Here comes the sun

FASTRising welcomes the new academic year with a series of activities: sit-ins, flour distribution, protest marches, design and writing competitions, seminars and film screenings.

At the joint meeting with the Young Professionals group held today, we decided on the plan for the first major all-out protest since the Long March: a two-hour dharna on campus, in solidarity with the dharna announced by the National Coordination Council of the Laywers Movement.

Event details:
When: 12 - 2 PM, 28 August, 2008
Where: Cafeteria entrance
What: Dharna + Campaign to collect 1,000 signatures in support of an independent judiciary

Rationale: Not all students are in a position to join the major demonstration at Charing Cross on the Mall. Just as important, it is one of our essential long-term objectives to sensitise young minds to the issues affecting the whole community and to provide a platform for independent thought, for sheer creativity, for novel explorations of the meaning of liberty.

We invite all members of the FAST-NU community to join us for a celebration of the re-discovery of truth* by the youth of the nation, for a re-affirmation of our resolve to keep fighting until our demands have been fulfilled.

* Post Scriptum on "truth": the truth that many of us have discovered is that our activism is a struggle for freedom.

In a larger sense, it's the truth that power and influence are there to be exercised by those who dare to speak out, to organise themselves, to conduct research and investigate the issues affecting society. The truth is embodied in all such actions and many of the younger generation have understood that the opposite attitudes, i.e., apathy and indifference, breed the lie that nothing can be changed.

The battle is still on!

WHAT: Protest march for the release of ‘Dr Afia’ and all missing persons (and for the restoration of judges – if they don’t get restored within 72 hours of Musharraf’s resignation!)

WHEN: 2.45pm, 22^nd August, 2008 (immediately after Juma prayer)

WHERE: FAST gate to Faisal Town roundabout

All of you are invited and MUST try to attend! Some professors of FAST (for obvious reasons, we prefer not to divulge the names!) have already promised to attend the protest.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" - Martin Luther King Jr.

Related posts:

http://blog.fastrising.org/2007/11/missing-in-pakistan.html

http://blog.fastrising.org/2007/11/empire-strikes-back-or-case-of-missing.html

Project ROTI - August-08 Iteration - SUCCESS!

[Updated, 11-Sep-2008]: Details of the iteration available here.

The flour mill where we procured the 'aata' from

Distribution at the same brick kiln

Children of the 'bhatta workers'

Details of this iteration to follow later.

Project ROTI - August Iteration

Next iteration of Project ROTI is scheduled tomorrow, Saturday, 16th August, 2008 at 3 PM. We plan to procure aata from a mill located at Darog-e-Wala at about 1 PM. For inquires, please contact at +92-321-4429368 or drop an email at info@fastrising.org.

"Ask not what your country can do for you..."

Most active members of FASTRising would be uncomfortable with the "Proud Pakistani" label which is why we decided to tap into the general outpouring of patriotic feeling on "chauda 'gast" to find what it was that we were missing, what it was that the people were celebrating. We designed a couple of pamphlets, had copies printed and went out among the revelers on the 13th and the 14th. If the six of us managed to distribute 500 copies in total, each of us had one or two long conversations with members of the general public who really wanted to know what we do. Overall, not a bad ROI.

Things to do for Pakistan this Independence day !

Read this document on Scribd: Things to do for Pakistan this Independence day !

The English version of the flyer is available for download here. Feel free to spread this by any means.

ProjectROTI - Iteration 6 - FAILURE!

The sixth iteration of the flour distribution effort failed miserably this Saturday, August 9, when volunteers from the FASTRising and Young Professionals Lahore groups were unable to find a single outlet willing to sell them 40 - 50 bags of flour. For three hours, they searched all the major markets and stores in Model Town, Garden Town, Johar Town, Township and Iqbal Town but to no avail.

On the one hand, the team was embarrassed by its failure and lack of contingency planning. On the other hand, we felt that it was important to report this failure - as an admission, but more importantly, as a bit of concrete information on the severity of the flour crisis.

We have now contacted a few mill owners who may be willing to sell us the required quantity of flour. As a back-up plan, various members will buy up small stocks (4 or 5 bags) of flour on their own during the course of the week so that come Saturday, we have at least 25 - 30 bags to distribute.

Saturday Protest - Time change reversed

Dear readers,

It seems that we were too hasty in announcing the change. Back-channel negotiations with the silent majority have persuaded us to revert to the original time of 6 PM.

We apologise for any inconvenience and confusion caused. To be absolutely clear, here are the event details:

Where: Lahore Press Club
When: 6 PM, Saturday August 9, 2008
Why: Protest against the kidnapping and illegal detention of Dr. Afia Siddiqui

Hope to see you all there.

