ما القاسم المشترك بين السوري العربي هيثم المالح واليابانيين ''أراكاوا تيوزو'' و''شيبا أيانو'' و''كاناموري أيشي''؟ لا شيء تقريبا باستثناء الاشتراك في نفس العمر (ثمانين سنة) عندما عرفوا حدثا هاما في حياتهم، ربما شكل ذروة هذه الحياة.
لنتوقف في البداية عند اليابانيين الثلاثة.
هم ينتمون لمجموعة تضم أكثر من خمسين اسما ويعرفون تحت اسم ''نينجن كوهيهو" أي الكنوز البشرية الحية.
سنة 1950 قررت الحكومة اليابانية أن تعطي الدولة، بعد استشارة أهل الذكر، لقب كنز بشري حيّ، لكل رجل أو امرأة تميّز بعمله المتقن في أحد الميادين الفنية التي تعرّف الثقافة اليابانية مثل الصناعات التقليدية.. وبالطبع تكريمه بصفة تفوق المعتاد."
تقليد رائع أقرته الحكومة اليابانية عام 1950 عندما قررت أن تعطي لقب كنز بشري حيّ، لكل رجل أو امرأة تميّز بعمله المتقن في أحد الميادين الفنية التي تعرّف الثقافة اليابانية مثل الصناعات التقليدية
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وفي غضون أقل من نصف قرن تشكلت قائمة لا تفوق حاليا مائة شخص، تضمّ عمالا وعاملات في قطاعات فنية، أحيانا جدّ هامشية، لكنها تلعب دورا هاما في هوية الأمة اليابانية ويمكن اعتبارهم أعضاء جديرين بأصدق وأشرف أرستقراطية.
إنه تقليد رائع لم تأخذه عن اليابان لحدّ الآن إلا كوريا وتايوان وتايلند وحاولت اليونسكو أن تتبناه وأن تعممه في العالم بغية الحفاظ على كل تراث فني أصيل مهدد بالضياع. ألا يقول مثل أفريقي إن موت بعض الشيوخ كاحتراق مكتبة.
صحيح أن هذا التكريم الخارق للعادة لا يشمل إلا صنفا معينا من الأعمال الفنية ذات العلاقة الوثيقة بالتراث التقليدي، لكن لنتأمل بعض المعاني التي تزخر بها ظاهرة الكنوز البشرية الحية.
هي دلالة على حقائق جعلتها ممكنة ومنها أن هناك:
- تقديس الأمة اليابانية للعمل والعطاء.
- ترصّدها للبحث عنه ومكافأته.
- تمثيلها من قبل دولة لا تخشى من إعطاء لقب كهذا يضع المكرّم فوق كل رجل سياسي وربما حتى فوق الإمبراطور.
- إرادتها رفعةَ من رفعوها خاصة إذا كانوا أشخاصا متواضعين ومغمورين ولم يسعوا للشهرة وإنما أفنوا أعمارهم في خدمة ثقافتها وهم لا يعون حتى بخطورة ما يفعلون.
- انتباهها لضرورة وصول التكريم والاعتراف للشخص قبل فوات الأوان وألا يموت الشيخ الجليل بالحسرة في الفؤاد ليمضغ وهو ميت عنقود العنب الذي رفضت له حبة واحدة منه وهو حيّ.
- فخرها واعتزازها بهؤلاء المبدعين ووعيها بأهميتهم في تواصلها وعظمتها.
- أخيرا لا آخرا حثّها على الخلق والإبداع والرسالة داخل الرسالة: قوموا بواجبكم تجاهنا نحن الأمة وسنقوم بواجبنا نحوكم إذا اتضح أنكم أحسن أبنائها.
