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Tuesday,
November 12, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Testing time for teachers “Final test” for Iraq Music of
kalyug! |
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Flaws in the oil-gas policy
A tale of a prodigal coat
How real is the smallpox threat
‘Dutch Salman Rushdie’ forced to flee country
Alcohol affects brain processes
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Testing time for teachers The University Grants Commission’s proposal for the recruitment of teachers to colleges and universities on a contract basis cannot be faulted. On the advice of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry, the Union Human Resource Development Ministry has examined the proposal recommended by the Ambani-Birla Report on Educational Reforms. Though the UGC has accepted it, keeping in view the implications of the proposal, it has asked the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) to study the same and submit a report within six months. Meanwhile, the college and university teachers’ associations have dubbed the move as retrograde and antithetical to the “freedom of expression, service security and teachers’ associations” and have threatened to go on strike in protest against the proposal. Some of them have even branded it as the UGC’s surrender to the Structural Adjustment Programme of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The HRD Ministry and the UGC need to dispel the fears and apprehensions among the teachers before acting on the proposal. Nonetheless, the larger issue of the quality of education and teaching needs to be examined by eminent educationists and teachers themselves. Clearly, the environment in which our present-day educational institutions are functioning is not conducive to developing a spirit of scientific inquiry among students and helping them to excel in their respective disciplines. Far worse is the condition in the universities. Standards are falling and they hardly inspire the students and demonstrate the scholarship and quality needed to become centres of academic excellence. Brain drain has plagued the country as our brilliant students are in constant quest for greener pastures abroad. This has caused immense harm to the nation, apart from the wastage of its precious funds and scarce resources. Why is this happening? Who is responsible for shattering the students’ confidence in the system that once attracted talents even from the overseas? Apparently, something has gone wrong with the system. Clearly, checking the growing indiscipline in the campuses and improving the falling standards in teaching should top the agenda of a critical area like education. Experience within and outside the country suggests that contractual appointments do ensure meritocracy and an improved level of education both in terms of the quality of teaching and the performance of students. For one thing, job security is often responsible for the falling standards and indiscipline in the educational institutions. For another, the absence of an effective regulatory and controlling mechanism has led to complacency and the lack of interest in a large section of our teachers. Trade unionism is yet another big hurdle. There is virtually no monitoring of what our teachers are doing. How many of them can boast of quality research work or good performance of their students in the all-India Civil Services examinations? Some premier public school teachers are subjected to daily assessment and accountability. Even if our colleges and universities have methods such as lesson plans, working schedules and so on for teachers, these remain on the paper. The suggestion for a review of a teacher’s performance after three years, before the renewal of the contract, has been prompted by the fact that it would ensure a marked improvement in the performance of the teachers as a whole. But there are various ifs and buts, visible and invisible. Even if the contract system is to succeed, the entire system of recruitment, assessment and renewal of teachers’ services will have to be made foolproof and insulated from all kinds of interference and undesirable influences. |
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“Final test” for Iraq After the passage of a UN Security Council resolution by a unanimous 15-0 vote on Friday asking Iraq to fall in line or else, the question uppermost in everyone’s mind is whether an attack on Baghdad is inevitable. Fortunately, the answer is not quite as firmly affirmative as is generally believed. There is a lot of posturing by all concerned, and bombs may not begin to rain after all, at least not in the near future. What may superficially appear to be yet another step forward in the dangerous game of brinkmanship may actually be a move in the direction of avoiding a confrontation. For one thing, the US demand has now narrowed down to eliminating Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The earlier insistence on a regime change has been given up. Two, the automatic use of force has been scrapped. Three, the UN supremacy has been acknowledged. Even if it is for form’s sake, the backing of all the 15 members, including Syria, sends out a loud and clear message that the world is one in the war against terrorism. Actually, the USA had convinced the other countries that it was all set to strike Iraq so well that they scrambled to avert the crisis, even if that meant sending a searing ultimatum to Iraq. The Syrian “aye” has to be seen in that context. Still, Russia, China and Syria have succeeded in ensuring that inspection procedures are brought in line with UN standards and conform to the guidelines laid down for the previous inspections. President