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Mayhem at Manchester by Sandeep Silas

Manchester is a place close to my heart for its dynamic energy and vivacious way of life! The city has its own unique character.

mn         download 2

(Pics Courtesy: visitmanchester.com)

I studied there at Manchester Business School and that is the first place in the world, where I saw daylight last up to 11 pm ever in my life, and also discovered what the word “blinds” actually meant. The light just won’t go out in the sky in the summer of 2002, and only when I drew the blinds did I feel night at last. It had become a daily routine to go walking from the School to the city, visit a pub, the more ambitious did pub crawling and then return to the night within the blinds.

My first introduction to British Theatre was at Manchester. Miss Saigon and The King and I, were the two plays I remember having seen at one of those theatres, of which we had read about, with powdered ladies dressed in their finery, armed with their snuff boxes and binoculars. The plays were staged fabulously and left an imprint on the soul! Never on earth could imagine that a helicopter could actually land on stage and the stage move so quickly to change the scene. The direction was technically sound.

Ah, yes, football, the passion of the city. It seemed that all the world was either united behind Manchester United or Manchester City!

Sad day in life to hear of the suicide bomber attack on May 22nd 2017 in Manchester Arena, Europe’s largest indoor theatre. A place where almost 21,000 people had gathered to hear the American singer Ariana Grande, became a scene of blood, shock, broken limbs and pale death. 22 people were amongst those killed and some 59 other injured, when Salman Abedi, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the foyer of the theatre. He detonated a home-made bomb at 10.30 p.m. on Monday 22nd May at the theatre. Born of emigrated Libyan parents, he brought death to many innocent people who were not even remotely connected to any cause he was pursuing.

Manchester Arena

(Courtesy: The Telegraph, UK)

News Coverage in India

Times of India May 24, 2017 pg 24

(The Times Global pg 24 dated May 24, 2017)

Ariana, had just finished the last song and it seems to me that the suicide bomber realizing that the audience would now walk out detonated himself in the foyer as unsuspecting happy people walked out after the evening performance. Manchester is a lively city and citizens are fond of football, theatre, music concerts, and pubs! Ariana, shell shocked after the attack, said she was “Broken. From the bottom of my heart I am so sorry. I don’t have words.”

TOI, pg 24

(TOI, pg 24 May 24, 2017)

Today, I want the entire world to see the smiling face and eyes of Saffie Rose Roussos, aged eight, and feel the pain of the death of this beautiful promise of life !

Saffie Rose Roussos

(Courtesy: The Telegraph, UK)

Who would become the cause of death of an innocent flower like this? We cannot anymore allow madmen amongst our politicians, so-called religious leaders, cadres of terrorist organizations and the hooligans of society to take away the life of the beautiful people of this world. They might have issues of their own evil mind’s making. Why should the people of the world continue to die because one man’s madness thinks of other philosophies, ways of life and other cultures as abominable to his thought? Why should any political or religious fanatic leader be allowed to preside and promote mayhems and bombings to ensure his grip on his own followers? Why should organizations like IS exist even for one more day?

Plato says, ” No wealth can ever make a bad man at peace with himself.” My question is why should an entire humanity suffer because of some bad men who have migrated their way to top positions of power and are controlling nations, cadres and organizations as the case might be? The people’s will is supreme and a handful of liars and fanatics should not get away with murder.

Don’t we need more James Bond 007s in real life now than on the screen? Only Bond can save the world now from an apocalypse ! Seriously, M should recruit more James Bond Agents to scour the world and stop such happenings, because the sophisticated Yards and Bureaus are failing again and again.

It seems that our intelligence systems need a relook and a determined, dedicated leadership to prevent any such tragedy from striking at the core of humanity. Why do our intelligence agencies fail to sense such lurking attacks even though armed with latest technological gadgets and eavesdropping systems?   Why should innocent people die in such gruesome manner while they are doing nothing, but just celebrating the beauty of life ?

170525160214-01-manchester-attack-aftermath-0525-exlarge-169

Prayer Meeting at St. Ann’s Square, Manchester, UK (Photograph from Internet)

For those who have not seen the video clips of the Manchester Arena suicide bombing attack I am giving the links below:

(ABC News Special Report)

 

(The Telegraph)

I am sorry to place on record that even after the world has seen the ugliest face of terrorism it is not one on terrorism. The Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism is still at the proposal level after two decades !

“The Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism is a proposed treaty which intends to criminalize all[citation needed] forms of international terrorism and deny terrorists, their financiers and supporters access to funds, arms, and safe havens. The negotiations for this treaty are currently[when?] under way has been[clarification needed] under negotiation at the United Nations General Assembly‘s Ad Hoc Committee established by Resolution 51/210 of 17 December 1996 on Terrorism and the United Nations General Assembly Sixth Committee (Legal). The negotiations are currently deadlocked even after two decades of proposal i.e. through 1996 till 2016.

Although consensus eludes towards adoption of the terrorism convention, but discussions have yielded three separate protocols that aim to tackle terrorism: International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, adopted on 15 December 1997; International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, adopted on 9 December 1999; and International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, adopted on 13 April 2005.” (Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Convention_on_International_Terrorism)

Bodies have bled to death; hearts continue to bleed…

How long ?

