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Sharon’s legacy: Only death is irreversible 1

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National Infrastructure Minister Ariel Sharon maps out December 5 his vision of an Israeli security ..

Ariel Sharon maps out his vision of an Israeli security zone stretching deep into the West Bank on land Palestinians see as part of a future state, Dec. 5, 1997. (photo by REUTERS)

Sharon’s legacy: Only death is irreversible

Summary – The late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s legacy, including the disengagement from Gaza, was designed to hinder an agreement with the Palestinians in the West Bank.

Author: Akiva Eldar Posted January 13, 2014 – Al Monitor

It was in the spring of 1992, a number of months after the Madrid Conference, which began the peace process, and before the elections to the Knesset that ended 15 years of Likud Party rule. Ariel Sharon, then the minister of housing in the Shamir government, invited me to tour the Samaria region. From the heights of one of the hills near the Alfei Menashe settlement, he pointed to innumerable, randomly scattered clusters of red roofs, and many gleaming asphalt roads crisscrossing the landscape.

AuthorAkiva EldarPosted January 13, 2014

Translator(s) Aviva Arad

“You’re probably asking yourself, what’s the point of scattering small settlements on every hilltop, instead of concentrating all of them in one settlement?” Sharon thundered in his unique voice and explained, “This dispersion is intended to prevent any government established in Israel from returning to the borders of the Green Line and enabling the creation of a Palestinian state.”

Twenty-two years later, cabinet members who passed before Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s coffin, knew that not too long from now they will have to choose between the creation of a Palestinian state, with a western border based on the Green Line, and a diplomatic-security crisis and the risk of an economic boycott. The motto “Another goat and another dunam” that Sharon inherited from the leaders of the mother party of Israel’s Labor Party, Mapai, who founded the state, has ended its role. The 1977 plan, “A million Jews in Judea and Samaria,” which was meant to thwart the plan to divide the land, has passed from the world.

Despite the generous aid that Sharon and his heirs have offered, and still offer, the settlers, less than 400,000 Jews, 5% of Israel’s population, have chosen to settle in the West Bank. Two-thirds of them are crowded in areas abutting the Green Line. The vast dispersion of isolated settlements all over the West Bank has not swayed the international community to abandon its insistence on the 1967 borders and on territorial exchange as a key to a diplomatic agreement. There is no phenomenon that causes more damage to Israel’s status in the world like the settlement enterprise.

As defense minister in Begin’s government (1981-83), Sharon’s goal was to destroy once and for all the idea of dividing the land and perpetuate the vision of Greater Israel. On this issue, too, he achieved the opposite of his intentions. The pursuit of the leadership of the PLO, and Palestinian Authoriy Chairman Yasser Arafat specifically, into Beirut, in the Lebanon War (1982), which was meant to create a “new order” in Lebanon and push out the PLO, embroiled the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a bloody war and strengthened the Shiite, pro-Iranian forces in Lebanon.

More so, the loss of control in Lebanon was the main incentive for Arafat and his exiled friends in Tunisia to recognize Israel within the 1967 borders in 1988, on the basis of UN Resolution 242. From there, the road was already paved for international recognition of the PLO, the convening of the Madrid Conference, the return of the Israeli Labor Party to power, led by the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and to the Oslo Accord.

From his seat in the opposition, Sharon acted as a vocal trumpet for the extreme right, which did not shrink from incitement against Rabin. In an interview with the Kfar Habad ultra-Orthodox journal in 1995, extensively quoted in the daily press, Sharon claimed that Rabin had gone mad. After a short period of calm in the foreign minister’s office in the first Netanyahu government (1996-99), Sharon made his way to the prime minister’s office, upon the ruins of the Oslo process.

His provocative ascent to the Temple Mount in September 2000, at the height of the efforts to revive the failing negotiations at Camp David, gave the signal for the outbreak of the second intifada. The journalist Uri Dan, who was Sharon’s good friend, later recounted, “Arik would call me and ask, do I think there’s a connection between his ascent to the Temple Mount and him becoming prime minister? I answered him in the same way that he asked, ‘And what do you think, Arik, is there a connection?’ There was silence on the other end of the line.”

The series of suicide bombings, whose peak was the murder of 30 Israelis gathered for a Passover traditional meal at the Park Hotel in Netanya, was the grounds for Prime Minister Sharon’s decision, in March 2002, to launch Operation Defensive Shield. While the IDF assault on the cities of the West Bank fatally damaged terrorist elements, it also heavily damaged the physical and political infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority.

Moreover, in his book, A Look at the Resistance from Within, Mohammed Arman, a member of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, who is sentenced to 36 life sentences for the murder of more than 40 Israelis, tells how Sharon played into Hamas’ hands. The arch-terrorist revealed that all Hamas units received directions from above to thwart the Arab peace initiative on the eve of its anticipated approval at the Arab League summit in Beirut. The initiative was approved on March 28; the bombing in Netanya took place on March 29. On March 29, Sharon announced Operation Defensive Shield. The din of battle in Jenin and Ramallah drowned out the regional voice of peace from Riyadh to the Maghreb.

A few months before Sharon directed the IDF to surround the Muqata and isolate Arafat from the outside world, the former head of the Mossad, Shabtai Shavit, who was one of Sharon’s advisers, said in an interview with the Israeli daily Yedioth Aharanoth (Dec. 7, 2001) that if Israel could get rid of Arafat, “No one could step into his shoes to open doors among world leaders, and the Palestinian question will fall from the international agenda.” In the same interview Shavit also argued that [Palestinian Authority Chairman] Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) is “a member of the Bahai faith,” and therefore his appointment as Arafat’s heir “is like appointing a Samaritan as president of the State of Israel.”

Abu Mazen, as we know, was appointed prime minister, a fact that did not prevent Sharon from calling him “a chick who hasn’t sprouted feathers” in a government meeting. When it became clear that despite his efforts to ground Abu Mazen, the two-state solution wasn’t disappearing from the world’s agenda, Sharon formulated the plan for disengagement from the Gaza Strip. The problem was that the disengagement, which was not coordinated with Abu Mazen, led to the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. Nevertheless, the diplomatic process was launched again.

The followers of the “new Sharon,” who claim that the evacuation of the settlements of Gush Katif testifies to Sharon’s reversal in his final political days, are urged to read the interview/confession Sharon’s right-hand man, Dov Weissglass, gave the Israeli daily Haaretz in October 2004.

