This poem was written by Simin Behbahani, a prizewinning poet known as “the lioness of Iran” who died on Tuesday in Tehran. She was 87. It seems she is talking about Pakistan and its political /religious leaders. ( F. Sheikh)

Stop Throwing My Country To The Wind

If the flames of anger rise any higher in this land
Your name on your tombstone will be covered with dirt.

You have become a babbling loudmouth.
Your insolent ranting, something to joke about.

The lies you have found, you have woven together.
The rope you have crafted, you will find around your neck.

Pride has swollen your head, your faith has grown blind.
The elephant that falls will not rise.

Stop this extravagance, this reckless throwing of my country to the wind.
The grim-faced rising cloud, will grovel at the swamp’s feet.

Stop this screaming, mayhem, and bloodshed.
Stop doing what makes God’s creatures mourn with tears.

My curses will not be upon you, as in their fulfillment.
My enemies’ afflictions also cause me pain.

You may wish to have me burned, or decide to stone me.
But in your hand match or stone will lose their power to harm me.

( Can we afford common sense? )

( Photos from NYT )

On August 7, 1974 a French stuntman, Phillipe Petit strode back and forth for 45 minutes on a galvanized steel rope tied between two World Trade Center towers. Many New Yorkers woke up to this awesome scene of a thin man dressed elegantly in black robe tip toeing fearlessly on the steel rope. It took Mr. Petit years to prepare for this stunt and made about 100 trips of the towers.

NYT writes about the incidence, “The night before, Mr. Petit and a small band of friends and conspirators slipped past the guards disguised as construction workers to execute their plan. Just after dawn, Mr. Petit stepped out into a stiff breeze. A quarter mile below, hundreds of pedestrians cheered as they looked skyward.

 “Get off there or I’ll come out and we’ll both go down,” a police officer shouted.

And when Mr. Petit descended 110 floors to the street below, he was taken away in handcuffs.”

When asked why you did it? He responded “There is no why? If I see three oranges I have to juggle, and if I see two towers, I have to walk.”

 Later District attorney dropped the charges in exchange for a free performance in Central Park. Mr. Petit remarked that this is the most beautiful sentence he ever received.

Few weeks ago New Yorkers woke up to another beautiful scene of two huge white flags flying and fluttering in breeze atop the Brooklyn Bridge. Very few were laughing and many criticized the NYC police for serious security breach. New York City police felt embarrassed that it happened right under their nose and it has started investigation. Yesterday two German artists came forward and admitted that they did it to honor German born engineer who built the bridge and celebrate the open space of New York. The New York officials want to prosecute the artists. The artists were confused and surprised by the stiff reaction shown by many New Yorkers and the New York officials.

The two incidences show the world before and after 9/11. Everything is viewed through the prism of security breach, terrorism and a nagging question always hangs on our head – why it happened? Sometime there is no why!  

Yesterday I went to Home Depot to buy few things and one of the items was small utility knife. When I scanned it at self-pay counter, the sign came on the screen “Please show your Driver License to the attendant”. I was puzzled. The attendant told me it was because of utility knife.

I think we are reaching at the pinnacle of paranoia and the claim that we will not let the terrorists affect our way of life is a hollow slogan.  We are becoming a society of suspicion and paranoia who no longer can afford a common sense approach. It is time to step back and look at what are we doing to ourselves with this never ending fear of terrorism.

F. Sheikh

WHY REDUCE POVERTY AND INEQUAILTY

          Pakistan, despite a population of about 190 million, has a limited market. A large majority of the people is poor and does not have sufficient money to buy goods other than food. The elite and upper middle classes, who have the resources, prefer to buy foreign goods. Industrial development will be possible by creating the demand for goods and services by raising the income level of the poor.

Pakistan has regional and ethnic inequality. Such inequality raises social and political tensions. The development strategy must aim at reducing inequality. Planning for this purpose must be regional to be coordinated at provincial and national levels. Again, the planning has to be bottom-up.

Mahmood Mirza