Post Title: National Focal Point for GYCA
Post Reference: EECA - NFP - 2009-2010
Number of Post(s) 1 post for each Country – EECA Region
Duty Location(s): All Countries ( Duty Station for each NFP will be the country he/she represent)
Closing Date 25th February 2009
Background
GYCA is a youth-led, UNAIDS and UNFPA supported global network of more than 5,000 young leaders and adult allies working on youth and HIV/AIDS in 150 countries world-wide. It was proposed by youth attendees of the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok 2004 and XIV International AIDS Conference in Barcelona 2002. GYCA's mission is to empower young leaders with the skills, knowledge, resources and opportunities they need to scale up HIV/AIDS interventions amongst their peers.
GYCA operates on two tiers. The first, through information communication technology (ICT) with free capacity-building e-courses, discussion fora, and online resources; and the second, through local trainings and events.
Organizational setting:
GYCA is coordinated by a North Secretariat in New York and a South Secretariat in Accra, Ghana. The Secretariats act as catalysts for a decentralized network, operating through a Task Force of youth and adult allies including people living with HIV/AIDS, 12 Regional Focal Points, a growing number of National (Country) Focal Points worldwide. GYCA members represent an array of organizations, programmes, and networks focusing on youth and HIV/AIDS.
BENEFITS OF BEING AN NFP
• Opportunities to represent GYCA at local, regional, and international events and conferences
• Ability to share information on and promote relevant local HIV/AIDS work
• Networking opportunities for advocacy and fundraising with high level decision-makers (UN, Government and NGO)
• Opportunities to create and influence international and national policy and programs
• Credibility of being associated with a major international non-profit initiative
• Training, skills-building and career growth opportunities
APPLICATION SUBMISSION INSTRUCTION:
Applicants are kindly requested to send the attached GYCA Application form and their CV along with a cover letter to their RFP Yama Enayat, yama@youthadiscoalition.org NOT latter then CoB 15th February 2009.
The countries included under (Eastern Europe and Central Asia) EECA region are listed below.
Please indicate in the subject line of your e-mail, the post reference clearly, otherwise your application may not be considered.
Applicants will be selected on the basis of their qualifications, HIV and AIDS related work experience and their experience of working with youth.
Me emocioné mucho cuando hace unos días recibí finalmente el link para poder ver el video que grabamos sobre el producto de nuestro II Encuentro AccionArte, que tuvo lugar en la Ciudad de Santiago del Estero, en el marco de las actividades simultáneas de la Sección Infancia y Juventud del 10* Festival Internacional de Cine de Derechos Humanos.
Gracias a todas las personas e instituciones que nos apoyaron en esta iniciativa autogestiva de los miembros de la Red AccionArte y de la Asociación Vientos del Sur.
" COME COME no matter what you are,
A polytheist, fire worshipper or idolater,
Our dervish convert is not the assembly of hopelessness
Come,
even though you have broken
Your repentance a hundered times"
"The one who seeks a perfect friend is alone in the end"
"One candle loses nothing if its light kindling another"
"Suplication and worship is to be with Allah
For someone who is with Allah,
death is pleasant as life"
"The idea is that which opens a path, The path is that which leads to the truth"
" That the rose endured thorns has made it smell nice"
"Act like the sun in love and compassion"
"Act like a river in friendshipp and fraternity"
"Act like the night in covering the faults of others"
"Act like the soil in humiliyu and selflessness"
"Act like a dead one in anger and fury"
"Act in accordance with the way you act"
"Who ever has beauty, must know that it is borrowed"
"What is the benefit of gold?
What is the meaning of soul?
What are pearl and coral worth unless they are spent for the sake of love and sacrificed to a sweetheart?
Suplication and worship is to be with allah,
For someone who is with allah,
Death is pleasant as life"
" You may reach the highest station, Yet the fear of losing it will kill you"
" How beautiful it is to migrate away from a former land every day !
How lovely it is to perch on a different branch every day!
How nice it is a keep flowing uncontaminated, unfrozen .....! "
" All the words of yesterday vanished with the passing day, o my soul !
Now it is time to tell somthing new fresh"
Este jueves 30 de octubre comenzamos el ciclo de Talleres de Teatro y Reflexión Creativa del Proyecto Jóvenes Refugiados en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires: Una mirada desde adentro.
