Hangu attack
From the Newspaper
December 12, 2010 (6 days ago)
WITH Ashura less than a week away, it is alarming that two sectarian attacks in Muharram have already taken place in the country. At least 10 people were killed when a suspected suicide bomber rammed a tractor-trolley full of hundreds of kilograms of explosives into the boundary wall of a hospital in Hangu on Friday. The blast followed close on the heels of an attack on a bus in Kohat`s Tirah bazaar on Wednesday. A number of people were killed in that incident. That sectarian motives were behind the attacks is apparent as the Hangu hospital is run by a Shia trust, while many of the passengers killed in the Kohat attack also belonged to the Shia community. The Hangu attack has been claimed by the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi Al Almi while the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the Kohat blast. It is evident that militant groups are not resting easy during Muharram and security forces need to swing into overdrive.
Firstly, the nature of the beast must be clear. Lashkar-i-Jhangvi Al Almi has recently raised its profile, being one of the claimants to the attack on the Balochistan chief minister. Is this entity a mutated form of the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, or a new outfit altogether? The intelligence apparatus needs to identify and dismantle this emerging threat to public safety before it turns into an uncontrollable ogre like so many before it. Kohat, Hangu and the surrounding regions have long suffered from the twin plague of militancy and sectarianism. Concrete action is required here before the nexus between jihadi and sectarian militants becomes too unwieldy to handle. The Kohat division commissioner has pointed towards Orakzai Agency — where the army is currently engaged with militants — saying it has consistently been the source of attacks on mourning processions. Hence there needs to be extra vigilance in the days to come. Increased troop deployment and better intelligence-gathering are required to secure the aforementioned areas as well as large cities, which have been hit hard in the past.
Concerning the ulema`s promises about maintaining harmony during Muharram, clearly militants don`t care about what traditional scholars have to say. Therefore the security forces need to deal with the militants as terrorists — not misguided religious foot soldiers. The ulema also need to unambiguously condemn suicide bombings. The mainstream religious parties have been very disappointing on this count, with some remaining conspicuously silent and others hiding behind the bogey that `no Muslim can do this`. Indeed, it is a tough task to secure large Muharram gatherings. But complacency is not an option. All efforts need to be made to safeguard lives.
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Climate summit
From the Newspaper
December 12, 2010 (6 days ago):
AS expected, the recently concluded 16th UN global climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, failed to produce a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, a less than perfect but only legally binding international treaty on emission reductions to combat global warming. There was the usual consensus on the global dangers of unlimited and uncapped emissions of greenhouse gases at Cancun. But the problem, as evident during last year`s global climate summit in Copenhagen, is that there are too many opposing interests. The most prominent differences are between the developed and developing countries. While most developed nations are reluctant to sign a Kyoto redo or replacement unless the commitment on emission reductions is extended to all countries rather than merely to the rich, the poorer countries, some of whose emissions are rising rapidly, are reluctant because they perceive the difficulties and expense of environmental regulations would slow down their economic growth.
On the positive side, however, there was more apparent flexibility at Cancun than Copenhagen. Most at Cancun were convinced that something had to be done about carbon emissions, with practically all wanting the climate talks to continue and looking for a compromise on a new emissions treaty. But time is running out, and to what extent Cancun has been on the right track, moving the world closer to an international climate agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, would perhaps only be evident in Durban, South Africa, the venue of the next summit. If nothing else, Cancun has spurred developing countries on to voluntarily adopting plans to help cope with rising climate risks. Mexico announced at the sidelines of Cancun such a national adaptation plan harmonising the actions of over 10 government institutions to reduce vulnerability to climate change. A number of other countries, including Pakistan, are also working on climate adaptation plans designed to help prepare for the increased incidence of extreme weather events that experts predict will occur in the coming decades. A Green Climate Fund proposed at Cancun is being set up to assist some developing countries in this, especially for cleaner technology measures and incentives to protect forests.
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A forgotten genius
From the Newspaper
December 12, 2010 (6 days ago)
By Zafar Masud
WHEN Giuseppe de Nittis, a 22-year old Italian artist, arrived in Paris in April 1867, he had no idea he would soon rub shoulders with the likes of acclaimed painters Degas and Manet or reputed writers such as Emile Zola or the Goncourt brothers.
