11/30/08

more pics...of course...











...from top: Firdausi (my straight Egyptian stallion [Zedann X Malkata]), T'naasheet (Sheshonq X Afsoon), Amaray (six and a half week old male puppy [Fasiqqi X Tawinak]), Adoubou (almost seven months old male puppy [Tamgak X Tiwul]), Bomboukou (almost seven weeks old pupppy [Fasiqqi X Tiraout]) playing with a toy, a yucca with blown grass woven into the leaves, Iferouane (45 day old female puppy [Fasiqqi X Tiraout]), the beautiful mesa to our north, Tezerift (one year old female puppy [Idi Ilaman Afelahlah X Tiwul]), and Toumlilt (45 day old female puppy [Fasiqqi X Tiraout]).

from Brian Reiter...


...an interesting picture of Tawzalt (seven months [almost] old Aslam X Semteende).
Brian has a blog. He posts to it quite regularly so check it out...some interesting stuff.

Terrorism That's Personal


Acid attacks and wife burnings are common in parts of Asia because the victims are the most voiceless in these societies. Naeema Azar, above, was attacked by her husband after they divorced. Her 12-year-old son, Ahmed Shah, looks after her.

Terrorism That's Personal

Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist, from Islamabad, Pakistan
Published in The New York Times, Dec. 30, 2008

Terrorism in this part of the world usually means bombs exploding or hotels burning, as the latest horrific scenes from Mumbai attest. Yet alongside the brutal public terrorism that fills the television screens, there is an equally cruel form of terrorism that gets almost no attention and thrives as a result: flinging acid on a woman’s face to leave her hideously deformed.

Here in Pakistan, I’ve been investigating such acid attacks, which are commonly used to terrorize and subjugate women and girls in a swath of Asia from Afghanistan through Cambodia (men are almost never attacked with acid). Because women usually don’t matter in this part of the world, their attackers are rarely prosecuted and acid sales are usually not controlled. It’s a kind of terrorism that becomes accepted as part of the background noise in the region.

This month in Afghanistan, men on motorcycles threw acid on a group of girls who dared to attend school. One of the girls, a 17-year-old named Shamsia, told reporters from her hospital bed: “I will go to my school even if they kill me. My message for the enemies is that if they do this 100 times, I am still going to continue my studies.”

When I met Naeema Azar, a Pakistani woman who had once been an attractive, self-confident real estate agent, she was wearing a black cloak that enveloped her head and face. Then she removed the covering, and I flinched.

Acid had burned away her left ear and most of her right ear. It had blinded her and burned away her eyelids and most of her face, leaving just bone.

Six skin grafts with flesh from her leg have helped, but she still cannot close her eyes or her mouth; she will not eat in front of others because it is too humiliating to have food slip out as she chews.

“Look at Naeema, she has lost her eyes,” sighed Shahnaz Bukhari, a Pakistani activist who founded an organization to help such women, and who was beginning to tear up. “She makes me cry every time she comes in front of me.”

Ms. Azar had earned a good income and was supporting her three small children when she decided to divorce her husband, Azar Jamsheed, a fruit seller who rarely brought money home. He agreed to end the (arranged) marriage because he had his eye on another woman.

After the divorce was final, Mr. Jamsheed came to say goodbye to the children, and then pulled out a bottle and poured acid on his wife’s face, according to her account and that of their son.

“I screamed,” Ms. Azar recalled. “The flesh of my cheeks was falling off. The bones on my face were showing, and all of my skin was falling off.”

Neighbors came running, as smoke rose from her burning flesh and she ran about blindly, crashing into walls. Mr. Jamsheed was never arrested, and he has since disappeared. (I couldn’t reach him for his side of the story.)

Ms. Azar has survived on the charity of friends and with support from Ms. Bukhari’s group, the Progressive Women’s Association (www.pwaisbd.org). Ms. Bukhari is raising money for a lawyer to push the police to prosecute Mr. Jamsheed, and to pay for eye surgery that — with a skilled surgeon — might be able to restore sight to one eye.

Bangladesh has imposed controls on acid sales to curb such attacks, but otherwise it is fairly easy in Asia to walk into a shop and buy sulfuric or hydrochloric acid suitable for destroying a human face.

Acid attacks and wife burnings are common in parts of Asia because the victims are the most voiceless in these societies: they are poor and female. The first step is simply for the world to take note, to give voice to these women.

Since 1994, Ms. Bukhari has documented 7,800 cases of women who were deliberately burned, scalded or subjected to acid attacks, just in the Islamabad area. In only 2 percent of those cases was anyone convicted.

For the last two years, Senators Joe Biden and Richard Lugar have co-sponsored an International Violence Against Women Act, which would adopt a range of measures to spotlight such brutality and nudge foreign governments to pay heed to it. Let’s hope that with Mr. Biden’s new influence the bill will pass in the next Congress.

That might help end the silence and culture of impunity surrounding this kind of terrorism.

