Flood survivors and volunteers at Shahdadkot. Photo: Courtesy Rubina Chandio via the Flood Relief Work WhatsApp group.
It is moving to see how many on the ground, as well as across the region and beyond, are stepping up to help those hit by the floods in any way they can.
At our online Southasia Peace Action Network, Sapan, meetings and in personal messages, Indian friends in particular have expressed their anguish and desire to help. Many are frustrated by being unable to contribute financially as I mentioned in my last post, Floods in Pakistan: Many eager to help held back by restrictions.
The YouTube video below has friends Dr Amna Buttar and Dr Geet Chainani talking about the realities on the ground in disaster-hit areas and why as an Indian origin physician in the US, Geet wants to go back to Sindh to help with flood relief. Sabyn Zaidi remembers how Geet worked in medical camps during the 2010 floods. On the first day she saw 172 patients, without breaks. There were no restrooms, no food, no electricity; there were bugs and insects. When it got dark, she worked with the light from cell phone lights and torches brought by the villagers.
Tom Salamone of Minisink, New York addresses a rally in front of the Federal Energy Regulation Commission on Nov 15, opposing a natural gas compressor station being built in Minisink. Credit: Asha Canalos
BOSTON, Massachusetts, Nov 27 2012 (IPS) – Efforts to promote the use of hydraulic fracturing, a controversial method of obtaining oil and natural gas, face stiff opposition from researchers and citizens who say that in its present form, the technology’s risks far outweigh its worth.Continue reading →
PIPFPD 7th Joint Convention, New Delhi 2005: Pakistani ghazal queen Farida Khanum with then Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran at a reception at Hyderabad House. Photo: Beena Sarwar
My curtain raiser on the Eighth Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) Joint Convention being held in Allahabad, India, Dec 29-31, 2011 (slightly shorter version published as an op-ed in The News). When the name was being decided, the Indians insisted that Pakistan should be mentioned first, rather than the usual formulation that places India’s name first. This apparently trivial gesture typifies the PIPFPD’s cooperative spirit.
People for peace | By Beena Sarwar
The Indian government’s clearance of visas for 237 Pakistanis to attend a major peace convention in Allahabad, Dec 29, 2011 to Jan 1, 2012, is a welcome step, allowing the much-delayed Eighth Joint Convention of the Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) to finally be held.
The PIPFPD is the largest people-to-people organisation between the two countries, formed in 1994 by eminent intellectuals, academics and activists from both sides. Discussions at the Joint Conventions revolve around issues ranging from ‘war, de-militarization, peace and peace dividends’, to ‘Democratic solution to Kashmir problem’, ‘Democratic Governance’ and ‘Religious intolerance in India and Pakistan’. ‘Globalization and Regional co-operation’ was added at the 5th Joint Convention in 2000 at Bangalore.
The principles laid out in the initial PIPFPD Declaration of 1994 are even more relevant today than they were then: that the “politics of confrontation between India and Pakistan has failed to achieve benefits of any kind for the people of both countries”, and that the respective governments should honour the wishes of their people who “increasingly want genuine peace and friendship”.
Better relations, said the Declaration, “will help in reducing communal and ethnic tension” and “will help the South Asian region to progress economically and socially”. The Declaration urged the Governments of Pakistan and India to “agree to an unconditional no-war pact immediately” and to recognise that “a democratic solution to the Kashmir dispute is essential”.
Over 200 Pakistani and Indian delegates participated in the groundbreaking First Joint Convention in New Delhi, 1995. For the first time, Indians and Pakistanis sat together to freely discuss the contentious issues of Kashmir, demilitarization, and the politics of religious intolerance. PIPFPD’s formulation about Kashmir is now part of public discourse: that Kashmir should not be viewed merely as a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan but as a matter of the lives and aspirations of the Kashmiri people, who must be involved in any discussion about their future.
The seven joint Conventions held since in various cities across the region, alternating between both countries, have involved hundreds of ordinary citizens. Delegates pay for their own travel expenses, while the hosts arrange inexpensive board and lodging. These Conventions have yielded not only lasting relations between individuals but also spawned dozens of Indo-Pak organisations and meetings between different ‘sectors’ – fisherfolk, teachers, students, journalists, doctors, lawyers, labour unions, rights groups and others.
It was PIPFPD’s First Joint Convention in New Delhi in 1995 that led to the first regular column by an Indian journalist in a Pakistani newspaper (The News on Sunday) since the 1960s. Today, most newspapers and TV channels in Pakistan have correspondents, stringers and resource persons in India, and vice versa.
Initial delays to the Eighth Joint Convention came from Pakistan, where it was supposed to be held in Peshawar in 2007, after the Seventh Joint Convention in New Delhi in 2005. The political situation provided justifications to deny the necessary permission: escalation in the ‘war on terror’, the lawyers’ movement, the return and then the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and escalating violence in Pakistan as the new government tried to tackle the militants unambiguously.
When it became clear that trying to hold the Convention in Pakistan would add to more delay, the organisers decided to move it to India. That took over a year and much negotiation. Conditions were verbally set out and apprehensions voiced about the possibility of ‘wrong speeches’ being made – not just by the Pakistanis but by Indians. However, those raising the objections were unwilling to spell out their apprehensions in writing.