كيف نستغرب بعد هذا تفجّر الطاقات وكيف لا تكون اليابان من أولى الدول والشعوب في كل الميادين، علما بالطبع بأن مبدأ الاعتراف والمكافأة والتكريم الكبير قائم في كل الميادين، حتى وإن لم يتخذ صبغة تكاد تكون من قبيل التقديس كما هو الحال في الكنوز البشرية الحية؟
| " الرسالة التي تريد الأنظمة توصيلها لنا بعدم تكريمها لكنوزنا الحية: لا نقدّر ولا نحترم أحدا ولا يكبر في أعيننا كبير ولا نستحيي من سجن عجوز في الثمانين فانتبهوا لحالكم " |
انظر وضع هيثم المالح مقارنة مع اليابانيين المذكورين أعلاه. لنذكّر مرة أخرى أن الرجل بلغ ثمانين حولا ولم يسأم –من النضال عن شعبه وأمته- وكل جريمته ما سمي في سوريا إطالة اللسان... اللسان الذي هددني على مرأى ومسمع من الملايين لواء مخابرات مصري بقطعه، لأن أسيادنا أينما كانوا لا يطيقون نقدا. تأمّل المعاني المضمنة في سجن مريض في الثمانين، سبق أن قضى في ضيافة النظام السوري ست سنوات.
الرسائل المراد توصيلها كالآتي:
- لا نقدّر ولا نحترم أحدا ولا يكبر في أعيننا كبير ولا نستحيي من سجن عجوز في الثمانين فانتبهوا لحالكم.
-لا قيمة لأي شخص فيكم بما يقدم إلا إذا كان ما يقدمه لنا، لأننا نحن الوطن ومن ضدنا آليا ضد الأرض والتاريخ والشعب والأجيال القادمة.
- لا نريد عطاء ولا بذلا إلا الذي يصب في مصلحتنا والبقية شغلكم.
- لا وجود لكنز بشري إلا القائد الملهم الفذ الذي لم تجد بمثله الأقدار وكل ما عداه من ضمن الألف كأفّ.
تقول المقارنة لا تجوز فاليابان تكرّم فنانين تقليديين لا سياسيين أو مناضلي حقوق الإنسان وهيثم المالح ليس رساما على الخزف أو خطاطا على خشب الأبنوس لحشره في موضوع كهذا.
اعتراض وجيه يقابله اعتراضان نتمنى أن يكونا وجيهين أيضا.
الأول أنه لا شيء يشابه التكريم الياباني يتلقاه حرفيو فاس وحلب والقاهرة، في ميادين فنية مثل الخط والرسم والنقش والسجاد إلخ.
من منكم سمع يوما بعاملة في مصانع السجاد بالقيروان ابتدعت أجمل اللوحات الفنية، لم يعرف قيمتها إلا السياح الأجانب وعرفت تكريما كالذي عرفته "جونوكوشي ميي" التي دخلت سنة 1955 قائمة الخالدين والخالدات في الثقافة اليابانية؟ القاعدة أن كل فنانة مبدعة في فن السجاد، تموت بعد أن أكل العمل المضني عمرها وعينيها دون أن تجني منه إلا ما يسدّ رمقها ورمق أطفالها.
ثم من سمع منكم بأن أهل المهن الفنية يتابعون بنشاط كل مبدع ومبدعة ويتفقون على ترشيحه للتكريم ولا يبقى على الدولة إلا التنفيذ؟
أغلب أهل الصناعات التقليدية والفنون المرتبطة بها يعيشون بقرب المزابل في أزقة مدننا العتيدة يجاهدون لبيع بعض البضاعة للسياح، من أجل البقاء على قيد الحياة.
وحتى عندما يتمّ تكريم بعض الكتاب أو الفنانين فهو مجرد إجراء شكلي تمنّ فيه دولة لا شرعية ببعض الفتات من الاعتراف، على من أظهروا لها الولاء الكافي. ثم استغربوا بعد هذا الكساد الفكري والفني في وطننا العربي والحال أنه لم يثبت لحدّ الآن أن للدماغ الياباني ضعف الخلايا في الدماغ العربي.
