| August 1, 2005 | Monday | Jumadi-us-Sani 24, 1426 |
A valiant woman, a gritty agenda
Infirmities of old age
Govt hospitals: The height of indifference
DADU: The Sindh health department never tires of claiming to provide facilities to patients in government hospitals.
IT IS Sunday, July 31, as I write these lines. If May and June were cruel, July has been murderous. It has taken me a full 31 days to count the month out and it is still not over; it is 9:30 in the morning and it will not be before midnight tonight before I can put the month behind me.
But is the end of July the end of the matter? No, not by a long shot. It is only less than half the job done. If July is murderous, August can be no less lethal. Given a choice, I would rather have two Mays and two Junes rather than live through 62 days of hell during July and August. And September can be vicious, too. Mother, RIP, used to call it Sitamgar. So, there is no respite till about the middle of October.
And can you imagine? Mother was born on July 31 (1918) and father on August 5 (1912). My parents, however, were made of sterner stuff. Father never went to office except in a summer suit, while mother fancied satins and velvets on weddings, and, mind you, there were no refrigerators or airconditioners. We bought our first refrigerator in April 1960, primarily to preserve some life-saving drugs for father. The machine is a 5.7 cubic-foot Westinghouse and today, more than 45 years later, it is still as good as new. And do you know something? We bought it for Rs2,000. But then, I suppose, the rupee was still a rupee. Father went to England in April 1960 for treatment for a disease from which he was not destined to recover. Anyhow, he stayed in London from mid-April to mid-August 1960 and the family paid all of Rs20,000 for a four-month stay in hospital, air passage and all. Today, you would be lucky if you could go to Karachi by air for a week’s stay in a two-star hotel and be not down for a minimum of Rs30,000. And if you are with your wife, you can put yourself down by another 30,000. Now extravagant shopping, either.
DO YOU believe in Ayurvedic medicine? Well, here is an account by Beverly Nichols in his book, Verdict on India (1944): Ayurveda, whatever else it may be, is not British; it is purely Indian, and therefore must be supported. The mystical bent of the Indian mind — even in science — is so marked that we should not be justified in accusing its advocates of sharp practice, though some must surely be aware that its claims are unjustified; and if they or their families are suffering from anything worse than a slight headache they do not hesitate to consult a ‘Western’ physician. Naturally, they do not advertise these lapses from the true faith; it would not be good for trade; and in the meantime they continue to treat the ignorant millions of India with a variety of dopes which are tragically ineffective.
This is not the place for a lengthy description of the principles of Ayurveda; several volumes would be needed. The main body of the ‘science’ — if it can be dignified by such a name — is to be found in the ancient Vedic scriptures, which were of course, composed in Sanskrit. For over two thousand years Sanskrit was the exclusive perquisite of the Brahmins, the most conservative body of men that any nation has even produced since history began. It may therefore be gathered that Ayurveda did not advance very far along the lines of pure research. If did, however, accumulate to itself over the centuries a considerable debris of extraneous superstitions, which had no connection with the original Vedic hymns. For instance, it borrowed a good deal of jargon of astrology. It also allowed authority to two ancient Hindu physicians by name Charaka and Susruta, whose works, translated into Arabic by Ar Razi, are among the curios of medical literature. Anything that sounded likely to appeal to the credulity of the peasant was incorporated in Ayurveda; it became a sort of witch’s cauldron; and its brew, though flavoured strongly with a religious essence, was sharpened by scraps of black magic, local fairy tales, and even, from time to time, oddments from Western consulting rooms. The brew, none the less, remains largely poisonous and — to Western Ideas — wholly bogus.
This is the system which, in the name of nationalism, is rapidly assuming responsibility for the health of one-fifth of the human race. We can best appreciate that Ayurveda is by stating, as concisely as possible, what it is not. The things it does not attempt to do are even more significant than the things it does. Here are some of its more glaring omissions.
1. It disdains the microscope and ignores the whole field of bacteriology; its diagnosis is there for mere guess-work.
2. It rejects surgery, and gives the cancer patient a pill.
3. It knows nothing of injections, either intravenous or intramuscular; the syphilitic is compelled to swallow crude arsenic, to the delight of the spirochete but the dismay of his liver.
4. It has no disinfectants adequate to deal with any but the simplest cases of sepsis; to prevent the spread of cholera it hangs a bunch of flowers over the doorway.
