-Shafiul Islam ♪ শফিউল ইসলাম
[Dedicated to visionary Drs. Ahmed Sharif, Humayun Azad; S M Sultan and Nirmol Sen]
Naznin
Seamon (নাজনীন সীমন) is a
Bengali-American talented teacher, passionate poet, writer and social activist.
She was born in beautiful Bangladesh. Seamon works for the NYC Education
Department as a High School English teacher, and lives with her family in New
York since 1997. With a deep driving desire to learning, Seamon drives her
dreams to make a difference.
Naznin
Seamon has already published several books with a lengthy list of publications
and interviews. Through her writings, she paints the vivid pictures of
exploitations and crisis of our civilization. Seamon is the editor,
NYnews52.com, assistant editor, Shabdaguchha (shabdaguchha.com); and founder
& administrator, facebook NY Nirmul Committee forum.
Naznin Seamon :: নাজনীন সীমন
Enjoy the
excerpts from our interactions:
1. Shafiul
Islam SI: Greetings Naznin Seamon! We appreciate your contributions to ‘Vision
Creates Value’. Tell us about your birthplace and most memorable childhood
memoirs.
Naznin Seamon NS: Greetings! Thanks for
allowing me to share my ideas.
I was born in my maternal grandparents’ home in
Lohagora, Narail. It’s hard for me to choose the most memorable childhood
memory. Overall, it was wonderful yet challenging to some extent. One memory
from that vastness is:
I was 6/7 years old then. We, the children built a temporary Shaheed Minar
with bricks and clay in the evening in front of our apartment building in a
Govt. colony under the supervision of my uncle. We came inside to get the
flower adornments ready. As we went down right before midnight, to honor the
martyrs of the Language Movement, with astonishment, we discovered that it was
destroyed. Of course, we right away ran for bricks and made another one to meet
the 12:01
deadline, but we were heart-broken and our disappointment was limitless. Many
called us Hindus and said that we would be punished by Allah for worshipping
statues as we kept celebrating Mother Language Day, Victory Day. Not to
mention, we had to walk against the wind to remember and pay our tribute to 7th
March and Bangobondhu.
I mentioned this incident because it made me think and
helped me to shape my future act regarding our national identity and the
negative elements against our flag and freedom.
2. SI:
Looking back to your childhood memories, what do you miss most in your child’s
childhood today?
NS: I would definitely say, the open space and time
to play, greens to sooth our eyes, and fresh food are the top ones. There was a
balance in everything we did or had to do. Even though I spent my childhood in
the Port City, we were closer to nature. We made paper boats and floated them
in the rain water. We played different types of sports, got soaked in the heavy
rain, and ate all kinds of street food. We ran our cultural group under the
open sky where we learned music, dance, and poetry recital. We lay down on the
grass under the full moon and sky filled with stars. At times, we tried to stop
the moon from stalking us by running fast, but its shadow still lingered upon
us. I miss all the memories.
3. SI: Who
has inspired/influenced you most to unleashing your visionary journey? How?
NS: It will be unfair if I single out anyone. I
believe that we learn everyday from anyone and everyone if we want to or open
our doors to embrace newness. I don’t know if I started walking on the visionary
pathway; if I did, it’s the contribution of many people. For example, reading
Beauvoir, Rokeya, Azad, Nasrin helped me to see how deprived women are. When I
read Nazrul, Sukanto, M.N. Ray, ShibNarayan Ray etc., I was able to look at
life through a different lens. I saw Shamsur Rahman getting up from his seat
for everyone out of respect even when he was not physically ill. Humayun Azad,
Shahriar Kabir, and Shaheed Kaderi’s depth of knowledge, delivering the speech,
sense of humor amused me while I was astounded to see Dr. Azad and Mr. Kabir’s
boldness talking about the most conflicted, sensitive, and stern issues.
Knowing Dr. Mizan Rahman, I realized despite of a glorious life and vast
experience how humble someone can be. I also have met people who were
enlightened in different ways. For instance, my maternal grandfather used to
walk around the village to check people as he was a Homeopathic doctor. By
doing so, he came across people not having food for their lunch or dinner.
