Introducing Sufism

A longing deep within us

Islam thrives on diversity, something that is particularly apparent within its body of mystic practice, known as Sufism. In his new book, Marian Brehmer introduces us to the many forms of Islamic mysticism. By Lisa Nealp

How is it possible to write about mysticism when its true essence can't be captured in words? Author Marian Brehmer solves this problem by describing various different approaches that take us closer to its core. His book Sich den Durst aneignen ("Acquire thirst"), collates Sufi practices. Most prominent among these are poetry, music, the veneration of saints and sema, the meditative practice of spinning on your own axis which is often falsely described as a dance.

Where there are questions, answers will be given; where there are ships, water will flow. Spend less time seeking water and acquire thirst! Then water will gush from above and below. (Jalaluddin Rumi)

Following on from Der Schatz unter den Ruinen ("The treasure among the ruins"), Brehmer's second book takes us on another journey into the world of Sufism. Driven by his own "thirst" for spirituality and self-knowledge, in this book he focuses even more strongly on the sensory level. He works with photos, poems, interview extracts, background information and his own experiences. 

Men engaged in a Sufi ritual: each chapter in Brehmer's book provides an introduction to the

 cultural influences on how mysticism is practiced in Islamic countries across the Middle East

 and beyond, and in so doing helps us to understand the diversity inherent in Sufism

The photos he has collected over the past few years, with their intense colours, are a particularly vivid reflection of how deeply involved he has become with the world of Sufism. The pictures also display Brehmer's eye for symmetry and his gift for observing quiet moments.

A gallery of photos

The four main chapters are put together from travels in the world of Sufism, and are divided up into regions: Anatolia and Syria; Persia; South Asia; Al-Andalus and Morocco. The book is more than just an attractive coffee-table volume, however, partly thanks to its spiritual clarity and intercultural sensitivity, which shines through at various points.

Brehmer knows the Sufi worlds in which he moves. He became acquainted with the spiritual life as a child in India, and has travelled a lot over the past 12 years. He took Iranian studies at university, speaks fluent Persian and Turkish, and lives in Turkey, where he has been based for several years now.

Each chapter provides an introduction to the cultural influences on how mysticism is practiced in these places, and in so doing helps us to understand the diversity inherent in Sufism.

Following on from "Der Schatz unter den Ruinen" ('The treasure among the ruins'),

 Brehmer's latest book takes us on another journey into the world of Sufism. 

Driven by his own "thirst" for spirituality and self-knowledge, he focuses on

 the sensory level – working with photos, poems, interview extracts, background information

 and his own experiences. His colourful images are a particularly vivid reflection 

of how deeply involved he has become with the world of Sufism

The pleasure that Brehmer takes in wonder, travel, poetry and beauty comes across in his language, and the book's form and content are thus well suited to one another. His narrative style takes up an aspect of every mystic path: a tension between images that touches a wordless longing in us.

"The sleeping car in 'Sleeper Class' is a colourful potpourri of people and noises. A tea seller walks through the compartments carrying a heavy thermos flask. His nimble hands pour steaming, milky tea into cardboard cups. [...] A group of barefoot intinerant Hindu ascetics, swathed in saffron-coloured cloths, are engaged in animated conversation."

He goes on: "In the middle of all this, on one of the blue upholstered bunks, sit two older gentlemen whose bushy white beards identify them unmistakeably as Muslims. [...] Shortly after sunset, the two men take white prayer caps from their bags and, without getting up from the bunk, assume a more concentrated posture. Then they close their eyes, murmur the Fatiha, the first sura of the Koran, hunch their backs and place their hands on their thighs."

The courtyard of a mosque in Fez, Morocco: the revolutionary thing about the 

mystical path is that you don't find God in temples, mosques and churches, but

 in your own heart. For this, your heart must be open and cleansed of all illusions.

 The long path of inner transformation is not a straightforward one; the author 

describes this process in the words of the great Sufi master and poet Jalaluddin

 Rumi as "being cooked"

In contrast to his first book, the author chooses not to use first-person narration, although we see, smell and learn to understand these worlds from his point of view. But the book is not a theological treatise or geopolitical analysis, either. And that is not down to any lack of subject knowledge on the author's part.

Islamic mysticism is a living thing

The author’s expertise is evident in the foreword and the precision with which he describes phenomena such as the Ahi and other orders; Malang (Pakistani dervishes); people like the female Indian mystic Mirabai and the Persian saint Charakani; and peculiarities such as the introduction of music into religious practice by Moinuddin Chishti.

The author's spiritual clarity is shown in the book's core statement: the revolutionary thing about the mystical path is that you don't find God in temples, mosques and churches, but in your own heart. For this, your heart must be open and cleansed of all illusions.

How is it possible to write about mysticism when its true essence can't be captured in words? Author Marian Brehmer solves this problem by describing various different approaches that take us closer to its core. His book collates Sufi practices. Most prominent among these are poetry, music, the veneration of saints and sema, the meditative practice of spinning on your own axis which is often falsely described as a dance

The long path of inner transformation is not a straightforward one. The author describes this process in the words of the great Sufi master and poet Jalaluddin Rumi as "being cooked".

"You must forget yourself, If you want to find Him [God] at your side. (Strange are the times, Sain Bullhe Shah)".

