| June 04, 2007 | Monday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 18, 1428 |
Merkel to prove her diplomatic skills at G8
Swing kings give it their own spin
EVER since she became the first female chancellor of Germany 18 months ago, Angela Merkel has slowly but steadily built up a formidable reputation as a tough and savvy negotiator.
“The night owls” only come out in the night. Late in the night when most of residents of Karachi are fast asleep. And I am not talking about the nocturnal birds of prey belonging to the order Strigiformes. Neither am I talking about people who like living life in the fast lane. The metropolis is no more a safe haven for revellers of the night. My “night owls” are a special breed of people who can be witnessed only after 2am and disappear before dawn.
Let me not keep you guessing anymore. I am talking about the graffiti artists, poster pasters and banner hangers employed by various political parties to convey their messages to the public as well as to their opponents. However, it is altogether a different matter whether the public wants to accept their messages or agree with them.
I first discovered “the night owls” by accident during the early 90s while working for an English weekly. As I was headed home around 2am after our copy had been sent to press, I saw three “night owls” pasting posters at what used to be the Jail Chowrangi. They were deeply engrossed in work with a giant-size brush and a pail carrying glue. And mind you these creatures of the night are pretty efficient in their art. By dawn they manage to plaster the walls of several localities and disappear into the safety of their nests “home, sweet home”.
Until the late 1980s, graffiti seen on the walls was mostly in the English language. And the most prominent among these were the slogans “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”. However, both the countries managed to survive the curses that showered on them. A university student majoring in Economics had then told me that not only religious parties but also frustrated students were involved in these “Death to the US” and “Death to the Zionists” graffiti as they had been refused visas to the US.
In the 90s, the language used by graffiti writers became Urdu. I am not sure whether deterioration of the quality of education led to the switch of language or whether students altogether stopped applying for an American visa. Now Karachi is full of graffiti which says “Amrika Murdabad” and “Israel Murdabad”. Then there are the “Chalo, chalo Nishtar Park chalo” and “Chalo, chalo Peshawar chalo” ones which never seem to end. Only the venue and the party linked with the slogan change with the passing of each year. The “Chalo, chalo…” slogans became the catchword when labourers started heading off for Dubai and other Gulf states.
It is a pity that the city government has been able to do nothing against these nocturnal creatures who go about defacing the city day in and day out (better say night in and night out). It seems that they have no aesthetic sense at all. Or maybe they don’t care less. So what are all those hoardings with the message “Keep the Quaid’s
City Clean” doing in various places in the city?— Mohsin Maqbool Elahi
In the line of fire
In view of Wednesday’s fire outbreak in a multi-storey building on M.A. Jinnah Road, I was wondering what would have happened had it be one of the highrises in the city.
How many Karachians would have been able to escape and how would they have escaped? Jumping out of the window is not a solution at all. So what would you have done if you were stuck on the seventh floor of a building on fire? A friend of mine works on the 11th floor of a multi-storey building and says that just the thought of getting stuck in fire sends shivers down his spine.
The seventh largest city of the world houses millions of people in hundreds of thousands of apartments and it has only one snorkel, which too is reportedly out of order. Imagine what would you do if you find out about a fire just two floors below?
Though the city government recently procured a snorkel worth Rs53 million that is capable of fire rescue work up to the 16th floor of a multi-storey structure and another snorkel is expected to reach Karachi this week, both these snorkels are yet to be handed over to the fire brigade department in a ceremony. Many Karachians ask whether there is any need for a ceremony. Perhaps yes. This is an achievement of the city government as funds allocated for the purchase of snorkels in the previous years had lapsed. One wonders how the firemen without proper gadgets and safety kits discharge their duty. Dozens have lost their lives in the line of duty and scores have suffered burn injuries.
Recent years have witnessed a number of major fire accidents in this city. In Karim Centre, a factory in Site, PNSC building, shops at Sohrab Goth, a hospital in Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s block 13-D are a few examples that I remember and now a residential-cum-commercial complex on M.A. Jinnah Road. This problem needs to be addressed on an urgent basis, as a fire does not knock at your door and ask for permission to break out. It can erupt anywhere, anytime.—H.A.
Half empty or half full?
We Karachians don’t really have much to cheer about, especially when it comes to the state of our city. Be it dug up roads, chronic load-shedding, water shortages or grisly political violence, Karachi seems to have a whole lot of wrong things in large doses.
But talking to a friend’s brother who lives in another city by the sea (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia), it seemed that we’re all in the same boat, even those spending life in petro-dollar fuelled Third World monarchies where, at least to us yobs here in Karachi, life is good.
The conversation kicked off when this writer started ragging on the lawlessness and civic breakdown that recurrently plagues Karachi. Naturally, the gruesome events of May 12 came under discussion and while the steady stream of conjectures as to what the real causes behind the incident were continued, the ceiling fan ceased its whirring. “A welcome home present from the KESC,” I caustically remarked.