Este proyecto, de la Asociación Vientos del Sur, pretende ser un espacio de encuentro e intercambio que permita la autoorganización de jóvenes provenientes de diferentes países para facilitar su integración y el mejoramiento de sus condiciones de vida a través del conocimiento de sus derechos, el desarrollo de iniciativas propias y la valoración positiva de su identidad mediante el dialogo intercultural.
Participaron del encuentro unos 25 jóvenes de Sierra Leona, Costa de Marfil, Cabo Verde, Guinea, Bangladesh, Colombia, Inglaterra, Hungría, Alemania, República Dominicana, Senegal y, por supuesto, Argentina.
Fue un hermoso comienzo, con mucho entusiasmo y mucha entrega por parte de todas y todos.
En la foto, el afiche con el producto de la dinámica "El mar de las expectativas", donde quedó plasmado qué es lo que las y los participantes esperan de este espacio de encuentro, qué es lo que tienen para compartir y qué es lo que les preocupa.
Próximamente.... más novedades.
Un especial y enorme agradecimiento a todas las personas que generosamente están contribuyendo para que este sueño compartido sea una realidad =)
Afghanistan’s efforts to connect its businesses to new markets have earned a global award from the World Conference of Trade Promotion Organizations. Created in 2006, the Export Promotion Agency of Afghanistan has made tangible contributions to expanding exports despite the country’s widespread problems after decades of conflict.
“It means the world, literally, to be recognized after years of war,” said Suleman Fatimie, Chief Executive Officer of the Export Promotion Agency of Afghanistan. “This is a big step forward for Afghanistan and a big honour.”
Afghanistan’s exports rose 10% in 2007 over 2006, reflecting its growing economy. The Export
Promotion Agency has helped to cut red tape for exporters, such as helping them secure export permits quickly – a process that took over a week and 27 signatures now takes only a day and a few steps. They have also lobbied successfully to waive a 2% export tax, and convinced officials to stop collecting illegal export fees. They have facilitated over $12 million in contracts for Afghan’s exporters of fine hand-woven carpets as well as dried and fresh fruits, targeting trade fairs in China, Germany and the United States.
“It has been very exciting to work with these businesses,” he noted. “The award should be dedicated to our exporters – they deserve it more than us.” Currently the agency is working with 600 companies, and aims to service 5000 companies by 2015.
Afghanistan is coming out of 30 years of occupation and civil war and is one of the world’s poorest
countries. It is taking steps towards regional and global economic integration, using exports to ease
pressure on its balance of trade.
Because trade promotion organizations help to create jobs and income at home by assisting companies to expand internationally, they play an important role in their economies. In the world’s poorest countries, trade promotion bodies make a tangible contribution to reducing poverty and building global partnerships for development, contributing to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
The World Trade Promotion Organization Awards are sponsored by the International Trade Centre, the agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, whose mandate is to help small
exporters in developing countries. The Export Promotion Agency of Afghanistan was chosen as the best trade promotion organization from a least developed country for 2008.
By M K Bhadrakumar Asia Times Online October 15, 2008
An impression is being created that there is a "rift" between the United States and Britain regarding the reconciliation track involving the Taliban. The plain truth is that the US, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are in this murky game together.
The essence of the game is to make the "war on terror" in Afghanistan more efficient and cost-effective. Surely, it is official American thinking that there has to be some form of reconciliation with the Taliban. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates admitted as much last week. He said, "There has to be ultimately, and I'll underscore ultimately, reconciliation as part of the political outcome to this [war]. That's ultimately the exit strategy for all of us." (Emphasis added)
When you repeat a word thrice in five seconds, it does register. Gates suggested he wasn't hinting at all about an "exit strategy". Indeed, at an informal meeting of the defense ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) last week in Budapest, Hungary, the alliance visualized a long haul in Afghanistan.
Taliban reconciliation
Any reconciliation with the Taliban would essentially be in the nature of picking up the threads from October 2001 when the US invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban regime.
Taliban leader Mullah Omar promised at the 11th hour in those fateful days from his hideout in Kandahar via Pakistani intermediaries - that, yes, he would verifiably sequester his movement from al-Qaeda and ask Osama bin Laden to leave Afghan soil, provided the US acceded to his longstanding request to accord recognition to his regime in Kabul rather than engage it selectively. The US administration ignored the cleric's offer and instead pressed ahead with the plan to launch a "war on terror".