Coming home, he would take everything from the kitchen to give to those
families. Many times he gave his own portion of food as a beggar stood on the
door. I saw my mom spreading her hand to everyone regardless of their demand,
social class, religion, or nature. Many nights we saw her going out to attend
our neighbors’ calls for help, but she was not a highly educated person. From
one of my teachers I have learned how someone can devote entire life for the
sake of others. One of uncles never counted money when giving to a beggar or a
rickshaw puller, but just dig his pocket and whatever came, he gave to them
which was more than mysterious and interesting to me. To feel the pain of a
rickshaw puller and give him the feelings of a passenger, he let him sit on the
seat would pull the rickshaw himself.
The list is very long. There are numbers of people who
inspired me in different ways and the process hasn’t stopped. However, whatever
I am today is the direct influence of my best role model, my mother.
4. SI: What
do you teach? If education is for building a promising generation to building a
better tomorrow, are we achieving that goal? If not, do you suggest any change?
NS: I teach ESL and Foreign Language (Bengali) in a
Public High School. Through education, we are preparing the new generation for
the future which can contribute to not only a part of the world, but the world
as a whole. Unfortunately, we don’t see the role of family in a child’s life as
strongly as it was portrayed before. Love and education begins at home and that
is what many children lack in their lives. As a result, educators have to wear
many hats to provide all those roles simultaneously to a student.
Another aspect is that right now we are directing towards
a test driven culture. Everything we do is to make students ready to pass/do
well in test. True learning or learning for fun is gradually fading away;
therefore, it feels detached or missing the link.
Learning as stated above has to be directly tied to
self-interest as well as ability; otherwise, it will turn out to be
meaningless. At the same time, we need to make children responsible for their
own learning, which again must start from home. It’s like the proverb: “You can
lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” The subsequent part is
the key here. Students have to come with motivation and interest for learning;
otherwise, despite of all tools and strategies, learning will go down the
drain.
5. SI: Is
empathy missing in our education system to uplifting human harmony and sharing
peace and prosperity together?
NS: It is so. The answer is partially given in my
prior comment. Education has to reside in our heart. When it comes from our
heart it involves the humanitarian point of view that in other words prepares a
concerned citizen who can look outside of the box. As a result, we will have
citizens of the world, not a country. My observation is this young generation
turned to be too self-centered and self-locked in a box. They laugh their lungs
out seeing others suffer. Incidents distanced from their eyes leave no mark in
their thought process; forget about heart. Once again, primary education has to
come from a family, while many children do not even have a stable family or are
raised in violence being abused. There are many youngsters who become parents
before they finish high school. How can someone teach his/her little one when
he/she is lacking that skill/knowledge? So, here begins a huge gap. I feel
where we stand today is the ripple effect of all the missing links.
The education system is not only an institution, but I
see it holistically where our family, environment, neighbors, friends, media,
and so on are parts of it too. Right now, everything is business oriented where
we calculate gain or loss, but nothing else. Somehow we need to fit this quote
in our lives: “Always put yourself in other people’s shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts that
person too” and give it life by exercising it in our lives.
6. SI: We
see extreme economic inequality in our global village. Many people live on less
than a dollar a day. Poverty paints a bleak picture of our humanity. Less than
5% of the people control 95% of the world’s wealth today. Mahatma Gandhi said, 'Earth
provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed.' What
challenges do we face today as we weave our future together in our integrated
economy? How can we overcome them?
NS: Other than a very small segment of our human
civilization when
people hunted together, inequality has been persistent to spread its’
tenacious hand on us and we learned to endure it. There are social and economic
classes within society, then country, nation, and the world. Multiple
geo-political factors contribute to such contrast. Mahatma Gandhi had correctly
signified the problem; it’s none other than our greed. If we look at nature,
animals do preserve food to survive during the off season or terrible weather
conditions. However, they never cross the boundary like humans do. We need to
concentrate on the differences between necessity and greed; in other words what
I need vs. what I want. Unfortunately, the more civilization is progressing,
the more self-centered we are turning and becoming a materialistic society
overall where material goals and pursuing for wealth to meet those goals defeat
all other qualities and purposes.
Policy makers, economists, researchers can answer the
question better. My belief is that raising a generation with the true essence
of education can provide the world a new journey by redefining life. If we can
reinstall empathy within us, everything else will fall back to fit in that mold
of ideal. And, in this process we have many dreamers to guide us, inspire us to
the right path.
7. SI:
Bangladesh was founded on four principles: democracy, socialism, nationalism
and secularism. What do you think about the inclusion of Islamic religious
element in our constitution that undermines our common human harmony?
