Literary Cure for Rush-Hour Madness

I would like to share my thoughts on a couple of books that I read recently.

One of the books came my way when I asked a colleague at work last month what book he was reading. He had studied Russian history and philosophy at university, so I knew that his recommendation would be anything other than a light read. As it turned out, he was half way through The Whisperers by Orlando Figes. When I got home that evening, I ordered a copy online and within a couple of days the 642-page book arrived. I finally finished it last week having not been able to put it down. The pages kept me gripped, taking my mind away from the daily madness of the London rush-hour.

It is a deeply moving book, filled with memoirs about life in Russia under Stalin. Told through the eyes of the people, their life stories are the contents of each chapter. These stories are drawn from several hundred family archives and interviews conducted with Memorial, a human rights and historical research centre. Chapters intertwine; the families reappear throughout the book confessing emotions of despair, hope, terror and love.

The central theme of the book is the capacity of the human spirit to withstand immense suffering, pain and hardship. Sometimes the stories seem so far removed from anything that can be understood. It was all I could do but to put the book down, compose my thoughts and try to imagine what life under such oppression must have been like. It was too difficult.

From one book about oppression, I moved to another. This week I started A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Two women living in Afghanistan are the focus of the book; first their life under Soviet rule and then under the rule of the Taliban. It is more the circumstances that the characters find themselves in which gives the book its sadness: oppressive governments, unhappy families and abusive marriages. The most compelling element is that it gives the reader an idea of what life must have been like under the Taliban. This for me was its greatest success. It conjures up images of Afghanistan as lived by the people who are often forgotten in times of war; the citizens who try to go about their daily lives, who are often caught up in someone else’s battle.

Both books end with a mixture of tragedy and hope: hope of creating awareness about the lives ordinary people led during Stalin’s time in power; and hope for a better life in Afghanistan, where people are treated equally, justice is served and life is not lived under fear of war. I still find it hard to understand how people can be oppressed in our ‘modern’ world; and why all people are not treated equally.

As I sat on the underground train this morning on my way to work with The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing in my hand, I caught a glimpse of the front page of the Guardian newspaper. The front headline said that the Russian publishing house Atticus had cancelled publication of The Whisperers. The author Orlando Figes fears political motivations behind this move, but the publisher said that it was dropping the book for economic reasons…

Marriage

The writings by Kahlil Gibran, the Lebanese American writer. On marriage, he said:

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.But let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

I wish I could claim these words as my own, because for me they so beautifully capture the meaning of marriage. It is the ultimate expression of love, knowing that the commitment is made forever.

Shangri-La

Tibet, the “roof top of the world” or so it has aptly been named. A land surrounded by the Himalayan Mountains in some of the most inaccessible parts of the world. It has and remains a dream of mine to visit Tibet but I decided instead to venture south to neighbouring India. McLeod Ganj is the home to thousands of Tibetan refugees who have fled from Tibet under Chinese occupation. It is also the home of the Dalai Lama and the spiritual leaders of Tibet.

I applied for a position with Volunteer Tibet, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to supporting the Tibetan people who now live in Northern India (www.volunteertibet.org). Teaching English is in high demand because of the opportunities it provides for work. During the 6 weeks I stayed in this beautiful part of the world, I worked in the monasteries and with The Tibetan Women’s Institute.

With an old fashioned chalk board and a dimly lit room I taught the monks how to describe their monastery; to explain their daily routine and more importantly how to teach the world about their culture and religion. They taught me love and compassion, kindness and friendship. I will remember studying by candle light, sipping butter tea, being surrounded by red robes, bald heads and big smiles.

Although I went to teach, I learnt so much myself. I learnt that to be a monk in Tibet is an honour and highly respected position. It brings great pride to the family. A monk’s life consists of prayers, mediation and community service. Buddhism teaches love and compassion to all living beings. Buddhists believe in reincarnation. Actions undertaken in this life will have an effect on the after-life. If you do good things you have a chance to escape the continual cycle of rebirth and suffering…..

