Friday, June 11, 2010

Sea turtles in Gulf of Mexico -help these voiceless and defenseless creatures! Eco-criminals should sink or swim in their poison!

Dear people:
"You are the fish. You are the tortoise. You are the abundant ocean." Guru Granth Sahib
Whilst BP officials and their Chief Executive struts about assuring the world and the US President that they will eventually clean up their sick and poisonous gigantic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; there are countless animals, birds and fish who are being terminally contaminated and killed by this entirely corporate, profit driven disaster. The planet, animals, and, humans, are simply fodder for companies like BP, Esso, Shell, Union Carbide to simple trample over, in pursuit of their glorious multi-billion profits. The Chief Executives and their cosy colleagues, get rich and fat on these massive profits, enjoying their mega-comfortable lifestyles in the rural billionaire homes, ranches and farm-houses;, with their hunting and shooting adventures and their 4x4s. Whilst the rest of the world around them, decays, suffers, contaminates and dies becuause of their filthy, morally debased, pursuit of monetary riches.
What BP have done in the Gulf of Mexico, and have done before elsewhere and will invariably do again; is ECO-CIDE! Killing and maiming the planet, and its varied life forms. I am tempted to say that, the chief executive and senior officials of these moronic profit making gigantic machines, should be all gathered up and dumped right in the thick of this poisonous oil slick. They should be told sink or swim in the poison of your own making!
It is left to the Robin Hoods, Banda Singh Bahadurs of past and present, to fight this legalised murder of the planet and its animals. The poor, dismepowered, money-less humans who are not part of the chain of profit making, like the tens of thousands of residents of Bhopal (central India) who bore the direct brunt of the 1984 Union Carbide chemical explosion - the "worlds deadliest industrial accident"; are also treated like the abundantly defenceless, voiceless animals. Bhopals residents too, are profitless, voiceless, defenceless animals. Indeed, a good taste of what animals feel and suffer, through a human experience!
As part of the righteous fight back against these murderous giants, please help and support groups like Defenders of Wildlife in their bid to save and rescue the animals and birds of the Gulf of Mexico. There are many other good groups doing their part. Help them all!
Our riches lie in the life of diversity on this mother planet, that we should nurture and empower to grow and flourish. Our riches lie in the sacred circle of life, not in the elites and cliques that seek to maim, contaminate and dominate.
Power to the Planet! Power to the Animals! Power to the People!
jagdeesh singh
SIKH ENVIRONMENT NETWORK V| SARBAT DA BHALLA

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

The Noble 'Servant' Of Peshawar

The Noble 'Servant' Of Peshawar

Khurshid Khan (in yellow head-covering) shining shoes to help show  brotherhood with the Sikh community in Peshawar.

Khurshid Khan (in yellow head-covering) shining shoes to help show brotherhood with the Sikh community in Peshawar.

June 02, 2010
Khurshid Khan, an eminent 60-year-old lawyer and deputy attorney general of Pakistan, wants to "heal the wounds" of the terror-stricken minority Sikh community in that country.

So he does an extraordinary thing at a temple in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Every day when he handles his work as a legal expert, Khan visits a Sikh temple in center of the city, wraps a piece of cloth around his head to show his respect, and sits in the doorway to shine the shoes of Sikhs, whose community has come under frequent attack by Taliban militants over the last few years.

Two months back, militants in Khyber Agency abducted three Sikhs and demanded for a huge ransom for their release. Two were eventually freed, but one, Jispal Singh, was killed in brutal fashion and his corpse left on the roadside in the tribal area.

"I went to offer my condolences to the family of Jispal Singh and that was a turning point in my life," Khan tells RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal. "I realized that as a Pashtun I should work to 'heal their wounds' by becoming their sewadar (servant). I want to give them a message of love and brotherhood, and that's why every day I am here to shine their shoes."

Khan says he is himself a landlord and doesn't even shine his own shoes at his home. But his cause inspires him to sit on the ground on a daily basis and shine 70-80 pairs of shoes.

"I can see the light of love in their eyes for me and my people," he maintains.

He adds that Sikhs have lived in the area with the dominant Pashtun communities for centuries, pay taxes, and play an important role in the economic progress of the region. But still, he laments, we fail to protect their lives and properties.

They are being killed and kidnapped by the Taliban in Orakzai, Kurrum, and Khyber tribal regions, Khan says, adding that other Pakistanis must stand by them in these critical hours and give them a sense of oneness and brotherhood.

An estimated 28,000 Sikhs live in Pakistan, including about 10,000 who live in the tribal region and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of the conflict-ridden country. In May 2009, Taliban militants destroyed 11 Sikh homes in the Orakzai tribal district after accusing them of failing to pay "taxes." The ongoing conflict in the Buner and Swat districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has displaced more than 200 families.