| October 15, 2001 | Monday | Rajab 27, 1422 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Cotton-picking
‘Why they go hungry’
The right to share this planet
Mobile phones
Action against illegal immigrants
Where are the non-Muslim terrorists?
Scheduled Castes cast aside
The Muslim state of inertia
Fruits of cooperation
Osama’s interview
BBC’s Hard Talk
Change in name only
The meaning of terrorism
Freedom of what?
Thatcher’s unwarranted criticism
Conscience money
Health hazard
A quote
IN TODAY’S sophisticated system of communication and globalisation, countries are increasingly using individuals having international exposure and the experience to move ahead in this cut-throat competitive market ambience.
The global market environment is getting more and more severe with countries having greater access to the market forging ahead than other countries while the capital flight takes place within seconds. In order to eschew such situations and turn them into their favour, countries rely immensely on international relations to confront these circumstances with aplomb. Gone are the days when countries strived for getting aid to boost their economies and raise the standard of living of their people.
Trade now controls the major part of countries’ economy. Thus, international relation have got a conspicuous weightage for decision-makers to think strategically, not only in the short-run, but in the long-run also. Decision-makers of different countries are staunchly selling their countries globally in order to get foreign investment and to boost their ailing economies, per capita income, GNP growth rate, standard of living, reduce unemployment, improve balance of payment position and provide better health facilities for the people of their countries.
However, development requires adaptability and flexibility and neither development will necessarily make countries or organisations less vulnerable to external threats. The reason, strangely enough is that has made development possible in the first place; integration into the global economy. globalization and localization - the integration of the world economy and the increasing demand for local autonomy - are the two most important forces shaping development as we enter the 21st century.
Globalisation is no doubt an idea whose time has come. But, it has not descended from heaven. Its perfection cannot be assumed. In history, there have been many such ideas: nationalism, imperialism, internationalism, racisms, colonialism and a host of others. Each has been eventually been found imperfect. Nonetheless, such ideas affect trade, capital flows, global environment decentralisation, urban development and require developing countries to seek dynamic equilibrium at both international and sub-national levels.
Global trade and movement of capital depend largely on the country’s policies and stability of the government and the international relations have their own importance so that they makes countries extra-wary in their approach.
Globally speaking, people have grown apprehensive about the future as they watch the performance of the stock market, internal instability in various regions of the world, failure of the financial institutions, fluctuating oil prices, debt burden of Lowly Developed Countries/Highly Indebted Poor Countries, the rise and unpredictability of terrorism, unchecked waves of refugees and the resurgence nuclear ambitions.
However, people are looking for short-term investments with minimum risk and high returns taking all factors into account.
In nutshell, I believe the bottom line is economics everywhere when people don’t have food, don’t have jobs, don’t have sense of purpose; their lives suffer excruciating agony. This in turn gives noticeable significance to International Relations to come into play to address these pressing issues at hand.
SHAN SAEED,
Karachi
THIS refers to the above article by Dr. Shamsuddin Tunio in weekly EBR, (September 10-16.
The Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC), which is a federally-administered research organization, has disseminated information regarding cotton production technology through ‘cotton maximization projects’ on fields, and also through seminars, growers’ gatherings and printed material in English and the regional languages to educate farmers on clean cultivation, judicious use of inputs, proper picking of seed-cotton and storing it in fields, before seed-cotton is picked and transported to ginneries.
There are also legislative measures to protect the purity of various verities under cultivation, proper ginning and that of an individual variety. The provincial extensions of the agriculture departments are supposed to keep a watch on production, from sowing to ginning. Such measures seem to have become lax and the result is that the cotton crop is in distress.
The idea of growing ‘organic cotton’ is fascinating. It would, however, be worthwhile, if the Cotton Research Institute and cotton research stations in the country give a proper place to ‘organic cotton’ in their research programmes to assess the merits and demerits of it vis-a-vis the prevailing methods of cotton cultivation with higher doses of key inputs for a good crop.