Here are some enlightening quotations: “The disengagement is actually formaldehyde in which you put the president’s [George W. Bush’s] plan, so that it can be kept for a very long time. It supplied the necessary amount of formaldehyde so that there wouldn’t be a diplomatic process with the Palestinians. … Arik [Ariel Sharon] does not see Gaza as an area of national interest today. He does see Judea and Samaria as a region of national interest. He justifiably thinks that we are still very, very far from the time where we could reach final arrangements in Judea and Samaria.

“What I basically agreed with the Americans was that we don’t deal at all with some of the settlements, and with other settlements we won’t deal until the Palestinians turn into Finns. … Basically, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all it entails, has been removed from our agenda for an unlimited time. And all this is officially authorized. All this is with a presidential blessing and the approval of the two houses of Congress.

“There was a very difficult package of commitments that they expected Israel to accept. They called this package the diplomatic process. It included components that we could never accept and components that we can’t accept today. But now we have succeeded in taking this package and pushing it past the mountains of time. With the right management, we’ve succeeded in removing the issue of the diplomatic process from the agenda. And we have educated the world that there’s no one to talk to.”

There’s something symbolic, perhaps historical poetic justice, in that the man who dedicated his life to creating an irreversible reality in the occupied territories has passed away just as the diplomatic and political reality at the beginning of 2014 reminds us that only death is irreversible.

Akiva_Eldar_bw[1]

Akiva Eldar is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Israel Pulse. He was formerly a senior columnist and editorial writer for Haaretz and also served as the Hebrew daily’s US bureau chief and diplomatic correspondent. His most recent book (with Idith Zertal), Lords of the Land, on the Jewish settlements, was on the best-seller list in Israel and has been translated into English, French, German and Arabic

Orphans of the Sahara. 1

Articles by Others, Deep Soul Searching Article, Difficult and Complex Article To Write, From The Press, Good Article, Sensitive and Critical Viewpoint • Tags: , , ,

Orphans of the Sahara

Documented on Al Jazeera

 Thu, 09 Jan 2014 11:45
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Orphans of the Sahara is a documentary series about the heartbreaking circumstances of life for the Sahara’s Tuareg people, one of the most isolated and impoverished groups in the world.

May Welsh, award-winning Al Jazeera filmmaker, captures the complex conflict and events in Mali and Niger as they unfold within the Tuareg community.

Due to the presence of al-Qaeda, these desert people have been cut off from aid workers and the rest of the outside world. Welsh’s three films offer viewers rare and exclusive access and insight to the Tuareg separatist struggle in their homeland as well as exploring the rival al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Welsh comments, “The Tuareg story is one of an extremely impoverished people whose land harbours the largest energy reserves on the African continent, and who have been fighting for various forms of self-determination for 50 years.”

The first film in the three-part series, Orphans of the Sahara – Return, documents how thousands of Gaddafi’s Tuareg mercenaries return to their Saharan homeland after fleeing from Libya. Terrible poverty, hunger and drought await them in the areas to which they return which are spread across northern Niger and northern Mali.

With few other skills and largely unable to feed their children, the men in Mali rise up to establish their own country while those in Niger risk their lives to return to Libya.

“The story of my son is a man chased by poverty. Hunger that you can see if you look at the women and children around us. He was forced to travel to Libya, so he went. It wasn’t a choice,” says Amamatou Bint Tigzali, mother of a Tuareg fighter.

Orphans of the Sahara – Return, airs on Al Jazeera English on 9 January at 20h00 GMT.

Watch and embed the promo at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4ADnH- 6UbI.

To us the Sahara means our origins. We are people who live in the Sahara, journeying in the Sahara. It represents our real nation.

Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, lead singer of Tinariwen

The Tuareg of the Sahara   are a people orphaned, literally and figuratively, the filmmaker writes [Al   Jazeera]

The Tuareg of the Sahara desert are a people orphaned, literally   and figuratively, by colonial history and borders, by distant governments, by   poverty, corporate exploitation, pollution, drought, and war.

Their Saharan homeland stretches across five countries and   straddles the largest energy deposits in Africa. And they have risen up   against their governments seven times in the past 50 years to demand forms of   autonomy and independence.

Yet the decades-long Tuareg struggle is one of the world’s least   covered stories.

In Orphans of the Sahara,   Al Jazeera takes the viewer deep inside the Tuareg world.

To us the Sahara means our     origins. We are people who live in the Sahara, journeying in the Sahara. It     represents our real nation. 

Ibrahim     Ag Alhabib, lead singer of Tinariwen

We will go to their impoverished camps in the desert where life   hangs by a thread, journey inside “Azawad”, the unrecognised Tuareg   state in northern Mali, and into Timbuktu under al-Qaeda control. We will   travel to the French uranium mining zone in northern Niger, an area now out   of bounds to journalists, and into the refugee camps in exile, where Tuaregs   and Arabs are calling for an independent state.

This is a story you won’t see or hear anywhere else. For a   number of years, the Tuareg have been cut off from the world, surrounded by a   vast “red zone” of al-Qaeda kidnappings and killings, preventing   journalists, aid workers and tourists from travelling to the places where the   Tuareg really live.

As a result, they have become increasingly isolated and poorly   understood – seen and interpreted for the outside world through the eyes of   their enemies. They have few friends and no state allies.

Their music has been one of the only genuine insights the   outside world has into their stories and struggles. And for many Tuareg   bands, their songs are a way to relay the message of their people and help   the world understand their plight.

‘A generation of orphans’

“I was young when the army took my father from here,”   he said. “They took him and killed him. And then they killed our   animals. I left with my grandmother for Algeria. And I grew up there. I   always think about that day and this area.”

In exile, Ibrahim met other Tuareg youths with similar stories   and experiences. Together they learned how to fight in Muammar Gaddafi’s   military training camps in Libya. Then, in 1990, they returned in their   thousands to Mali and Niger where they launched rebellions against their   governments to fight for their rights as a people.

We spent hours mesmerised by Ibrahim’s stories and thoughts as   he smoked cigarettes, slowly searching for the right words, often staring out   through the crack of the door into the sand storm whirling around us.

The last thing he said was “my generation of Tuareg is a   generation of orphans”. It was really important to him that we   understand his story was no different to those of thousands of others who   became rebels – that his pain was not unique.

After we returned to Doha, I put Ibrahim’s interview on a shelf   and forgot about it. We are a news channel and I wasn’t sure what to do with   such a long and deep interview on a subject that is obscure to most people   and requires a lot of background and explaining. But he and his words lodged   somewhere deep in my consciousness.

