman saw the beautiful Mandodari to mistake her to be Sita. (Ramayana/sundara kanda).At first it was the cause of unbounded happiness having located the missing Sita.As we will mark the excitement of Tarun Vijay later.He jumps, forgetting himself screaches, pulls his tail by the hand to kiss it again and again.Then climbs the wooden pillars around the mini-theater where many women are asleep with their musical instruments.Unbelievable but for a moment the monkey lost his composure. Just for a while.Then Hanuman realized Sita was no ordinary girl.He could not contenance her to be there.He decided to continue the search out side the enclosed houses in Sri Lanka which led him to the =ashoka vanika= garden.

When he finally found her in the garden, he was careful immediately not to expose himself before Sita. He considered the pros and cons of presenting himself before Sita and speaking to her like a human in Sanskrit language of the humans.It is recorded by the poet Valmiki.So who told Tarun Vijay or other defamers of Maqbool Fida Hussain by the painting he meant Sita not Mandodari or other play girls in the harem I would like to ask for clarity.There are no recorded pictures of Sita. Her form is left to our imagination.After all if these sensitive Hindus go to a court of law they have to produce evidence. On how Sita looked in the first place. Then more questions from cross examining lawyers like the late A.S.R.Chari questioning the late sheths Shreyans Prasad Jain or Ramnath Goenka or Jain employee P.K.Roy.

contemporary figures

As for the paintings of the contemporary men or women according to style some key likeness matters.The rest are free expression by a creatice artist not a camera.So comparing daughters or mothers to imaginary gods´ representations is nothing but insane.It is like claiming Lord Ganapathi drank cow´s milk offered to him. It is the believer´s belief. Not reality, Tarun Vijay, you Panchajanya boy.You should know in Bhubhaneshvar there is the great Lingaraja Temple.There is a giant stone =linga= mounted on =yoni=.That is to say the unseparable =Ardhanareeshvara= Shiva and Parvathi together are represented by their genitals not by illustrations.On that =linga= worshiped even today, remain one thousand carved mini =linga=s without mini =yonis=.Old sculptors expressed their artistic freedom in chiselling them. Hussain used similar freedom nothing more.

Other pictures in the blog refers to =Shri= Parvathi.Since when these Hindu fundies like Tarun Vijay began addressing goddesses by male prefixes? Draupadi is another painting.Draupadi is famous because of the failed attempt by Dusshasana to disrobe her.That was indeed depcited in
the painting.She was wearing a single sari as described in Mahabharata because as the
custom of the time women in period did not wear a second piece of cloth.It is clearly described
=eka vastram, rajasvalam= ( one piece wearing Draupadi in her period).Another picture
is said to be that of Lakshmi guarded by Ganapathi.I know Ganapathi is the creation of Parvati
goddess,soon after creation she assigned him to guard her bathroom door as she went for shower. She had gone under shower.Ganapathi remained guarding outside.Even Shiva did not know Ganapathi had been created by Parvathi, when he came there the boy Ganapathi stood in his way. The picture composition showed the under shower goddess and the guarding son. What is strange about it?Can Tarun Vijay explain? What is objectionable here is the mean mindedness of the Hindu fundies, who do not know Hinduism but label themselves as Hindus.It is the same Tarun Vijay, who offered his comfortable lap as pillow for the Americal girl friend of a Pakistani Jihadist to bury her face when weather turned turbulent on a flight from Shanghai to California or wherever they happen to fly together by accident.He used The Times of India space for narrating the episode.

By condemning Hussain Tarun Vijay has indeed shown he has mistaken for a while like his monkey god or he is a mental case.(end)

open letter

extinguish the fire

By Kulamarva Balakrishna

dawn newspapers,
Karachi, Pakistan
(urdu editions included)

Vienna,10-11-2007:

Dear sisters and brothers,

I make bold to address you this open letter, as one teenager who witnessed our two countries sending away the foreign imperial masters.