Saddam Hussein has been spewing fire in public, but Iraq has indicated, wisely, in private that it is ready to accept the tough new resolution seeking intrusive inspections provided it was not attacked. The reply that it is supposed to give within a week is unlikely to be delivered till the very last moment and will be couched in such words that the pride of the Iraqi people is not hurt. But an open defiance is unlikely. Baghdad knows that it is caught in a cleftstick and does not have international opinion on its side. It will be tactically wiser to swallow its pride at this stage and postpone the fireworks for another day. It is painfully aware of the fact that although Resolution 1441 does not have any “hidden triggers”, it does not constrain any member-state (read the USA) from acting to “defend itself” if the Security Council fails to act decisively in the event of a further Iraqi violation. Provocative amassing of arms and armies on the borders of Iraq and aggressive war exercises, coupled with deliberate leaks about the Pentagon preparations for an impending attack are all part of an elaborate psychological warfare. |
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Music of kalyug! Yesterday has seldom respected today. Yesterday’s values are always far superior to those of today. So when Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, the noted flute-player, described MTV as the music of kalyug, he was following the over-simplified rule of glorifying the traditional system of music at the expense of the new innovations. And he is not the first Indian musician, nor is he going to be the last, to lambaste modern music. Ustad Vilayat Khan stopped giving public performances as an expression of disapproval of the general lack of understanding of the finer nuances of Indian classical music. Pandit Ravi Shankar, an equally gifted sitar-player, on the other hand is said to have catered to popular taste. His collaboration with former Beatles George Harrison gave birth to a new form of pop music. A healthy difference of opinion among the practitioners of the myriad forms of music is understandable. But Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia was unreasonable in the choice of words he chose for debunking modern music played by the MTV channel. For years Naushad enjoyed a pre-eminent position in the Indian film industry because of his semi-classical tunes. But then the industry moved ahead to cater to the evolving tastes of the new generation. Today Naushad is not only out of job , but a very bitter man because of his relentless lamentation about the death of what he says is the soul of Indian music. However, the global village cannot survive on only “Hindustani gaana aur Hindustani khaana” must. It must reflect the tastes and notes of different regions of the globe. Those who have understood the value of moving with the times are hugely successful in whatever they are doing. For instance, Asha Bhosle is the only “old voice” that is respected by the new generation of music lovers because of her ability to break free of the straitjacket of over-hyped traditionalism. Shoba Mudgal’s success story is even more amazing because she has managed to fuse notes of pure classical music with that of Indipop that make the generation next dance with boundless ecstacy. Pandit Hair Prasad Chaurasia believes that fusion music is is well packaged trash. Maybe. But he is no prophet to predict the early demise of the forms of music that do not meet his exacting standards of purity of musical grammar, diction and notes. All he needs to do is look around to see the huge popularity of all that is junk. Traditional cuisines have had to make way for junk food; the revealing women’s wear has outstripped the traditional Indian dresses in popularity; khichdi is the flavour of today’s language in spite of the lament and protest of grammarians and linguists; Michael Jackson draws bigger crowds than any Indian musician can ever dream of attracting; and among Indian musicians A. R. Rahman has made more money selling his innovative tunes to audiences across the globe than the highly respect but sulking Naushad. And table maestro Zakir Hussain is the heart-throb of the new generation of music lovers not because he belongs to the musical purity school of Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, but because he has dared to experiment with the traditional forms of Indian music. |
Flaws in the oil-gas policy The opportunity for a meaningful review of the development of oil and gas industry, indeed the entire energy sector of the Indian economy, should not be missed after the Reliance Industries — a private company — has discovered a major gas field offshore Andhra. It is totally misleading and really mischievous to suggest, as has been done by some in the government and the media, that the addition to the gas resources of India is due to and justifies the policy of opening the oil-gas industry for international oil companies to develop. On the contrary, it shows that indigenous enterprise, public and private separately and in collaboration, has the capability and is a dependable basis for the progress of this strategic industry in India. Foreign intervention is neither necessary nor called for and has been found in practice to be counter-productive. The Reliance company did have a collaboration arrangement with a relatively small Canadian company in the project for gas exploration offshore. But the management of the project was entirely in the hands of the Indian company. Its collaborating, Canadian company, NIKKO, has retained its equity of 10 per cent in the project after the discovery of gas of the order of 198 billion cubic metres, which is the second largest after