Life is a poem of love; The story of our life.
Najma and I have lived our life experiencing the full spectrum of emotions ranging from Khatta (sour), Meetha (sweet), Pheeka (tasteless), Teekha (off), Khara (spicy) and Kadva (bitter) brim with caring and lots of loving.
We have enjoyed the happy moments that life had offered; we have lived the fantasies; survived the challenges; experienced the bitterness and above all bonded with the thread of romance till death do us apart. That was a beautiful relationship for us.
Continue
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Would McCain start WWIV
http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2008/07/would-mccain-start-wwiv.html
Would John McCain start wwiv?
Mike Ghouse
Most Americans understand the message of Jesus, where he says, even if you are slapped, work on mitigating the conflict rather than slapping back and continuing the slap cycles to eternity.
Cheney, Bush, McCain, Lieberman and Giuliani do not get that message, they are either insecure and want to keep fighting an imaginary enemy cooked by them or simply they don't understand that if by aggravating the conflicts, the opposite of what they imagine happens; insecurity to one an all. If others are not secure, we cannot be safe either.
We become a great nation by earning the respect from the community of nations, by being just and fair to the parties where there is conflict. We have to earn our name back as a nation that gives and cares where help was needed.
From a business point of view, the gang is downright stupid. Had we invested half of that money we blew in Iraq and Afghanistan on education, jobs, friendship and exchange programs, we would have had greater returns, we would have fewer enemies and the world would have been a safe place for us Americans as well as the people of the world. I am sure some one will come out with the statistics. Do we have more people frustrated at us American now, than before Bush’s misadventure? Brzezinski speaks sense, when he says, McCain could start the WWIV.
It is time to have leaders who reflect the sentiments of Americans, and make sure our democracy remains, government of the people, by the people for the people.
Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer. He is president of the Foundation for Pluralism and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website www.MikeGhouse.net. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com
Brzezinski: McCain would start WWIV
Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:26:50
Former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski
Former White House national security adviser says if John McCain becomes the next US president the world will move toward World War IV.
Former US President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski criticized US officials in Senator McCain's camp for pushing the presumptive Republican nominee toward a radical foreign policy on issues such as Iran.
Brzezinski described McCain's presidency as an 'appalling concept' as it would lead to the World War IV, arguing that from the viewpoint of figures surrounding the Arizona senator the Cold War counted as World War III.
"Well, if McCain is president and if his Secretary of State is Joe Lieberman and his Secretary of Defense is [Rudolph] Giuliani, we will be moving towards the World War IV that they have been both favoring and predicting," Brzezinski cautioned.
Earlier in October 2007, President George W. Bush, who has endorsed John McCain, warned of the eruption of World War III should Iran continue uranium enrichment.
Would John McCain start wwiv?
Mike Ghouse
Most Americans understand the message of Jesus, where he says, even if you are slapped, work on mitigating the conflict rather than slapping back and continuing the slap cycles to eternity.
Cheney, Bush, McCain, Lieberman and Giuliani do not get that message, they are either insecure and want to keep fighting an imaginary enemy cooked by them or simply they don't understand that if by aggravating the conflicts, the opposite of what they imagine happens; insecurity to one an all. If others are not secure, we cannot be safe either.
We become a great nation by earning the respect from the community of nations, by being just and fair to the parties where there is conflict. We have to earn our name back as a nation that gives and cares where help was needed.
From a business point of view, the gang is downright stupid. Had we invested half of that money we blew in Iraq and Afghanistan on education, jobs, friendship and exchange programs, we would have had greater returns, we would have fewer enemies and the world would have been a safe place for us Americans as well as the people of the world. I am sure some one will come out with the statistics. Do we have more people frustrated at us American now, than before Bush’s misadventure? Brzezinski speaks sense, when he says, McCain could start the WWIV.
It is time to have leaders who reflect the sentiments of Americans, and make sure our democracy remains, government of the people, by the people for the people.
Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer. He is president of the Foundation for Pluralism and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website www.MikeGhouse.net. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com
Brzezinski: McCain would start WWIV
Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:26:50
Former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski
Former White House national security adviser says if John McCain becomes the next US president the world will move toward World War IV.
Former US President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski criticized US officials in Senator McCain's camp for pushing the presumptive Republican nominee toward a radical foreign policy on issues such as Iran.
Brzezinski described McCain's presidency as an 'appalling concept' as it would lead to the World War IV, arguing that from the viewpoint of figures surrounding the Arizona senator the Cold War counted as World War III.
"Well, if McCain is president and if his Secretary of State is Joe Lieberman and his Secretary of Defense is [Rudolph] Giuliani, we will be moving towards the World War IV that they have been both favoring and predicting," Brzezinski cautioned.
Earlier in October 2007, President George W. Bush, who has endorsed John McCain, warned of the eruption of World War III should Iran continue uranium enrichment.
Divisive words - Pro Israel or Palestine
http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2008/07/divisive-words-pro-israel-or-palestine.html
My comments are followed by the article "Durban redux? Vitriol may follow Israel to Geneva" and I do hope, we look at humans without a branding them with a label.
The words pro-Israel or pro-Palestine are divise, we ought to consider looking at the issue in terms of Justice, peace and security for the people of the area understood as Israelis and Palestinians rather than dividing ourselves in to the divisive camps.
It is human to crave for Justice and every faith is designed to deliever that to the people. Justice is the only thing that sustains peace and security for the people. The simple truth is that neither the Palestinians, nor the Israelis will have peace for themselves, unless they want the peace for the other and take steps to achieve it. Security will not come to either party, if other party is not in the equation.
Gun power is short lived, neither the Palestinians were able to succeed with it in the last sixty years, nor the history has oppressed the Jewish people in the three thousand years of their history.
What do the real people want? Not the Media not the Administration nor the hawks who believe in gun powder and all of them combined are a tiny minority.
Take a look at our own country. For the last seven years that will come to a conclusion in January 2008, our Administration and their policies did not represent the will of the people, the media failed to focus on it, instead they became the mouth pieces of the administration like they do in the non-democratic nations. Is Israel going through the same?
Justice must be the corner stone of any governance. The idea of partitioning the grops as Pro-Palestine and Pro-Israel is wrong, they should rather look at the issue from a human rights perspective.
Mike Ghouse
http://www.mikeghouse.net/
Durban redux? Vitriol may follow Israel to Geneva
By Michael J. Jordan Published Yesterday Cover Story
http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4550/1/Durban-redux%3F-Vitriol-may-follow-Israel-to-Geneva
Michael J. Jordan
View all articles by Michael J. Jordan GENEVA – In less than a year, the United Nations will try again to tackle the thorny questions of racism around the world. Its effort in 2001 devolved into a virulent attack on Israel and Jews.
While it’s too early to tell which groups hostile to Israel will show up at the follow-up conference in April, at least two hint at what treatment awaits the Jewish state.
The Ford Foundation, the powerful philanthropy whose money fueled much of the anti-Israel activity at the anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa, has opted out of the event in this Swiss city.