 

Why Chemical weapons on own people and children? Syria used to be a civilization…

News broke out on April 4th 2017 that more than 80 people have perished in a suspected chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in north-western Syria. Worse, ONE THIRD of them were children who had not even an iota of knowledge about the political issues Syria is suffering since many years. 

An air strike by Syrian forces left people gasping for breath as a reaction to the nerve agent released by bombs.

  1. BBC reports: Quote– 

“Witnesses say warplanes attacked Khan Sheikhoun, about 50km (30 miles) south of the city of Idlib, early on Tuesday, when many people were asleep. Mariam Abu Khalil, a 14-year-old resident who was awake, told the New York Times that she had seen an aircraft drop a bomb on a one-storey building.

Syria map

 

The explosion sent a yellow mushroom cloud into the air that stung her eyes. “It was like a winter fog,” she said. She sheltered in her home, but recalled that when people started arriving to help the wounded, “they inhaled the gas and died”.

Hussein Kayal, a photographer for the pro-opposition Edlib Media Center (EMC), told the Associated Press that he was awoken by the sound of an explosion at about 06:30 (03:30 GMT). When he reached the scene, there was no smell, he said. He found people lying on the floor, unable to move and with constricted pupils.

Crater in a road after a suspected chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun, Idlib province, Syria (4 April 2017)Image copyright REUTERS
 
Opposition activists said government warplanes dropped bombs containing chemicals. Mohammed Rasoul, the head of a charity ambulance service in Idlib, told the BBC that he heard about the attack at about 06:45 and that when his medics arrived 20 minutes later they found people, many of them children, choking in the street.

The Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations (UOSSM), which funds hospitals in rebel-held Syria, said three of its staff in Khan Sheikhoun were affected while treating patients in the streets and had to be rushed to intensive care.

Victims experienced symptoms including redness of the eyes, foaming from the mouth, constricted pupils, blue facial skin and lips, severe shortness of breath and asphyxiation, it added.

Rescue workers said many children were among those killed or injured in the attack. A Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) medical team supporting the Bab al-Hawa hospital, near the Turkish border, confirmed similar symptoms in eight patients brought there from Khan Sheikhoun.”

Unquote.

(Courtesy BBC News Portal : http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39500947)

 

2. Josie Ensor, Beirut and Charlotte Krol, video news producer have produced a video featuring the protest of Syrian children about world inaction, which will send chills down your spine. It is available on: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/06/syrian-children-protest-worlds-inaction-chemical-attack-idlib/

Children in Idlib, Syria, protest against international inaction after the chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun

President Trump sent in his air force to target the air base in Syria from which the chemical weapon strike was believed to have been conducted on April 4, 2017.

Forces of President Assad of Syria have been using chemical weapons since many years.

3. Now, what are chemical weapons?

“Chemical weapons are classified as weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), though they are distinct from nuclear weapons, biological weapons, and radiological weapons. All may be used in warfare and are known by the military acronym NBC (for nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare). Weapons of mass destruction are distinct from conventional weapons, which are primarily effective due to their explosive, kinetic, or incendiary potential. Chemical weapons can be widely dispersed in gas, liquid and solid forms, and may easily afflict others than the intended targets. Nerve gas, tear gas and pepper spray are three modern examples of chemical weapons.

Lethal unitary chemical agents and munitions are extremely volatile and they constitute a class of hazardous chemical weapons that have been stockpiled by many nations. Unitary agents are effective on their own and do not require mixing with other agents. The most dangerous of these are nerve agents, GA, GB, GD, and VX as well as vesicant (blister) agents, which are formulations of sulfur mustard such as H, HT, and HD. They all are liquids at normal room temperature, but become gaseous when released. Widely used during the First World War, the effects of so-called mustard gas, phosgene gas and others caused lung searing, blindness, death and maiming.”

(Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_weapon)

4. International Treaty on Chemical Weapons

“The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is the most recent arms control agreement with the force of International law. Its full name is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction. That agreement outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. It is administered by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is an independent organization based in The Hague.[9]

The OPCW administers the terms of the CWC to 192 signatories, which represents 98% of the global population. As of June 2016, 66,368 of 72,525 metric tonnes, (92% of CW stockpiles), have been verified as destroyed.[10][11] The OPCW has conducted 6,327 inspections at 235 chemical weapon-related sites and 2,255 industrial sites. These inspections have affected the sovereign territory of 86 States Parties since April 1997. Worldwide, 4,732 industrial facilities are subject to inspection under provisions of the CWC.

