| July 20, 2005 | Wednesday | Jumadi-us-Sani 12, 1426 |
Imaginary interviews
AQABA (Jordan): In language both sharp and subtle, Iraqi and international officials on Monday criticized the US-led rebuilding effort for moving too slowly to improve the lives of Iraqi citizens.
Meeting for a donors conference at this Jordanian resort town sandwiched between desert cliffs and the placid Red Sea, the officials announced the expected approval of $4 billion in loans from Japan and the World Bank to help speed reconstruction.
They said the United States’ $18.4-billion effort had fallen short of restoring essential services such as power, water and sanitation. The criticism reflected a growing belief in Iraq and elsewhere that the Bush administration had bungled the reconstruction by giving billions to private corporations to tackle major infrastructure projects.
“It is now clear that these mega projects, though essential, have not succeeded in providing quickly enough for Iraqis’ basic needs,” said Barham Salih, Iraq’s minister of planning and development cooperation. “Iraqis throughout the country remain dissatisfied.”
The State Department, in a little-noticed report released this month, acknowledged the necessity of “adjusting [US] support” to improve the reconstruction plan.
More than $6 billion in US funds and billions more in Iraqi money have been spent so far, but the country’s electricity supply is far from meeting demand; oil production is below pre-war levels; and barely half of Iraqis report having access to safe, stable supplies of drinking water.
Unemployment is estimated at between 25 per cent and 50 per cent; fuel and food subsidies have resulted in a significant budget deficit; US and Iraqi audits have been unable to account for billions in spending; and at least three US officials and scores of Iraqis, including two former government ministers, are facing corruption charges.
In addition, more than 350 contractors working on reconstruction have been killed; scores have been kidnapped. Insurgents have also targeted Iraqi civilians working with US firms.
Before speaking, Salih observed a minute of silence for the more than 90 Iraqis killed in a suicide bombing Saturday in the town of Musayyib, south of Baghdad. He then asked the assembled representatives from dozens of countries to step up their pledges to help in Iraq’s reconstruction.
It was an unsettling juxtaposition that underscored the difficulty of trying to rebuild a country in the middle of a war.
Iraqi and US officials said efforts to stabilize the nation’s currency, train Iraqi security forces and rehabilitate hundreds of schools and health clinics had been successful.
“It has worked,” Salih said, “but very, very, very slowly so far.”
The international rebuilding effort is being funded through loans and grants from the World Bank, the United Nations and donor nations such as Japan.
At Monday’s conference, the World Bank announced final approval of $500 million in loans. Iraq, meanwhile, said it had agreed in principle to another $3.5 billion in loans from Japan.
Although couching criticism in diplomatic language, officials from the World Bank and the UN made it clear that the international community’s $13.5-billion rebuilding effort would differ from the US approach.
The United States in early 2004 awarded contracts to a handful of US-based multinational firms such as Halliburton Co., Bechtel Corp. and Perini Corp. for massive infrastructure projects such as building power plants, hospitals and clinics and refurbishing water treatment facilities.
But many of the firms have had difficulty completing projects in the face of insurgent attacks, logistical difficulties and complicated US contracting guidelines. At least one contractor, Contrack International Inc., has pulled out. Perini and Pasadena-based Parsons Corp. have had jobs taken away from them over concerns about rising costs.
The international officials said they had learned from the US experience and would rely on Iraqi contractors. Besides being cheaper, Iraqi contractors often face fewer security concerns, said Michael Bell, a Canadian official overseeing part of the international reconstruction effort.
Bell said about 2 per cent of World Bank and UN project costs are for security. The US estimate for security costs is 16 per cent to 22 per cent.
“We can’t afford to sit and wait,” Bell said. “There are rather urgent needs.”
International officials also said they would concentrate on smaller projects that would have an immediate effect, such as chlorinating water to help prevent cholera, distributing schoolbooks and providing free vaccinations.
“Of course, these projects are not enough given the needs,” said Christiaan Poortman, the World Bank’s vice president for the Middle East and North Africa. “There is not yet enough progress felt on the ground.”