The New York headquarters of the Ford Foundation, which following JTA’s 2003 investigative series "Funding Hate," published stringent new guidelines on its grantees. JTA Photo
Indeed, Durban reportedly has become something of a dreaded "D word" in some diplomatic circles, prompting widespread concern that the follow-up could be a repeat of the anti-Israel extravaganza seven years ago.
At least two Palestinian organizations have declared publicly their intent to carry the crusade launched in Durban to Geneva.
That crusade paints Israel as an "apartheid state" like the South Africa of old to be similarly crippled through boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. And by most accounts, even more pro-Palestinian groups are sure to arrive in Geneva to trumpet their cause célebre.
At the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, the rabid activism of numerous anti-Israel nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, virtually drowned out much of the world’s other ills.
Last month in Brazil, at the first regional meeting to determine the substance of next year’s conference, one group hinted at what to expect.
BADIL: The Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights (www.badil.org) issued an open letter (www.badil.org/Publications/Press/2008/press481-08.htm) to the "Latin American people, its governments, movements and organizations."
The letter stated: "The world’s imperial powers, with the United States and Israel at the forefront, are putting pressure on states" to "silence the principled voices of the victims of racism."
Latin America should resist, the letter said, because "the struggle against Israel’s colonial apartheid regime is one of the cornerstones of the struggle against state-sponsored racism and ongoing colonial policies worldwide."
BADIL was not present in Durban.
A second group created since Durban recently sought and gained accreditation to the Geneva conference. The Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, (www.stopthewall.org) is at the forefront of the international boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.
It’s too soon to know which funding agencies will help send NGOs such as BADIL and the Wall Campaign to Geneva, but one watchdog suggests European money will likely be involved.
"European aid agencies give tens of millions of euros per year to very political, in some cases radical, anti-Israel NGOs, and these groups are the most active in the Durban process," said Gerald Steinberg, the executive director of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, which recently detailed these links in its report "Europe’s Hidden Hand".
"There are many officials in those agencies who come from an anti-colonialist, anti-American, anti-Israel political ideology," Steinberg said, "and they have almost no supervision, almost no open discussions in their parliaments over these budgets."
European Union officials told JTA that none of its grants are explicitly for NGOs to attend conferences, like the Durban follow-up, but rather are directed toward specific projects.
Beyond the Durban process, the EU officials say a grantee’s words — like branding Israel as apartheid or endorsing boycotts — are the "sole responsibility" of the grantee and do not reflect EU positions.
Brussels "cannot be held responsible" for these statements, nor can it "oblige them to refrain" from making them, said David Kriss, a spokesman for the European Commission delegation to Israel.
"The Commission is respectful of freedom of expression as a key feature of a democratic society," Kriss wrote in an e-mail from his office in Ramat Gan, Israel. "An open debate over political issues is indispensable on the way towards better mutual understanding.
"At the same time, the Commission is firmly committed to the fight against incitement to hatred between ethnic or religious groups as well as to the expressions of racism, xenophobia, discrimination, anti-Semitism, or Islamophobia, and will continue fighting these deplorable phenomena."
The 2009 Durban follow-up will likely cost "several million dollars," according to a U.N. official in Geneva, with U.N. member-states expected to foot the entire bill.
Few, however, have ponied up so far. Some $750,000 left over from the 2001 event is now being used, said the U.N. official, with Russia recently adding a contribution of $250,000 and China another $20,000.
Other countries have pledged funds but not yet delivered, which is typical among member-states that sometimes promise money but are slow to act.
Meanwhile, the United States, Israel, Canada, and France have threatened to boycott the event, saying it should focus on racism and discrimination generally, not stir the Middle East conflict.
To urge fellow NGOs and U.N. member-states to rise above at Geneva, the Magenta Foundation of Holland, the American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights and Human Rights First have circulated a petition with five "core principles" (www.magenta.nl/coreprinciples.html) that would reject any effort to "foment hateful stereotyping in the name of human rights" and instead "uphold language and behavior that unites rather than divides."
The New Israel Fund, a group that promotes human rights and pluralism in Israel, is one of 96 signatories pushing for a more productive conference. But NIF told JTA it will not allocate funds for any of its grantees to attend the event. In 2001, the fund provided $50,000 for such participation through a Ford grant it had received.
There is no contradiction, said an NIF spokeswoman, nor does it indicate a lack of trust that its own grantees — some of whom were most active in Durban — would adhere to these higher standards.
"Basically, NIF was outraged at the misuse" of the Durban forum and was concerned about "a possible repetition" of the tone and substance, said the spokeswoman, Naomi Paiss.
"We are a family of organizations representing a range of opinions," she said. "As strongly as we feel about Durban, this is not a question of forbidding another group from attending. We are saying we will not fund it."
One NIF and Ford grantee that played a prominent role in Durban — Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (www.adalah.org/eng/index.php) — says it has yet to decide whether to attend.
"Adalah will deal with the follow-up issues regarding Durban at the relevant time, not now," Eva Mousa, the group’s media director, told JTA. "At that time, Adalah will speak about it and discuss it with our donors, including Ford and NIF."
The United Nations, meanwhile, stung by criticism of the 2001 event, is taking steps to prevent a repetition.
In late May, member-states decided to host the event on the serene, secure U.N. campus in Geneva. In Durban, with thousands of activists milling about inside tents and on the streets, Jewish activists say the atmosphere often grew tense — even intimidating— punctured by anti-Semitic incidents.
The world body also is expected to eliminate a separate NGO Forum, which in Durban was the source of the harshest anti-Israel rhetoric (www-personal.umich.edu/~hfc/mideast/NGO_WCAR.htm). At the forum, the Jewish state was accused of such human rights crimes as genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
Startled by the protest walkout of the American and Israeli delegations — and the discredit it brought upon the conference — the member-states that remained settled on two rather benign references to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the government declaration (www.unhchr.ch/pdf/Durban.pdf).
At this point, it’s "very likely" that NGO participation in Geneva will be restricted and woven into the governmental gathering, said a U.N. official who asked not to be identified because there was no authorization to speak on the record.
NGOs instead will probably be encouraged to attend, but at most official U.N. meetings will have to request an opportunity to address the gathering beforehand. Each will be allotted three minutes to speak.
None of the 775 NGOs that attended Durban saw their accreditation revoked for their actions there, so they remain accredited and free to attend April’s event, according to the U.N. official.
"The NGO issue is a highly political issue here," the official said.
This format may mean less Israel-bashing, but also less criticism of U.N. member-states that rank at the bottom of most global surveys of racism and other forms of discrimination. After all, few governments choose to freely chastise themselves.
This is left to the NGOs.
Still, three minutes available every day at a four- or five-day conference – the world’s largest in the sphere of human rights — is enough time to sling arrows, hammer home a message to the media and have it documented for eternity in U.N. archives.
That’s why some Jewish observers were taken aback by the conference accreditation granted to the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign.
The group, according to its Website, was formed one year after Durban, in October 2002, by one of the more extremist NGOs that did attend Durban — the Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network.
The Wall Campaign partnered with another prominent Israel basher at Durban, the Palestinian NGO Network, or PNGO, to hold the First Palestinian Conference for the Boycott of Israel (BDS) on Nov. 18, 2007. At the time of Durban, PNGO was a Ford grantee, but is no longer.
