By Allison Gill, published in International Herald Tribune
MOSCOW:
In two years as a human rights researcher in Uzbekistan, one of the most repressive countries of Central Asia, I monitored dozens of unfair trials and documented every kind of due-process violation.
I never witnessed an acquittal - a reduced sentence or speedy amnesty was the best anyone could hope for. I interviewed hundreds of victims of horrific abuses. I also had the privilege of working with incredibly courageous and dedicated people: Uzbekistan's human rights defenders. I daily witnessed how the government interfered in their work, harassed them, threatened and beat them.
Since the massacre in the eastern city of Andijan in May 2005, when government forces killed hundreds of protesters, the government has maintained a brutal campaign against human rights activists. More than a dozen of my former colleagues are now behind bars, and at least a dozen more have fled the country.
Yet somehow none of this prepared me for the verdict against my dear friend and colleague, Umida Niazova, who was sentenced on May 1 to seven years' imprisonment on trumped-up charges. Umida, a journalist and human rights activist, also worked as a translator for Human Rights Watch in Tashkent, accompanying me and others to monitor trials and translate the proceedings from Uzbek to Russian.
In April, the Uzbek government charged Umida with illegal border crossing, smuggling and distributing material causing public disorder. The authorities say Umida "smuggled" her laptop into the country because she didn't declare it on her customs form, though she made no effort to conceal it - she put it through the customs X-ray machine. They say she distributed materials found on her laptop that are allegedly "extremist" and "fundamentalist" - including Human Rights Watch's report on the Andijan events.
Even witnesses for the prosecution testified that there was no evidence she had distributed them. But that made no impact on the court, which barred diplomats from the trial and forbade all present from taking notes.
Umida is in prison today because the Uzbek government refuses to tolerate scrutiny or accountability.
But she is also in prison because governments in the West have failed to push for tangible change. The European Union imposed limited sanctions on Uzbekistan following the Andijan killings, but it has not made the fate of Uzbekistan's imprisoned human rights defenders a precondition for easing the sanctions. That sent an unmistakable message to the Uzbek government.
Despite Umida's commitment to Uzbekistan, last fall she said she felt the pressure against her and her colleagues growing and worried about providing a safe home for her two-year-old son Elbek. We began to look for opportunities for her to work or study abroad. But we were too late.
It is not too late, however, for the European Union to pursue a principled strategy on Uzbekistan, a strategy that has at its core the lives of Uzbeks and its own principles, rather than political expediency.
On May 14, the Union is to decide whether to lift the targeted sanctions. Ahead of this decision, the Union has urged the Uzbek government to agree to a human rights dialogue, instead of demanding the release of people like Umida. But what kind of dialogue about human rights is plausible when the people who work in honor of those rights languish in prison?
This is not the time for mere dialogue. This is the time to save lives: Umida, Mutabar Tojjbaeva, Saidjahon Zainatbitdinov, Gulbahor Turaeva and the other human rights defenders were imprisoned for daring to work for a better future. Without their release, any dialogue would be meaningless and discredit the European Union as a promoter of human rights.
Allison Gill is the Moscow office director at Human Rights Watch and ran the Tashkent office from 2003 to 2005.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Maoist local leader brutally murdered
An unidentified group brutally murdered Maoist leader Girendra Yadav (Suman) near his residence at Halkhori village on Monday.
According to eyewitnesses, a gang of almost 35 who were milling about Yadav's house abruptly attacked him with home-made weapons as he headed towards a local marketplace on Monday morning.
According to eyewitnesses, a gang of almost 35 who were milling about Yadav's house abruptly attacked him with home-made weapons as he headed towards a local marketplace on Monday morning.
Protest against the military government in Yangon
Buddhist monks march on a street in protest against the military government in Yangon, Myanmar on Monday. As many as 100,000 anti-government protesters led by a phalanx of Buddhist monks marched Monday through Yangon, the largest crowd to demonstrate in Myanmar's biggest city since a 1988 pro-democracy uprising that was brutally crushed by the military.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Take a Example From Prashant Tamang
Every religion is same.He is Nepali.A true Nepali guy who does not hesitate to sing a blood heating song "Ghorkhae Laauri..Jitego chhau Sansar lai..," But take a look of our nepali politicians what they are doing at present ?
