Oppenheim Arts & Letters

Excerpt - One Quotation from Leslie Noyes Mass's 'Back to Pakistan"

"Our philosophy is very simple," says the deeply committed Muslim pragmatist.  "Our philosophy is that, God forbid, if one day a war erupts between India and Pakistan and it is perceived as a Hindu-versus-Muslim war, I want the child who has studied in a TCF school to protect his Hindu neighbor from anybody who may want to harm him."  Ateed Riaz as quoted by Leslie Noyes Mass. [1]

Our world does not change by itself.

I, you, and we change it, one thought, note, statement, and action at a time.

However, some may have a greater impact than others as regards the realms of positive change, and there should be no question that Pakistan's Citizens Foundation [2] and such as Ateed Riaz and author and professor Leslie Noyes Mass have made use of their own lives to create that greater impact.

"In 2000, inspired by her father, Leslie Mass decided she would turn a lifelong fantasy into reality. At the age of 59 she began to train for a grueling journey -- a thru-hike of the 2,000-mile Appalachian Trail." [3]

My literary encounter with what one may call contemporary "fearless women" -- more accurately, I'm sure, heroic women -- started with photographer Deborah Copaken Kogan [4], who hooked up with the Mujahideen dressed like a boy and covered the insurgency against the Soviet army in Afghanistan.

One day I'll look over my library for more of the same right stuff and let you know here what I've found.

In the meantime, those online and blessed with what I might call a "normative human temperament" have a New Earth bounded firmly by intelligent rapid global communications (in English, no less) and perhaps as signaled by Ateed Riaz's statement, an ethic as common and recognizable in Rome or Tel Aviv as it may be or may become in Karachi.

Cited Reference

1. Mass, Leslie Noyes.  Back to Pakistan: A Fifty-Year Journey.  P. 60.  New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2011.

2. The Citizens Foundation.

3. Mass, Leslie Noyes.  In Beauty May She Walk: Hiking the Appalachian Trail at 60.

4. Deborah Copaken Kogan. 

Other Reference

Linden, Caroline.  "The Citizens Foundation: Education Leads to Success."  Global Management Summit.

The Citizens Foundation, USA.

Zehra, Batool.  "Generation Next."  The Express Tribune, May 16, 2010.

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A Glimpse of Pakistan's War Theater

"What's going on?" I asked the warlord. "Why aren't they coming for you?"

"I cannot lie to you," Namdar said, smiling at last. "The army comes in, and they fire at empty buildings. It is a drama – it is just to entertain." [1]

In the way of the webcentric blogger's second row seat to history, that above comes via Sherry Ricchiardi quoting for the American Journalism Review (August-September issue of 2009) veteran war reporter Dexter Filkins quoting a Taliban warlord .

"What is striking, say analysts, is how little has changed in Pakistan a year after U.S. special forces burst into a large house in Abbottabad in the early hours of May 2, 2011, and shot bin Laden dead.

"Pakistan's security establishment remains addicted to using, or at least tolerating, Islamic extremist groups as its proxy warriors, despite the deaths of thousands of Pakistani civilians and soldiers and the humiliation of bin Laden being found just steps from the country's premier military academy." [2]

A friend of mine in Lahore has called Pakistan's cultural and political makeup "a salad." 

It is sure that, and while I wouldn't worry about the hot peppers taking over, one well may question the officially tolerated predilection for leaving the same growing wild and always more influencing on the character of the landscape.

My guess: the Taliban have turned out out the best military aid packaging stimulus ever.

Reference

1. Ricchiardi, Sherry.  "Assignment AfPak."  American Journalism Review, August/September 2009.

2. Shah, Saeed.  "A year after bin Laden raid, Pakistan still harbors US' biggest enemies."  Jewish World Review, May 1, 2012.

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