Reading Matters, Even If It's Only One Book

A lovely photo of a boy reading a hefty tome in a bookstore in Afghanistan grabbed my attention recently on social media, and without thinking I typed my comment: "He is reading the Koran." Someone promptly responded saying that my remark was hateful, and that it did not matter what the book was as long as the boy was reading. I can see why someone could consider the comment mean, but it was not meant to be. The picture of the Aghan boy reminded me of a visit to the Darul Quran Madrasa Azmatia in Kolkata, India, more than 15 years ago.

About 150 boys were attending classes at the madrasa attached to Kolkata's largest mosque. When I saw the students during the break they seemed reticent and looked at me as I imagine they would look at a Martian. But within minutes their natural curiosity and friendliness won over, and some of them were even ready to make silly poses for the camera.  

The imam told me through an interpreter that poor families from all over India sent their boys to the madrasa. Their tuition, board and lodging was paid by the charity. The school was more than 100 years old and the number of students was growing.

"Two reasons," Imam Qari Fazlur said, "one is the population growth and the other: people are bending toward religion. People like to see that their children learn the Koran and the Koranic teachings and the practices followed by the Prophet Mohammed."

But there were other reasons, I learned. India's constitution guarantees children's education in their mother tongue, but speakers of minority languages, such as Urdu and Bengali, often complain that the official language Hindi, spoken by the Hindu majority, is enforced in schools throughout the country. So when possible, speakers of other languages send their children to private schools.  But the vast majority of Muslims in India are poor and instead of sending their children to any school, they are sending them to work. Some families who cannot feed their offspring feel lucky if at least one child is accepted at a madrasa where it will get a clean bed, food, clothes and education free of charge. 

The education at a madrasa consists largely of learning to read and recite the Koran.  By the time they finish school, most boys know the holy book by heart.  There is nothing wrong with that.  The problem is that they learn little else and once out of the madrasa, these young men are not prepared for gainful employment, and the cycle of poverty continues.  

More than 120 million people aged 15 to 24 in the world cannot read or write. Close to a half of them live in only nine countries: India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Egypt and Burkina Faso. Poor education is linked to poverty in these countries, regardless of religion.

So, as my angry commenter remarked, it is important to read, or to be precise: to be able to read. With a literacy rate of 28 percent, Afghanistan is the second most illiterate country in the world after South Sudan. Therefore, the picture of the barefoot Afghan boy in a library, engrossed in a book, is heartening. What is disheartening is learning - as I have at a Library of Congress event - that bookstores are disappearing from the neighboring Pakistan. The only "reading" available to ordinary citizens are tape-recorded sermons by local imams, sold outside the mosques. One can only hope that Afghanistan has many bookstores like the one in the charming photo with a young reader.

Zoroastrianism: First Monotheistic Religion?

As Jews observe their Festival of Lights, or Channukah, and Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, members of an ancient faith that inspired other monotheistic religions will hardly be mentioned.  Still, traditionally in December, Zoroastrians meet for regional or international celebrations of their culture and tradition.  

Zoroastrian Symbol, Temple of Yazd, Central Iran

The opening bars of Richard Strauss’ composition Thus Spoke Zarathustra became famous as the theme for Stanle Kubrick’s 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. But apart from academics and some 300,000 believers, few people know much about ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra and his teaching. 

“Yet only one thousand years ago, millions, millions espoused Zarathustra’s monotheistic percepts in nations which stretched from the ancient Chinese city of Sian in western China to the eastern China across central Asia, northern India, Iran, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia up Greece in the west and Arabia, north Africa and Ethiopia in the south” said Adi Davar, a board member of the World Zoroastrian Organization in 2003. He was addressing an international audience at the seminar titled Zarathustra's Contributions to Humanity at the Library of Congress in Washington. 

Zarathustra, or Zoroaster in Greek, taught that the world and everything in it was created by a Wise Lord, or Ahura Mazda. Before him, Persians believed in multiple deities, as did most nomadic tribes at the time.

Stanley Isler, chairman of Iranian studies at Yale University, said Zarathustra was very impressed with nature and its ability for cyclical renewal. He believed repetition was the basis of knowledge, and that people could learn everything from nature. 
 
“Surely, only a being of great power and wisdom was capable of fashioning the element of the cosmos and equally capable of creating the principles of truth that maintain their eternal design and rhythms,” said Isler.