Take a example from him.Learn that he promotes his birthplace., He wants a well being for the humanity.He wants to help people. But What our politicians want ? Take a very good example from him., A single Nepali citizen is a brand ambassador of his country make your country proud.when the day comes it will give you a lot of pleasure and happiness.., But the day for progress in our country will come that is a big question...Because we are not in safe hands.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
सेव हिम
This child has nothing to do with politics,infrastructure,global economy.., he just wants a food to survive.
But who cares in this world. Imagine if you were him instead !
क्लिक ऎंड हेल्प
Your one click will help.
H=Happiness comes from people
E=Education can be given., people
L=Life can be saved by people
P=Please follow the idea.
Save those who are in need.Do not trust me., Trust yourself.,
If you will trust yourself., you will trust me.,
हेल्प वूमेन we अल are एकुअल
Why are these women crying ? why ? Is it because of violence., is it because of some disaster ? what have they lost will never come back again? what can you do for them ? you dont have time, money and space to give them.., you can still help them just follow the idea.
Help every human first.,
But still we hesitate. we dont want to see this because this has not happened to us. why should we bother about it.If you think like this. Thank you.
If you do not think like this then please contribute.
Thank you !!!
हेल्प थिस चाइल्ड
Any one who wants to help this starving child ?.If you are interested you can just visit this site and click here in the Ads generated by Google Inc., You may not be starving but 65% of child in Africa and South East Asia are starving everyday.This is very simple idea to help human.
If you do not agree then please feel free.
Thank you !
हेल्प पीपुल हेल्प उस हेल्प ह्यूमन !
Dear all,
This is not charity.This is not any organization. It is a simple way to help people.
You can help just by clicking on the Ads by Google... So Help. The choice is yours but do not give up because some one is in need for it and that some one is none other than a human being.
Thank you !
This is not charity.This is not any organization. It is a simple way to help people.
You can help just by clicking on the Ads by Google... So Help. The choice is yours but do not give up because some one is in need for it and that some one is none other than a human being.
Thank you !
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Let it go
We tend to cling to every object in our lives. We hold on to our profession, relationship or possession as if our entire world depends on them. We are so busy clinging to our own lives that we have forgotten to live with the flow. We are afraid to move ahead, afraid to let go.
Life in essence is like an uncontrolled flow of a river. Life flows at its own pace and the ultimate source of all our pain and sufferings is our tendency to cling to and obstruct the flow. Professional life stagnates, relationships are broken, possessions are lost; all because we refused to let go when we were actually required to let things take their own course.
Why do we cling? We cling because change scares us; we cling because we are afraid to face the unknown, to face challenges; we cling because we feel secure if the status quo is maintained; we cling because we refuse to believe that life can never be static; because we refuse to accept the transience of everything; we believe that everything is in our hands. We do not have enough faith in life and that higher force which is omnipotent and omnipresent. In the chaos of existence, we have lost touch with our higher self. Most of us lead a life which is similar to that of a child who is lost in a crowd, separated from his guardians. He has nobody to place his faith on. He is afraid, insecure, and suspicious about everyone and everything.
We live under the false illusion of having everything under our control. We are overwhelmed by a sense of despair and disillusion when things move beyond our control. It is at this stage we need to learn to let go. Several times relationships are broken just because we tried too hard to make them work.
Professionally or personally, once all the efforts are made towards achieving a goal, we must learn to let go and let life take the best course. It might or might not be of one's choice, but if we have faith, we will realize that it inevitably is the best course. We need to believe that forces above us are far better equipped to make judgments for us. We must learn to have faith in their judgment. Letting go, however, does not mean turning into a fatalist. One cannot sit idle in life and expect life to take care of itself. Karma, the fulfillment of one's duties is the ultimate objective of all human existence and if we fail to fulfill our duties towards life, life inevitably fails us.
When God gives us dreams, He shares them with us. Whatever we consider our dreams, are actually His dreams. The part we are required to play is to ensure the optimum usage of the capabilities bestowed upon us. And once we have played our part, we need to let go, step aside and let God step in to fulfill our dreams. After all, they are His dreams, too.
Life in essence is like an uncontrolled flow of a river. Life flows at its own pace and the ultimate source of all our pain and sufferings is our tendency to cling to and obstruct the flow. Professional life stagnates, relationships are broken, possessions are lost; all because we refused to let go when we were actually required to let things take their own course.