Let researchers honestly evaluate the ‘organic cotton’ after proper experimentation under their supervision and report about the prospects. Evolution of coloured cottons, as hinted at by Dr. Tunio, seems a remote possibility in our country.
We can hardly afford to replace the cheap dyeing industry by evolution of cottons of all colours. But coarse brown/grey cottons are already being produced in the NWFP and is used for making ‘Khaddar’.
M. SHAFIQUE AHMED,
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the articles published in the EBR dated October 1-7, 2001.
Mr. Mushtaq Ahmad in his article “Why they go hungry” appears to have given some incorrect statistics.
May be that the Pakistan Red Crescent Society had provided these inaccurate figures. The wheat production in India in the year 2000 has been put at 50 million tonnes and it has been concluded that 30 million tonnes were surplus because 20 million tonnes were enough to feed the Indian population of over one billion. Pakistan’s population is around 140 million people and our wheat consumption is around 19-20 million tonnes. Consequently, India would need about 150-160 million tonnes of wheat and not merely 20 million tonnes.
The number of persons sleeping hungry in Pakistan and India has been quoted at 208 million and 26.9 million respectively. This also looks highly exaggerated.
Will Mr. Mushtaq Ahmad and the Pakistan Red Crescent Society take a trouble to furnish clarification for the benefit of the readers of Dawn.
Mr. Jamil Ahmad Rizvi in his article about sugar mills has put the mills’ profit at Rs10 per tonne only.
Apart from the fact that the mills cannot operate at such a meagre profit, there are distortions in the figures quoted in different tables. In the table “elements of cost”, the production cost has been calculated @ Rs13,695 per tonne. If we add to it, government taxes amounting to Rs1582 per tonne, the per tonne so of sales would work out to Rs1,903 (Rs17180 — Rs15,277) and not merely Rs10 per tonne. Will the author endeavour to clarify?
A.M. TALHA,
Karachi
TERRORISM has no country, it is as global as Coke, Pepsi and Nike. Osama bin Laden has been sculpted from the spare rib of a world laid to waste by America’s many wars, its doctrine of “full-spectrum dominance”, its call for “infinite justice”, its disregard for non-Americans starving to death while they wait to be killed.
Two opposing forces, one with the arsenal of the obscenely powerful, the other with the destructive power of the utterly hopeless. The fireball versus the ice pick. Anger is the ice pick. It slips through customs unnoticed. It doesn’t show up in baggage checks. It did not allow them to scale down the enormity of their rage to anything smaller than their deed. They blew a hole in the world as we knew it.
The message may have been written by Osama bin Laden and delivered by his couriers, but it could well have been signed by the ghosts of the victims of America’s old wars. If America usurps the whole world’s sorrow to mourn and avenge only its own, then it falls to the rest of us to ask hard questions and say harsh things. Can you destroy the destroyed? Bombing will only shuffle the rubble, scramble old graves and disturb the dead.
If the US were to at least acknowledge that it shares the planet with other nations, with other human beings, who have loves and griefs and stories and songs and sorrows and, for heaven’s sake, rights. Instead of insisting that victory would only be won when the world concedes that Americans must be allowed to continue with their way of life, while the multinationals take over the air we breathe, the ground we stand on, the water we drink and even the thoughts we think.
“If you are not with us, you are against us” — a piece of presumptuous arrogance, is not a choice that people want to, need to or should have to make. This is with apologies to Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things.
KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore
AT present a photocopy of the national identity card is required by the mobile phone companies along with the application for a mobile phone connection.
To curb crime in the province and to check the misuse of mobile phones by criminals, the government is said to be in the process of framing a policy where a passport size photograph of the applicant would also be required. There are a number of cases reported every day where mobile phone apparatus is lost, stolen or snatched at gun point during carjacking. What would happen if such an apparatus is used by criminals before the actual owner is able to report the loss to the phone company?
