I am a Human
These days it is common to hear comments about possible war with Iran. A group of Iranian activists who are member of “Without Border Association” (Anjomane Bedoone Marz) have prepared a special issue including articles and poetry against war (in Persian). One of the poems which is written by a good friend of mine, Sina, is called I’m Human. When first I read this poem a while ago I enjoyed it so much that I translated it to English to share with some non-Persian speaking friends. To read the special anti-war article and the original poem in Persian click here (PDF).
I’m a human.
Afore being a Muslim, I’m a human.
Afore being an Iranian, I’m a human.
Afore being a woman or a man, I’m a human.
Afore being a black/white/red/yellow skin color, I’m a human.
Afore being left or Right, I’m a human.
Afore being the Prince or the Pauper I’m a human.
Afore being in the unfair competition in the capitalist world, I’m a human.
I’m a human.
Afore judging people with what they own I appraise their humanity.
I’m a human.
I’m the yield of the community where I was born and lived in. The rulers have made the society, an unfair society is the result of “human looking” rulers.
As a human; I’ll change the rulers with the help and contribution of other humans.
I’m a human.
Humans are different so I respect the differences.
I’m a human,
Subjection and discrimination anywhere in the world is a sign of discrimination and subjection for all humans.
I’m a human; I’ll tremble alongside the shivers of Ukrainian homeless.
I’m a human; I will fast alongside the hunger of Rwandese children.
I’m a human; I’ll cry alongside the sobs of innocent Iraqi’s mother.
I’m a human; I’ll polish the shoes alongside the Indian kids’ small hands.
I’m a human; I’ll harvest alongside the exhausted Senegalese farmer.
I’m a human; I’ll draw freedom signs on prison’s wall alongside Lori.
I’m a human; I’ll burn in freedom fever inside the prison cell alongside Ganji.
I’m a human; I’ll suffer alongside the raped Cape Town women.
I’m a human; I want my rights to Live,
I don’t ask for these rights from my family,
not from my rulers,
not from my God,
I ask this right from other humans.
I’m a human; afore pointing a Gun against another human’s heart I’m a human.
I’m a human; I’m the heir of thousands of years of human’s fight against discrimination, oppression and darkness.
I’m a human; I was born to build so I’ve abandoned destruction to beasts and villains.
I’m a human; so I’ll make a better world for all the humans.
Poem originally in Persian by Sina
Translation to English: Ali
Join the Conversation
Ali,
What can I say?
Through my former Yahoo-Blog I’ve “met” quite a number of Iranians. One of them, Mohammad from Tehran has become a close friend of mine. We have sooo much in common. Even once we managed to talk with each other through yahoo, although the connection scares us both a little.. To much “unknown” is going on on the net, connections can be detected, and so on. We’re both human, but do the leaders who speak about and apparently want war care about us?
As an Israeli I can tell you that the people of Israel don’t see the people of Iran as their ennemy. Our conflict with the Palestinians preoccupies them too much – but yes, they are scared of the Iranian government and its declarations.
I think that everyone is about to go mad again – and I hope, I hope, I hope that something, someone will stop them. I can’t even THINK about such a war, it makes me cry already…
God bless you and all the humans of Iran!
Yes Eva, unfortunately people are always the victims of crazy governments. War will just provide the opportunity for the oppressors to put more pressure on activists while maintaining their power.
I just hope and wish that no one will go crazy, and the something or someone you mentioned will stop any war from happening. I believe that that someone or something should be the people, as Albert Einstein once said, “Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.”
Eva:
the problem exatly lies here: most of Iranians see Israelis as their real enemies. There must be a connection between two peoples, and it will remove much of the misunderstanding which exists right now.
Ali, thanks for the work. (who ‘Lori’ is?)
I don’t think this way Mohammad, I believe the main reason some people consider Israel as enemy is the propaganda, from our school books to the news and everywhere there is propaganda against Israel. Unfortunately the access to free information is very limited so many don’t see the real deal.
Once I had a discussion with an Israeli colleague here about an Iranian_German football player who refused to play against Israel, because of the fact that he was worried for his family. My friend could not believe the fact that in every Iranian Passport is written that the holder of the passport is not allowed to travel to “occupied Palestine” (meaning Israel).
About Lori you can read about her here in Wikipedia.
great piece thank you!
Dear Ali,
Thanks for your piece and balanced replies. Yes, Iranians are intimidated, brainwashed and misguided by the IRI and its propaganda lobbyists to hate this and that and other people, including Israeli, as “enemy”. In fact, the IRI is the most enemy of most Iranians and the most hateful state in the Middle East. Under the cover of Palestinian right, the IRI violates the most basic rights of its own people and propagates hate and violence in the region.