What we may expect in the period ahead is a deal whereby the "good" Taliban profess disengagement from al-Qaeda, which the US and its allies will graciously accept, and, in turn, the "good" Taliban won't insist on the withdrawal of Western forces as a pre-condition. The Saudis will ably lubricate such a deal.
The sheer "unaffordability" of an open-ended war in Afghanistan will influence thinking in Washington if the crisis in the US economy deepens. But we are still some way from that threshold. The war should be "affordable" if the new head of US Central Command, General David Petraeus, can somehow make it more "efficient", which is what he did in Iraq. Presently, American politicians only speak about robustly conducting the war.
They are nowhere near framing the fundamental issue: How central is the Afghan war to the global struggle against terrorism? The answer is crystal clear. Afghanistan has very little to do with the basic national interests of the United States. Political violence in Afghanistan is primarily rooted in local issues, and "warlordism" is an ancient trait. That is to say, the Taliban can be made part of the solution.
Ultimately, the objectives of nation-building and legitimate governance in an environment of overall security that allows economic activities and development can only be realized by accommodating native priorities and interests. Washington has been far too prescriptive, creating a US-style presidential system in Kabul and then controlling it.
But such a regime will never command respect among Afghans. Deploying more NATO troops or creating an Afghan army is not the answer. The international community has prudently chosen not to challenge the legitimacy of the Hamid Karzai regime, but there is a crisis of leadership. Inter-Afghan dialogue is urgently needed. The Afghans must be allowed to regenerate their traditional methods of contestation of power in their cultural context and to negotiate their cohabitation in their tribal context.
Again, the US has been proven wrong in believing that imperialism could trump nationalism. On the contrary, prolonged foreign occupation has triggered a backlash. The war should never have escalated beyond what it ought to have been - a low-intensity fratricidal strife, which has been a recurring feature of Afghan history. In other words, a solution to the conflict has to be primarily inter-Afghan, leading to a broad-based government free of foreign influence, where the international community can be a facilitator and guarantor.
Russia lashes out
But what clouds judgment is the geopolitics of the war. The war provided a context for the establishment of a US military presence in Central Asia; NATO's first-ever "out of area" operation; a turf which overlooks the two South Asian nuclear weapon states of India and Pakistan, Iran and China's restive Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; a useful toehold on a potential transportation route for Caspian energy bypassing Russia and Iran, etc. The situation around Iran; the US's "Great Central Asia" policy and containment strategy towards Russia; NATO's expansion - these have become added factors. Surely, geopolitical considerations lie embedded even within the current attempt to revive the Saudi mediatory role.
The interplay of these various geopolitical factors has made the war opaque. Major regional powers - Russia, Iran and India - do not see the US or NATO contemplating a pullout from Afghanistan in the foreseeable future. Tehran has been alleging that the US strategy in Afghanistan is essentially to perpetuate its military presence.
As a result, Russian statements regarding the US role in Afghanistan have become highly critical. Moscow seems to have assessed that the US-led war is getting nowhere and blame-game had begun. More important, Russia has began to pinpoint the US's "unilateralism" in Afghanistan.
In a major speech recently regarding European security at the World Policy Conference in Evian, France, President Dmitry Medvedev made a pointed reference, saying, "After the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the United States started a chapter of unilateral actions ..." He was making a point that the "United States' desire to consolidate its global role" is unrealizable in a multipolar world.
For the first time in the seven years of the war, the Russian foreign minister utilized the annual United Nations General Assembly forum to launch a broadside against the US, on September 27. Sergei Lavrov said:
"More and more questions are being raised as to what is going on in Afghanistan. First and foremost, what is the acceptable price for losses among civilians in the ongoing anti-terrorist operation? Who decides on criteria for determining the proportionality of the use of force?
These and other factors give reasons to believe that the anti-terrorism coalition is in the face of crisis. Looking at the core of the problem, it seems that this coalition lacks collective arrangements - ie equality among all its members in decision-making on the strategy and, especially, operational tactics. It so happens that in order to control a totally new situation as it evolved after 9/11, instead of the required genuine cooperative effort, including a joint analysis and coordination of practical steps, the mechanisms designed for a unipolar world started to be used, where all decisions were to be taken in a single center while the rest were merely to follow. The solidarity of the international community fostered on the wave of struggle against terrorism turned out to be somehow 'privatized'. "
These unusually sharp words underline the dissipation of the regional consensus over the war. Later, on September 28, at a press conference in the UN headquarters, Lavrov alleged that in a spirit of "prejudiced bias", the US was blocking the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization from helping to stabilize Afghanistan.
