¡San Ernesto de La Higuera!

Ernesto “Che” Guevara was martyred on October 9, 1967. Forty one years later, an image of this Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary, doctor, guerrilla leader, author and military theorist remains the most famous photograph in the world!

Ernesto Che Guevara . . .

Image: Wikimedia Commons

There is so much to write about the most famous revolutionary in the world that I don’t know what to write. So I’ll just mention a few ways in which the icon of rebellion is remembered across the world (taken from wikipedia articles):

Nelson Mandela has referred to him as: “An inspiration for every human being who loves freedom”

Jean-Paul Sartre described him as “not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age.”

Guevara remains a beloved national hero in Cuba (almost a secular saint, to many on the Caribbean island), where he is remembered for promoting unpaid voluntary work by working shirtless on building sites or hauling sacks of sugar. To this day, he appears on a Cuban banknote cutting sugar cane with a machete in the fields. Cuban school children begin each morning by pledging “We will be like Che.”

In his native Argentina, where high schools bear his name, numerous Che museums dot the country and in 2008, a 3.65 metre (12 foot) bronze statue of Che was unveiled in his birth city of Rosario. Che was also voted “Argentina’s greatest historical and political figure.”

In the land where he was executed, Bolivia, Che Guevara has been transfigured and “canonised” by the local Bolivian campesinos. No longer is Che Guevara considered as a guerrilla insurgent, but he is now viewed as a “Saint” by locals who had come to refer to him as “San Ernesto de La Higuera” (Saint Ernesto of La Higuera). Accompanying his “Sainthood” came prayers for favours and legends of his ghost still walking the area.

In Bolivia, images of Che now hang next to images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Che’s murdered body is now compared to John the Baptist and in many homes, Che’s face competes for wall space with a host of Roman Catholic Saints. Some rural campesinos now believe that if you whisper Che Guevara’s name to the sky or light a candle to his memory, you will find your lost goat or cow.

For instance, Manuel Cortez says: “It’s like he is alive and with us, like a friend. He is kind of like a Virgin Mary for us. We say, Che, help us with our work or with this planting, and it always goes well.”

Throughout the world, Che is regarded by the youth as an icon. He is the world’s most famous rebel, a man who symbolises the spirit of revolution. Even those who despise Che’s egalitarian ideals and rebellious spirit shamelessly make use of his image to sell their products!

Watch this Spanish song dedicated to el Guerrillero Heroico, San Ernesto de La Higuera, Ernesto Che Guevara . . .

(If the video does not load, you can watch it here.)

Here is the footage of the victorious Cuban revolutionaries, after the overthrow of the infamous military dictatorship of the notorious tyrant Gen. Fulgencio Batista . . .

(If the video does not load, you can watch it here.)

Che was captured in Bolivia while he was leading a revolution in that country. On October 9, Bolivian President René Barrientos ordered that Guevara be killed. The executioner was Mario Terán, a sergeant in the Bolivian army. Moments before Guevara was executed he was asked if he was thinking about his own immortality. “No,” he replied, “I’m thinking about the immortality of the revolution.” Che Guevara also allegedly said to his executioner, “I know you’ve come to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man.”

Cowards can only kill the icon of rebellion, they can never kill the revolutionary spirit. The spirit of San Ernesto de La Higuera will not leave this planet until the ills that plague the world are cured. El Guerrillero Heroico is simply immortal!

¡Viva la Revolución!

(After reading this, in case you think that I’m a “communist” or a “Marxist”, I can only laugh my heart out at you People tend to be so biased in their views about economic concepts that they get the shock of their lives when they come across someone who is free of bias )

Related posts:

Bastille Day

A Republic is born!

The woman who spread love and hope . . .

September 5, 2008 marked the tenth death anniversary of Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. She is better known as Mother Teresa. Almost everyone would have heard of her and the organisation that she founded, the Missionaries of Charity.

Mother Teresa . . .

Image: http://greenthumbnun.info

She dedicated her life for the cause of the poor, the sick, the orphaned, the neglected, the abandoned, the destitute and the dying. She gave hope to the hopeless, love to the abandoned, solace to the wretched and dignity to the dying.

Here is a tribute to Mother Teresa from my Prose and Poetry blog:

Humans may come and humans may go,
But she said, “No!”

To those who asked her:
“Why do you bother?”