The diversity of Sufism shows that Islamic mysticism is a living thing. This doesn’t apply to the other two Abrahamic religions to quite the same extent.

Jewish mysticism, kabbala, finds the majority of its followers in Hassidic communities in the USA and Israel. Christian mysticism is practiced in various individual religious orders, in the form of retreats (for meditation) and in contemplative orders such as the Carmelites.

The German-speaking world, however, lacks the visible, everyday forms of Christian mysticism.

And what we have lost here is more than just a great treasure on the Christian path to self-understanding.

The gap it leaves creates too much space for esotericism, which – just like an orthodoxy which is too worldly – can endanger a free spiritual life in any form of religion.

The more one engages with Christian mysticism, the more appealing it can become.

And it will be easier to gauge whether this might be one way to fall (back) in love with Christianity once we have access to "bridge-building" books like Brehmer's on Sufism for the Christian faith.

Until that point, it is worth taking inspiration from this book, because: "[t]he mystic knows that the countless spiritual paths of the world are like hiking trails that lead up different sides of a mountain to the same peak".

"There may be differences in the character and the vegetation of these paths – some are short and steep, while others wind slowly upwards over a long distance – but ultimately, the destination is the same".

Lisa Neal

© Qantara.de 2023

Translated from the German by Ruth Martin

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: My Favorite Muslim 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SUFIS 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SUFI 

Counterrevolution in the Arab world

Authoritarianism, a forever scenario?

Calls to normalise relations with the criminal Assad regime, which has killed and displaced millions of Syrians, marks a new phase, namely the victory of the counter-revolutionaries. The old-style Arab regime is back – more brutal and oppressive than ever, as Ali Anouzla explain years on since the outbreak of the Arab Spring, the Middle East and North Africa is witnessing more ongoing power struggles than any other region in the world. The region also includes the largest number of states which have either failed or are on the brink of failing.

The Arab Spring was sparked after Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia in an act of self-immolation; it was a harsh and tragic expression of protest by someone who had reached the depths of despair. Yet even this no longer moves the dial, as we saw recently in Morocco and Tunisia: two artists burned themselves to death without their protest achieving any serious reaction.

What was, 12 years ago, a heroic expression of anger which stirred the Arab street, is no more today than a state of despair engendering pity and sorrow towards the poor souls who resort to these desperate measures. So how have we come to this?

Once described as a major turning point in the history of the region, Arabellion is seen today as the biggest calamity a country can suffer, turning people’s lives upside down. All the slogans and aspirations carried on the winds of the Arab Spring have withered away. Instead, they have been transformed into wars, conflicts, coups, killings and arrests.

"Disasters, wars, divisions, repression, and economic crises have made people nostalgic for the old regimes"

Deteriorated media landscape: Algeria's media and journalists have been under constant pressure, 

especially since President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s election in December 2019. A 2020 penal code

 amendment, made disseminating "false news" and "hate speech" aimed at harming "national security

 and order" or "state security and national unity" punishable by one to three years in prison.

 Reporters Without Borders says such provisions are being used to prosecute and convict journalists, 

resulting in widespread censorship and self-censorship. Media legislation adopted in 2023 introduced

 further restrictions and sanctions, banning Algerian media outlets from benefitting from any direct

 and indirect foreign funding or material assistance under penalty of heavy fines

The economic and social plight of the people has worsened, whilst many countries are becoming increasingly indebted. Some are unable to pay their debts or obtain new loans unless they accept the humiliating conditions of international lenders. At the same time, the region is in a precarious state, authoritarian and repressive regimes hold the reins of power in several capitals, and uncertainty reigns among many people. Meanwhile, the youth are suffering from unemployment and a dearth of economic prospects.

The Arab Spring had been seen as a glimmer of hope for the people of the region and an opportunity for them to take back control of their own lives. How did it morph into a means to extend their suffering through even greater impoverishment and oppression? What we see today is the result of over a decade of counter-revolution.

These retrenchments were planned and funded by certain Gulf States in collusion with the remnants of the regimes that had been kicked out by their own people; in various cases, the security forces helped. The counter-revolution began with the militarisation of the popular uprisings in Syria, Libya and Yemen, until it reduced these countries to civil, regional and ethnic warzones. The subsequent conflicts have destroyed everything, laid waste the land, reduced the towns to ruins, killed and displaced millions from their homes.

 

The first and most significant victory of the counter-revolution came with the military coup against the first civil regime in Egypt. The upshot of the past ten years of military rule has been a catastrophe at every level. Egypt now has more prisoners of conscience than anywhere else in the world and its economy has plunged into unprecedented crises. The ordinary person’s standard of living has been negatively affected and their suffering has become much worse in terms of poverty and repression.

As for Tunisia, which was the starting point of the “Arab Spring” and the last country that stood firm against the counter-revolution, it is today seeing the greatest regression under the rule of a president who is beyond redemption and who is leading the country towards the abyss.

Between the coup in Egypt and the relapse in Tunisia, many Arab countries have seen catastrophes, wars, divisions, turmoil, repression and economic crises. These have made people yearn for the old regimes, and the latter have emerged strengthened from the winds of popular revolution. The masses may have rebelled against them, and yet now they have an even stronger hold over power, in spite of, or thanks to, the many crimes they have committed against their own peoples.

