| November 12, 2003 | Wednesday | Ramazan 16, 1424 |
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Tackling meat crisis
English made easy
IMF’s pressure to cut NSS profit
National youth policy
A matter of attitude
Expensive education
Responsibility of UN
Protecting women
Mobile user’s complaint
‘America’s stakes in Iraq’
IN his letter (29 Oct), Mr A. B. S. Jafri, commenting on Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s address at the recent OIC summit, points out that Mahathir failed to “distinguish between the Jew and the Zionist” and that “today’s Israel is not a Jewish state [but] is a Zionist entity.” Both points are valid, and deserve some explanation.
The Jews are an ethnic community and the followers of Judaism. Among them are Zionist Jews who follow Zionism which is essentially a materialistic ideology, with its own baneful values and doctrines of life. Zionism was touted as a movement for creation of Israel but its real nature as an ideology was kept camouflaged.
Zionism accepts non-Jews to be its adherents, called “Gentile Zionists”. A cleverly devised political doctrine of Zionism equates it with “centrality of the state of Israel in Jewish life,” according to the Zionist Charter given in the Zionist Year Book 1988. In this way and by numerous other stratagems, the Zionist leadership has manipulated and coerced the vast majority of the world’s Jews, including some religious Jews, into subscribing to Zionism and Zionist causes, one of which is to turn the Israeli state into “biblical greater Israel”.
Occasionally, Zionist media and literature let it be revealed what “Zionist” means. Jewish Chronicle (JC) Nov 22, 2002, describes a Russian Jewish couple as “ethno-cultural, Zionist, and positively anti-religious”. Britain’s new ambassador to Israel, Simon McDonald, was asked “if he would describe himself as a Zionist”. He replied, “I would say I am a very strong supporter of the state of Israel. If that is a Zionist, then, I, too, fall under the definition” (JC, Aug 1, 2003).
There are non-Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews, who do not even accept the present state of Israel, but they get hardly any coverage in the international media. A prominent anti- Zionist Jew was Prof Alfred Lilienthal, author of brilliant works, What Price Israel, Israel’s Flag is Not Mine, The Other Side of the Coin, The Zionist Connection, etc, which expose Zionism, its avaricious aims, the ruthless nature of the Israeli state and its cruelties to the Palestinians, and the Zionist lobby’s power and influence in America.
Israel is a Zionist, not a Jewish state. It is described as a “Zionist State” in its official records and laws. Zionism is the ideology of the state. In 1897, 50 years before the creation of Israel, the Zionist Jewry (ZINJRY), the central Jewish leadership, had designated its front body, the World Zionist Organization, as the future state’s de facto government. When Israel came into being, WZO’s two top office-bearers, Chaim Weizman and David Ben Gurion, respectively became president and prime minister of the state.
The entity aiming at controlling the world and imposing the Zionist value-system everywhere is ZINJRY/WZO. This is what must be exposed; just blaming Jews misguides people and, in fact, serves Zionist interests.
It is surprising a leader like Mahathir should be unaware of the identity, organized network and grasping aims of the real manipulators of the US policies and international events.
TARIQ MAJEED
Lahore
ONE welcomes the news that the Karachi city and town nazims have together taken a stand against the butchers’ mafia, most of whom have been supplying unhygienic and unhealthy meat at exorbitantly high prices to the hapless consumers.
In developed countries, consumers are the “king” and protest strongly whenever their rights are threatened. But in developing countries, including Pakistan, where there are no consumer laws or consumer courts and where such laws exist but are not enforced properly, gullible citizens are fleeced, cheated and poisoned by glossy and misleading advertisements, and continue to be victims of substandard and counterfeit products.
For many years, concerned citizens, NGOs and the print media in Pakistan have been drawing the attention of the government and the judiciary to the deadly menace of substandard, adulterated and counterfeit products, such as medicines, gutka and sweet supari, and the lack of enforcement of the existing laws. Therefore, we all appreciated the prime minister’s recent announcement when he directed the law ministry to review the legislation against adulteration and counterfeit medicines, food and beverages and to launch a massive campaign against the manufacturing and marketing of these products. He also ordered the ministry to prepare a new draft law, incorporating “severe punishments” which may include imprisonment up to 25 years and cancellation of the licence and confiscation of the property of an offender.
Two months have passed but unfortunately these directives have not yet been implemented, and unscrupulous manufacturers and traders continue to flood the market with substandard, adulterated and counterfeit products, without fear of punishment. We request the relevant ministries to examine the food and drug laws, make necessary changes, if needed, and implement the prime minister’s orders. We also call upon the print media and the consumers, who are the principal stakeholders, to support the nazims in their stand against the meat merchants and other mafias.
If the citizens acted collectively, resisted price hikes and refused to buy products, the manufacturers and traders would think twice before increasing the prices of their products or before marketing substandard products.
The Helpline Trust
Karachi
THIS has reference to the letter “Urdu made easy” by Mr M. Asghar Khan (Nov 2).
