Catégorie : World People

Linked to our presentations of Baharistan-i-Shahi – A Chronical of Mediaeval Kashmirby, and also of Books and articles of K.N.Pandita.

Born in Baramulla in 1929 in an ordinary Kashmiri Pandit family, Kashinath Pandita did graduation from St. Joseph’s College in Arts with English literature. The tribal raid of October 1947 destroyed his family like hundreds of other Pandit families in Baramulla.

After doing M.A. from Punjab University, he served as Lecturer in State Degree Colleges and in 1958 earned a scholarship from the Indian Ministry of Education for higher studies at the University of Teheran, Iran. Four years of study and research at the University of Teheran earned him a Ph.D. in Iranian Studies meaning history and civilization of Farsi speaking peoples.

He joined Kashmir University in 1963 and it’s Centre of Central Asian Studies in 1976. He rose to become Professor and Director of this Centre till his superannuation in 1987.

Kashi Nath Pandita – India

He is not only the first Kashmiri to obtain Ph.D. from Teheran University but is also the first to have worked in close collaboration with a number of Central Asian Academies of Science particularly the Tajik Academy. From 19976 till present day, he has been visiting and interacting with Central Asian academic community almost every year or two. His travelogue titled My Tajik Friends won him Sovietland Nehru Award 1987. This work has been translated in to Russian by the Tajik Academy and is considered a valuable contribution to Indo-Tajik friendship.

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Linked with our presentation of Cruel to be kind?.

He said: « It’s a very scary time. I think there was a lot of reason to be afraid that the post – Cold War world, the world of globalized, multinational capitalism, was going to be a lot less democratic anyway than what preceded it. And with terrorism, it seems to me the risk has now been ratcheted-up ».

He said also: « What’s happened is both on the right and the left has been a revival of this millenarian fantasy of American omnipotence. The human rights and humanitarian left thinks the United States can right all the wrongs in the world. And the hard Wilsonians, the right neoconservatives, think the United States can remake the world in its own image. Both of these things seem to me to fly in the face of history and reason. The United States is a great power, but no great power is omnipotent. That’s, again, why the human rights left scares me as much, if not more, than the Bush administration ». (Both on March 11, 2003 during the berkeley interview).

David Rieff – USA

He says about his book « Humanitarianism, the Human Rights Movement, and U.S. Foreign Policy »: … Humanitarian fills, as it were, an idealistic vacuum. Although it comes to prominence in the late sixties with the Biafran war, it really becomes an important idea in the eighties … In Europe, the great modern humanitarian movements — Doctors without Borders, Oxfam, and the like — are largely left-wing movements … and they are disenchanted. They are people who read Hannah Arendt and Solzhenitsyn. They are people for whom the God failed.

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He is designing and writing philosophy courses, he chairs the Start Writing programme which consists of six short online writing courses, including courses on writing fiction, plays and poetry. He is best known for his introductory Philosophy books: Philosophy: The Basics, Thinking from A to Z, Philosophy: The Classics, Philosophy: Basic Readings, Freedom: An Introduction with Readings, and The Art Question. His main research area is the aesthetics of photography, which was the subject of his PhD thesis (Cambridge, 1989) and of a number of articles.

Nigel Warburton – England

Nigel Warburton joined the Open University in 1994. He is currently working part time. He has given talks on his research in aesthetics, photography and architecture, to audiences in a wide range of institutions including Tate Modern (where he regularly teaches courses on aesthetics), Tate Britain, the Barbican Art Gallery, The Victoria and Albert Museum (Bill Brandt Centenary Conference), the Architectural Association (Ernö Goldfinger Centenary Conference), Birmingham Library, The Photographers’ Gallery and the Goldfinger House, as well as to various university Philosophy departments. He also regularly speaks to conferences of A level Philosophy and Religious students. (Read more on this article on Open Academy).

Some of Nigel Warburton’s lectures in Philosophy at the Open University:

THE BASICS OF ESSAY WRITING ROUTLEDGE (20 Jun 06), Everything you need to know;

PHILOSOPHY: THE TEXTBOOK ROUTLEDGE (Del Jun 06), Destined to be the market leader for the next generation of philosophy students;

PHILOSOPHY: THE CLASSICS (3RD EDITION) ROUTLEDGE (1 May 06). At the Open University.

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Linked with the presentation of Statement by IBN WARRAQ on the World Trade Center Atrocity, and linked with the presentation of Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society, and the article When Ibn Warraq met Edward Said.

Linked also with My comment to a new fatwa, and with Democracy or Islamocracy, and with WAFA SULTAN.

Ibn Warraq says: « How can we expect immigrants to integrate into western society when they are at the same time being taught that the west is decadent, a den of iniquity, the source of all evil, racist, imperialist and to be despised? »

Ibn Warraq – another Muslim with a Fatwa – book see here on Amazon.com.

