| January 12, 2003 | Sunday | Ziqa'ad 8, 1423 |
The poor state of schools and education
A forgotten massacre
THERE is little cause and even less urge to wish each other the ritual ‘Happy New Year’. For even as it starts, the midnight chimes ringing in the New Year sound more like the malfunctioning alarm clocks rudely going on a blink to wake the sound sleeper up and sour his dream of a bright new year morning. The crackers exploding outside on the high city streets and by-lanes sound more like live gunfire than the crack of merry fireworks.
The undying rhythm of ‘Auld Lang Syne’, a unique fusion of a hearty welcome and a befitting, emotionally-charged welfare, acquires an elegiac undertone to make the merry-makers pause a while and think of the uncertain, unpredictable life ahead. All the bad news from the four corners of the world flapping around one’s ears like the winged monsters released from Pandora’s box.
The American century under President George Bush, the illustrious son of an illustrious father, is off to a chilling start. Bush senior, the initiator and the ‘victor’ of the Operation Desert Storm of 1990-1991, is going to get it done again, through his son only with less justification and with a strong, lingering after-taste of failure on more than one count, despite an absolute military victory. First, the real enemy, Saddam Hussein, stays in the saddle firm as ever, astride his high horse of personal arrogance backed by his people under his rule, no matter, how tyrannical. Saddam has given the Iraqis some sort of a semblance of self-respect and dignity as a nation regardless of the horrendous cost paid in terms of collective security. Some 17 million Iraqis, mainly women and children either died or unspeakably suffered on account of the economic sanctions imposed by the world body. Saddam’s Iraq could, however, boast of a fair measure of prosperity and socialist orientation even one without social justice and full freedom from strong oppressive neighbours like a monarchical Iran under the late Shah and the clerical Wilayat Faqhi (Rule of the Juris- consult) under Ayatullah Khomeini.
Second, Saddam is no longer the aggressor and predator in respect of his immediate smaller neighbours like Kuwait as in 1990. America, despite its self-chosen role as an international busy-body and a bully, did have some alibi for invading the Iraqi occupiers in Kuwait and throw them out from there. The senior Bush’s campaign against Iraq under a UN Security Council mandate and the active support of the Arab world, enjoyed a fair measure of moral and military justification. He did manage to restore the Kuwait Amir to his ancestral throne and destroyed much of Saddam’s war machine including the dreaded Republican guards.
He got away with a tumble of laurels added to his commander-in-chief’s cap, at little cost to his own exchequer and hardly any damage to his military machine. The Arab world, Saudi Arabia and Gulf states in particular picked up the tab for the Desert Storm. Saudi Arabia alone is said to have paid some 12-13 billion dollars. President George Bush neither has the quasi moral clout of his father nor the support of the world community, even the European, his half brothers and the Arabs as a body remain more united than before, in their opposition to Bush’s impending demarche.
What would be the fall-out or the ‘blow back’ (a term ingeniously coined by the CIA) to signify the unintended consequence of a major demarche like the invasion of one country by another, nobody can exactly calculate. What would be the role of the world community and of the United Nations after the Anglo- US invasion of Iraq? As for the UN Council resolution 1441, authorising the US military action against Iraq in case of the latter’s failure to declare and destroy its deadly arsenals of the Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMDs) it remains, for all practical purposes, a unilateral US initiative. Fellow members support it under duress for the absolute absence of a free choice.
The UN Council after what has been happening in Palestine for years and what is almost certainly going to happen in Iraq has been reduced virtually to the status of the diplomatic long arms of America. It stands ready to catch any element a country or a people by the scruff of their neck daring to raise a dissenting voice against the US strategic perceptions and supreme national (international) interest Globolization in practice signifies little more than America’s imperial overreach without the benign aspect of the British imperialism.
Paul Kennedy, the (elaborated author of the global bestseller, Rise and Fall of Great Powers, asks: ‘...whether a military campaign against Baghdad is an easy romp or a hard slugging match may not be vital to the future of American power. Who can doubt that the US military would conquer Iraq and impose a sort of a mandated rule (ala MacArthur’s in Japan 1945-46), as the more hawkish American strategists are suggesting. No, the real problem is not his immediate display of military might....
‘The real challenges are neither military in nature nor are they pressing, which is why the Bush presidency appears to be ignoring them. Most probably at its peril...’.
America’s status as the reigning global hegemony in the post- Iraq strategic scenario is little more than the proverbial millstone or the yoke around its own neck too heavy to carry or too tight to shed. The US for a while at least, be left alone and isolated in the world too strong to resist or grapple with and too awesome to make up to.
Will then America be in a state of recession (‘Recessional’, to use a Kiplinesque expression) implying a country in retreat, a people withdrawing from the scene.
That’s too a large question and must wait over a period — may be a number of decades or a whole century — for an answer. To attempt an answer in this point of time would be stretching one’s imagination into the thick fog of the future with little or no visibility. What could be seen and guessed right now is that the third year of the so-called American century promises little happiness and prosperity at least, for much the third world. What with the branded ‘Axis of Evil’ comprising Iraq, Iran and North Korea; Afghanistan the elusive Al Qaeda and global terrorism are going to engage the American hard-liners up to their neck.
