Thursday, September 24, 2009

Haiku 092409

coffee break
she scoops a cupful
of the lake

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Recently, we read the following:

Washington Post: “In Swat Valley, a Bittersweet Eid” by Pamela Constable

“Girls in bright dresses pushed each other on swings, and boys in pastel tunics played soldier with toy rifles. Neighbors hugged, families gathered and vendors sold scoop after scoop of sweet custard.

“This week is the first time in three years that people in Pakistan's Swat Valley have been able to celebrate Eid al-Fitr -- the joyous three-day festival that follows the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and its daily fasting -- without looking anxiously over their shoulders for armed religious vigilantes in pickup trucks.

“But the Taliban-free holiday has been bittersweet for many Swatis, still shellshocked from the summer-long army operation that drove the Islamist militants from this verdant northwest valley but also left a path of death and destruction and sent hundreds of thousands of inhabitants fleeing for their lives.

" ‘It doesn't really feel like Eid, because we cannot forget so soon,’ said Sadiq Khan, a fruit seller in the town of Batkhela. ‘They are still finding bodies in the Swat River. We had to spend weeks in those hot tents, and some of our women had to give birth on the road as we ran from the fighting. There is too much sorrow and shame for us to celebrate...’ "

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And we thought:

…We scoop stuff for different reasons. To hurl in anger and hurt another. To keep as souvenir and remember. For nourishment. To quench thirst. To build or rebuild. To provide for others. To celebrate.

A butcher in Pakistan reportedly had this wish: “We need to have one Eid to unify the country.” Others have expressed a grander vision: “We need to have one Eid a unified world celebrates.”


Like a festival celebrating world peace…



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