India and Pakistan need to catch up on their sleep

SLEEP apnoea can cause memory loss. India and Pakistan do not seem to sleep well at all. Apart from memory loss, which can be both short term and of longer duration, sleep apnoea results in morning headaches, irritability, mood swings, and a marked tendency to fall asleep while driving.

The latest bout of these symptoms appears to have resulted for both from the trauma of the Mumbai blasts in which 200 innocent people lost their lives. Indian sleuths say the bombing of the packed trains was the handiwork of Pakistan’s home-grown Lashkar-i-Taiba terrorists. Prime Minister Singh has spoken of elements across the border playing a role in the tragedy.

As a consequence India now insists that Pakistan must honour the statement signed in Islamabad on January 6, 2004 by Prime Minister Vajpayee and President Musharraf, before the peace talks it suspended after July 11, can continue. One paragraph of that document specifically requires Pakistan to prevent anti-India militants from training on and carrying out cross-border attacks against its neighbour.

Has Pakistan indeed forgotten something important here for the talks with India to proceed? There is ground to suspect a fault of omission though not of commission by Pakistan. India however is not far behind in its own susceptibility to memory lapses. In their agreement signed in New Delhi on April 18 last year, President Musharraf and Prime Minister Singh had added two ground rules which were meant to deal with precisely the kind of contingency that both countries are facing today.

The importance of the April statement did not end with PresidentMusharraf’s Delhi visit. It was further reiterated when the two leaders met in New York in September last year. In the language of the joint statement the two nuclear neighbours reflected a responsible demeanour dictated by their new military prowess.

For starters the leaders accepted their historic opportunity, which they acknowledged was created by the “improved environment in relations and the overwhelming desire of the people of the two countries for durable peace”. It was a statesman-like agreement when the leaders “determined that the peace process was now irreversible.”

What else did the two determine to be the correct way ahead in Delhi? The Musharraf visit was marked by a devastating attack on the precise venue from where the first peace bus from Srinagar was due to start for Muzaffarabad. The leaders didn’t just brush it off but used the terror attack to fortify their resolve for peace. In fact, the eighth para in the Delhi statement is very clear about what the leaders should have done in the wake of a Mumbai-like situation. After condemning the attempts to disrupt the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service “…The two leaders pledged that they would not allow terrorism to impede the peace process.” Did India not foresee a Mumbai or a Varanasi happening when the prime minister signed the statement? What kind of terrorist attack were they expecting to ignore? The resolve not to allow terrorism to stall their peace process was by far the most mature statement to have ever come out of an India-Pakistan summit.

Sleep apnoea is supposed to make us open to irritability and mood swings. Is this what is happening with the two countries in the context of their current standoff? On the one hand; it is not a life threatening crisis, mind you, as the Indian prime minister has signalled a revival of the peace package within the Kashmir that lies under his control. On the other hand it puts on hold major initiatives for peace between the two countries. It’s a dangerous lull.

The media on both sides has done their bit to stir up all the trouble they possibly can. Is the media having difficulty with sleep too? Or is it simply a sign of complete surrender to everyone responsible for disseminating mindsets instead of credible news. It is curious how gullible the media are when they are doled out tripe on record and off it on a daily basis. One day a spokesman swears that he or she would not comment on hypothetical media reports. Another day the same people would kick up a storm over precisely such a report.

And the media is so tamed by now that it seems to savour the abuse of its intelligence and whatever is left of its integrity. To quote recent examples following the Mumbai blasts. The Indian spokesman went to town over an alleged comment by Foreign Minister Kasuri. Poor Mr. Kasuri has been denying ever since that he ever asked for a solution to the Kashmir dispute to end Mumbai-like assaults. The fact is that it was The Economist magazine that made a clear case for India to resolve the Kashmir issue to avoid future Mumbais from happening. However, The Economist also vehemently happens to support Prime Minister Singh’s messed up economic reforms. Is that why it was spared the usual hostile reaction by the Indian media and their mentors?

From Pakistan, on the other hand, we saw reports of President Musharraf similarly venting his spleen over some alleged Indian threat to carry out hot pursuit of blast suspects across the LOC. I checked with a senior official at the Pakistan High Commission about the reason for President Musharraf’s strong reaction to something that was never said by anyone in authority in India. On the contrary, the man who actually advocated such a pursuit in the 2002 nuclear standoff, had himself opposed the measure this time round. That person was former minister Jaswant Singh.