Creator Ahura Mazda is symbolized by light and fire, nature’s sources of life and energy. That is why Zoroastrians usually pray before a source of light, and an urn containing fire is a prominent feature of their place of worship. The good and wise lord Ahura Mazda is opposed by dark forces of evil. Zoroastrians believe that truth is the source of all good and must be pursued in order to fight deceit, the source of evil. Since humans are created by a wise lord, they have an innate ability to discern good from evil. Zarathustra preaches three basic virtues: good thoughts, good words and good deeds. He says: "Happiness unto him who gives happiness unto others.” Thus Zoroastrians value education and philanthropy. Lying, or deceit, represents a violation of basic Zoroastrian beliefs. 

 Zoroastrian ritual in Mumbai, India

Cleanliness of the body as well as of the spirit is also very important. Dead and decaying bodies are considered extremely impure and so they must not contaminate water, air or earth, which are sources of life. Traditionally, Zoroastrians do not bury or burn dead bodies or throw them into water, but expose them to vultures. However, there is less emphasis on religious rites than there is on lifestyle choices. Marriage is a lifelong commitment, often postponed for the sake of education. Inter-faith marriages and conversions have long been avoided, contributing to the decline in population. The conquest of Persia and spread of Islam, which started in the 7th century, dealt the first serious blow to Zoroastrians. 

No one knows exactly when Zarathustra lived, but his origins are traditionally placed in the 6th century B.C. in the area of what is today north-eastern Iran. This would make him a contemporary of the Persians kings Cyrus or Darius. Many scholars think he lived earlier than that.

Jehan Bagli, president of the North American Zoroastrian Council, said Zarathustra’s teachings were already widespread by that time.

“Nowhere in these records do we find the mention of prophet Zarathustra. If the prophet was born 569 BCE and lived, as we know from the tradition a little over 77 years, he would be contemporary with Darius the Great," said Bagli. "It is inconceivable that the founder of the first monotheistic faith, who lived during the same time as these renowned monarchs, whose religion was spread across their vast empire and who was a mentor of the father of Darius, be so trivially overlooked. These circumstances certainly invalidate this traditional date."

Scholars say that historic records of Zarathustra’s life may have been destroyed during two major invasions of Persia: one by Alexander the Great in 4th century B.C. and the other by Islamic tribes in the 7th century A.D. On both occasions fire temples and religious texts were burnt and many priests killed.

But there is evidence that the Avesta, the Zoroastrian equivalent of the Bible, contains Zarathustra’s original thoughts.  Isler believes that the prophet’s hymns to God, or “gathas,” reveal much about his life and time. 

“He tells us that he was a priest and a master of sacred words, a manthran – someone who has power over the mantras, a word that’s familiar to many. Yet, Zarathustra goes on to say he was rejected from his tribe and his community and driven from his land, forcing him to wander far and wide under great hardship and despair until finally he was accepted by a noble prince named Vishtaspa who became his patron and ally.” 

Isler noted that the hymns also explain why the prophet’s own tribe exiled him. It was not only because he preached monotheism, according to Isler.

“He bitterly complains that evil rulers attacked just and innocent people, that the rich robbed the poor, that judges produced false decisions in order to aid their benefactors. And Zarathustra goes on to say that fury and violence terrorized the peoples on all fronts and that everywhere deceit and deception seemed to hold the upper hand.”

The Zoroastrian holy book also contains prayers, rules of law and rituals. Until the 9th century A.D., the Avesta was probably transmitted orally and modified along the way.  Isler said this makes it hard to discern truth from myth about the prophet. 

The 10th century persecution of Zoroastrians in Persia forced many either to convert or seek another place to live. A significant group settled in north-western India where they became known as Parsis, meaning Persians. 

For a while, Parsis were growing in number and power. The city of Bombay became the center of Zoroastrianism, somewhat like Rome in the Catholic Church. But in the second half of the 20th century, the population of the Parsi-Zoroastrians fell by one third, from a peak of 114,000 in 1941 to 76,000 in 1991. In recent decades, Zoroastrians worldwide began forming local and international organizations and events to help fight their extinction. Davar helped form one of these in 1980.

“The World Zoroastrian Organization is an international organization of the global community of some 300-thousand Zoroastrians. Some 40-thousand of them live in North America and about a thousand in this (Washington) metropolitan area,” said Davar
 
 Zoroastrian organizations prevailed upon UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to proclaim the year 2003 as the 3000th Anniversary of Zoroastrianism. Since then, more attention is being paid to young people who may be able to pass on their religion and culture to following generations.  The Zoroastrian Association of California is hosting the North American Zoroastrian Congress December 29-31 this year. 