In late 2011, Al Jazeera returned to the region to document the   new exodus of Tuaregs back to northern Mali and Niger following the fall of   Gaddafi in Libya. We noticed a high proportion of orphans, both among the   young returning Tuareg mercenaries, and among the families they were   supporting in the desert.

In 2008, Al Jazeera met Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, the lead singer of   the Tuareg rock band Tinariwen, at his home near Tessalit in northern Mali.

We had just come from spending days in the Sahara with Tuareg   rebels fighting the Mali state and there was a sand storm brewing. We wanted   to stop somewhere and thought it would be interesting to know Ibrahim’s   opinion of the rebellion.

As we took shelter in a small hut from the roaring wind,   Ibrahim shared his powerful personal story — one that will be familiar to all   fans of Tinariwen.

Many of the fighters had lost one or both parents as children,   to undiagnosed illnesses due to malnutrition and lack of medical care. Some   had lost a parent to war. And every one of the men had tried his hand at both   armed rebellion against his government, and emigration to Libya in search of   work – the two options many Tuareg see available to them to improve   conditions for their families and their people.

Many ended up entrapped as mercenaries for Gaddafi during the   recent Libya war. They cried as they talked about the death of their   relatives and friends in NATO bombings, and the immense pressure they feel to   provide for their families – loved ones who they see deteriorating before   their eyes in the harsh conditions of the desert.

One of our subjects died during the course of filming, leaving   behind three orphans. Most of these stories remain on the cutting room floor   because there is barely time, even in three hours, to cover the essential   ground on this complex story.

We realised that Ibrahim Ag Alhabib’s story has not lost its   relevance. New generations of Tuaregs from northern Niger and northern Mali   are simply living a modified version of the same old cyclical story of the   Tuareg people: rebellion, exile, return, rebellion, exile, return …

The reason for the stubborn resilience of this pattern is that   the conditions which give rise to Tuareg rebellion have essentially not   changed.

The Sahara

It is something I found myself wondering more than once during   the nights we spent sleeping in freezing cold deserts, living the same way   our Tuareg hosts do every day. Even the physical stamina required to live in   a tent in the Sahara is incredible and always reminds you of your   vulnerability and mortality. Just a few weeks of the constant exposure to   sand, wind, heat and cold debilitated me to a point of exhaustion it took   months to recover from.

On the other hand, far from being merely harsh and empty, the   Sahara is a soulful place, embracing you with its solitude and beauty, its   open space, and the company of gentle living things. Even the deepest parts   of the desert are not dead, but filled with animals, people, culture, and   history. All the feelings of being there – from sublime comfort and peace to   terror and loneliness – are satisfying in their truth and draw you back to   the desert, in spite of its hardship.

The Sahara enriches and impoverishes the Tuareg. It is their   mother and source, but also their destroyer and grave.

Parts of this trilogy were filmed in the Sahara proper, and   others in cities and deserts of the Sahel, the belt of scrub that lies to the   immediate south of the Sahara. But wherever we found Tuaregs, even if they   were knee deep in yellowing pasture, or standing on a busy city street, they   always referred to their land as “the Sahara”.

“To us the Sahara means our origins,” said Ibrahim.   “We are people who live in the Sahara, journeying in the Sahara. It   represents our real nation.” Orphans of the Sahara can be seen each     week from January 9, 2014, at the following times GMT: Thursday: 2000;     Friday: 1200; Saturday: 0100; Sunday: 0600; Monday: 2000; Tuesday: 1200;     Wednesday: 0100

The physical conditions of Tuareg existence in the Sahara have   hardly changed in decades. Even now, sleeping in the Sahara is like lying   alone on a boat in the middle of a vast ocean.

You are lying in the sand at 2am when suddenly a primordial wind   howls up from infinite corridors of emptiness and time – terrifying in its   loneliness, as awesome as the stars in the night sky – to confront you with   the essential fact that you are alone in the universe, and everyone you have   ever loved will die.

If the Sahara can inspire that terrible feeling of cosmic   loneliness in an adult, what would it feel like to be a child in this   environment who had actually lost their parents?

Orphans of the Sahara: Return

With the fall of Gaddafi, thousands of Tuaregs return to Mali and Niger and launch their fight for an independent state. ( 09-Jan-2014 )

Images – For Demonstration Purposes Only! Narrations Below

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The Tuareg are the indigenous people of the Sahara, the world’s largest desert

They are divided by colonial history between Mali and Algeria, Libya, Niger and Burkina Faso

The Tuareg of the Sahara are among the poorest and most isolated people in the world

The Tuareg are the indigenous people of the Sahara desert.

They are one of the poorest and most isolated peoples in the world – and one of the most militarised.

They are an army of the poor in a land of astounding natural wealth; an animal-herding people in a dying world of drought.

For decades, many Tuareg men have left their homes in search of work in neighbouring countries. Thousands ended up in Libya, as workers and fighters, and many as mercenaries for slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

In late 2011, after Gaddafi’s death, thousands of them returned to their Saharan homeland in Niger and Mali.

But having lost access to the country that was their only source of livelihood, they came home to find little more than crushing poverty, hunger and drought.

Barely able to feed their children amidst total state neglect, the men launched a rebellion to found their own country – for which they had already chosen a flag and an old Tuareg name: Azawad.

But the Tuaregs would not be the only ones to emerge from a collapsing Libya with a lot of guns, and a plan. Al-Qaeda was also preparing for a fight

The Corrupt Should Not Escape The Consequences. Reply

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 Saleh Al Shaibany

The Corrupt Should Not Escape The Consequences.

Sunday Beat – Times of Oman – By Saleh Al Shaibany – saleh@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Take this example of a man who is paid about OMR2,000 a month, is driving an expensive car and owns a building that has 40 flats, 12 shops and a basement parking. Where did he acquire all this wealth from?

Oh, I almost forgot. He also owns a home at Jumeirah Beach in Dubai and a posh flat somewhere in Malaysia. Corruption seems to be deeply entrenched in our society. It is now like second nature in our lives. Yet, such officials or company employees have escaped detection of corruption for the last 40 years.

They have been amassing millions of rials of ill-gotten funds over the years and now they think getting kickbacks is part of the business deal. They also feel it is their divine right to pick the pockets of the government.

As one western oil executive once told me, “if you want to retire in Acapulco, be an official in the Omani energy sector.”

The question everybody asks is, why only now we see a series of corruption cases going to court? Is it because our oil wealth is starting to decline at the time when we have problems balancing the fiscal budget? Or is it that it is too widespread that ordinary people cannot tolerate anymore?