NS: I personally have been a strong critic about
it. Ours is one of the best Constitutions in the world that preserves the right
of every human being. Unfortunately, after the death of our Father of the
Nation, Bangobondhu, our Constitution was polluted in the hands of some
corrupted army people who came to power through the backdoor. Adding Islamic
elements to it creates religious bias and takes away the essence of secularism
from our Constitution. Religion and State must be separated for a country to
progress and have a humanitarian society. Besides, in Bangladesh different
religious groups have been living next to each other with harmony except for
the tension ignited by some political forces that use religion as a vehicle to
get vote. Conscious and progressive citizens of Bangladesh have been demanding
to go back to ‘72’s Constitution to restore the four principles. In a nutshell,
without the restoration of those 4 principles, Bangladesh cannot establish common
harmony as the violation of that element allows one group’s religious supremacy
over others along with giving the right to Islamic groups in politics. As a
matter of fact, right now in Shahbag, Dhaka people have united in a protest to
ban Jamat-E-Islam which is against secularism.
8. SI: We
appreciate your leadership with the Forum for Secular Bangladesh (Ghatok-Dalal
Nirmul Committee), NY Chapter. How do you see the ongoing war crime trials in
Bangladesh? Why this is important for furthering our creative vision, peace and
prosperity as we weave our future together in a multicultural society?
NS: The War Criminals are brought before justice
after 42 years for their heinous act in ’71. They savagely killed 3, 000, 000
people, raped or helped raping 2 million women, burnt down houses, and looted.
Even just 2 days prior to the end of this blood shaded liberation war, on Dec.
14th 1971, they followed their blue print to arrest and kill the
intellectuals of the about to be free country. Not only that they have not been
punished for their atrocities, they were rather given leverage and power by
President Major Zia, President Gen. Ershad, and later on intensively by Begum
Zia, the PM of Bangladesh. They committed crime against humanity and still are
slaughtering people in the name of religion. They don’t believe in the sovereignty
of Bangladesh; rather they want to turn Bangladesh to Pakistan or Afghanistan.
On top of that they are a fundamental and terrorist organization. They have
zero tolerance for other religious groups and progressive people; therefore,
the non Muslim world. Interestingly enough, Islamic rules are not reflected in
their practice of violence and terrorism. Instead, they practice deceptiveness
and attempt to sway the young generation with great success by creating a
religious illusion.
If we can’t punish the War Criminals (Capital
Punishment) and ban Jamat E Islam, we can’t stand up as human beings. We have a
debt to our martyrs, heroes of our nation. Since the War Criminals are
anti-humanity and anti-peace, it is not possible to progress further with a
creative vision, dreams of peace and prosperity in a multicultural society
without making sure that they are punished accordingly.
9. SI: Tell
us about your passion that drives you to make a difference. Any advice to the young
generation who dares to dream to change the world?
NS: I am not sure if I am even close to make a
difference. However, there are some principles I try to maintain in my life.
First and foremost, we have to love and respect ourselves; then we can spread
it as these are contagious fundamentals of life. Next come dedication,
commitment, and dignity. However, passion is the golden key for everything.
Whatever we do, it has to relate to our hearts and we must practice altruism.
Neither everyone is capable of going to Harvard or
Oxford, nor is it needed. The key is to be happy with whatever we have and
spread that happiness amongst others.
10. SI: Thank
you Seamon for valuable time today. We wish the very best of your visionary
journey.
NS: Thank
you! I wish ‘Vision Creates Value’ gets success
by taking a role to move us forward. It already has set a tone of empathy,
passion, and vision. It’s always a pleasure to look at the contribution of
others. It’s an honor to be a part of this community.
Selected Books:
Poetry:
- Adigonto Bistirnoter Dhaley (আদিগন্ত বিস্তীর্ণতার ঢালে), Shabdaguchha Press, Dhaka-New York, 2000; 2nd
edition: 2004.
- Ekti Biral O Amar Dhukho (একটি বিড়াল ও আমার দুঃখ), Shabdaguchha Press, Dhaka-New York, 2011.
Short Story:
- Prototo Roktakto Chitker (প্রতত রক্তাক্ত চিৎকার), Ananya
Prokashoni, Dhaka, 2007.
Recognition/Awards:
- Shabdaguchha Award in Postmodern Poetry, 2007.
- Secretary, the Forum for Secular Bangladesh, NY
Chapter, 2010-Present.
- Founder & Administrator, Facebook NY Nirmul Committee Forum.
Selected Featured Insights:
