by B. R. GOWANI
This eight-year-old girl died on February 14, 2009, as a result of US drone strike. The rocket was fired at a neighboring home at three a.m. in Makeen, South Waziristan, Pakistan, according to Noor Behran, who arrived at the site some six hours later. PHOTO/Noor Behram/Spiegel Online
Too many things are happening too fast here on earth, and there is too short a day to ponder them. We need to be on Venus, where the days are quite long, 243 Earth days, to be precise. This will give us more time to contemplate. But then the fast pace of advancing technology may not let the luxury of the long day last because it will catch up.
Ryan, how come 3 beans only?
A 10mm embryo from an ectopic pregnancy, not having passed through in the oviduct (fallopian tube) successfully. This embryo is about five weeks old (or from the 7th week of pregnancy). IMAGE/Wikipedia
During the vice presidential debate, when Martha Raddatz asked both candidates on their view about abortion, the Republican Party candidate Paul Ryan defended his anti-abortion stance by stating a personal story. When his wife was seven-weeks pregnant, they had gone for an ultrasound test. The image in the test resembled a “bean” and so they nicknamed that child, Liza, as “Bean.” Ryan believes that “life begins at conception” and is vehemently against abortion. (Ryan and his Democratic Party opponent Vice President Joe Biden are both Catholic Christians.)
Respect for life is a noble thing and if you want and can afford them, then you can produce as many beans as you want. However, there is a difference between an embryo/fetus and a human being, whether newly born or not. (On abortion, check out a good article by Kenan Malik, which is his response to British journalist Mehdi Hasan.)
Women should try to avoid unwanted pregnancies. But this is not always possible. And because it is the woman who is going to carry that embryo for nine months and will have to go through all the social, economic, and emotional problems associated with pregnancy, it should be her prerogative to decide whether to continue with it or to terminate it.
Now if the so called “pro-life” Republicans were to guarantee a decent life with good education and healthcare, there may be many women who wouldn’t have abortions. What happens instead is Republicans give these women lectures on “responsibility.”
Now a few questions for Ryan:
1. How come you produced three beans only?
2. Was it because the reproductive cells lost their fertility or
did you commit a sin by indulging in murdering the potential children by suffocating them in contraceptive balloons and interfering with God’s plan to overflow this planet with unlimited people?
3. You love life so much and yet you want the crippling sanctions on Iran to continue, why?
4. You worry about the unborn life, but have never opposed the
drone strikes on Pakistan, which have killed many civilians why?
A word of advice for Hina Rabbani Khar
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar at the airport in New Delhi, India in July 2011. PHOTO/IBN Live
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, while declaring Malala Yousufzai (the fourteen year old girl who was shot at point blank range by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan for advocating education for girls, who is now being treated in England), as her “hero,” she proclaimed that the Taliban are not following true Islam.
“What is clear is that, first of all, they (Taliban) do us all a favour because they reveal that they follow no Islam. Because the teachings of Islam—what the Prophet Mohammed taught us, what the Quran preaches—are the opposite of what they did. What they have done is, in a very stark manner, dissociated themselves (from Islam)….”
This is the most dangerous pitfall politicians fall into; when they use religion to counter the religious extremists instead of arguing with secular facts.
Here is an example of religious ambiguity arguable to suit viewpoints:
The moderate Muslims can quote the following saying of Muhammad to show the respect Islam accords to women:
The Prophet said: “Be at your mother’s feet and there is the Paradise.” (Ibn Majah, Sunan, Hadith no. 2771)
On the other hand, there is enough material in Qur’an and sayings of the Prophet that the extremists will quickly cite to defend their actions. They can use the following saying to control women.
The Prophet said: “I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers were women who were ungrateful.” It was asked, “Do they disbelieve in Allah?” (or are they ungrateful to Allah?) He replied, “They are ungrateful to their husbands and are ungrateful for the favors and the good (charitable deeds) done to them. If you have always been good (benevolent) to one of them and then she sees something in you (not of her liking), she will say, ‘I have never received any good from you.” (Bukhari, vol. 1, book 2, number 29)
Khar should have defended Malala by arguing that all women, like men, are equal citizens of this country. Malala has every right to get education and to promote education for women. We can’t look backward. Those were different times. We’re living in the 21st Century and have to look forward in order to progress, and provide a better life for everyone.
Another teenage girl Hina Khan is also the target of Taliban ire for supporting education for girls.