“It’s your bloody media,” I was told tersely. “They are advocating hot pursuit. How else should we respond to such provocation?” Whether the media was reflecting some official thinking or it was carrying old wives tales as usual is a matter of conjecture in which the president of a nuclear state need not have got himself involved. A joint secretary-level reaction would have sufficed. Unless something more sinister is brewing of which we are oblivious.

To jog the memory again, lest we fall asleep at the wheels. President Musharraf has made errors of judgment in his tussle with terrorism. India may have an important point to make here. Remember that as early as January 2002 he had declared Osama bin Laden dead. He was no doubt briefed by his aides. Everyone living in high tension zones is prone to making miscalculations. But President Musharraf has himself survived dangerously close assassination attempts by groups or individuals who must be training and recruiting their clones somewhere close by. It would be preposterous to insist the threat to his life lurks from somewhere outside his watch.

It is clear that both Prime Minister Singh and President Musharraf are facing serious threats to their political existence, threats that may not have their roots in terrorism at all. Both therefore need to sleep better. And if after that they can’t dream together, let them at least not inflict their nightmares on each other.

What is Tony Blair’s stake in the widening Middle East crisis? A 50-year-old clipping from The Hindu of July 29, 1956, perhaps holds a clue. It says: “Britain has protested to Egypt against the nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company. A Foreign Office spokesman said in London that a copy of the strong British protest note despatched on July 27 to Cairo was also handed over to the Egyptian Ambassador to Britain, Mr Samy Abdul Fetouh. In the House of Commons, the British Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden, hinted, in reply to a question, that consideration was being given to the possibility of blocking Egypt’s sterling balances — funds held in London — but he stressed that no decision had yet been taken. The British note, protesting against the “arbitrary action which constitutes a serious threat to the freedom of navigation on a waterway of vital international importance,” says that the responsibility for the consequences of President Nasser’s action in announcing the nationalisation of the company must rest with the Egyptian Government. A message from Cairo said Egypt had rejected the protest notes of Britain and France.”

jawednaqvi@gmail.com

Speed thrills, but kills

A picture in last Monday’s newspapers showed a crane pulling a car out of a Korangi drain overflowing with sewage. There were no details of what had happened to its occupants but one can clearly visualize the messy situation they would have been in even if they had scrambled out of it in one piece.

No evidence is required to support the assumption that the driver of the brand-new car was driving rashly as it had broken through the protective wall along the drain to plunge into the filthy water.

As our office van waited at a Khayaban-i-Shamshir-Street 26 signal on a recent midnight, the man ahead of us drove across as the light turned yellow. His eyes were fixed on the light and not on the vehicle movements around as the four young men in the car chattered over loud music. A car rushing from the Dalton Market side hit their car so violently that its front was smashed. The speeding car itself took three summersaults after hitting the signal post and landed on its top on the opposite track.

Fortunately, the men in both cars escaped with minor injuries. But traffic was held up as the aggrieved party demanded compensation. But one of the foursome whispered angrily to his driver friend: “Yaar, I had told you not to insist on driving as I knew you cannot drive properly yet.”

In another accident that I witnessed with horror involved a pickup, loaded with women and children returning from a wedding, which was hit and dragged along by a water tanker. When the truck finally came to a halt, there was blood and agonizing screams by the wounded.

With new cars clogging city roads, the urge to speed from place to place is becoming stronger by the day. Everybody seems to be in such a frenzied hurry that he neither cares for other people’s lives nor for his own. It is not the thrill-seeking youth alone who screech and swing through vehicular traffic. The other drivers’ motivation or compulsion to drive as fast as they can is more dangerous for fellow motorists or pedestrians.

The vehicles on the roads have two distinctly different categories: one are those that cannot withstand even the slightest of bumps – bicycles, motorcycles, small cars and hi-roofs. The other are those built as if to hit and escape unscathed -– dumpers, oil and water tankers, buses, minibuses, land-cruisers and certain limousines.

But ironically those on two-wheelers are the most daring. You can occasionally see that when the other vehicles are waiting for the red light to change its colour, a cyclist would be paddling his vehicle furiously against the red light. Motorcyclists also hardly wait for the red light to change into green and roar ahead of other vehicles. They rarely make it solo. Often they are three.

Caring drivers fear for these riders the most. They will zigzag around and come suddenly before a vehicle believing that it is the four-wheeler’s job to save them. If the driver makes a mistake, it may cost the rider dearly. Motorcycles slip and skid on slicks of oil and water. When it drizzles many two-wheelers slip and their riders get hurt. This happens so often but nobody learns a lesson from it.