In the end, persistence and people pressure paid off. Several Indo-Pak events have been held over the past two years, including by Aman ki Asha. Many were initiated by Indians, contrary to the perception that “Indians don’t care about peace with Pakistan”.
Significantly, some of the most inspiring initiatives have come from Mumbai, a city still reeling from the horrific attacks of Nov 26-28, 2008 that many Indians squarely blame Pakistan for. However, many Indians, including Mumbaikars, argue that all Pakistanis should not be held responsible for the actions of a few.
An extraordinary expression of this spirit was the 50-kilometre long ‘human chain for peace’ formed by some 60,000 Mumbaikars on Dec 12, 2008, urging the Government of India to show restraint in dealing with Pakistan — just days after the attacks that claimed 164 lives and left over 300 wounded. This hugely impressive event was overshadowed by the jingoism amplified by the media, but the Indian government did not (for several reasons) pander to those baying for action against Pakistan.
Earlier this year, students from Mumbai came up with a pioneering initiative they called ‘Ummeed-e-Milaap’ (hope for unity), a platform for Indian and Pakistani students to connect, in over 30 colleges in Mumbai, Lahore and Karachi. Last month, a 22-member delegation of journalists from The Press Club of Mumbai travelled to Pakistan to connect with colleagues in Karachi and Hyderabad, culminating in a joint Declaration of Cooperation.
The world is changing. The old paradigms and policies based on paranoia and hatred must give way to a realisation that it is only with cooperation with each other that India that Pakistan can fulfil their respective potentials. The Seventh Joint Convention articulated some visionary steps that both governments can take towards this end (see www.pipfpd.org). The Allahabad Convention will take forward these demands, foremost among which is easing the current restrictive visa regime.
We have seen what happens when thousands of cricket fans are given visas to attend matches across the border: nothing, except for goodwill and a reaffirmation that the people are ready for good relations and personal contacts. As the Allahabad Convention gets under way, do our governments have the political will and vision to follow the people to peace or will they remain mired in outdated security state paradigms?
We’re not exactly into the whole commercial holiday scene but it seemed like a good time to get a little tree to decorate for the season and put out to grow for the rest of the year.So we got ourselves to Ricky’s Flower Market. We’d often passed this inviting looking urban nursery, bursting with flowers and potted plants in warmer weather, incongruously tucked between two heavily trafficked roads at Union Square, Somerville, MA. Now it’s full of Christmas trees. We pulled into the parking spot (bonus) and after some deliberation and discussion with Ricky, the owner, chose a sweet little Dwarf Alberta Spruce (a hardy species indigenous to the New England and Canada area, we learnt), in a pot. Here’s part of our conversation with its surprise tidbits:Continue reading →
Here’s a note I sent out to the Saneeya Hussain yahoogroup yesterday, Aug 13th, her birthday – please do check out the link about the Saneeya Hussain Trust:
Dear family and friends of Saneeya, scattered all over the world, this huge community of caring and committed people working in all kinds of ways to make the world a better place in their own ways
Here’s to Saneeya – we’ll always miss her. It is wonderful that the Saneeya Hussain Trust is up and running. Please do check it out at http://www.saneeyahussaintrust.com/ – The Trust has already done a lot of valuable work in terms of helping young girls obtain an education.
Several months ago I wrote a chapter for a forthcoming book on environmental journalism being published (eventually, we hope) by Sage, India. It focuses to some extent on Saneeya and Nazeeha had it posted to the SHT website for those who are interested http://www.saneeyahussaintrust.com/PakistanChapterforSageIndiaAug08.pdf
I finally made a blog (on which I post my own articles and other material that I also send to my issues yahoogroup) – have linked the SHT to it also. I’d encourage all those of you who maintain blogs or websites to do the same.
Just heard the sad news from Rani (Khawar Mumtaz) in Lahore about Smitu Kothari’s sudden and unexpected departure from this world.
Last I met Smitu it was in 2004, when I interviewed him about his late friend, the Pakistani activist Omar Asghar Khan, for a documentary commissioned by Asia Foundation broadcast on Geo TV. During the same trip I interviewed his father Rajni Kothari, a meeting he facilitated, for another documentary in the Asia Foundation/Geo TV series, on Eqbal Ahmad.
Besides being an ardent environmental and freedom of information activist, Smitu was one of the earliest and most genuine advocates of Pakistan-India peace. May he rest in peace.
His cremation is at 4 pm today in Delhi. Deepest condolences to his aged father and his family, including a 12-year old daughter.
Environmentalist Smitu Kothari dies of cardiac arrest
New Delhi, March 23 (IANS) Smitu Kothari, 59, one of India’s leading
social and environmental activists, died of a cardiac arrest early
Monday at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
Kothari was editor of the Lokayan Bulletin published by the Lokayan
group which promotes dialogue between NGOs and the rest of the world.
He also co-edited Ecologist Asia with other environmentalists
including Vandana Shiva, Claude Alvares and Bittu Sahgal and has been
a visiting professor at Cornell and Princeton universities.
P.S. March 27: Amit Sengupta’s obituary on Smitu in Hard News – excerpt:
“Now, that he has become bark and sky and earth, and now that the saline waters are still soaked inside the eyes and hearts of his father, wife, brothers, friends, strangers and comrades, it’s the tree of life which must hold his eyes and his mind, like leaves, flowers and seeds, as his legacy of regeneration, retreat and resistance” http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/2009/03/2772
Journeys to democracy 