He also implied that the US vainly tried to block any reference to countering drug trafficking in the latest UN Security Council resolution on Afghanistan so as to deny Russia a role. He said, "Not quite full consideration is given to the assessments and the analyses of all members of the world community when making very important decisions which later tell on the situation of all."
A spat has since erupted over a UN-NATO cooperation agreement relating to the Afghan war allegedly signed "secretly" by a pliant secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and his NATO counterpart, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. on September 23 in New York. Russia has threatened to raise the matter in the UN Security Council. To quote Lavrov, "We [Russia] asked both [the UN and NATO] secretariats what this could mean and we are waiting for a reply, but we warned the UN leadership in the strictest fashion that things of this kind must be done without keeping secrets from member states and on the basis of powers and authority held by the secretariats."
Russian envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday that Moscow would consider the Ban-Scheffer agreement "illegitimate", and as merely reflecting Ban's "personal opinion". As can be expected, Ban is keeping mum, while Scheffer contested the Russian allegation. Indeed, cracks are appearing in the US-Russia understanding over the anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan. A turf war is ensuing - Washington is determined to exclude Russia from Afghanistan and Moscow insisting on its legitimate role.
Iranian posturing
Similarly, Tehran also has raised the ante on Afghanistan. After having supported the US intervention in Afghanistan in 2001, in the recent period several statements highly critical of the US-led war in Afghanistan have appeared, attributed to the Iranian leadership. The latest high-profile statement was the criticism by the chairman of the Expediency Council, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, at a meeting with the visiting former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, where he lamented that the "occupiers" who created "insecurity" in Afghanistan and Pakistan were now "unable to rein it in".
More ominously, Tehran has invited former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who led the anti-Taliban coalition (Northern Alliance) in the 1990s to visit Iran. Receiving him in Tehran on
Sunday, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, (Majlis) Ali Larijani, told Rabbani, "The situation in Afghanistan is sorrowful and regrettable." He said the presence of foreign forces is creating "insecurity" in the loss of innocent lives and is causing rampant drug-trafficking.
In another statement in the Majlis two days earlier, Larijani condemned the US attacks on the Pakistani tribal areas in Waziristan. This was the first time an Iranian leader specifically took exception to the US military operations inside Pakistani territory. He said Iran was concerned about the extent of the devastation and the death toll in Waziristan and that the US had exceeded the limits of the Geneva Convention in fighting terrorism. "Every single day, civilians are falling victim to the US-led fight against terrorism," he said, adding the US was "destroying" Waziristan under the "pretext of fighting terrorism".
Most significantly, Tehran has broken its silence on the US-British-Saudi efforts to negotiate reconciliation with the Taliban. This has come, curiously enough, in the form of a statement by the powerful chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Broujerdi. Long-time observers of the Afghan scene would recognize Broujerdi as the principal designer and architect of the Northern Alliance and a key strategist of the anti-Taliban resistance in the 1996-98 period.
Conceivably, Tehran has dropped a meaningful hint by fielding Broujerdi to speak on the Western efforts to reconcile with the Taliban. Broujerdi firmly repudiated the recent US propaganda that Tehran was mellowing toward the Taliban. Talking to a visiting French parliamentary delegation led by Socialist leader Jean-Louis Bianco on Sunday, Broujerdi underlined Tehran's continued opposition to the Taliban. He sharply criticized the European countries for adopting a conciliatory attitude towards the Taliban. He counseled them that instead they ought to extend unequivocal support to the "popular government" in Kabul led by Karzai.
Broujerdi pointed out that the West's attitude and approach toward the Taliban, which is an extremist group, will "damage regional stability and security". He said the root problem is the continued presence of foreign forces and a settlement will be possible only with their withdrawal.
Broujerdi may have signaled that Iran will challenge and counter any Western attempt to invite the Saudis to return to the Afghan chessboard and to co-opt the Taliban so as to perpetuate the US and NATO military presence. We may deduce that the scheduling of Rabbani's visit to Tehran is intended to signal that Iran still has reserves of influence with the Northern Alliance groups, despite the US estimation that these anti-Taliban groups have been scattered or bought over by Western intelligence.