She was the last hope,
For those who could not cope.

She was the only source of light,
For those who had given up the fight.

She knew no fate,
For she did not hate.

Blessed indeed are those,
Who walked the path they chose.

She is not dead,
For it was humanity that she lead.

She still visits those with no hope,
For she is the Saint of Hope!

Watch a short video clip from a film on Mother Teresa:

(If the video does not load, you can watch it here.)

Pakistani school bombers killed by their own bomb!

Three Pakistani militants belonging to a pro-Taliban group were killed by their own bomb as they tried to plant an improvised explosive device (IED) in a girls’ school in Pakistan’s scenic Swat Valley, known as “the mini Switzerland of Pakistan”. Read this news article for more information.

Pakistan’s scenic Swat Valley . . .

Image: http://offroadpakistan.com

Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, has warned that there will be suicide bombings across the country if the government does not stop its operations against the militants in the Swat Valley, that was once a popular tourist destination.

Pakistani forces have been fighting pro-Taliban militants in the lawless Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in Pakistan’s North-Western Frontier Province (NWFP) bordering Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has often accused Pakistan of not doing enough to root out militants who operate out of Pakistani territory.

In this case, the IED that the militants were trying to plant in the girls’ school exploded prematurely, killing all three of them. Shame on the mediæval cowards for trying to plant a bomb in a school!

The law is an ass!

The Bombay (Mumbai) High Court has declined a plea by a 25-weeks pregnant woman to allow her to abort her unborn child as the foetus was believed to have a congenital heart problem. Read the latest news articles about this in this link. Read about the abortion law in India in this link. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act forbids abortions after the 20th week unless there is a serious risk to the life of the mother.

The Bombay (Mumbai) High Court . . .

Image: Wikimedia Commons

What is sad about this case is that a court has to decide the fate of an unborn child, instead of its mother. What is worse is that the law has no provision to provide an exception in such scenarios, though this case and the medical, legal and ethical debate it has triggered may lead to the law being amended to provide for exceptions in the future.

About the case itself, the doctors of the couple say that the child would find it difficult to survive and even if it does, it will have to be fitted with a pacemaker that has to be replaced every four years. The mother does not want her child to suffer, even if the government takes care of the medical expenses of the child. The couple have even rejected an offer by an NGO to help raise the child. The court had appointed an “expert team” of doctors to look into the details of the case and based on the team’s report, has concluded that there are “least chances” that the foetus would be born with an abnormality.

Did the court take the correct decision in passing the verdict? Should the mother appeal the decision of the Bombay (Mumbai) High Court in the Supreme Court of India? Should India’s abortion law be amended? Have your say in this tough ethical, medical and legal debate by posting a comment below, even if you are not from India.

An important post update (August 7, 2008):

The “expert team” appointed by the court made an “error” that decided the court’s verdict. Read this news report. According to the team of doctors, “The committee is of the opinion that there are very fair chances that child will be born incapacitated and handicapped to survive.”

But according to the official report presented to the court, “The committee is of the opinion that there are very least chances that child will be born incapacitated and handicapped to survive.”

Very fair chances got replaced by very least chances in the official report of the “expert team” and the court’s decision was based on the “official report” of the “expert team”. Did I not say the law is an ass? We have proof now! I don’t know if the verdict would have been different if the “error” had not happened.

An update (August 31, 2008):

I’m sorry for this late update. This sad chapter is now closed as the unfortunate woman suffered a miscarriage. Read this news report if you want more information. The husband has blamed the media for unnecessarily hyping up the issue which led to hypertension (high blood pressure) that caused the miscarriage. I tend to agree with him.

Related post:

Abortion – women’s rights or human rights?

Three cheers for Swapnil Asnodkar!!!

Swapnil Asnodkar (read his profile on Cricinfo), a young, talented and promising cricketer from Porvorim, Goa who plays for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been appointed as the brand ambassador for the National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication (NOTE) to spread the word against smoking!

Swapnil Asnodkar in action . . .

Image: The Hindu (Rajeev Bhatt)

It is great to learn that the 24-year old Swapnil has signed up for NOTE. This is in sharp contrast to a few top actors in one regional film industry (Bollywood) who take huge amounts of money from tobacco companies to promote the habit of smoking among the youth of the country and promote tobacco addiction among youth and children. Shame on people with such vile intentions!

