It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, October 05, 2022
Tories Say Bank of Canada Deserves ‘Ruthless Scrutiny’
Stephen Wicary Tue, October 4, 2022
(Bloomberg) -- Canada’s main opposition Conservatives are ratcheting up pressure on the nation’s central bank, although the party’s new leader has put aside his previous call for the governor’s dismissal.
Pierre Poilievre, who was overwhelmingly elected by fellow Tories last month to challenge Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has blamed the Bank of Canada for financing the Liberal government’s record-setting pandemic budget deficits.
In May, the 42-year-old firebrand said that if elected prime minister he would fire Governor Tiff Macklem for helping to drive inflation to a multi-decade high.
Poilievre hasn’t called for Macklem’s dismissal since assuming the Conservative leadership. But his procedural chief in the legislature released a 10-minute video Tuesday making clear the central bank was still in the political cross hairs.
The Bank of Canada “literally controls the value of the money that you work so hard to earn, and its policies determine the interest rates that you pay on all the debt that you carry,” Opposition House Leader Andrew Scheer said. “Because of that, the bank should be subject to ruthless scrutiny and dispassionate analysis.”
Scheer has proposed legislation that would revoke the central bank’s exemption from scrutiny by the nation’s auditor general. Macklem is scheduled to deliver a speech and hold a press conference on Thursday afternoon, and traders are betting that he will deliver another oversized policy rate hike later this month.
Poilievre and Trudeau aren’t likely to square off in an election until 2025 thanks to a power-sharing deal the prime minister struck with the left-leaning New Democratic Party. But were the Conservatives to win power, Macklem would likely be in an unworkable bind given the open attacks from the Tories.
(Adds details about next election. An earlier version corrected the quote to say “subject” to ruthless scrutiny)
Editorial Notes Football tragedy unacceptable: Dawn The paper says aggressive policing only leads to disaster, as shown by the Indonesian tragedy.
A police officer fires tear gas during a riot after a football match at Kanjuruhan Stadium in East Java province, Indonesia, on Oct 2, 2022. PHOTO: REUTERS
ISLAMABAD (DAWN/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Sports arouses the rawest of human emotions.
Football is no exception - in fact, the passions on display at football matches are unique. But any loss of human life at a match is unacceptable, and the deaths of at least 125 fans, including 32 minors, in a stadium crush in Indonesia on Saturday (Oct 1), after police fired tear gas, is heart-wrenching.
It bears reflecting that one of the deadliest events even wasn't the result of riots between two sets of fans. Arema, a club from East Javan city of Malang, had barred visiting fans of Persebaya from the game, but after losing to their rivals for the first time in 23 years, some of the fans stormed the pitch in protest.
It sparked a chain of unfortunate events which saw police fire tear gas, leading to those in the stands rushing to the exits, some of which had been closed, and losing their lives in the ensuing chaos. Indonesia may have ordered a thorough investigation but the damage has been done.
The global football body FIFA prohibits the use of tear gas for crowd control inside stadiums. Yet, a day after the incident, tear gas was used to control fans in France during a match between Toulouse and Montpellier. Tear gas was also used outside Stade de France in Paris ahead of the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool in May, where investigations showed that the fans weren't to blame.
It prompted questions about French policing for the Olympics in 2024. Similar questions are also being raised about Indonesia's credentials as a host for top sporting events. Indonesia is set to host the FIFA Under-20 World Cup next year and is also in the running to replace China as hosts for the Asia Cup.
For FIFA, a test of crowd control will come later this year at the World Cup in Qatar when 1.2m fans will descend upon the Gulf state for the month-long football festival. The Indonesian tragedy shows that aggressive policing only leads to disaster.
South Korean reprisal launch blows up after North's missile success
AP 4 Oct, 2022
An Army Tactical Missile System missile is fired during a joint military drill between US and South Korea at an undisclosed location in South Korea. Photo / AP
A malfunctioning South Korean ballistic missile blew up as it ploughed into the ground during a live-fire drill with the United States that was a reprisal for North Korea's successful launch a day earlier of a weapon that flew over Japan and has the range to strike the US territory of Guam.