Rabbani seems to have risen to the occasion. He also lent his voice condemning the continued presence of foreign forces on Afghan soil. "At first, they [Western forces] entered Afghanistan with the slogan that they would establish security and fight terrorism and drugs, but now Afghans are witnessing an escalation of terrorism and an increased production of narcotics," the inscrutable mujahideen leader told Larijani.
What was perplexing was Rabbani's remark, "The only solution to the Afghan crisis lies in the creation of unity among all national and jihadi [read mujahideen] forces in the country and the establishment of national reconciliation among all tribes without ethnic, tribal and religious prejudice." This was also the proclaimed political platform of the Northern Alliance. To be sure, Iran will oppose any ploy by US and British intelligence to resurrect the paradigm of the 1990s to put the Taliban in power so as to "pacify" Afghanistan and to create a modicum of stability necessary for the development of transportation routes for Caspian energy.
At a time when the fabulous Kashagan oil fields in Kazakhstan are expected to come on stream in 2013, when Washington hopes to reverse the tide of Russia-Turkmenistan energy cooperation, when volatility in the southern Caucasus impedes the advancement of new trans-Caspian pipelines, then, Afghanistan bounces back as the most realistic and viable evacuation route for Caspian energy bypassing Russia and Iran - provided the ground situation could be stabilized and security provided which investors and oil companies would find reassuring.
Indian dilemma
Both Russia and Iran will be keenly watching how India, which was a soul mate in the late 1990s staunchly supporting the anti-Taliban alliance, reacts to the current US-British-Saudi move. Indian leaders never tired of underscoring that there was nothing called "good Taliban" and "bad Taliban". That was up until a year ago. However, there is bound to be uneasiness in both Moscow and Tehran as to where exactly Delhi stands at the present juncture in the geopolitics of the region.
One thing is clear: a US-sponsored oil/gas pipeline via Afghanistan suits India, though that may undercut Russia and Iran in the energy sweepstakes.
From all accounts, discussions were going on between the security establishments of India and the US for the past several months regarding an Indian military involvement in Afghanistan. Washington has been pressing for a major Indian role. A two-member Indian team, which visited Kabul in early September, claimed they were on a mission sponsored by the government to make an assessment of the layout for Indian military involvement. The team apparently held discussions with top American diplomats and military officials based in Kabul.
Evidently, Delhi was clueless regarding Saudi King Abdullah's secret mediation with the Taliban. This intelligence failure had to happen. Indian diplomats have been somewhat smug about the unprecedented influence they wielded with the Kabul regime, and as happens in heady times, they began blandly assuming the durability of the present Afghan setup.
They worked shoulder-to-shoulder with their US counterparts in Kabul and American thinking inevitably began coloring Delhi's perceptions. It seems the intellectual osmosis ultimately became one-sided. Under constant US encouragement, the inebriating idea of a major military role in Afghanistan and playing the "great game" crept into the Indian calculus. Delhi seems to have incrementally lost touch with the Afghan bazaar and ground realities.
The US-British-Saudi plan to accommodate the Taliban in the power structure in Kabul creates a dilemma for Indian policymakers. To do an about-turn and begin to distinguish "good" Taliban is ridiculous. It will be seen as kow-towing to the US and will be difficult to rationalize. The antipathy towards the Taliban runs deep in the Indian mindset, since no matter the actual character of the Taliban's "Islamism", a threat perception gained ground in Indian opinion regarding "Islamic terror" from Afghanistan. The Indian establishment unwittingly contributed to this by harping on the ubiquitous "foreign hand" in terrorist activities in India. A rollback of the thesis will take time.
Furthermore, India views that the Taliban as an instrument of policy for Pakistani intelligence and as detrimental to Indian regional security interests. All in all, Delhi will feel greatly relieved if the US abandons its plan to co-opt the "good" Taliban.
In the above scenario, both Tehran and Moscow will be looking forward to foreign minister-level consultations with Delhi in the coming weeks. Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to visit Tehran in early November. Again, in November, in the run-up to the year-end visit by President Dmitriy Medvedev to India, Lavrov and Prime Minister Vadimir Putin will have consultations in Delhi.