In addition, the Wall Campaign and PNGO are two members of the National Committee to Commemorate the Nakba, the Arab term for catastrophe used to depict Israel’s creation as a state.
On its Website, the Wall Campaign links to BADIL, the group based in Bethlehem, on the west bank, which declared its intent in Brazil last month to bang the apartheid drum against Israel in Geneva.
This link refers to BADIL’s role in leading the current "Nakba 60 campaign," an international effort aimed at countering Israel at 60 celebrations.
At the April planning conference for the Durban follow-up, the Wall Campaign won accreditation without debate. More public attention in Geneva was devoted to Iran’s intervention to deny a Canadian Jewish group accreditation to attend the event next year. The group, the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy, citing bureaucratic and political hurdles, eventually withdrew its application.
BADIL’s home page in July announced a new Website, "It Is Apartheid," with a "viral, guerrilla marketing" campaign that includes tips on how to propagandize neighbors, co-workers and strangers (www.itisapartheid.org/itisapartheid.org).
The group’s presence in Brasilia and its lobbying of Latin American delegations was another harbinger for Jewish observers who warn the Geneva event may follow in the politicized footsteps of Durban.
The Geneva-based UN Watch declared that the current working paper (http://blog.unwatch.org/?p=168), in U.N. lingo known as a "non-paper," already "breaches red lines" as laid out by the Europeans: It singles out the Palestinians for sympathy, implicitly criticizing Israel.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which sent two observers to Brasilia, described the event as a "lost opportunity" to underscore those red lines.
Latin Americans "have failed to stand up and be counted," Shimon Samuels, Wiesenthal’s director for international relations, told JTA.
Meanwhile, with the Ford Foundation announcing that it won’t pay to send any grantee to the Geneva conference — both because of its prospects for failure and potential to become another anti-Israel festival — and with other donors, governmental and nongovernmental, reportedly wavering, Samuels says that some have found a target to blame in case the Durban follow-up disintegrates.
Samuels said that in Brasilia, he discussed how to prevent a pro-Palestinian "hijacking of the agenda" with an Afro-American group lobbying for slavery compensation.
The fellow activist agreed, he said, but "blew my mind with a vehement accusation of Jewish control of the Durban boycott movement" and "attacked me for stopping foundation funding of their participation in Geneva and destroying possibilities for a NGO Forum."
JTA
Article Series
This article is part 4 of a 5 part series. Other articles in this series are shown below:
Durban’s descendants
Linking to South Africa
Questions raised about actions of some New Israel Fund grantees
Durban redux? Vitriol may follow Israel to Geneva
Ford funding to Jewish groups
My comments are followed by the article "Durban redux? Vitriol may follow Israel to Geneva" and I do hope, we look at humans without a branding them with a label.
The words pro-Israel or pro-Palestine are divise, we ought to consider looking at the issue in terms of Justice, peace and security for the people of the area understood as Israelis and Palestinians rather than dividing ourselves in to the divisive camps.
It is human to crave for Justice and every faith is designed to deliever that to the people. Justice is the only thing that sustains peace and security for the people. The simple truth is that neither the Palestinians, nor the Israelis will have peace for themselves, unless they want the peace for the other and take steps to achieve it. Security will not come to either party, if other party is not in the equation.
Gun power is short lived, neither the Palestinians were able to succeed with it in the last sixty years, nor the history has oppressed the Jewish people in the three thousand years of their history.
What do the real people want? Not the Media not the Administration nor the hawks who believe in gun powder and all of them combined are a tiny minority.
Take a look at our own country. For the last seven years that will come to a conclusion in January 2008, our Administration and their policies did not represent the will of the people, the media failed to focus on it, instead they became the mouth pieces of the administration like they do in the non-democratic nations. Is Israel going through the same?
Justice must be the corner stone of any governance. The idea of partitioning the grops as Pro-Palestine and Pro-Israel is wrong, they should rather look at the issue from a human rights perspective.
Mike Ghouse
http://www.mikeghouse.net/
Durban redux? Vitriol may follow Israel to Geneva
By Michael J. Jordan Published Yesterday Cover Story
http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4550/1/Durban-redux%3F-Vitriol-may-follow-Israel-to-Geneva
Michael J. Jordan
View all articles by Michael J. Jordan GENEVA – In less than a year, the United Nations will try again to tackle the thorny questions of racism around the world. Its effort in 2001 devolved into a virulent attack on Israel and Jews.
While it’s too early to tell which groups hostile to Israel will show up at the follow-up conference in April, at least two hint at what treatment awaits the Jewish state.
The Ford Foundation, the powerful philanthropy whose money fueled much of the anti-Israel activity at the anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa, has opted out of the event in this Swiss city.
The New York headquarters of the Ford Foundation, which following JTA’s 2003 investigative series "Funding Hate," published stringent new guidelines on its grantees. JTA Photo
Indeed, Durban reportedly has become something of a dreaded "D word" in some diplomatic circles, prompting widespread concern that the follow-up could be a repeat of the anti-Israel extravaganza seven years ago.
At least two Palestinian organizations have declared publicly their intent to carry the crusade launched in Durban to Geneva.
That crusade paints Israel as an "apartheid state" like the South Africa of old to be similarly crippled through boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. And by most accounts, even more pro-Palestinian groups are sure to arrive in Geneva to trumpet their cause célebre.
At the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, the rabid activism of numerous anti-Israel nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, virtually drowned out much of the world’s other ills.
Last month in Brazil, at the first regional meeting to determine the substance of next year’s conference, one group hinted at what to expect.
BADIL: The Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights (www.badil.org) issued an open letter (www.badil.org/Publications/Press/2008/press481-08.htm) to the "Latin American people, its governments, movements and organizations."
The letter stated: "The world’s imperial powers, with the United States and Israel at the forefront, are putting pressure on states" to "silence the principled voices of the victims of racism."
Latin America should resist, the letter said, because "the struggle against Israel’s colonial apartheid regime is one of the cornerstones of the struggle against state-sponsored racism and ongoing colonial policies worldwide."
BADIL was not present in Durban.
A second group created since Durban recently sought and gained accreditation to the Geneva conference. The Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, (www.stopthewall.org) is at the forefront of the international boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.
It’s too soon to know which funding agencies will help send NGOs such as BADIL and the Wall Campaign to Geneva, but one watchdog suggests European money will likely be involved.
"European aid agencies give tens of millions of euros per year to very political, in some cases radical, anti-Israel NGOs, and these groups are the most active in the Durban process," said Gerald Steinberg, the executive director of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, which recently detailed these links in its report "Europe’s Hidden Hand".
"There are many officials in those agencies who come from an anti-colonialist, anti-American, anti-Israel political ideology," Steinberg said, "and they have almost no supervision, almost no open discussions in their parliaments over these budgets."
European Union officials told JTA that none of its grants are explicitly for NGOs to attend conferences, like the Durban follow-up, but rather are directed toward specific projects.