Taking into consideration the usual behaviour of the police, there is a likelihood of harassment of the owner of the lost mobile phone on account of its unauthorized use by a criminal. It is, therefore, suggested that while framing new rules for the acquisition of mobile telephone connections, the Sindh government should ensure that the law-enforcement agencies do not harass a law-abiding citizen whose mobile phone has been used by criminals.
SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi
LIKE many Islamabadis, I also go for a walk to the Fatima Jinnah Park located in Sector F/9. The feeling that I get during the walk, on overhearing conversateeons of other people, is as if I am in a foreign land. Persian and various dialects of Pushto mingled with a fair amount of Arabic and an odd comment in Kurdish are some of the languages one gets to hear.
The build, clothing and mannerisms of these people scare away the scores of walkers who are in the park with their families. It is only in Pakistan that foreigners can stay for as long as they wish without let or hindrance. Countries like Saudi Arabia are known to have locked up Pakistanis in their jails because they could not produce the requisite papers on demand.
The interior minister needs to look into the matter of immigrants whether wanted or not in their own countries, and have them deported if they are without valid papers. It will help the Pakistani environment and lend some semblance of law and order, and may help transform us into a civilized society.
The immigration officials must be asked to patrol various areas in the cities and selectively check on the foreigners. Instituting such a system alone will help in keeping the illegal immigrants off the city parks and roads. Respect of law which is now non-existent in Pakistan may be restored if we start treating this land as our own.
SOHAIL H KHAN
Islamabad
THE US has announced a list of 22 most wanted men. A glance at their names and photos reveals, though it is no surprise, one feature in common: they are all Muslims.
These men have been categorized as ‘the most dangerous’ terrorists in the world and are allegedly responsible for a host of crimes, from bombings to hijackings. Indeed, most of these men will be caught ‘dead or alive’.
The US and other Western powers persistently maintain that they are not against Islam and that Islam is a religion of peace. And yet, the mantle of terror has been placed on Islam exclusively.
Armed and dangerous men from the IRA, extremist Jewish group ETA, Carlos the Jackal types, Colombian drug lords, as also the Russian, Italian, Chinese mobsters and serial killers, do not figure on this list, even to give it an illusion of evenhandedness.
In the atmosphere of suspicion and hatred that is developing and being directed against Muslims around the world, such lists encourage only one view: every terrorist is a Muslim and every Muslim is a potential terrorist.
ERUM KHAJA
Karachi
ON Oct 9, President General Pervez Musharraf met with some representatives of the minority communities of Pakistan to take them into confidence on his “Pakistan comes first” doctrine.
They included Raja Tridev Roy, who left his home in the then East Pakistan, following the fall of Dhaka, to continue to live as a Pakistani. There were others from amongst the Christians, Hindus, Parsis, and the Sikhs. However, missing were the representatives of the Scheduled Castes whom the Father of the Nation, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, had given a six per cent job quota in the federal services. The same was abolished by the Nawaz Sharif government in 1999.
The Scheduled Castes, or Dalits as they are now known in India, form almost 70 per cent of the Hindus currently living in Pakistan. But it appears that they have been struck off from the list of minorities by the bureaucracy. That is why they are always left unrepresented at such meetings and also at those platforms where policies are framed, affecting this large section of the minority community.
SURENDAR HEMAN VALASAI
Karachi
MR Javed Jabbar is absolutely correct (Oct 8) in pointing out the need for a Muslim media worldwide. The need has been felt ever more strongly in the past several weeks.
Although Muslims are roughly a fourth of the world population, they have an unusually weak voice on its stage. Some of this, of course, stems from the general weakness of most Muslim countries but there are other factors also at play. Whether living in Muslim societies or in the midst of the western society, Muslims tend to be inward looking and do not interact with the community at large. They seldom participate in social activities and voice their opinions even less.
This is partly due to a general lack of viable democracies in most Muslim countries. Democracies, it must be remembered, foster free speech. But I do believe that this also speaks of a certain inertia that we all suffer from. I would venture to say that the covert anti-Muslim bias we often feel in the western media is, at least in part, due to a virtual absence of Muslim voice.