But the gent from Jeddah said that though things were not this bad in Saudi Arabia, they were getting there. Of course we do hear news of random acts of violence that occur in that country, especially as the Saudi government is reportedly extremely intolerant of dissent. But by and large Saudi Arabia is known to us, apart from playing host to Islam’s two holiest shrines, as a place where the living is good, albeit a little too conservative for some tastes.
Apparently, life is not all hunky dory in the house that the Al-Saud clan built, as muggings and street crimes are on the rise, mainly due to the frustrations of jobless Saudi youth. Apart from that, he said, there are constant water shortages in Jeddah, and the owners of water tankers are doing a roaring business, with people often queuing for hours just to get their water tanks filled.
I have to admit the news was a bit shocking, as I had somewhat of a rose-tinted view of that country. Maybe chaos and disorder has become the order of the day across the world, perhaps with different manifestations. If it is political violence here, it’s a school shoot-up somewhere else, and explosions in places of worship in yet another country. Is there anywhere left where one can find peace of mind and live with dignity? Seems like a tall ask.— QAM
Compiled by Syed Hassan Ali
Email: karachian@dawn.com
The German leader has successfully repaired Berlin’s relationship with Washington following her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder’s opposition to invasion of Iraq. She is critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but believes the West must stay engaged with Moscow. And within the European Union, having clinched a seemingly intractable budget deal in December 2005, most officials believe that when things need mending, “Angie can fix it.”
Merkel’s diplomatic skills will be severely tested, however, at next week’s meeting of the world’s leading industrialised nations in Heiligendamm on Germany’s Baltic coast.
The Group of Eight (G8) summit on June 6-8, which Merkel will host, was initially planned to clinch agreement on tough new targets for combating global warming, increasing financial market transparency and earmarking fresh aid for Africa.
Officials in Berlin waxed lyrical that given the declining standing of US President George Bush and Britain’s outgoing premier Tony Blair — as well as the international inexperience of new French President
Nicolas Sarkozy — the summit would crown the perky but determined Merkel as the undisputed star of the impressive G8 line-up.
Things don’t seem to be going the way Ms Merkel anticipated, however.
The Heiligendamm meeting appears likely to be dominated by increasingly acrimonious East-West exchanges and US tough talking on climate change. In addition, while leaders squabble over global politics inside, an equally fierce showdown is expected outside the summit venue between angry anti-globalisation protesters and security forces.
Dealing with an increasingly bad-tempered President Putin will be Merkel’s most daunting challenge. The German chancellor has taken a more critical approach towards Moscow than Schroeder, who now heads a Russian-German pipeline joint venture that he had championed while in office.
Unlike Schroeder, who continues to describe Putin as a “great democrat,” Merkel used an EU-Russia summit last month to criticise Moscow’s human rights record and repression of dissent. The Russian leader, however, comes to the G8 meeting in increasingly combative mood.
In recent days, Putin has responded to US plans to station elements of an anti-missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic by testing a new intercontinental missile. He has also threatened to withdraw from the treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE), a key post-Cold War security pact, and recently appeared to compare the US to Nazi Germany.
In addition, Russia’s ties with the EU are at an all-time low, with Moscow refusing to lift an import ban on Polish beef, raging against Estonia’s decision to remove a Soviet-era war memorial from the centre of Tallinn and opposing supervised-independence for the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo.
‘We are not the initiators of this new round of the arms race,’ Putin said at a recent news conference in Moscow, adding: “Our partners are stuffing Eastern Europe with new weapons...What are we supposed to do? We cannot just observe all this.”
President George Bush has so far kept his cool, arguing that he wants to deal with Russia as “not an enemy regime but a friend.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has described the difficult US-Russia relationship as a “mix of cooperation and competition, friendship and friction.”
However, while Merkel and Bush may see eye to eye on the need to tone down Putin’s confrontational Cold War-style rhetoric, the German chancellor and the US leader have to overcome their own stark differences over climate change.
Merkel has cautiously welcomed Bush’s call for a new strategy on tackling global warming through joint action by the world’s top polluters — including China and India — as a “positive” step in the right direction.
But the EU believes that the US plan focus on allowing countries to set their own targets for cutting emissions, based on their economic circumstances, is not good enough. Europeans also point out that the US continues to oppose mandatory caps on emissions, or a carbon trading regime, like that operating in Europe.As such, the German leader has made clear she will still press G8 leaders to commit to cutting global greenhouse gas emissions to 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050 and limiting the worldwide temperature rise this century to two degrees Celsius.
TOUGHER LINE: Other Europeans have taken a tougher line. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso insisted recently that he wanted Washington to adopt a more ambitious position, including backing for binding emission targets.
Both Merkel and Barroso have also said they hope the US will see the need to bring the United Nations into the process, adding that the G8 summit should provide a launching pad for the UN climate protection meeting in Bali in December.
German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel has warned that Bush’s plan might prove to be a “Trojan horse,” impeding her efforts to get an agreement on deep emissions-reduction targets in Germany while defusing criticism that the US is a hurdle to the broader climate effort.
“Bush torpedoes Merkel’s climate plans,” said a typically sceptical headline in the German financial newspaper Handelsblatt.