The calls for normalisation of relations with a criminal regime like that of Bashar al-Assad, which has killed and displaced millions of Syrians, marks a new phase, namely the victory of the counter-revolution. The old-style Arab regime is back, more brutal and oppressive than ever.

Meanwhile, the millions of people who took to the streets in Arab capitals 12 years ago to demand freedom, dignity and justice are still there, only their conditions and the state of their countries have got even worse. Similarly, the rotten and corrupt regimes which the demonstrators came out to call for their departure remain in place, or they have come back even more powerful and oppressive.

So far, the #UAE, #Jordan, #Egypt & #Saudi have undertaken substantive moves to re-engage #Assad's regime in #Syria.

All have privately &/or publicly justified this as being driven by a desire to compete w. #Iran, stabilize #Syria, secure refugee returns, end drug flows & more.

 

That people have not come out in protest, to express their anger and disquiet with their situation, coupled with their acceptance of corruption and oppression as normal is explained by their fear, their despair and their loss of confidence in everything, including their dreams. Most people in these countries recognise that the legitimacy of their regimes and their rulers was shattered long ago. Moreover, they know that resentment remains over the injustice, the poverty and the tyranny, and it will foment whenever repression rises or the economic situation gets worse.

But the time will come when patience will run out and the disaffected and the angry will come out again, making the same demands. The people have learned a lot from their aborted revolutions, and also from the counter-revolutions which robbed them of their dreams. Therein is a lesson for those celebrating the success of the counter-revolutions, because the current situation is simply not sustainable!

Peace and stability are at risk in various parts of the world as a result of crises, wars and conflicts, with catastrophic consequences for the global economy. Add to this, the devastating effects of climate change and related risks of drought and floods, combined with the spread of potentially apocalyptic epidemics, and this is why most people are ever more certain that the world's problems will only become still more complicated. Hence the fear that the coming years will be worse. The Arab world will not be excluded from this cataclysmic fate.

Ali Anouzla

© Qantara.de 2023

Translated from the Arabic by Chris Somes-Charlton

 Dispute about the site of biblical Samaria intensifies

Archaeological site in the West Bank

In the Palestinian village of Sebastia in the West Bank, clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers are becoming more frequent. A long-simmering conflict over archaeological treasures in the village threatens to escalate. Details from Joseph Croitoruooltip

Israelis – and in particular members of Israel's right-wing religious government – primarily associate the village of Sebastia with the biblical town of Samaria. Not only does the government reject the claim of the Palestinians, who have been living there for centuries, to the village's cultural heritage, it also wants to change the archaeological site according to its own ideas.

Sebastia is a small Palestinian village north-west of Nablus that harbours important cultural treasures. On its western edge are the archaeological remains of a palace from the Israelite Omrid period and a Byzantine church that is believed to be the burial place of St John the Baptist. There are also numerous structures from the Roman period, including a temple of Augustus, a hippodrome, a theatre and columns from a basilica.

The site is currently going through the process of being considered for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. It is located in the Israeli-occupied and fully Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank.

The site is reached via an access road and a large car park, which are situated in the Palestinian-administered Area B. When Israeli tourists, mostly settlers, visit the site, they are escorted by the military. In such cases, visitors from the Palestinian side have to make way for them. There is growing resistance to this situation, increasingly leading to clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.

 

The road to UNESCO World Heritage Site status

Radical settlers have recently accused Palestinians of wilfully destroying archaeological treasures in the village. Although the evidence of such vandalism is extremely dubious, the new ultra-right Israeli government is more than willing to believe it.

Amichai Eliyahu, Heritage Minister and a member of the right-wing extremist Otzma Yehudit ("Jewish Strength") party, raised serious accusations on a recent visit to the site: "The people here are trying to wipe out the entire Jewish people. They want to erase the history of the people of Israel. And we are not going to stand for that."

Years ago, the Israelis declared the archaeological site a national park that is named after the ancient town of Samaria (Shomron in Hebrew), which is said to have been built in the ninth century BC by the biblical kings Omri and Achav of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Samaria was, however, destroyed by Assyrian invaders just a few decades later.

The Palestinians, who consider themselves to be the original inhabitants of the area, claim the site as their own and call it Sebastia – after the town King Herod built here centuries later. They promote Sebastia as one of the most important archaeological sites in the Palestinian territories.

A museum that opened in the village in 2017 presents archaeological finds that come for the most part from rescue excavations in the village. Research excavations by Palestinian archaeologists both at the site and in the village itself are systematically prevented by the Israelis.

The Israeli government recently earmarked some €9 million for a development programme

 for the archaeological site on the outskirts of the Palestinian village of Sebastia (pictured here). 

The Palestinians see this as a menace to their cultural heritage

Mayor goes on the defensive

The Israeli government recently earmarked some €9 million for a development programme for the archaeological site. The Palestinians see this as a menace to their cultural heritage.

Speaking to the local radio station Hayat, Mayor Muhammad Azem condemned the "Judaisation project of the occupation authorities," which he said aimed to establish complete control over the archaeological site: "It should be open to visitors from all over the world. But the occupiers want to make the site accessible only to settlers, a dangerous development designed to create a new situation in Sebastia."