I learnt that where this is hardship and pain there seems to be stronger spiritual faith. There were pictures of religious figures wherever I went and the greatest peace leaders of our time. McLeod Ganj, this Tibetan refugee village was surrounded with pictures of the Dalai Lama on buildings, in homes, on the street walls. There was extreme poverty but also smiles. Sometimes I couldn’t quite make any sense of it all. Why is there so much suffering in the world? The Bible says in Romans verse 5 that “Suffering produces perseverance, character; and character, hope”. I realized that, in a world where there is so much pain the last thing we can do is give up. “Hope” is the key word.

I went to Mother Teresa’s home for the sick and destitute whilst I was in India and I met a partially sighted girl called Sonya who had been disowned by her family. She has a bed in a hall which sleeps about fifty other sick and homeless women. We went to a room where the orphans live – children from five months to five years. The children have a room which contains cots, a few toys and a blanket on the concrete floor. I cuddled and fed and changed nappies. So many children were crying. The 5 month old baby was the newest arrival – she had been found abandoned on the street.

Today I wonder what all these people are doing. Are they well, safe, fed, happy…..it makes me appreciate my family and my friends, my home and my community.

We don’t need to go to the other side of the world to help people. There is a saying which goes: “Be kind to everyone, because anyone you meet is fighting a harder battle”. I like this a lot because we have no idea what troubles our neighbour. I believe we have a responsibility for everyone living in this world. All we need is awareness.

The Tibetan people are losing their culture and language and live many miles from their families in a country where they can only ever be refugees. These people are some of the kindest people I have ever met. Their generosity was incredible. I wish I could do more to bring happiness into their lives.

Refugee Week

On the 15-21st June it was refugee week and the UN Refugee Agency held an event in Trafalgar Square. A refugee camp, similar to the one which currently exists in Darfur aimed to provide a ‘real-life’ experience of living as a refugee.

A refugee is someone who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion is outside the country of his/her nationality and is unable to return home” (1951 Refugee Convention). Someone who is seeking refugee status is classified as an asylum seeker. Recently asylum seekers have (like so many vulnerable groups) received negative press in the media. There is a fundamental difference between asylum seekers/refugees and “migrants”. They often travel in the same way but are treated very differently under international law. Migrants, especially economic migrants choose to move to another country, usually to improve the prospects of their families. Asylum seekers or Refugees have to move if they are to save their lives or preserve their freedom. These two main groups are often being confused and increasingly being treated in the same way: with mistrust and often outright rejection. The failure to get into a safe country could lead to torture or even cost them their lives.

A friend of mine on my course was given refugee status here in the UK after she had to flee from Uzbekistan. Upon arrival in the UK she was detained for 5 days because the paperwork she was carrying was not deemed sufficient. Refugees often flee in the most pressing of circumstances and do not have time to collect any personal belongings, especially not collate paperwork or evidence of the “persecution” they are fleeing. The top ten asylum countries are Pakistan; Iran the US and the UK is eight on this list.

There will always be people who do not have a genuine claim for refugee status, but for all those who are not; millions exist who are in a very vulnerable and life-threatening situation. When a newspaper reports a government`s promises to ‘tackle the problem of asylum seekers’, it is up to us to ask questions and seek more information about what the government actually plans to do. Most of the time we are so far removed from the realities of these people that we believe the statistics and figures thrown at us. A film which brings the situation home is In This World by Michael Winterbottom, which follows two young Afghan boys as they embark upon a hazardous overland trip from their refugee camp in Peshawar, North-West Pakistan. It provides a graphic reality of what asylum seekers have to endure before they even make it to a country like the UK.

So Refugee Week was a time to remember the millions of people who had no choice but to leave their homes and the people they love. It is still a time to question government policies on asylum and seek information so we can establish the truth. It is a time to ensure we all do our part to help all our neighbours; those not just on our doorstep but further a field whose names we will never know but whose hearts beat the same as ours.

China and the Olympics

Recently there has been a lot of media coverage focussing on China and the build up to the Olympics. The attention has been directed at China’s human rights record. Human rights organisations are using the Olympics to inform the world about the suffering of thousands of people. Take for example the situation in Tibet. There is nothing new about the plight of the Tibetan people, but the Olympics have brought their suffering into the public eye. In 1950 Chairman Mao’s troops invaded Tibet leading to a full scale rebellion in 1959 against the Chinese occupation. This resulted in thousands of Tibetan people being killed.