I think it is time we realized and accepted that we are citizens of the world. Our voices and opinions are important not only to us and our families but to societies at large. We must speak up and be heard not only at home but also abroad. While it still leaves the need for a Muslim global media, it does start the process.
ADNAN A. KHAN
Greenwood, US
THE first reward of our new policy, co-operating in the war against terrorism, seems impressive enough. Our “brother” Islamic country, UAE, took the lead to ban visas for Pakistani nationals. Then came the news of our “friend” China banning visas for Pakistanis.
With Tony Blair’s visit of friendship over, 300 legitimate Pakistani visitors holding valid British visas were deported from various ports of entry in Britain. With friends treated as such, one wonders how they treat their foes.
Or, is it that Pakistanis must always be treated this way? Who has the guts to question back our friends and brothers?
A.S. NIZAMANI
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
THE western media, scholars and politicians are so biased against Muslims and the Islamic world that sometimes they say things without consulting, assessing and considering the available/known facts. One interesting instance of such bias is the following:
Steven Simon, an “expert” on international terrorism (International Institute for Strategic Studies, Britain), was the guest of BBC in its every-hour news transmission (Oct 9). When the newscaster asked him to comment on the strikes of American-led coalition on Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden’s interview to Al Jazeera TV, Simon abruptly said that he “believed” the interview was conducted months before the attacks on WTC. At this the newscaster himself was surprised and asked him whether he really believed that the interview was taken before the Sept 11 attacks. Simon once again said that he believed it was so.
I think either Simon has some listening problem or he did not carefully go through Osama bin Laden’s interview. In that interview, he had said that America has received what it deserved, it has incurred has the wrath of God and one of its finest buildings has been destroyed. He further said that from south to north and from east to west America is ‘under fear’. Of course, America was not under fear on such a huge scale before Sept 11. Osama had also talked about the US-led coalition against terrorism. So it was definitely a post-attack interview.
SANAM NOOR AHMED
Karachi
AN interview with Qazi Hussain Ahmad, on the BBC’s ‘Hard Talk’ programme, was telecast recently, in which Lyse Doucet, left no stone unturned to make the Qazi look aggressive. The frequency of asking questions was so hard and fast that the Qazi found it difficult to answer them properly. The way she talked to the Qazi was brutal, if not absurd. At one point, the Qazi was obliged to say: “This is Hard Talk but you are not giving me much opportunity to talk.”
The BBC correspondents should remember that while talking to our religious leaders, they must behave and they must not try to prove that they are extremists.
AZHAR NAZIR SULEHRI
Lahore
THE local governments have started functioning, but no qualitative change seems to have been ushered into the people’s day-to-day life. Collective good finds no mention in the new scheme of things. For example, in Muzaffargarh, the city’s number one problem of heavy-traffic diversion via circular road has received no attention from the new administrative setup.
Should one conclude, therefore, that the change is in name only and it is business as usual in the district corridors of power?
SALEEM JAVAID
Muzaffargarh
THE dictionary defines “terrorism” as the “systematic covert warfare to produce terror for political coercion”. Again “terror” is defined as “intense fear and panic for a cause of it”. So the crux of the expression “terrorism” lies in the “cause” which ignites action. Whenever a cause is denied its natural vent, whenever the cause is suppressed by force, covert action to achieve the cause follows until it is achieved, and it is invariably achieved in the long run.
Analyzed dispassionately, terrorism is synonymous with rebellion, or for that matter with revolution, which has been glorified in history. Examples of such “glories” are the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution, not to speak of the more recent revolution in China.
Terrorism is an expression misused in the context of a fight for a “cause”. In fact it is a confrontation of the opposition, which is legitimate in the ethics of democracy. Those who claim to be the champion of democracy, should be very discreet in a accusing others of terrorism. Actually terrorism in common usage of the word should be confined to the action of an individual gangster working for wanton or sadistic purpose. There is no cause behind such action.