the Vasai gas reserves of 225 billion cubic metres discovered by the Oil and Natural Gas Commission of India in the public sector. Nothing remotely comparable to the discoveries of oil and gas reserves by Indian companies in the public sector and the discovery of gas by the wholly indigenous enterprise albeit also in the private sector has been reported by the foreign oil companies working independently or under collaboration arrangement with Indian companies for oil and gas exploration during the last 50 years. NIKKO is reported to have only struck a relatively small reserve of gas near Surat in Gujarat. It is not yet clear whether the exploration work in this block is part of the 12 blocks which were allotted to Reliance in which NIKKO too had a 10 per cent share. What is stark, however, is the total failure of the foreign companies to find any oil or gas in India. This cannot be fortuitous. It cannot be either that the international oil conglomerates lack necessary expertise and technological inputs in their exploration activity in India. The fact is that the foreign companies which are part of the international oil cartel have no interest in finding oil or gas in India in the scheme of their global operations which are closely linked to the strategic interests of the countries of their origin, especially the USA. It will not be amiss in this context to mention the performance of British Gas of the UK and Enron of the USA in India. Unlike NIKKO of Canada, both companies insist on exclusive management rights in the Panna-Mukta and Tapti onshore exploration projects under collaboration arrangements with the ONGC with a 40 per cent equity and the Reliance with 30 per cent. Enron used its management rights to maximise its returns from extortionate technology fees and extravagant salaries to their experts for the project. And then sold its 30 per cent equity in the project to British Gas, which simply grabbed management rights in the project in disregard of the wishes of the majority partners. What is reprehensible is that India’s Petroleum Ministry failed to support the claims of the two Indian companies to a share in the management of the exploration project. It too is odd that the Petroleum Ministry, while objecting to the privatisation of oil companies engaged in oil refining and marketing of petroleum products, is lackadaisical about oil and gas exploration which it seems to think should be left for international oil companies to undertake. This is the proverbial approach of politicians to research and development and putting down of technocrats and professionals by bureaucrat bosses in the ministries. It is necessary for oil and gas exploration to make headway on proper lines and become cost effective. The foreign oil majors should be barred from having any management rights, which should be reserved for Indian companies for exploration in these blocks. The energy supply in India is constrained by severe shortages at present, and indigenous effort for exploration will have to be stepped up to overcome this constraint. The consumption of petroleum products, which has been feverishly promoted in the last decade, should also be curbed. The dismantling of administrative price mechanism for petroleum products has created fresh problems. The oil refinery companies in the pubic sector have suffered huge losses on this account. Since the Finance Ministry has not cut the excise duty on these products, their prices are ruling high and consumers too are suffering. Significantly, the cess on the excise duty imposed in the budget for this year is collected from only the oil companies in the public sector, and private companies are exempt from this liability. This is yet another instance of discrimination against public sector undertakings and preference for private, especially foreign, business interests in the oil sector. The hectic efforts to attract large inflows of foreign investment and technology have failed to boost oil-gas exploration and production. The domestic crude oil reserves in India, discovered and developed in the public sector during the 1970s, have been depleted at a fast rate in the last decade. The proportion of indigenous crude oil, which had touched 80 per cent of the total domestic consumption, had come down to 30 per cent at the end of the nineties. This is obviously unsustainable, given the weak potential of Indian exports to earn foreign exchange to pay for the import of crude oil and gas. The international oil companies, the most rapacious among the MNCs, operated in India when it was under direct colonial rule and for a decade and a half afterwards. They had to be ordered out when they refused to handle Indian crude oil in their refineries in India. They have also been unable, indeed unwilling, to find crude oil or gas in India. They are interested only in marketing petroleum products imported by them from their captive sources abroad. The domestic enterprise in the oil sector developed rapidly by public investment and management after the foreign companies were ousted. The desperate offers to hand over already discovered oilfields and related facilities to international oil companies almost gratis after the so-called new oil exploration licensing policy based on the globalisation-privatisation principle was adopted, has not given any positive returns. The global oil market is currently passing through many uncertainties. The impact of the US war against terrorism on oil-rich West Asia has further pushed up the global prices of crude oil and petroleum products. India is bound to face serious difficulties over the arrangements for the import of crude oil and petroleum products. The grim position with respect to oil supplies, demand and prices of petroleum