As for the South Asia, Pakistan may eventually end up with some sort of a betrayal in preference to America’s budding affair with India.
THE state of schools and education, primary education, and kinds of images of little boys and girls on the streets of the city come to mind. Images of poverty and neglect, of mismanagement. Much that depresses, much that makes you sad, and then angry. Sometimes, says a colleague, it is straightforward anger; only anger.
There is one particular story that at least amuses also, and that is the one that one chooses to start with. It is a story that appeared recently in daily newspapers, and hasn’t been truly noticed. It relates to a modern theme, and sounds sophisticated. Information technology and one feels that it would gladden the heart of someone like Dr Ataur Rahman, now chairman of the higher education commission. Three cheers!
The headline of this APP story says that “DOE asks heads of schools to obtain internet connection.” I was shocked and like many others read this for curiosity, only to realize once again that this society’s planners were getting it all wrong once again. Let us read this story now. Which says that “the District Officer Education, Secondary, and Higher Education, City District Government Karachi, has asked secondary schools to obtain a telephone connection for internet use.” Why boys schools only, God knows.
While I can’t help feeling here at this stage that perhaps the information technology wizard Dr Ataur Rahman could be behind the inspiration that this district officer has, let me carry on telling you what he has said. The DOE has said that a report should be submitted to his office within the next two weeks by giving the telephone number allotted to the school, so that an internet connection may be provided to it, (amazing isn’t it) and in case the telephone connection is not given by the PTCL, this information may also be conveyed. Amazing isn’t it? Fairy land!
For a while keep in mind the state of government schools, of how ill- equipped they are, the quality of their teachers, the shabby textbooks, the dwarfed syllabus, the careless students, and the entire ambience. Keep in mind the horrible stories of despair that primary schools seem to present, and think of what this kind of District Officer is trying to achieve. Is he realistic?
This district officer has further said that “all those schools that have already got a telephone line, only need to give their numbers to the district office; even their residential numbers and mobile phone numbers will do. I find all this too unreal to be true, and this is where one begins to feel angry. But the anger will have to wait. See what this person says further, “gone are the days when the telephone was considered to be a luxury.” Nowadays it is an essential item. It is a very easy source of instant communication. Particularly with the introduction of internet, the requirements of a telephone connection for education is a must. (are you able to sense, dear reader where we get our priorities wrong, and how wrong, and in the quantum leap that someone is seeking, is just where the pitfalls lie that is the way we have blundered in so many areas, it seems).
Finally see what this District Officer has said: “However it is surprising to note that many schools in this mega city of Karachi, in this 21st century are without this modern day necessity; and he feels that the reason may lie in what he has described as official lethargy, and not so much in a lack of funds.” Which means that as far as this gentleman is concerned, there is no shortage of funds in the education sector. It is official lethargy as he describes it. This person should be focused upon more in the days ahead. He just might have the solution to our education problems, to our misfortunes in this critical field. All that talk of there being a low allocation of resources in the budgets for education seems misleading, false!!
If attitudes like this, indicated above, have any credibility what, then, is the worth of reports that says, for example, that “unbridled schools set to hike fees” or reports which say that Sindh faces shortage of 10,000 teachers at that; and that the number of unsafe schools has gone up; or the opinion that Dr Abdul Wahab has expressed that the state of education from primary to higher levels is in a state of disappointment.
Take this story about the shortage of teachers in Sindh. There is something that is so disturbing in this, because the Sindh Education Secretary told the new Sindh Education Minister that while there were new buildings for schools and colleges, there were no teachers; and there were also lacking the required facilities. And that due to the depressing state of the infrastructure and the socio-economic conditions of the masses, the dropout rate was still disturbing. On the other hand, there are unsafe buildings that house schools throughout Sindh. A Dawn story on January 2 said that there were as many as 5,732 government schools lying closed, up to higher secondary school level, and another 2,471 schools are being run in dilapidated buildings. Statistics in this case indicate that of 43,035 schools in Sindh, 13 per cent of those that are closed are lying in the rural areas; that much for the challenge of bridging the urban rural divide, and meeting the challenge of illiteracy, and poor enrolment in schools at the schoolgoing stage.
There are evidently many deeper dimensions and sadder implications of the state of poor state of primary schooling in Sindh, as elsewhere in the country. It is the base upon which is built the quality of college education, higher university education, professional education, and eventually the quality of human resource personnel that the country has. In revisiting this theme there is a peculiar statement that has come from Dr Ataur Rahman whom we mentioned earlier. At a conference in Karachi where he spoke as the chief guest he said that most of the IT graduates lacked proper education. That of the almost 8,000 Pakistanis who acquire bachelors and masters’ degrees in information technology only about 1,500 had the required quality. The question that he could find answer to is why are the rest being produced. He blamed the mushroom growth of IT institutes in the country. The question of this mushrooming of these institutes has to be answered and explained by someone like Dr Rahman himself.