He says that the Israelis' plans include completely fencing off the site and building a new access road that would connect with the road leading to the neighbouring Israeli settlement of Shavei Shomron. Azem fears that, in a further step, the Israelis would also carry out excavations "to uncover traces of their, as they say, ancestors".

The Palestinian protest against the planned Israeli project was recently joined by a small delegation of EU diplomats who visited the site. German diplomat Sven von Burgsdorff, the EU's representative in the Palestinian territories, stressed in his statement that the territory and its cultural treasures belonged to the Palestinians alone.

Although Mayor Azem welcomes such gestures, he doubts that they will make much of an impression on the Israelis. He wants to try to take legal action against the construction plans by invoking the land rights of the villagers as recorded in old land register entries. Muhammad Azem hopes that this will at least delay the upcoming construction work.

Joseph Croitoru

© Qantara.de 2023

Translated from the German by Jennifer Taylor

 CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Cocaine, Marijuana… Jellyfish? Cartels Muscle in on New Export Business

By El Huaso 7/11/2023

For decades the fishermen around the Santa Clara gulf in the Mexican state of Sonora have lived from fishing and selling jellyfish, a product that has no market in Mexico but sells well in Asia. This year the local industry was expecting a good season. But now the Sinaloa Cartel wants a piece of the multimillion business.

The “cannonball jellyfish” is one of a dozen sea products exported from Mexico to Singapore and Vietnam and leaving over $10 million in revenue during a three-month season, according to Mexican fishing authorities.

By this time of the year, the fishermen should be already processing tons of jellyfish to be sent to other major Mexican companies, which run the export side of business. But June is over and no fisherman has dared to get into the sea. The threat is real: Heavily armed cartel members are making sure no one goes out to fish.

“They want us to work for them exclusively, but we are afraid, we really don’t know what to do,” a local fisherman in the small city of Guaymas, Sonora, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation from the cartel, told The Daily Beast.

To be ready for export, the jellyfish needs to be dehydrated using tons of salt, a part of the process that only a “salina” (an industrial salt processing company) can do. Years earlier these companies worked together with the local fishermen, buying their product and then processing the jellyfish and exporting it themselves to different companies in Asia, mostly in Singapore or Vietnam.

The process of fishing and dehydrating the jellyfish employs around 300 men and processes over 250 tons a day, according to José Velázquez, manager of Pesquera Asia, the biggest jellyfish processing company in Sonora.

A month ago, alleged Sinaloa Cartel members burned several trucks belonging to two different processing companies as a threat to stop buying directly from the fishermen and start dealing with the cartel.

“They threatened the drivers too, to stop coming to the coast to buy jellyfish, and now the whole industry is stalled,” the fisherman said.

Mexican authorities have not yet addressed the issue publicly. The Daily Beast reached out to the Mexican National Guard requesting comment but no answer was forthcoming.

A Sinaloa Cartel operative in Sonora who asked to remain anonymous told The Daily Beast that trying to control fishing is “nothing new” for the cartel, but that jellyfish would be a new source of revenue.

“War is very expensive, and when you are at war against other cartels, you need a lot of money and drugs are not enough to finance all the arms, cars and men we need to fight,” the operative said.

In the Mexican Pacific Coast, the Sinaloa Cartel is currently fighting a civil war: two different factions, one settled in Sonora and the other one based out of Baja California are battling for wider control of the criminal organization.

On one side the sons of infamous drug lord Joaquín ‘“El Chapo” Guzmán, collectively known as “Los Chapitos” have sent thousands of men to take over the region from “Los Russo” (the Russians), an armed faction of the oldest Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

The operative is right when he says the trade in marine wild species between Mexico and Asia is nothing new. For the last decade the Sinaloa Cartel has been exploiting endangered species like the sea turtle or the Totoaba fish, an exotic dish served in China.

But in recent years, as the ties between Chinese-based companies and criminal actors like the Sinaloa Cartel have intensified, the Mexican government has been defunding programs to look after the wildlife in the country, according to security analyst and researcher Vanda Felbab-Brown.

“Worrisomely, the Lopez Obrador administration eviscerated the budgetary and personnel resources of Mexican government regulatory environmental agencies. Even before it came to power, many environmental agencies were weak, lacking mandates, rangers, and resources for enforcement against environmental crimes and were pervaded by corruption, but this traditionally weak enforcement has become essentially non-existent,” Felbab-Brown wrote on a recent investigation published at the Brookings Institute.

For now the fishermen in the Santa Clara gulf are on stand-by. They will not dare to get into the sea without the cartel’s clearance but also don’t want to get involved with them. They are pinning their hopes on the Mexican government.

“We have called the Mexican army but until this day they haven’t answered. The season ends in July and it is very probable that we will lose a full year of work and revenue,” the fisherman said. “We will have to look for other jobs, probably far from the coast or choose to work for the cartel.”

Source: Luis Chaparro for the Daily Beast 

Canada’s pipe dream marred as overruns drive up cost of exporting oil to Asia

Sheela Tobben and Robert Tuttle, Bloomberg News

A Canadian pipeline hailed as a cheap and speedy way to send oil to Asia is set to become a $20 billion taxpayers’ headache and an expensive option for exporters thanks to cost overruns.