Beyond the Durban process, the EU officials say a grantee’s words — like branding Israel as apartheid or endorsing boycotts — are the "sole responsibility" of the grantee and do not reflect EU positions.
Brussels "cannot be held responsible" for these statements, nor can it "oblige them to refrain" from making them, said David Kriss, a spokesman for the European Commission delegation to Israel.
"The Commission is respectful of freedom of expression as a key feature of a democratic society," Kriss wrote in an e-mail from his office in Ramat Gan, Israel. "An open debate over political issues is indispensable on the way towards better mutual understanding.
"At the same time, the Commission is firmly committed to the fight against incitement to hatred between ethnic or religious groups as well as to the expressions of racism, xenophobia, discrimination, anti-Semitism, or Islamophobia, and will continue fighting these deplorable phenomena."
The 2009 Durban follow-up will likely cost "several million dollars," according to a U.N. official in Geneva, with U.N. member-states expected to foot the entire bill.
Few, however, have ponied up so far. Some $750,000 left over from the 2001 event is now being used, said the U.N. official, with Russia recently adding a contribution of $250,000 and China another $20,000.
Other countries have pledged funds but not yet delivered, which is typical among member-states that sometimes promise money but are slow to act.
Meanwhile, the United States, Israel, Canada, and France have threatened to boycott the event, saying it should focus on racism and discrimination generally, not stir the Middle East conflict.
To urge fellow NGOs and U.N. member-states to rise above at Geneva, the Magenta Foundation of Holland, the American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights and Human Rights First have circulated a petition with five "core principles" (www.magenta.nl/coreprinciples.html) that would reject any effort to "foment hateful stereotyping in the name of human rights" and instead "uphold language and behavior that unites rather than divides."
The New Israel Fund, a group that promotes human rights and pluralism in Israel, is one of 96 signatories pushing for a more productive conference. But NIF told JTA it will not allocate funds for any of its grantees to attend the event. In 2001, the fund provided $50,000 for such participation through a Ford grant it had received.
There is no contradiction, said an NIF spokeswoman, nor does it indicate a lack of trust that its own grantees — some of whom were most active in Durban — would adhere to these higher standards.
"Basically, NIF was outraged at the misuse" of the Durban forum and was concerned about "a possible repetition" of the tone and substance, said the spokeswoman, Naomi Paiss.
"We are a family of organizations representing a range of opinions," she said. "As strongly as we feel about Durban, this is not a question of forbidding another group from attending. We are saying we will not fund it."
One NIF and Ford grantee that played a prominent role in Durban — Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (www.adalah.org/eng/index.php) — says it has yet to decide whether to attend.
"Adalah will deal with the follow-up issues regarding Durban at the relevant time, not now," Eva Mousa, the group’s media director, told JTA. "At that time, Adalah will speak about it and discuss it with our donors, including Ford and NIF."
The United Nations, meanwhile, stung by criticism of the 2001 event, is taking steps to prevent a repetition.
In late May, member-states decided to host the event on the serene, secure U.N. campus in Geneva. In Durban, with thousands of activists milling about inside tents and on the streets, Jewish activists say the atmosphere often grew tense — even intimidating— punctured by anti-Semitic incidents.
The world body also is expected to eliminate a separate NGO Forum, which in Durban was the source of the harshest anti-Israel rhetoric (www-personal.umich.edu/~hfc/mideast/NGO_WCAR.htm). At the forum, the Jewish state was accused of such human rights crimes as genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
Startled by the protest walkout of the American and Israeli delegations — and the discredit it brought upon the conference — the member-states that remained settled on two rather benign references to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the government declaration (www.unhchr.ch/pdf/Durban.pdf).
At this point, it’s "very likely" that NGO participation in Geneva will be restricted and woven into the governmental gathering, said a U.N. official who asked not to be identified because there was no authorization to speak on the record.
NGOs instead will probably be encouraged to attend, but at most official U.N. meetings will have to request an opportunity to address the gathering beforehand. Each will be allotted three minutes to speak.
None of the 775 NGOs that attended Durban saw their accreditation revoked for their actions there, so they remain accredited and free to attend April’s event, according to the U.N. official.
"The NGO issue is a highly political issue here," the official said.
This format may mean less Israel-bashing, but also less criticism of U.N. member-states that rank at the bottom of most global surveys of racism and other forms of discrimination. After all, few governments choose to freely chastise themselves.
This is left to the NGOs.
Still, three minutes available every day at a four- or five-day conference – the world’s largest in the sphere of human rights — is enough time to sling arrows, hammer home a message to the media and have it documented for eternity in U.N. archives.
That’s why some Jewish observers were taken aback by the conference accreditation granted to the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign.
The group, according to its Website, was formed one year after Durban, in October 2002, by one of the more extremist NGOs that did attend Durban — the Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network.
The Wall Campaign partnered with another prominent Israel basher at Durban, the Palestinian NGO Network, or PNGO, to hold the First Palestinian Conference for the Boycott of Israel (BDS) on Nov. 18, 2007. At the time of Durban, PNGO was a Ford grantee, but is no longer.
In addition, the Wall Campaign and PNGO are two members of the National Committee to Commemorate the Nakba, the Arab term for catastrophe used to depict Israel’s creation as a state.
On its Website, the Wall Campaign links to BADIL, the group based in Bethlehem, on the west bank, which declared its intent in Brazil last month to bang the apartheid drum against Israel in Geneva.
This link refers to BADIL’s role in leading the current "Nakba 60 campaign," an international effort aimed at countering Israel at 60 celebrations.
At the April planning conference for the Durban follow-up, the Wall Campaign won accreditation without debate. More public attention in Geneva was devoted to Iran’s intervention to deny a Canadian Jewish group accreditation to attend the event next year. The group, the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy, citing bureaucratic and political hurdles, eventually withdrew its application.
BADIL’s home page in July announced a new Website, "It Is Apartheid," with a "viral, guerrilla marketing" campaign that includes tips on how to propagandize neighbors, co-workers and strangers (www.itisapartheid.org/itisapartheid.org).
The group’s presence in Brasilia and its lobbying of Latin American delegations was another harbinger for Jewish observers who warn the Geneva event may follow in the politicized footsteps of Durban.
The Geneva-based UN Watch declared that the current working paper (http://blog.unwatch.org/?p=168), in U.N. lingo known as a "non-paper," already "breaches red lines" as laid out by the Europeans: It singles out the Palestinians for sympathy, implicitly criticizing Israel.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which sent two observers to Brasilia, described the event as a "lost opportunity" to underscore those red lines.
Latin Americans "have failed to stand up and be counted," Shimon Samuels, Wiesenthal’s director for international relations, told JTA.
Meanwhile, with the Ford Foundation announcing that it won’t pay to send any grantee to the Geneva conference — both because of its prospects for failure and potential to become another anti-Israel festival — and with other donors, governmental and nongovernmental, reportedly wavering, Samuels says that some have found a target to blame in case the Durban follow-up disintegrates.
Samuels said that in Brasilia, he discussed how to prevent a pro-Palestinian "hijacking of the agenda" with an Afro-American group lobbying for slavery compensation.
