| March 9, 2002 | Saturday | Zilhaj 24, 1422 |
Pollution worsens
Voltaire for children or teenagers
Journeys with George
AS the second Saarc information ministers’ conference works on its agenda in Islamabad, seven facets of media and information — numbering coincidentally with the seven nations of the region — require consideration.
POISONOUS smoke and chemical vapours in the atmosphere are causing serious diseases like nervous tension, asthma, TB, cancer, depression, blood pressure and liver disorders while the agencies concerned are playing the role of a silent spectator.
KAZY Javed, the local director of the Pakistan Academy of Letters and a former research scholar in philosophy at the Punjab University, is a prolific writer. He has written more than 30 books some of which have run into many editions. The titles of some of his books would give an idea of the subjects he chose to write upon — Bertrand Russell, his life and thought, the Theatre of the Absurd, 20th Century Philosophers. He has written a series of books after carrying out research on the mental and cultural history of the Muslims in South Asia. Additionally, he has translated many books from English into Urdu.
Not all the facets can be made part of a formal agenda because certain dimensions are real but intangible. Yet each deserves analysis and appropriate responses.
The nature of mass media and the open contemporary environment oblige a combined effort by governments, media, the corporate sector and civil society to deal with issues that arise from the following seven facets:
MEDIA POVERTY: Despite a general perception about the pervasiveness of media in our lives, as evident for example in the recurrent presence of songs and images from cinema, South Asia suffers from acute media poverty. This is part of, and yet distinct from, economic poverty. Media poverty refers to the limited access to newspapers and magazines due to low levels of literacy and education as also to low levels of access to TV due to low purchasing power.
The other side of media poverty is reflected in the small number of media units. For example, in cinema, there are less than 500 cinema theatres in Pakistan for a population for over 140 million whereas, in principle, there should be at least four times the number of theatres.
Radio is another example. With a population of about 60 million, Turkey is reported to have over 1,500 private radio stations. Whereas we have 25 radio stations (22 State-owned, three private FM stations) for a population that is more than double that of Turkey.
MEDIA INEQUITY: In comparative terms, in the sectors of satellite TV and the cinema, India not only has the largest film industry in the region, but also the largest in the world. By using non-terrestrial satellite transmission systems, including Russian satellites as well as others, even in the absence of a law in India during the 1990s to regulate earth- based electronic media, Indian satellite TV channels have quickly multiplied in Hindi, English and in regional languages at a rate far faster than any of its neighbours. While content and quality are always the kings that command viewership, there is a blatant and obvious asymmetry in cinema and in electronic media that expresses India’s dominance, and the consequent media inequity of the region.
MEDIA CLUTTER: This is both horizontal and vertical in its presence. Rapid proliferation of media in over- all terms, notwithstanding the comparative media poverty in relation to other regions of the world, has led to hundreds of newspapers and magazines being published in Pakistan, irrespective of low literacy and education. In turn, the average front-page of a leading Urdu or Sindhi language newspaper will feature as many as 35 to 40 headlines with even more sub- headlines. Outdoor bill-boards and hoardings mushroom apace with the number of vehicles on the road. Congestion, crowding and cacophony are synonymous with media.
MEDIA HOSTILITY: When reporting internal, regional and global conflicts, media often seem to become weapons of war rather than being purveyors of peace. While being loyal to their respective states and supportive of their governments in their bilateral and international conflicts, the media project jingoism and chauvinism as passionately as leaders and extremists. Only some media and only some part of media content, e.g. editorials or analytical comment, resist the pressure to conform.
The media relationship between Pakistan and India in historical terms, but particularly since Kargil, epitomizes the distrust and hate that media can generate even in the face of the people’s remarkable capacity to compartmentalize their acceptance or rejection of media content as when they enjoy listening to a good Indian film song accompanied simultaneously by their condemnation of crude Indian propaganda against Pakistan.
MEDIA ISOLATION: Distance and disconnectedness are the very anti-thesis of media and information because communication is supposed to bring people together, not keep them apart. Yet in two respects, media in the region often reinforce isolation between nations, and within nations. One reason is that the vast majority access media content in their own respective mother tongues or indigenous languages. While content may be common between media in different languages as, say, in reporting about a major event, each language has its own psyche and its own area of perceptual demarcation.
Even though they share many substantive elements, the reader of a Tamil newspaper in southern India and a reader of a Sindhi newspaper in Sukkur, Pakistan, are far away from each other, and not just geographically. Within nations as well, readerships of different languages remain entrapped in their own sub-worlds.
The other aspect of media isolation is the frequency with which India keeps banning the distribution of PTV through cable systems and our own reciprocal response. This creates the tragi- comic situation in which the troops of both countries are eye- ball-to-eye-ball on the borders, yet invisible to each other on their TV screens since Dec 13!
