Things to ponder : 30 September 2011

Author and journalist George Monbiot has some good career advice:

“So my final piece of advice is this: when faced with the choice between engaging with reality or engaging with what Erich Fromm calls the “necrophiliac” world of wealth and power, choose life, whatever the apparent costs may be. Your peers might at first look down on you: poor Nina, she’s twenty-six and she still doesn’t own a car. But those who have put wealth and power above life are living in the world of death, in which the living put their tombstones – their framed certificates signifying acceptance to that world – upon their walls. Remember that even the editor of the Times, for all his income and prestige, is still a functionary, who must still take orders from his boss. He has less freedom than we do, and being the editor of the Times is as good as it gets.

You know you have only one life. You know it is a precious, extraordinary, unrepeatable thing: the product of billions of years of serendipity and evolution. So why waste it by handing it over to the living dead?”

– Tariq Jahan, whose son was killed during the UK riots in August, talks to The Independent about being inundated with letters of condolence from all over the world and continues to set an example for us all:

Despite everything that happened, he won’t accept politicians’ rhetoric that we live in a “broken society”. He speaks of the sense of unity that drew 35,000 people to Haroon’s funeral. “It was amazing,” he says. “It was beautiful. It made me respect the public even more. There are a lot more good people than there are bad people… but unfortunately the bad people find a way into our lives a lot easier.” (The Independent)

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Things to ponder : 19 August 2011

Last week I wrote about Tariq Jahan, who managed to speak with dignity and compassion after his son was killed in the UK riots, and this week 20,000 people attended a prayer event before the  funeral:

” Atif Iqbal, from the multi-faith group United Birmingham, said the number of people turning out to show their respects on Thursday would be testimony to the men’s honour.

“Tariq Jahan has become an inspiration for all of us because he really at that moment in time showed the best of humanity,” he said.

“He wasn’t angry, he wasn’t shouting, no bitterness, he was a calming, reassuring voice and single-handedly, there’s no doubt about it, he brought peace and calm to the streets not only of Winson Green and Birmingham, but he had a profound impact nationally as well.” (BBC)

– Christopher Hitchens offers his unique take on the riots : Britons have been violent and cruel for generations (Slate) ;

– more cheerfully the last ten years have seen fewer war deaths than any decade in the past 100 years, based on data from the Peace Research Institute in Oslo (Foreign Policy) ;

– which is good as although the human race took about one million years to reach one billion people (around the year 1800), we have been adding successive billions every 10-20 years since 1960 (Project Syndicate) ;

– in an ever-changing world “retweet’,  “sexting” and “cyberbullying” enter the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (The Daily Telegraph) ;

Have a good weekend.

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Things to ponder : 12 August 2011

The words of Tariq Jahan, who managed to speak with dignity and compassion after his  son was killed in the UK riots, are truly inspirational :

From The Guardian :

“Tariq Jahan, said he was nearby and rushed to help. “I ran towards the commotion and the first guy I found was someone I didn’t know. I started giving him CPR until someone pointed out that the guy behind me was my son on the floor,” he said.

“So I started CPR on my own son, my face was covered in blood, my hands were covered in blood. Why, why?

“He was trying to help his community and he has been killed.” Describing his son, a mechanic and keen boxer, as “a very well-liked kid”, he said: “I can’t describe to anybody what it feels like to lose a son. He was the youngest of three, and anything I ever wanted done, I would always ask Haroon to sort it out for me.

“A day from now, maybe two days from now, the whole world will forget and nobody will care.”

In a message to the local community, he implored: “Today we stand here to plead with all the youth to remain calm, for our communities to stand united.

“This is not a race issue. The family has received messages of sympathy and support from all parts of society.”

Visibly emotional, Jahan added: “I lost my son. Blacks, Asians, whites – we all live in the same community. Why do we have to kill one another? Why are we doing this? Step forward if you want to lose your sons. Otherwise, calm down and go home – please.” “

– Amid all the bad news, Tariq Jahan made me proud to be British (Daniel Hannan in The Daily Telegraph) ;

– Matthew Taylor in The Guardian :

It seemed that these words had struck a chord. Following a moving candle-lit vigil on the petrol forecourt, those that had gathered after final prayers followed Jahan’s lead.

There was quiet anger – at the police and those that had been responsible for the rioting – and a deep sadness. But there was also a determination that they would act “nobly”, that they would stand together and show that there was a way through this that did not involve revenge or violence.

– Tariq Jahan’s is the patriotic voice of a first-generation Muslim migrant (Faisal Hanif in The Guardian)

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