The fellow activist agreed, he said, but "blew my mind with a vehement accusation of Jewish control of the Durban boycott movement" and "attacked me for stopping foundation funding of their participation in Geneva and destroying possibilities for a NGO Forum."
JTA
Article Series
This article is part 4 of a 5 part series. Other articles in this series are shown below:
Durban’s descendants
Linking to South Africa
Questions raised about actions of some New Israel Fund grantees
Durban redux? Vitriol may follow Israel to Geneva
Ford funding to Jewish groups
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Americans are religiously tolerant
AMERICANS ARE RELIGIOUSLY TOLERANT - POLL
Americans are Religiously Tolerant, Poll Says
Mike Ghouse
The following survey (below) filed under Nations News is indeed reflective of the average American, no matter how you pigeon hole him or her. The “survey finds most Americans don't feel their religion is the only way to eternal life — even if their faith tradition teaches otherwise." Indeed, if we can learn to accept and respect every which way people worship the divine, conflicts fade and solutions emerge.
I believe a majority of people are moderates and only a fringe of us, – no more than 1% any group of us; be it Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Jew, Buddhist, Sikh, Zoroastrian, Bahai, Wicca, Jain, Wicca or other traditions are extreme fundamentalists and of that 1/10th of them, i.e., 1/10th of 1% of each group are extremists. We need to do serious research on this to prove it.
The extremists are broadly classified as the Neocons*
Continued at: http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/06/americans-tolerant-of-religions.html
Americans are Religiously Tolerant, Poll Says
Mike Ghouse
The following survey (below) filed under Nations News is indeed reflective of the average American, no matter how you pigeon hole him or her. The “survey finds most Americans don't feel their religion is the only way to eternal life — even if their faith tradition teaches otherwise." Indeed, if we can learn to accept and respect every which way people worship the divine, conflicts fade and solutions emerge.
I believe a majority of people are moderates and only a fringe of us, – no more than 1% any group of us; be it Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Jew, Buddhist, Sikh, Zoroastrian, Bahai, Wicca, Jain, Wicca or other traditions are extreme fundamentalists and of that 1/10th of them, i.e., 1/10th of 1% of each group are extremists. We need to do serious research on this to prove it.
The extremists are broadly classified as the Neocons*
Continued at: http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/06/americans-tolerant-of-religions.html
Religion and One God
Religion and One God
Mike Ghouse
Oneness of God is also expressed as oneness of the creation, oneness of the humanity and oneness of the people.
The phrase like God is one; the world is one or Vasudeva Kutabam express Unity of the universe referred to as numerical number “one”. It is a large embrace of diverse people to live together without conflict, when you do that, you have embraced them all and a sense of oneness surfaces. A conflictless world can be described as one world, where one God has acted out.
The guardians of the faith have a vested interest in promoting the idea that their faith is the best, and others are deficient, or even inferior or illegitimate. This protects their interests, but spritually they are wrong, a majority of the people believe otherwise, the majority simply wants to get along with others and do not believe for a moment that, their good friends who follow another faith will go to hell, they instinctively know that God will not cheat them.
Continued at: http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/07/religion-and-oneness-of-god.html
Mike Ghouse
Oneness of God is also expressed as oneness of the creation, oneness of the humanity and oneness of the people.
The phrase like God is one; the world is one or Vasudeva Kutabam express Unity of the universe referred to as numerical number “one”. It is a large embrace of diverse people to live together without conflict, when you do that, you have embraced them all and a sense of oneness surfaces. A conflictless world can be described as one world, where one God has acted out.
The guardians of the faith have a vested interest in promoting the idea that their faith is the best, and others are deficient, or even inferior or illegitimate. This protects their interests, but spritually they are wrong, a majority of the people believe otherwise, the majority simply wants to get along with others and do not believe for a moment that, their good friends who follow another faith will go to hell, they instinctively know that God will not cheat them.
Continued at: http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/07/religion-and-oneness-of-god.html
Monday, June 9, 2008
Celebration of the Spirit of Volunteerism.
LIFE IS A POEM OF LOVE
the story of your life, our life, and my life.
This is my personal story of achieving spiritual freedom for us; my late wife and I before she passed away from Cancer.
The example was set by my mother, when she passed away, she tied all the loose ends of life. From the hospital bed, she called everyone she knew to seek forgiveness and to forgive and to bring closure to little things that mattered much; small things that create barriers and tensions between people. She made her family's life easy and embarked on her eternal journey, after cleaning her slate and the slates of the others.
In our culture, we don't verbalize our love to parents, siblings, and kids, at least my generation, we express it through our caring actions. However, when she called me and said she is leaving for good, I gathered myself over the phone and said that I loved her, and that whatever I am today, was because of her, and that I am grateful to her, what a relief that was! When I reached Yelahanka, my home town near Bangalore, I was late by about 4 to 6 hours. I sat next to her and admired her for tying the loose ends of life and going in peace, what a lesson to learn.
Three days prior to her death, I shared the good news with her, “Najma, spiritually you are a free person now, you will be pleased to know that all those items that bothered you and gave you tension are done with, the loose ends are tied, and if you were to get up and walk and be with anyone, hear about anything or see anything you will be completely free from tensions”.
At about 7:05 PM, fifteen minutes prior to taking her last breath, on Thursday, May 22nd, our friends Gopala and Matthew joined in and we prayed short versions of Hindu, Christian and Muslim prayers* holding each other's hand making a circle. I stretched my hand under Najma's right-hand fingers, the hand was a downside, feebly she put her fingers on mine and I held her hand gently and each one of us prayed.
As I walked out with my friends, three of Najma's friends joined her for a few minutes and came out when I entered the room back again about 7:19, I was barely out for about 6-7 minutes. Najma's sisters Arifa and Razia were standing by her feet and I was by the head. Arifa called me to see if Najma was breathing, there was tension on her face.... then both of them told me to look under the neck, I put my hand and I felt she was breathing, then our RN friend Melanie walked in and put her stethoscope, the sisters and I were getting anxious until she made the pronouncement that Najma is not breathing anymore, waiting for those few seconds seemed like an eternity to me.
Najma had a beautiful smile on her face; indeed, she had that smile all day long and remained till the funeral prayers next day at Richardson Mosque after the Friday congregational prayers. That was the last time I saw her. She radiated peace and contentment; she had successfully finished what she was set to do in this life. She was ready and happily went on her eternal journey living a purposeful life.
A day before she passed, after my routine conversation with her in the mornings, I started walking towards the door and I hear out a calling, “Miike” it was loud and clear. I was surprised as she did not have the energy to speak out like that, as I turned around, Uzma noted the puzzle on my face and instantly responded, “Mommy is calling for you”…
Najma and I sat in front of the Taj till late night waiting for Ms. Moon to show up from behind the clouds; as Najma called the Moon; Ms. Moon and the Sun; Surya Devata. Ms. Moon decided to stay behind the chilman (clouds) and did not show up. Najma was giving instructions to the moon to show up and I was waiting if Moon would listen to her. We were determined to see the moonlit Taj and came back early the next morning.