Why do we cling? We cling because change scares us; we cling because we are afraid to face the unknown, to face challenges; we cling because we feel secure if the status quo is maintained; we cling because we refuse to believe that life can never be static; because we refuse to accept the transience of everything; we believe that everything is in our hands. We do not have enough faith in life and that higher force which is omnipotent and omnipresent. In the chaos of existence, we have lost touch with our higher self. Most of us lead a life which is similar to that of a child who is lost in a crowd, separated from his guardians. He has nobody to place his faith on. He is afraid, insecure, and suspicious about everyone and everything.
We live under the false illusion of having everything under our control. We are overwhelmed by a sense of despair and disillusion when things move beyond our control. It is at this stage we need to learn to let go. Several times relationships are broken just because we tried too hard to make them work.
Professionally or personally, once all the efforts are made towards achieving a goal, we must learn to let go and let life take the best course. It might or might not be of one's choice, but if we have faith, we will realize that it inevitably is the best course. We need to believe that forces above us are far better equipped to make judgments for us. We must learn to have faith in their judgment. Letting go, however, does not mean turning into a fatalist. One cannot sit idle in life and expect life to take care of itself. Karma, the fulfillment of one's duties is the ultimate objective of all human existence and if we fail to fulfill our duties towards life, life inevitably fails us.
When God gives us dreams, He shares them with us. Whatever we consider our dreams, are actually His dreams. The part we are required to play is to ensure the optimum usage of the capabilities bestowed upon us. And once we have played our part, we need to let go, step aside and let God step in to fulfill our dreams. After all, they are His dreams, too.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Projection of the mind
The universe that we see is a projection of the mind. The display of sensory organs. In reality there is no universe or whatever that term means. There are as many universe on earth as there are beings, atoms. Dissociate from earthly materialistic and sensory things. At the end only the absolute remains which just cannot be defined. A mind that is alone means it is free, not having faith in somebody It's all childish, so immature, so mediocre to have faith in somebody. You never have faith in somebody if you love somebody- you love. But you don't know what love is, that is why you have faith. I was rescuing a scorpion that had fallen in to a pond. Every time I lifted it out of water, it stung me. I said, "Mr. Kalwar let's not give up. Until it was saved". My wife, Laxmi asked why was I persistent in saving the scoripon that stung me. I replied:" The nature of scorpion is to sting; the nature of your husband is to rescue a being from distress. So long as the scorpion does not give up its nature why should I give up mine?"
The nature of fire is to burn, of water is to cool, of wind is to blow, So, Our nature is to be humane.One should do one's duty even if faced with obstacles. It is upto you how you project yourself. If you see yourself in mirror, 900 out of 1000 people will be see themselves.,that is there face.., rather than seeing the projection of there mind.
The nature of fire is to burn, of water is to cool, of wind is to blow, So, Our nature is to be humane.One should do one's duty even if faced with obstacles. It is upto you how you project yourself. If you see yourself in mirror, 900 out of 1000 people will be see themselves.,that is there face.., rather than seeing the projection of there mind.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Meaning of Love
What is love? Is love pleasure? Is love desire? Is love associated with Sex? What is this thing that we call love? Is it part of hate? In it, is there jealousy, anxiety? When we say, 'I love my family, my wife, the girl, or the boy'. What does it mean? Is love a matter of time, something to be cultivated, and something to be practiced? Is it the result of thought, of time, a process? And why have human beings throughout the world given such tremendous significance to sex, which they call love? Have you noticed in your own life why sex has become such an all-consuming and important thing? To find out, you have to ask why your life, the daily living with all its conflict, suffering, agony, brutality has become so mechanical. You get into a habit and repeat, repeat, repeat. It would be marvelous thing if you said to yourself,' I will never repeat anything that I do not know, that I myself have not completely understood. Do not repeat what somebody has said, or what the Gita, the Koran, the Bible, or your favorite sacred book has said, because that has also become a habit, a routine. Do try it and see. Find out. To get the best from life, you must be completely present and mindful in every minute of every hour of every day. As Albert Camus wrote," Real generosity towards the future consists in giving all to what is present," Yet, on most days, our minds are in ten different places at any one time. The truth of that will be found only when you have completely dropped everything that is mechanical. Understand that you are the creator of your sufferings. Change is not required anywhere except within you. Very often we suffer because we are not open to the vastness of life. We are bound by our own knowledge.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Being Alone
We feel inconvenient when we are alone because we don't know who we are. With the other, things are clear, defined. We know the name, we know the form, we know the person - Hindu, Christian, Indian, American - there are some ways to define the other. How to define yourself? Deep down there is an abyss - emptiness beyond definition. You start merging into that. It creates fear. You become frightened. You want to rush towards the other. The other helps you to remain out. When there is nobody you are simply left with your emptiness. Nobody wants to be alone.