Nevertheless, nothing distorts the fact that Palestine and other occupied lands in the Middle East must be free according to the UN resolutions demanding Israel total withdraw and respect of 1967 borders.
Ali:
the reasons you mentioned are almost true. biased propaganda in Iran has led many people to believe that “Isrealis are their real enemies”. I think that this so-called brainwashed are the majority. you feel other way. all in all, we have one thing in common: there should be an informative propaganda.
(thanks for Lori. I didnt know about him.)
Ali, I enjoyed the poem, and I enjoyed as well your reference to Einstein’s quote, “Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.”
Both the poem and this quote are powerful statements.
But let me ask you this: When you take a person, a person like you and me, and you strip off all of the labels that are attached to him, all of the labels that are referred to in the poem, then what do you have left? In other words, if we look hard at the essence of a person, pure and naked, and stripped of all categories, what is it that we see? What is left of him?
For me, what you have left is Common Sense. Common Sense is who we are when all the BS is stripped off.
And that brings us to Einstein. What Einstein is saying, in effect, is this: What will happen when the leaders declare war, and no one shows up? In a way, you may think this to be naive, and unbelievable. But think about it. If we can find a way to use Common Sense to reach a universal ideological consensus, and if a universal ideology of common sense teaches us not to kill, then no one will show up, even if a war is declared. In other words, the idea of war will be so repugnant to human sensibilities that even the nutjobs we have as our leaders will not dare declare war, for fear of being out of step with the will of the people. You can’t declare war, when no one is listening.
Is any of this possible? Well let’s put it this way. Is it possible to sustain life as we know it without making some progress in this direction?
Nissim,
I’m happy you liked the poem. My answer to your good question would’ve been Humanity. But you described it better as common sense. (I believe the essence of Humanity is common sense)
Looking at the world now it might seem impossible to have a world, without categories of country, religion, race and …. But “I have a dream today”. I really hope that what you described will be possible one day soon.
Thanks for your good points…
I believe that too, Ali.
Civilization occurred some 10,000 years ago. I often wonder what human life must have been like for the 2,000,000 years before then. I know it wasn’t an easy life. There were dangers lurking around every corner. And a man’s lifespan was probably cut short by the dangers he faced day in and day out.
But my guess has always been that on the whole, we were probably kind to one another. With so many obstacles to overcome, we would have needed each other’s help to survive yet another day. It wouldn’t have made any sense to kill one another, especially since everyone was a hunter/gatherer, and there was no reason to kill or steal.
The truth of this was made clear in a movie I saw on the Discovery Channel called The Rise of Man. In one scene, a clan was enjoying its cave and plenty of food, when along came a new clan in search of food and shelter. Would they kill one another, the question was asked? No. The comfortable clan took the new clan in, to increase the gene pool for procreation. That must have been the thinking of the day.
Well today, Ali, there are also serious problems lurking around each and every corner. Yes we are far more advanced technologically than the cavemen, but we’ve gotten ourselves into a fix of sorts. We’re so technological that we’ve created weapons of mass destruction that can be used to wipe us off the map. Our economies our spewing out gases that threaten our survival. And we’re so committed to our various ideologies, that some of us have come to believe that what we believe is more important than our own lives and the lives of others on this good earth.
So the fix is in, so to speak. In a way, and I know this sounds weird, could it be that the caveman’s ideological framework was superior to ours? Was his worldview more in sync with common sense? And is it just possible that we will have to imitate him, in certain respects, in order to restore a semblance of order to this world.
Picture yourself as a caveman trying to survive yet another day. How would you treat your fellow man? Would you kill him, or would you partner with him, and help each other out. Would you care what he believed about this or that, or would you discover things about one another that you could both believe in. Would you hog everything you could find for yourslelf, or would you share with your fellow man, because you need him, and becuase you have come to believe that he is very much like you, in search of the same things as you, and as vulnerable as you are.
Philosophical rules like The Golden Rule, “Treat others as you would have them treat you,” are universal, and are found in every major religion, not becuase Moses, or Jesus, of Muhammad, had to tell us so. They are universal because they make sense, because they are logical, and because they are self-evident. That is the gift that God gave us; the ability to make sense of this world.
The Golden Rule is common sense, and common sense is the collective wisdom born of shared expreience. The writing is on the wall. We either find a way to reach common ground using common sense principles, or we’re going down. That’s the deal my friends. It always has been, but world events are making the truth of that reality ever more clear day by day.
Hi Ali, Nice to see you here, dude
The poem was also nice; you know it was somehow familiar to me, dont know how!
Hope to see some great quotes again here