By Badri RainaThink how a moment’s swipe of hail
Turns a season’s yield to naught;
So does a word of mean intent
Drill a hole in a steadfast heart.
What use an edifice of success,
With zero at the centre,
That tramples frolicking burgeonings
Into a perpetual winter
Laced with icicles of hate,
And envy’s tortured lack;
Better a glimmer of empathy
Replete as almanac.
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Badri Raina is a well-known commentator on politics, culture and society. His columns on the Znet have a global following. Raina taught English literature at the University of Delhi for over four decades and is the author of the much acclaimed Dickens and the Dialectic of Growth. He has several collections of poems and translations. His writings have appeared in nearly all major English dailies and journals in India.
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What do you stand for?
Dear Z Community,
This August, during Z’s fundraising drive, we are asking you to take action with us. It’s time to get up and stand up, not just in opposition to all the horrors unfolding around us, but to stand up FOR something in unity and strength.
To provide a forum and tools for diverse activists to propose, not just oppose, has been Z’s mission for nearly 50 years. If you agree that now more than ever we urgently need to build collective power and strategically pursue pro-social change – then the ZCommunity is your community. And we have an action path for you!
CLICK TO READ THE 4-STEP ACTION PATH IN FULL
Step 1: Build & support communal infrastructure.
Step 2: Go beyond critique – vision & strategy.
Step 3: Do what you can, where you are, in your own way.
Step 4: Share, reflect, improve, enjoy, and repeat.
It’s up to each of us NOW to take care of each other, of our alternative, liberatory, and compassionate systems and infrastructure, and to share this hopeful practice as an antidote to the death-cults of capital and fascism.
You are an essential part of an incredible community, traveling together towards a worthy vision for better.
In solidarity,
The ZStaff
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