In 1970 October, when I was passing through road on a rickety decades old bus a small Afghan village called Delaram,the bus made a halt to take petrol by canister pumping.The petrol drum owner who also served us Afghani nan curry for food, asked me if I was a Pakistani.I said to him I was a Hindustani.He asked me further if I was a Musalman.I replied I was but a =qafr=.I got a welcome hug from the Pathan, who spoke Hindustani as he had spent his time in India as a =Kabuliwala=. Then, we talked about the freedom we got in South Asia.He spoke of the Muslim view since the British took power from the Mughals, they should have transferred power back to the inheritors of the Mughals, in this context Muslims. I pointed out the Mughal mess up after Akbar.

It is in the same spirit of this hearty Kabuliwala, I, a =qafr= neighbor,living thousands of kilometers away across the ocean, address you this letter. A letter wishing you light,health and happiness during Diwali. I wish all limbs in tact in your unbruised bodies let alone blasted ones by exploding suicidal belts or back packs strewn all over causing extreme stink and epidemic.

I wish first, you extinguish the fire, keeping your 60 years of self destructive freedom behind.For this, you need to strengthen the backbone of Pervez Musharraf.Instead of asking her Pakistani People´s Party mob getting on the streets, Benazir Bhutto should advise them remain indoors, creating conditions for conducting elections.No election can be held with explosive belts or back packs running amok.Besides,as was proved even Benazir needs security from explosive belt and back packs. She needs to show now great statesmanship in these hours of peril.Unrealistically however, she expects her safety ensured through the agency of her declared opponent!

What is good for Benazir Bhutto, who aspires to rule Pakistan for the third time, is also good to the learned lawyers and the esteemed administrators of justice,the judges of the Supreme Court included.They all need safety and security of life and limbs if they are to function in the service of the society.In other words, what common sense you have please do make use of it and extinguish the fire.

As for Pakistani people in general, if you need help and co-operation from outside, you get it from us neighbors for the asking.After all it is not pleasant to watch neighbor´s house burning. Earlier the fire is set out it is better for us. Besides, your benefactors and long term allies, U.K, U.S and the Arabian peninsula of the Holy Places and of course, the Gulf, should help you with resources without applying a squeeze. It is in their interest the carved out caves in your mountains do not send out human terrorist guided missiles from those safe haven.

Once you are safe, we should help Sri Lanka, Mynamar and Nepal.They all need and deserve happiness and harmony.Overseas citizens of South Asian origin everywhere are eager to help.Save yourselves to take care of the great future you have in store on this earth.

Let your pointless anger calm down a bit. Let your communication reach all Pakistani citizens.Let your politicians learn to share and accommodate in the great Umma breaking bread with those in uniform or without. We hope you live together with the rest of us in South Asia and rest of the world.You are very hard working nice people.You should not throw away life,so short lived, even for fancies. You need to nurse life.Let every Pakistani enjoy the life (end)

bhutto´s new chance

to save her undefined
=homeland=

By Kulamarva Balakrishna

Vienna,09-11-2007: History gives Benazir Bhutto one more chance.If she wants to throw away this chance it is up to her to sink with her own land of the pure humbug.Pakistan today needs internal peace and security. If Benazir Bhutto creates further unrest hoping to wrest power from a disciplined soldier whom she needs for support and help she has to blame herself. She should realize as a soldier, Pervez Musharraf in particular is non-aligned as far as she is concerned. Besides death is not an issue with him.He has chosen uniform to die performing his duty. It is not the case with her declared opponent Nawaz Sharrif, who is in forced exile in the desert land of holy places! Because of his letting down his own country.The custodian of this holy land himself is now under duress.He is seeking understanding and accommodation from the Western client states, who had been the destination of his Carawan Sarai since time unknown.They are all concerned with now terrorism born and bred in the land of pure along the remote mountain region where traditionally opium and tribalism are harvested. Both are threat to the civilized world. As if from nowhere they appear in the midst of organized societies causing great sufferings by dealing death and destruction. Thus the issue remains TERRORISM .


