Save Nepal’s Edhi, Dr Govinda KC, on hunger strike for pro-poor medical reforms

Posted on July 22, 2016 by beenasarwar
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Dr Govinda KC: fighting for pro-poor medical reforms

UPDATE: Sign the online petition

“If South Asia has a viable public health icon after the passing of Edhi in Pakistan, this man is it,” says a Nepali friend. 

Dr. Govinda KC is a man who is considered a saint in Nepal –  a middle-class doctor who on his own expense offers medical help wherever there is a disaster: Haiti, the Kashmir earthquake in Pakistan, Bangladesh floods. 

By all accounts an incredible human being, he is entering the third week of his hunger strike, a fast unto the death for reforms in the medical education sector. His demands: lower the cost of medical education and create a public health system that allows access of all to quality care, in the place of Nepal’s present highly privatised and centralised system.  Continue reading →

Filed under: Education, Health, Human rights | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Titillate us, entertain us, even educate us, but please, don’t talk about rights

Posted on July 17, 2016 by beenasarwar
Women Protest Qandeel murder

Women and men in Peshawar protest Qandeel Baloch’s murder. Photo via Javed Aziz Khan

Pakistani model and social media icon Qandeel Baloch rocked the boat with outrageous antics like offering to strip if Shahid Afridi led the Pakistan cricket team to victory against India in the T20 match a few months ago. Yesterday, her brother in Multan strangled her to death in apparently because she was bringing a bad name to the family — a family she financially supported. Continue reading →

Filed under: Gender, Human rights | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Opposing elected PM Erdogan doesn’t mean supporting a military coup

Posted on July 16, 2016 by beenasarwar
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A man lies in front of a tank near Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport early Saturday, July 16. Ismail Coskun / AP

The coup in Turkey is a reminder of the dangers of impatiences with flawed democracy. Democracy, like peace, is a process, not an event. In the long run, the worst democracy is better than the best dictatorship. Agree with the Awami Workers Party, Pakistan – “The solution to imperfect democracy is not to abolish it, but to deepen it”. Sharing their statement below:  Continue reading →

Filed under: Progressive politics | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Call me unpatriotic, or even a traitor…

Posted on July 15, 2016 by beenasarwar

Respect to and solidarity with those who refuse to fall in line with the oppressive narratives peddled by hyper nationalists and security establishments. Sharing a post here by senior journalist Saleem Asmi, former Editor of Dawn and a dear friend of my late father:

Call me unpatriotic, even a traitor if you like, but I must say this straight, without mincing words that we have no right, absolutely no right at all, to condemn what the Indian occupation troops are doing in Kashmir, as long as we are ourselves guilty of committing the same, even worse, crimes in Balochistan. Now look at this: 1) The Indian army has invaded and occupied Kashmir, 2) They brutally oppress the Kashmiri people, and call the freedom fighters ‘terrorists’, 3) We invaded and occupied Balochistan in 1948, 4) We brutally oppress the Baloch people, and call the freedom fighters ‘terrorists’. If anything, we surpass the Indians in kidnapping young Baloch by their thousands without trace. Then their brutally tortured bodies appear under flyovers, by the roads, anywhere.

Also see – by Hasan Raza in Pakistan: Kashmiris continue to be the biggest victims of the Indo-Pak tussle for Kashmir – and Nirupama Subramanian in India: Face the disillusion

 

Filed under: Balochistan, Human rights | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

The importance of history and being human

Posted on July 15, 2016 by beenasarwar

With rising racial tensions in the USA exacerbated by bigots like Trump and easy availability of weapons, I wanted to share my friend Jaspal Singh’s recent ‘Reflections’ that he emailed to a few friends from his base in Cambridge MA (visuals added). Also see this post by Partha Banerjee, an activist friend in New York City, on the racism of South Asians (he talks about Indians but it applies equally to others in the region) and the need to contexualise injustice and violence and demand “justice for all the sufferers” and “punishment for all the criminals”.

