Microsoft Word - Sayeed_header.doc Copyright © 2007 by Iftekhar Sayeed and Cultural Logic, ISSN 1097-3087 Poems Iftekhar Sayeed VOICES My uncle hears voices – He says they are those Of God and Satan Struggling He screams out sometimes Fighting We know he’s schizo He’s certified In Bangladesh We hear voices – The United States And Europe speak: “We’ve killed millions But we know how you should behave We are your conscience” God or Satan? We don’t know But we know They are voices From outside Inside HARTAL “Politicians are not human,” Observed the brother of Salahuddin, a fisherman, Who was killed in a skirmish Between two student wings Of the political parties In a hartal. Two rickshawpullers – One of them unidentified, The other Badaruddin – Were bombed while they Iftekhar Sayeed Copyright © 2007 by Iftekhar Sayeed and Cultural Logic, ISSN 1097-3087 2 Were pulling their rickshaws During hartal hours. It took them 24 to 48 hours to die. An auto-rickshaw was Burned to ashes, and When the driver Tried to put out the flames, He was sprinkled with petrol, And burned to death. It took him more than Two days to die. Truck driver Fayez Ahmed Died when a bomb was Thrown on his truck. And Ripon Sikder, A sixteen-year-old injured By a bomb, died after struggling For his life for eleven days. Why can’t the word hartal Be translated into English? The western media call It a “general strike”: A mistranslation that is Not an accident. The hartal is the instrument Used by parties in opposition To bring down the government By forcing traffic off the roads By means of violence. A “strike” connotes a right, A protest, but hartals Kill and maim – Deliberately. The populace acquiesce Through terror. The idea Of protest has not traveled Very well from the west: Words are deadly, and reflect A way of life which cannot Travel, unlike words. Our western-educated elite Brought the innocuous word Iftekhar Sayeed Copyright © 2007 by Iftekhar Sayeed and Cultural Logic, ISSN 1097-3087 3 “Strike” to Bangladesh where It became the sinister hartal. Several other words traveled In the luggage to similar Effect. Now, western Newspaper readers don’t Know what’s going on here During a hartal, and we don’t Understand what they mean By a “general strike.” Of two mutually Incomprehensible Civilisations, one Dominates the other And transmits, like bullets, Expressions that kill Salahuddin, the fisherman, Badaruddin, an unidentified Rickshaw-puller, An auto-rickshaw driver, Truck driver Fayez Ahmed, And sixteen-year-old Ripon Sikder . . . arafat day a year ago this day yasser arafat passed away thinkers writers journalists ignored the anniversary they celebrated events donors would approve so yesterday was “noor hossain” day commemorating Iftekhar Sayeed Copyright © 2007 by Iftekhar Sayeed and Cultural Logic, ISSN 1097-3087 4 the martyrdom of a young activist shot in the back where he'd had somebody smarter scrawl pro-democracy slogan at a time in the cold war when donors were propping up our dictator the government decided to host the south asian association for regional co-operation hence nobody noticed that nobody noticed the intelligentsia forgot his death because of cash and career which both lie in the west transparency international says we are the most corrupt nation on earth they find the most corruption among the cops Iftekhar Sayeed Copyright © 2007 by Iftekhar Sayeed and Cultural Logic, ISSN 1097-3087 5 the bureaucrats the doctors the whores. . . . but our amnesia reveals that it’s the TI itself that is corrupt the prostitutes that hurry home in the furtive dawn to avoid the respectable have greater integrity they don’t need to run from light from intellectuals who pleasure the donors for a fee by day compassion when i’m not in a hurry i face this dilemma when i’m in a hurry i never hire an old trishaw puller i’m older now so i’m less in a hurry these days that means more encounters with my conscience and old trishaw pullers Iftekhar Sayeed Copyright © 2007 by Iftekhar Sayeed and Cultural Logic, ISSN 1097-3087 6 i lift up my hand and half a dozen trishaws wheel around they are young except one he’s in a dirty white shirt and a chequered lungi and sports a beard of grey compassion makes me nearly turn him away then reason grips my shoulder if everyone were compassionate to him he’d die LITTLE BY LITTLE The average American Woman Is five feet Four inches Tall My wife is Five feet Tall From SUVs To burgers, American things Come in outsized Versions Iftekhar Sayeed Copyright © 2007 by Iftekhar Sayeed and Cultural Logic, ISSN 1097-3087 7 Like America My country is small And it hates America The elite love America Because it’s big Like a bully They don’t think How easily America would Squash tiny people Like my wife and Myself, no matter How much we loved Each other Giants Don’t understand Love Only size Little people Like little victories Little attacks In little places After little pauses Little by little Till little isn’t little A little here A little there A little everywhere Many little people With little to lose With little pride Little anger Little hope A little cause Little eyes Little fingers Little feet Little? Iftekhar Sayeed Copyright © 2007 by Iftekhar Sayeed and Cultural Logic, ISSN 1097-3087 8 FIAT JUSTITIA . . . there was a widespread belief that splitting the atom was merely a problem for the physicists, and that when they had solved it a new and devastating weapon would be within reach of almost everybody. . . . Had that been true, the whole trend of history would have been abruptly altered. The distinction between great states and small states would have been wiped out, and the power of the State over the individual would have been greatly weakened. – George Orwell, You And The Atomic Bomb (1945 The Orwellian nightmare Has come true Not 1984 But the spectre Of the Unconquerable state With its atomic Bomb But 9/11 would have Cheered him, And the possibility That al-Qaeda Might get their hands On nuclear weapons The vision of A perfectly stable World terrified him A peace without peace He realised what few Of us dare to confront: Better a world destroyed Than an unjust world Perpetuated