INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2011 - PART ONE

Here is my annual post.  Nothing has changed.  I am sick and tired of this.  What more can I say?
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There is a lovely little nursery rhyme that every child in the UK and Canada knows. I am not so sure about the children of India, so I reproduce it here:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!




As long as I have been expressing myself publicly (about 2 years 5 years in 2011), I
have said that the most dangerous enemy we Sikhs have is not the
Indian government, the Deras or even the Hindus. It is no force from
outside our own community. It is ourselves. We are fast destroying
ourselves through one particular practice. I have here a little poem
I wrote about that. It unites IWD and our self-destructive
tendencies.
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Tinkle, tinkle, little boy,
Bring your parents so much joy.
You're their diamond, you're their pearl,
They're so glad you aren't a girl.



Punjab practice straight from hell.
Very soon its evil tell.




You are looking for a wife,
Someone who will share your life.
Not a woman to be found,
Rotting foetus in the ground.


Guru's teaching has been taught,
But its meaning never sought.
Daughter is a gift from God,
Not a dead, decaying clod.


Without woman, there's no life,
No more children, no more wife.
Guru's teachings die off now,
Go and worship sacred cow.



Tinkle, tinkle, little boy,
Bring your parents so much joy.
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HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, 2008!!! 2009!!! 2010!!! 2011!!!




WHY TRY TO FIT IN?
YOU WERE BORN TO STAND OUT!

So Much Trouble In The World

Vaheguru! So much evil in the world! So much injustice! So much unnecessary pain, suffering, inhumanity! What is one human being to do? How many worthy causes are there out there in Maya? How can I pick and choose what to bellow and howl about.? Sikh things, Sikh causes, of course. But what constitutes a 'Sikh cause'? What injustice does not constitute a 'Sikh cause'? Picking and choosing is so very difficult!

I remember back in the 1960s a newspaper - maybe it still exists, I'm not sure - called The San Francisco Bay Guardian. On its masthead was the line, It is a newspaper's duty to print the truth and raise hell. Me, too. That is what I try to do. One voice. I hope with an added voice or two. I remember a poem:

Only we two

And yet our howling can encircle the world's end

Frightened, you are my only friend.

And, frightened, we are everyone.

Someone must take a stand.

Me, frightened? Of course not! Mai is never afraid! But sometimes she is. She wonders if she's gone just a little too far and someone, somewhere will find a way to silence her. But then she sigh a sigh of relief, remembering she is just one small voice among the billions on the planet. She really isn't afraid for herself. Her fear is for her dear Maman, Vini, in occupied Khalistan. The noble Vivi, however, with a wave of her hand, laughs and says, 'Carry on, daughter.' And so I do. But constantly I pray for her safety. I have begged her to return to Canada, but she insists that she will live - and die - in Khalistan, occupied or not. So let me salute our beloved Vini Kaur and print out one of her favourite marching songs - from the 1960s, Carry it on:

There's a man by my side walking
There's a voice within me talking,
There's a voice, within me saying,
Carry it on, carry it on.

They will tell their lying stories,
Send their dogs to bite our bodies,
They will lock us up in prison,
Carry it on, carry it on.

All their lies will be forgotten,
All their dogs lie dead and rotten,
All their prison walls be crumblin',
Carry it on, carry it on.

When you can't go on any longer,
Take the hand, hand of your sister and brother,
Every victory gonna bring another,
Carry it on, carry it on.

Carry on, carry it on.

Repeat 1st Verse

VINI SAYS:

POSITIVE THOUGHT + DEEP DETERMINATION + RESOLUTE ACTION

=

DESIRED RESULTS!

This post was supposed to be about torture at Guantanamo Bay, about how a death sentence is about to be passed out based on 'testimony' given under torture. That is terribly important, so, I suppose that will be a third post for today here.