الاعتراض الثاني أنه لا شيء يمنعنا من توسيع مفهوم "الكنز البشري الحيّ" إلى كل المبدعين أيا كان مجال خدمتهم للمجموعة الوطنية من الرسم على البلوّر أو المحافظة على أقدم طريقة في تزيين ملابس العرس، إلى العطاء في ميادين العلم والأدب والسياسة... بالطبع كل هذا يوم يصبح للشعوب العربية دول وللدول العربية شعوب وتردم الهوة بينهما بالشيء الذي تبخر متسببا في معاناتنا جميعا: الاحترام المتبادل.
| " يجب أن لا ننتظر من دول لا تخدم إلا عصابات وعائلات, التعرّف على كنوزنا البشرية الحية وتكريمهم قبل خطب التأبين الرائعة والعبثية " |
والآن كفى بكاء ونحيبا على حالنا. يجب تغيير ما بأنفسنا كما أُمرنا بذلك من أحسن آمر. لنستبطن أن هيثم المالح، مثل الصادق شورو في السجون التونسية ومناضلي الحرية في السجون العربية، ليس ضحية وإنما أسير حرب... أن الحقوق تفتكّ ولا تعطى... أن واحدا من حقوقنا التي يجب أن نمارسها -لا أن ننتظرها دوما من دول لا تخدم إلا عصابات وعائلات- هو التعرّف على كنوزنا البشرية الحية وتكريمهم قبل خطب التأبين الرائعة والعبثية.
نعم بانتظار أن تكون لنا دول مهمتها تحفيز الطاقات الهائلة التي تنضح بها مجتمعاتنا وليس إجهاضها... وبانتظار أن تكون لنا حكومات تعرف أن الزمردة لا ترمى في المزبلة أو في سجن وإنما توضع أينما يجب أن توضع الكنوز... ولأن كل طريق طويل يبدأ بخطوة والغيث النافع بقطرة، فهل تسمحون لي باسمكم جميعا أن أرشح هيثم المالح للقب كنز عربي حيّ، وأن نكرمه كلنا هذا اليوم في عقولنا وقلوبنا
(Reuters) - The State Department said on Tuesday it had warned the Lebanese government about the risks of a visit by Iran's president to Lebanon next week.
Lebanese officials expect President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, a staunch ally the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah which dominates southern Lebanon and which the United States views as a terrorist organization, to visit Beirut on October 13-14.
Ahmadinejad's visit is his first to Lebanon as president and comes at a time of greater tension in Beirut in the run up to indictments expected to be issued against Hezbollah members in the 2005 assassination of statesman Rafik al-Hariri.
Lebanon's largest parliamentary bloc, the Western-backed "March 14" coalition, voiced concern last week about the visit, saying Ahmedinejad regards Lebanon as "an Iranian base on the Mediterranean."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised the issue of Ahmadinejad's proposed visit when she met Lebanese President Michel Suleiman in New York last month on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
"We expressed our concern about it given that Iran, through its association with groups like Hezbollah, is actively undermining Lebanon's sovereignty," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters at his daily briefing.
"But ... we respect that these are judgments for (the) Lebanese government to make," he added.
Sunni Arab countries are concerned about Shi'ite Iran's rising influence in the region, through its proxies of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Sunni Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Lebanese political sources have said they expect Ahmadinejad to meet Hezbollah politicians and visit Bint Jbeil, a bastion of Hezbollah and a border village that was heavily bombed during the Israeli-Hezbollah war in 2006.
Iran is embroiled in a long-running dispute with the West over its controversial nuclear program, that has sparked rumors of planned Israeli or U.S. military strikes to deter it from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
U.S. commanders have warned that military strikes against Iran could spark retaliatory action by Tehran and its allies like Hezbollah and Hamas that could destabilize the region.
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| Ahmadinejad's visit comes amid speculations that Hezbollah might be indicted in Hariri's assassination case [AFP] |
Lebanon’s largest parliamentary bloc has expressed concerns at a planned visit of the Iranian president to the country on October 13.