The explosion and subsequent fire panicked and confused residents of the coastal city of Gangneung, who were already uneasy over the increasingly provocative weapons tests by rival North Korea.
Their concern that it could be a North Korean attack only grew as the military and government officials provided no explanation about the explosion for hours.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said no injuries have been reported from the explosion, which involved a short-range Hyumoo-2 missile that crashed inside an air force base on the outskirts of the city. It said the crash didn't affect any civilian facilities.
During the same drill, the US military launched four of its own missiles that are part of the Army Tactical Missile System and South Korea fired another Hyumoo-2 successfully. The homegrown missile is key to South Korea's pre-emptive and retaliatory strike strategies against the North and is a version of a Russian-designed Iskander missile, which is also possessed by the North.
Kwon Seong-dong, a ruling party lawmaker representing Gangneung, wrote on Facebook that a "weapons system operated by our blood-like taxpayer money ended up threatening our own people" and called for the military to thoroughly investigate the missile failure.
He also criticised the military for not issuing a notice about the failure while maintaining a media embargo on the joint drills.
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"It was an irresponsible response," Kwon wrote. "They don't even have an official press release yet.
South Korea's military acknowledged the missile malfunction hours after internet users raised the alarm about the blast and posted social media videos showing an orange ball of flames emerging from an area they described as near the air force base. It said it was investigating what caused the "abnormal flight" of the missile.
Officials at Gangneung's fire department and city hall said emergency workers were dispatched to the air force base and a nearby army base in response to calls about a possible explosion but were sent back by military officials.
A South Korean Air Force F-15K fighter jet fires 2 JDAM bombs into an island target in South Korea. Photo / AP
The US and South Korean militaries are conducting joint exercises to show their ability to deter a North Korean attack on the South. In addition to missile launches, they involved bombing runs by F-15 strike jets using precision munitions.
North Korea's successful launch of a nuclear-capable ballistic missile hours before the drills was the country's most provocative weapons demonstration since 2017 and was its fifth round of weapons tests in 10 days.
That missile has a range capable of striking Guam, which is home to one of the largest military facilities maintained by the US in Asia. North Korea in 2017 also tested missiles capable of hitting the continental United States.
North Korea has fired nearly 40 ballistic missiles over about 20 different launch events this year, exploiting Russia's war on Ukraine and the resulting deep divide in the UN Security Council to accelerate its arms development without risking further sanctions.
Its aim is to develop a fully-fledged nuclear arsenal capable of threatening the US mainland and its allies while gaining recognition as a nuclear state and wresting concessions from those countries.
The US, Britain, France, Albania, Norway and Ireland called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the latest North Korean launch. Diplomats said it is likely to be held Thursday, but it's not certain whether it will be open or closed.
Bangkok urged to work from home or leave early as flooding wreaks havoc
Authorities aid residents on Oct. 3, 2022, in Bangkok’s Bang Na area during flash floods.
With even more rain expected to soak Bangkok this week, city authorities yesterday urged residents to consider working from home for the next few days to avoid difficulty commuting.
Deputy Gov. Tavida Kamolvej expressed concern about heavy downpours forecast to hit the city today through Friday and therefore encouraged people to work remotely. Those who need to work on site were advised to leave their workplaces earlier than usual.
Tavida said City Hall is closely monitoring water levels in the Chao Phraya River, which is expected to rise around 1.70 meters to 2 meters above sea level. Rainfall over most of the metropolitan area and highs of 30C to 31C are forecast for the next week before the rain eases slightly mid-month.
The authorities have piled sandbags to deter flooding in vulnerable areas such as Bang Khen, Lak Si, and Don Mueang.
Bangkok’s unusually wet year and chronic flooding have posed the first major test of newly elected governor Chadchart Sittipunt, who has admitted that he and his team were inadequately prepared to resolve the city’s flooding problems. Apart from severe climate change, Chadchart said that his administration has struggled with a lack of personnel and tools to deal with the situation.