MEDIA GREED: As the mindset of the free market increases its encroachment at an alarming pace, media content in almost every respect becomes ominously shaped by advertising. One extreme form of commercialization is that the sacred text of the holy Quran is now also required to be sponsored by an advertiser for its reproduction, when not too long ago verses were re- produced by media as a public service. Whether in print or in electronic media, whether using any available space to plaster messages, be it police kiosks or beautiful hill-sides, media are facilitating a savage assault by advertising on the sensibilities of citizens.
MEDIA LITERACY: In stark contrast to the growing dominance and omnipresence of media even as media poverty persists, there is virtually no substantive attempt to promote media literacy and media education on the mass level other than in the restricted scope of the departments of journalism and mass communication at the university level.
Media literacy refers to the need to inform and educate children and youth beginning at the primary and secondary levels, on the factors that shape media content, on aspects of media ownership and control and on how to analyse media content so that citizens refine their capacity to differentiate between subtle biases and imbalances and so that they truly benefit from media rather than be exploited by, or through, media.
Over the past decade and more, some or all of the above seven facets have been debated in fora and exchanges organized by governments and by non-official initiatives such as the South Asian Media Association (since 1991) and the South Asian Editors’ Forum (since 1999).
While the Saarc information ministers define specific actions required to use media to promote peace, cooperation across frontiers in the region to shape policies, rules, codes and practices related to the seven facets of media becomes the more urgent.
— The writer is founding chairman of the South Asian Media Association and a former information minister.
Citizens are being subjected to the gruesome test of survival against pollution of all kinds.
Almost all the industrial effluents and chemicals are drained into canals and storm water channels in the city. The owners of industries do not bother to protect public health from the hazardous pollution being spread by their units. Besides, the turning of machinery causes noise pollution detrimental to human health and results in deafness and irritability.
Over 40,000 animal-drawn carts are aggravating the problem. Likewise, over 1.5 million automobiles plying in the city are adding to smoke and noise pollution.
There are 32 operating textile mills and more than 100 units engaged in the production of chemicals, food, engineering goods, acids, oil, rubber, paints, iron, steel, plastics, pesticides, electroplating, minerals, textiles, soft drinks, safety match, foundries, pig iron, soap, varnish, gas, dairy products, flour mills, battery manufacturing, dyeing and bleaching. More than O.1 million powerlooms and 300 ancillary industries are operating in residential areas. This indicates that almost all types of pollutant, biodegradable and non-biodegradable will be found in their waste water.
Due to the establishment of factories and mills in residential areas, there is invariably a layer of smoke in the atmosphere which causes health problems. Chemicals have contaminated the sub-soil water which causes serious stomach and intestinal disorders. The smoke emitting from a multinational mills operating in the vicinity of Madina Town is the main cause of environmental pollution.
Chemical vapours emitting from Tezab Mills on the Faisalabad-Jaranwala Road have caused immense pollution by making the sub-soil water totally chlorinated and brackish. The sub-soil water in this area has already been declared unfit for human consumption. Complicated stomach problems and other maladies afflict the residents of Dhuddiwala and other localities in the vicinity of the mills.
In advanced countries, industrial waste is disposed of without causing any serious threat to human life. In Pakistan, the indifferent and apathetic attitude of protection agencies, including municipal administration, union councils, Faisalabad Development Authority, district council, Wasa, Environment Protection Agency and traffic police, has greatly contributed to the gravity of pollution.
These institutions were constituted to improve the civic infrastructure, but it is alleged that their high-ups are just pocketing huge funds earmarked for this purpose. They have given a “licence” to factory owners to play havoc with human life in return for ‘monthlies’. The employees of the agencies concerned are least bothered to take action against factory owners who spread pollution with impunity.
Wasa which is responsible for protecting the natural environment has also been playing havoc with the city because its sewerage and drainage system has become inoperative and defective since its inception. The gushing water of gutters has destroyed green belts, roads and streets. Industrial waste has aggravated the situation. The people protested against the insanitary conditions but the big bosses paid no attention. Stagnant sullage has made the people’s lives miserable.
There is a chain of educational institutions on the road near Samanabad and heaps of garbage are conspicuous across the railway track in the locality. It is believed that most staff of the Tehsil Municipal Administration (health wing) has been receiving salaries without doing any work.
The traffic police are unwilling to check rickshaws plying without silencers. Transporters use pressure horns with impunity, although there is a ban on their use near hospitals and educational institutions. Law-enforcement agencies, for reasons best known to their high-ups, do not prosecute them.
Almost all city roads, including some highways, are in a shambles. Dust clouds rising from them cause great difficulties to the citizens. In some parts of these roads, trench-like pits have developed causing losses to vehicle owners. The continuous blowing of horns during traffic jams and emission of diesel smoke have put the people under mental stress. They use filthy language against the police who are unable to control heavy traffic due to marshy conditions.