Benazir Bhutto can not afford to ignore this. If I were in her position, I would appeal to all Pakistanis
including the sworn in Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the deposed one take it easy.To think clearly of the future of their land at least.They should not collaborate with free for all violent forces,who should be isolated,contained and disarmed.Mobs to disperse into their homes clearing the streets.Mullahs to pray.Mosques as places of worship,-prayers are forms of worship, used exclusively for the purpose they are erected.Under such calm atmosphere hold elections on
managing the country´s affairs.Musharraf,if he becomes a party to govern, he would give up uniform but uniforms both of soldiers and police would be needed by the nation.They can not be substituted or replaced PPP hordes.Even Umma means sharing.Now as it is Pakistan is sharing its suffering rich or poor blasted of limbs are part of stinking epidemic causing garbage.It makes no sense for Bhutto to appeal for U.S. or U.K. help and support in disarming Pervez Musharraf.He should be
allowed destroy to terrorism if Pakistan has to survive in the committee of nations that is the United
Nations.The U.N.Secretary General is a position as head of the United Nations built under a charter
signed by all nations of the world.He is the world spokesman in that way.

no mob rule no one man/woman rule

We as Indians are party to the creation of Pakistan.Pakistani people should live in peace and prosperity.Their welfare is our concern because those people are our own people chosen to live their own way in their own undefined =homeland=.May Peace Be Upon Them.The wider world is also with us since they are integrated into a single world accommodating many people of Pakistani origin.They have economic and cultural relations with that country.If Afghanistan, Iran,Turkey etc. share with them religion and life like us the rest of the world share geographical home.Human welfare is what global concern.We can not forget this and leave Pakistan´s welfare neither in one man´s or one woman´s hands,or in the hands of mobs or explosive belted suicide mongers like swarming flies into the open lamps! (end)

news analysis

an american view on
land of the pure
events

By Steve Cohen

(Vienna,06-11-2007: humans austria has, by the kind courtesy of Brookings Institue Alert, through Steve Cohen, the distant American intellectual view of the latest events in the region focussed by the imperial poet Rudyard Kipling in 19th century. It is not confined to North West Frontier Agency of South Asia. Let us consider the update. It is an increasingly messed up problem for the last two centuries and more that threatens world peace now. We need cool head and political vision to guide the globe out of this crisis.Will the key players, the U.S. administration, the U.K. and the Keeper of Holy Places in Arabian peninsula jointly directing the performance on stage as well as the internal player couple General Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto raise up to the occasion? We have to wait and watch may be even suffer.The American view is reprinted below.-Kulamarva Balakrishna)

Cohen´s Text:

Saturday night's declaration of a State of Emergency" in Pakistan—a euphemism for another spell of martial law--comes as a further shock to America's South Asia and anti-terrorist policies. First, the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, informed President Bush that the vaunted nuclear agreement with India was in trouble. This may be a "deal too far," in that the domestic politics of the US and India combined to make it politically unpalatable both for an important swath of the political elite in India and a Congress controlled by Democrats. This failure can be chalked up to the difficulty that two open democracies have when they try to push through an innovative policy: anti-Americanism in India is still strong among the Indian political elite, and despite the American non-proliferation community's respect for a rising India, it is still skeptical of India's nuclear ambitions. And, of course, both the Indian left and American Democrats take some pleasure in humiliating President Bush.

However, this failure pales into insignificance compared with the catastrophic course taken by American policy in Pakistan. Musharraf's recent coup against his own government—and that was what it was—was in good part a result of American pressure on him to hold free and fair elections as well as the actions of a Supreme Court that suddenly began to challenge the military's dominant position and a dramatic increase in terrorist violence directed against the Pakistani military itself. Musharraf's low opinion of Washington was symbolized by the failure to wait until the CENTCOM chief had left the country before announcing that the constitution would be suspended and elections deferred.