Heavy rain and flash floods late Monday afternoon turned several parts of Bangkok into swamps and paralyzed traffic across town, leaving motorists stranded for hours. The Monday evening rush hours saw overcrowding and significant waits at skytrain stations such as BTS Asok and BTS Mo Chit.
Meanwhile, several national parks have been temporarily shut in recent days due to flash floods. They include the Ob Khan National Park in Chiang Mai and Khuean Srinagarindra National Park in Kanchanaburi.
On Wednesday morning, Varawut Silpa-archa, minister of natural resources and the environment, instructed park chiefs to closely monitor flooding at forest parks and national parks. They may consider closing to protect visitors.
Tourists are also strongly encouraged to check information about weather and their destinations before visiting.
The Khuean Srinagarindra National Park in Kanchanaburi province has been temporarily closed to tourists due to flash floods. Photo: Khuean Srinagarindra National Park
The Ob Khan National Park in Chiang Mai province has been temporarily closed to tourists due to flash floods. Photo: Ob Khan National Park
India: Menstruation taboos are forcing girls to drop school
Millions of girls in India are missing out on school due to stigma over periods and a lack of sanitary facilities. Menstruation remains an undiscussed subject in many communities.
Poverty and social stigma about periods have hindered education for millions of girls
Social exclusion and a lack of education on menstrual hygiene are forcing many girls in India to drop out of school early or be ostracized for the duration of their menstrual cycle every month.
A recent study by the UN's child protection agency, UNICEF, stated that 71% of adolescent girls in India remain unaware of menstruation until they get their first period. When they do so, many drop out of school.
Another report by the NGO Dasra, which was published in 2019, pointed out that 23 million girls drop out of school annually due to a lack of proper menstrual hygiene management facilities, which include the availability of sanitary pads and information about menstruation.
Public health experts and NGOs working in this area also point to a lack of basic services, such as access to toilets and clean water; as well as social stigmas, harassment, and taboos.
"Practically no information is available to young girls before their first period," Vandana Prasad, a community pediatrician and public health professional, told DW.
"We have heard young girls and women recall how they were so worried that they had contracted some life-threatening illness the first time they ever had a period. The information they do receive is generally from peers and is often incomplete and incorrect," she said.
Having worked on reproductive health issues with women and girls in tribal and rural areas for over two decades now, Prasad said menstruation is a major public health issue causing immense struggles and difficulties on many levels.
"Social taboos still abound and girls face various forms of discrimination during their periods such as denial of certain foods, denial of physical access to spaces like kitchens and temples and on rare occasions even have to stay in some outhouse for a couple of days," Prasad added.
On top of the mental and psychological stress is the enormous challenge of getting hold of sanitary pads, disposing of them and keeping themselves dry and clean, which particularly affects school-age teenagers.
"All in all, it's a monthly additional burden of misery for poor girls and women that increases their marginalization and puts them at an additional disadvantage over and above their already poor health, nutritional, educational and social status," Prasad said.
For many, menstruation and menstrual practices are still clouded by taboos and socio-cultural restrictions resulting in adolescent girls remaining unaware of the scientific facts and hygienic health practices, which can sometimes cause health problems.
This culture of silence builds up shame and embarrassment around menstruation in families and communities.
Jaya Velankar, director of Jagori, an NGO working on women's issues, believes it is very common for adolescent girls to not attend school during their periods for both cultural and material reasons.
She explained to DW the social concerns that arise in families once their daughters begin menstruating.
"For many girls, especially in rural areas, the onset of menstruation becomes the end of their school education as parents have dual fears in mind," Velankar said.
"They are scared that the girls become more vulnerable to sexual violence. They also fear that girls may become sexually active and get into relationships, the real fear being girls falling in love with boys from 'lower castes,'" she added.
Silence about menstruation
Some experts who have studied the issue closely believe that age-appropriate, standardized sex education is the necessary solution.
They say sex education not only imparts scientific information about bodily processes like menstruation but also covers a wide range of issues from intimate relationships, gender identity, sexual orientation and most importantly, the importance of consent and responsibilities including contraception.