[11]” (Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_weapon)

 

5. WHAT AN AMAZING CIVILIZATION SYRIA WAS, ONCE UPON A TIME?

Syria was an ancient civilization! In fact it used to be called the cradle of civilization! It ranked along with the Egyptian and Indus Valley civilizations to dazzle the emerging world of that time with advancements in knowledge and urban living.

a freelance writer and part-time Professor of Philosophy at Marist College, New York, who has lived in Greece and Germany and traveled through Egypt, teaches ancient history, writing, literature, and philosophy. He writes in Ancient History Encyclopedia about the Syrian civilization (published on 17 June 2014):
Quote:
Palmyra
“Syria is a country located in the Middle East on the shore of Mediterranean Sea and bordered, from the north down to the west, by Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon. It is one of the oldest inhabited regions in the world with archaeological finds dating the first human habitation at c. 700,000 years ago. The Dederiyeh Cave near Aleppo has produced a number of significant finds, such as bones, placing Neanderthals in the region at that time and shows continual occupation of the site over a substantial period. The first evidence of modern humans appears c. 100,000 years ago as evidenced by finds of human skeletons, ceramics, and crude tools. The historian Soden notes that, “Scholars have sought to deduce especially important developments, for example, folk migrations, from cultural changes which can be read in archaeological remains, particularly in ceramic materials…Yet there can be frequent and substantial changes in the ceramic style, even if no other people has come onto the scene” (13). It is clear, however, that an agrarian civilization was already thriving in the region prior to the domestication of animals c. 10,000 BCE.
SYRIA WAS AN IMPORTANT TRADE REGION WITH PORTS ON THE MEDITERRANEAN, PRIZED BY A SUCCESSION OF MESOPOTAMIAN EMPIRES.
THE NAME & EARLY HISTORY

In its early written history, the region was known as Eber Nari (‘across the river’) by the Mesopotamians and included modern-day Syria, Lebanon, and Israel (collectively known as The Levant). Eber Nari is referenced in the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah as well as in reports by the scribes of Assyrian and Persian kings. The modern name of Syria is claimed by some scholars to have derived from Herodotus’ habit of referring to the whole of Mesopotamia as ‘Assyria‘ and, after the Assyrian Empire fell in 612 BCE, the western part continued to be called ‘Assyria’ until after the Seleucid Empire when it became known as ‘Syria’. This theory has been contested by the claim that the name comes from Hebrew, and the people of the land were referred to as ‘Siryons’ by the Hebrews because of their soldiers’ metal armor (‘Siryon’ meaning armor, specifically chain mail, in Hebrew).

Early settlements in the area, such as Tell Brak, date back to at least 6000 BCE. It has long been understood that civilization began in southern Mesopotamia in the region of Sumer and then spread north.

Panorama of Palmyra

Panorama of Palmyra

The two most important cities in ancient Syria were Mari and Ebla, both founded after the cities of Sumer (Mari in the 5th and Ebla in the 3rd millennium BCE) and both of which used Sumerian script, worshipped Sumerian deities, and dressed in Sumerian fashion. Both of these urban centers were repositories of vast cuneiform tablet collections, written in Akkadian and Sumerian, which recorded the history, daily life, and business transactions of the people and included personal letters. When Ebla was excavated in 1974 CE the palace was found to have been burned and, as with Ashurbanipal’s famous library at Nineveh, the fire baked the clay tablets and preserved them. At Mari, following its destruction by Hammurabi of Babylon in 1759 BCE, the tablets were buried under the rubble and remained intact until their discovery in 1930 CE. Together, the tablets of Mari and Ebla provided archaeologists with a relatively complete understanding of life in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BCE.”

Quote Ends.

The video below has been posted by the Permanent Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic to United Nations, and encapsulates the Syrian civilization!

6. Now, the question arises why and how such beautiful civilizations are coming to an end with the use of weapons of mass destruction including chemical nerve gases?  And why political issues are not been resolved by peaceful negotiation?

Is it because undeserving politicians are catapulted to the top?

Is it because half the world is not bothered about what happens to the other half?

Is it because humanity only reacts when own kin has died ?

Is it because people of the world are increasingly becoming selfish?

Is it because UN has no real teeth?

Is it because the world has failed to lay down standards of decent governance to be followed by all nations? Why can’t such a protocol be in place?

Why can’t a country whose political administration has failed, be taken over by a Global Board of Governance, formed under the United Nations safeguarding the lives, rights, language, culture, and privileges of the people?

Should a rogue administration be allowed to remain in power?

The world needs a certain discipline and a certain policing at the highest level. The world needs peace in the hearts of rulers, not greed and hunger for power. 

The world needs more prayers than ever before!

LET PEACE PREVAIL AS WE REMEMBER THE CHILDREN OF SYRIA WHO DIED IN THE CHEMICAL WEAPON ATTACK! 

STAND UP PLEASE FOR WORLD PEACE!!!

 

 

 

 

St. Petersburg deserves more Hymns than Bombs !

Pravda Image

(Image courtesy Pravda; on the Internet)

Time and again militancy rises from the Earth like treacherous snakes from a womb of evil ! Always the unsuspecting, innocent and uninvolved lose their precious lives for a cause not related to them.

NY Times carried a detailed article how this time it was students and innocent travelers who lost their precious lives in a dastardly moment early April in St. Petersburg.

Business Insider.com image

(Image courtesy www.businessinsider.com; on the Internet)

If you walk through their lives, as reported, you will question WHY THEM?