The expanded Trans Mountain Pipeline will enter service early next year after nearly tripling its capacity, delivering an extra 590,000 barrels of Alberta oil each day to Vancouver. Its route cuts the time to ship Canadian crude to Asia by roughly two-thirds compared to sending via the US Gulf, but it won’t necessarily be more cost effective.

Trans Mountain was touted as a way to broaden buyers of Canadian oil and break energy dependence on the US when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government bought the system from Kinder Morgan Inc. five years ago for $4.5 billion. Since then, repeated delays and construction setbacks have seen project costs more than quadruple to $30.9 billion, challenging the economics of the pipeline and undercutting Canada’s push to diversify oil exports.

“The economics of this project don’t make sense because the financial benefit is not there,” said Robyn Allan, an independent economist who has published reports critical of the project.

Trans Mountain announced interim tolls for its expanded pipeline in June and is seeking approval from Canada’s energy regulator so the line can start operating as early as January. Only part of the cost increases for the expansion can be passed on through higher tolls, with proposed fees already too high for oil producers to make a sufficient profit, Allan said.

That means taxpayers may be left to bear a roughly $20 billion writedown, according to Morningstar Inc analyst Stephen Ellis.

A government spokesperson declined to comment on the pipeline’s potential impact to taxpayers, but said the project was an “important investment in Canada’s economy” that would “ensure Canada receives fair market value for our resources while maintaining the highest environmental standards.” 

The pipeline operator is also offering 80 per cent of its expanded capacity to companies with contracts lasting decades.

Fees of as much as $11.46 a barrel have already drawn rebuke from some that signed contracts, with Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. saying in a June 22 letter it may “impact the overall competitiveness of Canada’s oil industry.”

A company with a 20-year contract would pay about 30 cents more per barrel to ship crude to China using Trans Mountain than via the alternative Enbridge Inc. pipeline systems to the U.S. Gulf Coast, based on proposed tolls and term contract tanker rates, according to Skip York, chief energy strategist at Turner Mason & Co.

Most Canadian oil exports to East Asia are shipped to the Gulf on Enbridge pipelines, TC Energy Corp.’s Keystone system or by rail. From there, the crude is loaded into tankers for journeys of as many as 49 days across three oceans.

Trans Mountain refuted claims the line won’t be competitive. The expansion will have a cost advantage of $2.50 a barrel for shipping to China versus shipping through the Gulf Coast and a bigger advantage to Japan or South Korea, the company said in an email, without specifying how it calculated that cost. “While marine costs fluctuate around the world as conditions change, in the long run, we expect the cost advantage for Trans Mountain to be maintained.”

In certain circumstances, York said the Vancouver route could be cheaper. A company with long-term contracts on Trans Mountain stands to save 40 cents a barrel to reach China over using Keystone. Spot suppliers could save $1.60 a barrel over Enbridge.

Still, crude shipments from Vancouver to East Asia are relatively rare, which makes tanker rates more expensive.

And a major setback for Trans Mountain users relates to capacity limits of Aframax tankers, the largest that can access Vancouver’s marine terminal. The vessels carry less than half the volume of the so-called Very Large Crude Carriers that serve the Gulf Coast. The volume difference means that even though the journey is much shorter, shipping out of Vancouver could be pricier.

The high costs of using Trans Mountain could result in much of the Canadian oil being sent to U.S. West Coast refineries instead of getting shipped to Asia, though there are limits to how much Canada’s southern neighbor can process.

Tanker rates from Vancouver could fall once the route becomes more common. But Trans Mountain won’t be the cheap route to Asia as originally billed.

“The project has failed in that respect for sure,” Allan said.

Ford, GM and Stellantis to begin tense contract talks with United Auto Workers union

Associated Press

(11 Jul 2023) The United Auto Workers will begin bargaining on a new contract with Detroit's three automakers this week. The talks are expected to be contentious 

(AP video: Mike Householder)

 

 

‘A Place Without a Door’ and ‘Uncle Give me a Cigarette’—Two Essays by Palestinian Political Prisoner, Walid Daqqah

Walid Daqqah, Dalia Taha 07.11.2023

“For a long time whenever Milad asked me on the phone, ‘Daddy, where are you?’ I avoided using the word ‘prison.’ I feared that it might be too much for her at her tender age to begin to live with this word and its weighty implications,” writes Walid Daqqah in his essay, “A Pace without a Door.” 

Portrait of Walid Daqqah by artist and architect Hazem Abutawila.

The 61-year-old Palestinian political prisoner and writer was arrested in 1986 and sentenced to a 37 years in Israeli prison. His sentence should have come to an end in 2023 but was extended by Israeli authorities for two years over the smuggling of mobile phones. As Sana’ Salameh, Daqqah’s wife, whom he married in 1999 while in prison, recently wrote, “In other, similar cases, such offenses were punished with a few days of solitary confinement. In Walid’s case they added two years.” Salameh and other activists view Daqqah’s continued detainment as, in actuality, punishment for his defiance, most prominently the smuggling of his sperm to conceive the couple’s daughter, Milad—born in 2020—after Israeli authorities illegally prohibited them from conjugal visitations.

