[Reader-list] Words After Violence

[Aarti Sethi]

dear taraprakash,

there are many ways in which condemnations of terror can be offered. silence
is one of them. nor do i see why an expression of terrible pain and deep
sadness is morally less valuable than a 'condemnation'.

On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 11:08 PM, taraprakash <taraprakash at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think you forgot to offer an unequivocal condemnation of what happened.
> Thankfully not everyone will become speechless. It was henous,  gruesome,
> barbaric, inhuman. It deserves condemnation without any nuances. Those who
> can take some of the most powerful people of the world hostage, it won't be
> difficult at all for them to attack and take hostages in our schools,
> colleges, universities and other such institutions. Somebody needs to root
> out this evil that divides human beings and those people who  nurse such
> hateful feelings.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Lawrence Liang" <lawrence at altlawforum.org>
> To: "Sarai Reader-list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Sent: Friday, November 28, 2008 5:21 AM
> Subject: [Reader-list] Words After Violence
>
>
> > The madness of what has happened in Bombay leaves us speechless, even as
> > the
> > media din around evacuates words from their meaning.
> > So it only appropriate that we borrow words to remind us, int the midst
> of
> > death, what it means to live
> >
> > Lawrence
> >
> >
> >
> > On January 11, 1998, unidentified gunmen entered a movie theater
> > and a small mosque in Sidi Ahmed near Algiers and massacred
> > 120 men, women, and children at close range during Algeria's
> > ongoing civil conflict.
> >
> >
> > *Disbeliever
> >
> >
> > *By the limping of the people of Iraq
> > By the sound of frantic running in Qana, in Kosovo
> > By the men and boys of Hama massacred
> > By the swollen bodies in a river in Rwanda
> > and Afghani women and the writers of Algiers,
> > I am a disbeliever
> >
> > in everything that refuses to kiss
> > full on the lips the ones still living
> > and receive them into the bosom of the self,
> > no matter the religion or the nation or race
> > I am a disbeliever in everything
> > that does not say "How was the movie? I love you"
> >
> > I need a body outside my life that can travel and kneel
> > on the sidewalk beside a movie theater in Algiers
> > over the bodies of the supple children
> > who will never be my children's playmates or marry them
> > over the bodies of the men and the women
> > who will never write a letter,
> > will never phone me from Algiers:
> > "How was the movie? I love you. I love you."
> >
> > I need time outside this history
> > where I can whisper in the ear of each of them,
> > By God, you will never be forgotten
> > By God, I will make sure the world
> > buries its face in your beautiful hair,
> > sings to you, learns your name and your music,
> > lifts you up in the crook of its arm like a gift
> >
> > I am a disbeliever
> > in everything but the purity of the bodies
> > of the men and women--with or without the veil,
> > with or without the markings of the right identity--
> > in everything but the suppleness of children
> > I am a disbeliever in every scripture
> > in the world that leaves out
> > "How was the movie? I love you. I love you."
> >
> >
> > *Mohja Kahf
> > *
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