Conversion, once rejected by the Zoroastrian faith, is now believed to be legitimate and indeed necessary by some adherents, who also approve marriage with members of other faiths.  A campaign urging Parsis in Mumbai, India to get married earlier and make more babies has raised eyebrows, as well as awareness that with birth-to-death ratio of 1 to 4, the community of 40,000 is dwindling.  

Scholars have acknowledged the contribution of the ancient Persian faith to the world’s religions. Zoroastrians say their prophet’s teachings are just as relevant as any religion today because deceit, violence and oppression are as prevalent as they were thousands of years ago. 

Natural Disasters and Poverty

More than 450 people were killed in Pakistan and India in recent floods and landslides caused by monsoon rains. Anger is rising against governments in both countries for failing to prepare for the disasters. When natural calamities such as droughts, floods or earthquakes strike, the poor populations usually suffer the most.  Sometimes it is because they live closest to the unsafe areas, but tolls are often higher than they need to be because no measures are in place to keep people safe. 

Villager in India Rescued by Soldiers

According to the World Bank, during the 1990’s about 80-thousand people died each year in natural calamities. On average, 51 people died per natural disaster in developed countries, compared to 589 deaths per natural disaster in the developing world.

“It’s certainly true that it’s not only the poor countries that are most hardly hit by natural disasters, but it’s the poor people within the countries that bear the brunt of the impact,” said Mark Pelling, professor of geography at King’s College of the University of London and author of the book The Vulnerability of Cities: Natural Disasters and Social Resilience. He said the poor are especially vulnerable to natural hazards because of their inadequate housing, fragile health and lack of back-up resources in case of emergencies.  Pelling said this was evident, for example, during the heavy rains in Venezuela in 1999.

“There was a huge land slide along the coast, and Caracas was badly hit by this following rain fall. And those people who lost their lives and lost their home were the informal dwellers in the city who were living on the hill slopes," said Pelling. "There were also some middle and high-income groups living on hill slopes, but their properties were properly designed to a higher standard at least and that meant there was less of an impact.”
 
Developed countries also are better prepared for natural disasters than poor countries. The attractive West Coast of the United States is prone to earthquakes, tsunamis, forest fires and even volcano eruptions. But that does not keep wealthy people from living there.
“Earthquakes are monitored generally by federal agencies like the US Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and that information is centralized and processed and provided to agencies like mine,” said Jim Goltz, a planner at the earthquake and tsunami program of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services in Pasadena.  His office helps smaller local governments prepare people for disasters.

California has well established warning systems, and Goltz said they are not all that costly. But natural disasters are not always predictable, and it is important to know how to respond when they happen.

“More important than warning systems is having a population that’s aware of the risk of tsunamis, understands that when you feel an earthquake in a coastal area, it could be followed by a tsunami and that people should turn on radios and television and be aware of warnings that might be issued in connection with this,” said Goltz.
 
In addition, California has strict building laws.  "Overall," said Goltz, "it is cheaper to prepare for disasters than recover from them and wealthy countries could help the poor develop such programs."

But analysts note that international aid agencies are often more willing to send large aid after disasters strike than much smaller aid to help prevent huge losses.  Pelling said there are many reasons for that, some very prosaic.

“It makes very good press and very high visibility for governments to invest or spend money in humanitarian relief. It’s much less visible and you get much less political kudos for spending money over the long term in a very low-visibility way; in perhaps strengthening livelihoods, or improving governance, or improving the physical structures in planning of a city.” 

The problem with humanitarian aid is that it helps in emergencies. It removes people from the immediate hazard, saves lives and provides food and shelters. But it does not improve the quality of life in the long run and can make populations even more vulnerable once the emergency is over.

“There’s certainly no lack of practical knowledge on the ground," said Pelling. "There is thirty years of academic argument that suggests that poverty alleviation and disaster-risk reduction will pay out in the end, and it’s political will that’s lacking at the moment.”

Ian Vasquez, director of the Cato Institute's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity in Washington, said economic growth is the best protection from natural disasters.

“It’s only through the sustained economic growth that poor people can be pulled out of the precarious living conditions that they experience and that can mean a matter of life and death even over the short term of ten years.”

But as poverty worsens the impact of natural disasters or disease outbreaks so do these disasters worsen poverty. Countries that have been hit by the Ebola virus this year, for example, will suffer economic losses because of the extra health care costs as well as a loss of work power.  Drought and flood in poor countries may result in famine.

Experts say that disaster risk management should be a key component of poverty reduction efforts. Development goals must include dealing with natural disasters, which are among major causes of poverty.