Pakistan was once America's "most allied of allies." But the Bush administration, whose major foreign policy initiative in South Asia was towards India (a recent gaffe by a Bush administration official even ranked India above Pakistan), has weakened the relationship. Administration officials have gloated that they coerced Pakistan into signing on to the ill-named war on terrorism. In return, Islamabad played a double game regarding its participation in this struggle. Its intelligence services supported the Taliban, while only reluctantly going after the al Qaeda forces embedded in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The failure to round up the Taliban leadership was a matter of state policy: the Pakistan army still regards India as its major threat, and the Taliban are used to counterbalance Indian influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan would like a stable Afghanistan, but it does not believe that Hamid Karzai is the man to lead that country, and Pakistani generals are certain that the US will sooner or later pull out of Afghanistan, leaving the Indians as Karzai's major prop. As for al Qaeda, the Pakistan army is unprepared to engage in counterinsurgency warfare within its own borders; no wonder several US senators have stated that the US ought to go in to the FATA if Pakistan cannot, and round up the known al Qaeda (and Taliban) leadership.

Why has the US stayed with Musharraf long after it became evident that Pakistan was not an effective partner? There was apparently a belief that he was a truly outstanding leader, and if not another Ataturk or Ayub Khan, that at least he was doing the best that he could. Thus, there was no thought of making our multi-billion dollar aid program conditional upon performance. So in effect we've, wasted several billions of dollars, becoming Musharraf's ATM machine, allowing him to build up a military establishment that was irrelevant to his (and our) real security threat, yet presiding over an intensification of anti-American feelings in Pakistan itself, and failing to provide adequate aid to Pakistan's failing social and educational sectors.

Musharraf's coup does nothing to improve the Pakistan army's performance in matters of vital concern to the United States. It is unlikely that the army can learn how to do counterinsurgency quickly; and the US is hardly the country to instruct it in the nuances of such operations.

While counterinsurgency requires more political than military input, Musharraf believes that politics is a branch of public administration. He is unlikely to develop an alliance with those Pushtun nationalists who are threatened by the Talibanized Pushtun religious fanatics because doing so runs the risk of encouraging Pushtun separatism and weakening Punjabi domination in Pakistan.

The best scenario one can conjure up is that Musharraf will move towards carefully controlled elections—perhaps in the middle of next year—when the situation on the ground is stabilized. He has muzzled the pesky Supreme Court and the more vocal elements of the press; the protests by Journalists without Borders and the Lahore Bar Association will not make much of a difference. Benazir Bhutto, now the darling of the Administration (which foolishly ignored her for seven years), has been muted in her comments on Musharraf's second coup; so far her arrangement with Musharraf still stands, and she hopes that between her new-found friends in Washington and Musharraf's need to get a civilian figurehead for his government, that she will come to power again.

Her years in exile have made Benazir a realist: she believes that Pakistan cannot move overnight from dictatorship to democracy, and hopes that the next election will enable her to come to at least a share of power. Her supporters also understand that the threat to Pakistan from the Islamists is mortal; as Pakistan's most secular party, the Pakistan People's party regards itself as better-equipped than the Islamist-leaning Nawaz Sharif to join with the army in an assault on the violent extremists.

Thus, if things go as well as they can, carefully controlled elections will be held, Benazir will come to office, Musharraf will be able to retire from the army, leaving it in the hands of close and trusted advisors, and the army and Benazir, together, will tackle the extremist problem.

There are at least two major problems with this reasonably rosy scenario. First, the terrorists and insurgents of Pakistan may not cooperate, and surrender meekly to Pakistani forces. Recent battles over the Lal Masjid, in FATA, and now in Swat show that there is a large and dedicated cadre of true militants who are more than a match for the Pakistan army in a tactical environment. The PPP is weakest where the militants are strongest, and cannot be counted on to provide the political guidance to tackle them. The militants are not interested in ministerial bungalows in Islamabad, they want to turn Pakistan into a base from which they can attack other soft Muslim and Western states (and India), and even lay their hands on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Musharraf may have sidelined the journalists, lawyers, and judges, but he has yet to demonstrate that Pakistan has the will, or the capacity, to develop a comprehensive counter-terrorist and counter-insurgency strategy. The recent operations in Swat, once a tranquil backwater but now under the control of Islamist fanatics, was done, according to press reports, without any regard for the refugees and innocent civilians; if past experience is any guide, the Pakistan army's operations will merely serve to increase recruitment to the ranks of the militants.