In December of 2022, Daqqah was diagnosed with terminal bone marrow cancer. Despite the severity of his diagnosis, he continues to be denied release as well as vital, life-prolonging treatments. “They have in the past delayed transferring him to the hospital, until it’s almost too late,” writes Salahmeh. “This policy of medical neglect is well known. We call it a policy of slow killing.”[1]

In March of 2023, his family launched a social media campaign, #FreeWalidDaqqa. As part of the campaign for his release, a handful of his essays have been translated from Arabic into English by Dalia Taha, a Palestinian poet and playwright. These essays, smuggled out of prison, include the two below: “A Place without a Door” and “Uncle, Give Me a Cigarette.” Other works by Daqqah include, Parallel Time (later adapted as a play), Dissolving Consciousness, or: Redefining Torture and his children’s novel, The Tale of the Oil’s Secret.

 

A Place without a Door

 

Once, after she had returned from a trip to the ocean, I promised Milad on the phone that I would take her there next time. She paused for a few seconds, hesitant to respond, as if she didn’t want to shock me before finally saying, “No, you don’t have a door.”

For a long time whenever Milad asked me on the phone, “Daddy, where are you?” I avoided using the word “prison.” I feared that it might be too much for her at her tender age to begin to live with this word and its weighty implications. Torn, I grappled with the question of whether I should nevertheless tell my daughter the truth? Or should I hide the bitter reality, to prevent the connotations of the word prison from lodging in her imagination?

Through her visits, Milad came to understand what a prison is, long before she learned the meaning of the word. To her it was a place without a door. Where her father was confined, which he was unable to leave. And for her, if there was no door, then there could be no visit to the ocean. No breakfast to share. And no chance for me to accompany her to the nursery she fondly referred to as “school.”

Protesters gather to hold a demonstration demanding the release of Walid Daqqa in Bethlehem, West Bank on June 7, 2023. His wife and daughter appear in the poster behind him. Wisam Hashlamoun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

From the earliest moments of their lives our children come to understand the reality of walls, barriers and checkpoints.  They do so long before they are introduced to the word “occupation.”  So we ask ourselves a vexing question, one that is of the utmost importance to their education: How do we turn the oppressive feeling created by this reality into a force for positive action, which could contribute to the constructive growth of their young and developing personalities?

While thinking about whether I should use the word “prison” with Milad, memories from my years of captivity began to play in my mind. During these years, I found myself living alongside not just one but three generations of prisoners: the Father, the Son, and the Grandson. Perhaps it is the pervasiveness of prisons in the lives of children, through their frequent visits to incarcerated family members, which brings them back to the confines of the prison as prisoners themselves. In one of my stories from life in prison, entitled “Uncle, Give Me a Cigarette,” a 12-year-old child prisoner asked me for a cigarette. In normal circumstances, outside the walls of the prison, I would have said no. We don’t want children to smoke. But in this environment, it struck me that the child wanted by this request to grow up quickly so that he could better confront the years of confinement that now loomed before him or perhaps recover from the violence of his arrest. By the act of smoking, he seemed to proclaim “behold me, an adult.” So I handed the child a cigarette. And in the presence of Milad, I finally spoke the word “prison.” In the end, I followed Milad’s own cue to me. She had taught me the importance of honesty and truthfulness when raising children. In the end, it did not matter if she heard me use the word “prison.” In her heart she had already felt what it meant. It is a place without a door.

 

“Uncle, Give Me a Cigarette”

 

It is morning and I hear the jangling of two sets of handcuffs as the prison guard approaches us. He throws them to the ground, clanging against the concrete floor, and a sense of calm settles over the room. There’s one bundle to tie the hands, and another, with longer chains, to tie the legs. Eight pairs of handcuffs of each kind, for seven prisoners.

I stand with the others in the middle of a small yard, ringed by holding cells, and try to lean against the wall. I am tired of being moved between prisons since we started the open hunger strike. I gather my energy and try to take in as much air as possible in preparation for a journey that will last hours inside an iron box that in this heat quickly turns into an unbearable furnace.

Once he is finished handcuffing us, the guard heads off for the prisoner transport truck. And then I hear a voice emanating out of the cell behind me…

“Uncle, give me a cigarette.” I peer into the cell’s darkness but cannot see anyone, and for a moment I think I am delirious. Then the voice issues out of the cell again, this time louder and more desperate. “Uncle, my uncle, give me a cigarette!” I stare into the cell again and call to the voice.

“Where are you?!”

“I’m here, down here!”.

Hunching down, I peer through the slot in the bottom of the door through which prisoners receive their food and have their hands tied before being let out of the cell, and I see a child, not older than twelve years old. A child asking for a cigarette.

I didn’t know how to respond to him. Should I give him a cigarette, I wondered, or should I educate him about the dangers of smoking in the way that adults do with children outside prison?  Adults, adults…and then I am struck by the fact I am including myself in this category.  By the fact that he called me “uncle.”  Am I so old already?

I was suddenly terrified by being addressed in this manner. It was the first time during my 26 years of imprisonment that I have met someone speaking to me across such a distance of age. In prisons we are used to not addressing each other in this way, with social honorifics marking our age. Regardless of what our age differences may be, we all address each other as “my brother” or “comrade” and, more recently, “fighter.”

The craving is not for the rush of  nicotine but for what the cigarette connotes. Frightened, a mere child in the harsh world of the prison, he wanted to become a man quickly.

