this story i read really moved me, i’m amazed (thanks fahad)

Humanitarian to a Nation

Starting in 1951 with a tiny dispensary in Karachi�s poor Mithadar neighborhood, Edhi has steadily built up a nationwide organization of ambulances, clinics, maternity homes, mental asylums, homes for the physically handicapped, blood banks, orphanages, adoption centers, mortuaries, shelters for runaway children and battered women, schools, nursing courses, soup kitchens and a 25-bed cancer hospital.

it struck my as almost surreal that such a person could exist, that with the limited resources he has and the atmosphere in pakistan, he could do so much

it makes me wonder if we, here in the west with so much more, are doing nearly enough (and no, we’re not — the fundamental problem is not that of wealth or resources but that of distribution, and in as far as that problem exists nothing even remotely near enough is being done)

“My religion is humanitarianism�.. Which is basis of every religion in this world”. (sic)

– Abdul Sattar Edhi

and in other news:

nomes says:
girls come and go…
nomes says:
well, they go more often than they come
ksnite says:
actually, we come and they go

ksnite says:
why do all girls maek spelling mistakes?
nomes says:
bits me

today, saqib hooked up with sanjeyan and i at the rally for reducing tuition fees (or at least, against increasing them)

it was, for each of us, the first time at a demonstration, and it was a lot of fun

we were carrying ASSU‘s banner that read, “education is a right”

we started out in front of con hall, marched around king’s college circle, then went down st. george street to college, and along college to queen’s park

we took our banner and aligned it so that it was parallel to the marching, at the left side of the march — this way, the cars going on the other side of the road could see what was on it
we also made sure that when we passed by streetcars we raised the banner so that all those inside could read it (and get annoyed that we were blocking their view of what it was that was blocking them) — it was quite “in your face”

once we reached queen’s park, outside the legislature, we found a snow bank and stood atop of it holding out our banner — we sank into the snow at a rate of one inch every eight minutes — we were on the left flank of the protestors

one of the speakers was mary anne chambers (minister in charge of postsecondary education), she came up and made a speech, after which students from carleton offered her a mock-up giant “promise ring” to remind her to keep her promises
the minister refused the ring, at which point i started a chant “wear the ring! wear the ring!” — yes, i felt proud of that — but she didn’t take the ring

at one point a reporter for centennial college’s toronto observer asked me for a comment (i suppose my comments, if published, will be there in the next edition)

one of the speakers, a representative from cupe, started off with a most excellent introduction, “brothers, sisters, COMRADES!” — he was apparently an arab, very enthusiastic, with an incredible accent and booming voice that made everyone listen

we almost felt like starting a revolution right there and then

and after the protest a reporter from roger’s cable local tv (markham/richmond hill) went around looking for a student from markham or richmond hill, and it seems i’m the only one she found, so she took me away and i gave her an interview
that will be on tv tomorrow, and no one will watch it anyway

after the protest, sanjeyan and i dragged the assu banner in front of the sidney smith wraparounds (front and back) with their floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and got people inside to watch as we walked around

later, saqib, sanjeyan and i used a couple of free lunch coupons we had to get the most expensive food we could from sscaf� — a couple of subs from mr. sub — and had a feast, or a reasonable approximation thereof

after that we went around postering for ut-tern’s movie night (we’re showing big fish — two dollars — all proceeds go to tsunami relief:
monday, feb 7, six pm, ss2118
come out and support, and watch a great movie too)

and after that i went to class, and sanjey and saqib went home

it was a great day, because sanjey typically strikes me as someone who stays away from the political — and it was great to see him chanting along, and i don’t get to see saqib much (i’ve only seen him once on campus by chance before), so it was most excellent, as far as days go

my life seems to revolve around uncanny coincidences

for example, in april of 2004, i happened to perform house of pain’s “jump around” in the subway — and this was caught on video (a reminder: i wasn’t drunk — i don’t drink)

in the video, barely visible at the very back of the car (which was actually the front of the car, but nevermind) and to the right, sitting by herself, is a lone girl
when she got on the train she seemed slightly down, but my rapping lifted her spirits, and by the time she got off she was smiling

also, there’s this oriental guy, sitting next to a girl (his girlfriend) — almost right in front of me — and he’s rapping along with me (he was drunk)

later, sometime in may, i met the guy in front of the popeye’s at markville (mccowan and hwy 7) … he’s in ryerson, industrial engineering, not stating his name because i forgot it

later, sometime in june, i started working at toronto parks and recreation as a camp leader… the girl in the back (front) of the car turned out to be marie, who was also a leader at the camp