Things will not improve by themselves. As autumn approaches, dust mixed with fuel and animal waste and sewage will be in the air, rendering the atmosphere unbreathable.
Recently, district Nazim Zahid Nazir convened a meeting to take measures to check environmental pollution. He said the problem had become so acute that it would create health hazards if it was not tackled urgently. He asked the agencies concerned to launch coordinated efforts to provide a pollution-free atmosphere to the citizens.
However, all such directions proved ineffective because the functionaries concerned accomplished no concrete and worthwhile task. The citizens have demanded the shifting of factories and mills located in the heart of the city.
The latest book by Kazy Javed is about Voltaire. It has been published by Mashal, the non-commercial organization devoted to publishing books on social, cultural and developmental themes of modern relevance.
Going through the book, I find that the author has tried to give all possible information, though basic, about Voltaire in just about 100 pages, and that, too, in easy language. Voltaire, as we all know, is the pseudonym of Francois Marie Arouet (1694-1778), author of plays, poetry and histories. But he is better known for being an outspoken critic of the civil and ecclesiastical establishments. He selected a rather meaningless name, at the age of 24, probably to distance himself from his rich family background.
After dwelling upon his childhood, Kazy Javed goes to write about his first love, his landing in prison not once but twice for his outspoken criticism of the prevailing system, his days in exile in London and his last days. But I really do not know why he has given me this book to read. From its language and contents it appears he has conceived it keeping in view those who do not know anything about Voltaire. In plain words, I may say it is meant for the reading of children, or at best, adolescents. Perhaps Kazy Sahib thinks that a person close to 80 is as good as a child.
SOME years ago when a well known retired general who claimed to have started writing poetry at the age of forty, came up with his first collection an equally well known journalist said, “You cannot be a poet at forty.” He was correct as the poetry in that book was not worth the paper on which it was printed. But now I see the maiden poetic collection of a former journalist who is past his sixtieth year but cannot say the same about his venture.
Ejaz Naqvi, or Ejazun Nabi Naqvi, now assuming the name Ejaz Tahiri, served the late Pakistan Times for umpteen years and been close to me. During all those years I never heard him recite, or even quote, a single line of Urdu poetry. He has a master’s degree in English, but never did he talk about English poetry either. And now he stuns me with a collection of his Urdu poetry under the title, Kaghaz ka Tukra. I repeat that he has stunned me as I find his verses of quite some standard. In particular he seems to be impressed by Faiz.
The book carries complimentary comments on Ijaz Tahiri’s verse by such stalwarts as the late Meerza Adeeb, Munnoo Bhai and the veteran, Syed Amjad Husain.
The title of the book has been taken from one of his quatrains in which he modestly refers to himself as a piece of wastepaper, of no use to anyone.
THE year 2001 was declared the year of the Quaid. Various functions were held in this connection, including many in educational institutions. It is, therefore, a pleasure to see a recent publication of the Government Islamia College for Women, Cooper Road, covering its activities during the year. The issue has been well-produced by Nasra Farooq and Zarreen Bukhari, both associate professors at the college.
The college is proud of the fact that the Quaid paid a visit there and addressed the students in March, 1940. The college now has a regular Quaid-i-Azam Club with sections pertaining to English, Urdu, philosophy, economics and other subjects. It organizes declamation and quiz competitions, some at the inter-collegiate level, in addition to holding seminars and mushairas. I am glad that the girl students are not lagging behind in extra-curricular activities. These are an essential part of education and widen one’s mental horizon.
I DO not know how, but some snag creeps into my regular column quite often. This time I refer to the column appearing last week (March 2).
What I had written about Josh Malihabadi’s article appearing in the weekly Musawwar of Bombay was something like this: One who has the fear of God in him cannotbecome a poet. It was because of this that many eyebrows were raised. Unfortunately, what appeared in cold print was quite the opposite of what I had written.
SO what sort of impression do we — viewers in Pakistan — really get of the most powerful man on Earth when we have channels like CNN, BBC or Fox News? Well, it would seem that the answer to this question would really depend on the ideological and political orientation of these channels. Fox News — and this has been written so many times before — seems to be basically an extension of the White House and Pentagon press departments in the sense that probably 90 per cent of its coverage is related to these two US ‘pillars.’ In fact, the other 10 per cent is made up of so-called talk shows where rabidly righting (read Democrat-haters and in some cases downright bigots) hold forth. CNN and BBC, too, have been quite disappointing in this sense. The Cable News Network — which despite undergoing extensive overhauling is still mired in financial difficulties — has lost out in a big way to flashier and upstartish networks, especially as far as the lucrative domestic US market is concerned. Since September 11, it seems to have bent over backwards to join the US administration in backing and publicizing America’s justification for the “war against terror.” In fact, who can forget, late last year, the memo of its chief, telling all CNN staff to downplay reports of civilian casualties in Afghanistan?