The greatest fear in the world is to be left alone. People do a thousand and one things just not to be left alone. You imitate your neighbors so you are just like them. You lose your individuality, you lose your uniqueness, you just become imitators because otherwise you will be left alone. You become part of a crowd, a church, an organization. Somehow you want to merge with a crowd where you can feel at ease, so that you are not alone. To be alone is really the greatest miracle. That means now you don't belong to any church or organization, you don't belong to any theology or ideology - socialist, communist, fascist, Hindu, Christian, Jain, Buddhist - you don't belong, you simply are. And you have learnt how to love your indefinable, ineffable reality. You have come to know how to be with yourself.
Aloneness is the first lesson of Love. Loneliness is absence of the other. Aloneness is very positive. It is an overflowing presence. You are so full of presence that there is no need for anybody else. Even if the whole world disappears, he will love that tremendous emptiness, this pure infinity.
This does not mean that a man who has become enlightened and has come home does not live with others. In fact, only he is capable of being with others. Because he is capable of being with himself he becomes capable of being with others. If you are not capable of being with yourself, how can you be capable of being with others? A man who loves his aloneness is capable of love, and a man who feels lonely is incapable of love. A man who is happy with himself is full of love, flowing. He does not need anybody's love, hence he can give. When you are in need how can you give?
It is a natural response. The first lesson of love is to learn how to be alone. Try it, to have the feel. Just sit alone sometimes. That's what meditation is all about - just sitting alone, doing nothing. If you start feeling lonely then there is something missing in your being, then you have been unable yet to understand who you are. Then go deeper into this loneliness until you come to a layer when suddenly loneliness transforms itself into aloneness.
Loneliness is the negative aspect of aloneness. If you go deeper into it, one moment is bound to come when suddenly you will start feeling the positive aspect of it because both aspects are always together.
The greatest fear in the world is to be left alone. People do a thousand and one things just not to be left alone. You imitate your neighbors so you are just like them. You lose your individuality, you lose your uniqueness, you just become imitators because otherwise you will be left alone. You become part of a crowd, a church, an organization. Somehow you want to merge with a crowd where you can feel at ease, so that you are not alone. To be alone is really the greatest miracle. That means now you don't belong to any church or organization, you don't belong to any theology or ideology - socialist, communist, fascist, Hindu, Christian, Jain, Buddhist - you don't belong, you simply are. And you have learnt how to love your indefinable, ineffable reality. You have come to know how to be with yourself.
Aloneness is the first lesson of Love. Loneliness is absence of the other. Aloneness is very positive. It is an overflowing presence. You are so full of presence that there is no need for anybody else. Even if the whole world disappears, he will love that tremendous emptiness, this pure infinity.
This does not mean that a man who has become enlightened and has come home does not live with others. In fact, only he is capable of being with others. Because he is capable of being with himself he becomes capable of being with others. If you are not capable of being with yourself, how can you be capable of being with others? A man who loves his aloneness is capable of love, and a man who feels lonely is incapable of love. A man who is happy with himself is full of love, flowing. He does not need anybody's love, hence he can give. When you are in need how can you give?
It is a natural response. The first lesson of love is to learn how to be alone. Try it, to have the feel. Just sit alone sometimes. That's what meditation is all about - just sitting alone, doing nothing. If you start feeling lonely then there is something missing in your being, then you have been unable yet to understand who you are. Then go deeper into this loneliness until you come to a layer when suddenly loneliness transforms itself into aloneness.
Loneliness is the negative aspect of aloneness. If you go deeper into it, one moment is bound to come when suddenly you will start feeling the positive aspect of it because both aspects are always together.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Enlightenment
Anyone can be a Gautam Buddha. Spiritual realization is everybody's birthright. It is not a talent like painting, music, poetry, or dancing; it is not genius either. A genius has tremendous intelligence, but it is still of the mind. Enlightenment is not of the mind, it is not intellect; it is intelligence of a totally different order.