It is heartening to know that there are youth like Swapnil who want to spread the word against smoking. Swapnil symbolises the new Indian youth – very talented, courageous, progressive and unafraid to lash out against anything that they feel is unjust. India is not short of people with backward, regressive mindsets who want to ruin the country by taking it back to the Stone Age. That is why folks like Swapnil come as a breath of fresh air!

Three cheers for Swapnil Asnodkar!!!

A tribute to mothers and motherhood from a son

Photo:Burl Hays (Japan Today)

Dearest Mother,

From two half cells, I formed within You,
I grew and divided . . . and grew and divided . . . and grew and divided,
I became a bunch of rapidly expanding cells,
I grew in size till I became uncomfortable for You,
I drank Your blood all the while,
Yet You never complained even a bit,
But took care of me to the hilt like any Mother.

I grew so much that I gave You unbearable pain,
I refused to step out into the bad world,
They had to cut You up to take me out,
Yet You did not complain,
I cried because I caused You so much pain,
But You smiled when You heard me cry,
I will never understand why You did that, Mother.

You sacrificed so much of your time to take care of me,
I was selfish enough to think I deserved it,
But You were selfless enough to give up so many things for me,
And when the first word escaped from my lips,
You were delighted beyond what words could describe,
Your Heart must have leapt with joy,
When You heard me say “Mother”.

I grew up to be a boy,
And Your joy grew up with me,
For I was, I am and I will always be Your little bundle of joy,
When I took my first step, I could see the joy on Your face,
And when I fell down, I could see it turn into concern,
When I fell down from my bicycle and injured myself,
I could see the sorrow on Your face, Mother.

When I left home to attend school,
I could never stop thinking about You,
And You could never stop thinking about me,
The day I went missing on my way home, You searched frantically for me,
Along with the man who gave me my Y-chromosome, and when You found me,
You hugged me so hard, that it brought tears to even the eyes of Your companion,
I guess he must have been reminded of his Mother.

When I broke my leg, it must have broken Your Heart,
I was no longer a boy, and You did not want me to remain a Mamma’s boy,
When I bloodied myself, I shouted hard as they stitched me up,
But I heard You sobbing, and I stopped shouting,
Please forgive me if I have hurt You inadvertently, as I do not have that right,
But there is only one person in the world who has a right to hurt me,
Ofcourse, that person is You, Mother.

Besides me, You have made a difference in the lives of many other children and young people,
But why did You go through so much for me?
I know I should not ask You that, for that is what Motherhood is all about,
But how on Earth can I ever repay You?
I think I know the answer too,
And that is to do exactly what Father Time wanted me to do on Mother Earth,
So that when I die, I can happily say, “Thank You very much, Mother!“

I truly love You, dear Mother!

On Mother’s Day, I express my heartfelt gratitude to every Mother. Enjoy Your day, Mothers! The world would be nothing without You! As far as I am concerned, since we live on Mother Earth, every day is a Mother’s Day!

India: a country of rich richies and poor paupers!

The Indian media has been giving plenty of coverage to the recently released Forbes list of billionaires which has placed four Indians in the global top ten while India has 36 dollar billionaires. They have been describing it as a “coveted list”. I simply do not understand what is so coveted about a list that makes me uncomfortable, not because I hate or dislike billionaires but because I prefer to look at the reality.

A majority of people are barely able to eke out a living . . .

(A woman selling vegetables – photo from the International Labour Organisation)

. . . things are improving for a sizeable minority . . .

(Computer generated image of a planned apartment building)

. . . while a microscopic handful lead ostentatious lives right in their midst . . .

(Photo: Rolls – Royce Phantom from BS Motoring)

The fact remains that in a country of more than 1.1 billion people, only a very few have benefitted enormously by India’s growth over the past decade-and-a-half. While some of the benefits have trickled down to the upper middle class and fewer to the middle class, the fact remains that life in India is a struggle for the vast majority of people including the lower middle class. The plight of the poor is terrible and that of the destitute is simply mind-numbing.