In a statement issued on Friday, the March 14 alliance described Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's upcoming visit as a "provocation."
The Iranian president is scheduled to hold talks with his counterpart, Michel Sleiman, who invited him, as well as Prime Minister Saad Hariri and parliament speaker Nabih Berri.
Ahmadinejad is also due to meet with Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Shia group Hezbollah, a key ally whose powerful party is widely considered a proxy of Iran.
The Iranian president is expected to tour the predominantly Shia southern Lebanon.
Message to Israel
The leaders of the March 14 coalition believe that Iran is using Lebanon in its confrontation with the West and Israel, and that Ahmadinejad’s visit is meant to a message to Israel.
"The message is that Iran is at the border with Israel," said Fares Souaid, coordinator of the March 14 alliance.
read more... Lebanon row over Ahmadinejad visit - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
Over the summer months, Muslims in Murfreesboro — for three decades a virtually silent minority and a sliver of the city's population — have endured challenge after challenge to their fundamental right to build a house of worship. The latest comes in the form of a trial that started Sept. 27 in Rutherford County Chancery Court, where three aggrieved citizens and their attorney, Joe Brandon Jr., are fighting the proposed expansion of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.
On their side, the plaintiffs have allies such as Frank Gaffney Jr., president of the conservative think-tank Center for Security Policy. Gaffney told the court he is not an expert on Sharia law, which made skeptics wonder why he was on hand "to warn this community of seditious acts of Sharia law." But on Sept. 28, the same day Gaffney was giving the Chancery Court a non-expert crash course in Islamic conspiracy theory, local Muslim leaders were quietly receiving encouragement from an unexpected guest: the U.S. Department of Justice.
Thomas Perez, assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights, spent the day making house calls in Middle Tennessee, assuring Muslim leaders — including the imams of the Murfreesboro mosque and the Islamic Center of Nashville — that his office has their back if it turns out that opponents aren't as interested in zoning esoterica as they are in sidelining the practice of Islam in Murfreesboro.
"Basically, what we're being told is that if there's any civil violation of the rights of the Muslim community here, they'll step in," says Abdou Kattih, vice president of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, who also met with government officials.
It makes sense that the feds would arrive in Murfreesboro, where Muslims who have lived and worshipped without incident for three decades suddenly find themselves eyed as some kind of sleeper cell. Their most fervid opponents — including Nashville-based lobbyist Laurie Cardoza-Moore and a posse of web prowlers playing connect-the-dots on Google — seem to think the mosque's congregation (like all the others) is biding its time until radical Islam makes its move.
Their contention, as expressed in part two of the lawsuit — to which Cardoza-Moore is not a party; her strategy has been to stir and step back — is that the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro's endgame is to subjugate Middle Tennessee to the grisliest, most extreme tenets of Islam's holy Sharia law.
"Sharia law is jihad," attorney Brandon told the Murfreesboro court last week. "We believe there is a direct connection to the ICM [Islamic Center of Murfreesboro]. Sharia says the U.S. Constitution is suitable for toilet paper."
The Murfreesboro mosque's worshippers, however, suggest that alarmist warnings about Sharia rule in Middle Tennessee are what should be printed on Charmin.
"It's ridiculous," says Kattih. "If you look at our members, we're a system of government. Everything is done through certain government systems. Our congregation is less than 1 percent of the population in this area. How can we possibly impose anything on the government?"
Mohammad Ahmed Al-Sherif, imam of the Islamic Center of Nashville, says it is reassuring in a time of fear and anxiety for Middle Tennessee Muslims to have the fully expressed backing of the U.S. government.
"They said they extend the commitment to protect the religious freedom of this country without anybody being discriminated against or harassed from this group or that group," he says. "We never had a question about our government [being there]. We always trusted them. It's very nice to hear this message, and their commitment and reminding us of our rights. It's very important, I would say, that we hear this."