The geopolitical reality, however, is that all three countries have transformed in recent years and their foreign policy priorities and orientations have also changed. They relate today to US hegemony in Afghanistan from dissimilar perspectives of national interests.
Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.
An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem Science has with God, The Almighty.
He asks one of his new students to stand and.....
Prof: So you believe in God?
Student: Absolutely, sir.
Prof: Is God good?
Student: Sure.
Prof: Is God all-powerful?
Student: Yes.
Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him.
Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn't. How is this God good then? Hmm? (Student is silent.)
Prof: You can't answer, can you? Let's start again, young fellow. Is God good?
Student: Yes.
Prof: Is Satan good?
Student: No.
Prof: Where does Satan come from?
Student: From...God.. .
Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?
Student: Yes.
Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct?
Student: Yes.
Prof: So who created evil?
(Student does not answer.)
Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they?
Student: Yes, sir.
Prof: So, who created them?
(Student has no answer.)
Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever seen God?
Student: No, sir.
Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?
Student: No, sir.
Prof: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?
Student: No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.
Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?
Student: Yes.
Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?
Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.
Prof: Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science has.
Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?
Prof: Yes.
Student: And is there such a thing as cold?
Prof: Yes.
Student: No sir. There isn't.
(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)
Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat,
but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold.
Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.
(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)
Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?
Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?
Student: You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light....But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and its called darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness isn't.
If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?
Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?
Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.
Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?
Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure.
Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one.
To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?
Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.
Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)
Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavour, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?
(The class is in uproar.)
Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain?
(The class breaks out into laughter.)
Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir.
With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?
(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable. )
Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.
Student: That is it sir... The link between man & god is FAITH.
That is all that keeps things moving & alive....... ......... ..
For me human right is to discover the core of human life--love or the lack thereof. Whether poor or rich, uneducated or highly educated, belonging to this or that religion or nationality, a person's loneliness, longing, separation, fulfillment, happiness or simply being able to be peacefully alone.
Please read one of Rumi's most famous poems about the reed-flute:
Song of the Reed Flute:
Mathnawi, or Rhymed Couplet
This recording is of the first four lines of Rumi’s Mathnawi. This prologue is sometimes called “The Song of the Reed Flute,” and describes the origin of the soul’s love — its innate desire to return to the unity of its homeland, its place of origin.
In the mathnawi form, each half-verse rhymes, and the rhyme changes with each new verse. Because of this flexibility in rhyme, the mathnawi form was often used for longer, epic works — and for teaching works.
Dari (Persian) Text
bishnu az nay chun hikayat mikunad
az juda’iha shikayat mikunad
kaz nayistan ta mara bubridah’and
dar nafiram mard u zan nalidah’and
sinah khwaham sharhah sharhah az firaq
ta biguyam sharh-i dard-i ishtiyaq
har kasi ku dur mand az asl-i khwish
baz juyad ruzgar-i wasl-i khwish
English Translation
Listen to the reed flute,
its song of separation:
Ever since I was cut from the reed-bed,
men and women have moaned from my sound.
I need a heart torn by separation,
so you may understand the pain of love’s desire.
Whoever’s been taken from his home
always wishes to return.
All separations have the same tale, and Rumi, who likens himself to a flute cut from its source (you can call it God, happiness, home, peace, nature or simply the Beloved), takes us on a journey of love, longing, union and joy. This short poem indeed opens a window to the entire metaphysics of spiritual life.
Elsewhere, Mevlana Jalal-u-ddin Mohammad Balkhi-Rumi suggests:
In this earth
In this soil
In this pure field
Let us not plant any seeds
Other than seeds of compassion and love.
سردار محمد داود د لومړي ځل لپاره په افغانستان کې جمهوري نظام اعلان کړ .
د ١٣٥٢ کال د چنگاښ ٢٦ چې د ١٩٧٣ کال د جولاى د ١٧ سره برابره وه سردار محمد داود په افغانستان کې په يوې داسې پوځي کودتا لاس پورې کړ چې د خپل د تره د زوى محمد ظاهر ٤٠ کلنه پاچاهي يې راوپرځوله .
په دې کودتا کې لومړى د محمد ظاهر شاه زوم سردار عبدالولي کور چې هغه مهال يې د پوځ ټول واک په لاس کې و په نښه شو، او له هغه وروسته د افغانستان راډيو تر بريد لاندې راغله او په ناڅاپي توگه د راډيو ورځنۍ عادي خپرونې په ټپه ودرېدې او د ملي سندرو او اتڼونو په خپرولو يې پيل وکړ .