The writer’s claim that Urdu has different letters for similar sounds is not true. He also overlooks certain qualitative aspects of the language. It seems the late teacher, H. Catchpole, was not unaware of the basics of Urdu and Arabic speech or else he would have a different opinion.
However, if Mr Khan has written his letter with the intention to touch our sense of humour, the following is a similar exercise, as suggested by one of my friends.
The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British government concedes that English spelling has some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as Euro English (Euro for short).
In the first year, the letter ‘s’ will be used instead of the soft ‘c’. Sertainly, sivil servants will resive this news with joy. Also, the hard ‘c’ will be replaced with ‘k’. Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome ‘ph’ will be replaced by ‘f’. This will make words like ‘fotograf‘ 20 per sent short.
In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always been a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent ‘e’ and ‘s’ in the language is disgrasful, and they would go.
By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing ‘th‘ by ‘z’ and ‘w’ by ‘v’. During ze fifz year, ze unesesary ‘o’ kan be dropd from vords kontaming ‘au’, and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.
After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no nor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer. Ze drern nil finali kum tru.
WASEEM ASRAR AHMED
Karachi
THE IMF’s insistence on having the profits on the national savings schemes (NSS) further slashed is nothing but blackmailing and arm-twisting of the government. Since we will not be needing any IMF assistance in a year or two, should we succumb to its demands? If the IMF is threatening that it will not approve the ninth tranche of the PRGF and impose on Pakistan humiliating conditions, we should call their bluff and tell them to take a hike.
I am sure that with the rosy picture presented to the public by the ministry of finance, we will be able to survive without any IMF tranche. Can’t we take a lesson from Dr Mohamad Mahathir who, a few years ago, refused IMF conditionalities with contempt and rode out the storm on an independent Malaysian policy? Today, the IMF, albeit in hindsight, has acknowledged that Malaysia was right. Such is the stuff that free independent nations are made of.
Any further cuts in the profits on the NSS will, therefore, only destroy the middle class and the retirees who even now are finding it impossible to make both ends meet. But nobody in the ministry of finance is
least concerned about the miseries of the people.
I hope President Musharraf will realize that he is fast losing the support of the middle class who are more and more turning to the ARD for their salvation. The president should remember tha his strength will come from the people, not from the politicians and the bureaucrats.
In a country where the number of the people living below the poverty line has increased from 20 per cent to 35 per cent in 15 years (according to the latest State Bank report), should the government let more people become poor?
REHMAN
Hyderabad
THIS refers to Mr Ali Salman’s article (Nov 1). I agree with his concerns about our national youth policy. It is not only required to revise and update our policy but is equally important to publicize its existence. Its copies should be sent to all leading youth organizations, colleges and universities. The youth should not only know about it but also have easy access to it, so that they are able to add to it their comments and suggestions.
In June this year, I had a chance to attend the British Council’s international seminar on youth policy at Manchester, UK, as a youth representative from Pakistan. Before going there, when I tried to get hold of the policy document, I was shocked to learn that no thinkable place ranging from major printing presses to youth organizations in Karachi had a copy of the document. After five days’ exhaustive research, I found out that the document was resting somewhere safely in Islamabad.
I also asked nearly 100 young people (my university class-fellows, friends and others) about it, but only five of them had some idea about its existence in Pakistan. With this situation, how can we talk about having a functional youth policy when the stakeholders do not even know about it?
There is a dire need to not only educate our youth about the importance of a youth policy, but also provide them with a proper platform so that they too can take part in its formulation. In this way, the chances of addressing the youth issues at the grassroots’ level would also brighten up greatly. Being a youth myself, I sincerely hope that our pledge to involve us in policy-making will not go unnoticed.
NAJIA ALI
Karachi
I HAVE been contemplating for the past couple of months why we are not progressing the way we should. We see chaos all around — in utility service organizations, in the law and order monitoring, in the dispensation of justice, etc.
Every sphere of life has a story that is repugnant to the normal human understanding. A lot of resources are wasted in the name of protocol and security measures. Whenever the premier/the president or the chief ministers/ the governors are visiting a certain place, a bunch of people go to the arrival station to receive them. Do we really need this? Any sane person will say, ‘No’, for such exercises cost a lot of taxpayer’s money.
All this is because we have developed an attitude that cares less for others and the motherland but more for money. Even if we have the best of infrastructures, it will not help us until we change our attitude.
The present attitude is the result of two things: first, we have moved away from our religion which we pro-claim to be a complete code of life. Second, since we are driven away from our religion, we need an alternative. In our case this alternative is the pursuit of materialism, which is bound to create imbalance in society.
We keep on hearing the argument that we have made progress but remember that this progress is achieved at someone’s cost. Our religion puts emphasis on progression and not on deprivation of others.
