Latters - An English Translation

This is an unofficial translation of one of the blogs written by the Syrian teenager "Tal al-Mallohi". She blogs in Arabic. She is now in Jail and I thought it may be a nice idea to translate some of her articles into English. This is a purely individual effort and she has no idea about it.
The Arabic blog is at: http://latterstal.blogspot.com

Monday, October 18, 2010

Ninth Letter to the Humankind in This World

To my brother in Iraq.

O my brother human everywhere! Someone might wonder why this Arab girl is not mentioning the bleeding wounded Iraq? Was it forgotten by its own people? I sigh in pain as I grab the pen many times to write about you: capital of Al-Rasheed, capital of pride and dignity. Every time I find my tears reaching the paper before my ink. My sight becomes blurry in tears. I can only see the pale whiteness of the paper and the darkness of my heart. Baghdad! I have read about you in the history until you filled my sight and hearing. You have just carved deep bottomless canyons in my heart.

What could I ever say to you brothers in Iraq? Your endless conflicts made every single corner in Iraq has become smeared in blood! Each day, even each hour, there are booby-trapped cars, assassinations, destruction of buildings, or in other words destruction of a nation. You have ripped our hearts up.

Have you forgotten what Prophet Mohammed (may peace be upon him) said: "A faithful believer remains at liberty regarding his religion unless he kills somebody unlawfully." Look! You have killed all Iraq. Islam never commanded us to murder or assassinate people based on their identity!

Sons of the companions of Prophet Mohammed (may peace be upon him), be heroes of peace. I am entreating you for the sake of Allah to hold hands together. Come to an agreement of loving Iraq only! Life is too short. Bring back the civilization of Al-Rasheed, Al-Ameen and Al-Mamoun. Raise yourselves above these ideological and sectarian differences and think of the greater good for everyone with no exceptions, exclusion, or marginalization.

Behold Japan, after coming out of the war destructed, slavish and surrendered. With scientific revival and unanimous solidarity, an astonishing force was born. A truly magnificent country has emerged. The same can be said about Germany, the third strongest economic force in the whole world!

Stop! The wounds of this nation are bleeding to the point that it is almost dying. Wake up before it is too late! We cannot afford another Tal Affar or Falloujah everywhere in Iraq. Wake up! We cannot handle wars for another 20 years.

Legislators of the constitution, make it suitable for every Iraqi so that no one would be superior to others. Let Iraq remain a unified Arab country it has always been throughout the history.

O brother human! You are a noble creature. Give a hand for your brother in humanity everywhere. Let the history witnesses that the human of this century was not a spectator and languid. On the contrary, he is active in all global communities to achieve peace.

(O my "Brother Human" I do not say "goodbye" since I am always with you.)

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Eighth Letter to Humankind in This World

O my "Brother Human", your great spirit and your graceful soul are the ones that talk to me and make me address you and write to you about what is in my heart.

I observe any conversation being held between a human and his brother and reaching a good, useful outcome. I look at it as the highest levels of politics. But what truly amazed me was the definition of politics by some of its scholars as "the art of prevarication and savvy"!!!

They also said "when diplomacy fails, artillery talks"!!!

I do not believe prevarication and savvy could lead politicians to the result they wish to have. If that had been true we would have found the whole world living in peace now and there wouldn't have been conflicts amongst nations because of this misinterpretation of politics.

Rulers and leaders of the world! If we were to follow the policy of honesty without crudeness, but also without prevarication i.e. what I call "lenient honesty" you would win the hearts of nations and the respect of people.

Politics do not fail unless politicians want it to be so, for certain purposes in their minds, or just to prove themselves many times…!

Politicians of the world! Raise yourselves above that, and practice politics as a service to humanity, rather making benefits on the expenses of your brothers.

Twenty million children are going to starve to death in this world. This is all an outcome of misusing politics.

Politicians of the world! Rulers of the world! Your daughter Tal is entreating you with all her strength,Tal is saying to you, no! she is commanding you with all of her tears and the tears of mothers in the world, to serve food for these children! Create job opportunities for their fathers so that they wouldn't be hungry again.