Investment prospects

Whatever the answer is, if corruption is not rooted out immediately, it will hurt our foreign investment prospects. At this rate, the Sultanate’s credibility as an investment destination will fare no better than the so-called banana republics.  The only way to stem it, is to punish the culprits by handing them long sentences. In the past, offenders of corruption in the isolated cases — we had seen — got away with lighter prison terms.

The well connected even escaped convictions. It is time they face the consequences of their greed. For justice to be served, perhaps, it is also time to make sure the corrupt are not probing the fellow corrupt. There is a club in our midst that protects each other.

The government also needs to make sure that companies, not just their officials, offering bribes do not get away with it. Such companies should be struck off from bidding future contracts, no matter how well connected they are.

If the court finds them excuses and they are allowed to bid again, the message will be out that it is alright to ‘reward’ government officials. Then we are not going anyway and these corruption court cases are just a lip service.

The second message, perhaps more devastating, will be to young people and future leaders that plundering the national wealth is part of the Omani way. They will learn that if you cannot have one hand in the government’s cash register then ‘you are not the man.’

It is happening this way. When you get 10 per cent from a bidding company, it does not come from their bank. They just make the government pay 10 per cent more so it can end up in your pocket. Corrupt officials have either been clever all these years or the probing team has been looking elsewhere when it comes to hiding the bribe money. It is stashed away in the accounts of their spouses, siblings or children. Sometimes even with closed friends. They are not foolish enough to do it here but in overseas accounts.

Then they move back to Oman to clean the money tainted with filth by buying that block of flats. Hang on; not in their names but in  names of their children. And here one wonders if our anti-money laundering laws have any teeth at all. Without any doubt we are in a danger of being embroiled in the whims and desires of crooked officials who know that they can find a safety net when they fall.

We are also living in a business environment of contracting companies, both local and international, which can tempt officials with a bag of cash without fear of being punished because their directors belong in the same fraternity club as the probing team.

The members of the public are waiting anxiously to see whether the current court cases of corruption can find anybody guilty, whether a bribing company or the receiving individuals.

And for that matter, if the probers could go deep enough to uncover more cases that stretch back for a number of years. We all know the current cases are just a tip of the iceberg of the scale of corruption the country is in.

HH The Qatar Emir Speech at UN. Reply

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Emir Qatar 1 Emir Qatar 2

Dyamic Ruler in The Arab World. Like Father, Like Son!

Following is the text of HH the Emir’s speech:

In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful

Your Majesties, Excellences and Highnesses, Your Excellency the President of the United Nations General Assembly Your Excellency the UN Secretary General Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like, first, to congratulate His Excellency Mr. John Ashe for his election as President of the 68th session of the General Assembly and I wish him all success in his mission. I would like also to express our appreciation for His Excellency Mr.Vuk Jeremic, the former President of the 67th session for the efforts he made for its success. I would like also to commend all the efforts made by His Excellency the Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon for strengthening the role of the United Nations.

Mr. President, The international community faces different problems related to peace and security in addition to the challenges facing the efforts made to solve disputes peacefully. This calls for reinforcing the capacity of the United Nations to tackle these challenges and problems. The peoples of different regions are looking forward for the institutions of the international community to dedicate their efforts for finding solutions to the issues of poverty, hunger, and sustainable development in a way that goes beyond convening conferences and adopting resolution and even beyond the necessary collective attention and campaigns that are called for from time to time important as they might be.

Mr. President, The Arab region is full of events and accelerating changes of historical importance. It has recently witnessed turbulent events as a result of the movement of its peoples and their forceful entry into the public political domain. Stalemate remains characteristic of the Arab-Israeli conflict, which comes at the forefront of the issues threatening international peace and security.

This is a result of the continued Israeli occupation and the injustice inflicted upon the Palestinian people as well as the failure in reaching a just and lasting peace according to the resolutions of the international legality. Continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab territories with its resulting practices, changing their demographic conditions particularly by extending the scope of settlement activity,

Judaizing the city of Jerusalem, the unjust embargo of Gaza strip in addition to the intensification of settlement in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and changing its status quo, cannot be accepted as normal. That is not because they represent flagrant violations of the international laws and covenants, but also because the Palestinian issue is a just issue and the historical inflicted upon the Palestinian people should end. The organizations of the international community have been established on the basis of granting the right of self-determination after the world wars.

And it is unreasonable that they could not do anything about the last colonial issue of our world.  Israel should know that coercion and de facto policies do not bring peace. It is wrong for it to establish a state which sees peace in subjugating the other peoples and denying their rights and make that a priority over peace. In fact, there is no security without peace. Real peace comes only through coexistence between peoples on the grounds of good neighborliness, mutual respect, and caring for the interests of all.

The peace we look for is the peace that is built on dignity, justice and the principles of international legality as well as the UN resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative under the principle of the two-state solution and the withdrawal of Israel from all occupied Arab territories.

In fact, the experiences of different nations and peoples confirm that unjust settlements did not endure but were just pretexts for new conflicts. The continued de facto policy in Palestine would not make the issue disappear. It actually transforms before our eyes into a more complicated issue for the continuation of the settlements leads to the destruction of the basis for establishing a Palestinian state while the current status changes to one that resembles an apartheid under the domination of one state or even within the state. This would be a grounds for new conflict since no people will accept enduring injustice and keep silent.

The inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people in establishing its independent state with Jerusalem as its capital within the limits of 1967 borders as well as the right of return for the Palestinian refugees are not only an Arab demand, but they also represent an international standard for testing the credibility of international legality, which should not be divisible. Just as the international community has applied the principles of international legality in the past for other crises in the world, we should apply the same legal principles for all issues.

Therefore, we call upon the Security Council to uphold its responsibility to maintain international peace and security and adopt the required decisions to stop the illegitimate Israeli practices.

Mr. President, Destructive actions and horrible massacres are continuing at the hands of the Syrian regime against its peoples in addition to the policies of scorched land upon the Syrian people crossing all the red lines set by ethics and mandated by law, particularly after the regime’s use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people. It is unfortunate that the perpetrators of these brutal crimes and massacres, which have shocked every human conscience, are enjoying impunity from deterrence or accountability. This questions the credibility of the human rights and international legality mechanisms of the international community.

The issue is not whether or not Syria possesses to chemical weapons for Syria is a state that is in conflict with another state that owns chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons. But the issue is the use of such weapons by the regime against its own people. The Syrian people has not risen up for putting the Syrian chemical weapons under the international supervision but for getting rid of despotism and corruption and to end the injustice it has been facing.

