| March 24, 2006 | Friday | Safar 23, 1427 |
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Lyari Expressway resettlement
Expensive wind energy projects
Cartoon controversy
Main enemy
Earthquake relief
Protection for all
Define ‘civilised’
Hyderabad roads
Oil spoils
AFTER watching the documentary “Being Indian” on the BBC about Indian private schools, I thought with great alarm about the state of public schools and the snobbish nature of elitist private education in Pakistan. The documentary showed how private schools in India play their role in educating children about the problems being faced by people living in city slums and ghettos.
The students are taught about democracy, constitution and the rights and responsibilities of citizens, especially the affluent classes, to address the problems of the poor living a miserable life in slums.
The documentary showed how students are involved in issues such as poverty, sanitation and housing faced by the marginalised section of society living on the fringes of big cities through projects. It was most touching to see schoolchildren walking through streets littered with garbage quizzing household folk about their problems and finding out from them the underlying causes of poverty.
The purpose of the whole exercise is to develop a pro-poor orientation in elitist Indian youth so that after occupying positions of power, this class can play a crucial role in poverty alleviation and economic development of slums. And this is what today’s Indian elitist class is doing, leading India as one of the contenders for the status of future superpower.
Just compare India’s elite school education with ours, which is more snobbish and selfish in nature and the curriculum is designed in a way it does not involve children from these elitist schools with the problems of slums. Children from these schools are ignorant of the slum problems.
I have not seen pupils of any elite school working on the project dealing with the causes of poverty-related problems in slum areas in any big city. It is because of that segregation and lack of interaction that our society is ethnically fragmented, socially class-ridden and politically polarised, putting our already fragile unity in jeopardy.
Adding to our woes is the public school system in our country which is literally lying in a state of decrepitude where workers of political parties are recruited as teachers as a result of political interference and collapse of administrative structure due to over-politicisation of education departments.
The quandary is such that even after 58 years of independence we have not yet decided in which language the child should be taught. These issues are very puzzling, to which our rulers and policymakers have paid no attention.
On the other hand, the school curriculum is changed from time to time keeping in view the political designs of our rulers. For example, during Zia’s era the whole education system was reoriented to suit the Islamic pursuits of Zia. Now, our new tsars of education after 9/11 are busy in constructing the whole education policy from primary to university level in a way as to placate our American friends and realise the goals of enlightened moderation through changes in curriculum.
Ironically, these policy tsars have ignored the fact that enlightened moderation is a political process which can only be achieved through political liberalisation and socio-economic justice. Nothing of the sort is happening.
We do everything possible to compete with India in terms of regional power politics and try to create and maintain that balance of power through a military build-up. Now, however, it is believed that there are other areas such as economics, education, IT, science and technology, culture, civil society organisation, democracy and quality of bureaucracy which can contribute significantly towards maintenance of balance of power.
The strengthening of these areas is critical to our national security and balance of power as future wars will not be fought militarily but economically and culturally. And for that matter we need to strengthen our base through the kind of educational system that can only promote national unity and integration.
Keeping in view the level of poverty and enormity of socio-economic problems, it is imperative that the tsars of our educational policy should wake up from their slumber and work to demolish the walls of educational apartheid we have raised in our educational system. We must work to reorientate the policies of the public and private sector schools to engage and educate our youth about socio-economic issues being faced by the poor living in city slums. This way we can produce more responsible citizens who will play a constructive role in the development and defence of the country.
MANZOOR ALI ISRAN
Shah Abdul Latif University
Khairpur
THIS is with reference to Ms Zubeida Mustafa’s article (March 10) ‘I would like to say that there has been enormous dislocations of livelihoods, homes and children’s education. Ms Mustafa’s article shows that over 200,000 people would be affected. The majority of the people who are being affected either work within the corridor ir in the neighbouring settlements and industrial areas as day-wage labour. The government is offering a plot to these affected people in Baldia, Taiser Town, Surjani and Hawkesbay. These alternative sites have no social amenities or job opportunities and are far away from their present livelihood places. In many cases, people who have been allotted plots in resettlement are selling (over 40 per cent already sold) their plots for as low as Rs10,000 to 25,000 to land speculators and investors. On the other hand, a large number of people with fake claims are also receiving plots in these resettlement sites.
In both ways the land grabbers are making big money at the public expense. It seems the government is developing Lyari Expressway Resettlement Project at a cost of over Rs4 billion only for land speculators and grabbers. It is a drain of human and financial resources and such instances happened many times to this poor city.
A resettlement plan guaranteeing homes, jobs and social amenities should have been an integral part of the Lyari Expressway project.
A proper resettlement plan could have been partially self-financing and would have been an opportunity for improving the housing conditions, education, health and economic activities of 25,000 families and businesses rather than their total destruction in this age of recession, unemployment and growing aimlessness. Urban planning is not about building roads alone but about improving job opportunities and community cohesiveness. By now, after years of civic strife, Karachi’s planners should have learnt this lesson.