Both CNN and Fox have completely downplayed any opposition to the complete erosion of civil liberties that has happened in America, especially with the passage of the Patriot Act, or any adverse reaction or criticism of the prolonged detention of over 270 suspected members of Al Qaeda at Camp X Ray in Cuba’s Guantanamo. Other than events related to September 11, both these channels have not really been too critical of the US administration’s very clear and well-documented links to Enron. Several senior members of the US administration have at one time or another been associated with Enron. In fact, The New York Times only recently reported that cabinet members, including Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who helped draft America’s energy policy, held meetings with representatives of 18 energy companies and all were among the highest contributors to the Republican Party. This week the Times reported that US Army Secretary Thomas White had held Enron stock well after he was nominated to his post and that this conflicted with ethics guidelines governing the conduct of cabinet members. Mr White was known to have used his position with the company to try to convince its top management to believe that the company had a realistic chance of entering the defence procurements market and used his connections in the Pentagon to this end. Mr White, however, has, and quite understandably so, denied any wrongdoing.
As for the BBC, well what can one say? It seems to have done a Tony Blair — gone out of its way to toe the American line. The only issue on which it has broken ranks with the US electronic media available in Pakistan is on the issue of civilian causalities in Afghanistan and the treatment of prisoners at Camp X Ray. This might also have to do with the fact that at least three of the men in detention are British citizens. Compared to other European channels, especially German, which can be seen on cable in Pakistan, BBC has been a lot more accommodating of the US viewpoint on the “war on terror.”
As for Mr Bush himself, most channels seems to show him in immensely glowing light. However, too much — like on Fox — can be bad since the flaws about the personality being projected will sooner or later filter through. For example, just this past week Mr Bush was shown meeting a senior judge from a southern state that he has nominated to sit on a federal bench — the highest level preceding that of the US Supreme Court. The US Senate has said that it would block the nomination because of serious concerns arising from the judge’s not-so-exemplary civil rights record and since several of his judgments have been contentious with respect to race relations — quite a touchy issue especially in America’s South. Well, the US president was asked live on Fox News about the Senate’s tactics and he must have literally said a dozen times at least “Well, this gentleman here is a pretty good judge and he needs to be on the bench. I believe the nomination must go through.” Several pointed questions were asked by the White House press corps and with each one he seemed to become more and more flustered, reminding one perhaps of our own former prime ministers who was known for not being all that press-friendly — Mr Nawaz Sharif. To lend credence to this theory, a documentary film made by a person who spent a year on the Bush campaign trail, and released this week at the Texas Film Festival, shows the world’s most powerful man acting like a child. The Guardian had a detailed report of this movie in its March 8 issue saying: “Now that he [Bush] has evolved into a steely-eyed, firm-jawed wartime leader, it is sometimes hard to recall the callow and goofy figure that George Bush cut on the campaign trail.”
Apparently, the White House is not too happy with the image of a presidential candidate behaving like a veritable schoolboy with journalists travelling on his plane. Journalist Alexandra Pelosi made this movie on a hand-held camera and has been accused by White House aides of breaking a promise to keep her work private. She has also been criticized as having her own agenda since she is the daughter of a Democratic politician.
However, that does not take away from the remarkable relevance of this project especially since it shows the private side of the man leading the “war against terror.”
In fact, another journalist — Frank Bruni of The New York Times — is soon to bring out a book about the campaign and it too apparently draws the same kind of conclusions about the US president and his lack of intellectual ability. However, the Guardian says, Mr Bush does not seem to come across entirely as a buffoon as in the film. He is said to have an open nature and is quite good humoured, but at times frivolous (could the resemblance with Mr Sharif be any closer?). For example, Ms Pelosi asks him repeatedly how has the campaign changed him. After a couple of attempts at trying to evade the question in a joking manner, the would-be president says: “Let’s see... I started off as a cowboy, I’m now a statesman.”
After 15 months on Mr Bush’s campaign, Mr Bruni wrote that “the line between effervescence and inanity sometimes escaped him, a fact unchanged by his accumulation of experiences and his entry into politics.”
Early on in the book, this ‘inanity’ shows up at a memorial service in Texas for seven victims of a 1999 church massacre by a deranged gunman. Throughout the sombre proceedings, Mr Bush (then governor of the state) repeatedly looked over his shoulder, making cheeky faces like a 15-year-old on a boring school outing.
Ms Pelosi’s film is called Journeys with George, while Mr Bruni’s book has been titled Ambling into History. —OMAR R QURAISHI