Khar herself has been targeted by a Bangladeshi cleric for her alleged affair with Bilawal Bhutto, the Chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party, and the son of late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and current President Asif Zardari. The story first appeared in a Bangladeshi tabloid, Blitz. PPP claims, it’s the handiwork of Pakistan’s military intelligence agency ISI who may be behind this allegation. The media in Pakistan and India has reported this and other allegations against Khar and Bhutto by citing only Blitz. Then there is this notorious Bangladeshi cleric Mufti Fazlul Huq Amini who has recommended stoning or whipping if the allegations are true.
One wonders, why on earth, would a tabloid in Bangladesh spread a story against Pakistanis; and a cleric in Bangladesh would issue a fatwa against them! Even if the story is true, it is no one’s business but that of Khar and Bhutto only.
RomneyWorld and women
The Taliban believe that women’s place is within the chAr diwAri or four walls, that is, home. The Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, instead of restricting women to the four walls of the home, consigns them to the “binders.” Or maybe, like many Muslims who dream of houris in heaven, Romney fantasizes about beauties in binders.
Alexander Cockburn used to remind us that Romney’s religious beliefs should be openly discussed because he is a presidential candidate. On his part, he interviewed an ex-Mormon and Counterpunch’s business manager Becky Grant who said, “I’ve never met a Mormon man who has any real respect for women.”
During the second debate, when President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were asked about equal pay for men and women, Obama pointed out that the first bill he signed after becoming president was Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Romney dodged the question and instead talked about flexible hours for women at work places so that they can have time to prepare dinner for the family.
In the mid 1980s, Peggy Hayes, a single mother, was expecting her second child. Romney was her bishop who asked her to give up her child to the church’s adoption agency or face an excommunication.
In another instance, in the Fall of 1990, a mother of five got pregnant again but developed some complications. The doctors told her that they can deliver a full-term baby but there is some risk to her life. Also, the chance of a survival of the new-born baby would be 50%. She wanted to go for an abortion. Her bishop was Romney too. He told her, “As your bishop,” “my concern is with the child.”
Romney’s defense: “I don’t have any memory of what she is referring to, although I certainly can’t say it could not have been me.”
When Romney was the CEO of Bain Capital, there were no female partners.
Sue Emmett, another ex-Mormon, points out:
“Mitt is a product not only of his wealth, but of an organization that gives men power when they are 12 years old.” “That is when boys are ordained with the priesthood. It is a big moment in a Mormon male’s childhood.”
The RomneyWorld basically shuns women, and so they shouldn’t expect much from him if he is the next occupant of the White House.
Commonality between Nehru-Gandhi and Bhutto dynasties
Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi, her daughter Priyanka Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi, and husband of Priyanka, Robert Vadra (between mother and daughter) attend a memorial ceremony for slain former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 19th death anniversary, in New Delhi. PHOTO/AFP/Hindustan Times
Jawaharlal Nehru was India’s first Prime Minister.
Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto was the princely state Junaghad’s Prime Minister.
Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister.
Bhutto’s son Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was Pakistan’s President and, later, Prime Minister.
Indira was assassinated by her body guards.
Z. A. was hanged to death by a US supported military dictator.
Indira’s son Rajiv was Prime Minister.
Z. A.’s daughter Benazir was Prime Minister.
Rajiv was assassinated.
Benazir was assassinated.
Rajiv’s brother died in a plane crash.
Benazir’s two brothers were murdered.
Rajiv’s widow could have become the prime minister but the Hindutva BJP, a communalist party, objected to her Italian origins, even though she is an Indian citizen. So Manmohan Singh was chosen as the Prime Minister. However, the real power lies with Sonia. She’s also the President of the Congress Party.
Benazir’s widower Asif Ali Zardari is the current President.
Rajiv’s and Sonia’s son Rahul is being prepared for the post of prime minister.
Benazir’s and Zardari’s son Bilawal is getting ready for the same post in Pakistan.
But there is one more similarity between the Bhutto family’s son-in-law and Gandhi family’s son-in-law, Zardari and Robert Vadra, husband of Sonia’s and Rajiv’s daughter Priyanka:
Zardari’s skill is legendary in money-making and corruption tactics. When Benazir was prime minister, twice, he was known as “Ten Percent,” that is how much he used to charge for issuing licenses. Now Wadra is in the news for making tons of money.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com