| 29 September 2004 | Wednesday | 13 Shaban 1425 |
Nonsense on tourism
Errant blood banks
We now have Mr Colin Powell's word for the actual state and scale of the insurgency in Iraq. The US secretary of state admitted on Sunday that violence in Iraq was "getting worse" and that the insurgents were "determined to disrupt the election."
Planned to be held on January 31, Iraq's first parliamentary elections since the overthrow of the Baathist regime appear seriously to be in jeopardy. The so-called Sunni triangle in central Iraq is the biggest stumbling block; there, traditionally nationalist Iraqis have put up an armed resistance against the occupation forces.
The area stretches as far north of Baghdad as Mosul, and it is in this region that suicide bombers and guerrilla fighters have been ambushing occupation troops and targeting Iraqis and foreigners who are seen as America's collaborators.
The latter include Iraqi government functionaries, the police and national guard personnel. Not a day passes without a bomb going off in Baghdad, killing and maiming many civilians as a matter of routine. The Iraqi interim government inspires no confidence among the people; hence its failure to contain the insurgency.
The situation is out of control for whoever is in charge in Baghdad. Government officials, including Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, are never seen in public while American tanks roam the streets.
Officials now admit the difficulty of holding a credible election by the agreed date. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has gone on record to say that the proposed election would be acceptable if it could be held in "three-fourths or four-fifths of the country".
The problem with this kind of arithmetic is that the one-fourth non-participating Iraqi cities and towns will almost entirely fall in the Sunni-majority central Iraq, with cities like Fallujah already categorized as 'no go' areas for the occupation forces and the Iraqi law enforcement personnel. The Shia-majority Baghdad suburb of Sadr City presents no less a security challenge.
It is now clear that the insurgency in Iraq is rooted in Arab nationalism that has a popular appeal among the people, who wish to see their country rid of the foreign occupiers.
It is for this reason that many, normally power-seeking, tribal, religious and political leaders and sheikhs do not want to be associated with the January election; in fact, many of them have joined the call for a poll boycott.
This is a recent development and must be viewed in the larger Middle East context, where Israel, taking advantage of the preoccupation with Iraq and the 'war on terror', has been getting away with blue murder in the occupied territories as well as targeting Hamas leadership in neighbouring Syria, as last week's car bomb attack in Damascus showed.
Thus, time seems to be out of joints for the Americans, who still do not seem to have an Iraq exit strategy. Washington's call on individual countries for contributing troops to Iraq has all but fallen on deaf ears in the absence of a credible UN umbrella.
Iraqi elections, if held under the present circumstances, will have little credibility with the people and therefore fail to provide a safe passage for the Americans and their allies out of the Iraqi quagmire.
Nonsense on tourism
The usual nonsense was heard on World Tourism Day on Monday. A 12-point agenda for tourism promotional campaigns, national and international tourism conferences, talk shows, interaction with local and foreign media - all these were said to have been talked about at various events held to mark the day.
The fact is that the whole attitude to tourism is totally bureaucratic. There's no imagination involved. Government officials, including those responsible for tourism, have no idea of what the hoi polloi have to go through: they corner the best rest houses and places to stay when they travel to tourism destinations.
They don't have to rough it out like a middle-income family from the south has to do when it goes up north to even one of the cheaper destinations like Murree. They are not bothered at the rank commercialization of many tourist spots by private builders or are perhaps helpless to check the creeping menace.
The forest department does nothing to rein in the timber mafia. The filthy state of PTDC huts or 'chalets' at places like Keenjhar Lake is to be seen to be believed - and the seeing part comes after the visitor has already paid in advance for the facility.
Lack of security is a major concern, but it appears to have become a kind of a catchall to cover up our inability to get the basics right. Why should a foreign tourist come to Karachi when he can get cleaner beaches and a more relaxed atmosphere in Dubai and a desert to boot and with well-organized desert safaris?
Has any tourism official ever been to Gadani by bus or minibus or taxi and felt how tiresome the short journey can be and, on getting there, found no shade to sit or eat or seen the soiled condition of the handful of concrete shelters built there?
Before planning for international conferences and more seminars, all those concerned with tourism should personally lead clean-up and preservation drives at tourism spots, travel to these places by bus, live in ordinary hotels and inns to find out the comfort level and the cost, and then worry about higher things. If we can't enable our own people to enjoy our tourist spots, how in heaven's name can we expect foreigners to throng to our shores and hills?
Errant blood banks
According to speakers at a recent seminar held in Karachi, the Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority has served closure notices on 49 blood banks in the province. Considering that their total number in the province is about 450, this move is indicative of the poor standards of blood banking adopted by a number of units, forcing the health authorities to order their closure.
Storing expired, possibly contaminated blood, these units were posing a hazard to the lives of unsuspecting transfusion patients who, because of lack of public awareness on the subject, would hardly have been in a position to ask for certification regarding the safety of the product being administered.
In the absence of a culture of voluntary blood donation, and with a large number of commercial donors, including drug addicts, on the scene, it is all the more necessary to inform patients of the risks of transfusion that should be carried out only if absolutely necessary.
The ideal situation would of course be one where the blood banks routinely screened the blood for a variety of deadly organisms before storing it for a specified length of time.
However, one does not know when this would happen as at present only 20 per cent of the units screen blood products to ensure that they are not contaminated by pathogens that could lead to dangerous diseases like Hepatitis B and C, Aids and malaria.
Until blood banks prove that they are free from unethical practices and follow standard procedures in storing blood products, the authorities would do well to keep a stringent check on them, and to penalize the personnel of those that continue to flout the rules of the Sindh Blood Transfusion Act.
Also, a vigorous campaign is needed to educate the public on the risks associated with blood transfusion and on the importance of verifying the health background of donors.