We could not contain ourselves with that joy and absorbed the full glory of the Taj, it is a beauty to treasure. You feel the reciprocal spirit of romance. Once in your lifetime, you must make the pilgrimage to this sanctuary of love. We were so overwhelmed with the joy that we had to find a way to balance it out. On the left of Taj, there is a sanctuary, we walked over there and expressed our gratitude to the creator for our union. That was one of the most gratitudinal moments of our lives. Feeling and expressing gratitude brings a blissful state of being. Thank you, God.
When you push the refresh button of your life, as the Jain philosophy urges each one to forgive the other and start the life all over again with a clean slate. One who forgives is dearest to Allah and forgiving is central to Jesus' teaching as well. There is wisdom in it, every philosophy and every religion urges you to do that. Forgiving is the most powerful things one can do. Please don't delay it, forgive everyone that has hurt you. If your life were to come to an end today, you will have peace written on your face. It is indeed empowering.
Please take that step today; be it your spouse, parents, siblings, kids, friends, co-workers, customers, patients, clients, business partner or anyone, forgive them genuinely and call them up and let them know that you felt discomfort about a particular aspect of relationship and that you seek forgiveness, and that your heart and mind does not have ill will, anger or hate towards them. Do your part.
Thanks to Najma, she and I had the luxury to put things behind, forgive and express our love for each other, and indeed we have released and freed each other. It is Nirvana, Mukti, Moksha, Nijaat, and Salvation to her and I. She went in peace with the best smile on her face.
Peace will come to you, just do the right thing from this moment forward. Let yesterday be gone, if there is left over, do your best to tie the loose ends and clean the slate of your life. Happiness is a choice.
The creator, no matter what name you call him, be it Yahweh, Jesus, El, Ilahi, Ishwar, Deos, Ahura Mazda, Allah, Bahaullah, God, Mahavir, Buddha, Wahe Guruji or any name you are familiar with is yours, as much as he is everyone else's. He is with you and wants you to be at peace whether you are with a religion or not, he (she or it) will not abandon you, after all he is your creator, just ask him to be with you in doing the right things, or do it on your own for your own goodness.
Please make a list of things, everything that you wish, everything you need and want, whether you do it or not, it will bring purpose in your life. Live the life purposefully, one day at a time, you will not get a second chance to experience it. Be the best person you can be. Amen!
May God guide us to clean our slate every day, bring humility and remove the arrogance. May you be blessed. Amen.
Najma was a volunteer par excellence. She was good to the people in distress, she gave them good counsel when they came to her or she went to see them. I enjoyed listening to her with admiration. She was getting the distressed calls all hours of the day, between us, we had a pact, that she can share the story of the people, but not tell me who they were and we kept the privacy of the people intact with one exception; where we had to go pick a lady up in the middle of the night who was thrown out of her house. Following that for a full week, we would go pick her up from a temporary house and take her to jobs to clean houses and then take her back, thank God finally she found a place to be a nanny. There were so many women out there that Najma was blessed to be a part of their relief. It is tough, but you and I can make a difference in everyone’s life by stretching just a little bit of our time.
the story of your life, our life, and my life.
Spiritual freedom is indeed the greatest achievement in one’s life and it permanently clings to you till eternity. Those of us, who can free ourselves from tension, pain, anxiety, apprehension, hostility, malice, pressure, tension, stress, strain, and conflicts, are showered with blessings of peace and joy. It is good to be free.
I am pleased to have celebrated her life, nearly 400 people attended the event, 12 different religious songs were sung by our friends from different faiths honoring her interfaithness including the Native Americans. At her funeral, the mosque was shut down by the fire marshall with over 2000 people in the hall... my atheist friends joined the funeral services as well. 120 pictures are at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/albums/72157683543969933
I am pleased to have celebrated her life, nearly 400 people attended the event, 12 different religious songs were sung by our friends from different faiths honoring her interfaithness including the Native Americans. At her funeral, the mosque was shut down by the fire marshall with over 2000 people in the hall... my atheist friends joined the funeral services as well. 120 pictures are at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/albums/72157683543969933
This is my personal story of achieving spiritual freedom for us; my late wife and I before she passed away from Cancer.
The last year of our life was the best we had
together. Najma and I have lived our life experiencing the full spectrum of
emotions ranging from Khatta (sour), Meetha (sweet), Pheeka (tasteless), Teekha
(off), Khara (spicy) and Kadva (bitter) brimming with caring and lots of love.
We have enjoyed the happy moments that life
had offered; we have lived the fantasies; survived the challenges; experienced
the bitterness and above all bonded with the thread of romance till death did
us apart. We found Mukti, that is the freedom from the bondage of wants and
needs.
The example was set by my mother, when she passed away, she tied all the loose ends of life. From the hospital bed, she called everyone she knew to seek forgiveness and to forgive and to bring closure to little things that mattered much; small things that create barriers and tensions between people. She made her family's life easy and embarked on her eternal journey, after cleaning her slate and the slates of the others.
In our culture, we don't verbalize our love to parents, siblings, and kids, at least my generation, we express it through our caring actions. However, when she called me and said she is leaving for good, I gathered myself over the phone and said that I loved her, and that whatever I am today, was because of her, and that I am grateful to her, what a relief that was! When I reached Yelahanka, my home town near Bangalore, I was late by about 4 to 6 hours. I sat next to her and admired her for tying the loose ends of life and going in peace, what a lesson to learn.
It was my turn now.
A month before Najma passed away, she and I consciously developed an understanding of things that needed resolutions and closure. We embarked on working a list, the things she wished away; went away one at a time, the little things that gave her tensions, apprehensions, and fears, the things she wanted to see happen; I started making them happen one at a time. Thank God, every conflict was graciously resolved and she had this wonderful opportunity to clear the air and receive her freedom.
A month before Najma passed away, she and I consciously developed an understanding of things that needed resolutions and closure. We embarked on working a list, the things she wished away; went away one at a time, the little things that gave her tensions, apprehensions, and fears, the things she wanted to see happen; I started making them happen one at a time. Thank God, every conflict was graciously resolved and she had this wonderful opportunity to clear the air and receive her freedom.
Three days prior to her death, I shared the good news with her, “Najma, spiritually you are a free person now, you will be pleased to know that all those items that bothered you and gave you tension are done with, the loose ends are tied, and if you were to get up and walk and be with anyone, hear about anything or see anything you will be completely free from tensions”.
The smile that appeared on her face was simply life-giving, it meant everything to me, it was a relief to me to know that as a spouse I have done my part in completing her life successfully and I thank God for that. I asked her to forgive my shortcomings and without missing a beat, she asked me to do the same. It was one of the best emotional releases she and I have had in our lives. It was a perfect Michami Dukadam. (cleaning each other's slate)
At about 7:05 PM, fifteen minutes prior to taking her last breath, on Thursday, May 22nd, our friends Gopala and Matthew joined in and we prayed short versions of Hindu, Christian and Muslim prayers* holding each other's hand making a circle. I stretched my hand under Najma's right-hand fingers, the hand was a downside, feebly she put her fingers on mine and I held her hand gently and each one of us prayed.