Mentioning the government reminds one of the story that appeared in Dawn in November 2002 where the Pakistan Rangers had occupied a newly-established Government Degree College, Jungle Shah, Keamari, due to which the admission process was halted. The occupation of the college lasted for almost 18 months, and finally after much effort and persuasion, and ultimate realization, the Rangers vacated the premises, partially, and it is said that two floors have been retained by them even now. Strange!
THE American government reacted sharply late last month when a German channel ran a documentary alleging that US soldiers in Afghanistan had been involved in war crimes. Actually, such allegations have been made frequently by the Afghans but the Pentagon has gone out of its way to deny everything. In fact, if the way it has conducted itself is anything to go by, then a key element of the Pentagon’s policy of obfuscation would seen to include equating Afghan weddings with meetings of die-hard Al Qaeda operatives.
The mainstream American media, barring a few honourable exceptions like the Christian Science Monitor (not really all that mainstream) has helped Pentagon nicely in this by following the lead of the White House and the Pentagon in downplaying civilian deaths in Afghanistan and ignoring possible cases of war crimes or other atrocities by American soldiers. Having said that, many European newspapers have done an admirable job of reporting on the so-called war against terror and on the way the American’s have gone about trampling just about everyone’s rights (including, sometimes, those of their own citizens). Newspapers like The Guardian and The Observer seem like a godsend. Ant there must be and are many other newspapers and TV channels in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Scandinavian countries which do a pretty good job of reporting all sides of the story but it’s a pity that we cannot really see them because of the language barrier. The 45-minute documentary, Massacre in Afghanistan —- Did the Americans Look on? was produced by Irish filmmaker Jamic Doran. It was shown on Dec 18 on one of Germany’s main public channels, ARD. Writing on the World Socialist Web Site, Stefan Steinberg wrote that even before the documentary was to be screened on the German channel a spokesman for the US State Department had said “It is a mystery to us why a respected television channel is showing a documentary in which the facts are completely wrong and which unfairly depicts the US mission in Aghanistan”.
However, the allegations that surfaced in this film have been around for quite sometime and never has the US government —- apart from calling it baseless and all —- given any evidence to refute them in even passing detail. If anything, the documentary makes its point to state that the producer had made a request several times to the Pentagon for comment on the events shown in it and each time there was no response.
Massacre in Afghanistan documents event that took place after the fall of Kunduz in November 2001. It includes interviews with eyewitnesses to the torture and slaughter of some 3,000 prisoners of war who surrendered to the US and allied Afghan forces led by Gen Dostum.
The basic premise of the documentary is that following the events at the Qila-i-Jangi in Kunduz, the American army command in collaboration with its Afghan ally Gen Dostum (who had no love really for the Taliban), separated these 3,000 prisoners from around 8,000 who had surrendered. They were then taken to a prison compound in the town of Shibarghan, something that has been known for quite some time now.
They were transported in closed containers with no ventilation. Local Afghan truck drivers were commandeered to transport between 200 and 300 prisoners each. One of the drivers participating in the convoy relates that an average of between 150 and 160 tied in each container in the course of the trip.
An Afghan soldier who accompanied the convey said he was ordered by an American commander to fire shots into the containers to provide air, although he knew that he would certainly hit some of those inside. An Afghan taxi driver reports seeing a number of containers with blood streaming from their floors. According to one of the drivers, survivors of the transport ordeal were dumped in the desert near Mazar-i-Sharif. As 30 to 40 American soldiers looked on, those prisoners still alive were shot and left in the desert to be eaten by dogs.
In an interview with WSWS earlier last June, Mr Doan said that he was worried about the safety of those who had appeared in the documentary. As it turns out, two people who appeared in it as eyewitnesses later met violent deaths.
The film also includes an interview of Najibullah Quraishi, the main Afghan researcher and filmmaker involved in producing the documentary. He is shown on his bed with heavy bandaging on his head and a fractured left arm. Najibullah was ambushed as he attempted to purchase additional film. He was in the process of making his own copy of film when he was kidnapped and beaten up by unidentified person who obviously did not want the footage to get into the hands of foreign journalists. Later, Najibullah and his family left Afghanistan and moved to a western country. The documentary also alleges that part of the footage showing the Americans killing the prisoners in cold blood is still lying with Gen Dostum, now an important minister in the Karzai government, as a kind of insurance policy if anyone tries to implicate him in war crimes.
The filmmaker has appealed that measures need to be taken by at least some responsible international agencies to secure the safety of those who appeared in Massacre In Afghanistan.
In the summer of 2002, a human rights organization was able to exhume three of the bodies buried in the desert at Mazar-i-Sharif. It concluded that all three had died of suffocation and that there was sufficient evidence to justify a full-scale inquiry. The United Nations eventually agreed to undertake security measures to protect the site of the killings. An official UN-led inquiry into the events is now scheduled for the spring of 2003.
Prior to its showing in Germany, Massacre in Afghanistan — Did the Americans Look On? was shown on Britain’s Channel 5 and Italy’s national network RAI. One will have to wait and see if any American network has the guts to air it.—OMAR R. QURAISHI
E-mail:omarq@cyber.net.pk