My Swan Song

Image courtesy chatGPT 

(Note: Chapter 55: The Lord of Mercy Verse 26: Everything on earth perishes. 

The following are my parting words. This tribute to the martyrs of Gaza, Iran and Lebanon ends my career in writing. I may translate a verse or two which I may find touching from Pashto into English and vice versa, and that would be that. I may also try to translate T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land into Pashto provided I stayed any longer on earth. But I believe this great poem will not lend itself easily for translation into any other language. 

Huge billboards announcing fastfood chains owned by Zionists dot the desert landscape in Makkah and Madina, the two holiest Islamic places. Day after day, pilgrims visit these places in millions. They consume these foods which feed the Zionist war machinery. So we need not look elsewhere 😞

April is the cruelest month 

Eight billion people inhabiting 

The Waste Land)

BARBARIANS AND A CONFESSION 

By: Nasser Yousaf 

Pakistan Studies used to be Social Studies. Some jingoist among us had other thoughts, and one day we were told it's Pakistan Studies, making it the butt of everyone's jokes. 

Poor Pakistan Studies 😊, even Afghans taunt their fellow clansmen on this side of Mr. Durand's Divide; they lift the book from the shelf to flog us with. 'O Gul Khana, lar sha hagha Pakistan Studies de ulasta,' (O Gul Khan, an epithet reserved for the Pashtuns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, away with you, you have been taught only from the Pakistan Studies). Honestly, it amuses me, laughter is the best medicine 💊 🤩.

I have to confess; Pakistan Studies used to annoy me. But no more. No country in the world tells its children the truth, or the whole truth. Why single out Pakistan then?

You may face legal challenges if you spit on a road in Japan. Those having lived in Japan or returning from it as visitors consider this as a great hallmark of the Japanese system of governance and culture.

Since 1945, only 120 rape cases have officially been reported against the US servicemen deployed in Okinawa in Japan. Okinawans believe rape cases by US servicemen run into thousands but these are not allowed to be made public. 

Unfortunately, Japan has an unforgiving, and unforgettable, geisha-related legacy to contend with. Ironically, however , it doesn't appear to be too difficult for Japan to put up with the outrageous misconduct of the US soldiers.

Similar reports emanate from time to time from the Philippines and South Korea. But no Southeast Asian country would like their students to know about this insufferable ignominy. Southeast Asia is the favourite hunt out of American ideology. America has easily succeeded in convincing people of this region that in the absence of Yanks, communists will devour them. 

America has 750 military bases in 80 countries which includes the economically (not morally) most developed ones like Japan, Germany, South Korea, Britain, Spain, Turkey and several Middle East countries. Not morally, because these countries lack self-respect. All countries having foreign military bases shamelessly call themselves sovereign although any student of political science will know that this is not true.

Owing to its incredibly audacious stance on the Gaza genocide committed by Israel with the help of US, UK and Germany, it would be grossly unfair not to exclude Spain from the aforesaid infamous list. Spaniards also defiantly stood their moral ground like the Rock of Gibraltar when America and Israel waged a brutal and unjust war against Iran.

America has either through brute force, or by spreading fear of an imminent invasion by the defunct Soviet Union, set up these military bases. Soviet Union has never invaded any of these countries while Germany and France did venture to invade Russia but had to face humiliating defeats. Germany and France will never include these dark chapters in their curriculums. Only those Germans and French will know about this who read good literature.

Julian Assange, who is known for unearthing the dark secret world of America, says that more than forty military bases have encircled Iran. America with the help of the Gulf countries has literally done everything possible to strangulate Iran, and still complains that Iran had held the world hostage.

Since World War 2, America has waged scores of unprovoked ideological and illegal wars in many countries, fortunately losing most of these like those in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran etc. America has not spared even its neighbours in Central and Latin America. Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba are the worst examples of the US interventions and oppression. America steals the resources of its neighbours at gunpoint as we saw in the case of Venezuela.

America recently invaded Venezuela in broad daylight, killed a few dozen innocent Venezuelans and took away its democratically elected president, Maduro, as a capitive. Like a stand-up comedian, American President Trump told his thoroughly amused admirers that he was taking control of Venezuela's oil. Do we seriously believe American schools will include this macabre chapter in their curriculums, America stealing oil 😜?

Here is a good example of why America is so bereft of or poor in military strategm. Afghanistan's people and territory ought to be well known to all Americans. 

It was in Afghanistan where we were told America avenged its defeat in Vietnam. And yet to defeat a few thousand hardcore militants at the turn of the millennium, America piled up a mountain of weaponery in Afghanistan. 

America's arsenal in Afghanistan had left little to imagination. Who knows they might also have got nukes in a nearby tavern. After it decided to flee in disgrace, Taliban were left in charge of every single gun and bullet.

Had Afghanistan not been a landlocked country, Kabul would have witnessed Abraham anchored at its shores, chasing mullahs in the Thora Bora caves. America loves killing flies with Cannons.  

We live in an age of lies. When I last tried to find out whether Bush, Cheney, Colin Powell (also Tony Blair) may ever face prosecution in the US and UK for telling the biggest lie of history about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the answer was 'No,' because laws in the two countries granted them protection. 

France colonized most of North Africa and stole its natural resources through a mix of oppression, deceit and education. Germany and Britain armed Israel to the teeth in the latter's campaign of genocide in Gaza. The civilized world (sic)! Europe and America love listening to this phrase from a fawning audience in rest of the world, especially the libertines. Will this civilized world tell its pupils what it did in 2024-2026? 

For as long as one remembers now, some countries in Europe have been keeping tabs on Pakistan for the human rights violations. Britain, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark are in the forefront. Pakistan might have committed many violations, but then who will throw the first stone?

Julian Assange hid in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for nearly seven years to escape persecution in his home country Sweden. Sweden wanted him on the allegedly concocted charges of rape. But that appeared to be a subterfuge as both Sweden and Britain wanted to hand him over to America for leaking the endless details of America's evil deeds.

Americans may differ on whether abortion and same sex marriage may be allowed or not but otherwise all Americans are united to ransack the vulnerable countries and steal their resources. This is what lies at the heart of capitalist ideology, survival of the fittest. 

We have read about Halaku Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. Halaku, or Hulegu, lived for just about 48 years only to leave behind him a trail of blood that reddened the flow of water in Tigris for years. 

Halaku Khan's Mongolian hordes threw away all books in Tigris. For reasons of their instinctive bloodlust and carnage, Mongolos of the 13th century are referred to as barbarians and their chief as the 'butcher of Baghdad.' Since Trump had to go one up Hulegu, he bombed a school in Iran that killed 160 girl students. Incidentally, Trump's casualties outnumbered even those in the Army Public School Peshawar by the Taliban.

On the other hand, we do know how many hundreds and thousands of people America, Israel, Britain and Germany have killed in Iraq, Iran, Gaza, Palestine, Lebanon and many other countries during the last about 23 years. But we have never heard Bush, Obama, Biden, Trump, Netanyahu, Sharon, Olaf Scholz, Tony Blair,Rishi Sunak being called butchers or the people of these countries as barbarians. 

History writing, telling and reading is now reduced to an art in discrimination, practiced with finesse by the more suave among us. Diplomacy in the modern world has only helped wash the bloodstained hands of ruthless leaders. 

History would probably have been kindlier to Hulegu too only if he had learnt the true art of diplomacy.

Adieu!