IMRAN SIKANDER
Karachi
AT an engineering conference in Islamabad on March 17, a highly-placed representative of the Alternative Energy Development Board confirmed our worst fears. The AEDB now estimates that “levelised” tariff of proposed wind energy projects in the Sindh “wind corridor” will be $8.4 per kWH unit. How can a poor country like Pakistan afford such expensive power? We are already suffering from expensive thermal power plants, “gifted” to developers by the “magnanimous” originators of 1994 energy policy. To repeat this high-cost power availability would be tantamount to murdering the industrial growth in the country for ever. Wind energy is, as yet, not economical both because of high capital costs and “intermittence”, resulting in very low load factors.
Recent findings of the Conference Board of Canada are real “eye-openers”. Their study and confirmation of “experience in Denmark and Germany (the countries that have most heavily invested in wind) has shown that electricity from on-shore wind is uneconomic in comparison with traditional alternatives and off-shore wind energy would cost over double compared with gas or nuclear projects”. They further confirm that while Denmark and Germany have invested the most into wind power, it remains uneconomical in both markets.
In our case, wind power will be even more expensive as the entire installation is of imported origin, with no local expertise of maintaining such special installations. Just for comparison, we were not ready to accept levelised average of US cents 5.7 for Thar coal-based power plant proposed by a Chinese company and are now ready to waste the country’s resources at 8.4 cents (US) per kWH.
What are we really trying to do? Instead of proposing energy conservation and more economical power generation, we are being influenced by catch-words like “renewable energy”, without understanding the simple economics.
What good is renewable energy based on “God-provided free wind” if it is going to be so expensive?
AINUL ABEDIN
Karachi
I AGREE wholeheartedly with Ms Rabia Shakoor (March 22) in her assertion that Mr Zakir Ahmad (March 19) did not do Islam any service by his lengthy letter. After the most sober policy of ignoring them, the best policy vis-a-vis the cartoons would have been to bring to the notice of the offending newspaper the teachings of our Holy Prophet which have nothing to do with terrorism.
SALAHUDDIN MIRZA
Karachi
THIS is in reference to the letter by Rabia Shakoor in which she has expressed displeasure at the publication of a letter by Zakir Ahmed in which he had suggested that those who were involved in the publication of the blasphemous cartoons in the Danish paper be crucified.
While I too was appalled by Mr Ahmed’s point of view, I consider it his right to express it and I would not challenge Dawn over its publication.
If European newspapers can publish cartoons that make a mockery of our religion, why can’t Mr Ahmed be allowed to express his views in a letter to the editor? After all, wasn’t it freedom of expression that everyone was screaming about?
ALI M. KHAN
Lahore
AFTER reading Rabia Shakoor’s letter I went back to read Zakir Ahmed’s letter to see what her negative reaction was about. Rather than something reflecting extremism, I found a logical argument that made complete sense to me. What Ms Shakoor is objecting to is actually the literal translation of an ayat from the Holy Quran (he has quoted the reference as well). Mr Ahmed also wrote that it is not for individuals to take the law into their own hands.
It was not Mr Ahmed’s views, but Ms Shakoor’s reaction that I found extreme.
AMBREEN ABBAS
Islamabad
I AM surprised by Rabia Shakoor’s response to Zakir Ahmed’s letter. Considering that she lives in a ‘civilised’ society, she should know that a national newspaper ideally represents all shades of public opinion. Should the newspaper censor letters to the editor? Won’t this curb the freedom of speech?
TOOBA MEHBOOB
Karachi
IN these times when Muslims are being demonised and their religion and Prophet (peace be upon him) are being grievously insulted by circles in the West, it would be instructive to review some western opinions and news reports pertinent to the subject.
* “When I returned home... I carried with me the sense that Pakistan is a land balanced somewhere between creation and eternity, and first and foremost a land where everyone is concerned for the well-being of those around them, whether family, friend or stranger, whether Muslim or not, whether Pakistani or guest.” — Celeste Sullivan, British scholar, Dawn, The Review Aug 1-7, 02).
* “Jeffry Krous... an American student of Karachi University... wished he could stay here for many more years as he finds Pakistan ‘a fascinating world’ where friendship and hospitality run deep and strong.” Excerpt from article (Dawn, The Review, April 1-7, 2004.
* “Donna Meadows (a college professor from Texas) visited Pakistan last December and fell in love with it. On her return, she decided to celebrate Pakistan day with her colleagues...” — Excerpt from article (Dawn Magazine, March 5)
* (On July 7, 1945) the United States test-fired its new atomic weapon, and in a flash mankind had the means of its own potential destruction .... “The whole human species has been living with the threat of annihilation ever since,” said Peter Kuznick, a history professor specialising in nuclear issues at’ American University in Washington....”
