January 14

Second verse and chorus of “Father”

Moms got tired of the beatings said, “Yo, we got to go”
Packed up her bags we bounced out the do’
She said, “I ain’t takin these whippin’s no mo’
I wanna live to see my little Todd grow”
I remember tear drops on my pops face
Lookin down at me standin on the staircase
Handsome brother with a smooth goatee
Makes me wonder why he act so ugly, you feelin me? (I’m feelin you)

[Chorus: LL Cool J and singers]

(all I ever wanted) All I ever wanted
(all I ever needed) All I ever needed
(was a father) was a father
(that’s all) That’s all!
(all I ever wanted) All I ever wanted
(all I ever needed) All I ever needed…
was a father

LL Cool Jay performs "Father" live

Read the poem "Wicked Blasphemy" by Khaleda Froagh
https://afghanmagazine.com/post/186316500649/the-dark-blasphemy

About Khaleda Frough خالده فروغ

Here is Khaleda Frough in her own words from her book The Fate of the Hands of the Generation of the Light.

I was born in Kabul on January 14, 1973. Since my birth, my ears have never been empty of poems because my mother enjoyed poetry and sometimes wrote her verses.

In the beginning, I borrowed from my mother’s library the Koran, Hafiz’s collection of poems, Saadi’s Golestan, and the sonnets of Bedil. My father had a generous character. I loved him. When I was in elementary school, in my adolescent mind, no one was stronger than my father, he was a champion, and no one could defeat him.

I graduated from Lycee Mariam. I graduated from the school of literature from Kabul University. In 1994 I produced Dari programs at Radio Television Kabul. Now I’m a managing director of Sadaf, a seasonal woman’s journal.

Visit Khaleda Froagh's Facebook page (in Dari/Farsi) here

Khaleda Froagh's Wikipedia page (Dari/Farsi)
https://fa.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/خالده_فروغ

Khaleda Forough (born 1351 in Kabul) is an Afghan poet, professor at the Faculty of Language and Literature of Kabul University and a member of the Afghan Pen Association. [1] [2]

Forough is one of the most important contemporary female poets in Afghanistan. Critics such as Mohammad Kazem Kazemi and Mahboubeh Ebrahimi believe that she shows a masculine point of view in her poetry, and the influence of contemporary poetry masters, especially "Wasef Bakhtari" can be seen in her poems. [3] [4] The ghazal style is one of the characteristics of Forough's poetry. [5] But Forough rejects the duality of feminine and masculine poetry and believes that the poet's gender has no effect on poetic feelings and emotions. [6]

One of Khaleda Froagh's poems

کوچه ها خالی‌ستند و انتظار آشفته است
مغز ساعت سکته کرده روزگار آشفته است
شعرهایش زرد و خاکی می‌رسند و سبز نه
سال، سالِ مردن و ذهن بهار آشفته است
بادهای ناموافق ناموافق می‌وزند
رنگ و روی برگ‌ها رفته و سار آشفته است
«چون بسی ابلیس آدم روی» طوفش می‌زدند
کعبه خود را بسته است و بی‌شمار آشفته است
تا خبر را خوانده که فردا قیامت می‌شود
خاک، نبضش می زند، خواب مزار آشفته است
دست کی وضعیت قلب مرا برهم زده؟
که زمینم که زمینم، در مدار آشفته است
ماهِ من لبریز تنهایی، نگاه تو کجاست؟
این پیاله، این منِ شب‌زنده‌دار آشفته است
تو نمی‌آیی که خورشیدی شود تقویم من
بی‌قرارم، بی‌قرار، این بی‌قرار آشفته است

|| خالده فروغ ||

Read excerpts of China To Me by Emily Hahn at Google Books

Read Emily Hahn's New York Times obituary

Read a list of Emily Hahn's articles for the New Yorker magazine

Read a list of Emily Hahn's books here

Read about Albert Schweitzer here and here

Read an alternative viewpoint on Albert Schweitzer at the
African Insights blog

I came across a book entitled The Africa of Albert Schweitzer, written in 1948 by Charles Joy and Melvin Arnold. As I read it, my former childhood hero crumbled from his pedestal into mere dust when I realized that this great man, this humanitarian who believed in the reverence for life, held the African in low esteem. He lived in Africa, but unlike the one in whose name he came, he did not dwell or live amongst them. He lived in his own world, surrounded by likeminded, segregated from the African; the hospitals had wards and living quarters for Europeans and for Africans, separate dining halls, separated lives, living geographically near but poles apart.

Read online the book On the Edge of the Primeval Forest, Schweitzer's memoir of his medical missionary work in Gabon, here