Their mothers' breasts have gone dry. Therefore, send them milk! Do not murder life! Do not kill beauty! Do not vanquish love on earth with black horrible death! Immortalize your names in Guinness World Record by feeding them, not by making the biggest cake in the world! Let us love and respect you before it is too late.

(O my "Brother Human" I do not say "goodbye" since I am always with you.)

Seventh Letter to New Orleans and Louisiana

It was midnight, the darkness was interspersed by a veil of rain, and the hurricane screams in the wet silence every once in a while like a herd of wolves devouring, pouncing and slaughtering.

The street is empty here. Another is abandoned there, and nothing but the wind is wailing. The posts is aching in pain and the lamps are weeping.

At the curve of the street, at that cold corner, stood the darkness guarding the veranda of that abandoned house. The lightening was taking away sights ,and revealing the body of a girl lying there in the way of the whips of the savage wind.That girl was gone, for instead of the wind whipping her, waves came to drown her.

A child screaming, "Mother!", the voice faded away, "give me your hand, save me, father!" And beneath the wave, a wheelchair, that was floating upside-down, was disappearing. A hospital was submerged violently by the flood. What has happened to you youthful cities? What has happened to you while in the prime of your youth? Is it meant for the beauty to perish so fast?

Be patient Louisiana! Be patient New Orleans! The disaster revealed your genuine metal and your love for each other no matter how different you were. You represented humanity by all means. Everyone falls week, and you shall rise from your fall like a noble steed. New Orleans and Louisiana shall come back more beautiful than ever, because your roots are deep in the ground, and for it your love is great.

Mend your wounds Louisiana, and mend yours New Orleans, for if a city is to be lost today, a much more beautiful one will be built tomorrow.

Regards to you New Orleans. Regards to you Louisiana. Regards from that who would like to see you in the best and most beautiful shape very soon, "Allah willing".

Be informed my Brother Human that mending yourself and keeping your values and morals are the ways to lift the scourge of all mankind.

Sixth Message to the Humankind in This World

O my "Brother Human"! You are mavelous and creative. You fill my veins with innocent blood from which I get the ink for my pen to write you.

O my "Brother Human"! You are oppressed in the modern technological society. We have to know whether the technology will provide us with solutions at the same speed at which it creates the problems. We may be under the soil before we discover a solution to the radiation pollution. The example of Chernobyl is still alive in our minds.

The rapid increase in population growth; the tremendous growth of energy resources; the accumulation of waste produced by the industry; and the deliberate mass elimination of many types of forests and animals are some of the environmental problems that concern the human race. These problems become intertwined and complicated due to the conflicts caused by the unequal growth attained by different nations and by the value loss of principles of morality, justice and law in our world.

Therefore, my "Brother Human", you have to pay the price always....

My brother! the human well-being depends on the harmony that he achieve between themselves and nature. The fish die in the lakes. The bees are destroyed by the pesticides. The animal species disappear gradually. The smoke smelled by the children in the streets and the noise that prevents you from sleeping and causes you to lose your balance are all common pollution. Furthermore, starvations, the displaced people, the infectious diseases and the people who were expelled from their homes and lands are all problems that need urgent and close attention. If we don not do so, we will be destroying everything was constructed by humanity throughout history.

We thought, my brother, that we became masters of the universe. The fact is that we have lost the control over our destiny.

Hey masters of polluted industry! Spend some of your enormous profits on the safety measures in your deadly factories. Perhaps the percentage reaches the election majority obtained by presidents in the underdeveloped countries. It is an era of confusion! Even cows have gone mad, the sheep have become crazy, and the birds have got infected by the disease which caused them to be burnt and the migratory birds to be killed. So, what else has left?

Hey masters of deadly industry! Do you think that you have a tent over your heads to protect you from all of this?? Have you forgotten that you created a hall in the ozone layer and it is getting larger?

My warm condolences to all my brothers in humanity all over the world for what they have suffered due to the unnatural disasters.

(O my "Brother Human" I do not say "goodbye" since I am always with you.)

