Quotation du jour

A Prison Evening
Each star a rung,
night comes down the spiral
staircase of the evening.
The breeze passes by so very close
as if someone just happened to speak of love.
In the courtyard,
the trees are absorbed refugees
embroidering maps of return on the sky.
On the roof,
the moon -- lovingly, generously --
is turning the stars
into a dust of sheen.
From every corner, dark-green shadows, in ripples, come towards me.
At any moment they may break over me,
like the waves of pain each time I remember this separation from my lover.
This thought keeps consoling me:
though tyrants may command that lamps be smashed
in rooms where lovers are destined to meet,
they cannot snuff out the moon, so today,
nor tomorrow, no tyranny will succeed,
no poison or torture make me bitter,
if just one evening in prison
can be so strangely sweet,
if just one moment anywhere on this earth.

-- Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984)

Inspired by:
The reading of another of his poems at a massive demonstration yesterday, in Lahore, Pakistan, in support of Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, unconstitutionally suspended two months ago by that U.S. ally and -- like his sponsor -- enemy of an independent judiciary, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Say what you like about lawyers. (Some of us here work for 'em and probably agree.)
Following the military strong-man's elected head of government and head of the army's action against Pakistan's ranking jurist, Pakistan's lawyers launched what some called an "insurrection of the middle class" -- they boycotted court, went on hunger strikes, and were openly beaten in the streets by the police.
Musharraf provoked the crisis on March 9, when he referred misconduct charges against Chaudry to Pakistan's Supreme Judicial Council, the body with constitutional authority to discipline other judges.
(Pakistani blogger -- and dentist! -- "Teeth Maestro" posted the full text of the charges in English here.)
Safe to say nobody outside of pro-Musharraf circles takes the charges seriously: See for yourself here.
Yesterday's demo shows the crisis continues. Chaudhry has been before the judicial council half-a-dozen times, without yet being exonerated or reinstated.
Are there lessons for the U.S.?
1) Birds of a feather: Bush & Musharraf made a post-9/11 devil's bargain with one another. Attacking their domestic judicial branches is just one thing they have in common.
2) Attacking the constitutional authority of an independent judicial branch is mandatory for any authoritarian regime.
3) So far, no U.S. lawyers are tearin' in up in the streets in defense of an independent judiciary. What gives?
The BBC has pics of lawyers -- in suits -- snatching riot batons from the police & fighting back here.

In Chicago now, it's dark, and the stars are out. The moon is waning gibbous. I'm listening to D.J. Sharaab. Now you should click back and re-read the poem.

Tags: politics, law, policy, Pakistan, Musharraf, Chaudhry, lawyers, "War on Terror", poetry, Urdu, Urdu poetry, Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Comments

[Mairead Case]

See also: Binyavanga Wainaina, whose words overlap poetically and emotionally, if obviously-not-contextually: "This is what you do to get ahead: make yourself boneless, and treat your strait-jacket as if it is a game, a challenge. The city is now all on the streets, sweet-talk and hustle."

Also I like the mix between a post-full moon and scanning back to re-read the poem. Nice.

[TallSkinny]

You know things are really bad when lawyers are rioting.

But good luck getting anyone concerned about the oppression of lawyers. Fat chance.

And people complain that we look after our own? Sure, no-one else will, except us, that is, when we're not busy looking after everyone else.

[Stein]

Thanks, Mairead, and thanks, TallSkinny. Taking a cue from Mairead, I added a link to Wainaina's brilliant, sarcastic, devasting piece in Granta.
Just so folks get where TallSkinny's coming from: He (and other progressive lawyers, here in Chicago & around the U.S.) really do look after people and defend the interests of folks w/ little access to power & privilege. Contributors, comment-posters, and visitors to T.P.S.M. tend to be legal workers or lawyers in the public-interest sector. (Never mind the punk rockers, wig-wearin' artists, and folks who took "Pagan" seriously and hoped to find candle-magick advice.)

[Michael Price]

"You know things are really bad when lawyers are rioting."

The lawyers are doing things close enough to rioting for the Pakistani police to beat them up. This doesn't really show they're actually rioting though, or even protesting. All it really shows is they are not running away from the police fast enough.