Speak Up!

We protested. We wrote blogs. We wrote in the papers. We demonstrated in rallies on the streets. But our voices fell on deaf ears. I guess our measly third-world cries mean nothing.

Shumaila Kanwal knew what would happen better than us. The wife of the man shot and killed by C.I.A. contractor Raymond Davis committed suicide by eating rat poison, explaining before she died that she was driven to act by fears the American would be freed without trial. She was right. But what's all the uproar for? I mean Davis killed two Pakistanis. A missile attack by a C.I.A. drone killed at least 40 people in North Waziristan on Thursday. The C.I.A. has carried out more than a hundred drone strikes against militant groups in Pakistan’s tribal territories over the past year in which scores of my country's civilians have been killed - women and children and old people - and entire villages have been wiped out. Civilians are callously targeted without any regard for human life. These attacks are nothing but counterproductive in the battle against terrorism.

But all that does not mean we can just sit with our arms crossed and become a part of the circus. We will continue protesting. U.S. drones will have to stop bombing my country's civilians and its spies will not get away with shooting my country's people. Faiz Ahmed Faiz says,

"Speak up, while your lips are free
Speak up, your tongue is still yours
Speak, for your strong body is your own
Speak, your soul is still yours
Look at the blacksmith's shop
Hot flames make the iron red hot
Opening the locks
Every chain opens up and begins to break
Speak, for this brief time is long enough
Before your body and words die
Speak, for the truth still prevails
Speak up, say what you must."