-- Aileee

Saturday Protest - Time change

Please note that the time for the Saturday protest against the state-sponsored kidnapping and illegal detention of Dr. Afia Siddiqui has been brought forward to 5 PM instead of 6 PM.

ProjectROTI - Next iteration

From 2 - 5 PM, on Saturday August 9, we will execute on the next round of flour distribution.

As before, please refer to the project page for information on how to participate.

To respond to a very insightful comment on the last post on this topic, "When are we going to understand and admit our role?":

1. Working members of FASTRising are acutely aware of the harm caused by the inroads made into traditional household savings by loans from commercial financial institutions.
2. And they admit their complicity where such has been the case.
3. This flour distribution is a tiny effort. It helps a small number of people. But it does help them in a very basic, very concrete way. That cannot be denied. Our secondary purpose in participating in this effort, started by the YPL group, is to create awareness around the issue, to incite young people to do more than just donate money and to actually dare to take a walk down to Wigan Pier.
4. And yes, there is no reason to stop anyone from reading Amartya Sen's analyses of endemic poverty and hunger (as well as other credible researchers) and applying that knowledge to our case. It would be a day of great rejoicing for us to know that our insignificant blogging actually triggered off such a powerful train of thought in the mind of one of our readers.

Auschwitz revived

Dr. Afia Siddiqui, a PhD in genetics from MIT, was abducted from Karachi in 2003 after a highly publicised FBI-led manhunt for alleged "top operatives" of the Al-Qaeda network. She has been in solitary confinement at Bagram Air Base near Kabul, unable to communicate with the outside world for more than five years. The fate of her three children ([1], [2]), kidnapped at the same time, remains completely unknown. She herself was simply known as prisoner # 650 ([3]), never seen by other inmates of the infamous "pre-processing" center on the road to Guantanamo Bay prison. Never seen, but frequently heard crying out in pain.

Five years. Alone. Tortured. Divorced from family and friends, worst of all, without a clue as to the location of her children.

How much did the Pakistan Army and its serving COAS, President (ex-CE) of Pakistan, General (now retired) Pervez Musharraf, get paid for this particular case of illegal rendition and detention? How accurate a model is the trickle-down theory in predicting the size of each slice of the pie as we move down the famous "chain of command"?

Or are these questions irrelevant?

Is it more relevant to instead ask: Where was I in 2003? Where am I now? What does freedom mean? How much more will I bend? What do I do now?

==

We will register our protest for the immediate release of Dr. Afia Siddiqui at the Lahore Press Club at 6 PM this Saturday. We humbly request the participation of all members of the FAST-NU community in particular and the larger body of Lahori civil rights activists in general.

Following through

As announced last week, FASTRising and YPL collaborated to procure and then distribute flour in an under-privileged locality.

The group of about a dozen volunteers first bought the flour from a wholesale store near Thokar Niaz Baig on the outskirts of the city and then headed over to the brick kiln where they distributed flour back in March. They sought the assistance of the manager there to identify another kiln, the search parameters being:

1. workers in financial distress
2. community size small enough to allow distribution of one 20 kg bag of flour to each family in distress

With his help, we were able to locate a suitable group of brick kiln workers and carry out the distribution.

We distributed 50 bags of flour, the entire activity costing Rs. 22, 000, i.e. Rs. 21, 500 for 50 bags at Rs. 430 each plus Rs. 500 to hire a suitable transport.

Please get in touch with us if you wish to contribute in some capacity to the next round of flour distribution, or if you want to replicate this initiative in your area and need pointers on where to get flour and on how to avoid causing a food riot.

Why this sudden publicity of volunteer activities? Essentially to get the word out to the affluent classes that people are in dire straits, hard-working, honourable, invisible people who can no longer make ends meet. The idea is that their lack of visibility should not translate to extinction. As mentioned earlier, YPL and some FASTRising members have been doing similar activities for several months already. Back then, we resisted all attempts to brand or to market (in any sense) this work. However, it is now clear that the crisis is here to stay for another season, perhaps even a whole year (depending on the will of the government, the will of the people and also the international trade situation) and it is critically important that young, aware, conscientious citizens step up to meet this challenge to their society. The earthquake in 2005 proved that there was still a spark of humanity and even heroism left in us. We hope that this crisis will bring out the best in us, incite us to find ways of sustaining the same spirit of sacrifice over the long term, to build a sense of community through concrete actions.

In this regard, we welcome all criticism and comment on this effort and intend to use your feedback to guide our discussions and future direction.