When we read of their ambitions, their struggling small lives we often wonder why they were chosen to die for nothing. Along with them crashed their dreams and hopes. Along with them perished a tiny flame of God’s own humanity.

Whether the issue voiced so loudly by a bomb, blood splashed on the ground was able to resolve and find solution? Whether the people who did it have any sense of remorse and guilt? These are questions before society and the policy makers. The police will apprehend the suspect, the courts shall start a trial and maybe for want of evidence the militant shall escape scot free after a score of years. But, the dead will never come alive. A requiem sung, some wreaths, few strong words by the people in power and the newspaper stories shall soon gather dust, the TV coverage shall be faded by bigger tragedies and more dead.

The civil society must work for more peace in the hearts of people living around them. State should draw mechanisms to report any suspicious activity easily maintaining anonymity of the citizen.

Most of all we need more good karma on Planet Earth to keep the balance in favour of peace!

 

(Acknowledgements to NY Times for reproducing their story below).

Quote begins:

“EUROPE

St. Petersburg Metro Attack Included Many Students Among Victims

By IVAN NECHEPURENKO and NEIL MacFARQUHAR

 

A makeshift memorial at the Technology Institute subway station in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Wednesday. The dead included a famous doll maker and a beloved wrestling coach. Dmitri Lovetsky/Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — The 14 people who died in a terrorist attack on the St. Petersburg subway were a cross section of the city, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There was a famous doll maker whose creations with often crazy hair were beloved by collectors, and who apparently saved her daughter’s life by shielding her as a bomb erupted deep underground around 2:40 p.m. on Monday.

There was a young wrestling coach adored by his team. When he did not appear for practice as scheduled and did not answer his cellphone, people posted pictures of him and his distinctive tattoos on social media, refusing to believe that he could have been swept away so suddenly and so young.

There were many students — some finished for the day, some playing hooky, many making plans that were abruptly, catastrophically cut short.

“I feel lost now,” said Mikhail A. Veprentsev, 18, one of more than 60 people injured, summing up the mood of those whose loved ones died and those who made it out of the subway train that was struck by a young suicide bomber. “I am just glad I was alone, without friends or relatives.”

The doll maker, Irina Medyantseva, 50, was not alone. She and her grown daughter Yelena, also a doll designer, had just boarded the third carriage of the train at Sennaya Station when the terrorist struck. Relatives told Komsomolskaya Pravda, a tabloid, that the mother had protected the daughter, who ended up in intensive care.

Irina Medyantseva, in a picture taken from social media.

Mrs. Medyantseva was famous in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city and imperial capital, for making dolls for the past 15 years. Her creations sported big eyes, big grins and droopy clothes, a little vulnerable and a little unconventional. Photographs of Mrs. Medyantseva showed her in her garden or donning big glasses to look a bit like one of her dolls.

“Catastrophe,” wrote her husband, Alexander Kaminsky, on his page on Vkontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook. “I’ve lost my beloved wife.” After the explosion, his daughter called him briefly to recount what happened before she was whisked to the hospital.

The wrestling coach, Denis R. Petrov, 25, had been an assistant coach for children at a club called Warrior since September. He was a stocky blond with numerous tattoos — a dark blue Polynesian design across one shoulder, English phrases up both forearms and burst of color on his right wrist.

His left arm read “Better to reign,” while the right said, “Step by Step.”

He had called in the morning to say he would be there around 3 p.m., and when he did not appear, his colleagues began making a series of frantic telephone calls to try to find him. “We didn’t want to believe that he had died,” one told the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets.

Kirill Mikhailov, the father of one of the children he coached, wrote on Mr. Petrov’s Vkontakte page, “My son’s wrestling coach and simply a good person Denis Romanovich Petrov died in the terrorist attack in the Petersburg metro, he was all of 25 years old!!! He will remain in our memories forever!”

Dilbara S. Aliyeva was one of the students killed. She was in her third year at Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University. On its website, the university announced the death and reported that 12 more of its students were injured.

Dilbara S. Aliyeva

Ms. Aliyeva — whose pictures show a woman with long black hair — was studying at the faculty of economics and management. She wanted to become a psychologist, the statement said.

“Like any girl, she had friends, was making big plans, loved life,” it said. Ms. Aliyeva was originally from Baku, Azerbaijan, but had moved to St. Petersburg with her family and completed high school there.

She posted a picture from a hipster cafe on her Instagram account in late January saying, “You can take the girl out of Petersburg but you can never take Petersburg out of the girl.”

Another student, Maksim Aryshev, 19, a native of Kazakhstan, was so close to the blast that at first there were reports — given the fears about suicide attackers from Central Asia — that he had been the bomber.

Maksim Aryshev

Mr. Aryshev, a third-year student at St. Petersburg State University of Economics, wanted to be a programmer. A classmate described him to the Meduza news website as cheerful and sociable, a man who loved to joke and the life of any party.

There was at least one mystery among the dead. Angelina Svistunova, 27, described as the wife of a military man, was said to have spent most days at home. Her family was mystified as to why she was on the metro in the middle of the day, according to Moskovsky Komsomolets.