The dumpers menacingly charge like battle tanks from the opposite (wrong) direction as if they really want to crush vehicles coming in their way. And they do if the smaller vehicles do not get out of their range instantly. Similarly behave the trailers, tankers and big buses and minibuses.

These drivers have the backing of the companies or individuals they work for. They have orders to make as many trips as possible without caring for other people’s safety. The drivers have to depend on drugs to meet this challenge.

Mini-coaches endanger their passengers particularly when they are racing to pick passengers ahead of one another.

People are daily killed because of rash driving. But nobody seems to be bothered — neither the public nor the police nor other authorities.

As a result, several people are killed in road accidents daily. Such innocuous signs as 'Speed thrills, but kills,” have no meaning for most drivers.

International swindlers

You may not believe it, but they are after me, a poor guy, to rob me of my small income. Yes, the multinationals! And how they ensnare you should be a matter of envy for the most genius of swindlers.

When they learned that I get a monthly salary that entitles them to seek a share in it, their agents got my address and office phone number and set their agents after me who tricked me into becoming their customer. Although I was wary right from the beginning, I regret that they outwitted me. They convinced me that what they were offering would cost me nothing.

First it was the credit card, which they claim opens many doors - including that of the prison, a friend has recently learnt and chosen to seek asylum in a psychiatric hospital.

I began using the credit card not out of necessity but just to acquaint myself with the use of new technology in the banking system. When the bills came pouring in, I learnt that they imposed fees in the name of 'service charges’, which I was not warned of beforehand.

The card offered a postpaid telephone connection which was touted to be offering the lowest rates. The connection proved to be the most expensive one as the bank claimed its own fee also.

Still I kept using the card as if under some spell and paid the bills regularly. Once I misplaced the envelope I was supposed to wrap my cheque in, I waited for the next month’s bill. The bill came in with the addition of a hefty fine. When I protested and requested the bank that being first such lapse on my part, I should be spared of the fine. They did not listen to me apparently acting on the premise that 'ignorance of the law is no excuse’. I settled the account but suspended using the card, pledging to myself that I will not be trapped by them again.

A couple of months later, a minion came around looking for me. He said the phone company had introduced a new 'appealing’ package which was available on the credit card only. He clearly assured me that if I did not use the two SIMs I would be applying for, I will be charged nothing.

I filled in the forms chanting Ghalib’s misleading line: 'Muft haath aayay tau bura kiya hai.”

After a couple of weeks, however, I received two packets which apparently contained the SIMs. I was too afraid to open the envelopes. But that did not work. First the bill came for receiving the two SIMs. Then came for the 'current payable’.

I wrote out a cheque and put it into their drop-box. Then I received a letter which said that I had not properly filled in the cheque, which they did not return me, and asked me to dispatch them another cheque. I did it. But I received another letter that I had been fined for non-payment. I rang up their relevant number and reminded them that I had dropped the cheque four days before I received their letter, therefore, the fine should be withdrawn. They told me to contact them after two/three days. On contact they informed me that my request for waiver had been turned down.

I am ready to pay the bill. But since the last bill mentioned the payment due date as 'immediate’, I fear it will give them another pretext to impose another fine on me. And then there will be a bill from the mobile firm, which reminds me that I have made a 'contract’ with it to pay whether I benefit from their service or not. Having learned my lesson, I neither want to use their card nor their telephone connection. I do not know how to break out of this snare spread by the nexus of an international bank and a telephone company.

I swear, I will never suggest to any salaried person to become a credit card holder. Unless, of course, I wish to settle a score with him.

Infotainment?

Duping innocent people and taking advantage of their miseries is highly condemnable but the media’s blatant expose of a self-styled ‘Pir’ should be denounced with equal vehemence, says a colleague.

“On a medium that is deemed to be highly effective and in a language that is colloquial at best, several private television channels have been repeatedly airing what seems to be infotainment pieces, exposing the wrongdoings of a ‘Pir’, who was, fortunately for the public at large, ‘caught’ by the police.

“Vulnerable segments of society, especially women and youths, should be made aware of the vices of people exploiting the name of religion but in a language that is decent and does not border on descriptive pornography,” the colleague says.

“And it is equally necessary to address the root causes: illiteracy and poverty in this case. Both are causes of deprivations which people want to escape, no matter what price they have to pay, and unscrupulous people are always there to exploit their sufferings. Had anyone tried to mitigate the circumstances which led these people to the doors of the so-called ‘Pirs’?”

— Karachian

Email: naseer.awan@dawn.com