5. Anaesthetics, needles to say, are quite unknown to it, and when it requires an analgesic it relies on crude opium.
6. It deliberately rejects countless remedies that have unquestionably proved their worth in Western medicine, and it rejects them in favour of methods that can only be described as wishful thinking. Rather than use British sulphonamide preparations for pneumonia, or a Canadian product like insulin for diabetes, the Ayurvedic doctor’s ‘therapy’ allows his patients to die on his hands. One could write pages about the glaring deficiencies of Ayurveda; for the average man, these few sentences should be enough. However, in fairness to Ayurveda, let us admit that just as witch-doctors in Western Africa have discovered herbs which are effective for local fevers, so the Ayurvedic physicians have evolved, through the centuries, certain simple remedies for common complaints.
It would hardly have been possible for them to have failed to do so. They can relieve constipation, they can temporarily abate the fever of malaria, they have several good tonics, an excellent cold cure, and a secret remedy for dysentery which is often very effective. In two cases they have actually anticipated Western medicine. They were the first to use gold in the treatment of consumption, and they were the first to use a certain oil, whose name I forgot, in the treatment of leprosy.These discoveries were made many centuries ago, and if they had been followed up in the spirit of Western research, the world might have been saved much misery. But Ayurveda, as we have seen, was a secret Brahmin society. Its exponents were gripped fast by the superstition that if a secret was given to the world it would ‘lose its virtue’ (or, more likely, cease to be a source of profit) and therefore the seals were put on the bottles, the herbs were locked away, the sacred books were jealously guarded, and time, in Indian medicine, stood still.
We have indicated, briefly but accurately, the pros and cons of Ayurveda. But we have forgotten one branch of this ‘science’ which has shown remarkable progress. It is not a very honourable branch but it plays so large a part in Ayurveda that it must be mentioned.
In the manufacture of aphrodisiacs, Ayurveda reigns supreme.
On my desk lies the catalogue of one the many firms of Ayurvedic chemists. These firms are legion; they have a huge mail-order business; and their long lists of testimonials offer impressive proof that the mystic approach to medicine is something which the Indian likes, demands, and is ready to pay for.
However, there is nothing mystic — and probably nothing exaggerated either — about their claims to stimulate the sexual appetite. Concerning a certain ointment we are told that it will ‘infuse young men with horse-like vigour’. The Westerner might feel alarmed by the prospect of developing such equine propensities; not so the Hindu.
There is a powder which acts so swiftly that ‘we can say, in bold language, it churns up the bold’. ‘Bold’ is certainly the word. And another powder, for very old men, which will ‘drive away their weakness as the dim darkness fades away with the rise of the sun in the eastern sky’. The picture of these vigorous ancients is not attractive.
Under the heading ‘For Help in Merriments’ comes a positive spate of inflammatory mixtures. One trembles to think of what happens to those who take them. There is one which is said to make even the most jaded persons ‘lusty with electric tremors’ .... a condition which, one would have thought, would lead sooner or later to the police court. But as it also ‘includes a lofty attitude to life’. The findings of the magistrate might be robbed of their terrors.
These things have been mentioned not for their ‘amusement value’ but because they have a profound significance. In India, where the shadow of death lies over so vast an area of the continent, where so many industries fade and languish, the trade in aphrodisiacs grow from year to year, absorbing an utterly disproportionate amount of nation’s income.
It is a disturbing thought .... as though a death mask were twitching.
NIRMALA Deshpande is an amazingly gritty woman. She is tiny and ageless, an old-fashioned Gandhian who will attend any rally or seminar at any time of the day, in any part of the country, if it brings succour to the poor or the marginalized. All she requires is an energetic attendant to carry a bottle of boiled water, someone who would also help find a chair for her during these usually long deliberations, to help her rest her worn out knee-joints.
Ms Deshpande has led countless peace delegations to Pakistan and played host to as many. She is the odd Indian MP who has questioned the xenophobic axioms that have mushroomed with India’s home-grown “war on terrorism”. As chairperson of the “Committee for Inquiry on December 13”, Ms Deshpande has brought together an impressive array of respected citizens, who have refused to accept the police version of the so-called attack on India’s parliament that nearly set off a nuclear conflict with Pakistan. She wants the following appeal to be published by newspapers here and abroad:
“The Committee for Inquiry on December 13 is a national campaign to bring out the truth, expose the perpetrators, ensure justice and protect the rights of the accused in the parliament attack case. The committee views this case as falling under the general concerns of rights, justice, and democracy that ensue in the context of the ‘war on terrorism.’