Andover PD-Jul 8-2016

#Edhism #BlackLivesMatter #Kashmir #Police We could all use a bit more humanity. A powerful little story shared on Facebook by the Andover Police Department about what happens when we see each other as human beings first.

REFLECTIONS

July 10,2016

By Jaspal Singh

A wave of protests against police brutality has engulfed the US. Thousands of people have come out in the streets against the killing of black men by police in several cities. In Dallas Texas, a sniper killed five police officers.People are demanding that these police officers who are killing black men with impunity , be brought to justice and be punished. The Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted the plight of the black people in the US.They can be killed by the law enforcement officers without any accountability as black lives are not considered to have any value. Every year hundreds of black men are killed in police shootings and nothing comes out of it, no police officer is punished. People are incensed against this kind of impunity. Continue reading →

Filed under: Human rights, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

An Indo-Pak tribute to Amjad Sabri

Posted on June 30, 2016 by beenasarwar
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Nitin Mitta and Naseeruddin Saami with the Saami brothers at Peabody Essex Museum. Photo: Beena Sarwar

My article for Aman ki Asha, “hope for peace”, the India-Pakistan peace initiative launched in 2010 by two media giants on either side, the Jang Group of Pakistan and the Times of India

The morning of Wednesday, 22 June 2016 dawned in New York with shattering news of the target killing of Amjad Sabri in broad daylight across the world in Karachi. The tragedy, devastating for millions of fans, was a personal blow for the legendary classical music maestro Naseeruddin Saami and his sons, on tour in the USA towards the end of their first ever visit to America.  Continue reading →

Filed under: Freedom of expression, Music | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Pakistani qawwals touring USA dedicate performances to Amjad Sabri

Posted on June 29, 2016 by beenasarwar
Saami-PEM-standing ovation

Standing ovation for the Saami Brothers after their performance at Peabody Essex Museum, Salem MA. Photo: Beena Sarwar

Wrote this news report the other day.; working on a more detailed report.

Pakistani qawwals touring USA dedicate performances to Amjad Sabri

Legendary classical music maestro Naseeruddin Saami and his sons, currently on tour in the USA, expressed grief at the target killing of their old friend and colleague the renowned qawwal Amjad Sabri in Karachi. Continue reading →

Filed under: Music, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Another assassination in Pakistan; just have to ‘keep on keepin’ on’

Posted on June 27, 2016 by beenasarwar

My article in PRI’s The World, June 25, 2016

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Thousands of people attend the funeral procession of Amjad Sabri. Photo: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters

“They’ve shot dead Amjad Sabri” — the first words I heard on Wednesday morning marked news of yet another assassination in my beloved Karachi, still “home” despite living in the Boston area since 2011.

Sabri was one of the world’s most famous exponents of the devotional music known as Qawwali. On Wednesday, two gunmen intercepted his car and shot him dead at close range in the crowded locality near his house. Continue reading →

Filed under: Freedom of expression, Human rights, Music | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

RIP Amjad Sabri, symbol of a syncretic Sufi culture increasingly under attack

Posted on June 23, 2016 by beenasarwar

Amjad SabriA sad, sad day. Rest in peace, Amjad Sabri, qawwal, shot dead in a target killing in Karachi today. Shortly afterwards, the young naat-khwan, Farhan Ali Waris escaped a murderous attack on his way home from a recording where he had in fact waiting for Amjad Sabri to join him.  A continuation of the trend of killing Shia and Ahmadi doctors for their faith, now musicians…? But Amjad Sabri was not just a ‘musician’.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Freedom of expression, Human rights, Terrorism | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Author of travelogue on Pakistan’s Sikh legacy experienced “nothing but love” there, grateful for visa

Posted on June 21, 2016 by beenasarwar
Amardeep Singh-book

Author Amardeep Singh shares a story from his travelogue. Photo: Beena Sarwar

“I experienced nothing but love in Pakistan,” says Amardeep Singh, author of the photo-illustrated travelogue “Lost Heritage – The Sikh Legacy In Pakistan”, published in January 2016 (Himalayan Books).  Continue reading →

Filed under: Culture, History, Pakistan-India, Travel | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

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