The Department of Justice conversations took place almost 10 years to the day after President Bill Clinton signed into effect a law that would protect religious organizations from discrimination in local zoning matters. Greeted with bipartisan support and agreement from frequently opposed groups, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act was the federal government's response to an insidious new form of bigotry and subjugation — a tactic worming its way around both the Constitution and existing anti-discrimination laws.
In the mid-1990s, reports surfaced that local zoning boards throughout the country — driven by ideology, not urban planning — were starting to deny permits to minority religious groups who sought to build or expand their worship facilities. Denying a permit on religious grounds is, of course, unconstitutional. But procedural arcana proved just as effective for turning away unwanted religious neighbors.
Especially those without numbers on their side. In a series of nine hearings held over three years, Congress found that half the incidents concerned faith groups who collectively make up only 9 percent of the population.
Perez says it's common for the justice department to make its presence felt in a discriminatory environment, if only to remind those under siege that laws like the Religious Land Use Act exist. American Muslims have been a particular target during the past year. According to a recent justice department report, of the 18 complaints under the land-use law that the government has monitored since Sept. 11, 2001, eight have come since May.
"We have seen a spike in the zoning confrontations, in efforts to keep mosques and the like from being built," Perez says.
Perez and Jerry Martin, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, say that federal enforcement of existing civil rights laws is crucial, citing a recent precedent close to home. Under the 1996 Church Arson Prevention Act — itself the swift legislative response to a rash of arsons against black churches in the 1990s — the government successfully prosecuted the perpetrators of an arson that claimed the Islamic Center of Columbia, Tenn., in 2008.
That's precisely the kind of activity, Perez says, that his office monitors — and it has been on the rise. In February, vandals spray-painted graffiti on Nashville's Al-Farooq Mosque near the fairgrounds. Even now, the FBI and ATF continue to investigate the burning of construction equipment Aug. 28 at the mosque site in Rutherford County. The fire has been ruled arson.
"It was a very sobering meeting to listen to Murfreesboro leaders describe the climate of fear that they're living in," Perez tells the Scene.
The current legal attack on the proposed mosque expansion is far less dramatic. Several months ago, the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro asked permission from the Rutherford County Planning Commission to build a 52,900-square-foot facility on Veals Road, just outside the Murfreesboro city limits. The commission granted the permit unanimously.
Typically, a public meeting notice must be widely circulated in advance of a hearing. When rumors of a legal challenge stirred a month ago, however, Doug Demosi, county planning director, explained to the Scene that because of state law, the mosque was not subject to the same kind of public hearing process that non-religious facilities must undergo.
Nevertheless, the plaintiffs contend that the commission did not properly alert the public of the hearing it held May 24, when it gave final approval for the facility. They accuse the commission of violating the state's open meetings act.
But as the heated rhetoric from Brandon and Frank Gaffney made clear, this is not a debate about proper procedure. It's a line drawn in the sand against Sharia law — a poorly understood concept that, like many poorly understood concepts, makes a handy all-purpose bogeyman of a buzz term.
The mainstream version of the Muslim faith — the kind practiced in Murfreesboro — neither requests nor requires the faithful to overthrow other forms of governance, much as today's conventional Christians are not called to crusade. In Islam, Sharia is the sacred law derived from the Prophet Mohammed, and it governs all aspects of Muslim life, including prayer and family rituals.
There is much debate in the Muslim world over the implementation of Sharia law and how to balance religion with secular government.
"Sharia law tells us we obey the law of the land where we live," says Ahmed, of Nashville. "The only difference, I think, in my opinion, between Sharia law and the American law is that Sharia, for us, is divine. The Constitution is human. That's it."
According to a 2009 report by the Council on Foreign Relations, while critics of Islam home in on the most controversial aspects of Sharia — overt sexism and corporal punishment, on highest display in countries such as Saudi Arabia — most Muslim scholars believe changing times should usher new interpretations of Islamic law. It's a curious parallel to many Americans' evolving views of the Constitution, another relatively ancient document run through a thoroughly modernized world.