It was the anniversary of this rebellion on March 10th this year that the current protests against China are marking. Tibet achieved part autonomy when it unilaterally declared independence in 1913. However, China regards Tibet to have been a part of its land since the Mongol dynasty as far back as 700 years ago. Though Tibet is called an "autonomous" region, China controls this area as if it were part of China.

The 1960s and 70s marked the Chinese Cultural Revolution and for Tibet this meant the destruction of many monasteries and cultural artifacts. Tibetan monks felt then as they do now that Chinese control over autonomous Tibet was too strong. In the last two years, a railway link has been opened up between Lhasa and the Chinese city of Golmud. Direct and easy access into Tibet will result in increased numbers of Han Chinese arriving and many Tibetan people fear the further eradication of their culture and language.

The spiritual leader is the Dalai Lama who fled Tibet in 1959 and lives in the North of India. The Dalai Lama was made head of state at the age of 15 in the year China invaded the east of Tibet. At the age of 19 he was in Beijing unsuccessfully negotiating with Chairman Mao for a relaxing of Chinese involvement in Tibet.

From India, the Dalai Lama continues to work for genuine self rule in Tibet, receiving the Nobel peace prize for his efforts in 1989. Though his negotiations faltered in 1993, they were resumed in 2002. For his part, the Dalai Lama has said that he has given up the idea of actual independence but instead hopes for Tibet to be given cultural autonomy, leaving the central government in Beijing in charge.

The political future for Tibet will remain the same even if the Olympic protests and boycotts continue. Until genuine talks can be resumed between China and Tibet nothing will change. History has shown that China is too big an economic power for the world to stand up and take real action. The focus should not therefore be on the politics of Tibet but the human rights violations of all Chinese and Tibetan people living in China.

Is the Olympics a correct platform to address this? No. I don’t think any good will come from the boycotts and the protests. Genuine negotiations should have taken place before it was agreed that China would host the Olympic Games. Instead, what should be a time for celebration of the achievements of athletes has become overshadowed with military crackdowns and politics.

When the Olympics are over what will happen to Tibetan people living in China? Leaders who are boycotting the Olympics would be well advised to consider whether this is the most effective action that can be taken to help improve human rights in China. For over 50 years Tibet has not been of concern to powerful countries that could actually do something to help. As Tibet hits the main headlines today, let us not forget those who will continue to suffer after the Games are over. Let us also not forget the athletes who have worked so hard for these Games.

Travel to Understand

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the people, places and moments that take our breath away.

The world is such a beautiful place. Filled with wonders which are the stuff of dreams. That magic of the stars, the authority of the pounding seas, the calm of a morning sunrise, the solitude of a full moon. The urge to travel – to open our minds and move beyond the familiar is not a new phenomenon. It sent Darwin on his journey to ‘discover’, it took Che Guevara off on a motorbike and fuelled the passions of our greatest journalists from John Simpson to John Pilger. St Augustine once wrote: ‘The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page’. Wherever we visit, travel changes us, sometimes superficially, sometimes profoundly. It teaches us something about a place, its peoples, its day-to-day lifestyle.

Great adventures are inside all of us, maybe buried deep waiting to be discovered. My favourite things, an author once wrote is to go to a place I have not yet been. We all recognise that feeling of discovery when we visit a new place for the first time. A place which brings happiness – a great holiday, a walk in the countryside, a horizon pleasing to the eyes.

Airports and train stations always feel like the starting place of adventures. Our planet is filled with treasures in all sorts of places if we look for them. They can inspire us in different ways. Japan brought warm hospitality in the fishing villages of Amakusa. India encouraged a further search for inner calm. Bangladesh brought love and companionship where we were building houses with the local community. Cambodia brought a stark reminder of what happens when the world chooses to forget. Borneo instilled a passion to protect the environment and the natural rainforests. Australia’s aboriginal peoples brought laughter and a culture of art to me which continues to fascinate…the list is endless.

Travel can dispel many of our bad myths and impressions, can confirm the positive, and always promises surprises. The best thing travel can do is to make us more curious, ask questions and seek answers. Once our minds become stretched like this they cannot return. It is now so easy to go and see the most far flung place in the corners of the world. It is also quite possible to discover something new about the peoples living in your community. Who is your neighbour?