Second, bringing Benazir in to the "system" will be bitterly opposed by Musharraf's civilian supporters. They detest her populist approach, they have no rejoinder to the developmental and educational agenda that she has set out, and only talk of how many roads and bridges Pakistan has built under this and previous military regimes. It is hard to imagine that they will work with a Bhutto government, and she may find it hard to work with them. As one Pakistan general remarked to me several years ago, the first preference of Pakistani politicians is that they govern the state, their second preference is that the military rules.

Thus, the best scenario—a brief emergency, a short election campaign, carefully controlled elections, and power-sharing with a willing Benazir Bhutto, is what Musharraf is probably going after. However, other, more desperate scenarios have to be examined. I looked at several of these in my 2004 book, The Idea of Pakistan, but two in particular must be noted.

One is that the army itself might lose its coherence. It is a multi-ethnic army, derived from the old British Indian army, and from time to time it, like its predecessor, has had ethnic-based mutinies (the most notable being the revolt of the Bengali elements of all three services in 1970). At present about eighteen percent of the Pakistan army are Pushtuns or of Pushtun origin (from Punjab). There are reports of officers refusing to attack targets, and the astonishing case, still unexplained, of nearly 300 officers and jawans surrendering to the militants in Waziristan—where they are still being held hostage.

Second, Pakistan could begin to crack apart along ethnic lines. The non-Punjabi provinces (including the Frontier) resent Punjabi domination, the latter is existential, given the fact that Punjab contains nearly half of the population and provides most of the army. But American-sponsored attempts to bring the Frontier into Pakistan's "mainstream" will have the effect of accelerating separatism. The same is true of Balochistan, and the Sind is historically resentful of Punjabi domination.

Thus, in the absence of a time machine, which would allow the Bush administration to roll back history and reconsider its Pakistan policy, it looks as if the US is going to be in for a rough ride. Musharraf, and his military and civilian advisors, have zero trust in Washington, cruelly evident by their rejection of American pleas to hold off this declaration of emergency. They knew that the situation was getting out of hand, and when America publicly and repeatedly asked Pakistan to hold free and fair elections it asked for too much too late. The US should have pressed for a broadening of Pakistani politics much earlier, and failing to do so means that Washington has no alternative but to ride the Musharraf tiger to the end—whatever that may be.

Meanwhile, the U.S. may yet decide that a cross-border attack upon a known al Qaeda or Taliban target is well worth the risk of angering Musharraf; after all, there's not much he can do about it, and the recent crackdown will at least temporarily silence critics. But that is far from a coherent policy.

What can be done? Comparisons with the Shah are premature, but Washington needs to talk to the experts (they have been ignored in favor a personalized diplomacy), it needs to consult with other concerned countries (including India, Iran, and China, not just the British), it still needs to work with Musharraf and help him achieve a broader political base (which may not be possible if he remains persuaded that he is Pakistan's sole responsible leader), and above all it needs to ask how its short term goals (the destruction of al Qaeda element residing in the FATA) can be reconciled with the long term goal—now perhaps out of reach—of a stable, if not wholly democratic Pakistan.(end)

land of the pure

give the general
a chance to clean
the mess

By Kulamarva Balakrishna

Vienna,04-11-2007: Take it easy.Let him clean up the mess created by generals Iskandar Mirza and Ayub Khans to begin with.Give him twelve months time. Let Gen.Musharraf disarm the mob, mullahs and mosques.Then give him a chance to participate in government as a civilian.Let our brothers and sisters,those who fled India from U.P.Bihar,Bengal,Hyderabad and elsewhere fearing the upcoming Naradhama Modies a chance to live in peace and harmony.Try to understand;it is not easy for a general to be fighting his own constituents.He should have been recruiting young Pakistanis.In his stead Mullah Omer and Osama bin Laden have taken over his task. I sympathize with him,one of the greatest fighter of our times.If you stay cool and calm it may still be possible with his help and co-operation to make South Asia the fresh well spring of world peace.

