In 1953, CIA overthrew the democratic government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq in Iran (Check Operation Ajax in Wikipedia). Forty-seven year later, US Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright gleefully confessed it without apologizing and recently in Cairo, President Obama mentioned it again.
It may be good to revisit such pages from history now that there is hype about protest by the supporters of pro-West Mousavi who refused to accept election results in favor of Ahmadinejad, and Hillary Clinton promptly refused to accept Ahmadinejad even before protests had gained momentum in Iran. Iranian supreme leader Khamenei has ordered probe into election results (and, just by the way, he is a great admirer of Iqbal), so let’s watch carefully how events unfold over the next few days.
Pakistanis cannot help drawing another comparison: in 1977, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto claimed to have won election in Pakistan, the opposition protested and things led to martial law by General Ziaul Haq and the hanging of Bhutto. Today, very few in Pakistan would doubt that there was some involvement of US agencies and the Saudi government (and incidentally, it was a liberal government which got toppled by hard-liner military ruler who then entered into a long and “fruitful” collaboration with US).
For those who may like literary icing on current affairs, there is a blog from Iran in which the country is compared with an organism. You may find it to be interesting: “Taking Iran as an organism, I would have to say that Iran is somewhat a mythical creature for it’s not just ONE creature on its own but rather made up of some…” Read Blog from Iran.
Picture is by Bahman Sadeghi from JameJamOnline
This blogpost, this blogger, this photo and the wonderfully mystical yet practical concept of Iran as an Organism will haunt me forever.
ReplyDeleteWith gratitude for this blogsite and to Marzieh as well.
Iran’s post election situation 2009 and Pakistan’s post election turmoil of 1977 and the hue and cry, the news headlines, the international reaction are so strikingly similar and parallel, Khurram Sahib. You have an amazing eye for finding similarities as well as disparities about situations.
ReplyDeleteBlogpost by Marzeih and the comments by ReeBz were quite interesting.
@Connie
Read your comments always with great admiration and attention.
Connie, Akhtar, thanks :).
ReplyDeleteThanx Akhtar & your's get my rapt attention as well- yes, & see ReeBz insightful comments on Marzieh's blog.
ReplyDeleteI have also noticed for some months now our host, Khurram's amazing eye in the midst of the storms all around & the finding of the intangible fertile with empathy:
"Thou shalt know by experience how salt the savor is of another's bread and how sad a path it is to climb and descend another's stairs." Dante
Yet the occasional, unexpected joy - like a bolt of lightening - in recognition...
The upbringing plays most vital role in learning the lessons around which the personality builds and the future takes shape, we are learning these lesson from Biography of Rashid Minhas.
ReplyDeleteScholar Akhtar, would you be willing to specify how your upbringing has helped you to become who you are today - obviously you are learned and peaceful. Also you understand the mystical foundations of much that is discussed here.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how do you continue to inform your own earlier lessons with current disciplines, reading and discussions?
Do you mind me putting you "on the spot"?
Good suggestions :)
ReplyDeleteConnie and Khurram Sahib
ReplyDeleteI don't mind at all to be in spotlight with luminaries addressing me: Scholar-which I am not, but which is flatteringly intoxicating.
On upbringing I would say that I firmly believe that our core elements are set in during our formatting years. Our parents, teachers, siblings, friends and books during those years play a decisive role.
To this day my soul is incubated by the implicit and explicit expressions that I saw in even in the eyes of my parents and teachers.
We humans are an extra-ordinary creation of God, an amazing amalgamation of body, soul and spirit-consciousness, sub-consciousness and un-consciousness. Highly impressionable and relentlessly adaptable to every bit of exposure to which we are exposed, living in a universe where a mere flap of butterfly's wings counts, what to say of upbringing!
When I set out writing this I thought it would be an elaborate note, but as always, not being a professional writer and use writing as means of catharsis only so my candle burns from both ends, fires and exhausts, quick and fast. Once I embarked on writing a voluminous novel in Urdu named as Akhari Admi- meaning last man, and completed that astonishingly in two days-as a short story only!
CONNIE HAS SENT THIS COMMENT FOR AKHTAR:
ReplyDeleteBecause my chance to respond well is not available - this is rough and I want to revisit your answer to me. Let me respond roughly here now - yet from my heart...
This by you, Ahktar Sahib will help sustain me through some tough challenges with a loved one in crisis and more. This piece by you is gloriously written and yet so natural, humble and "truth-ringing"
Your density of pen does not obscure the underlying substance which feels lit from within and is so clear to me. Your answer here for all of us in this Republic of Rumi community (so generously facilitated by Khurram Sahib) is a great gift on many counts.
I don't want to overdo except to say PLEASE write often - here and elsewhere. I marvel concerning these well-chosen metaphors which are also realities - and the way you connect them so smoothly to the significance of relationships and to your own youth.
You brought to mind also the "community of trees" and how they nurture one another, the survival contributions - if not mystical "promises" of flowers and even the water we drink - "recycled" I understand from water Rumi and Jesus may have once sipped. And you reminded me of my first glad learning of the significance of a butterflies wings.
Butterflies are perhaps one of the quietest and most universal insignias that beauty is truth. Their wings are signs of freedom - they bring about wonder concerning beginnings as well as transformation.
For those who may feel overwhelmed here, like even I do - who while not close physically - yet I am not a completely removed distance from your plight there - perhaps Ahktar, your butterflies will remind us that each of us may have a "butterfly measure" of a role to play and that life-giving power is not ultimately in the so-called "might of many armies".
Simply scintillating, what to say more! Connie your response brought joy, delight and tears.
ReplyDeleteAs are your comments for me, Akhtar!
ReplyDeleteMay I assume there are no further additions/changes to the National Anthem "versions" and notes above?
If so, I would love to post these. Akhtar, shall I use your full name on my blogsite?
@Connie
ReplyDeletePlease use my full name on your blogsite.