Colossal task
Monday, 06 Jul, 2009
AMERICA’S first special representative to Muslim communities has a singular job on her hands. Farah Pandith says her primary responsibility is to “know the next generation of [Muslim] thinkers.” She will, apparently, also be doing a lot of “listening” while focusing on creativity, respect and nuance. This brief is as vague and all-encompassing as Ms Pandith’s job title, as well as her debut public statement in which she eschewed specifics and made no mention of Kashmir or Palestine. True, engaging in dialogue, listening to diverse viewpoints and respecting cultural nuances are key first steps on the long road to mutual respect and conflict resolution. But the journey cannot and must not end with an image-building exercise. Words alone cannot undo the damage done by the follies and atrocities of the Bush era and the misguided policies of those who preceded him in the White House.
On the US domestic front, there are now grumblings even among some supporters that President Obama seems to be big on ideas and short on performance. Hopefully his new strategy of “reaching out” to the Muslim world will go beyond the conceptual and strive to bring about meaningful change on the ground. The task at hand is no doubt colossal. Anti-American sentiment may have reached fever pitch in the 21st century but the resentment felt by Muslims predates Mr Bush’s tenure by many decades. America’s unqualified military, economic and moral support for Israel despite the latter’s brutal treatment of Palestinians and illegal occupation of their lands is the primary reason why so many Muslims see the US with a jaundiced eye. Then there is Washington’s failure to take a principled stand on the freedom struggle in Kashmir and the reign of terror unleashed there in the shape of murder and rape by Indian forces. But the list doesn’t end there.
Washington’s support for dictators and monarchs in the Muslim world, who were and continue to be unanswerable to the people, has not gone unnoticed. The US lent staunch support to the Shah of Iran, a man who was out of touch with the reality of his country, cared only for self-aggrandisement and unleashed a reign of terror on dissidents. Authoritarians in Egypt have consistently enjoyed American backing. In Pakistan, the US has put its money and weight behind military dictators — from Ayub and Zia to Musharraf — who have collectively brought this country to the brink of ruin. America has also been accused of pandering to monarchies in oil-rich countries where people can’t vote and women are denied basic rights. Policies must change. Listening alone will achieve nothing.
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Lahore’s half-dug roads
Monday, 06 Jul, 2009
EVERY year around this time, newspapers carry reports warning citizens of the hazards that half-dug roads pose during the rainy season. There are comments on the administrative and financial factors that lead to such a mess, and politicians vow that it will not happen again. But come the monsoons and we are at it again. Half of Lahore, it seems, is commuting on the edge of less-than-half-built roads dotted with trenches, uncarpeted pebbly patches and mounds of mud. Most of the digging is done for the numerous rainwater drains being built in many localities. But residents in many of these areas complain that the construction of these drains is, in fact, behind schedule and is aggravating civic problems, making their solution a distant dream. The rains, as and when they come, will certainly flood a large number of neighbourhoods, with incomplete drains doing little or nothing to take the rainwater away.
Wasn’t it supposed to be different this time round? Hadn’t Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif promised the residents of Lahore a trouble-free monsoon last time they had their roads submerged and drainage choked? Weren’t the city government departments warned by him that they would be answerable for any inconvenience that the rains might cause to the people? The way things stand today, it is highly likely that in the coming weeks we will once again see the chief minister wading in knee-deep water and admonishing the authorities for their inefficiency. But this will hardly fix the problem, nor will any piecemeal approach that aims at building a drain here and a pumping station there. Lahore requires a new rainwater drainage system — not just in a couple of localities but across the entire length and breadth of the city. Any measure short of that will not resolve the problem.
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Domestic violence
Monday, 06 Jul, 2009
A MONITORING exercise conducted by the law firm AGHS shows that from April to June this year, 122 cases of women being burnt were reported in Lahore. Of them, 21 women had acid burns while the rest were injured by direct exposure to flames. Forty victims died. Disturbingly, the figures have doubled as compared to the first quarter of the year. These cases constitute merely the tip of the frightening iceberg of violence against Pakistan’s women. The figures reported above apply to Lahore but are unlikely to be lower in other parts of the country. Indeed, one wonders how many cases go unreported. The forms of coercion range from emotional and economic abuse to gross violations of constitutional and human rights, including rape, burning and being handed over as settlement in disputes. Last year, at least two women were believed to have been buried alive in Balochistan. That a sitting parliamentarian defended the act as a ‘tribal custom’ reflects just how endemic violence against women has become in the country.
It is important to note that much of the violence against women, particularly in the domestic sphere, goes unreported. Legislation in this regard, meanwhile, has been indefensibly slow. Work on formulating a bill at the federal level against domestic violence was first initiated in December 2006. Two private members’ bills were combined and approved by the National Assembly’s standing committee on women’s development in April 2007. The assembly’s term lapsed before the bill could be passed, however. In March this year, the National Assembly’s standing committee on women’s development unanimously approved the Prevention of Domestic Violence Bill 2008. But little further progress has been reported so far.
That violence against women continues to rise is perhaps symptomatic of the steady brutalisation that Pakistani society has suffered over the past many decades. It is imperative that effective legislation be devised to not only protect women against abuse, both domestic and otherwise, but also bring the persecutors to book. Treating violence against women, including domestic abuse, as a crime will give protection to victims in meaningful terms.
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OTHER VOICES - North American Press 10 years, 430 dams
Monday, 06 Jul, 2009
TEN years have gone by since a modest but important moment in American environmental history: the dismantling of the 917-foot-wide Edwards Dam on Maine’s Kennebec River.
The Edwards Dam was the first privately owned hydroelectric dam torn down for environmental reasons … by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. … the interior secretary at the time, showed up at the demolition ceremony to promote what had become a personal crusade against obsolete dams. The publicity generated a national discussion about dams and the potential environmental benefits of removing them.
It certainly helped the Kennebec and its fish, and dams have been falling ever since. According to American Rivers, an advocacy group and a major player in the Edwards Dam campaign, about 430 outdated dams (some of them small hydropower dams like Edwards) have been removed with both public and private funding.
More lies ahead. Three dams that have severely damaged salmon runs in Washington State are scheduled to come down in 2011. A tentative agreement has been reached among farmers, native tribes and a power company to remove dams on California’s Klamath River, the site of a huge fish kill several years ago attributed mainly to low water flows caused by dams.
Maine, where this all began, will be the site of a spectacular restoration project. Under an agreement, two dams will be removed and a fish ladder built at a third to open up 1,000 miles of the Penobscot River and its tributaries so that fish can return to their traditional spawning grounds.
A half-dozen species should benefit, including endangered Atlantic salmon. The federal government has now imposed “critical habitat” protections in nine Maine rivers….
NOAA’s heightened interest in Atlantic salmon has raised hopes that it may now take aggressive … steps to protect salmon on the West Coast by ordering the removal of four big dams on the Lower Snake River. — (July 3)