When the inhabitants of the world can learn to understand each other we move one more step closer to peace. Close your eyes. Visualise the peoples around the world. See them as they really are and as friends. I see the flutter of prayer flags in India, smell the incense in Thailand, taste soft fruit in Indonesia, feel the fresh air in Tasmania…most importantly I see smiles.

There are good people wherever you go and I encourage you to seek them out. They are kind, hospitable, loving and generous. You meet them when you least expect it but they make your journey special. We need to hear your stories told by travellers about these good people. Then we would all stand up and say: ‘Protect our friends’.

It is our duty to explore, to dream and to look within for understanding and compassion. Then maybe we can all live in harmony. Then maybe we can all live in peace.

Creating a Peaceful World

I have been interested in world religions since living in Asia for three years. It is also a subject which is very relevant to my current studies in Human Rights. Mistakenly religion is used as the cause of wars, violence and terror. Looking at the universal message of all religions they are actually based on love, compassion and tolerance. Their teachings are ways of encouraging people to look at the world with love for all things in it: our fellow neighbour, animals, the environment. We have much to gain by trying to understand world religions. There are around 6 billion people in the world; 2 billion follow Christianity, 1.3 billion follow Islam, 900 million are Hindu and 360 million are Buddhist.[1] We have to learn to live in harmony and understand each other. We can all do our part to learn not just about each other but from each other. All of the major world religions can teach us something about bettering our lives.

I had the honour of attending a series of speeches in India given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet. The focus was compassionate action. I would like to share with you some of the teachings of His Holiness which come from Buddhism. It is not enough to be compassionate. We must act. There are two ways to do this. One is to calm ourselves, our own minds. Then we can reach out to others with a peaceful heart and act in compassion. If you can proceed in service to others with the purest of motives, you proceed sincerely and without regret. When we understand that all people suffer in their own ways then we feel a connection with them. We are an individual amongst millions of others but we are all connected by the things we share in common: one is our desire for happiness.

Living in Asia made me realise how small the world is when you look at it in terms of the interconnectedness of all peoples. People are really just the same all the world over, shaped only by their minds, their hearts and their experiences. By searching for the common ground we can do our part to try and understand each other. I believe that this is the only way we can achieve world peace. Each of us can contribute to this by our own knowledge. A great philosopher once said that we do not have to travel to new places to understand the world; we can just look at the same place with new eyes. May peace be with you all.

[1] Statistics taken from the National Geographic 2002

Guatemala in Black and White

The world is not black and white, but blessed with colour and beauty.

Vietnam

Japanese and Vietnamese students together in Vietnam

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. Ralph Waldo Emerson

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. Mohandas Gandhi

A Vietnamese student learning Japanese calligraphy

These are photos taken in Vietnam at a home for street children. Peace Boat, an NGO striving for world peace visited here on its 54th voyage: www.peaceboat.org. These photos highlight some of the beauty of the people and their passion for life. A truly extraordinary country.

Peace begins with a smile. Mother Teresa

Anatole France

To accomplish great things
we must not only act
but also dream
not only plan
but also believe.

Real Life

There are moments
when life feels real,
when we touch the spirit in each other
and share the beauty and sorrows
of our lives...
...and our hearts gain understanding
and grow strong.

People

Some people come into our lives
and move our souls to dance.
They awaken us to understanding
with the passing whisper
of their wisdom...
They make the world more beautiful,
...Leave footprints in our hearts,
and we are never, ever the same.

Dreams

The future belongs
to those who believe
in the beauty of their dreams

Love

When your heart speaks
take good notes

Wisdom..

Rest your spirit
by the gentle stream
Feel the sun's playful
fire in your soul...
Hear the trees as they
whisper their wisdom....

The Future

When each hand is held in love,
We will truly have wings to fly

Buddha

You, yourself, as
much as anybody in the entire universe,
deserve your
love and affection

The Invitation

This is a really beautiful poem by Oriah Mountain Dreamer:

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are, I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals, or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with my pain or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore trustworthy. I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day and if you can source your life from its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours or mine and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the moon, Yes !

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn't interest me who you are or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.