Bush’s equivocation

“HELP” to Pakistan’s sovereignty was all that President George Bush could promise when he met President Asif Ali Zardari at the Waldorf Astoria in New York on Tuesday. Missing altogether at his first-ever meeting with President Zardari was a categorical commitment to avoid violating Pakistan’s territorial integrity. The key sentence uttered by him carefully avoided the word ‘sovereignty’. It was left to Information Minister Sherry Rehman to cheer us up by claiming that the American president had assured his interlocutor that he respected Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Noting that President Zardari’s words “have been very strong about Pakistan’s sovereign right and sovereign duty to protect” his country, he said “the United States wants to help”. Period. Shorn of diplomatese, his remarks convey one obvious message to Pakistan: America makes no promise that attacks on Fata of the kind seen recently at Angoor Adda and elsewhere will not be repeated. He did say, however, that Pakistan was an ally, and that “we’ll be talking about security”. He also looked forward to “deepening our relationship”.

Some hopeful material was available in these Bush remarks, for he seemed to be conscious of the need for focussing on the economic aspects of their bilateral relationship when he spoke of “prosperity” repeatedly and said America’s “friends around the world” needed a better life. Coming at a time when Pakistan’s economy is in a mess, with little or no possibility of a surge in the near future, these words are perhaps the only source of solace for President Zardari. Even this bit of comfort must be overshadowed by the realisation that President Bush has only a few weeks left in the White House, and the next incumbent would have his own set of priorities.

Hit by the volatility shown by oil prices, Pakistan has to fight an economic battle in which the removal of subsidies has served to pauperise a people already squeezed by food inflation and tormented by rising electricity rates. What the PPP-led government needs desperately is a massive economic bailout, and one hopes that the Friends of Pakistan group, to be inaugurated by President Zardari in New York tomorrow, will be able to come up with measures not only to help this country overcome the current crisis but also to draw up a strategy for long-term financial assistance. The group includes, besides G-7, such friends as China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The meeting will be followed by a separate US-Pakistan strategic dialogue focussing on the economy. The friends are there. But the big issue is how we are able to set our own house in order and utilise foreign assistance in a manner that enables us to stand on our own feet. Unknown to many, Fata had quite a few industries. They fell victim to the war, robbing the tribesmen of yet another source of livelihood, thus aggravating economic woes and fuelling militancy.

Mired in graft

CORRUPTION along with profligate defence spending, backward capitalism and a feudal system that breeds cyclical poverty has hampered development in Pakistan as long as anyone can remember. We seem to be degenerating instead of evolving, and nothing will improve until the law is applied equally to all and unless those in leadership roles develop a moral conscience. People connected to the civilian and military establishments have pillaged this country and lined their pockets almost from day one, to the huge detriment of everyone except themselves. Highlighting “the fatal link between poverty, failed institutions and graft”, Transparency International reminded us on Tuesday of the inverse relationship between corruption and economic growth: in developing countries, the more there is of the first the direr will be the lot of the majority.

This is hardly rocket science. When a cash-strapped country’s resources are pocketed by corrupt officials, the social sectors suffer grievously. Education and healthcare go into decline, development projects are put on hold or shoddily executed, and basic needs like affordable housing and clean drinking water come to be denied to an increasing number of citizens. Besides fattening the bank accounts of the powerful, such misuse of authority keeps the masses in poverty and servitude, allowing for cheap labour in factories and generations of enslaved peasants tilling the fields of feudal lords. As for an oversight mechanism, we have the National Accountability Bureau, a remarkable organisation whose résumé includes blackmail and political victimisation. Little wonder then that TI ranks Pakistan as the 46th most corrupt country in the world, a distinction we share with the likes of the Comoros islands.

Graft is bad for business too, at least in terms of foreign investment. A maze of official bureaucracy where backhanders are expected at every turn tends to deter investors interested in the long haul. It invites, instead, fly-by-night operators looking to make a quick buck. Even if ‘respectable’ investors come to the fore, the bribes they must pay are naturally included in overheads and as such the products they produce cost local consumers more than they should. In Pakistan’s case, corruption imperils democracy as well, for that is the charge that military rulers and autocratic presidents lay against politicians. Disillusioned with the system and the perceived hedonism of elected officials, many in the public start espousing the ‘merits’ of military rule. Ultimately, some also become pawns in the hands of militants and religio-political parties that wish to herd us to an even more malignant medieval age. We must mend our ways, now.