I considered the child, empathizing with his craving for the cigarette. The craving is not for the rush of  nicotine but for what the cigarette connotes. Frightened, a mere child in the harsh world of the prison, he wanted to become a man quickly. Meanwhile, it is now my desire to turn back time so that I can again become a child, at least a young man, the way I was when I entered prison more than a quarter of a century ago.

Both of us were fearful. I was fearful for the time that had passed and he was fearful of what had not yet passed. I was afraid of the past and he was afraid of the future. I was afraid of having lived a life that had burnt out in prison, and he was afraid of what the cigarette that was now lodged between his lips could not burn away. The cigarette became something else after he had exhaled and so did he, standing tall now on his toes, appearing now older than his age. The ember glow became a lantern in his hand, chasing away the darkness of the cell, dispelling his fear and loneliness.

He was not smoking but trying to dispel the image of a child that so incontrovertibly clung to him. In the world of the prison, in the face of the cruelty of its guards, childhood is a burden. Knowing that he was to face years of imprisonment, he was seeking to rid himself of his vulnerability and innocence, for which he clearly had no further use–it having made no difference to the judge that had sentenced him to four years.

The guard came back for us, picked the eighth pair of handcuffs up from the concrete floor, and barked at the child to push his hands through the slot in the door. So the child pushed them through still holding the cigarette between his fingers. The guard shouted at him to drop the cigarette and then muttered to himself in Hebrew, bemoaning the sight of a child smoking.  Nevertheless he proceeded with the handcuffing, remaining unmoved by the sight of those small hands in handcuffs. Because the child’s wrists were too small, however, he struggled several times to secure the handcuffs, and finally decided to use them to chain the boy’s legs.

When he was moved out of the cell, in preparation for the transportation, I looked at him and imagined that he was my own son, such as fate had not yet wanted to bring into the world. I wanted with every strain of my being to hug him and as these paternal feelings surged through me, I felt an overwhelming desire to cry. But I hid my feelings. I did not want to shatter the image of the man that he wanted now to become. I walked over to him, so as to shake his hand as a comrade, and a rival, asking

“How are you, fighter?”

 

---

Endnotes

 

[1] Sana’ Salameh, “Free Walid Daqqah and all political prisoners,” Mondoweiss (March 29, 2023).

How to cite this article:

Walid Daqqah, Dalia Taha "‘A Place Without a Door’ and ‘Uncle Give me a Cigarette’—Two Essays by Palestinian Political Prisoner, Walid Daqqah," Middle East Report Online, July 11, 2023.

India Registers Remarkable Reduction In Poverty With 415 Million People Coming Out Of It In 15 Years: UN

INDIAN STATE CAPITALI$M

On Tuesday, A total of 415 million people moved out of poverty in India within just 15 years from 2005/2006 to 2019/2021, the UN said highlighting the remarkable achievement by the world's most populous nation. 

Number of people living in poverty, or are vulnerable to poverty, stands at over 5 billion AP Photo

UPDATED: 11 JUL 2023 

A total of 415 million people moved out of poverty in India within just 15 years from 2005/2006 to 2019/2021, the UN said on Tuesday, highlighting the remarkable achievement by the world's most populous nation.

The latest update of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford.

It said that 25 countries, including India, successfully halved their global MPI values within 15 years, showing that rapid progress is attainable.

These countries include Cambodia, China, Congo, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Serbia, and Vietnam.

In April, India surpassed China to become the world’s most populous nation with 142.86 crore people, according to UN data.

"Notably, India saw a remarkable poverty reduction, with 415 million people exiting poverty within just 15 years (2005/6–19/21)," the report said.

The report demonstrates that poverty reduction is achievable. However, the lack of comprehensive data during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic poses challenges in assessing immediate prospects, it said.

In India, 415 million poor people moved out of poverty from 2005/2006 to 2019/2021, with incidence falling from 55.1 per cent in 2005/2006 to 16.4 per cent in 2019/2021.

In 2005/2006, about 645 million people were in multidimensional poverty in India, with this number declining to about 370 million in 2015/2016 and 230 million in 2019/2021.

The report noted that deprivation in all indicators declined in India, and “the poorest states and groups, including children and people in disadvantaged caste groups, had the fastest absolute progress.”

According to the report, people who are multidimensionally poor and deprived under the nutrition indicator in India declined from 44.3 per cent in 2005/2006 to 11.8 per cent in 2019/2021, and child mortality fell from 4.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent.

Those who are poor and deprived of cooking fuel fell from 52.9 per cent to 13.9 per cent, and those deprived of sanitation fell from 50.4 per cent in 2005/2006 to 11.3 per cent in 2019/2021, according to the report.

In the drinking water indicator, the percentage of people who are multidimensionally poor and deprived fell from 16.4 to 2.7 during the period, electricity (from 29 per cent to 2.1 per cent) and housing from 44.9 per cent to 13.6 per cent.

The report said that countries with different incidences of poverty also halved their global MPI value.

While 17 countries that did so had an incidence under 25 per cent in the first period, India and Congo had a starting incidence above 50 per cent.

India was among the 19 countries that halved their global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) value during one period - for India it was 2005/2006–2015/2016.

According to the 2023 release, 1.1 billion out of 6.1 billion people (just over 18 per cent) live in acute multidimensional poverty across 110 countries. Sub-Saharan Africa (534 million) and South Asia (389 million) are home to approximately five out of every six poor people.