We all know that the responsibility for failure to impose the political settlement we all prefer for Syria is due basically to the inability of the Security Council to take the required decision to stop the bloodshed and the continued intransigence of the Syrian regime and its refusal of all regional and international initiatives.

From this perspective, the decision-making process at the Security Council has become in need of change since it lacks fairness and objectivity. It has also become a major obstacle to preserving international peace and security and to the punishment of war criminals and perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Therefore, we affirm the importance of accelerating the process of Security Council reform in order for it to be more capable for dealing objectively with global challenges and responding to the aspirations of people.

But this will not be achieved except through the fair representation of the international community in the Council and only when it becomes expressive of the democracy in the international multilateral work. It is obviously impossible to take any decision without the support of the majority of the permanent member States, but taking a decision should not be monopolized for a long period by one or two states. I take this opportunity to call upon our Syrian brothers to unify their ranks for entering a transitional period that leads to establishing a governing system that guarantees freedom and dignity for all Syrians without discrimination on the grounds of gender, nationality, sect or creed. These large numbers of martyrs have not fallen and all these sacrifices have not been made by this great people so that despotism could be exchanged for chaos or another kind of despotism.

Mr. President, The Arab spring revolutions, during which the Arab people have risen up calling for freedom, dignity and social justice, are now facing difficulties that seem to be trying to go back in time. In fact these difficulties were expected, but what is strange is that some politicians do not succeed in avoiding even expected problems.

Everyone who knows the reality of the issues in the Arab region and their historical context discovers that these revolutions come within a long-term historical process, which is known before to different peoples in Europe, America, Asia and Africa. The transformation to a just rule and meeting the demands of the people in all states of the world have never been an easy path but one full of sacrifices. It has not been easy to go through it without patience and determination. Rarely have there been revolutions that have not been followed by desperate attempts by the former regimes to abort them. That is why wise people prefer all the time that regime change should be through gradual reform and not through revolutions that also entail the possibility of counter-revolutions.

There are cases in our region and in other regions of the world, which we know very well, where there was no way for change through reform. At any rate, we should not jump to hasty conclusions about the future of the Arab revolutions. This is a historical necessity. It is clear that things will not revert in the Arab world and that the Arab peoples have become more aware of their rights and more involved in the public domain.

Mr. President, The State of Qatar has always opted to become an active and effective party taking a constructive role at the international level through its balanced economic and political relations at the bilateral and multilateral levels. We will continue fostering this approach so that the State of Qatar could keep its responsibilities and commitments at the national, regional and international levels.

The State of Qatar aims to be a hub for dialogue and discussion among different parties to conflicts and not to be a party in these conflicts. We aim also to open windows for cultural and information dialogue between peoples. Within this context, the process of reform and modernity initiated by Qatar, which has made it a state of institutions, is interacting positively with the international community. It was not possible to achieve it without a genuine commitment in applying the rule of law and principles of governance, combatting corruption and protecting human rights and the basic freedoms, as well as the empowerment of women to participate in the public life on equal steps with men and creating a healthy environment for children.

In addition, attention to the concerns of the youth and creating the suitable educational environment to ensure maximum use of their capacities was and will be one of the priorities of our national policies.

Mr. President, Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East and in particular nuclear weapons is a very alarming issue. In this context, I affirm the position of the State of Qatar that every state in the region has an absolute right in using nuclear power for peaceful purposes according to the standards and procedures of the International Atomic Energy Agency. We also look forward for convening the Helsinki conference as a step that contributes to the efforts made to make the Middle East a zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

Mr. President, The issue of climate change is still at the top of our concerns with all its ramifications to the global system as a whole. I would like to confirm the commitment of the State of Qatar to continued cooperation with the international community in facing this challenge and implementing the measures agreed upon during the 18th Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was hosted by Qatar at the end of last year, in order to develop a road map for tackling the negative environmental and economic consequences of this dangerous phenomenon.

It is worth mentioning here that the State of Qatar has gone a long way in implementing the initiative of the Global Dry Lands Alliance, which it launched for establishing an international organization to tackle the implications of this phenomenon. This proposed organization will complement the work of the other relevant international organizations in combatting desertification and drought and preserving the environment without duplicating their work. I call upon all of you to support this initiative.

 Mr. President, The State of Qatar participates as an effective partner in the efforts made to achieve sustainable development at the international level as it has pledged to allocate the required percentage from its national product for the least developed countries, in addition to the humanitarian and relief assistance that it provides in cases of emergency and disaster. In this context, the State of Qatar has achieved the great majority of the Millennium Development Goals and is working towards achieving all these goals before 2015 as demonstrated by United Nations and regional reports in this field.

(END)

Mau Mau torture victims to receive Compensation! Reply

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Mau Mau torture victims to receive

compensation – Hague

Mau Mau veterans gathered for a press conference on the government announcement
 
Mau Mau veterans gathered for a press conference on the government announcement
 
Kenyans tortured by British colonial forces during the Mau Mau uprising will receive payouts totalling £20m, Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced.

He said the UK government recognised Kenyans were tortured and it “sincerely regrets” the abuses that took place.

A lawyer for the victims said they “at last have the recognition and justice they have sought for many years”.

Thousands of people were killed during the Mau Mau revolt against British rule in Kenya in the 1950s.

Mr Hague also announced plans to support the construction of a permanent memorial to the victims in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

‘Unreservedly condemn’

‘Battered and left for dead’

Kenya torture claimant Wambuga Wa Nyingi

Wambuga Wa Nyingi, 84, detailed his torture at the hands of the British colonial authorities in a witness statement.

He was a tractor driver and member of the pro-independence Kenya African Union – but never took the Mau Mau oath.

He survived the Hola massacre in 1959, when 11 Kenyans were beaten to death by prison guards in a detention camp.

He said: “I was battered on the back of my head and around my neck repeatedly with a club. I believe that the beating went on for up to 20 minutes…

“I lay unconscious with the 11 corpses for two days in a room where the corpses had been placed awaiting burial.

“The people who put me there thought I was also dead, but I was in fact unconscious.”

“I would like to like to make clear now, and for the first time, on behalf of Her Majesty’s government, that we understand the pain and grievance felt by those who were involved in the events of the emergency in Kenya,” he told the Commons.

“The British government recognises that Kenyans were subject to torture, and other forms of ill-treatment at the hands of the colonial administration.

“The British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place and that they marred Kenya’s progress towards independence.”