“The committee strongly condemns terrorist acts by fundamentalist outfits; these are serious attacks on civil society and its democratic institutions. However, the committee agrees with Mr Kofi Annan that human rights, along with democracy and social justice, are one of the best prophylactics against terrorism. The task is not easy, but it must be undertaken for democracy to function.
“In this context, while we are opposed to the policies of the Blair government in Iraq and elsewhere, we appreciate the immediate steps taken to maintain calm and civil order in the city of London after the serial blasts on 7/7, to launch a serious inquiry into the attacks, and to refrain from implicating individuals and groups without convincing evidence. We also applaud the role of the British media and human rights organizations in exposing within hours the police action leading to the death of an innocent man and the immediate acknowledgement of the error by the police. We hope that both the responsible terrorist organization and the guilty policemen will be brought to justice.
“In contrast, the actions of the investigating agencies, especially the Special Cell of the Delhi police, and the reporting of their operations by the media, have only helped in spreading terror in the minds of the people. Going by newspaper reports, the national capital of India must be one of the most dangerous places on this planet (for example, Times of India, July 18, p.2).
“In recent months, the special cell has been involved in dozens of operations against alleged terrorists, gangsters, hired killers and highway robbers. Here is a partial list of their arrests of and encounters with alleged terrorists only: 1. February 18: Aziz of Al Jihad arrested. 2. February 25: Mohammad Untoo and Gulam Nazar, ex-militants, arrested. 3. March 5: Hamid Hussain and Sariq of Lashkar-i-Toyaba arrested. 4. March 5: Shahnawaz, Bilawal and Shams, LiT militants, killed in Bharat
Vihar. 5. March 8: Iftekhar Ahsan Mallick of LiT arrested. 6. March 10: Mohammad Sayeed, Pak spy, arrested. 7. April 25: Osama and Sabir, LiT militants, killed near Pragati Maidan. 8. May 16: Harun Rashid, LiT militant, arrested. 9. May 23: Ishaq Ittoo, LiT militant, arrested. 10. June 4: Ejaj Wani, Shabbir Peer, Nazir Khan of Hizb-i-Islami arrested. 11. July 10: Abdul Majid Bhatt of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen arrested.
“Our concern is that: (i) In each case, the media reported just the police version of the story in a language and with visual aids that vastly heighten the atmosphere of fear. There have been no follow-ups to ascertain whether the arrests and the encounters were genuine. After the arrests, the arrested persons simply disappeared from view; the media made no inquiries about their treatment in police custody, and whether the accused have been given the due protection of law.
“(ii) The media conducted no investigation on the following questions: A. What explains the sudden exponential increase of terrorist activities in and around the city of Delhi during the specified period, especially when it was well-known that the city was placed under close police surveillance after the attack on S.A.R. Geelani?
“B. What explains that organizations such as LiT would allow themselves to be repeatedly caught in the traps set up by the cell? Consider the arrest of Harun Rashid, on May 12. The LiT ‘module’ he is supposed to be a member of was decisively ‘smashed’ by the cell in a series of operations between March 5-10. Yet, Rashid compulsively landed at Delhi airport with the special cell waiting for him.
“C. What explains that the cell is able to recover huge amounts of explosives, weapons, incriminating material, IDs, diaries, phone numbers, e-mail messages, cash, etc, such that the identity and the goals of the organizations are immediately exposed?
“D. What explains the remarkable ability of the special cell to remain unharmed? In many cases, allegedly seasoned terrorists/ gangsters were arrested or killed after gun battles. However, we could locate just one instance in which two members of the special cell received ‘minor injuries,’ and that too in an operation against gangsters in Hardwar.
“(iii) In at least two cases, there are reasons to doubt the veracity of the police story. First, the alleged ex-militant Mohammad Ahsan Untoo is in fact a senior human rights campaigner in Kashmir, who was arrested by the special cell illegally and was brutally tortured in an attempt to extract a confession implicating him with the murderous attack on S. A. R. Geelani (Indian Express, May 17). Second, the People’s Union for Democratic Rights has claimed that the encounter near Pragati Maidan in which two alleged militants were gunned down was possibly an act of cold-blooded murder, reminiscent of the Ansal Plaza incident some years ago (Hindu, May 3).