"However, there is a huge resistance to it from governments of all political tendencies. We need more public discourse on the issue," Velankar said.
The latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS) report published in May revealed that about half of all women aged 15-24 in India still use cloth for menstrual protection, which experts warn can lead to multiple infections if reused. They attribute this to a lack of awareness and a taboo existing around menstruation.
Many young women in India do not learn about menstruation
Dialogue must continue
Film producer Guneet Monga won an Oscar in 2019 for her documentary, "Period. End of sentence," which is about the deep-rooted stigma attached to menstruation. She urges stakeholders to continue talking about the subject.
"Change is a socio-political-economic process. I am happy at least more people are talking of girls dropping out of schools and I know there is a long way to go," Monga told DW.
Period bullying, when peers, characteristically boys, or teachers mock and ridicule girls for issues related to menstruation, has also been a factor resulting in school dropouts.
"In some of the rural schools I work in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, I try to involve boys in achieving a period-supportive community. Boys need to be made aware of this natural bodily process and that is important," Sulekha Singh, campaign coordinator of Action India told DW.
Anshu Gupta, who quit his corporate job to start Goonj, a non-profit organization that began to make low-cost sanitary pads out of waste cloth for rural women believes the issue has to be looked at again with a different lens.
"This is a complex issue with different challenges. But I think access, affordability, and awareness about menstrual hygiene is important," Gupta told DW.
Edited by: Alex Berry
UK
“Who voted for this?” Liz Truss heckled by Greenpeace during Party Conference speech
October 05 2022 Protesters holding a flag which read “who voted for this?” have been ejected from the hall after disrupting Prime Minister Liz Truss’s first Tory conference speech as party leader. Greenpeace confirmed that its activists were responsible for the protest during the Prime Minister’s speech at the Conservative Party conference. In a tweet, Greenpeace said activists were there to “denounce the Prime Minister ‘shredding’ her party’s 2019 manifesto promises”. “The PM is U-turning on fracking, strong climate action, and world-leading environmental protections.
Greenpeace Campaigners Disrupt Liz Truss Speech to Denounce U-Turn on Fracking
Greenpeace protesters interrupt U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference at the International Convention Center in Birmingham, England, October 5, 2022
Demanding to know “who voted for” new U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss’ reversal on fracking, Greenpeace campaigners on Wednesday prominently displayed a banner as the Conservative leader spoke at her party’s annual conference in Birmingham before being forcibly removed from the meeting.
“Who voted for this?” read the sign displayed by Rebecca Newsom, Greenpeace U.K.’s head of public affairs, and Ami McCarthy, the group’s policy officer.
After Truss called for the protesters to be “removed” from the conference hall, the banner was ripped from their hands by security guards, but Newsom and McCarthy quickly produced another sign. The protest came two weeks after Truss announced the Conservative government will reverse the fracking ban imposed by the party in 2019, following tremors near the country’s only fracking site in Lancashire.
Last week, Truss told BBC Radio that the government “will only press ahead with fracking in areas where there is local community support for that” but did not provide details on how local consent would be secured, and did not respond when an interviewer noted that members of Parliament who represent the area don’t support fracking.
The Greenpeace campaigners on Wednesday said Truss’ plan to return to fracking represents just part of her party’s “U-turn” on policy since she took office.
“Nobody voted for fracking, nobody voted to cut benefits, nobody voted to trash nature, nobody voted to scrap workers’ rights,” Newsom told reporters after the pair were forced to leave the conference hall. “There’s a whole host of things that the Conservative government were elected to do in 2019 that they’re simply not doing.” The protest followed nationwide outcry over the “mini-budget” the Conservative government released last month, including a tax cut for the wealthy which Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced this week would no longer be included in the plan.
“The chancellor said the government is now listening,” said Newsom. “If so, they may want to pay attention to the widening chorus of leading businesses, energy experts, former Conservative ministers, and even the U.S. president telling them to go in the opposite direction.”