Mr Hague said 5,228 victims would receive payments totalling £19.9m following an agreement with lawyers acting for the victims, who have been fighting for compensation for a number of years.

Mau Mau 1 Mau Mau 2 Mau Mau 3

Images MauMau – For Demonstration Purposes Only!

But he said Britain still did not accept it was legally liable for the actions of what was a colonial administration in Kenya.

The British High Commissioner in Nairobi also made a public statement on the settlement to members of the Mau Mau War Veterans’ Association in Kenya.

BBC east Africa correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse said the reaction there was “muted”.

‘Big milestone’

He said it may have been because the announcement had been expected or because it was marred by the UK government continuing to deny liability for some of the abuses.

 

 

William Hague: “[We] sincerely regret that these abuses took place”

That said, it was a “big milestone” for the Mau Mau veterans, said our correspondent.

In a statement, Martyn Day, of law firm Leigh Day, said it took “courage to publically acknowledge for the first time the terrible nature of Britain’s past in Kenya”.

“The elderly victims of torture now at last have the recognition and justice they have sought for many years. For them this significance of this moment cannot be over emphasised,” he said.

But Bryan Cox QC, of Tandem Law, said there were “thousands” of further claims that remain unresolved and “the matter was far from over”.

Background

  • The Mau Mau, a guerrilla group, began as a violent campaign against white settlers in 1952
  • The uprising was eventually put down by the British colonial government
  • The Kenya Human Rights Commission says 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed
  • It says 160,000 people were detained in appalling conditions
  • Kenya gained independence in 1963

He said the law firm was working with more than 8,000 Kenyans who were still awaiting an agreement with the UK government.

Mau Mau 5 Jomo Kenyata Mau Mau 6 Mau Mau A

The UK has argued that all liabilities for the torture by colonial authorities was transferred to the Kenyan Republic upon independence in 1963 and that it could not be held liable now.

But in 2011, the High Court in London ruled that four claimants did have “arguable cases in law”.

Their lawyers allege Paulo Muoka Nzili was castrated, Wambuga Wa Nyingi was severely beaten and Jane Muthoni Mara was subjected to appalling sexual abuse in detention camps during the rebellion. A fourth claimant, Ndiku Mutwiwa Mutua, died last year.

‘Historic judgement’

After the ruling, the case went back to the High Court to consider a claim by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) that the actions had been brought outside the legal time limit.

The FCO said it had faced “irredeemable difficulties” in relation to the availability of witnesses and documents.

Wambuga Wa Nyingi, Jane Muthoni Mara, Paulo Muoka Nzili and Ndiku Mutwiwa Mutua outside the Royal Courts of Justice in April
 
The test case was originally brought by four Kenyans, one of whom has since died

But in October last year, the court ruled the victims had established a proper case and allowed their claims to proceed to trial despite the time elapsed.

At the time, victims’ lawyer Mr Day said he would be pressing for a trial “as quickly as possible” but would also be pushing for the government to reach an out-of-court settlement.

The Mau Mau, a guerrilla group, began a violent campaign against white settlers in 1952, but the uprising was eventually put down by the British colonial government.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission says 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed, and 160,000 people were detained in appalling conditions, although a number of historians believe the figure is lower.

THE BIQ QUESTION NOW!!

WHATABOUT AL NAQBA? WHAT ABOUT THE POOR PALESTINIANS? THEIR CASE IS FAR SERIOUS – THE MAUMAU STILL HAVE THEIR LAND – THE PALESTINIANS LOST EVERYTHING THRU BRITISH ZIONISTS ANTI SEMITIC THE PALESTINIANS TREATMENT!!

WHAT A SHAME!

The Palestinian Catastrophe – 65 years on! Reply

Articles by Others, How To Live In This World!, Reproduced Opinion Articles, The Palestinian Naqba, Why I am so sad! • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Al – Nakba – The Palestinian Catastrophe

Al Jazeera Television

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135612348774619.html

A series on the Palestinian ‘catastrophe’ of 1948 that led to dispossession and a conflict that endures to this day.

Last Modified: 08 May 2013 10:15

 The Video – Part 1

www.bcove.me/jvdvl0rb  

“The Nakba did not begin in 1948. Its origins lie over two centuries ago….”

So begins this four-part series on the ‘Nakba’, meaning the ‘Catastrophe’, about the history of the Palestinian exodus that led to the first Arab-Israeli War in 1948 and the establishment of the state of Israel.

This sweeping history starts back in 1799 with Napoleon’s attempted advance into Palestine to check British expansion and his appeal to the Jews of the world to reclaim their land in league with France.

 The narrative moves through the 19th century and into the 20th century with the British Mandate in Palestine and comes right up to date in the 21st century and the ongoing ‘Nakba’ on the ground

Arab, Israeli and Western intellectuals, historians and eye-witnesses provide the central narrative which is accompanied by archive material and documents, many only recently released for the first time.

Editor’s note: Since first running on Al Jazeera Arabic in 2008, this series has won Arab and international awards and has been well received at festivals throughout the world

For the Palestinians, 1948 marks the ‘Nakba’ or the ‘catastrophe’, when hundreds of thousands were forced out of their homes.

But for Israelis, the same year marks the creation of their own state.

The tragedy in Palestine is not just a local one; it is a tragedy for the world, because it is an injustice that is a menace to the world’s peace.

Arnold Toynbee, British historian.

This series attempts to present an understanding of the events of the past that are still shaping the present.

This story starts in 1799, outside the walls of Acre in Ottoman-controlled Palestine, when an army under Napoleon Bonaparte besieged the city. It was all part of a campaign to defeat the Ottomans and establish a French presence in the region.

nakba3[1]

In search of allies, Napoleon issued a letter offering Palestine as a homeland to the Jews under French protection. He called on the Jews to ‘rise up’ against what he called their oppressors.

Napoleon’s appeal was widely publicised. But he was ultimately defeated. In Acre today, the only memory of him is a statue atop a hill overlooking the city.

Naqba 10

Yet Napoleon’s project for a Jewish homeland in the region under a colonial protectorate did not die, 40 years later, the plan was revived but by the British.

The tragedy in Palestine is not just a local one; it is a tragedy for the world, because it is an injustice that is a menace to the world’s peace.

Arnold Toynbee, British historian.

Al Nakba can be seen each week at the following GMT: Tuesday 2000; Friday 0600; Saturday 2000; Sunday 1200

Editor’s note: The Al-Nakba debate on 4th June 2013 – Al Jazeera’s Marwan Bishara brings together different perspectives to debate the series and the ongoing relevance of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

See also Witness: The Great Book Robbery

Images The Naqba Nakba – The Disaster Castasrophy – The Calamity – For Demonstration Purposes Only!