products for India must no longer be obfuscated. The remedy does not lie only in increasing the market prices of petroleum products for consumers. Right correctives are necessary in the entire range of energy policy. The assumption that a rise in the consumption of petroleum products is inescapable for speeding up and modernisation of economic growth is taking its heavy toll in India. The need is self-reliant and cost-effective economic growth and technology policy to regulate the consumption of commercial energy. It is good news that private Indian enterprise has supplemented to some extent the effort to find indigenous gas reserves. These reserves, together with those discovered by the ONGC in the public sector, should be husbanded carefully and deployed to get the optimism value. The indigenous development of the oil sector — exploration, refining and marketing — is of paramount importance to stem the drift towards an energy crisis, which can surely overwhelm the country’s economy and undermine national security interests . The optimal exploitation of indigenous resources must be given the highest priority in energy policy-making. The national reserves already discovered must not be handed over to foreign interests for exploitation. The globalisation policy has already weakened gravely the national oil enterprise. The government’s disinvestment programme for public sector industrial undertakings is pushing the national oil companies into a position in which their technological and management capability is bound to erode. The key to the easing of pressures on account of the supply, demand and prices of petroleum products is to give priority to crude oil exploration and production as well as the development of indigenous energy alternatives. The writer is a well-known economic commentator |
A tale of a prodigal coat Of all the numerous uncles who visited our house in my childhood, I remember one face distinctly. It was a money face, dried up like a mummy, ancient and cadaverous in expression. The chin had caved in and merged with his toothless gums, presumably under the weight of his ceaseless chatter which as often bordered on the beatific as on the bizarre and the profane. He was our uncle, thrice removed, and used to establish his relationship through some complicated genealogical and arcane calculations. However, it was not for his face, funny and frightening as it was, that we remember him to this day; it was his many-splendoured coat which continued to be a subject of our song and story long after he was gone. The story goes that he had acquired it from a pawnshop under mysterious circumstances when he was reportedly a young man in search of fun and frolic and frills, though it was impossible to picture him as anything but as a withered scarecrow with over 80 winters on his head. Anyway, there was some strange talk of elopements, murders and suicides which we never quite understood in relation to that innocuous jacket. Whatever the truth, there was no doubt about its rich, dark and crimson history. In all likelihood, it was a discarded hunting-coat of a down-and-out British civil servant or soldier, for there was a Bond Street tag on the inside pocket which proclaimed its history. The coat stayed on uncle’s rickety back for keeps with the proverbial tenacity of poor relation. Nor would he countenance any thought of pensioning off this old, faithful retainer that had stood by him through rain and storm, through sleet and snow. Death alone may divide those whom want and whim have thus united. One morning, however, while bathing in the river, he saw it blown away by a sudden gust of wind. All his ablutions and ceremonies and mantras were abruptly terminated. He ran nearly naked in different directions like mad till he sighted the dear departed in the billowy arms of a whirlwind. He followed the tortuous being line in a spinning maze. And what a merry dance it led our uncle to! At last, he saw it perched precariously on the hump of a passing camel from where it soon flapped on to the rear wheels of a speeding garbage truck. The vehicle spluttered, and screeched and groaned till it came to a whimpering halt. Our uncle panting hard, reached the spot and admonished the bewildered driver in the choicest vernacular before retrieving the runaway apparel. Though it was crushed and mutilated, our uncle never entertained even for a moment any uncharitable thought about its fate. Soon, it was darned and patched and restored to its pristine glory. It emerged gayer and brighter out of the ordeal. This sartorial phoenix had indeed a talent for life! On another occasion, he lost it in a train journey to the next station. He felt lonely and bewildered and lost, unable to understand how it could have disappeared from his friendly back. But disappear it did, and he pondered the problem as a philosophical blow from the blue. A question of kismet! But lo and behold, a few days later, there stood Nathu, the station sweeper with the coat under his arm. For, it was a curiosity widely known in those parts. |