UK
Labour hold on to strongest poll lead for more than two decades
Ian Jones -Evening Standard - TODAY Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer (right) and deputy leader Angela Rayner (2nd right)
Liz Truss has brought the Conservative Party conference to a close with Labour continuing to enjoy its strongest performance in the opinion polls for more than 20 years.
The Prime Minister delivered her speech on a day that saw the Tories’ average poll rating drop to just 24%, 26 percentage points behind Labour.
The last time Labour had a similarly sized lead over the Conservatives was in the summer of 2001.
A collection of polls published in the wake of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget on September 23 have all shown Labour extending its lead over the Tories, with one polling company putting the gap at 30 points (People Polling) and another at 33 points (YouGov).
These are the sorts of figures that would likely see a landslide Labour victory at a general election – were one to take place tomorrow, and were people to vote in the same way across the country.
Labour’s seven-day average poll share has climbed from 41% in the days just before the mini-budget to 50%, while the Tories have dropped 10 points from 34% to 24%, according to analysis by the PA news agency.
The Liberal Democrats have held steady on 10% while the Greens are currently on 5%.
Related video: Labour argues 'cavalry is coming' after 'reckless' Tory economic strategy
A separate poll carried out on October 3-4 of voters in 40 so-called ‘Red Wall’ seats – former Labour constituencies now held by the Conservatives – put Labour on 61% and the Tories on 23%, a 38-point lead.
This is up from a 15-point lead just before the mini-budget, according to data published by the polling company Redfield & Wilton.
The equivalent figures at the 2019 election for these 40 seats were 47% for the Tories and 38% for Labour.
Opinion polls are snapshots of the prevailing public mood, not projections or forecasts.
With the next general election still more than two years away – the latest possible date is January 23 2025 – there is plenty of time for the national numbers to change.
But polls both shape and reflect the prevailing mood of the country, in turn affecting morale among politicians and party members alike.
The news for the Conservatives is equally grim when looking at Liz Truss’s popularity scores.
The Prime Minister’s ratings are already lower than any recorded for either Boris Johnson or the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, according to a survey by YouGov carried out on October 1-2.
Ms Truss’s net favourability rating – the difference between the proportion of people saying they have a favourable opinion of her and those who have an unfavourable opinion – currently stands at minus 59 points.
This is lower than levels reached by both Mr Johnson, who hit minus 53 points in July of this year, and Mr Corbyn, who fell to minus 55 points in June 2019.
Beware the Skinwalkers, Werewolf Witches of the American Southwest
These canine-humanoid shapeshifters travel between worlds using magical doors.
OCTOBER 5, 2022 Skinwalkers are not hapless victims who fell prey to dark magic—they want to be monsters. VICTORIA ELLIS FOR ATLAS OBSCURA In This Story PLACE Antelope Canyon
Cryptids of all kinds have long moved in the shadows across what’s now the United States, their legends preserved in Native American traditions that stretch from the Southwest to the Great Lakes and beyond. Acclaimed writer J.W. Ocker introduces us to some of these ancient terrors. Excerpted with permission from The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters, by J. W. Ocker. Published by Quirk Books. All rights reserved.
“THAT’S A DOOR BETWEEN WORLDS. My people believe we entered our current world through something like this. It’s also how the skinwalkers get around. Those are our boogeymen,” the guide explained to me. His name was Ryan. He was a young, laid-back Navajo man earning cash as a tour guide while studying music theory at college. He was leading a group of us through Upper Antelope Canyon in Arizona. The size of my tip at the end of the tour was completely in proportion to the beauty of those four sentences.
Skinwalkers are humans that change into animals, often wolves. Because of that, they’ve been lumped into the werewolf category of horror stories and the dogman/wolfman category of cryptids by settlers. Whether a creature is identified as a skinwalker versus a dogman or wolfman often depends on the state where they’re seen—skinwalkers are known throughout the Southwest—and the size of the local Navajo population. However, skinwalkers aren’t tragic characters turned lupine against their will, as in horror stories, nor are they some species of evolutionarily-confusing creature, as in cryptid legends. Skinwalkers want to be monsters.
