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03/23/2009 - 11:50 p.m. CST -- by Readers Write 
Ahmad Saud Basal is an eleven-year-old boy from Tuffah, a village in the middle of Gaza. He lives in a two room house along with five brothers and sisters, his parents and a grandmother. Times are tough, much harder than before. The 2 year-long siege of Gaza has been devastating, and its effects will continue to take a toll. Education; health care; transportation; the economy: every aspect of a normal society lies in ruins, the result of a campaign of collective punishment carried out in disregard not only of international human rights law but also the underlying values of every major religion. Ahmad and his family aren’t starving. This isn’t Somalia. Gaza was never the so-called “Third World.” But hierarchies of suffering miss the point. Compared to before, when factories were open, when farms could bring their products to market, when students could study at night by electricity rather than by candles, life today has grown desperate. Unemployment has hit 80%. Skyrocketing prices for basic necessities-food, clothes, medicines-force people to survive hand to mouth. In such an economic crisis, parents-however reluctantly- must enlist their children as wage earners. Beginning early each morning, Ahmad and his ten-year sister, Hadia, go to work with their father. The three of them sell tea in the street. For an eight hour day, each of the children earns between 6-10 shekels ($2-$3.50). Added to what their father makes, the family brings in $12 dollars a day, not much when meat cost $15 a kilo and fruit, which Ahmad hasn’t tasted in a year, $3 a kilo. UNWRA food packages help but the rations, given out four times a year, are basic: 30 kilos of flour; 5 kilos of rice; 5 kilos of sugar; 3 kilos of lentils, 6 litres of oil; and sometimes, 5 250 gram cans of sardines. For a family of eight, this doesn’t go far. Children like Ahmad represent the germ seed for the future. It is true that Palestinians have honed a collective resilience in the face o... [Read More] |
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09/24/2008 -- by Readers Write
Muslim Youths Muslim youths are angry, frustrated and extremist because they have been mis-educated and de-educated by the British schooling. Muslim children are confused because they are being educated in a wrong place at a wrong time in state schools with non-Muslim monolingual teachers. They face lots of problems of growing up in two distinctive cultural traditions and value systems, which may come into conflict over issues such as the role of women in the society, and adherence to religious and cultural traditions. The conflicting demands made by home and schools on behaviour, loyalties and obligations can be a source of psychological conflict and tension in Muslim youngsters. There are also the issues of racial prejudice and discrimination to deal with, in education and employment. They have been victim of racism and bullying in all walks of life. According to DCSF, 56% of Pakistanis and 54% of Bangladeshi children has been victims of bullies. The first wave of Muslim migrants were happy to send their children to state schools, thinking their children would get a much better education. Than little by little, the overt and covert discrimination in the system turned them off. There are fifteen areas where Muslim parents find themselves offended by state schools. The right to education in one’s own comfort zone is a fundamental and inalienable human right that should be available to all people irrespective of their ethnicity or religious background. Schools do not belong to state, they belong to parents. It is the parents’ choice to have faith schools for their children. Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers a... [Read More] |
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08/21/2008 - 5:39 p.m. CST -- by Readers Write
Elections in the USA and their "rhetoric" are not about what's good for the American people but about team sports. The two parties are like two teams. It is all about winning the match, and securing the spoils of office: and about keeping the sleeping dogs asleep. What wakes the dog is hunger and gasoline. The dogs don't need much food, but they do need plenty of cheap gas to run their pickups . For what perpose? Nothing really serious: a job is simply a source of "pocket money." Of late, this somnolent canine ( or, porcine) way of life is under threat. Most of these people are on "Food Stamps" and the price of gas is way too high! Their woes are traceable to the unbounded and apparently self-destructive greed of their masters, who at the same time have lost the ability to manage their economic affairs. Big problem! The dogs are becoming restive; and for the first time, the Dems ( the weaker team traditionally) are beginning to lead in the race to victory. Obama and the rest of them Dems, seek above all NOT to disturb this tenuous prospect of Victory, by bringing in unnecessary distractions such as Peace in the Middle East to the forefront. In this, they are united with their rivals ( represented by the WSJ.) The important thing is to get these dogs to the voting place and get them to pull the right lever. The problem of Peace (and Justice) in the Middle East is a part of the much bigger problem of what Jaques Barzun describes as "Decadence" - see his last book, "From Dawn to Decadence - 500 years of Western History". For all these years, Western Christianity ( the nominal religion of these dogs) has been about the literal interpretation of the Bible to s... [Read More] |