How real is the smallpox threat We have another bout of scare stories about a possible outbreak of the much dreaded smallpox epidemic. The first warning that Islamic terrorists are capable of using the old cold war weapon with stunning effect had come in the aftermath of the last year’s attack on US targets. The new panic, also emanating from the Pentagon, is much more specific. It talks of a likely US move for a massive vaccination drive beginning as a voluntary option at home, and later depending on the threat perception, a worldwide campaign under the WHO. As one of the worst tropical victims of the epidemic, India has every reason to take a serious note of the likely reappearance of the frightful “Shitala Mata”. During the past two decades after the eradication of the disease from the earth, the innumerable wayside shrines of the “mata” have either disappeared or undergone a metamorphosis into more trendy deities. Our concern is neither confined to a return of those much sought after witch doctors attached to the deities. With a hostile neighbour constantly encouraging cross-border terrorism and sheltering the same forces the USA considers as responsible for the strikes against it, we can be a softer target. As compared to the USA, we are in no way better placed to conduct an effective protective campaign. What worries the experts is that if the USA really launches a vaccination drive within the country, as is being talked about, it will mean universalising the perceived threat. It will virtually make available the once eliminated virus to the dangerous elements. In Delhi, the Washington reports in this regard are being viewed with suspicion. Many think that the latest leak is more aimed at spreading panic among the world leaders about the “rogue” countries like Iraq and North Korea. Reports that Iraq secretly possesses the smallpox pathogen, and is trying to use it as a biological weapon came at a time when the US-sponsored UN resolution had reached the most delicate stage. The apparent aim is to induce the unwilling countries to support the US moves for an all-out war on Saddam Hussein, the “rogue”. With this in mind, the Washington leaks lay special emphasis on the alleged development of a smallpox virus by Iraq for biological war. It quotes a British inspector of the UN Special Commission team to say that he had found a freeze drier labelled “smallpox”. The reports also cite “current immunity” to smallpox in the bloods of the captured Iraqi prisoners of war. This means the vaccinated Iraqi soldiers could survive smallpox epidemic if they decided to spread the dreaded virus among the enemy soldiers and civilians. For about six months, US diplomats have been passing on similar “intelligence inputs” to the friendly countries with the obvious intention of further demonising Saddam and seeking endorsement of the war against Iraq. Now through genetic engineering and molecular genetics, it is possible to increase the virulence of such viruses by incorporating desired characteristics of other microbes into it. The delivery system is no more blankets. It can be subtler means, even missiles, in theory that is. On May 8, 1980, WHO formally declared eradication of the
disease and storing of the virus at Atlanta in the USA and Moscow for research purposes. Their destruction was postponed thrice - in 1986, 1992 and 1999 - as it was feared that it would make it difficult to tackle an accidental spread or deliberate biological war. The USA is believed to be unilaterally developing an improved smallpox vaccine to protect its population against a biological war. However, it will take at least two years to use them for mass vaccination after the necessary field tests. Internal studies by the administration experts estimate that even the inoculation of a better vaccine would cause the death of at least 300 people. This is the average risk factor. The Iraq bias apart, in case the US resorts to a mass vaccination programme, it will invariably force other countries to follow suit. According to some experts, this will take the world back to the pre-1980 era with new risk factors. Special epidemiological characteristics of the smallpox virus had enabled eradication of the menace in a relatively short time. The total cost of its worldwide eradication was only $ 759.5 million at the 1991 rates. This has to be seen in the light of the failures to tackle diseases like AIDS and malaria even after prolonged campaigns. However, the same epidemiological advantages can also work against in the event of its use as a biological weapon. The power politics aside, there is a theoretical angle to the smallpox eradication. Some scientists firmly believe that howsoever man tries to control a microbe, nature has managed to defy him. Every virus is unique and holds many secrets. Research studies on smallpox after it was eradicated revealed a mechanism by which the virus was fooling the human immune system. The secret to its virulence may help us understand how the human immune system functions and where to look for the AIDS cure. Moralists, on their part, argue that we humans have no right to drive a species to extinction. Then there is the niche theory. According to this, every species occupies its place in the ecosystem. When the number of individuals in the species is reduced drastically or even eradicated, their niche is moved into by another species. This creates an imbalance in the ecosystem. Monkeypox is fatal to monkeys. Though humans are infected, for them it is not fatal. Before the smallpox eradication, there were only 50 cases of monkeypox in Zaire jungles. Then it took an epidemic form. The WHO set up a permanent surveillance centre in Zaire to make sure that there was no sudden mutation of the monkeypox into smallpox. The end of cold war has brought about new enemies and more complicated situations. Earlier, an honest pact between the two world powers could have led to a modicum of orderly conduct. This had enabled some check on nuclear proliferation. The emergence of irresponsible extremist warlords with overt or covert support from their governments and those outside, has been a post-cold war phenomenon. This certainly possess a threat. But what complicates the situation has been the US attempts to confine the alert to those of its own chosen enemies. |