In Navajo stories, skinwalkers are evil beings. Witches. Human sorcerers of dark magic who attain their status by committing specific atrocities such as murdering a family member. Their defining characteristic is that they can shapeshift into other creatures, such as foxes and coyotes. But mostly they turn into wolves. And unlike other humanoid canines, they can travel via magical doors between worlds, one of which is in Upper Antelope Canyon.
Upper Antelope Canyon, on Navajo land in Arizona, is as beautiful as it is dangerous, due to high risk of flash flooding. LUCA GALUZZI, CC BY-SA 2.5/WIKIMEDIA
Antelope Canyon is a 660-foot-long slot canyon, a thin passageway created by flowing water on Navajo land in Arizona. It can only be accessed when led by a Navajo guide. The entrance to the upper canyon is in an outcropping of sandstone about 120 feet high with an ominous vertical opening slitting its face. Inside that opening, a winding passage varies in width from several yards to a couple chest-widths wide. The floor is covered with a thin layer of fine sand. Above, the sliver of light that is the top of the crevice is often blocked by twists in the rock wall.
It was beautiful. Enough light filtered in to set a comfortable, ethereal mood, and the walls were gorgeous, almost glowing pink and orange and shaped like frozen waves, as if someone had sculpted the soft sandstone with a cake icing tool. In reality, it was water that had done all the sculpting. Even though the place was bone dry on our visit, it is extremely prone to flash floods. The idea was terrifying even without the werewolf witches: being trapped in that claustrophobic space, underwater, knocked against all the beautiful whorls and outcrops of rock. And that wasn’t just paranoia—people have drowned in Antelope Canyon. In 1997, eleven succumbed to a flash flood there. In 2010, during another flash flood, a group was able to get to safety, but was stranded until the waters abated.
The skinwalker door that Ryan had drawn my attention to was a flat section of rock, about six feet tall, inset into the wall and rounded at the top. It’s nothing I would have noticed on my own, but once pointed out, it did seem like all it needed was a knob. Modern stories of skinwalker encounters don’t involve portals, and, of course, Ryan might have just been having a bit of fun with a wide-eyed tourist, as many Navajo find the subject to be taboo and don’t like to discuss skinwalkers, especially with outsiders.
In 1987, skinwalkers burst into the wider public consciousness when they were used as a defense in a murder trial in Flagstaff, Arizona. The body of a 40-year-old Navajo woman named Sarah Saganitso was found behind the hospital where she worked. A former English professor at Northern Arizona University named George Abney was accused, arrested, and taken to trial. The defense argued that a skinwalker had killed Saganitso, based on the fact that she was Navajo and found with a broken stick across her throat and a clump of graveyard grass near her truck. The defense claimed the two objects were evidence of a skinwalker ritual. Abney was at first found guilty, but then acquitted a year later.
Skinwalkers have continued to capture people’s imaginations ever since. In 2021, a clip was released on TikTok that purported to show a strange, skeletal creature jumping from a grassy patch of wilderness. It gathered six million views and tons of comments hypothesizing that the creature was a skinwalker. In fact, clips with the hashtag #skinwalker have a total of more than a billion views on that social media platform. It’s mostly thanks to one Navajo creator named John Soto, who raised the profile of the creature when, in fall 2020, he posted a series of videos of himself looking for skinwalkers on his Arizona property that went viral and garnered millions of views.
It’s an ancient evil, a horror story, a cryptid, a meme. The skinwalker is a surprisingly versatile monster. And if you want to up your chances of finding one, I can take you to its front door.
Sweden’s navy had been patrolling Nord Stream detonation sites days before explosions
Vessels were not there when incident occurred
Swedish naval vessels were monitoring the Nord Stream pipelines
On Wednesday, it was revealed that the Swedish navy had been patrolling the areas days before, but were not there on the day of the explosions.
The armed forces confirmed to Swedish newspaper Samnytt that the navy had patrolled the area of the suspected sabotage on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines days before the leak was discovered.