Nearly two-thirds of all poor people (730 million people) live in middle-income countries, making action in these countries vital for reducing global poverty. Although low-income countries constitute only 10 per cent of the population included in the MPI, these are where 35 per cent of all poor people reside.

Children under the age of 18 account for half of MPI-poor people (566 million). The poverty rate among children is 27.7 per cent, while among adults, it is 13.4 per cent. Poverty predominantly affects rural areas, with 84 per cent of all poor people living in rural areas. Rural areas are poorer than urban areas across all regions of the world.

Countries halved their MPI in periods as short as four to 12 years, demonstrating the feasibility of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of halving poverty according to national definitions within 15 years.

Thus, it is crucial to consider context-specific multidimensional poverty indices that reflect national definitions of poverty since the global MPI assesses multidimensional poverty with the same methodology, the report said.

The agencies, however, added that despite these encouraging trends, the lack of post-pandemic data for most of the 110 countries covered by the global MPI restricts the understanding of the pandemic's effects on poverty.

“As we reach the mid-point of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we can see that there was steady progress in multidimensional poverty reduction before the pandemic," the Director of the Human Development Report Office, Pedro Conceição, said.

"However, the negative impacts of the pandemic in dimensions such as education are significant and can have long-lasting consequences. We must intensify efforts to comprehend the dimensions most negatively affected, necessitating strengthened data collection and policy efforts to get poverty reduction back on track,” Conceição added.

A press release issued by the UNDP said that judging from the few countries where data were solely collected in 2021 or 2022 – Mexico, Madagascar, Cambodia, Peru, and Nigeria – momentum on poverty reduction may have persisted during the pandemic.

Cambodia, Peru, and Nigeria showed significant reductions in their most recent periods, offering hope that progress is still possible. In Cambodia, the most encouraging case among these, the incidence of poverty fell from 36.7 per cent to 16.6 per cent, and the number of poor people halved, from 5.6 million to 2.8 million, all within 7.5 years, including the pandemic years (2014–2021/22).

However, the full impacts globally remain to be measured, it said.

With a renewed emphasis on data collection, “we need to broaden the picture to include the impacts of the pandemic on children," the press release said.

"In over half the countries covered, there was either no statistically significant reduction in child poverty or the MPI value fell more slowly among children than among adults during at least one period. This suggests that child poverty will continue to be a pressing issue, particularly about school attendance and undernutrition,” it said.

Director of OPHI at the University of Oxford, Sabina Alkire, said the scarcity of data on multidimensional poverty is hard to comprehend, let alone justify.

“The world is reeling under a data deluge and gearing up for the next era of digital growth. Yet we do not have a post-pandemic line of sight for 1 billion of the 1.1 billion poor people,” Alkire said.

“This problem is eminently solvable – data on multidimensional poverty are faster to gather than most realise – requiring just 5 per cent of questions in the surveys we use. We call on funders and data scientists to make a breakthrough on poverty data, so the interconnected deprivations that strike poor people in real-time can be tracked – and intercepted,” she added.

The global MPI monitors poverty reduction and informs policy, showing how people experience poverty in different aspects of their daily lives – from access to education and health to living standards such as housing, drinking water, sanitation, and electricity.

The MPI as a poverty index can be pictured as a stacked tower of the interlinked deprivations experienced by poor individuals, to eliminate these deprivations.

BITCOIN FASCIST STATE

Nearly one-sixth of Ecuador's prison inmates haven't been sentenced

About 16% of total prisoners were either convicted but not sentenced or held in prison pending trial, with President Guillermo Lasso saying it should be a cause for concern.

Inmates are held at a prison yard after a deadly riot in Latacunga, Ecuador, on Oct. 4, 2022.

 Dolores Ochoa / AP file


July 11, 2023, 7:42 AM MDT / Source: Reuters
By Reuters


QUITO, Ecuador — Nearly a sixth of the inmates in Ecuador’s prisons have not been sentenced, a national census showed on Monday, as President Guillermo Lasso urged the judicial system to be speedier to help ease the burden on overcrowded jails.

Lasso, who will leave office later this year after bringing forward elections, told journalists the current prison population is 31,321 and that most inmates were arrested for drug trafficking, robbery or homicide.

That figure is above the 30,134 prisoner capacity that prisons agency SNAI said the 36-prison system had in December 2022.

Overcrowding was 12.9%, SNAI said in June, but officials did not give an updated figure for overcrowding on Monday.

Ecuador’s prison system has faced structural problems for decades, amid overcrowding and precarious living conditions for inmates, but riots have become increasingly common, killing more than 400 prisoners since late 2020.

The census showed that over 5,000 people, or 16% of total prisoners, have been convicted of crimes but not yet sentenced or are being held in prison pending trial, Lasso said, adding the figure should be a cause for concern among the judiciary.

“Our policy is not to have more prisoners or build more prisons, our policy is to release those who deserve that freedom because they have served their sentences,” Lasso said during an event about the census results.

The government has attributed prison violence to fighting between criminal groups for control of prisons and drug trafficking routes.

However, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) said violence is also due to high rates of overpopulation and reduced budgets for rehabilitation, among other causes.

Prisoners have complained about the quality of the basic services and supply of food, the census also showed.