Finally, there was the bomber himself: Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, 22, a member of the Uzbek minority in the troubled city of Osh, in southern Kyrgyzstan, who came to St. Petersburg six years ago after obtaining Russian citizenship through his father.

He blossomed into a car mechanic. About the only signs of radicalization were a few links to Islamist websites on his social media pages, and one source told Interfax that he seemed to have returned from a rare visit home in February a changed man — sullen and withdrawn.

How he became radicalized — yet another in a line of lone wolves that have left a bloody trail around the globe — is part of the investigation. His father and mother arrived in St. Petersburg on Wednesday to identify the body and to speak with investigators. “I do not believe it,” was all the mother told reporters upon arrival, according to Interfax.

The names of the deceased have dribbled out slowly; the list was still incomplete by Wednesday morning, and the families were supposed to begin receiving their remains later in the day. Their relatives, as well as the injured, were mostly being shielded from public view at the various hospitals to which they were admitted. Dozens remained hospitalized.

Mr. Veprentsev, lying under a blanket at City Hospital No. 26 in St. Petersburg, answered a steady stream of telephone calls from friends inquiring about his health.

The young man was injured after he decided at the last minute to skip an afternoon class and go back home, dashing across the platform to the fateful train.

He was in an adjacent car when the door blew in on him. “I was shocked. I threw the door away from me and began to crawl through this whole mess,” he said. The dead around him had screws sticking out of their heads, he said, apparently part of the shrapnel in the bomb.

At first he went home, but, feeling ill, he was taken to the hospital by a friend. Doctors determined he had a concussion, multiple injuries, trauma inside his chest and glass injuries across his back.

Opposite him in the same tiny room, also under a blanket, lay Konstantin Y. Kolodkin, 40, a well-built man with a dark mustache who installs car alarms for a living. He had been on the way home from work and said he did not remember which car he had entered when suddenly there was a blast.

“I jumped out of the car like the cork out of bottle,” he said, then walked around dazed for while before going to the hospital, where he was found to have a concussion and multiple injuries.

“The car was full. I would say about 70 percent full for sure, students going home or going to classes,” said Mr. Kolodkin, who repeatedly criticized the government security measures that let a bomber slip through. “I just don’t know how I will be able to go down to use the metro again.”

Quote Ends.

Not Nice…

It is so sad that terror hounds are choosing days, which have long stood as symbol of public liberty and freedom to target and kill innocent citizens. The game is more dangerous than it appears….it goes beyond killing for a self-entertained and self-prophesied cause; it is actually muddling the public memory of an important day, with a day one wouldn’t like to remember.

ORLANDO, USA

On June 12th 2016 a shooter enters a LGBT Night Club and after rounding the people up just shoots them, leaving 50 dead and 53 injured. The Club named “Pulse” saw the ebbing of life of people who had come to live it their own way and ‘pulse’ of the unsuspecting victims coming to a dead pause. The attacker, Omar Mateen, a 29-year old man from St. Lucie Florida, was born to Afghan parents in the States. SWAT Teams took three hours to storm the building and shoot him dead.

Pulse

CNN describes the scene inside the Night Club: Pulse describes itself as “the hottest gay bar” in the heart of Orlando. Hours before the shooting, the club urged party-goers to attend its “Latin flavor” event Saturday night. The club is a vast, open space that was hosting more than 300 patrons late Saturday and into Sunday morning.

People inside the cavernous nightclub described a scene of panic made more confusing by the loud music and darkness.

Orlando image

“At first it sounded like it was part of the show because there was an event going on and we were all having a good time,” clubgoer Andy Moss said. “But once people started screaming and shots just keep ringing out, you know that it’s not a show anymore.”

Christopher Hansen said he was getting a drink at the bar about 2 a.m. when he “just saw bodies going down.” He heard gunshots, “just one after another after another.”

The gunshots went on for so long that the shooting “could have lasted a whole song,” he said.

When the shots erupted, Hansen hit the ground, crawling on his elbows and knees, before he spotted a man who had been shot.

“I took my bandana off and shoved it in the hole in his back,” Hansen said, adding that he saw another woman who appeared to be shot in the arm.” (Source- CNN, in italics)

Stop the Hate

“We know enough to say this was an act of terror and act of hate,” President Obama said in an address to the nation from the White House.

NICE, FRANCE

On July 14th 2016 a large truck driven by a French-Tunisian tore into the crowds on Promenade des Anglais, the main street in Nice, mowing down people who had gathered to watch fireworks. It left 84 dead and 308 injured. What increased the number of people killed was the manner in which Lahouaiej-Bouhlel the driver, drove the truck in a zig-zag fashion to mow down as many people as possible. It was the celebration of the Bastille Day, when a crowd of almost 30,000 had poured out to watch the fireworks and the aerial display by fighter planes of the French Air Force celebrating the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution.

Nice_Promenade_des_Anglais_FRANCE

2016_Nice_attack Route

The Telegraph News has captured some of the eyewitness accounts; “The manager of Le Voilier Plage restaurant in Nice described the panic as revelers learnt what was happening. He said: “Just as the fireworks finished we saw a lorry drive on to the pavement. There was a massive panic – there must have been somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 people on the Promenade des Anglais. There was an awful panic, people were running everywhere. We provided a refuge for some people, mothers, children. There were people lying on the ground who were injured or worse.