It is the joint responsibility of the imperial mother and daughter combine,the U.K.and the U.S. and their joint stock company cashier, the Keeper of the Holy Places to make amends to present the crescent moon as pro-human by integrating Muslims to the global mainstream.It can be done if Muslim girls worldwide get their due respect and dignity, as the same is due to Khadija bint Khuwaylid alias Khadija tul Kubra, the unchallenged mother of Islam and the mother of Mohammad Mustafa´s children. While others now give lip servrice to MPBUH at every minute, it was she indeed who gave Him peace when He began His career as Prophet of Umma. If the Muslim girls´ tears are dried up the world would be a safer and happier place to live. Nearly one third of these females are even denied of a routine pleasure because of forcible genital mutilation indulged in by the cruel men to enforce their authority on them.When these girls are happy and contented then there would be no room for any Islamophobia. They will make friends with the rest of the human race. Give the girls a chance.

Please, do not isolate Pakistan in this hour of crisis.The country requires all sympathy and help
in overcoming this nightmare.It is the responsibility of the rest of the world, led by United Nations
as a singular force, to demand the Organization of Islamic Countries to submit to the U.N.Charter.
The globe is governed by this charter no other free for all Sharia charter.The world has no problem with Sharia charter as long as it is confined to only to the spiritual sphere of the religious individual.
I for one,am able,willing and ready to pray in a mosque for world peace and human happiness.
Our stake in this world is enormous. It is a common stake.A single happiness is in world peace.Do not count this in terms of dollars as does Bush and company. I am sure for myself Hilary Clinton being a woman will take care of that.

In the coming decade we will have to disarm the world because we would be also building homes in space. We begin next year making solid foundation for that. Al Gore, as the first global politician
with free hands because he is not constrained by the national boundaries impose on a head of government, taking on climate challenge would create a harmonious atmosphere suitable for consultation, co-operation and peaceful co-existance a dream spelled out by Jawahar Lal Nehru, a world citizen ahead of his times.Freedom and democracy are not real if they are not indivisibly
bound with both male and female population of the globe.(end)

world humanist congress

ayurveda pure

By Kulamarva Balakrishna

Vienna, 03-11-2007:There was a presentation of the film =ayurveda, the art of being= by Palin Nalin under the auspices of the Vienna Bharata Natya Mandir and Austria-India Society on Thursday.An informal atmosphere for viewing and later simple Indian meal courtesy hosts. The film has been shown world wide to be proclaimed =pointless= by critics of New York Times downwards.

The film is made by a Swiss-German, apparently non professional producers, or if we may say so =alternative= producers.Alternative is a fashionable word here today. Although a minority,
such groups attract majority of the same kind in India. This minority majority mix are attracted in seeking solutions in the past to the problems of the present!For example, the film claims
for curing immune deficiency illness HIV/AIDS of today the established remedies of a thousand years ago can be harnessed!

In The New York Times critic´s words, the film presents =shuddha ayurveda=,meaning pure, pak, (not Mysorepak) ayurveda. Perhaps, he is unaware if the correct term meant =shuddha= or =siddha=. Siddha, meaning proven by experience is another version for name only is popular in South India.He depicts this =art of being= the pure, pak category as against Dr.Deepak Chopra´s or Maharishi Mahesh Yogi´s as =mishra= mixed.

Tamilnad´s Brahmananda Swamigal,who claims experiences of treating rajas and maharajas for the past 16 generations, Karnataka´s Vaidya Narayana Murthy, who takes =kadpa katti= cutting flat khurki knife, on hand to collect green barks of a particular tree fresh as cure for all,
Greek Dr.Nikolos Kostopoulos are featured in the documentary. If Brahmananda Swamigal claims curing over 4000 patients of thousands of illnesses including cancer by a two year course of treatment, Dr.Murthy gets almost a 500 meter long queue in front of his disorderly clinic with heaped barks.The doctor sits on a wooden plank under a bush facing the clinic, picks from a basket a five centimeter long bark piece for each patient to hand over personally before dismissing him in half a minute by patting the back signifying the assurance of full healing.