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‘Dutch Salman Rushdie’ forced to flee country A Somali-born Muslim immigrant, popularly described as “Dutch Salman Rushdie” has been forced to quit the Netherlands under threat of death for her views on Islam and her exposure of the cruelty meted out to many Muslim women living in Western societies. Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s crime is uncannily similar to the India-born author of “The Satanic Verses”: she launched a stinging attack on Islam, a religion she herself has rejected, and in doing so earned the enduring hatred of the mullahs she targeted. The fact that the criticism came from a woman and one who had turned her back on Allah made her situation all the more precarious. Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, she underwent what she calls the “cruel ritual” of female circumcision when she was five and for much of her youth was kept veiled and locked indoors. At 22, her father tried to force her to marry a distant cousin she had never met, but she managed to escape to the Netherlands where she obtained political asylum. It was while working as an interpreter for the Dutch immigration and social services that she discovered suffering on a “terrible scale” among Muslim women in the Netherlands. The 32-year-old interpreter has received several serious death threats — apparently from extremist Muslims — after she aired her views on the national TV in the Netherlands. She was forced to go into hiding and has fled the Netherlands, a refugee once again, hounded out of her adopted home by a torrent of messages of hate. Rumoured to be in the USA or the UK, she has also spoken out for the first time about why she felt the need to blow the whistle on “the unacceptable side of Islam” and has turned her fire and her back on the same Dutch Labour Party she used to work for. “Sexual abuse in the family causes the most pain because the trust is violated on all levels. The father or the uncle says nothing, nor do the mother and the sisters. It happens regularly — the incest, the beatings, the abortions. Girls commit suicide. But no one says anything. And social workers are sworn to professional secrecy,” she reveals.
PTI |
Alcohol affects brain processes Even a single drink of alcohol is enough to impair someone’s ability to reason quickly and detect errors, according to a study that electronically monitored brain waves in volunteers given drinks. Dutch researchers put sensors on the scalps of 14 men who were tested in three sessions after having a placebo, a single alcohol drink, or several drinks. The volunteers then were challenged in a computer test that required quick thinking and instinctive reasoning. Changes in brain action were quickly detected even after a single drink, leading the researchers to conclude that alcohol, even in “modest doses,” was enough to erode the mind’s ability to detect and correct errors. The alcohol was administered using orange juice spiked with vodka containing 37.5 per cent alcohol. The dosage was based on the weight of the test subject. For instance, a 180-pound man would be given drinks with an alcohol content of 1.2 ounces for a low-dose test and about 2.4 ounces in a high-dose test. The drinks were consumed over a 20-minute period.
AP Learning possible even for the aged Challenging views that age reduces one’s ability to adapt to new situations, a study reveals that old owls are able to learn new tricks, implying brains of older animals including humans may be capable of changes. An old owl can be taught new tricks, if training is given in small steps, a report in the journal “Nature” says. Owls are nocturnal hunters who rely on auditory as well as visual information to track their prey. Coordinated maps of auditory and visual space are formed in the brain which help owls to track their targets, the report says. “...these experiments offer hope to those of us who aren’t getting any younger that improving learning ability just means finding new strategies for inducing plasticity in our brains,” the report says.
PTI Exercise lessens cholesterol damage Researchers using a new method for measuring cholesterol are offering a familiar message: get some exercise A new study suggests that even modest exercise can benefit the heart by making cholesterol less damaging to the arteries, even if levels of the substance are unchanged. Staying active has many health benefits, but improving cholesterol is not usually considered one of them. Workouts fail to lower LDL, the dangerous form of cholesterol, and only rigorous exercise can nudge up HDL, the good form that protects against heart attacks.
AP |
Not by his shaven crown is one made “Religious”...... He who puts off entirely great sins and small faults — by such true religion — is a man called religious. —Ashoka’s Edict.
*** God has in store many hidden mercies. — Persian proverb
*** God given beans to him who has not teeth. — Moorish proverb
*** Manage with bread and butter till God brings the jam. — Moorish proverb *** He is God alone: God the Eternal! He begetteth not, and he is not begotten; and there is none like unto him. — The Quran
*** Verily my prayers, and my devotion and my life, and my death, belong to God. — The Quran
*** Take God as thy companion and leave mankind alone. — Ibrahim B. Adham
*** Do good, for God loves those who do good. — The Quran
*** Open-handed God-befriended. — Pashto proverb
*** God will not seek thy race nor will he ask thy birth; alone he will demand of thee what hast thou done on earth. — Persian proverb
*** God provides even for the insect between two stones. — Egyptian-Arabic proverb *** God will remain, friends will not. — Pashto proverb
*** The gods know all. — Japaneseproverb
*** God is more delighted in adverbs than in nouns. — Hebrew proverb |
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