[at this rate, i wouldn’t be surprised if i’d run into other people from that car at other places, but had failed to recognize them]

anyway, there seem to be a lot of uncanny coincidences in my life
(and yes, this example is nearing a year-old, but the more recent ones that actually inspired this post would take much longer to explain and i’m lazy)

i was thinking about the devastation caused by the tsunami — 120,000 people dead in a matter of a few days — and i was thinking about what i could do to help using my position as a member of student government

i then realized that — and this is by no means meant to discount the severity of the current disaster — tens of thousands of people, at an average rate of 24,000 (according to the hunger site) people die per day from hunger

that is to say, every five days, 120,000 people die from hunger

tsunamis, earthquakes, fire, floods — these are things that we can never prevent, we can only deal with them after the fact

but things like hunger, malnutrition, lack of clean water, disease– these are all things that can and should be prevented before hand

yes, two people died in somalia because of the tsunami, but odds are they would’ve died from hunger, warfare, disease or polluted water anyway

why does it take some major act of nature for us to focus more on the plight of the poor and misplaced? why must our charity be reactionary in nature? and most importantly, what can we really do?

if we want to live our lives, we can’t constantly fret and be concerned about the people “over there”

it’s all fine and dandy when something like this occurs, then we can turn our attention to it for a few days — it stays on the radar, it stays on the news, because it’s hollywood … a tsunami, an earthquake, a tornado, a flood — these are all things that could very perceivably happen to us, or at least, we can see ourselves as the protagonists in a movie about such things

but can you truly envision yourself dying from hunger? from a second-rate instant-cure disease like malaria?

i know i don’t take the time to think about it, i’m probably more guilty of such behaviour than most people

but it really is something to think about

every five days, 120,000 people die from hunger — it doesn’t take american bombs or south-east asian tsunamis to do it

i once had a dream where i was in a hilly region (i could tell by the way the buildings were arranged)

my viewpoint was from the top of a hill looking into a town

and there were nazi flags hanging from some of the buildings and nazi insignias sprayed around

i recognized the region as northern india, some place like kashmir (i’ve never been there so i have no idea why)

and in case you may think that i was confusing the nazi swastika with the hindu swastik — that’s when the german tanks rolled into town

i think i was involved in some kind of resistance against the germans

now i know that the second world war hadn’t spread as far as india, and so i woke up and thought that was an odd dream

but that was long before i read about this

i’m weary and my pen nib is scared

and that’s odd because nibs shouldn’t have emotions

i’m scrubbing it with an old toothbrush — one my uncle used when he came to canada on a trip

i just finished redrawing the first panel of my diana comic and i like the new rendition, and the new background effect, much better; and so i photoshopped it in

i want to sleep — i usually (usually? that’s a laugh) go to bed by 6:00 a.m. and it’s now 11:00 a.m. — people keep asking me if i ever sleep

i once had a dream that was a black and white comic — this is long before i even knew about sin city — it had panels, it had sound and motion effects … i don’t remember much of it

comics — i could go on for a long time speaking about the various aspects of comics but most people’s eyes would glaze over

sometimes you repeat a word so much that you start to doubt if it is a real word, you roll it over your tongue and try to savour its cadences but all you taste is a funny feeling; you repeat the word to yourself and it seems to be the most ludicrous thing you’ve ever heard — is it really a word? — you check the dictionary and it just blows your mind that there it is, right there, these letters arranged in this order placed in this context

i want to draw more comics and i want to do unexpected things with them

after my “no man’s land” strip people were caught by surprise by the diana comic — it wasn’t expected — it wasn’t humourous and that seemed to be out of vein of my usual activities

i like doing unexpected things

after i’m done washing these pen nibs i’m going to sleep

and then one of the nibs breaks — not the nib itself but the brass reservoir control on it breaks — and that hurts because it’s a good nib and a replacement is going to be expensive and i wonder if art stores have boxing day sales

it strikes me then, that not it but the other nib was the one that was scared

and that’s odd because nibs shouldn’t have emotions

i certainly need some sleep

(click on thumbnail)