The international officials also said they were committed to working more closely with Iraqi officials, who have recently drawn up a 70-page list of projects. Especially in the early days of the reconstruction effort, Iraqis often complained that US officials did not consult with them or with local communities. “The US programmes were big, and they themselves are learning that they have to do much more through the Iraqis,” said Staffan de Mistura, the UN secretary-general’s deputy special representative for Iraq.
Though not acknowledging any mistakes, US officials at the meeting in Jordan said they too were committed to using more local contractors with input from recently elected provincial councils.
In a report this month, the State Department acknowledged the need for further changes in the US reconstruction programme. It increased spending on a new security force to protect oil pipelines in northern Iraq and dedicated $16 million to improving oil flow.
The report also acknowledges publicly for the first time that many of the US-built projects were at risk because Iraqis did not have the money or expertise to maintain them.
Tony Wayne, the US assistant secretary of State for economic and business affairs, praised the day’s discussions. “We think this was a very successful day,” he said. “It was a good dialogue.”—Dawn/LAT-WP News Service © The Los Angeles Times.
A US-based poet and writer, Irfan Murtaza, presented two of his books last Friday — Chanda, being a poetry collection, and Tasvirain, a collection of imaginary interviews with poets liked by the author, some living, others dead.
Irfan Murtaza, who has formed a literary body in the non- literary climate of Las Vegas, recited some of his poems from the present volume and also some from his first collection — Puraney Ghar ka Mausam.
Poet Rafiuddin Raaz and senior writer Masud Ahmad Barkati spoke on his works, and the latter said Murtaza knew how to turn written words into colourful pictures. The imaginary interview with Saghir Siddiqui read out by the author was liked by everyone.
Sindh Ombudsman Yusuf Jamal, billed as the chief guest, praised the writer for his poetic expression, but advised him to address his attention towards his own countrymen living in the US, marginalized and deprived particularly after the 9/11 tragedy.
Dr Mohammad Ali Siddiqui talked about the imaginary interviews with poets and praised Murtaza’s selection of couplets. However, he bitterly criticized the free mixing of English with Urdu and feared an uneasy future for the latter. Urdu had already fallen on bad days as there were no teachers available who could teach Ghalib at the college level. Quoting a Unesco report, Dr Siddiqui said that 15 to 16 languages were dying on a yearly basis, as the ultimate curse of globalization.
Ghulam Nabi Moghal, resident director, Adbiyat, the host organization, welcomed the guests. Akhtar Saeedi briefly introduced the writer.
AT the launch of the book Language Planning in Higher Education by Dr Sabiha Mansoor, most speakers observed that people in Pakistan and India both were fast losing respect for their mother tongues, Urdu and Hindi, respectively. After partition, much against the expectations of the academicians, both languages were sidelined, while English became the most important language.
Dr Khalid Aftab, of the Government College University, Lahore noted that the national languages suffered due to the neglect of the state which also did not provide support to regional languages.
The policy planners were perhaps confused about the role of indigenous languages in the process of nation building because they had not set up bilingual education programmes that would have allowed all languages (Urdu, English and the regional languages) to play their role in higher education.
Leaving aside the problem of education at higher levels, it is now being felt that language teachers are not available even at the primary level. The government only recently announced the introduction of English for primary classes, but where are the teachers who can teach English? The problem at the college level is even worse, at least where Urdu is concerned.
As noted by a Unesco publication (quoted above also) some local dialects and national languages, mostly from the Afro Asian region, are dying because of neglect on the part of the state and the supremacy of English due to its economic and political power.
In this age of computers and information technology, the teaching of languages and social science has badly suffered. This state of affairs perhaps fulfils the cultural agenda of the World Bank, the IMF and transnational trading corporations. Perhaps less than half a dozen languages will serve their purpose in the present scenario and the others have no place in their scheme of things. It is they who provide jobs to the younger, and the latter know which languages will serve their interests best.