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Fifth Message to the Humankind in This World

O my "Brother Human" who has a noble soul and character. I feel that whenever I read more about the world I become closer and more attached to you and my love to your humanity increases. I think that the interaction of cultures among themselves together with the exchange of ideas and opinions, even if apparently different sometimes, makes the whole world in my eyes without any borders that could stop me or any restrictions to my mobility. I feel that no one prevents the migration of my intellectuality to any place on Earth as it does not need a visa or an immigration document.

O my "Brother Human". Any human culture that leads to extremism, terrorism or moral dissolution is a barbarian culture and I will call it the "inhuman culture". This inhuman culture is the first nail in the coffin of humanity. O my "Brother Human", the home of the human culture is your supreme intellectuality. The more you expose your intellectuality to the diverse cultures, the closer you will be to your brother human.

I do not like the words of the poet Rudyard Kipling the "Oh, the East is East, and the West is West, and never the twain shall meet"! Instead I promote the union of the East and the West. The East is not east and the West is not west but they meet somewhere. As an example, with rational thought, two great souls from here and from there can agree with each other irrespective of the vast separation in time and space. The best eaxample for this is the great Persian poet Hafez Shirazi, whose  poetry was translated into German and other languages and Goethe the world-class writer and the lead poet of Germany, who called one of his poem collection the "West-Eastern Divan". Another example is the poet Rainer Maria Rilke who wrote his poetry in the eastern countries and about the East. Do not you think, my Brother Human, that a little bit of impartial, fair and neutral investigation about the history, the civilizations, and the emergence of beliefs and ideas is enough to reduce the racial fanaticism and the claims of credit to oneself especially with the fact that the human nature is identical in general structure and intrinsic attitudes.

(O my "Brother Human" I do not say "goodbye" since I am always with you.)

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Fourth Message to the Humankind in This World

O my "Brother Human", in our origins you and I descendants to the same father and the same mother. If the parents passed away, does this mean we are no longer brothers and sisters? Like it or not, I am your sister wherever you are. You went there I went here. We collected different knowledge. We had different livelihood. Each one of us has built a civilization from the collection of their knowledge and livelihoods. If you, my "Brother Human", give your brother some of your civilization and knowledge and he gives you some of his civilization and knowledge, you would enrich and complete each other. As a result, your civilization would be diverse and rich in everything. Then there would be no need to claim that your civilization will knock down the other one!!!
They authored a book for us about (The Clash of Civilizations). They even held seminars talking about it. It is amazing that there are those who believe in this clash!! Brother, why we should have this clash? Every civilization created on this earth was built with the contributions of people from various places on this planet. So, why the conflict? The civilization was created to serve the humanity. But if the clash of civilizations" means the clash between between beliefs and ideas, then this should not happen because every human is free to believe and to think the way they like. This right is granted by all constitutions and laws.

The United States Congress assembled for the first time in New York in the Autumn 1789. At that meeting, it approved ten amendments in the original constitution. These amendments have been drafted in what is known as the "Bill of Rights". Let me recall here the First Amendment:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
So, my brother, why this clash of civilizations? Why they did not write about the agreement of civilizations and their homogeneity? If we neutrally examine these civilizations we will find that the elements of the agreement are much more than the elements of conflict.

My "Brother Human" I like that we meet each other. I only like our civilizations to go hand in hand so we can build a civilization for the humankind, all humanity.

(O my "Brother Human" I do not say "goodbye" since I am always with you.)

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Third Message to the Humankind in This World

O my "Brother Human", who is living in the deepest of my mind, why do we
have all this terrorism in the world? Why we have all this killing? What
is the guilt of those who ride a bus or a train? Why is this evil?

O my "Brother Human", if I disagree with you in thoughts, principles or
beliefs, does this deny the fact that we are both humans.

All what you and I have to do is to respect each other. With all this
disagreement, it is only your contempt for the others that increases
their sustained mistakes. Tolerate the views of your opponents in
patience and cold blood. While listening to them, do not think to
respond before listening to all opposite opinions.

O my "Brother Human", our differences in what we eat, drink or believe
should not spoil our friendship. Friendship and compassion is universal
for everybody on this earth and it should prevail among us.

(O my "Brother Human" I do not say "goodbye" since I am always with you.)