Germany is also expected to face resistance to its strategy from the leaders of China and India who will attend parts of the summit. Other non-G8 members at the meeting include the leaders of South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal.
Meanwhile, newly-elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy, attending his first international gathering, could sour G8 discussions on world trade by denouncing globalisation and demanding more protection for French farmers.
World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy has shrugged off such comments as unhelpful in the drive to clinch a new trade liberalisation deal by end-2007. Lamy said he had a simple message for the G8 summit: Instead of bickering over breaking down trade barriers, leaders from the world’s richest countries should “Just do it!”
While she struggles to cool passions at the summit, Merkel’s security forces are gearing up for the arrival of up to 100,000 anti-globalisation demonstrators in Rostock, a city close to the G8 summit venue.
At least 13,000 police are on duty in Rostock to keep an eye on protesters who have travelled to the city from all over Europe and say they want to stage a peaceful demonstration to vent their anger at G8 leaders. But police authorities say they are seriously worried that far-left groups are planning violent attacks.
G8 members include Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, the US, Canada and Russia. The European Commission is also represented at all meetings.
Sarfraz Nawaz taught Imran Khan the art of reverse swing. Back in the mid-1970s when Imran was emerging as a world beater after a 12-wicket haul in a Test at Sydney, he had by his side an ever growing admirer in the person of a rather awesome and overbearing Sarfraz.
The adoration that the big man had for the flamboyant all-rounder from Zaman Park may have involved both self interest and team interest. For some years now, Big Sarf had carried the mantle of the national side’s chief medium pacer with only sporadic support from the other end. In Imran he may have seen a partner and a match winner and maybe a pupil he could play a long time mentor to. Perhaps he ignored King Khan’s total disapproval of patrons.
Mr Nawaz’s opinion Mr Khan has undergone a sea change since the 1980s. In an interview, most probably with The Cricketer, back then, Sarfraz had only one answer to all those standard queries about his favourites. He was asked which cricketer he liked most, and the reply in those days was a foregone conclusion: Imran Khan of course. He was asked to reveal the name of his best friend, and the reader skipped it and moved to the next question for the reader knew that it could be no one else but Imran. Even in the category of the best television show, the interviewee came up with a perfect get-through-guide response when he indicated just how much pleasure he drew by “watching Imran Khan bat and bowl”. Fielding apparently was too menial a job for the admirer to associate it with his hero even in thought.
This show of loyalty and open praise amazed everyone who had heard all those tales about the temperamental Sarfraz. People had heard about the big bowler’s bluntness and surprised they were greatly about his acceptance of the dominance by King Khan, who was as quick on the draw as was Sarfraz. When the split came, it didn’t come unexpected, even though despite the great popular curiosity in cricket, the reasons for the break-up are still concealed from public eye.
Sarfraz taught Imran how to reverse swing a cricket ball. Since then the two of them have had their run-ups and reverses.
Imran had the reputation of being a volatile free-speaking ladies’ man who was too deeply embroiled in things and tastes western to spare a thought for what life was like for the people of the country he represented. He had a reverse and in time came to project himself as a champion of change in the system. Where he would earlier be abrasive he now looked more considerate even if the support to the party he formed was limited. Over time his comments were toned down and in the ideologically barren lands of Pakistan he would now be sometimes counted among ‘liberals’. His recent comments about the Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief however are a throwback to his days as a warrior when he found it difficult to couch his feelings in diplomacy. He says he wants to die like Tipu Sultan. His admirers are hoping that he doesn’t live a blow hot, blow cold life. They say military medium surely doesn’t suit Imran, but medium pace should.
Sarfraz, Imran’s senior in cricket and in age, preceded his one-time hero into the field of politics and to his credit, won a seat from Lahore, a feat Imran is still struggling to perform. But the downside was that the win came in a non-party election, held in 1985. Also, a large number of people in the particular provincial assembly constituency who tick marked the ‘bat’ in the list of electoral symbols then now say that it wasn’t the big man they had voted for. They say their sympathies lay with his then wife, the famous and the most charismatic Rani of the Pakistani filmdom.
Whatever discipline governs party politics in Pakistan, it has not so far proved conducive to the frank, almost brash, brand practised by Sarfraz Nawaz.
He has managed to break into the ranks of two parties who have recently ruled the country, Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League, without any personal accomplishments to show for his hopping. He has worked with the Pakistan Cricket Board off and on, recently as a supervisor who helped Test cricketer Shabbir Ahmed to improve his bowling action. But by and large he still carries with him the old label of being an odd man out, his loud appeals on match fixing failing to win over the umpires.
Of late he appears to have upped the ante, claiming as he does that he can tell the outcome of a match by reading the body language of Pakistani players. His trademark asides about Imran Khan have also become more frequent and more intense. Imran’s latest tussle with Altaf Hussain provided him an opportunity to raise his tirade one notch higher. London must however take Sarfraz’s help for what it is. It is not pro Altaf Hussain. It is anti Imran Khan.— Observer