He couldn`t envision either that despite his incredible talent and sizeable body of works, given the frugal time span fate would allow him, he would remain unknown to posterity.
De Nittis was an impatient youth. At age 17 he was expelled from the Instituto di Belle Arti in Naples for insubordination. He tried to establish himself as an independent painter, but the city`s strict artistic hierarchy wouldn`t have him. In desperation he moved to Paris. “This is my home and I am not going anywhere else!” he wrote to his parents in Italy.
De Nittis was also lucky in encountering soon after his arrival Gustave Caillebotte, a noted impressionist painter and a man with means enough to buy works by other contemporary painters. Caillebotte would become godfather to the talented young Italian who seemed to have a passion for open spaces. His early works show an incredible mastery of reflected light over grain fields, country roads, canal banks and seafronts.
Encouraged by Caillebotte, de Nettis would return to Italy following a violent eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1872. A series of works capture from different distances and perspectives not just the angry volcano spitting out flames and ash, but also people reacting to the extraordinary phenomenon — with wonderment, fascination or fright.
Once the Mount Vesuvius adventure over, de Nittis hurried back `home` to Paris and plunged headlong into a new passion: street scenes. Going through some two dozen paintings belonging to this phase of his career, one is eerily conscious of two feelings: the young painter appearing pressed for time, as if he knows already he doesn`t have much left, and his fascination with female beauty. With Paris landmarks in the background you see exquisitely well-dressed women crossing the streets, walking their dogs, riding, chatting with other women and sometimes alone, looking forlorn and apparently waiting for someone under a yellow rain of falling autumn leaves or on the banks of a frozen Seine.
A change of scene during the same period, around 1877-78, would bring de Nittis to London at the invitation of a rich admirer. His dozen or so paintings of Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, Bank of England, Piccadilly Circus and the Westminster show an uncanny grasp of details of a city that he hardly knew and whose light was very different from that of Paris.
All this while his work, done at a frenetic speed, sold. By the mid-1870s he was able to buy an apartment along the fashionable Avenue du Bois de Boulogne (today Avenue Foche) as well as a country residence in the lush green St Germain en Laye; he also bought fairly frequently works by impressionist painters like Monet, Degas and Manet. He was by now married to the daughter of a wealthy French businessman.
The young couple would live a busy social life and the lavish parties at their Paris residence would attract painters, writers and musicians. Among frequent visitors, apart from Zola, would be Edmund and Jules de Goncourt, two brothers who ruled over the Parisian literary scene at the time and whose magnificent portraits are part of the painter`s legacy.
Two new interests would mark the final segment of the intriguing de Nittis legend; women`s portraits against indoor backgrounds, and pastel. No other painter before him, with the exception of Degas, had used pastel on such large dimensions and the result is most often absolutely breathtaking.
Given the widely varied scope of work done by de Nittis in such a short time, the reputation of `the ladies` painter` conferred upon him by his contemporaries appears a bit unfair. But his portraits of beautiful, elegant women in oil as well as in pastel rival any by the more reputed painters of his period.
A frequent subject during this final phase is Léontine, Giuseppe`s French wife, who is often seen accompanied by their young son, Jacques. One of these paintings is Breakfast in the garden , completed at the end of 1883. It shows Léontine and Jacques at an al fresco breakfast table set under the shade of a tree on a bright summer morning.
In this scene from the garden of their country residence, Léontine stirs her coffee as she looks fondly at Jacques who is giving all his attention to the ducks by the pond. Most significantly, is the scarily premonitory note contained in the back of the vacant cane chair closest to the onlooker.
The fruit-juice glass and the coffee cup are empty; the napkin rumpled, as if the occupant of the seat had to get up in a hurry to seize the scene on canvas for eternity. That is what the painter did in this most captivating of his final works, treasuring not only the magical light of a bright summer day reflected on the silverware, but also all the mystery and affection he was inspired by at the moment.
Giuseppe de Nittis had a cerebral stroke a few days following the completion of Breakfast in the garden , dying at age 38. The Petit Palais museum at the Alexander III Bridge is rendering through end January a belated homage to this forgotten genius.
The writer is a journalist based in Paris.
ZafMasud@gmail.com