As I walked out with my friends, three of Najma's friends joined her for a few minutes and came out when I entered the room back again about 7:19, I was barely out for about 6-7 minutes. Najma's sisters Arifa and Razia were standing by her feet and I was by the head. Arifa called me to see if Najma was breathing, there was tension on her face.... then both of them told me to look under the neck, I put my hand and I felt she was breathing, then our RN friend Melanie walked in and put her stethoscope, the sisters and I were getting anxious until she made the pronouncement that Najma is not breathing anymore, waiting for those few seconds seemed like an eternity to me.
Najma had a beautiful smile on her face; indeed, she had that smile all day long and remained till the funeral prayers next day at Richardson Mosque after the Friday congregational prayers. That was the last time I saw her. She radiated peace and contentment; she had successfully finished what she was set to do in this life. She was ready and happily went on her eternal journey living a purposeful life.
Najma had reached the pinnacle of freedom when she took her last breath. It is a beautiful way to bring closure to life and I wish this happens to me, you and everyone. Amen!
A day before she passed, after my routine conversation with her in the mornings, I started walking towards the door and I hear out a calling, “Miike” it was loud and clear. I was surprised as she did not have the energy to speak out like that, as I turned around, Uzma noted the puzzle on my face and instantly responded, “Mommy is calling for you”…
I walked up to Najma, leaned over and looked at her. She said, “I Just wanted to say, I love you”. Those were the most powerful words to me at that time and I am going to treasure the sound and romance of those words. Thanks, Najma.
Najma and I have lived our life experiencing the full spectrum of emotions ranging from Khatta (sour), Meetha (sweet), Pheeka (tasteless), Teekha (off), Khara (spicy) and Kadva (bitter) brim with caring and lots of love.
We have enjoyed the happy moments that life had offered us; we have lived the fantasies; survived the challenges; experienced the bitterness and above all bonded with the thread of romance till death did us apart. That was a beautiful relationship for us.
Life is a poem of love; it is the fluency of passing day and night and a lifetime to live. Life is your story, our story, my story, and everyone’s story.
Najma would come alive when we went to see Sirena, a bronze mermaid in the flowing stream in the town of Salado south of Waco. Some times we just jump in the car and drive out to East Texas and sing along the golden oldies and Golden melodies (Bollywood songs) like; ai mere dil-e-nadaan tu gham say na ghabrana, chalo dildaar chalo, hum tere pyaar may sara aalam kho baithay.... gali may aaj chand nikla.. hum nay dekhi hai un aankhon ki mehekti khushboo... O duur ke musafir, a zindagi ke mele, my zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya... aa chal ke tujhe my leke chalon, a mera diwanapun hai and ai dil mujhe aisi jaga le chal. We were always ready to go to see Sirena, it was a place where we felt relaxed and in tune with each other and certainly we cherished those romantic moments of life.
Whenever we wanted to go out, we consciously picked the nights when the moon was in full glory. We went out to the B & B near Lake Travis and or Lake Whitney. There is one place out there where the dome-shaped circular tent sits atop the corner of a hill...and when the Chandni (moonlight) filters through glassy-moon-roof and softly shines in her dark brown eyes, she looked beautiful like the Goddess Aphrodite and an Apsara as we call it in Hindi and a Hoor in Urdu. She looked peaceful and we both longed for those moments to freeze on us. I could not resist humming "Chaudveen ka chand ho, ya aaftab ho, jo bhi ho tum khuda ki khasam, la jawab ho"
The soft gentle laps of the waves consistently hitting the rock edges created a symphony with the breeze kissing the leaves of the tree hovering over the tent. The occasional sounds of frogs and crickets were ironically mellifluous in the calmness of the night.
Heck we would sit on our rocker in front of our house looking at the stars in the expansive sky, the shimmering moon reflecting on the pond across our house cooled us, the desire to just stare into each other's eyes was beautiful ("Mera Khoya huwa rangeen nazara deday, mere mehboo tujhe, meri muhabbat ki Khasam") The breeze from across the Golf course made us feel good about life and being together. It was a full life, I am glad we have had those lamhaat (moments) and yadon ka sahara (memories to cherish) to treasure.
Neither of us had the voice to sing or tune to follow, but we sure sang a lot. Our favorite duets were... O hain zara, khafa khafa...to nain yoon churaye hain and rim jhim ke geet sawan gayay... chalo dildaar chalo and our all-time favorite was Ek Pyaar Ka Naghma hai.
We carefully planned our trip to India and picked the 14th eve of Moon to visit Taj Mahal. When it is full Moon, the Taj is glorious and romantic, it does something to you, it tings your heart. You feel a serene sense of romance, the desire to put your beloved on the pedestal, the desire to express how much you want her.
Way back in the early 60's when the Queen of England visited Taj, she skipped out of her hotel the next night, the entire Indian security machinery was hunting for her and eventually, they found her sitting in front of Taj and gazing at it, in her own world. The old lady was imagining her youth when she desired for her lover... the kind of romance you see in the movie Titanic. Taj is certainly a monument of love.
Najma and I sat in front of the Taj till late night waiting for Ms. Moon to show up from behind the clouds; as Najma called the Moon; Ms. Moon and the Sun; Surya Devata. Ms. Moon decided to stay behind the chilman (clouds) and did not show up. Najma was giving instructions to the moon to show up and I was waiting if Moon would listen to her. We were determined to see the moonlit Taj and came back early the next morning.
We could not contain ourselves with that joy and absorbed the full glory of the Taj, it is a beauty to treasure. You feel the reciprocal spirit of romance. Once in your lifetime, you must make the pilgrimage to this sanctuary of love. We were so overwhelmed with the joy that we had to find a way to balance it out. On the left of Taj, there is a sanctuary, we walked over there and expressed our gratitude to the creator for our union. That was one of the most gratitudinal moments of our lives. Feeling and expressing gratitude brings a blissful state of being. Thank you, God.
When you push the refresh button of your life, as the Jain philosophy urges each one to forgive the other and start the life all over again with a clean slate. One who forgives is dearest to Allah and forgiving is central to Jesus' teaching as well. There is wisdom in it, every philosophy and every religion urges you to do that. Forgiving is the most powerful things one can do. Please don't delay it, forgive everyone that has hurt you. If your life were to come to an end today, you will have peace written on your face. It is indeed empowering.
Please take that step today; be it your spouse, parents, siblings, kids, friends, co-workers, customers, patients, clients, business partner or anyone, forgive them genuinely and call them up and let them know that you felt discomfort about a particular aspect of relationship and that you seek forgiveness, and that your heart and mind does not have ill will, anger or hate towards them. Do your part.
Thanks to Najma, she and I had the luxury to put things behind, forgive and express our love for each other, and indeed we have released and freed each other. It is Nirvana, Mukti, Moksha, Nijaat, and Salvation to her and I. She went in peace with the best smile on her face.
Peace will come to you, just do the right thing from this moment forward. Let yesterday be gone, if there is left over, do your best to tie the loose ends and clean the slate of your life. Happiness is a choice.