دا هغه مهال و چې محمد ظاهر شاه د ايټاليې د ناپل په ټاپو کې خپله کلنۍ رخصتي تېروله، چې بيا لس ورځې وروسته يې له هماغه ځايه خپله استعفا وړاندې کړه .
سردار محمد داود د لومړي ځل لپاره په افغانستان کې جمهوري نظام اعلان کړ، خو تر څنگ يې د عظمى صدارت، او د دفاع او بهرنيو چارو د وزارتونو واگې يې هم په واک کې لرلې ، هغه په خپله کابينه کې حسن شرق ته د صدارت مرستيالي دنده وروسپارله او فيض محمد يې د کورنيو چارو د وزير په توگه ونوماوۀ، همدارنگه د نعمت الله پژواک، پاچاگل وفادار، سيد عبدالاله، عبدالرحيم نوين او غوث الدين فايق او ځينو نورو په گډون يې خپله کابينه اعلان کړه .
پخوانى شوروي اتحاد لومړنى هېواد و چې د سردار محمد داود رژيم يې په رسميت وپېژانده او هغه ته يې د انقلاب لقب ورکړ، سردار محمد داود له کودتا وروسته په خپله لومړنۍ راډيويي وينا کې خلکو ته زېرى ورکړ :
'' گرانو هېوادوالو! بايد تاسو ته ووايم چې نور پخوانى رژيم ړنگ شو او نوى رژيم چې هغه جمهوريت دى او د اسلام د غوښتنې سره برابر دى بري ته ورسېد .''
دا هغه مهال و چې محمد ظاهر شاه د ايټاليې د ناپل په ټاپو کې خپله کلنۍ رخصتي تېروله، چې بيا لس ورځې وروسته يې له هماغه ځايه خپله استعفا وړاندې کړه .
له لويه سره په افغانستان کې خلک د محمد داود او پخواني شوروي اتحاد راشه درشې ته په دې سترگه گوري چې په وينا يې هغه پخله کيڼ اړخى و، د خلق د ډيموکراتيک گوند غړى ببرک شينوارى هم دغه خبره مني ، خو دا مسئله هم پسې راغبرگوي چې د هېوادونو گاونډيتوب هم پر دې تودې راشه درشې خپل اغېز شيندلى و .
خو محمد داود ته نژدې پوځي افسر او د پرچم د گوند غړى نورالحق علومي وايي چې د سردار محمد داود د کودتا موخه د خلکو په ژوندانه کې د بنسټيزو بدلونونو راوستنه وه :
'' کله چې داود خان کودتا وکړه تر يوه حده هر سړى په دې پوهېده چې يو لړ بدلونونه راروان دي ، هغه پرېکړه چې سردار محمد داود کړې وه هغه دا وه چې هغه په افغانستان کې د پرمختگ او د خلکو ته د سوکالۍ هيله لرله ، هغه د صدارت پر مهال هم داسې پنځه کلن اقتصادي پلانونه جوړ کړي وه چې د افغانستان د پرمختگ زيرى يې له ځانه سره لاره، داسې هېواد چې تر هغه مهاله يې نه برېښنا لرله او نه يې په اقتصادي ډگر کې کوم پرمختگ کړى و، او د خلکو د ژوند کچه هم ډېره ټيټه وه ، نو ځکه خلکو د بدلون غوښتنه کوله او دغه شان بدلون ته يې په ښه سترگه کتل . ''
په افغانستان ډېر خلک داسې وايي چې د محمد داود په مشرۍ کودتا ته لا له ډېر پخوا نه يو شمېر روڼ اندي په دې تمه کې وه چې کله او څنگه به سلطنتي نظام ړنگيږي، د پخواني پاچا اوښى او د سردار محمد داود يو تن خپلوان همايون شاه اصفي وايي چې سردار داود يو زړور مشر و او موخه يې يوازې او يوازې خلکو ته خدمت و، ښاغلى اصفي په دې خبره هم ټينگار کوي چې سردار داود د سياسي نظريې له پلوه د محافظه کارسياست پلوى نه و .