I am reminded of my younger sister Sarojini´s miserable and cruel death by secretive administration on empty stomach, of cow´s urine as =sarva roga parihara=,meaning all cure, by none other than by her own husband and eldest son.Poor Sarojini died in 2003 November after simultaneously undergoing normal medication by a qualified doctor and the all cure medicine for two months suffering swollen belly and uncontrollable urine and stool discharges. It is a fashion today in South India to inflict on =hopeless= cases =all cure= medicines under the slogan let him/her,who is anyway set to die, die a hundred cruel deaths at once!

However,the issue of public health remains the least attended in India of today.With all the thousand and more years old =art of being= as cure available, the proportion and aggregate death on account of diseases in India remains phenomenal.Just as the film does not propose to advertise convincingly, it also does not involve itself answering the question of untimely death at the hands of god of death, yama, the one who is said to drag the dieing soul himself riding on the back of a buffalo.The film was not an entertainment.Neither was it an education.It was indeed an experience!(end)

world humanist congress

Vienna,03-11-2007:The 17th World Humanist Congress would be hosted next year by the American Humanist Association in Washington DC,USA from June 6 - 8,2008. The Congress is hosted in association with London based International Humanist and Ethical Union.The theme of the Congress is =E Pluribus Unum: Reclaiming humanist values=.Registration has commenced
on the Congress on the event web site, which includes the provisional program and details of transportation and accommodation. Details:
<http://www.iheu.org/node/2803 >

IHEU made 40 specific recommendations on religious freedom to the Council of Europe.The
recommendations were jointly worked out with U.K.´s National Secular Society.It centres around a comprehensive intercultural dialogue.Details: www.iheu.org/node/2811

Humanist education online

The Institute for Humanist Studies has now made its online e-learning materials on Humanism freely available to all. The on line education free of charges.. The Continuum of Humanist
Education (COHE) is the world's first online, interactive Humanist educational program by the Institute founded in 2004.Details on IHEU site.


science education in India

IHEU has launched in August this year its campaign against superstitions with the unique Science Education Program in India. The project is managed by two IHEU member
organisations, the Social Development Foundation (SDF) and the Indian Radical Humanist Association (IRHA), and has been funded by IHEU , the fund amout 6,000 Euros.The Program provides for engaging a full time resource person, for anti-superstition activist training in several parts of India It will adopt five villages and five village schools in remote areas of Nalgonda, one of the most backward districts of Andhra Pradesh state.

UN Human Rights Council, did not permit IHEU this year from speaking on Special Rapporteur on Racism, Doudou Diene's report on "Islamophobia". A total of 40 minutes were given to four
non governmental organizations to offer comments.HRC is becoming more myth than reality.

International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) is the world umbrella organisation for humanist, ethical culture, rationalist, secularist and freethought groups. Based in London, it is an international non governmental organization (NGO) with Special Consultative Status with the UN (New York, Geneva,Vienna), General Consultative Status at UNICEF (New York) and the
Council of Europe (Strasbourg), and it maintains operational relations with UNESCO (Paris). end.

AlGore & arab news

step it up2

Dear Kulamarva Balakrishna,

The power of a single individual to create change has always inspired me. Earlier this year, my friend Bill McKibben decided he was going to establish a day of action to fight the climate crisis.

Out of his idea, "Step It Up 2007" was born, and on April 14th tens of thousands of people, including thousands of members of AlGore.com, joined together at 1,400 rallies to raise their voices and demand that Congress cut carbon 80% by 2050.

"Step It Up 2: Who's A Leader" will take place this Saturday. You can find a rally in your area by visiting:
http://events.stepitup2007.org

"Step It Up 2" is going to be an incredible event. Already, 59 Members of Congress and 7 Presidential candidates have signed up to attend rallies around the country.