A reality check

Here are a few facts that Indians and Indophiles should be seriously worried about:

• Take a look at this map from wikipedia. India is a low-income country. The fact is that despite the growing wealth of a tiny number of billionaires, India is still classified as an underdeveloped nation along with countries such as North Korea, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea and many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• ————————-
• India’s rank in the human development index actually slipped by two places to 128th in the list. India is actually ranked below Equatorial Guinea at 127, Gabon at 119, Mongolia at 114, Indonesia at 107, the Palestinian authority at 116, El Salvador at 103, the South Asian countries of Maldives at 100 and Sri Lanka at 99, Paraguay at 95, Ecuador at 89, the People’s Republic of China(PRC) at 81, Venezuela at 74, Brazil at 70, Russia at 67, Libya at 56, Cuba at 51 and Barbados at 31. What is worse is India’s position is slipping while that of others is improving. India is nowhere near the first world countries or even the second world countries.
• ————————-
• India is ranked 145th in the world in terms of life expectancy. This is below Tuvalu at 144, Peru at 136, Iran at 130, Nicaragua at 126, North Korea at 117, the Gaza Strip at 115, Colombia at 113, the PRC at 103, Suriname at 96, the West Bank at 94, Sri Lanka at 84, Dominica at 78, Paraguay at 73, Libya at 58 and Cuba at 56. The European Union is ranked at number 36.
• ————————
• India is not exactly a good place to be born in. The infant mortality rate is shockingly high in India. In the negative ranking infant mortality list, India is ranked at 53. This is below Nepal at 55, Bangladesh at 58, Laos at 59, North Korea at 62, Botswana at 63, Bhutan at 65, Western Sahara at 67, Maldives at 72, Guatemala at 79, Honduras at 84, Indonesia at 87, Brazil at 90, China at 93, Ecuador at 100, Vietnam at 103, Colombia at 106, the Palestinian Authority at 111, Russia at 115, Sri Lanka at 137, Guam at 143, Guadeloupe at 157, Cuba at 168. Switzerland is ranked at number 187.
• —————————–
• India is not a great place for women either. The sex ratio is extremely skewed in India due to female foeticide and to a lesser extent female infanticide. Have a look at this map in which red represents danger for women. India values its women only as much as countries like China, Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. Women in India are valued even less than their sisters in Pakistan and Bangladesh. I wonder if Indians should be proud of this. I am terribly ashamed of it, even though I am a male.
• ——————————
• India lags behind even the rest of the developing world in terms of literacy rate. Only 61% of the population in India is literate. And more women lack literacy skills than men in India. India is ranked at 152, below Malawi at 151, Uganda at 149, Congo at 148, Cameroon at 146, Nigeria at 142, Madagascar at 139, Kenya and Cambodia at 136, Lesotho at 122, Iran at 120, Gabon at 118, Equatorial Guinea at 108, Zimbabwe at 98, Myanmar at 96, Sri Lanka at 93, China at 92, Philippines at 83, Mongolia at 62, Kryzystan at 55 and Tonga at 52. India is nowhere near the almost totally literate countries like Uzbekistan, the U.S., the U.K., Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Ireland, Guyana, Haiti, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Eritrea, Comoros, Australia, Austria and others at 15. The top 14 literate countries in the world are Georgia, Iceland, Cuba, Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia, Belarus, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Russia, Ukraine and Moldova in that order. Except Iceland and Cuba, the rest were a part of the former USSR.
• ——————————-
• India lags behind much of the world in terms of the percentage of population with access to the internet. This should be a bit surprising since India is getting recognised for her IT prowess but it not surprising in the least to someone who is aware of the poverty problem in India. Take a look at this map for further details.
• ——————————-
• The poverty figures in India should shock anyone! 80.4% of India’s population lives below the international poverty line of two dollars a day! Why should we take the international poverty line? Simple! Since India’s billionaires are now measured by the international wealth list, India’s poor should also be measured by the international poverty line! Is that not fair? Why should we apply double standards while measuring the wealth of citizens within a country?
• ——————————-

So India is a land of 36 billionaires and 884,400,000 (884.4 million/88.44 crore) poor people! What kind of growth is that? Which coefficient can measure such disparity? Why do we fool ourselves into thinking that India is an “emerging superpower”? Reality bites and bites hard!

Fellow citizens and Indophiles, we need to be aware of facts and should not believe what the Indian mainstream media dishes out to us.

I do not have any ideology to promote and I do not believe in any kind of ideology either. This post is just a small attempt to measure the disparity in my beloved country.