for diana (though, not about diana), thanks to payal for her help…

so adam recently asked me why i don’t update my blog more often

it’s a good question

i think it’s a combination of the fact that few people read it, there’s too much spam on it, and that i don’t know what to say

of course, most people who know me know that i have plenty to say

i suppose when i started the blog it was because it was a cool thing to do and because i needed a place to rant

the latter role has been taken up more and more by friends, with whom i engage in discussion and to whom i make long-winded rants (mostly on msn)

that is, just a couple of people, mostly sanjeyan (when he’s on this plane of existence) and yaser

having said that, i will copy here a post i made on a message board about the loss of suprnova.org:

i am shocked and dismayed at the news of suprnova going down

there is really little any of us can say that could sum up this loss

it was suprnova that gave us the bittorrent outlet — it took us in after kazaa and p2p became slow and onerous

it was suprnova that gave us our first comics and introduced us to z-cult

it was suprnova that embodied many of our hopes and dreams of a free planet ruled by the people and not the corporations

alas, another blow, but “we must go forward, not backward, upward, not forward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom” (simpsons)

amen

(z-cult is a comics bittorrent community)

the mpaa and riaa have been going after bittorrent sites now that they’ve taken care of kazaa and other p2p networks

they simply don’t understand that they can’t stop the revolution

something funny that the mpaa’s director of “antipiracy” operations, john malcolm, said:

These people are parasites, leeching off the creative activity of others…

for a second there i thought he was talking about the bloated corporations that garner insane profits from motion pictures and record sales, the ones that stunt creativity and undermine independent creators

i guess he didn’t see the irony of his statement

Near where I live there’s a viaduct,
Where people jump when they’re out of luck,
Raining down on the cars and trucks below.

They’ve put a net there to catch their fall,
Like that’ll stop anyone at all,
What they don’t know is when nature calls, you go.

when you take the eastern half of the bloor-danforth line subway for the first time (presumably to the university of toronto), and pass on the underside of the bloor street viaduct over bayview avenue (on its west side) and the don valley parkway (at the east) and the rosedale ravine, there’s something that makes you gaze in awe and wonder at the sight over a hundred feet below you

it’s not the same kind of awe that you feel when you’re standing over a thousand feet above the ground in the cn tower, the viaduct is much more intimate — there, nature is situated side-by-side with the work of humans as you travel over a feat of engineering — there’s an almost primal draw from the ground below you

over time, you learn to suppress the wonder and bury your nose in your book or your thoughts as you pass over the viaduct, but every once in a while it calls to you and you turn your attention to it

on thursday night, i took the subway home from the university, as i’ve done hundreds of times before
this time i decided to stop at castle frank and walk across the bloor street viaduct, to broadview

when i exited castle frank station and was crossing a street to the viaduct a homeless man was also crossing the street from the other side and was asking motorists for some change

after crossing the street i noticed a park with a concrete circular seating arrangement, trees, and carefully tended pink flowers — the park was strewn with garbage as well, the concrete seat spray-painted with useless graffiti

as i approached the bridge i noticed a sign that said “distress centre” and had a number and a guarantee that they listen twenty-four hours a day, beneath the sign was a telephone booth (ironically the number they gave wasn’t toll free) — across the street was a similar sign and phone booth

once i started walking across the bridge, i noticed the barrier they had put up to prevent people from jumping, steel rods spaced close to each other so that they would prevent most people from slipping through … i also noticed that if someone truly wanted to circumvent the barrier and plummet to their death it wasn’t difficult

it’s easiest at the east side of the viaduct, because the don valley parkway is close to the end of the bridge (on the west side, bayview is a bit further from the end of the bridge) … it is at the end of the bridge that you can climb onto the stone and get around the barrier and holding onto the steel rods inch your way across until you’re above the don valley parkway, and then let go

you could do the same with bayview but, as i said, it’s further away from the end of the bridge

after walking the half kilometre, i reached broadview — there was a pizza pizza there and i purchased a slice

then i went home

They say that Jesus and mental health
Are just for those who can help themselves,
But what good is that when you live in hell on earth?

And the very fear that makes you want to die,
Is just the same as what keeps you alive.
It’s way more trouble than some suicide is worth.

Won’t it be dull
When we rid ourselves of all these demons haunting us
To keep us company?

Won’t it be odd
To be happy like we always thought we’re supposed to feel
But never seem to be?

– “War on Drugs,” Barenaked Ladies