Under the circumstance the wisdom of declaring war on “terrorism” cannot but be questioned. Rather prudence demands that the cause of the so-called terrorism be discerned and a permanent solution found.
Terrorism left to brew indefinitely will ferment to stronger vintage which can hardly provide sobering influence on all concerned.
Again, if terrorism be met with retaliatory force, it may seemingly be crushed temporarily but the dormant germs will multiply after some time to attain insurmountable magnitude.
A.M. SAYIED
Karachi
THE US wants Al-Jazeera TV to stop airing Osama’s statements. How ironical. The country upholding the freedom of speech and expression wants to curb it.
It is un-democratic of America not to let the world hear both sides of the story. As usual, the Western media is not proving to be neutral when it involves the Muslim factor. But if you don’t have the guts to show both sides of the coin, why stop someone else from doing so? After all, Al-Jazeera aired Powell’s interview, thus maintaining a balance.
It is the right of the viewers to choose what they want to watch and hear. But who knows, may be Qatar is going to come under attack in the future for airing Osama’s statements. The country that gives freedom to alcoholism, gambling, prostitution, adultery and homosexuality in the name of ‘human rights’, is going to curb the freedom of the media and that, too, in another country.
DR SABAHAT ATHER
Lahore
I REFER to the article by Euan Ferguson (Oct 8) about Lady Margaret Thatcher’s complaint that she had “not heard enough condemnation” from British Muslims of the Sept 11 terrorist strikes in the USA.
Her criticism of the Muslim community in the UK, which now numbers around 1.8 million, is unwarranted because during my visit to London from Sept 9 to 23, many leading Muslim activists in the UK did condemn the bombings and the consequent heavy loss of life in this tragedy in the USA. I myself saw a number of Muslims signing the condolence books kept in canopies in a park facing the American embassy in London.
It is surprising that Baroness Thatcher, who now sits in the House of Lords, did not come out with a strong condemnation of hate attacks on Muslims and mosques in some parts of the UK soon after the Sept 11 terrorist strikes in the USA, although Prime Minister Tony Blair, a Labourite, hurried to offer sympathy and assurances of security to Muslims in the UK.
When the Catholic IRA blew up her hotel in Brighton in an unsuccessful bid to kill her and her husband in 1983. Mrs Thatcher showed exemplary courage by going ahead with the Tory conference. She refrained form condemning Britain’s Catholic community for the terrorist acts of the Catholic IRA nor did she order reprisals against its bases in Catholic-majority Ireland.
The envoys of Muslim countries in the UK should join hands in representing to the British government the fears and concerns of the Muslim community in the UK and submit a well-documented list of hate incidents against Muslims and mosques for investigation and corrective measures. The UK has a large number of fair-minded white Britons who have befriended Muslims and respect Islam. Their support will be helpful to the British Muslim community.
QUTUBUDDIN AZIZ
Karachi
AT THE time of independence, there used to be a head of accounts in government treasuries known as ‘conscience money’. It was meant for depositing any ill-gotten money by anyone who found his conscience pinching him. No questions were asked.
I request the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan to let the nation know if this head is still maintained and if so, then how much amount was deposited in this head by the conscientious people of this Land of the Pure, since its creation.
C.A. HAFEEZ
Lahore
A RECENT picture published in this newspaper showed municipal waste being burnt in Faisalabad along the boundary wall of the divisional headquarters hospital.
This is what is happening in Karachi as well. The sweepers, after doing their job, put the litter dumped in different corners of the residential areas, on fire. This burning heap of garbage produces smoke which spreads all over the vicinity, including schools and hospitals.
I request the concerned authorities to take necessary steps to protect the citizens, particularly the children and the sick, from these poisonous fumes.
AMIR JALAL SANI
Karachi
WITH reference to Mr Ayaz Amir’s Islamabad Diary, ‘Joining the international mainstream’ (Dawn, Oct 5), I would like to quote from Lenin who had said: “History leads the willing, drags the unwilling.”
ZAMAN KHAN
Lahore
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address:
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.