The World needs to be reminded 65 years on – injustices heaped on innocent people by those that call themselves as ‘civilised good observing Christian’ peoples – and others – and to the Arab Leaders looking the other way – and now caught up by events – years later!

Like I always say – there can be NO PEACE NO SECURITY in the world till The Palestinian issue is solved!

Regards,

Majid Al Suleimany

Naqba 1 Naqba 2 Naqba 3 Naqba 4 Naqba 5 Naqba 6 Naqba 7 Naqba 8 Naqba 9 Naqba 10 Naqba 11 Naqba 12 Naqba 13 Naqba 14 Naqba 15 Naqba A

Please watch Jazeera TV – it will make you cry – even if you are not Arab, Palestinian, Muslim and Christian!!!

 

Good Advice For Over 50s – Chinese! Reply

Articles by Others, Good Article, Opinion • Tags: , , ,

I liked the hard truth in the message below..thought I should share with you…..

 
(Translated from the original in Chinese).
Because none of us have many years to live, and we can’t take along
anything when we go, so we don’t have to be too thrifty…

Spend the money that should be spent, enjoy what should be enjoyed, donate
what you are able to donate, but don’t leave all to your children or
grandchildren, for you don’t want them to become parasites who are waiting
for the day you will die!!

Don’t worry about what will happen after we are gone, because when we
return to dust, we will feel nothing about praises or criticisms. The time
to enjoy the worldly life and your hard earned wealth will be over!

Don’t worry too much about your children, for children will have their own
destiny and should find their own way. Don’t be your children’s slave.
Care for them, love them, give them gifts but also enjoy your money while
you can. Life should have more to it than working from the cradle to the
grave!!

Don’t expect too much from your children. Caring children, though caring,
would be too busy with their jobs and commitments to render much help.

Uncaring children may fight over your assets even when you are still
alive, and wish for your early demise so they can inherit your properties
and wealth.

Your children take for granted that they are rightful heirs to your
wealth; but that you have no claims to their money.

50-year old like you, don’t trade in your health for wealth by working
yourself to an early grave anymore… Because your money may not be able
to buy your health…

When to stop making money, and how much is enough (hundred thousands,
million, ten million)?

Out of thousand hectares of good farm land, you can consume only three
quarts (of rice) daily; out of a thousand mansions, you only need eight
square meters of space to rest at night.

So, as long as you have enough food and enough money to spend, that is
good enough. You should live happily. Every family has its own problems.
Just do not compare with others for fame and social status and see whose
children are doing better, etc., but challenge others for happiness,
health, enjoyment, quality of life and longevity…

Don’t worry about things that you can’t change because it doesn’t help and
it may spoil your health.

You have to create your own well-being and find your own place of
happiness.
As long as you are in good mood and good health, think about happy things,
do happy things daily and have fun in doing, then you will pass your time
happily every day.

One day passes without happiness, you will lose one day.
One day passes with happiness, and then you gain one day.

In good spirit, sickness will cure; in a happy spirit, sickness will cure
faster; in high and happy spirits; sickness will never come.

With good mood, suitable amount of exercise, always in the sun, variety of
foods, reasonable amount of vitamin and mineral intake, hopefully you will
live another 20 or 30 years of healthy life of pleasure.

Above all, learn to cherish the goodness around… and FRIENDS… They all
make you feel young and “wanted”… without them you are surely to feel
lost!!

Wishing you all the best.

Please share this with all your friends who are 50 plus and those who will
be 50 plus after some time.

Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.

Appro JRD Tata by Sudha Murthy 2

Articles by Others, Good Article, Helping Others!, How To Live In This World! • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

 

August 2004

APPRO JRD – Sudha Murty

 

Image JRD Tata

Sudha Murthy* was livid when a job advertisement posted by a Tata company at the institution where she was completing her post graduation stated that ‘lady candidates need not apply’. She dashed off a ‘postcard’ to JRD, protesting against the discrimination. It was the beginning of an association that would change her life in more ways than one

There are two photographs that hang on my office wall. Every day when I enter my office I look at them before starting my day. They are pictures of two old people, one of a gentleman in a blue suit and the other a black-and-white image of a man with dreamy eyes and a white beard.

People have asked me if the people in the photographs are related to me. Some have even asked me, “Is this black-and-white photo that of a Sufi saint or a religious guru?” I smile and reply “No, nor are they related to me. These people made an impact on my life. I am grateful to them.” “Who are they?” “The man in the blue suit is Bharat Ratna JRD Tata and the black-and-white photo is of Jamsetji Tata.” “But why do you have them in your office?” “You can call it gratitude.”

Then, invariably, I have to tell the person the following story.

It was a long time ago. I was young and bright, bold and idealistic. I was in the final year of my master’s course in computer science at the Indian Institute of Science [IISc] in Bangalore, then known as the Tata Institute. Life was full of fun and joy. I did not know what helplessness or injustice meant.

It was probably the April of 1974. Bangalore was getting warm and red gulmohars were blooming at the IISc campus. I was the only girl in my postgraduate department and was staying at the ladies hostel. Other girls were pursuing research in different departments of science. I was looking forward to going abroad to complete a doctorate in computer science. I had been offered scholarships from universities in US. I had not thought of taking up a job in India.

One day, while on the way to my hostel from our lecture-hall complex, I saw an advertisement on the notice board. It was a standard job-requirement notice from the famous automobile company Telco [now Tata Motors]. It stated that the company required young, bright engineers, hardworking and with an excellent academic background, etc.

At the bottom was a small line: “Lady candidates need not apply.” I read it and was very upset. For the first time in my life I was up against gender discrimination.

Though I was not keen on taking up a job, I saw this as a challenge. I had done extremely well in academics, better than most of my male peers. Little did I know then that in real life academic excellence is not enough to be successful.

Images Sudha Murthy – Then and Now!

Returning to my  room. I decided to inform the topmost person in Telco’s management about the injustice the company was perpetrating. I got a postcard and started to write, but there was a problem: I did not know who headed Telco. I thought it must be one of the Tatas. I knew JRD Tata was the head of the Tata Group; I had seen his pictures in newspapers (actually, Sumant Moolgaokar was the company’s chairman then).