News on Ibn Warraq on April 2006:

See on FrontPage Magazine on April 18, 2006: An even more stringent critique is provided by the pseudonymous Ibn Warraq in ‘Why I Am Not a Muslim’, which was published in 1995, but has gained renewed attention since 9/11.[15] Raised as Muslim in a Muslim country, but now a secular humanist who admires John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Hayek, Warraq wrote this book (its title inspired, of course, by Bertrand Russells ‘Why I Am Not a Christian’) in response to the 1989 Salman Rushdie fatwa. « It is rare in one’s life, » Warraq writes, « that one has an opportunity to show on what side of an important life and death issue one stands -the Rushdie issue and the rise of Islam are two such issues and this book is my stand. » He does not pull punches: « The horrendous behavior toward women, non-Muslims, heretics, and slaves manifested in Islamic civilization was a direct consequence of the principles laid down in the Koran and developed by the Islamic jurists. Islamic law is a totalitarian theoretical construct, intended to control every aspect of an individual’s life from birth to death. » He admits that the theory has not always been put into practice -that Islamic culture, in other words, has often been less severe than the Koran prescribes -but adds that sometimes, as in the case of female circumcision, it has been more severe. « What Esposito and all Western apologists of Islam are incapable of understanding, » Warraq insists, « is that Islam is a threat, and it is a threat to thousands of Muslims. »

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Linked with our presentation on The Word in Times of Crisis.

And linked with our presentation The Andalus Publishing House.

Yael Lerer publishes Arabic literature in Hebrew. Youssef Hidjazi spoke with the young Israeli about her interest in authors like Mahmoud Darwish, Mohamed Choukri and Huda Barakat, and about the difficulties she confronts as a publisher of Arabic literature in Israel. (See on Quantara.de).

Yael Lerer – Israel

She says: I learned Arabic ten years ago for political and ideological reasons, and I consider myself very lucky – it allows me to read Arabic literature and gives me special insights into Arab culture. Because of this personal experience, I decided to let others share this privilege. Once I began studying Arabic, I learned more than I had originally planned; I discovered my interest in Arabic literature and poetry and realized how foreign Arab culture had been to me before that. Even though I have had Arab friends, colleagues and comrades-in-arms for years. Four years ago I began building up a new publishing house, Al-Andalus, to publish Hebrew translations of Arabic literature. My original approach was cultural, through literature; I did not become politically active until later on. After five years working in the Israeli Parliament every day for Dr. Azmi Bishara, I simply couldn’t stand the work any more and decided to give it up. The Arab members of the Israeli Parliament are confronted with Israeli racism on a daily basis, and I found that impossible to take. (See a very long interview, conducted by Youssef Hijazi, translation from German by Isabel Coleon, with © at Qantara 2004, on Quantara.de).

Excerpt: … Yael Lerer, editor of the Andalus publishing house, Osnat Trabelsi and Prof. Avi Oz are doing all they can to contribute to the success of the project, … about creating ‘The Freedom Theater’, Mrch 5, 2006 … (go to The Freedom Theatre).

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Ghada Jamshir says: « Brother T., this kind of marriage, this kind of behavior, diminishes the woman’s honor as a human being. » (See on Smooth Stone).

Admirers have written concerning Ghada Jamshir: « She is one feisty woman, and for some orthodox males, such forcefulness is itself a crime against ‘submission,’ so cherished in Islam. Her style is firm, aggressive, no-nonsense. This amazing woman who refuses to wear a veil, condemns lack of family planning, Sharia courts, and accuses the categorizations of ‘Islamic’ marriage as oppressive to women. « Ms. Jamshir is not a lady to be messed with, and she has nothing but contempt and derision for her critics. If only there were more like her in the Arab world », ones said. (Read the rest of this article on The Americn Daily, Phoenix).

Ghada Jamshir – Bahrain

Excerpts: Ghada Jamshir is a Bahraini Women’s Rights Activist. She is a Muslim reformer and an ardent campaigner against the child molestation and perversion with infants which is sanctioned in Islam. Ghada Jamshir heads a women’s committee lobbying for a law that would shift jurisdiction over family and women’s affairs from Islamic Sharia court to civil courts. She has been charged with publicly defaming the Islamic judiciary court but the charge was dropped … for some orthodox males, such forcefulness is itself a crime against ‘submission,’ so cherished in Islam … if only there were more like her in the Arab world. » Read the rest on wikipedia).

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Linked with our presentation of The Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Economic Globalisation.

And linked with our presentation of Economic Globalization and the Environment.

Jason Morrison is director of the Pacific Institute’s Economic Globalization and the Environment Program, where he is currently studying private sector environmental initiatives, performance-based regulatory innovation, and voluntary international standards.

Jason Morrison – USA

Since 1997, Mr. Morrison has focused on the international environmental management standards – ISO 14000. He is a member of the US Technical Advisory Group to ISO Technical Committee 207 (the body that develops the ISO 14000 standards), as well as a U.S. delegate to TC 207 on standards pertaining to ecolabeling and environmental communications. He currently serves as Chair of the ISO/TC 207 NGO Task Group.