Nice Victims

“There were children in tears.”

A man identified as Manon told Nice Matin newspaper: “The driver had made up his mind, he was going to crash. The van drove on to the pavement. It passed two metres away from us. I saw people lying down  I saw a small child on the ground.”

Joel Fenster, a 23-year-old law student from north London who is in Nice for a language course, told The Telegraph how he and a friend ran for cover after hearing gunshots.

“We went to watch the fireworks on the beach and then after we knew there was meant to be a concert so we were walking round to the promenade. It was a perfectly normal night,” he said, speaking from his apartment in Nice.

“Suddenly everyone started running in the opposite direction to us, and ducking down. It seemed like there was someone coming – there was a strong sense that we needed to get away. So we started running away from the beach, inland towards the old town.  We heard the gunshots – initially one, then later two more.”

British holidaymaker Esther Serwah, 59, was staying in a hotel a short walk from the scene, Peter Allen, in Paris, reported.

She said she had been on her way to the Promenade des Anglais for dinner with her daughters when people started screaming at her.

Mrs Serwah, from Surrey, said: “I was just walking to the Promenade and then I saw everybody running and I just didn’t know what was going on. People were screaming at me in French but I didn’t understand.

Homage

“Some people were lying on the streets dead and people were running over the bodies. Everybody was saying it’s a terrorist attack. It’s just horrible, horrible, horrible. I’m in shock. I’m still shaking.” (Source-The Telegraph, in italics)

MUNICH, GERMANY

On Saturday July 23rd 2016 a teenage attacker with German-Iranian citizenship, opened fire and killed 9 school-children at the MacDonald’s restaurant outside the Olympia Shopping Centre. The motive was unclear and the attacker shot himself too.

Olympia

The Guardian says- “The UK’s Foreign Office issued an alert warning British citizens in Munich to follow the instructions of the authorities. Speaking at the UN in New York, Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, said: “Everybody is shocked and saddened by what has taken place. Our thoughts are very much with the victims, their families, with the people of Munich.”

“If, as seems very likely, this is another terrorist incident, then I think it proves once again that we have a global phenomenon now and a global sickness that we have to tackle both at source – in the areas where the cancer is being incubated in the Middle East – and also of course around the world.”

The French president, François Hollande said the Munich shooting was a “disgusting terrorist attack” aimed at stirring up fear across Europe. “The terrorist attack that struck Munich killing many people is a disgusting act that aims to foment fear in Germany after other European countries,” Hollande said.

“Germany will resist, it can count on France’s friendship and cooperation,” he said, adding that he would speak to Merkel on Saturday morning. (Source- The Guardian, in italics)

FLORIDA, USA

On July 25th 2016 morning, a gunman opened fire at Club Blu, a Fort Myers Night Club in Florida , which was hosting a “Swimsuit Glow” theme party for teenagers. The firing left two teens dead in the parking lot.

Club Blu

(All images from the Internet)

What all these attacks display is that:

  • The world is increasingly becoming unsafe
  • Anything can happen to anyone at anytime
  • Attackers owe allegiance to mainly one religion
  • One terror organization is serving as the ideology to terrorists
  • Gullible youth are taking it upon themselves to launch terror attacks
  • Refugees in first generation, terrorists in the second
  • Mainly citizens of developing countries are being targeted
  • Repeated attacks are being undertaken in the same countries
  • Some Religious Speakers in different countries are spreading hatred and intolerance

It is time for all peace loving people, organisations to stand up and unite in the fight against terrorism. Governments definitely have a huge responsibility, but the best peacemakers are individual citizens themselves. The media too cannot escape responsibility for 24 X 7 coverage of negative news, while there is no mention of positive news.

Many good things are also happening in the world and many good people are setting examples by their bravery and sense of responsibility. Some focus is required on the goodness of life to create human goodwill!

All nations have to unite for peace! Each individual has to feel peace in heart and has to work for peace, if we want peace in our beautiful world!

 

Night of Disquiet in Istanbul…eventually it is ‘Peace’ !

It was the September of 2011 when I last visited Istanbul, Turkey, for a Conference. I loved the freedom in the air, the liberal attitude of Muslim families and the warm outgoing character of Turks.

The city is beautiful and the people so different. They did not wear their religion on their sleeve and I saw only 5% of the women wearing Burkhas. The rest were as fair and as modern in outlook as their European counterparts. The Turks were proud of their history and appealed to me as a friendly people. The family of my Turkish friend invited me home, took me out to dinner, and her brother even offered to look for a Turkish life partner for me. We became brothers as he felt so much for me. I even thought for a moment I could settle down in Rumi’s land.

In fact I still carry the photograph of the sunrise over Bosphorus as the mast head of my Facebook account.

