meethapani

  Style is a refinement in behaviour and the cultivation of poise. Style is expressed in the way a person walks or converses, by the cadence of language, by the spaces we choose to live in. Style shows confidence, presence, personal power, often communicated without the need for words.  Unlike brute force, style cannot be fought with or overcome. It is a quiet challenge that does not seek a reaction. While it can be mocked, it cannot be destroyed. It is the result of a cultivated intentionality that becomes part of a personality. Style is like the softest notes of a piano or violin that the listener knows can build up to a powerful intensity that will make hearts tremble. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in February this year, and the  Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Abbas Araghchi, through all the warmongering rhetoric, impressed the world with their soft spoken manner with the slight smile of the wise dealing with the foolish. No angry fist shaking. Instead we witn...

  In Ireland a candle placed in the window signaled to travelling priests that the home was a safe haven for Catholics, persecuted in Britain from 1534 to the 1800s.The phrase became a symbol for hope, an incentive to keep going. As people search alternate news sources to make sense of the seismic changes that threaten to affect everyday lives, some sharing guidelines to survive a nuclear attack, others identifying DIY methods to generate electricity, they feel like sitting ducks in the crossfire of petulant, warring oligarchs. "Karayn tau kiya karaen" ( if we act what could we do?) is on everyone’s minds. Massive street protests, parliamentary debates, impassioned Security Council speeches, International Court of Justice rulings – all seem to fall on deaf ears.     And then we see images of Palestinian youths smiling as they are taken to the gallows, after Israeli parliament voted last month for the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners. Those smiles carry the ...

  Rumpelstiltskin, a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, tells the story of a poor miller’s daughter who was locked up each night to turn straw into gold until the King found her worthy of becoming his bride. The only way she achieved this was with the help of a dubious character, Rumpelstiltskin, but this help came at a price: first for her necklace, then her ring and then the promise of her first born child. It is tempting to see the King as the exploitative nations, the miller and his daughter as the exploited and enslaved, and Rumpelstiltskin as the international agencies that offer loans forcing countries into the trap of eternal debt servicing.   The miller’s daughter escapes from her debt to Rumpelstiltskin by identifying his hidden name. The world, too, is finally exposing the well-guarded truths, the identities of hidden forces, that have enslaved nations largely by controlling the narrative.   The lofty edifices that filled the world with awe and wonder, pro...

  A couple of weeks ago, a midday poetry reading session was held. Literary aficionados, Bari Mian and Wajid Jawad read out a selection of poems, with members of the audience contributing their own favourites. In the midst of the mayhem of war, there was something restorative and moving about these two speakers, each with a small well-thumbed pocket sized notebook bursting with paper bookmarks marking the poems to be read. Most cultural events are held in the evenings, often extending well into the night. This was different. A couple of hours in the middle of the day. A hiatus between the busyness of the morning and what may well be a fraught evening. It was not a rest, a siesta, but a secret energizing, a waking of the soul when many in the city were bent over desks, reconciling accounts. Midday is seen as a powerful time of the day, when the sun is at its zenith, creating no shadow.   A time of sharp clarity, intensity, perfect illumination, exposing the truth of thing...

  War is presented as an integral part of human society. There are wars for territorial expansion, wars of resistance, punitive or wars of revenge, wars for liberation. Some wars are fierce, aimed at annihilation of the enemy. Some are wars of attrition, much like the sieges of the past, aimed to exhaust the adversary's capability to fight, depleting resources and morale. Wars seem easy to start, but few know how to negotiate the peace. While there have been many truces, there have been very few successful peace treaties. The oldest surviving peace treaty was the Treaty of Kadesh, signed around 1259–1269 BC between Egypt and the Hittites to end a war that lasted two centuries to gain mastery over the lands of the eastern Mediterranean. The treaty was honoured until the end of the Hittite empire 80 years later. In Europe the Peace of Westphalia, signed in 1648, ended over 100 years of wars, and established borders of sovereign states. The treaty lasted for over 150 years. ...

  Human society began with small isolated groups typically of 20-30 individuals, that self-organised by developing individual and group skills and responsibilities to ensure survival. As societies became more complex so too did the ways of organizing and managing them. A few took upon themselves or were nominated by the many to take decisions that ensure the prosperity of all. Today the governments of China and India each manage the affairs of over a billion people, and most countries count their populations in the millions. How are such large populations managed as a single political entity? How do governments succeed in inspiring its populations to have a shared identity and collective aspirations? India and China reinvented themselves after centuries of deflection of their traditional systems by colonial adventurism. To put it simplistically, India does it by recalling its ancient civilizational achievements, China by gathering around Confucianism.    Europe deve...