د داود خان له کودتا وروسته د خلق د ډيموکراتيک گوند ځينو غړو چې په کودتا کې يې هم رغنده ونډه درلوده هڅه وکړه چې سوسياليستي حرکتونو ته په افغانستان کې لاره پرانيزي .
سردار محمد داود د جمهوري نظام له پيله داسې پروگرامونه تر لاس لاندې ونيول چې د ځينو خلکو په وينا د دغو پروگرامونو په پلي کولو سره د خلکو په ژوندانه کې يې د ژورو بدلونونو د راتگ زيري له ځانه سره لرل، خو دا چې د سردار محمد داود په پنځه کلنه دوره کې کومې لارې خپلې کړي او بېلابېلې ډلې د سردار محمد داود دغه پېر ته په کومه سترگه گوري د جميعت اسلامي د ډلې مشر برهان الدين رباني وايي چې د داود خان له کودتا وروسته د خلق د ډيموکراتيک گوند ځينو غړو چې په کودتا کې يې هم رغنده ونډه درلوده هڅه وکړه چې سوسياليستي حرکتونو ته په افغانستان کې لاره پرانيزي .
خو د سردار محمد داود په رژيم کې پخوانى وزير عزيزالله واصفي وايي چې د چنگاښ کودتا د همدغو کيڼ اړخو پوځيانو په ملاتړ ترسره شوې وه نو ځکه يې واک هم په حکومت کې څه نا څه ډېر و .
د داود خان پر مشرۍ تر کودتا وروسته په سيمه او نړۍ کې هېوادونه څک شول او ټولو په افغانستان کې روانې پېښې له نژدې څارلې، ايران د افغانستان د ولسمشر خپلولو ته مټې رابډوهلې، خو په همدغه مهال له لوېديځ سره د سردار محمد داود د نژدې والي څه نا څه نښې نښانې جوتېدې، خو د پاکستان د لومړي وزير ذوالفقار علي بوټو سره يې د پښتونستان په اړه اړيکي خورا ترينگلي شوي وه، په همدغه وخت کې د اسلامي گوندونو مشران چې محمد داود رژيم يې د ځان په اړه گواښ باله پېښور ته وکوچېدل ، د هغو کسانو په ډله کې يو هم د اسلامي جميعت مشر برهان الدين رباني و .
کريملين ته د رپوټ رسول
په هغه مهال د سردار محمد داود په کابينه کې هم داسې غړي وو چې د پېښېدونکو چارو ټول رپوټ به يې کريملين ته په خپل وخت سره رساوه .
همايون شاه اصفي
سردار محمد داود له بري نه وروسته د خلق له ډيموکراتيک گوند په تېره بيا د پرچم ډلې سره خپل اړيکي تاوده وساتل، خو د لږ څه وخت په تېرېدو سره د اړيکو دغه مزي په شلېدو شوه، پر همدغه وخت کې د محمد داود اړيکي د اسلامي نړۍ او لوېديځو هېوادونو سره مخ په تودېدو وه چې د پخواني شوروي اتحاد د مشرانو تر منځ يې اندېښنې مخ په ډېرېدو کړې، د خلق گوند د يو تن غړي هاشم وطنوال په وينا د مسکو او کابل تر منځ د اړيکو سړښت په تربگنۍ واوښت او مسکو په دې هڅه کې شو چې څنگه د سردار محمد داود د واکمنۍ ټغر ټول کړي .
خو دا د يو بل بدلون پيلامه وه، داسې يو بدلون چې له امله يې د داود خان او د هغه د کورنۍ د ژوند او مرگ برخليک ورسره تړلى و، د يوې بلې کودتا څرک له همدې وروسته په لگېدو و ، خو ايا سردار محمد داود په دې پوه و چې د هغه د رژيم د ړنگولو لپاره هڅې روانې دي ؟ همايون شاه اصفي وايي چې په هغه مهال د سردار محمد داود په کابينه کې هم داسې غړي وو چې د پېښېدونکو چارو ټول رپوټ به يې کريملين ته په خپل وخت سره رساوه .
خو دا چې د کابل او مسکو تر منځ راټوکيدلي کړکېچ څه ډول يوې بلې خونړۍ کودتا ته لاره پرانيستله ، او د دغې کودتا اصلي څېرې او سټې کومې وې، زموږ په راتلونکې خپرونه کې به درته روښانه شي .