Six decades on, the (group of seven American scientists’) Franck report’s warnings seem eerily prescient, as US policy-makers confront the modern threat from nuclear proliferation, and fears (that the) terrorists could one day threaten a US city with a rudimentary nuclear device.” - News report (Dawn, July 13, 2005)
* “The British prime minister invoked God in his decision to go to war (in Iraq)... President George Bush... was quoted saying last year that God had told him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan.” — News report (Dawn, March 5)
* “Iran now is main enemy, says US” — News headline (Dawn, March 17)
* In invading Iraq, Bush has created his own nightmare.... Another dangerous policy... is the reliance on enhanced nuclear weapons as a cornerstone of US national security even as the US continues to insist that other states not develop nuclear weapons to protect their own security. — Los Angeles Times (Dawn, March 20) * “US forces convert Saddam’s torture cell into their own.” — News headline (Dawn, March 20)
Apart from the examples of one British and two ordinary Americans quoted above, who have come to like or even fallen in love with Pakistan, one has either met or is aware of many other folks from the West who had developed a passion for various Islamic countries. These include Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
Unfortunately, people like Mr Bush and Mr Blair have already set some of these countries on fire, acting in the name of God and are now gunning for Iran (by branding it the ‘main enemy’), Syria and Sudan,. Attacks on Pakistan and Saudi Arabia may come later when their services are no longer required.
The friends of humanity are people with pure hearts and open minds who can love those people who are being stereotyped as ‘terrorists’ or ‘main enemies’, as also these latter ones who earn this affection through their genuine friendliness and hospitality.
The ‘main enemy’ of the US or the world at large isn’t any Muslim country but the leaders and politicians who kill or hurt others, usually because of their prejudice, a desire to control the latter’s resources or to impose their own culture and values on them. The US has long since developed and used the most dangerous weapons to frighten others into submission. Such behaviour can only invite a backlash.
These individuals also have a sense of superiority or of being divinely guided. It is obvious, however, that the mess that they have created in Iraq could not have resulted from divine supervision.
KHALID CHAUDHRY
Karachi
THE departure of the US military’s earthquake relief team marks the end of a magnificent effort by foreign countries. Have we shown our gratitude in a befitting manner? Surely not.
Recall the furore over the arrival of the Nato force when wildly sinister motives were attributed to an essentially humanitarian effort. The Cubans did a marvellous job without fanfare. Their effort has been underplayed by the media and the government, perhaps out of fear that to do otherwise would not be politically correct.
I would like to see our parliament adopt a unanimous resolution acknowledging the services of all these countries and indeed our own expatriates and ordinary citizens.
SHAHNAZ HASAN
Karachi
How pathetic that army jawans deployed at the Kashtra army camp in Garhi Habibullah, Mansehra, didn’t allow us to store material brought from all over the country for earthquake victims.
When we denied them CGI sheets, they threatened us with dire consequences and loaded their jeeps with the sheets for transportation to an unknown destination, for reasons best to themselves.
The army is supposed to be our guardian and helper in time of need.
NASIR
Abbottabad
The most basic function of a federal government, to the exclusion of all other functions, is the protection of citizens.
First in East Pakistan and now in Balochistan and Waziristan, especially Bajaur, it has become clear that successive governments have failed to provide this most basic need of their citizens.
RIAZ A. HAKEEM
Texas, USA
Gratitude
I WISH to thank the Karachi city administration for digging up the whole city and extending our working hours by creating traffic bottlenecks where there were none.
TALHA BIN HAMID
Karachi
BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blairs speech to the Foreign Policy Centre completely glosses over the huge failure of foreign policy in Iraq and the continued support of western governments for dictators and tyrants the world over.
This speech, and those that will likely follow it are intended to mask the huge failure to win hearts and minds in the Muslim world and absolve western governments of any responsibility whatsoever for the trail of death and destruction in Iraq, Kashmir, Chechnya, Palestine and Afghanistan. In his speech, Blair places no blame on Russia or India for their state terrorism, brutality and oppression in Chechnya and Kashmir.
He rejects the notion of a “clash of civilisations” in favour of what he calls a clash for civilisation. So what type of civilisation is being advocated? Is the killing of over 100,000 civilians in Iraq civilised? Are torture, rendition and detention without trial civilised? Is the description of Guantanamo as an anomaly civilised? Is supporting dictators and tyrants like Mubarak of Egypt or Karimov of Uzbekistan civilised? Is supporting Israel’s brutality against Palestinian children civilised?
ZAIN BIN ZUBAIR
Lahore
I fully agree with Aisha Memons letter (March 22). This isn’t the first time that roads in Hyderabad have been dug up for reconstruction. If our engineers used good quality materials, the roads would not be damaged every year due to heavy traffic and monsoon rains. Instead, they buy material of inferior quality and pocket the money that is meant for building roads.
FILZA. G. SIDIQI.
Ireland
The United States is threatening to cancel aid to countries that import oil and gas from Iran. By discouraging countries from trading with Iran, the US government is aiming at killing two birds with one stone. On the one hand it will hurt the Iranian economy and on the other it will force countries to turn to Iraq to meet their oil requirements. Since the oil fields in Iraq are controlled by the occupation forces, this means an increase in petro-dollars for the Americans.
ABDUL KHALIQ
Islamabad
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