FAROOQ AHMED
Karachi
THE PAF base at Sukkur used to provide a free-of-charge pick-and-drop facility to the children of both serving and retired armed forces personnel, who study at the Army Public School (APS). But now the PAF administration has decided to charge every child Rs100 a month for using this facility, thus creating difficulties for the armed forces personnel who had retired in low ranks, such as sepoys and NCOs/ORs.
Educating children in such a high-standard school costs much. Despite fee concessions allowed to the children of retired personnel, it is still very difficult, if not impossible, to meet the expenses of uniform, textbooks, stationery, etc.
The pensions of such retired personnel who spent the best period of their lives in the service of the armed forces is pitifully low and too meagre to support even a small family. Now this decision by the PAF base has further increased the already growing burden on the parents.
The authorities concerned are requested to look into this matter and redress this grievance immediately.
M.R. KHAN LODHI
Sukkur
THE United Nations Security Council, through a resolution in 1948, helped India by having stopped the war being fought against the Indian occupation of Kashmir. The question arises: why can’t it now help the Kashmiris by asking India to comply with the second part of the resolution, i.e. to hold a plebiscite to ascertain whether the Kashmiris want to live with Pakistan or India?
Had the UNSC not helped India and stopped the war, the problem of Kashmir would have been solved then. By now India has acquired more nuclear bombs and other weapons than what Pakistan possesses. Thus, it is not easy to convince it to hold the required plebiscite immediately.
The responsibility in this respect rests with the Security Council which should move forward and help the Kashmiris by forcing India to hold a plebiscite to resolve the dispute so that India and Pakistan could live in peace and harmony with each other, as well as with the Kashmiris.
G. RAZA
Karachi
I was glad to read Mr Aleem Shaikh’s letter on the crucial subject of protection of women in our society (Oct 29). Miss Beenish’s letter (Nov 3) also contains good suggestions in this regard.
I also support Mr Shaikh’s proposal that martial arts be taught to girls as part of their physical training in schools and colleges. It is a very practicable solution to the problem. By the time our girl students come out of their institutions, they will have a lot of confidence in themselves and will not be an easy prey to any teaser or sex mania.
Our education managers in the public and private sectors must pay attention to this viable suggestion. If they dither, private clubs and institutions of physical training must make special arrangements for this purpose. Parents should also pay heed to equip their daughters with martial arts for their safety.
DR SHAMIM AKHTER
Karachi
MANY Mobilink customers, as well as your reporters, have written about poor and faulty service of the company, but its authorities seem least bothered about the hardship of its customers.
I got two connections from its Rawalpindi office and have also suffered from the poor system. I was billed Rs35 and Rs65 for a one-minute call to Rawalpindi from Pindi Bhattian (motorway), plus unaccounted-for deductions from me and my daughter.
I request the relevant regulatory authority to look into the matter and ensure that no business concern could fleece its customers.
M. Y. GAZNAVI
Rawalpindi
THIS refers to the article by Henry A. Kissinger, titled “America’s stakes in Iraq” (Nov 3).
A pre-emptive war, imposed or fought without a just cause, is by all means a great offence against humanity, which ultimately makes the forces of the aggressor downcast and demoralized. The US doctrines of regime change and ‘humanitarian intervention’ in Iraq seem to have fallen like a house of cards in that the challenges it has invited are much greater than calculated.
The invasion and occupation of Iraq had nothing to do with WMDs. In fact, Iraq’s occupation has to do with the US hankering for redrawing the Middle East map; Iraq was just a convenient place to start. The neo-conservatives want to create a Middle East of ‘semi-Pacific American client states’ that could do American bidding as good lackeys.
The current Middle East map was drawn up under the Treaty of Sevres in 1920, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. A few years later, Iraq was captured by the British forces and its borders were demarcated by Sir Winston Churchill. Since then, Iraq has never known anything resembling democracy. Every time the West has played with the Iraqi government or nationalism, disaster has struck in one way or another. The only history that Iraq shares with the West is that of colonialism.
The US multitasking in Iraq seem devious in the face of the growing rate of American causalities, emerging law and order situation, the imbuing rifts in the Iraqi Governing Council, the Muslim states’ indifference to American solicitation for sending their troops to Iraq, the sweeping criticism of Washington at home and abroad and, above all, the increasing economic, moral, political and human cost of the war.
The UN, Nato, the WTO and the EU are all in crises owing to the US war against Iraq. The Middle East is now the epicentre of tensions. Iraq’s neighbours — Iran, Turkey, Jordan and Syria — are anxious. Radical Islamic sentiments are growing in the Gulf states. Political action is, therefore, vital: neither a military action or power nor a unilateral course is a substitute for multilateral diplomacy.
The neo-conservatives believe that the United States knows what is best for the Iraqis, just as Britain knew what was best for its colonial subjects. Should Mr Kissinger not think that the neo-cons seem to commit the same mistakes as did by their British comrades?
S. Q. AFZAL RIZVI
Karachi
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