The creator, no matter what name you call him, be it Yahweh, Jesus, El, Ilahi, Ishwar, Deos, Ahura Mazda, Allah, Bahaullah, God, Mahavir, Buddha, Wahe Guruji or any name you are familiar with is yours, as much as he is everyone else's. He is with you and wants you to be at peace whether you are with a religion or not, he (she or it) will not abandon you, after all he is your creator, just ask him to be with you in doing the right things, or do it on your own for your own goodness.
Please make a list of things, everything that you wish, everything you need and want, whether you do it or not, it will bring purpose in your life. Live the life purposefully, one day at a time, you will not get a second chance to experience it. Be the best person you can be. Amen!
May God guide us to clean our slate every day, bring humility and remove the arrogance. May you be blessed. Amen.
Najma was a volunteer par excellence. She was good to the people in distress, she gave them good counsel when they came to her or she went to see them. I enjoyed listening to her with admiration. She was getting the distressed calls all hours of the day, between us, we had a pact, that she can share the story of the people, but not tell me who they were and we kept the privacy of the people intact with one exception; where we had to go pick a lady up in the middle of the night who was thrown out of her house. Following that for a full week, we would go pick her up from a temporary house and take her to jobs to clean houses and then take her back, thank God finally she found a place to be a nanny. There were so many women out there that Najma was blessed to be a part of their relief. It is tough, but you and I can make a difference in everyone’s life by stretching just a little bit of our time.
Najma enriched herself with each individual she served. The world is a better place today because of the spirit of volunteerism in each one of us. You, me and every one of us is endowed with the gift of helping others and a majority of us receive boundless joy in caring about others, though joy is not expected.
Life is a poem of love, it is the fluency of waves, constantly moving from one realm to the other without looking back, life is nothing more than your story and my story (Ek pyaar ka naghma hai, moujon ki rawani hai, Zindagi aur kuch bhi nahin, teri meri kahani hai.)
We gain a few things in life while we lose some, the purpose of life is coming into the world and departing; it is in and out and choosing to fill the in-between with joy and caring (Kuch paa kar khona hai, kuch kho kar paana hai, Jeevan ka matlab to, aana aur jaana hai.)
I thank the creator for our blessed life and express my gratitude for bringing a beautiful closure to her life. May her soul keep smiling and inspiring others to live for the sake of others, there is joy and peace in it. Amen
Thanks to Najma, she and I had the luxury to put things behind, forgive and express our love for each other, and indeed we have released and freed each other. It is Nirvana, Mukti, Moksha, Nijaat and Salvation to her and I. She went in peace with the best smile on her face.
Peace will come to you, just do the right thing from this moment forward.
.JPG)
May God guide us to clean our slate every day, bring humility and remove the arrogance. May you be blessed. Amen.
Our friends from Hopi, Cherokee, Apache, and Toltec traditions have prayed for Najma's well being. Then the Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Sikh, Wicca, Zoroastrian and other friends have blessed her soul. Thanks to each one of you for the grace, kindness, and love you have showered on Najma
This is my story and I urge you to consider, getting on with your family members, friends, customers, clients, members of the society, and all the people that you know and had tensions. By forgiving, apologizing or making it up you will find freedom, freedom from tension, embarrassment, and difficulties. There will always be a few, you simply cannot do a thing, they will remain belligerent, all you can do is forgive them, which means when and if you see them, you will be devoid of negative feeling.
May every one of us close on our lives by tying as many loose ends as we can, there is peace in it. May you be free.
Michami Dukkadam
Mike Ghouse
Life is a poem of love, it is the fluency of waves, constantly moving from one realm to the other without looking back, life is nothing more than your story and my story (Ek pyaar ka naghma hai, moujon ki rawani hai, Zindagi aur kuch bhi nahin, teri meri kahani hai.)
We gain a few things in life while we lose some, the purpose of life is coming into the world and departing; it is in and out and choosing to fill the in-between with joy and caring (Kuch paa kar khona hai, kuch kho kar paana hai, Jeevan ka matlab to, aana aur jaana hai.)
I thank the creator for our blessed life and express my gratitude for bringing a beautiful closure to her life. May her soul keep smiling and inspiring others to live for the sake of others, there is joy and peace in it. Amen
Thanks to Najma, she and I had the luxury to put things behind, forgive and express our love for each other, and indeed we have released and freed each other. It is Nirvana, Mukti, Moksha, Nijaat and Salvation to her and I. She went in peace with the best smile on her face.
Peace will come to you, just do the right thing from this moment forward.
.JPG)
May God guide us to clean our slate every day, bring humility and remove the arrogance. May you be blessed. Amen.
Our friends from Hopi, Cherokee, Apache, and Toltec traditions have prayed for Najma's well being. Then the Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Sikh, Wicca, Zoroastrian and other friends have blessed her soul. Thanks to each one of you for the grace, kindness, and love you have showered on Najma
Picking things up for someone who cannot, making time to help a stranger and simply doing good to others makes our heart smile and we can do this every day. Everything we are enjoying today is because of the spirit of volunteerism in others.
Life is about balance, when we receive a benefit, our life balance is indebted; we have to give back equal or more to bring that balance back up. It brings peace, it is the net composure of body and mind. It is that simple to live a happier life. There is a saying attributed to the Holy Bhagvad Gita “ Neki kar darya may daal”… meaning, when you do good, do not expect rewards or any compensation in kind, but just do it. May God bless every human who cares about others.
Life is about balance, when we receive a benefit, our life balance is indebted; we have to give back equal or more to bring that balance back up. It brings peace, it is the net composure of body and mind. It is that simple to live a happier life. There is a saying attributed to the Holy Bhagvad Gita “ Neki kar darya may daal”… meaning, when you do good, do not expect rewards or any compensation in kind, but just do it. May God bless every human who cares about others.
You can start your life tomorrow with a commitment to serve others; As the Jewish scriptures say Ve'ahavta la'ger, you must love the stranger for that guaranteed happiness. Jesus reached out to the ones who were abandoned by the society, Prophet Muhammad said, the least you can give to others is hope and a smile; the Hindu scriptures want you to treat the whole world as one family, Buddha, the learned one taught the joys of living for others. The Sikh faith is indeed founded on the principle of caring for the humanity, the Jains and Baha'i believe our joy comes from taking care of others as the Wiccan believe we have to take care of what we see; life and the matter. I am particularly moved by His holiness Reverend Moon, who has built up a kingdom of goodness with a powerful mission of his work; living for others. Najma and I had the privilege to greet Father and Mother Moon and present a bouquet of flowers to them in person.
Najma enriched herself with each individual she served. The world is a better place today because of the spirit of volunteerism in each one of us. You, me and every one of us is endowed with the gift of helping others and a majority of us receive boundless joy in caring about others, though joy is not expected.
This is my story and I urge you to consider, getting on with your family members, friends, customers, clients, members of the society, and all the people that you know and had tensions. By forgiving, apologizing or making it up you will find freedom, freedom from tension, embarrassment, and difficulties. There will always be a few, you simply cannot do a thing, they will remain belligerent, all you can do is forgive them, which means when and if you see them, you will be devoid of negative feeling.
May every one of us close on our lives by tying as many loose ends as we can, there is peace in it. May you be free.
Michami Dukkadam
Mike Ghouse
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