Hands off Makli

THE controversy emanating from the historical Makli graveyard in Thatta is outrageous and sad in equal measure. On either side of the fence are politicians playing the blame game, with one party accusing the other of vandalising historical graves and the other insisting it has done nothing wrong by the dead or the alive. Since the Sindh minister for culture and tourism, Ms Sassui Palijo, is directly linked with the controversy — her father is accused of vandalism — at a time when she happens to be the custodian of the historical site by virtue of her portfolio, it is only fair that her ministry come forth and explain the matter. By extension, the Sindh government, too, must be called upon to investigate the allegations of vandalism without prejudice to either side. Once the truth is ascertained, the guilty should be brought to book without any political allowances being made.

The Makli necropolis is one of the few national heritage sites which also happen to be on Unesco’s World Heritage list. The tombs built there of carved sandstone and belonging to Sindh’s medieval ruling dynasties deserve better upkeep and vigilance, both of which have been found woefully lacking on the part of the authorities concerned. An ordinary citizen is stopped from indulging in harmless activity at the site, such as taking photographs, while the influential and the mighty have tombstones taken from the graveyard to adorn their living rooms and landscaped gardens. That this cannot be done without someone responsible for the monuments’ security looking the other way is clear. In the case of Makli, not only should the dead be left alone in their final resting places, without being disturbed by the digging of water channels across their graves, their tombstones, too, should be left alone to stand as silent sentinels of the much wronged and vandalised land of Sindh.

A harvest stained with blood

By Feryal Ali Gauhar

IT is early. A light drizzle dampens the still smouldering ashes from which dark clouds arose the night before, obliterating the evening sky, obscuring the horizon of Islamabad the Beautiful. Some 12 hours after the inferno which took more than 50 lives, rescue workers sift through tons of mangled steel and charred wood.

The hopelessly disfigured bodies of those who could not get away were removed the night before. But a search is still on for those who may have survived the terrifying flames which engulfed the Marriott Hotel, just a stone’s throw away from the Parliament House, the Prime Minister’s House, the Presidency, the Federal Sharia Court, the Secretariat, the Foreign Office, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation, Pakistan Television, the National Library, The National Art Gallery, the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, the Supreme Court, the Federal Bureau of Revenue, and numerous foreign missions.

Except for the recently appointed Czech ambassador, no ‘dignitaries’ died in this terrorist attack. The bodies of the injured and the dead were the bodies of ordinary citizens, some wealthy enough to afford a five-star end to the day long fast marking the month of Ramazan. Many of the dead were there to earn a living, to support large families living in small, unknown settlements and hamlets dotting the map of this, my beloved, beleaguered country.

These are the bodies of the unsung, the guards at the entrance gate of the Marriott Hotel who tried their best to extinguish the fire which the suicide bomber had set off by detonating a grenade or perhaps the explosives strapped to his chest.

These are the bodies of the handsome, liveried men, tall and dignified, who stood at attention besides the main door of the hotel, welcoming all guests, holding the door open to visitors, standing on their feet for 12 hours a shift in order to feed families living on the edge in some neglected neighbourhood.

These were the bodies of the women who cleaned the rooms occupied by those who could afford to spend more than a worker’s monthly salary on one night’s comfort. These were the waiters and the chambermaids and the drivers who sat outside in the luxury vehicles of those who had come to feast at iftar, a time when Muslim men and women are to recognise hunger, to acknowledge the gnawing of the gut, to express gratitude for the meal before them, however humble it may be.

But the meal that was served in the lawns of the Prime Minister House the same evening was not humble in the least. For many who partook of it, the message may have been lost entirely, reducing the ritual of fasting to just that.

For many who lost their lives at the Marriott, the evening meal was yet to come; in a corner of the kitchen, they were more concerned about the appetites of the guests. And that seems to have been the primary concern at the Prime Minister House dinner as well. Apparently, it was only after guests were fed and seen off that the political leadership made itself present at the site of devastation.

It is distressing that a national security official actually admitted this at a press conference the next day. The entire cabinet, the military’s top brass, the prime minister himself, the newly elected president, almost all members of parliament, the chief ministers of the four provinces, the president and prime minister of Azad Kashmir and other guests who were present at the dinner heard the blast at 7:49 pm and continued to enjoy their meal, and only after ushering out the last guest did the said official leave for the hospital where the injured and the dead had been transferred.

It appears that for these VIPs finishing dinner was of paramount importance in an emergency. Declaring that no VIP died in the inferno due to the “president’s prescient vision” was as tasteless as it was heartless, as if the deaths of those who expect to be led by competent and sincere leaders is inconsequential.

The greatest irony of all is that the young men who are willing to be recruited into the ranks of countless suicide bombers blow themselves up for the mere fact that perhaps that is a death preferable to the one brought on by hunger.