But it refused to say why the ships were in the area, citing strict secrecy.
"Our operations at sea are subject to extra secrecy due to various events and the global situation. So we don't tell very much about what we do," the navy's spokesperson Jimmie Adamsson said.
The ships departed from Karlskrona on Thursday and travelled to the area where powerful underwater explosions were detected the following Monday, according to data from the commercial service Marine Traffic, which monitors ship traffic at sea.
The Kremlin denies it was behind the attacks.
Several hundred kilograms of explosives are said to have been used in the assaults, causing significant damage to the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 offshore pipelines.
Last Friday, the UN Security Council held a meeting on the issue.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin told the assembly "the general opinion was that this was sabotage and that it should be investigated" but that "no decision had been made" on an international probe.
Sweden has now blocked off the area around the Nord Stream pipeline leaks in the Baltic Sea while the suspected sabotage is investigated, prosecutors said on Monday.
TEHRAN, Sep. 30 (MNA) – Mehr 8 in the Iranian calendar corresponding with September 30 is considered a significant cultural event for Iranians to commemorate the prominent Iranian poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi who is known to everyone.
The land of Iran is the cradle of countless famous people and poets; one of the most famous Iranian poets is Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, who is known as Mawlānā, Mawlawī, and more popularly simply as Rumi.
He is widely known by the sobriquet Mawlānā/Molānā in Iran and popularly known as Mevlânâ in Turkey. Mawlānā is a term of Arabic origin, meaning "our master”, and is also frequently used for him.
23 meters high statue of Rumi in Buca, İzmir, Turkey
Rumi was born to native Persian-speaking parents on the Eastern shores of the then Persian Empire on September 30, 1207, in the city of Balkh which is now part of Afghanistan, and finally settled in the town of Konya, in what is now Turkey.
Rumi's life story is full of intrigue and high drama mixed with intense creative outbursts. Rumi was a charming, wealthy nobleman, a genius theologian, a law professor and a brilliant but sober scholar, who in his late thirties met a wandering and holy man by the name of Shams on November 30, 1244, in the streets of Konya.
Tomb of Shams Tabrizi, Khoy, West Azerbaijan province, Iran
For months the two mystics lived closely together, and Rumi neglected his disciples and family so that his scandalized entourage forced Shams to leave the town in February 1246. Rumi was heartbroken, and his eldest son, Sulṭan Walad, eventually brought Shams back from Syria. The family, however, could not tolerate the close relation of Rumi with Shams, and one night in 1247 Shams disappeared forever. In the 20th century, it was established that Shams was indeed murdered, not without the knowledge of Rumi’s sons, who hurriedly buried him close to a well that is still extant in Konya.
After Shams was extinguished, Rumi fell into a deep state of grief and gradually out of that pain outpoured nearly 70,000 verses of poetry almost all in Persian that are collected in two epic books. These thousands of poems, which include about 2,000 in quatrains, are collected in two epic books. The first collection is devoted to his mentor Shams named, Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi. It took him 15 years to complete this collection.
Manuscript of Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi at Mevlana Museum, Konya, Turkey
After the first collection, he devotes the last ten years of his life to creating Masnavi Ma’navi. A work filled with anecdotes, life lessons, moral stories, stories from all three Abrahamic religions, and popular topics of the day.
Rumi and Shams stayed together for a short time, about 2 years in total, but the impact of their meeting left an everlasting impression on Rumi and his work. In Rumi's own words, after meeting Shams he was transformed from a bookish, sober scholar to an impassioned seeker of universal truth and love. Rumi was totally his own man. He was an utterly brilliant artist and a true genius who after the death of his mentor Shams became unstoppable.
Due to the fact that Rumi recited poetry for about 25 years and 70,000 verses, he has covered every morsel of emotion, thought, idea and topic. Therefore, he can't be pinned on one statement. His work has an all-embracing universality. A call from an independent soul yearning for true freedom from dogma and hypocrisy.
Manuscript of Masnavi Ma’navi at Mevlana Museum, Konya, Turkey
Rumi also had three prose works. The prose works are divided into The Discourses, The Letters, and the Seven Sermons.
