Friday, October 06, 2006

for your children, from Fr Anil


“I have never lost my optimism. In seemingly darkest hours hope has burnt bright within me. I cannot kill the hope myself. I must say I cannot give an ocular demonstration to justify the hope. But there is no defeat in me.”
- Gandhiji, quoted by annony mouse below




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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://rockybalboa752001.blogspot.com/2006/10/some-more-on-guru.html

starbender said...

saby~ U are like a One man band.
Let's just leave it at 'Live and Let Live!'
;]

wwww said...

Hey man, do you miss me? I do! Just wanna let you know that I AM BACKKKKKKKKKKK!!

Anonymous said...

A lot has been said about how Gandhi and his principles are irrelevant in today’s context
Let me try and give my take on how to use Gandhi’s principles to tackle our current problem - Terrorism from Pakistan:

I would use four of his principles which I think are relevant:

Truth
Civil Disobedience (Satyagrah)
Non Violence
No defeatism


If we want the Government of Pakistan to do something about Terror camps in Pakistan then we could probably do the following:

Truth:
Use all possible methods to expose the truth to the world. We have done a lot of this already. Something that has led to Pakistan being declared a state that sponsors terror by the global community. Sanctions and tremendous diplomatic pressure has followed. But we need to do this relentlessly and with greater intensity and rigor

At the same time, we must direct our ire and action against the real enemy – Not the people of Pakistan, but against the Government/ Agencies in Pakistan. We know that there is a big difference between what our Government thinks/does in India vs what the people here believe/want. If it was not for a vigilant media and the freedom of speech we would have seen worse times.

Our enemy is not a religious community or the people of Pakistan. It’s the government and its agencies. And we must be true to that.


Civil disobedience:
This is the most important one of them all. Gandhi brought an Empire to its knees using this, and also ignited millions through this simple do-able call to action.

Terror, like any other activity, needs money. The sources of money to the terror camps are well known. We must, as people of a country that has suffered and part of a global community that is concerned boycott and reject goods and services from these economies.

It is a very tough call. For starters, all economic activity, whether it’s guised under cultural, sport or any other umbrella, with Pakistan has to stop. We cannot take a middle path of “Lets sports and politics not mix” simply because we cannot un-mix sports and economics. And Economics and politics are very nicely mixed.

Of course we will lose out. But it will make Pakistan and Pakistani Government bleed. There are several more ways to stifle the Government for money. I do not want to list all, but you get the drift.

Non-Violence:
And here, we need to put all our “Chanakya Niti” into place to put tremendous amounts of diplomatic pressure on Pakistan as a country leading to further sanctions. And at the same time, clean up our act in the Valley and in other places where the people have shaky confidence in the Indian Government and its motives. If we create an environment that is more conducive for all communities to co-exist, then the natural choice of peaceful existence comes into play…

No Defeatism::

I love this spirit in the Gandhian philosophy. He said:

“I have never lost my optimism. In seemingly darkest hours hope has burnt bright within me. I cannot kill the hope myself. I must say I cannot give an ocular demonstration to justify the hope. But there is no defeat in me.”

In the case of terror too, we must not give up. We will not give up. Its easy to say “Sabko maar do, bomb gira do, War ho jaye.. Aar ya paar”. The implications are much deeper and devastating.

A full scale war with any country will push back India by at least 20 years as an economy. I am sure the Government of Pakistan would love to see that happen. The question is, are we stupid enough to fall into that trap?

Some will find this idea simplistic, but I think that if we really apply ourselves a cogent and crisp policy can be made.

Sometimes the people have to lead the leaders. This is one of those times.

Yeh desh badlega, hum badlenge ise.

Anonymous said...

saby-- just 4 u--
go HERE
hahahahahaaaaa---- From Me 2 U..
;]

Jim said...

hizzy lived n loved 56 years on dis planet
i didnt find love at hizzy

but i found love in dis crazy B-L-to-tha-izzog world
i found beautiful thugz here

dont ever gizzy up on love
it took me 56 years ta find mah love

but i am glad i waited



HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

starbender said...

hahahaaaa.....
I thought the jive was hysterical...
;]