In a country where hunger has mounted, where the granary of the land of five rivers does not yield enough to feed its citizens, where the water in its rivers has been replaced by effluents, where able-bodied men and women seek meaningful work in vain, trudging the streets on empty stomachs, there cannot be a deadlier harvest than the one we are now reaping.

Decades after we were allied to the United States in its hegemonic struggle against the Soviet “infidel”, we are still harvesting the fruit of that war. The difference this time is that the graves being dug are for our own people, caught between the greatest contradictions of an unjust world, that of hunger stalking a land of plenty. Certainly the harvest this autumn is one stained with blood, surely those we bury next to the gnarled roots which clutch this earth shall remind us that we are the enemy of those we do not know, and those we do not know are amongst us, ploughing our land, ripping up the soil which barely conceals the scars of our lost kingdom.

The writer is the author of No Space for Further Burials.

Green lifestyle

By David Adam

PEOPLE who believe they have the greenest lifestyles can be seen as some of the main culprits behind global warming, says a team of researchers, who claim that many ideas about sustainable living are a myth.

According to the researchers, people who regularly recycle rubbish and save energy at home are also the most likely to take frequent long-haul flights abroad. The carbon emissions from such flights can swamp the green savings made at home, the researchers claim.

Stewart Barr, of Exeter University, England, who led the research, said: “green living is largely something of a myth. There is this middle class environmentalism where being green is part of the desired image.

But another part of the desired image is to fly off skiing twice a year. And the carbon savings they make by not driving their kids to school will be obliterated by the pollution from their flights.”

Some people even said they deserved such flights as a reward for their green efforts, he added.

Only a very small number of citizens matched their eco-friendly behaviour at home by refusing to fly abroad, Barr told a climate change conference at Exeter University Tuesday.

The research team questioned 200 people on their environmental attitudes and split them into three groups, based on a commitment to green living.

They found the longest and the most frequent flights were taken by those who were most aware of environmental issues, including the threat posed by climate change.

Questioned on their heavy use of flying, one respondent said: “I recycle 100 per cent of what I can, there’s not one piece of paper goes in my bin, so that makes me feel less guilty about flying as much as I do.”

Barr said “green” lifestyles at home and frequent flying were linked to income, with wealthier people more likely to be engaged in both activities.

He said: “The findings indicate that even those people who appear to be very committed to environmental action find it difficult to transfer these behaviours into more problematic contexts.”

The team says the research is one of the first attempts to analyse how green intentions alter depending on context. It says the results reveal the scale of the challenge faced by policymakers who are trying to alter public behaviour to help tackle global warming.

The study concludes: “The notion that we can treat what we do in the home differently from what we do on holiday denies the existence of clearly related and complex lifestyle choices and practices.

Yet even a focus on lifestyle groups who may be most likely to change their views will require both time and political will. The addiction to cheap flights and holidays will be very difficult to break.”

The frequent flyers said they expected new technology to make aviation greener, echoing comments made by Tony Blair last year, who said it was “impractical” to expect people to take holidays closer to home. He said the solution was “to look at how you make air travel more energy-efficient, how you develop the new fuels that will allow us to burn less energy and emit less.”

— The Guardian, London


THOUGH we keep calling for the right of repatriation for Palestinian refugees, Arabs and Muslims seem to forget that many of these refugees are living miserably in their camps in neighbouring countries, as well as in the Palestinian territories. Apparently this is because of the simmering conflict between the two Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, which has recently resulted in the death of 11 persons, nine of whom were from a single Fatah family.…

Though Egypt has been sparing no effort to reconcile the fighting factions, two caravans of aid were recently stopped on their way to … Gaza. The purpose of the caravans was to break the siege of Gaza. However the caravans were stopped by security officials in Sinai, though the blockade of Gaza was last month busted by a foreign ship. Before continuing to advocate the Palestinians’ right of return to the homeland, we must espouse their right to survive. — (Sept 21)


TZIPI Livni’s victory over Shaul Mofaz in the race to become Kadima’s leader seems narrow because it did not match the pollsters’ forecasts…. If there is a moment when a person can achieve fame or infamy, it is when that person loses an election with dignity. Mofaz did this when he quickly accepted the outcome. Since Mofaz decided not to appeal the results and took “time-out” to consider his next steps, he should not appeal the election’s legitimacy….

The way Livni tries to form a government will be the first test of her leadership. Being clean means more than not accepting envelopes filled with money. Livni has to prove that in contrast to her predecessor, she chooses [people] best suited to the job to be her cabinet ministers…. The selection of Amir Peretz as defence minister because he wanted a job for which he was unsuited.

If Livni wants to lead and not to be led, she must build a government that reflects her agenda. — (Sept 19)

__________________
Regards,
P.R.