“(iv) There is a persistent attempt by the media and police to link the current sequence of alleged terrorist acts with the parliament attack case in terms of the identity of terrorist organizations, their alleged method and plan of attacks. Not only that the case currently rests with the Supreme Court of India, this committee, among other human rights forums and lawyers, has repeatedly questioned the functioning of the Special Cell in that case.
“In view of these grave concerns, the Committee has appealed to the National Human Rights Commission to seek redressal on the following:
“1)To examine the arrest records and ensure full legal protection to alleged terrorists Aziz, Mohammad Untoo, Gulam Nazar, Hamid Hussain, Sariq, Iftekar Ahsan Mallick, Mohammad Sayeed, Ejaj Wani, Shabbir Peer, Nazir Khan, Abdul Majid Bhatt and others, arrested under questionable circumstances by the Delhi Police.
“2)To examine the post-mortem records and the circumstances in which alleged terrorists Shahnawaz, Saqib, Shams, Osama, Sabir, and others were killed by the police. To ensure that the families of the deceased and, if they are Pakistanis, the Government of Pakistan are duly notified.
“3)To examine the alleged seizures and recoveries made during the preceding arrests and killings to see if they are genuine and are documented as per law to make sure that the accused are not implicated in cases with planted evidence.
“4)To examine the entire functioning of the Delhi Police in general and the anti-terrorist operations of the Special Cell in particular in view of the persistent complaints of false arrests, torture in custody, and fake encounters raised by human rights forums and lawyers.—Nirmala Deshpande”.
Email: jawednaqvi@gmail.com
Said to be on the wrong side of 70, Anarkali has been entertaining visitors to the Karachi zoo with utmost devotion for the past four decades. Originally from Myanmar (formerly Burma), she was part of the herd of elephants that had strayed into what was East Pakistan in the early 1960s. As the herd stomped around in agricultural lands to the detriment of the crops, the government sent a couple of wildlife experts who helped the local authorities capture the elephants.
Anarkali was one of the ones caught. She was later brought to the Karachi zoo where an official with a wry sense of humour gave her the name she has. (One of the captured animals was given away as a gift by former military dictator Ayub Khan to an American president whose election symbol was an elephant – or so the story goes.)
The infirmities of old age have made it difficult for Anarkali to give children long rides. One’s heart goes out to her when, with children and youngsters sitting atop, she walks with heavy steps and sometimes lurches to one side or another. But the zoo authorities insist that a little bit of walking is good for her.
In any case, one hopes that Anarkali is not overworked. And that her nutritional and other needs are properly met. One also hopes that the zoo authorities are making plans to acquire another elephant so that children don’t miss their rides when Anarkali ages even further.
Going by the book
One new development which is likely to excite book lovers in Karachi is the first international fair in the country, due to be held in the coming winter. Karachi is the best option because a very large number of readers of general books live in the city. As far as Urdu books are concerned, Karachi is followed by Lahore, but not by a very wide margin, but when it comes to books in the English language, the gap is much wider.
According to Ameena Saiyid of Oxford University Press, 50 per cent of their English-language publications are sold in this city. When it comes to imported books, the gap is wider. Liberty Books, the largest importer of general books, claims that 60 per cent of English-language books are sold in Karachi and the remaining 40 per cent in the rest of the country.
When the organizers of the Karachi International Book Fair, the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association, booked a hall in the Expo Centre, they had no idea that the response from Pakistani and foreign participants, mostly Indian publishers, would be so overwhelming. Those who had booked as many as 20 stalls each voluntarily decided to reduce their bookings to three stalls, in order to accommodate those who were initially reluctant to join them. The trouble is that on the four days of the international book-fair – from December 8 to 11 — they cannot book another hall in the Expo Centre where other fairs have been planned.
Since the Karachi event will be the first full-scale international book-fair, the organizers are getting inquiries from publishers in the West also. The Indian participants have said that they would like to sell their own books and not give them to any local bookseller or importers. This suits the organizers. On all the four days of the book-fair, they will be holding seminars and workshops on different aspects — from reading to publishing and designing to printing, not to speak of selling.