The most haunting part of my visit with Ms. Azar, aside from seeing her face, was a remark by her 12-year-old son, Ahsan Shah, who lovingly leads her around everywhere. He told me that in one house where they stayed for a time after the attack, a man upstairs used to beat his wife every day and taunt her, saying: “You see the woman downstairs who was burned by her husband? I’ll burn you just the same way.”

I invite you to comment on this column on my blog www.nytimes.com/ontheground, and join me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kristof.

11/28/08

please read the article posted by Akilah on her blog...

...this morning. The article is called:

Time to Get Back to Work

Tough Talk For Dog Owners About The Obama Presidency
Apathy, Inaction May Doom Dog Ownership in America

by JOHN YATES of the American Sporting Dog Alliance

something tells me...


...Tiraout is pretty much over it. Could be her expression. And the fact that she spends less and less time (along with Tawinak) with the puppies. Could just be the moment.

11/27/08

Taletmot Idiiyat-es-Sahel...


...(Kusaylah X Taytok) whelped a litter of three female and two male puppies tonight in Germany, al hamdullilah. May the puppies live long and thrive, Insh'Allah. I am happy for Gabriele that the two litters have now come and life can get even more crazy in the coming weeks! Insh'Allah. Puppies always put things in perspective. A perspective of some sort...at least. Al hamdullilah.

sky, mesa...

the return of the rule of law...

A Command of the Law

By ROGER COHEN, Op-Ed Columnist, New York Times
Published: November 26, 2008

It’s Thanksgiving. I’m thankful for many things right now, despite the stock market, and first among them is the fact that the next U.S. commander in chief is a constitutional law expert and former law professor.

Before I get to why, allow me to add two other reasons for thankfulness. The first is that Barack Obama is a man of sufficient self-confidence to entrust the critical job of secretary of state to his former rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. She has the strength and focus to produce results.

The second is that he’s a man of sufficient good sense to retain the remarkable Robert Gates as defense secretary.

President Bush had one overriding criterion in choosing his inner circle: loyalty. The result was nobody would pull the plug on stupidity. Obama wants the kind of competence and brainpower that challenge him. The God-gut decision-making of The Decider got us in this mess. Getting out of it will require an Oval Office where smart dissent is prized.

But back to the law, which is what defines the United States, for it is a nation of laws. Or was until Bush, in the aftermath of 9/11, unfurled what the late historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. called “the most dramatic, sustained and radical challenge to the rule of law in American history.”

There is no need to rehearse here the whole sordid history of the Bush administration’s work on Vice President Dick Cheney’s “dark side:” the “enhanced” interrogation techniques in “black sites” outside the United States justified by invocation of a “new paradigm” that rendered the Geneva Conventions “quaint.”

When governments veer onto the dark side, language always goes murky. Direct speech makes dirty deeds too clear. A new paradigm sounds bland enough. What it meant was trashing habeas corpus.

The facts speak for themselves. This month, almost seven years after detainees began arriving at Guantánamo Bay on Jan. 11, 2002, a verdict was handed down in the first hearing on the government’s evidence for holding so-called unlawful enemy combatants at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

Yes, this was the first hearing in a habeas corpus case, so long has the legal battle been to get to this point, and so stubborn has the administration been in seeking to keep Guantánamo detainees out of reach of civilian courts.

Judge Richard J. Leon of Federal District Court in Washington ruled that five Algerian men had been unlawfully held at Guantánamo and ordered their release. He said: “Seven years of waiting for our legal system to give them an answer to a question so important is, in my judgment, more than plenty.”

Of the 770 detainees grabbed here and there and flown to Guantánamo, only 23 have ever been charged with a crime. Of the more than 500 so far released, many traumatized by those “enhanced” techniques, not one has received an apology or compensation for their season in hell.

What they got on release was a single piece of paper from the American government. A U.S. official met one of the dozens of Afghans now released from Guantánamo and was so appalled by this document that he forwarded me a copy.

Dated Oct. 7, 2006, it reads as follows:

“An Administrative Review Board has reviewed the information about you that was talked about at the meeting on 02 December 2005 and the deciding official in the United States has made a decision about what will happen to you. You will be sent to the country of Afghanistan. Your departure will occur as soon as possible.”

That’s it, the one and only record on paper of protracted U.S. incarceration: three sentences for four years of a young Afghan’s life, written in language Orwell would have recognized.

We have “the deciding official,” not an officer, general or judge. We have “the information about you,” not allegations, or accusations, let alone charges. We have “a decision about what will happen to you,” not a judgment, ruling or verdict. This is the lexicon of totalitarianism. It is acutely embarrassing to the United States.

That is why I am thankful above all that the next U.S. commander in chief is a constitutional lawyer. Nothing has been more damaging to the United States than the violation of the legal principles at the heart of the American idea.