The Haiga Sophia, Church for a thousand years, mosque for the following five hundred, is now a national memorial—a truly secular building. What impressed me most was that both the mosaic of Mother Mary with Infant Jesus and the Mihrab & Minbar exist together in the main prayer hall, despite the change in rulers and ideologies. No one community in power had even thought of destroying the images and holy relics of the other religion. They just built around it. This is a real tribute to the Turkish spirit of brotherhood, tolerance and acceptance.

Haiga Sophia

(Image from the Internet)

Similarly, in the museum at Top Kapi, I saw personal belongings of Prophet Mohammad and the Staff of Moses, reverently and proudly displayed. I learned that Mozart had composed the “Abduction from the Seraglio (Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail)” based on the romantic story of captivity, attempted escape and later release of Constanze and Belmonte, by the then Pasha Selim.

Why I am mentioning this is because I want to quote two sentences of Pasha Selim, which reveal the Turkish character— Pasha Selim to Belmonte: “Take your freedom and take Constanze. Sail to your homeland and tell your father that you were in my power, but I granted you freedom so that you could say to him that it was far greater pleasure to requite a suffered injustice with good deed than to repay vice with vice,” and later to Osmin “…those you cannot win by kindness and good deed one must do without.” (Mozart’s the Abduction from the Seraglio by Burton D. Fisher).

The failed coup in Turkey, was a coup when the might of the rebel military was defeated by the sheer spirit of the Turkish people. Images of the “Tank Man”, a Turk standing bare chest before a tank, forcing it to stop its advance, and then lying down before its wheels is a picture of exemplary nationalism, courage of conviction in peace!

Tank Man

The dark night of Friday the 25th July 2016 will long be remembered for being the night of the people. It demonstrated that there is no power stronger than the power of a people who believe in freedom and peace.

People of Istanbul

 

Might of the People

(Images of the coup night from Internet)

Did the people of Istanbul hear their Sufi poet Rumi call out to them?

“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don’t go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don’t go back to sleep!”
― Rumi

(Quote courtesy: goodreads.com)

The people of Turkey have stood up in support of their President Recep Erdogan. We hope that the Turkish Government under him shall ensure a peaceful Turkey for the life-loving, peace cherishing people of Turkey!

A travelogue written by me on Istanbul…The Golden Horn in INDIA OUTBOUND Magazine June-August 2012 issue, pages 41-46, can be read on link:

https://issuu.com/manojmediaindia/docs/india_outbound_magazine

 

Chabahar…combining peace with development

Chabahar has become a historical initiative of combining peace with development opportunities!

Chabahar is a port located on the mouth of Gulf of Aman and is strategically important. The deal which was inked on May 23rd 2016 was actually conceptualized in 2003, but could not take off because of international sanctions imposed on Iran. India has committed $ 500 million for the port project. Chemicals, petrochemicals, steel, fertilizer and railways are the major sectors with investment potential.

The statement of Prime Minister of India-“Today, we are all witnessing creation of history, not just for the people of our three countries, but for the entire region. To build bonds of connectivity is the most basic of human urges.”

The strategic importance of Chabahar can be understood by the fact that it is just 120 km west of China’s Gwadar port in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

Gwadar Port

 

How-Gwadar-port-will-catalyze-development-in-Balochistan

The trilateral agreement signed in presence of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Prime Minister of India signals a new era in neighbourhood cooperation.

The world must be thankful to President Obama for having led the peace process in world politics and opened dialogues with the countries, which earlier saw hostilities between US and those countries. His diplomatic peace initiatives loosened the grip of distrust and removed the index finger from the ‘hold’ button on normalization of relations between US and those countries as well as amongst neighbouring countries, those had been affecting world peace at large.

The concept of “Dosti” (friendship), which has been so celebrated in Persian and Urdu shayari in our countries of Iran, Afghanistan and India, truly felt and kept, can only bring the goodness of heart to realize the goodness of action!

“Dosti nibhana gar itna asaan hota

Aastin mein meri sanp na chhipa hota

(Had it been so easy to keep the bond of friendship

A snake could not have been hiding up my sleeve)

Sirf haath milaney se kuchh nahin hoga

Dil se nibhaana to waada-e-wafaa hoga”

(Nothing shall be achieved by mere shaking of hands

Keep the promise with your heart, then only faith will come)

– Sandeep Silas ‘deep’

 

 

South China Sea Dialogue

South China Sea has not been a peaceful sea for many decades because of its strategic location.

South_China_Sea_claims_mapChina has been eyeing the islands in the South China Sea and so has been Vietnam, who continue to accuse each other. Taiwan’s claim to Taiping Island, which island Philippines downgraded from “island” to “rock”in Arbitration proceedings, further complicates the issue.

China has reclaimed 3000 acres of new land on the features it controls in the Spratly Islands. Vietnam is accused of the same in Southwest Cay, Sin Cowe Island and West Reef. Both refuse to heed any international call to island building.

The Asia-Pacific is important to India’s security concerns and maritime security. A welcome dialogue was recently held in New Delhi with participation of experts from US, India, National Institute for South China Sea Studies, Institute of Africa-Pacific Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Naval Research Institute of Chinese PLA Navy.

