| June 29, 2005 | Wednesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 21, 1426 |
G8 leaders under pressure to change rhetoric into reality
The craft of story writing
BRUSSELS: Leaders from the world’s most powerful economies meet in Scotland early July for a much-publicized effort to ease poverty in Africa.
THERE is an acute shortage of drinking water in Islamia Colony, Yazman Road, for the past about two months. According to residents, most of who belong to the working classes, the turbines of the water reservoir of the colony went out of order some time ago. This resulted in unavailability of drinking water for the people.
The TMA officials and the district government, switching to alternative arrangements, decided to supply drinking water to thousands of the colony’s residents through tankers. At the same time, the government circles were moved for the installation of new turbines to solve the problem. But, so far the TMA officials have been unable to select a suitable site for this purpose.
The TMA says that it owns no land in the locality to install the turbines, and at the same time it has failed to acquire any private piece of land so that the tubewells could be installed in the area. This is sheer negligence of the relevant quarters as the people in the sizzling heat have to face shortage of drinking water. The residents further say that TMA tankers either transport the water in the morning or in the evening and that, too, in inadequate quantity.
There is an urgent need to increase the supply of water and for this purpose the number of tankers and their rounds should be increased keeping in view the demand of the residents. At the same time, it is essential that a permanent solution should be found by acquiring land for the installation of new turbines.
THE Government Boys High School, Yazman Mandi, faces numerous problems. The school’s results are quite satisfactory and its education standard is better than that of other schools of this area. But due to inadequate classrooms the students have to seek the shades of trees in the school to study.
The officials have also not been moved about the absence of a science teacher, though the post is reported to be lying vacant. The science students suffer as neither can they be taught theory nor imparted practical training. The shortage of furniture is another issue being ignored for the last many years.
The local public circles have expressed surprise over the poor state of the school, particularly in the presence of District Nazim Tariq Cheema, who hails from this area, and is spending huge funds on its development. Moreover, the chief minister under the ‘Parha Likha Punjab’ scheme was providing financial grants for the provision of various facilities in primary schools. The district government should have taken account of the problems of this school.
PUNJAB parliamentary secretary for Tevta Ms Rubina Suleri during her recent visit here disclosed that a new and modern syllabus for Tevta students would be introduced in the province.
She underlined the need for technical and skill training for the youth particularly women to meet the needs of the modern age. She stated that the government was planning to upgrade some of the technical institutes in the Punjab.
During her visit, she also met the office-bearers of Bahawalpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and Tevta board of management president Baleaghu Rehman, who informed her that a Tevta help-desk has been set up at the BCCI, where chamber members were being provided necessary information about skilled persons while the youth were being provided guidance for their future planning.
LOCAL circles have complained that the police personnel deployed at River Sutlej near here harass the people, who cross the bridge. In this connection, the complainants have alleged that the motorcyclists are the target of police officials, who force them to show their documents and prove their identity. Those who fail to meet their requirements are subjected to insult and also threatened with dire consequences.
Senior police officers must take note of these complaints, which should be thoroughly probed and if the officials are found guilty, action should be taken against them.
Members of the Group of Eight (G8) are being pressed to turn their pro-African rhetoric into reality by an unprecedented coalition of development agencies, rock stars and celebrities who say the world’s rich nations must give more aid to poor countries, relieve Africa’s massive foreign debt burden and improve the continent’s trading prospects.
Combating climate change is also high on the summit agenda.
About a million aid activists are expected to flock to Edinburgh during the meeting to lobby G8 leaders. Few are expecting a major breakthrough, however.
Advocacy groups point out that G8 summits have always been strong on grand-standing but mostly failed to deliver on trade or aid. Even a ground-setting decision by G8 finance ministers to write off 40 billion dollars (33 billion euros) worth of debt owed by 18 African states is full of loopholes, say aid specialists.
The prospect of words turning to action is even grimmer this time around because almost all G8 leaders, from the US, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia, face an array of domestic problems likely to distract them from focusing on Africa’s plight.
US President George W. Bush’s second term has got off to a shaky start, with many in America losing patience over Iraq and calling for US troops to be brought back home.
The resounding rejection of the first-ever EU constitution by French voters has further weakened the domestic standing of French President Chirac, German opposition leader Angela Merkel is breathing down the neck of the embattled Gerhard Schroeder and the jailing of YUKOS boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky as well as the continuing war in Chechnya have cast a dark cloud over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s democratic credentials.
Meanwhile Junichiro Koizumi’s long-standing claim to represent Asia in the G8 looks increasingly lame given the rising power of China whose President Hu Jintao has been invited to Gleneagles.
In addition, relations between EU leaders remain tense following the recent ill-fated EU budget summit, with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder blaming the debacle on British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s refusal to consider a change in the British budget rebate without cuts in EU farm spending.
Blair, in turn, has accused the two men of seeking to hold back change and modernization in Europe. Britain is also arguing that further reform of the common agriculture policy will help African countries to export more of their products to Europe and stop cheap EU food from being dumped on African markets. Britain wants the EU to abolish export subsidies within five years, without demanding tit-for-tat concessions from poor countries, at this year’s critical World Trade Organization talks.
Even more crucially, preparations for the meeting reveal a still-wide gap between the US and other members on issues such as global warming. Aid advocacy groups also fear that G8 leaders will once again put politics ahead of economics and allow the Gleneagles meeting to be dominated by issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme, Syria’s alleged encouragement of Iraqi guerillas, the North Korean nuclear crisis and the activities of Zimbabwe’s erratic leader Robert Mugabe.
There is no lack of initiatives, however. Britain has called for a doubling of aid to the poorest countries by issuing bonds using rich nations’ future development budgets as collateral. But the so-called International Finance Facility is being cold-shouldered by Washington.