As well as closing Guantánamo, Obama should set up an independent commission to investigate what happened there, as suggested in a fine recent report, “Guantánamo and its Aftermath,” from the University of California, Berkeley. Only then will “deciding officials” become identifiable human beings who can, if necessary be judged.

Obama should also ensure that former detainees receive an apology and compensation. An American official showing up, envelope in hand, at some dusty Afghan compound and delivering U.S. contrition and cash to a man whose life has been ravaged by U.S. abuse, will in the long term make the United States safer.

Give thanks on this day for the law. It’s what stands between the shining city on a hill and the dark side.

how the world began...in Tamazight, French and English...

"deg taggit n umadal, ja tella yat n telghemt, qaren as Fakaru, u marra amadal iteddar s ughi ines, u qaren âawet belli qa nghint irgazen" (Alhassane ag Solimane, 1999 : 86).


"À la création du monde, il n’existait qu’une seule chamelle, appelée Fakaru, et le monde entier vivait de son lait. On dit aussi qu’elle a été tué par les hommes" (Alhassane ag
Solimane, 1999 : 86).


"When the world was created, there existed only one chamelle (she-camel), called Fakaru, and the whole world was sustained from her milk. It is also said that she was killed by man (the human race)" (Alhassane Ag Solimane, 1999: 86).

From www.mondeberbere.com

our tent...








...its almost like a real house!, then Tamahan (bred by Ayad ag Intangoum in Tin Akoff, the Sahel), Tamoudit (Fasiqqi X Tiraout) Tadaksahak (now a year old, Afalkou X Batna), Bomboukou (brother of Tamoudit), then piles of sleeping puppies. And a sleeping puppies are GOOD puppies. Al hamdullilah.

11/26/08

some pics...






...from top: the beautiful mesa to our north, sleeping Malalai (Fasiqqi X Tawinak), curious Toumlilt (Fasiqqi X Tiraout), sleeping Tamgak and Ailal going somewhere...al hamdullilah.

Tylalt Idiiyat-es-Sahel...


...a new photo sent to me today by the owners (Skye Masson and her fiance' Josh Bauermester in Atlanta, GA) of Tylalt [Idi Ilaman Afelahlah X Tiwul]. I retained Tylalt's two sisters Raba and Tezerift as well as her brother Ataram for breeding, Insh'Allah. A brother, Igazan, was purchased by Casper Oswald in Berkeley, Ca. A third brother T'ezewek was purchased by my friend Andra Walters in Canada.

I think Tylalt is living a bit more comfortably than the aidi here! But then the dogs here are not seeing the photo...so....al hamdullilah. I like this photo very much...Tylalt looks mysterious...and comfortable! Al hamdullilah.

Fasiqqi X Tawinak litter at six weeks...






...from top: the female puppies Tiinaade and Malalai, then the three male puppies Amlal, Amaray and Safdar. Al hamdullilah. One puppy is still available: either Amaray or Safdar. I will retain the one that is not taken for breeding, Insh'Allah.

Fasiqqi X Tiraout litter at six weeks...






...from top: the three female puppies Iferouane, Tamoudit, Toumlilt, and the two male puppies Bomboukou and Abalak . The puppies are two days shy of six weeks, al hamdullilah.

11/24/08

OK...so we live in the desert and there are not...







...a lot of ways to utilize time...so lots of photos!

Tawzalt...


...who was purchased by Brian Reiter in DC....sleeping on Azelouan (a grandson of Kusaylah....very long story for later...), Brian's first Azawakh. Again, I have to say that Brian is one of the few who people I know who is able to capture something essential about the idi in his photographs...look at the eyes of Tawzalt!....thanks Brian for the update photo! al hamdullilah...

dear Andra...




...our dear friend in Canada who invested in the property in NM with me...she has two Azawakh from me and one from Debbie Kidwell. From the top: T'ezewek, now a year old (Idi Ilaman Afelahlah X Tiwul), then Tala (Fasiqqi X Tittawen), and then Kel Simoon Elkem, Andra's first Azawakh. I think he is getting old now, mash'Allah. Andra was down in July for a visit to her property...but here for such a short time...I can't wait until we can see her again, Insh'Allah. T'ezewek looks black...bu it is only the very close black brindling, inherited from his dam Tiwul. Al hamdullilah.

Yubai...


...I love this photo! Yubai (Aslam X Semteende, now almost seven months old, al hamdullilah), in a great shot! Thank you to Carlos and his partner Patricio for all the wonderful photos of Yubai.

last night in Germany...


...Gabriele Meissen's Takute Al-Ifriqiya (Kusaylah X Iman [Al-Ifriqiya is my former kennel name...for several years now it is Idiiyat-es-Sahel]) whelped a litter of three female and five male puppies. I hope they will all be strong, healthy and beautiful, Insh'Allah. The sire of the litter is Al-Hara's Vakuru, bred by Ingrid Aigeldinger. Takute's half-sister Taletmot Idiiyat-es-Sahel (Kusaylah X Taytok) is due in three days, Insh'Allah.