"There is no contradiction between Islam and the U.S. Constitution," Kattih says.
In fact, most times American law intersects with religion of any kind, it is to protect the religious from intolerance. In 2009, the U.S. justice department sued (and eventually settled with) Metro government after local officials changed zoning laws to keep Christian-based Teen Challenge from building a residential drug treatment facility. In April 2005, the civil rights division sued the city of Hollywood, Fla., for denying a building permit for an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in a residential neighborhood. The city wound up paying $2 million in damages and attorneys' fees.
After the city of Garden Grove, Calif., denied a Buddhist group's request to convert a former mechanical building into a temple in 2007, the justice department investigated. It halted its query earlier this year, when the city finally relented. And in Berkeley, Ill., a congregation seeking to expand its mosque and accommodate its growing population was denied the appropriate permit until the department investigated. The township granted the permit in March 2008.
The Murfreesboro trial resumes Oct. 20. In the meantime, understanding is at a low ebb. Muslim, Sharia, terrorist — these terms are starting to blur so insistently in the public mind as to be indistinguishable. Yet they require the same distinctions that make all Christians not Koran-burning buffoons with Civil War mustaches, or all Americans not greed-crazy warmongers.
"During times of uncertainty in our nation's history, people often look for scapegoats," Thomas Perez says.
Evidently, we are uncertain.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Washington (CNN) -- The United States apologized Friday for a 1946-1948 research study that purposely infected people in Guatemala with sexually transmitted diseases. A statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called the action "reprehensible." "We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices," the joint statement said. "The conduct exhibited during the study does not represent the values of the United States, or our commitment to human dignity and great respect for the people of Guatemala." Clinton called Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom on Thursday night to inform him, said Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela. "They were obviously concerned about this information. They were saddened by it," Valenzuela said in a telephone news conference Friday. Guatemalan officials took into account that the experiments occurred more than 60 years ago, Valenzuela said. "We reject these types of actions, obviously," said Guatemala presidential spokesman Ronaldo Robles. "We know that this took place some time ago, but this is unacceptable and we recognize the apology from Secretary Clinton." The study came to light recently when Wellesley College researcher Susan Reverby found the archived but unpublished notes from the project. The scientific investigation, called the U.S. Public Health Service Sexually Transmitted Disease Inoculation Study of 1946-1948, aimed to gauge the effectiveness of penicillin to treat syphilis, gonorrhea and chancres. Penicillin was a relatively new drug at the time. The tests were carried out on female commercial sex workers, prisoners in the national penitentiary, patients in the national mental hospital and soldiers. According to the study, more than 1,600 people were infected: 696 with syphilis, 772 with gonorrhea and 142 with chancres. A similar study was conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, on nearly 400 poor African-American men with syphilis whose disease was allowed to progress without treatment. The subjects were not told they were ill with the disease. The Guatemala study was done under the direction of U.S. Public Health Service physician John C. Cutler, who later ran the Tuskegee experiment, said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes for Health. Collins, who called the Guatemala study "a dark chapter in the history of medicine," spoke at the same teleconference in which Valenzuela made his remarks. U.S. officials stressed Friday that ethical safeguards would prevent such abuses from occurring today. "The study is a sad reminder that adequate human subject safeguards did not exist a half-century ago," the U.S. statement said. "Today, the regulations that govern U.S.-funded human medical research prohibit these kinds of appalling violations." Clinton and Sebelius said the United States is launching an investigation and also convening a group of international experts to review and report on the most effective methods to make sure all human medical research worldwide meets rigorous ethical standards. "As we move forward to better understand this appalling event, we reaffirm the importance of our relationship with Guatemala, and our respect for the Guatemalan people, as well as our commitment to the highest standards of ethics in medical research," the U.S. statement said. CNN's Arthur Brice and Nick Valencia contributed to this report. |
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| Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/01/us.guatemala.apology/index.html |