Fihi Ma Fihi provides a record of seventy-one talks and lectures given by Rumi on various occasions to his disciples. It was compiled from the notes of his various disciples, so Rumi did not author the work directly.
Majāles-e Sab'a contains seven Persian sermons (as the name implies) or lectures given in seven different assemblies. The sermons themselves give a commentary on the deeper meaning of the Qur'an and Hadith. The sermons also include quotations from poems of Sana'i, 'Attar, and other poets, including Rumi himself.
Makatib is a collection of letters written in Persian by Rumi to his disciples, family members, and men of state and influence. The letters testify that Rumi kept very busy helping family members and administering a community of disciples that had grown up around them.
Tomb of Rumi, Konya, Turkey
Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry and dance as a path to reaching God. For Rumi, music helped devotees to focus their whole being on the divine and to do this so intensely that the soul was both destroyed and resurrected. Rumi encouraged Sama, listening to music and turning or doing the sacred dance. In the Mevlevi tradition, Sama represents a mystical journey of spiritual ascent through mind and love to the Perfect One. In this journey, the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth and arrives at the Perfect. The seeker then returns from this spiritual journey, with greater maturity, to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination with regard to beliefs, races, classes and nations.
He died on 17 December 1273 in Konya. His death was mourned by the diverse community of Konya. Rumi's body was interred beside that of his father, and a splendid shrine, the Green Tomb was erected over his place of burial. Upon his death, his followers and his son Sultan Walad founded the Mevlevi Order, also known as the Order of the Whirling Dervishes, famous for the Sufi dance known as the Sama ceremony.
Shrine of Rumi, Konya, Turkey
Georgian Queen Gürcü Hatun was a close friend of Rumi. She was the one who sponsored the construction of his tomb in Konya. The 13th century Mevlâna Mausoleum, with its mosque, schools and living quarters for dervishes, remains a destination of pilgrimage to this day.
Rumi is also timeless and placeless. The world has embraced Rumi not because of where he was born or where he grew up or what religion he belonged to but because of what he represents.
By the end of the 20th century, his popularity had become a global phenomenon, with his poetry achieving wide circulation in Western Europe and the United States.
Sama ceremony in Konya, Turkey
December 17 is the day of Rumi's death. In Konya, a special commemoration ceremony for Rumi is held every year from December 7th to 17th.
In a ceremony known as Sama, dancers wear long white robes with full skirts. On the dancers’ heads sit tall conical felt hats. The dancers, who fast for many hours before the ceremony, start to turn in rhythmic patterns, using the left foot to propel their bodies around the right foot with their eyes open, but unfocused. This is sought through abandoning one's nafs, ego, or personal desires, by listening to music, focusing on God, and spinning one's body in repetitive circles, which has been seen as a symbolic imitation of planets in the Solar System orbiting the sun.
In Iran, the 7th day of Mehr and the 8th day of Mehr – the eighth month on the Iranian calendar, which fell on September 28 and 29 this year – have been designated as the National Day of Shams Tabrizi and National Day of Rumi respectively to commemorate these two great poets and figures of Iran and the world.
Here are some lines from his poem 'Listen to the reed', translated by Reynold A. Nicholson, 1926:
"Listen to the reed how it tells a tale, complaining of separations. Saying, "Ever since I was parted from the reed-bed, my lament hath caused man and woman to moan. I want a bosom torn by severance, that I may unfold (to such a one) the pain of love-desire. Everyone who is left far from his source wishes back to the time when he was united with it. In every company, I uttered my wailful notes, I consorted with the unhappy and with them that rejoice. Everyone became my friend from his own opinion; none sought out my secrets from within me. My secret is not far from my plaint, but ear and eye lack the light (whereby it should be apprehended). The body is not veiled from soul, nor soul from the body, yet none is permitted to see the soul. This noise of the reed is fire, it is not wind: whoso hath not this fire, may he be nought! 'Tis the fire of Love that is in the reed, 'tis the fervour of Love that is in the wine."
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