People like Friedrich Nietzsche who have missed the journey towards their own selves were great intellectuals, geniuses unparalleled - but all that belongs to the mind.
And to be a Gautam Buddha, Lao Tzu, or Zarathustra is to get out of the mind. It does not matter whether you had a big, small or a mediocre mind, or if you are a genius; the point is that you should be out of the mind. The moment you are out of the mind, you are in yourself. So the strange thing is that the more a person is intellectual, the farther he goes away from himself. His intellect takes him to faraway stars.
He is a genius, he may create great poetry, great sculpture. But as far as you are concerned, you are not to be created, you are already there. The genius creates, the meditator discovers. Consciousness has nothing to do with creativity, inventiveness, science or art. It has something to do with tremendous silence, peace, a centering. When an ordinary man meditates, he comes to the same space of blissfulness as Nietzsche, Einstein or Russell. That space of blissfulness will not be different; it will not be richer for Bertrand Russell because he is a great intellectual. Those values don't matter outside of the mind.
It is as if you all fall asleep here; you will be dreaming. Somebody may have a very beautiful dream, and somebody may have a nightmare. But both are dreams.
And when they wake up, they will know that the beautiful dream and the nightmare are not different - they are both dreams. They are non-existential, mind projections.
This is great and good news because it means a woodcutter or a fisherman can become Gautam Buddha. An uneducated Jesus, an uneducated Kabir, who doesn't show any indication of genius, can still become enlightened, because enlightenment is not a talent, it is discovering your being. And the being of everyone is absolutely equal. Suddenly all distinctions, talents of the mind, disappear. There is only pure sky where you cannot make any distinctions of higher and lower. Enlightenment is the very nature of things.
Mind wants for its nourishment something very difficult, something almost impossible. Only if you can achieve the impossible can you feel you are somebody special. Enlightenment is not a talent. It is not like somebody being born a painter or a poet or a scientist - those are talents. Enlightenment is simply everybody's source of life; it is realizing the fact that "I am that which I have always wanted to be, and I have never been anything else and I cannot be anything else, ever".
People like Friedrich Nietzsche who have missed the journey towards their own selves were great intellectuals, geniuses unparalleled - but all that belongs to the mind.
And to be a Gautam Buddha, Lao Tzu, or Zarathustra is to get out of the mind. It does not matter whether you had a big, small or a mediocre mind, or if you are a genius; the point is that you should be out of the mind. The moment you are out of the mind, you are in yourself. So the strange thing is that the more a person is intellectual, the farther he goes away from himself. His intellect takes him to faraway stars.
He is a genius, he may create great poetry, great sculpture. But as far as you are concerned, you are not to be created, you are already there. The genius creates, the meditator discovers. Consciousness has nothing to do with creativity, inventiveness, science or art. It has something to do with tremendous silence, peace, a centering. When an ordinary man meditates, he comes to the same space of blissfulness as Nietzsche, Einstein or Russell. That space of blissfulness will not be different; it will not be richer for Bertrand Russell because he is a great intellectual. Those values don't matter outside of the mind.
It is as if you all fall asleep here; you will be dreaming. Somebody may have a very beautiful dream, and somebody may have a nightmare. But both are dreams.
And when they wake up, they will know that the beautiful dream and the nightmare are not different - they are both dreams. They are non-existential, mind projections.
This is great and good news because it means a woodcutter or a fisherman can become Gautam Buddha. An uneducated Jesus, an uneducated Kabir, who doesn't show any indication of genius, can still become enlightened, because enlightenment is not a talent, it is discovering your being. And the being of everyone is absolutely equal. Suddenly all distinctions, talents of the mind, disappear. There is only pure sky where you cannot make any distinctions of higher and lower. Enlightenment is the very nature of things.
Mind wants for its nourishment something very difficult, something almost impossible. Only if you can achieve the impossible can you feel you are somebody special. Enlightenment is not a talent. It is not like somebody being born a painter or a poet or a scientist - those are talents. Enlightenment is simply everybody's source of life; it is realizing the fact that "I am that which I have always wanted to be, and I have never been anything else and I cannot be anything else, ever".
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