The choice of the new generation
It seems that the days of the ‘doodhia bhutta’ or ‘challi’, toasted painstakingly on coal and generously sprinkled with a mixture of salt and chilli and smeared with a lemon, are numbered. It is slowly giving place to its sophisticated foreign cousin: corn-on-the-cob which is wrapped in snazzy waxed papers and is available at most fast-food joints.
With it, gone will be the culture of going up to the roadside cart of a bhutta-wallah, slitting open the cobs, testing how soft the kernel is by pinching it till a small blob of white milk oozes out. The man roasted the ‘bhutta’ to your exact liking before handing it to you wrapped in its green leaves. And if you were a regular, he let you put the ‘masala’ yourself and, as a special concession, even let you have a slice of lemon to apply to taste.
Unaware of the real thing, these days children and youngsters enjoy the corn-on-the-cob which comes in a variety of delicious flavours. They point out that for this new variant you don’t have to wait and deal with a roadside vendor who might not follow all the rules of hygiene.
And once you are done with it, you throw the bulk of the corn and the wrapping paper into the nearest dustbin and forget about it. That’s the hallmark of
the plastic culture that is fast gaining ground.
— By Karachian
email: karachi_notebook@hotmail.com
Dadu is one of the most neglected districts of the province where not a single specialist doctor is posted in government hospitals.
The Dadu Civil Hospital is one of the oldest and largest hospitals of the district.
It faces an acute shortage of specialist doctors and because of political influence junior doctors have been appointed on key positions.
The building of the hospital dates back to 1941 but the health department has not done anything to improve its wards and other sections.
The posts of specialist doctors in gynaecology, ENT, skin, orthopaedics, anaesthesia and cardiology are lying vacant.
Women patients including those seeking obstetrics treatment, general surgery and medicine are admitted to one ward with two to three patients given one bed.
The government has approved the construction of paediatric, orthopaedic and burns wards from the Khushaal Pakistan Programme but work on them has yet to start. Work on a female ward with 30 beds at a cost of Rs6 million was started but due to negligence of the department concerned the contractor has done only five per cent work in one year.
On people’s demand, the district government constructed a dialysis centre at a cost of Rs3.519 million in a short period of six months in the current year but the work turned out to be substandard.
Machinery worth Rs12 million was purchased but because of a dispute between health officials and the contractor, it was not installed.
The health department posted a junior doctor in BPS-18 as civil surgeon on May 4, 2004, while senior doctors including additional civil surgeon, additional medical superintendent and chief RMO, all in BPS-19, are working under the grade 18 civil surgeon.
The nursing hostel of the civil hospital is in a dilapidated condition. The administration needs to pay attention to this and make hostel respectable.
Citizens, social workers and activists of political parties have been protesting outside the Dadu Press Club for the last six months, demanding posting of specialist doctors and construction of new wards in the civil hospital but in vain.
The civil surgeon, Dr Syed Ghous Ali Shah, told Dawn that the hospital was facing a shortage of specialist doctors and wards due to ever-increasing number of patients.
He said the hospital administration had no option but to accommodate three to four children on a single bed and the situation was not different in the women ward.
Mr Shah said he had written to Sindh and district governments to post senior specialist doctors and construct new wards.
Taluka hospitals in Mehar and Khairpur Nathan Shah which were upgraded in 1991 are also without specialist doctors.
Eighteen other medical health units are working without budget and staff.
These are: BHU Nawab-Jo-Pat, Drigh Bala, government dispensaries in Paryo Jamali, Mureed Jamali, Sujawal Alkhani, Pir Gaji Shah, Chakar Shahani, Chaukhandi, Purano Dero, Khero, Bali Shah, Nau Goth, Gul Mohammad Jatoi, Pipri, Phulji, Jhaloo, Sawaro and Pat Gul Mohammad.
Health EDO Dr Dhani Bux Thebo said the administration was providing medicines to these basic health units by reducing budget of other hospitals.
Dadu DCO Aijaz A. Mangi said funds would be allocated for these 18 health facilities from the Zakat fund.
The people of Johi taluka are also suffering due to the absence of health facilities in the semi-desert belt of Kachho. There has been no improvement in the Taluka hospital in Johi.