The US is also expected to turn a deaf ear to French proposal for a tax on international air tickets to fund the fights against Aids and poverty in Africa. Chirac said the debt-cancellation agreement by G8 finance ministers was not enough. The EU has approved the idea of a small tax on domestic flights within Europe to raise at least 560 million euros (680 million dollars) a year for development. Chirac hopes to see that measure widened through an acceptance by all the G8 states.
Meanwhile, African leaders who met recently in Nigeria have asked G8 countries to set up a new 20 billion dollar fund, to be managed by the multilateral African Development Bank, to finance projects in agriculture, health, water, sanitation and education.
The scheme would be part of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) rescue plan which was hammered out by African leaders ahead of the G8 meeting in Genoa in 2001. African governments are also calling on the G8 to commit to increased long-term funding for African Union peacekeeping.
A recent report by ActionAid warns, however, that ‘G8 leaders have used previous summits to make grand speeches about waging war on poverty. But on past evidence, they are firing blanks’.
The Toronto-based G8 Research Group is equally pessimistic about the summit. It says that so far only Britain and Canada have funded an organization called the African Peer Review Mechanism, under which African states are encouraged to ensure peace and order.
The recent debt-cancellation deal covers only one-sixth of Africa’s $300 billion external debt and only includes 18 African states, many of which are comparatively small and none of which can be described as economic engines on the continent.
KHAWJA Manzar Hasan Manzar is an acknowledged poet. But he wanted to travel beyond poetry. He started writing stories on social themes, which was welcomed by his friends and admirers.
But story writing is a difficult craft and requires regular application. Manzar presented one of his stories, titled ‘Dhamaka’, at the Majlis-i-Ahbab-i-Millat the other day. It evoked sharply critical opinion from many participants. The theme is ‘terrorism’ and it attracted everyone’s attention because of its topicality. But the story could not really move many souls. The prose is lucid and it describes the present social conditions that contribute to violence and terrorism. But there isn’t much artistic in the way it has been presented. As someone pointed out, it appeared like an essay in impressionist form. Although it fulfilled all the requirements of story writing, the descriptions were so obvious that it did not stimulate the mind. The story writer himself dominates in many situations. Nor is terrorism a problem confronting the Muslims alone. The theme needed harder treatment.
Among those who spoke on the story were Mashriq Siddiqui, Rafiuddin Raaz, Jamil Azimabadi, A. Khayyam and Shariq Balyavi.
LITERARY criticism continues to be a theme at many discussions. Dr Mohammad Ali Siddiqui, for one, has often expressed his disappointment at the current state of literary criticism. He did so again at a sitting of the Literary Forum on June 19.
Dr Siddiqui, who was in the chair, said there was a flood of promotional writings — ‘Taqribaati Tanqeed,’ as he called it — in the market since books in their plenty were being published carrying mostly favourable, but undeserving, comments from critics. Dr Siddiqui said that this had immensely damaged the credibility of Urdu writing.
Giving his opinion on a paper on literary criticism read out by writer Sarwar Javed and on some of Javed’s essays published in Matai-i-Nazar, Dr Siddiqui felt that the critic should have a clear point of view. He admired Javed’s critical analysis of contemporary writings.
A couple of days earlier, Prof Saher Ansari, dilating on criticism in present times at the Welcome Book Port, had described Javed as a fair and judicious critic. If there was an element of bitterness in his prose, it was because of the general apathy of writers towards this genre.
The gathering was attended by many writers — Rafiuddin Raaz, Anjum Javed, Noor Mohammad Shaikh, Shariq Balyavi, Shamshad Ahmad, Mansoor Multani, among others.
The Bazm-i-Scienci Adab held its 126th literary sitting on Saturday (June 25). Mr Sirajuddin, its secretary, presided.
It looked more like a clinic than a literary sitting as Surgeon Shahid Salim talked on the topic, “Jarrahi ki ghaltian (surgical mistakes)”. Dr Amin Gadit, an expert in psychiatry, described his experience with psychosomatic patients. Dr Darakhshan Halim, professor of biochemistry at Karachi University, talked about her experience during her research at a UK university, Ms Saamia Salim, an MPhil student of science, presented a research paper on the merits of honey, and, of all persons, poet Yunus Razuz waxed poetically about enzymes. Another poet Mahbubuddin Mahboob lamented environmental pollution. The pivotal figure was Azmat Ali Khan.
Saamia Salim provided many valuable facts about the medicinal and healing values of honey as mentioned in the Quranic surah ‘Al Nuhl’. She said further researches were being conducted by the scientists.
Surgeon Shahid Salim’s paper written in literary language with a touch of humour was listened to attentively. Some listeners were keen to know about transplantation and the theft and sale of vital humour organs, particularly in the South Asian countries. The donation of human organs should be regularized, a law enacted and the sale of human organs must be checked, Salim said.
Depression and the use of sedatives was the topic dilated upon by Prof Amin Gadit. Having spent many years in Canada, with a lot of information about the methods of treatment employed by the physicians over there, the speaker said that loneliness was a main cause of depression. You will not find a single home without one victim of depression. The professor felt that the number of patients suffering from depression had gone up four times during the decade. Depression, he said, was the fourth most common ailment in the world and the number of patients could rise in the future.
The situation in Pakistan was also alarming. Excessive use of drugs was not the answer, although most psychiatrists were found prescribing around one dozen medicines to a single patient with no positive result.
The growing pressure of urbanization had left people with little space and amenities to share and live together, the professor said. Now people were living on their own, without the extended family support system. A breakdown of social values had created a complicated medical problem.