I took the card, addressed it to JRD and started writing. To this day I remember clearly what I wrote. “The great Tatas have always been pioneers. They are the people who started the basic infrastructure industries in India, such as iron and steel, chemicals, textiles and locomotives. They have cared for higher education in India since 1900 and they were responsible for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Science. Fortunately, I study there. But I am surprised how a company such as Telco is discriminating on the basis of gender.”

I posted the letter and forgot about it. Less than 10 days later, I received a telegram stating that I had to appear for an interview at Telco’s Pune facility at the company’s expense.

I was taken aback by the telegram. My hostel mates told me I should use the opportunity to go to Pune free of cost — and buy them the famous Pune saris for cheap! I collected Rs 30 each from everyone who wanted a sari. When I look back, I feel like laughing at the reasons for my going, but back then they seemed good enough to make the trip.

It was my first visit to Pune and I immediately fell in love with the city. To this day it remains dear to me. I feel as much at home in Pune as I do in Hubli, my hometown. The place changed my life in so many ways.

As directed, I went to Telco’s Pimpri office for the interview. There were six people on the panel and I realised then that this was serious business. “This is the girl who wrote to JRD,” I heard somebody whisper as soon as I entered the room. By then I knew for sure that I would not get the job. That realisation abolished all fears from my mind, so I was rather cool while the interview was being conducted.

Even before the interview started, I reckoned the panel was biased, so I told them, rather impolitely, “I hope this is only a technical interview.” They were taken aback by my rudeness, and even today I am ashamed about my attitude.

The panel asked me technical questions and I answered all of them. Then an elderly gentleman with an affectionate voice told me, “Do you know why we said lady candidates need not apply? The reason is that we have never employed any ladies on the shop floor. This is not a co-ed college; this is a factory. When it comes to academics, you are a first ranker throughout. We appreciate that, but people like you should work in research laboratories.”

I was a young girl from small-town Hubli. My world had been a limited place. I did not know the ways of large corporate houses and their difficulties, so I answered, “But you must start somewhere, otherwise no woman will ever be able to work in your factories.”

Finally, after a long interview, I was told I had been successful. So this was what the future had in store for me. Never had I thought I would take up a job in Pune. That city changed my life in many ways. I met a shy young man from Karnataka there, we became good friends and we got married.

It was only after joining Telco that I realised who JRD was: the uncrowned king of Indian industry. Now I was scared, but I did not get to meet him till I was transferred to Bombay. One day I had to show some reports to Mr Moolgaokar, our chairman, who we all knew as SM. I was in his office on the first floor of Bombay House [the Tata headquarters] when, suddenly, JRD walked in. That was the first time I saw ‘appro JRD’. Appro means ‘our’ in Gujarati. That was the affectionate term by which people at Bombay House called him.

I was feeling very nervous, remembering my postcard episode. SM introduced me nicely, “Jeh (that’s what his close associates called him), this young woman is an engineer and that too a postgraduate. She is the first woman to work on the Telco shop floor.” JRD looked at me. I was praying he would not ask me any questions about my interview (or the postcard that preceded it). Thankfully, he didn’t. Instead he remarked. “It is nice that girls are getting into engineering in our country. By the way, what is your name?” “When I joined Telco I was Sudha Kulkarni, Sir,” I replied. “Now I am Sudha Murty.” He smiled that kindly smile and started a discussion with SM. As for me, I almost ran out of the room.

After that I used to see JRD on and off. He was the Tata Group chairman and I was merely an engineer. There was nothing that we had in common. I was in awe of him.

One day I was waiting for Murthy, my husband, to pick me up after office hours. To my surprise I saw JRD standing next to me. I did not know how to react. Yet again I started worrying about that postcard. Looking back, I realise JRD had forgotten about it. It must have been a small incident for him, but not so for me.

“Young lady, why are you here?” he asked. “Office time is over.” I said, “Sir, I’m waiting for my husband to come and pick me up.” JRD said, “It is getting dark and there’s no one in the corridor. I’ll wait with you till your husband comes.” I was quite used to waiting for Murthy, but having JRD waiting alongside made me extremely uncomfortable.

I was nervous. Out of the corner of my eye I looked at him. He wore a simple white pant and shirt. He was old, yet his face was glowing. There wasn’t any air of superiority about him. I was thinking, “Look at this person. He is a chairman, a well-respected man in our country and he is waiting for the sake of an ordinary employee.”

Then I saw Murthy and I rushed out. JRD called and said, “Young lady, tell your husband never to make his wife wait again.”

In 1982 I had to resign from my job at Telco. I was reluctant to go, but I really did not have a choice. I was coming down the steps of Bombay House after wrapping up my final settlement when I saw JRD coming up. He was absorbed in thought. I wanted to say goodbye to him so I stopped. He saw me and paused.

Gently, he said, “So what are you doing, Mrs Kulkarni? (That was the way he always addressed me.) “Sir, I am leaving Telco.” “Where are you going?” he asked. “Pune, sir. My husband is starting a company called Infosys and I’m shifting to Pune.” “Oh! And what you will do when you are successful?” “Sir, I don’t know whether we will be successful.” “Never start with diffidence,” he advised me. “Always start with confidence. When you are successful you must give back to society. Society gives us so much; we must reciprocate. I wish you all the best.”

Then JRD continued walking up the stairs. I stood there for what seemed like a millennium. That was the last time I saw him alive.

Many years later I met Ratan Tata in the same Bombay office, occupying the chair JRD once did. I told him of my many sweet memories of working with Telco. Later, he wrote to me, “It was nice listening about Jeh from you. The sad part is that he’s not alive to see you today.”

I consider JRD a great man because, despite being an extremely busy person, he valued one postcard written by a young girl seeking justice. He must have received thousands of letters every day. He could have thrown mine away, but he didn’t do that. He respected the intentions of that unknown girl, who had neither influence nor money, and gave her an opportunity in his company. He did not merely give her a job; he changed her life and mindset forever.

Close to 50 per cent of the students in today’s engineering colleges are girls. And there are women on the shop floor in many industry segments. I see these changes and I think of JRD. If at all time stops and asks me what I want from life, I would say I wish JRD were alive today to see how the company we started has grown. He would have enjoyed it wholeheartedly.

My love and respect for the House of Tatas remains undiminished by the passage of time. I always looked up to JRD. I saw him as a role model – for his simplicity, his generosity, his kindness and the care he took of his employees. Those blue eyes always reminded me of the sky; they had the same vastness and munificence.

* Sudha Murthy is the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation. She is involved in a number of social development initiatives and is also a widely published writer.

May some of our big Influential Rich Powerful in Oman read this – and we all learn from this!

Best Regards,

Majid Al Suleimany