Mr. Morrison has also been investigating the emerging use of Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) in public policy. He is a board member of the Multi-State Working Group on EMSs (MSWG), a coalition of state and federal agencies investigating the role of EMSs in performance-based regulatory innovation. He sits on the EMS Advisory Council for NSF International Strategic Registrations, Ltd. and is an Advisory Committee member of the National Biosolids Partnership EMS Initiative. Mr. Morrison holds a Master’s Degree from Boston University’s Center for Energy and Environmental Studies and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego. In 1994, Mr. Morrison was a fellow with the Americans and World Affairs Fellowship Program in Berkeley, California.

In addition to working on issues relating to international environmental standards and regulatory innovation, Mr. Morrison has conducted research on the sustainable management of freshwater resources and water planning in the southwestern U.S. His past research includes work on restoration of the Salton Sea in California and binational water management in the Colorado River border region. (Read more on his website on the Pacific Institute).

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Linkedwith our presentation of The role of Culture in Areas of Conflict.

He writes on April 1, 1998: We need to work out a kind of art that breaks down stereotypes. He believes that the two religious extremes in Israel and Palestine are incapable of outlining the future, since the fundamentalist forces threaten the very existence of the people. He dies on April 4, 2003 in his home in Ramallah.

Izzat GHAZZAWI – Palestinian

He was born and raised on the West Bank. In 1948 Mr. Ghazzawi’s family fled to the West bank. Three years later Izzat was born into the already large family consisting of his mother and father and ten brothers and sisters. At the age of 13, Izzat Ghazzawi wrote his first play. It was a short play about a loaf of bread that was rolling in the streets. Everybody tried to catch it but nobody succeeded. He says: « you can’t choose to become a writer it is a feeling inside yourself ». In 1971 Ghazzawi graduated from the University of Amman with an MA degree in English Literature and he lectures at Beirut University. (Read more on klys.se).

BIOGRAPHY – 1951 December 4: Born in Dayr al-Ghusoun, to refugee parents. 1974: Graduates from University of Jordan with a BA in American-British literature. 1982: Graduates from University of South Dakota, USA with MA in American-British literature. Starts working as lecturer at Bir Zeit University in Palestine (at this time: Jordan, but under Israeli occupation). 1989 February: Imprisoned for political activity, in the Ashkelon prison, Beer Sheva, Israel. 1991 May: Released from prison. 1993: His son Rami is shot dead, while participating in the Intifada. 1994: Receives the International Prize for Freedom of expression in Stavanger, Norway. 1995: Is elected president of the Palestinian Writers Union. 2003 April 4: Dies in his home in Ramallah.

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Linked with the presentations of The Suffering Palestinian Women Undergo Every Day, and of opposing, challenging and resisting 37 years of occupation.

Dr. Nurit Peled-Elhanan is the mother of Smadar Elhanan, 13 years old when killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem in September 1997. She writes: I have never experienced the suffering Palestinian women undergo every day, every hour, I don’t know the kind of violence that turns a woman’s life into constant hell. This daily physical and mental torture of women who are deprived of their basic human rights and needs of privacy and dignity, women whose homes are broken into at any moment of day and night, who are ordered at a gun-point to strip naked in front of strangers and their own children, whose houses are demolished, who are deprived of their livelihood and of any normal family life. This is not part of my personal ordeal. But I am a victim of violence against women insofar as violence against children is actually violence against mothers. (See on peacepalestine).

Nurit Peled – Israel

She writes: I have never experienced the suffering Palestinian women undergo every day, every hour, I don’t know the kind of violence that turns a woman’s life into constant hell. This daily physical and mental torture of women who are deprived of their basic human rights and needs of privacy and dignity, women whose homes are broken into at any moment of day and night, who are ordered at a gun-point to strip naked in front of strangers and their own children, whose houses are demolished, who are deprived of their livelihood and of any normal family life. This is not part of my personal ordeal. But I am a victim of violence against women insofar as violence against children is actually violence against mothers.

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In addition to being one of Pakistan’s most respected architects and an advocate for preservation of historical sites, Yasmeen Lari has the distinction of being Pakistan’s first woman architect. After retiring from a career in architecture which spanned over thirty-five years, these days she is devoting her time to writing and serving as an advisor to UNESCO project, Conservation and Preservation of Lahore Fort. She is also the executive director of Heritage Foundation and the Chairperson of Karavan Initiatives, both are organizations devoted to historic preservation. (See more on Women of Pakistan).

Yasmeen Lari – Pakistan

One of the first Pakistani women architects, Yasmeen Lari is instilling a sense of civic pride and national unity by promoting awareness of cultural heritage and conservation of cultural assets among a population divided on ethnic, religious, class, and political lines in Karachi and other cities in Pakistan. Through a carefully orchestrated cultural campaign of street festivals and other educational activities, Yasmeen brings together citizens to reclaim their urban spaces and participate in activities that enable citizens and government organizations to demonstrate pride and a strong sense of belonging to their common home.

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