Participating is so easy: just click the link above and find a Step It Up event in your area,(outside the
U.S. globally-kb).

Sign up to attend a Step It Up Rally by visiting:
http://events.stepitup2007.org

People like Bill McKibben and events like Step It Up are helping us build the political will necessary to end the climate crisis. It is vital you participate in any way you can -- November 3rd is going to be an incredible day.

Thank you,

Al Gore "

When Is a Saudi Woman
Considered an Adult?

By Maha Akeel,
with permission
www.Arab News

Vienna,02-11-2007: I am happy to reprint the article from the self conscious Saudi young woman journalist Maha Akeel, I congratulate her on behalf of humans austria

It is surprising and frustrating to see that women in Saudi Arabia, despite all their achievements, continue to be treated as underage dependents who need and are forced to be managed by their male guardians.

It is necessary at this point of Saudi women's history to address this important issue.

We cannot claim that a Saudi woman has all her Islamic and civil rights when the system insists on considering her immature, irresponsible and dependent on her male guardian no matter how old she is, how highly educated and intelligent she might be or what she has achieved in her professional career. At what age and under what circumstances is a woman in Saudi Arabia considered an independent, sane, responsible adult?

We see story after depressing and humiliating story in our daily life and reported in the newspapers of how women struggle to go about their normal life without unnecessary complications, let alone fighting for their rights in the courts or other government institutions. Why does a young intelligent, ambitious woman needs her guardian's permission to enroll in a university or apply for work? Does the system even realize that this male guardian does not necessarily have the best interests of the woman when he denies her the right to an education and a job?

At what age is a woman considered old enough to decide to marry whom she chooses legally even if her male guardian objects because he might have ulterior motives for not giving his permission, or might force her to marry someone she does not want? Why is it that the system and society do not raise objections to a father marrying his 13-year-old daughter to a 70-year-old man but objects to a 40-year-old woman deciding to marry someone suitable against her father's wishes because he would like to continue benefiting from her teacher salary? Or why does a court forcefully divorce a happily married couple because some male relative of the wife objects to the marriage while in another case a woman is forced to stay married to a man she does not want? Where is taking the woman's own opinion in the matter? Doesn't an adult, mature woman have a say in matters concerning her own private life? Why is it only the man's wishes are looked at?

If these are some extreme and rare examples of male guardians abusing their authority over the women in their care, what about the daily obstacles women face if they want to purchase property, apply for divorce, gain custody of their child, or travel abroad? In all these cases, she needs a male guarantor or a male representative or permission from her male guardian. A working woman with sufficient salary and funds cannot purchase a car in installments without a male guarantor signing the papers with her. A woman cannot argue her case without a male representative or finalize legal procedures because judges do not recognize her ID card and insist on two men identifying her. A woman, even a 70-year-old woman, cannot travel abroad without the written, signed and notarized permission of her male guardian, who might be her son or nephew. Is this the respect we give our mothers, and we know how highly respected mothers are in Islam?

Simply going to school or to work or going to a hospital for medical emergency or even shopping is an ordeal for women because we have to worry about how we will get there without that "reliable" male driver we so depend on who might be a criminal or a pervert. How can we trust a woman to raise a child, teach our children and treat our illnesses but we cannot trust her to be a responsible adult behind the wheel? We have asked for our right to be licensed to drive a car like any other Muslim woman in the world because we know there is no religious basis for denying us that right.

Yet, we are told that society would not accept women driving on the roads. Assuming that is true, what is being done about that? Are there any real proposals from society to make driving by women easier and safer such as, for example, discussions in schools, training women to be police officers on the roads and in police centers, setting an age limit or hours of the day or specified zones for women to drive in or even, resorting to the same requirement, having her male guardian's permission to drive?

Again, the issue is at what age and under what circumstances does the system and society recognize a woman as a responsible, independent adult who can make her own decision and choices and have full rights as a citizen?

Thank you, Dr.Khaleed Al-Maeena,
Kulamarva Balakrishna.(end)