Maritime challenges, naval cooperation and multi-lateral engagement were discussed. India is a proponent of free navigation in the South China Sea.

South China Sea is classified as a marginal sea, part of Pacific Ocean, between Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan, around 3.5 million sq km. The major islands are Fiery Cross reef, Scarborough Shoal, and Taiping Islands. There are hundreds of islands, collectively archipelago here. Its importance lies in the fact that 1/3rd of world’s shipping sails through the waters and huge oil and gas reserves lie embedded beneath its sea-bed. It is the second most used sea lane in the world, and over 50% of world’s merchandise passes through the Straits of Malacca, Sunda and Lombok.

The Europeans used it as a sea route from Europe to South Asia to trading opportunities in China. Early chronicles of Western Zhow dynasty (1046-771 BCE) call it Nangfang Hai, and in South-east Asia it was called the Champa Sea after the Kingdom of Champa before 16th Century.

Disputes

  • Indonesia, China and Taiwan over waters of NE of Natuna Islands
  • Vietnam, China and Taiwan over waters west of the Spratly Islands
  • Paracel Islands disputed between China, Vietnam, and Taiwan
  • Areas of Gulf of Thailand between Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam
  • Strait of Johore and Strait of Singapore between Singapore and Malayasia

Disputes in South China Sea

UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS) defines ‘the rights and responsibilities of nations with respect to their use of the world’s oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources.’ (Wikipedia).

The Indian initiative to have the issue settled as per international laws is a welcome one!

Peace Whistle from Iran

As the South Korean President Park Geun-hye visited Iran (May 1-3), a welcome peace statement was made by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani- “Our demand is world free of weapons of mass destruction especially freeing the Korean Peninsula and the Middle East from destructive weapons.”

It is important to note that a previous UN Security Council Resolution is already existing, which calls for disarmament of the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has been under a belligerent dictatorial regime and the recent under water test-fire of strategic submarine ballistic missile in April 2016, authorized by Kim Jong Un, the President of North Korea has alarmed the world as the region again gets heated up with possibilities of aggression.

North Korea Missile Test

North Korea has been aggressively pursuing missile tests as the following list indicates:

The world is more in need of peace whistles than war missiles!

Adonia, across the Florida Straits

Adonia

History of sorts was created when after 40 years, the first US Cruise, the 704-passenger laden Adonia crossed the Florida Straits in a 17-hour journey from Miami to Havana on Monday the 2nd of May 2016.

Though travel restrictions were virtually eliminated under the Carter Presidency, they were back once he demitted office. Only after President Barack Obama and Raul Castro declared detente on December 17th 2014, they were restored.

Before the 1959 Cuban Revolution, cruise ships regularly travelled from US to Cuba. The Straits were blocked by the US during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 that once brought the World to the brink of a nuclear war. The Crisis was the flash point of Cold War conditions between the US and the then Soviet Union. Soviet Union had deployed nuclear missiles in Cuba, which was Soviet aligned then, and for 13 days there was a political and military stand-off between US and Soviet Union, as the missiles were just 90 miles from US.

hith-cuban-missile-crisis-AB

The situation was defused when Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove them and US in turn agreed not to invade Cuba. President Kennedy also agreed to remove secret US missiles from Turkey, which Soviet Union perceived as a threat to itself. The world was saved from a nuclear catastrophe and this crisis is captured in a movie “Thirteen Days”, starring Kevin Costner. The movie’s tagline is “You’ll never believe how close we came.”

Adonia, the ship, brings in its journey an olive branch and the promise of tourism. People to people interaction by way of tourism is definitely going to help restore peaceful conditions in the Straits.

I would like to give a peace tagline today on this peace move: “You’ll never believe how close we can be!”

 

 

Stigmatized Molenbeek

Molenbeek is a Muslim dominated locality in the Belgian capital of Brussels. It has acquired notoriety because Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving direct participant in the Paris attacks hid there before being arrested. The suspected chief planner of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud lived in Molenbeek. Abrini, who grew up in Molenbeek, has also been associated with the attacks and was arrested early April.

In all 32 persons were killed in the ghastly and brutal attacks at the airport and Brussels’s subway.

How is it that a particular locality  becomes a breeding ground for terrorists in a European capital, which is a hub and an important cultural destination? How was it that such suspects continued to live there without being observed by Intelligence Agencies? How could  their suspicious activities fail to be noticed by other residents?

I think in such locales the involved families live with a ghetto mentality and the larger section of Brussels society does not either visit or mix with the locals, mostly immigrants. While the families living their honourably have every right to feel upset at the locality being stigmatized,  but they have in a way contributed to the predominance of ghetto mentality at Molenbeek.

We have always seen that a city gets divided into at least two sections, one of which is avoided by the other as a part of the town that should be avoided. We have seen that in the ‘avoided’ part of the city thrives crime and sometimes incidents of shoot out are reported. Still, this part of the city is always left isolated from the mainstream.

If we have to root out terrorism from within the divided hearts, we have to adopt inclusive policies and try to give equal opportunity and an equitable distribution of wealth to all citizens.

Integration is the key ! In the happiness of every individual lies the happiness of all !