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| October 20, 2008 | Monday | Shawwal 20, 1429 |
Awful prison conditions
Curse of bonded labour
OTHER VOICES - North American Press
Requiem for the dream?
The rise of English
“THERE was a man that started with the clothes on his back and ended up with diamond mines,” was Willy Loman’s motivational story for his sons Biff and Happy in Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman.
JUST over half of Africa’s 52 countries speak French, but the number is dropping. Last month Rwanda defected, announcing that henceforward only English will be taught in the schools. It would not be overstating the case to say that this caused alarm and despondency in France.
IT is intriguing that a new First Information Report about the bomb attack on Benazir Bhutto’s procession should have been registered a full one year after the Oct 18 crime that killed some 140 innocent people in Karachi. Those named in the new FIR are two former spy chiefs — former ISI boss Gen (retd) Hameed Gul and former Intelligence Bureau head Ijaz Shah — besides former Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi. In a statement made a day after the Karsaz blast, Bhutto said that prior to her return to Pakistan she had written a letter to President Pervez Musharraf, naming the three persons who she suspected wanted to kill her and eliminate the top PPP leadership. The big question is why the authorities waited for 12 months to discover new suspects and why these three names were not included in the previous FIR. One obvious answer could be that the previous government wasn’t being helpful and that Pervaiz Elahi used his influence as chief minister to block investigations. That still wouldn’t fully answer the question, because the PPP-led government has been in power now for nearly seven months and could have moved the investigating agencies immediately after it came to power.
The security agencies have made no startling disclosures over the last 12 months. Maybe, one could argue, the authorities were working quietly and did not wish to go public with whatever progress they had made. That said, the investigating agencies’ competence does not arouse much confidence. While the vehicle that was bombed at Karsaz was secured, the immediate surroundings were quickly cleaned of everything that may have served as evidence — a stupefying phenomenon that was seen again after the Liaquat Bagh tragedy when Bhutto finally fell victim to her assassins. Contrast this with the investigation into the Lockerbie crash where the police gathered every bit of metal and scrap spread over a radius of several miles and finally found the clue. Here the police cleaned up or hosed down the crime scenes in Karachi and Rawalpindi, destroying evidence either deliberately or out of sheer negligence.
The intelligence agencies’ perverse role in politics for decades need not be repeated here, nor do we have to emphasise the three suspects’ hostility to the PPP, especially the Bhutto family. But that still does not point to their culpability. A year has gone by, and investigations into both the Oct 18 blast in Karachi and into the murder of Benazir Bhutto two months later in Rawalpindi have made little or no progress. All we can hope is that the registration of a fresh FIR should prompt the government sleuths to shake off their sloth and investigate the crime in a manner that should show no trace of politicisation or bias.
ALTHOUGH we had written on the subject last week, the increasing number of protests and riots by prisoners across the country needs to be revisited as the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan calls for immediate jail reforms. This month alone we saw major revolts in Karachi’s Central Prison and District Jail Malir as well as in Timergarah jail in the NWFP. In the latter case, the army had to come in to control the unrest. Meanwhile, prisons across Punjab have been put on red alert and security has been enhanced following the Malir jail incident in which at least five people were killed. With jail premises all over the country bursting at the seams, it is clear that similar riots will continue to erupt and will not be prevented even if security is tightened and a strict watch is kept on the inmates. For, desperate people, especially if they are treated no better than beasts as is the case in our jails, can go to any lengths to draw attention to their plight.
However, the question remains: is anyone listening? After every confrontation between prisoners and their jailers, there is a scramble to hold an inquiry, to suspend officers found failing in their responsibilities, to tighten security and to take rebelling prisoners to task. But these measures have not helped in the least because no attempt is made to address the root of the problem or to understand that prisons are essentially correction homes for men and women whose aberrant behaviour has caused society to suffer.
In Pakistan, prisons are no better than criminal dens where rules are regularly flouted for prisoners with resources and influence, where corruption, torture, sexual abuse, drug addiction and disease are rampant and where there is no concept of even basic human rights. How can it be hoped that such institutions will reform errant individuals? Even if he was once a prisoner himself, the prime minister’s promise to improve jail conditions can only be taken with a pinch of salt considering the precious little effort that has gone into prison reform since his government took over. The need is for greater pressure on the government — by the relatives of prisoners, human rights organisations and common citizens wanting to make a difference — to hurry up with prison as well as judicial reforms. Without concerted action on these two fronts, the likelihood of further riots will increase.
THE police recently recovered 25 bonded labourers including women and children in Sanghar. This is good news but not so much for the 152 bonded labourers who, it later emerged, are still being made to work at gunpoint by the henchmen of an influential local landlord. Bonded labour has been far from eliminated in Pakistan and particularly affects workers in the agriculture, brick-kiln, carpet-weaving and mining industries. Caught also in its vicious grip are women and children in domestic service. Bonded labour is a self-perpetuating cycle where the poverty-stricken labourer cannot pay off the loans he has taken from his employer. In the highly stratified social structure of the country, widespread poverty compels the poorest of the poor to borrow for survival leading to a high prevalence of debt bondage among certain sections of society. Poverty leads to social and political disenfranchisement which renders the victims powerless and unable to raise their voice. Thus it is no surprise that they are unable to come out of this cycle.
Bonded labour in Pakistan is prohibited under the law. Pakistan has ratified the ILO conventions on bonded labour and also has on its statute books laws such as the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992 and the Children (Pledging of Labour) Act 1933. The problem lies in the non-implementation of the law and the inaction of the law-enforcement agencies. The onus is on the government to bring the victims out of this vicious cycle of poverty. Poverty-alleviation programmes can help address the root cause of the problem. However, direct measures are also important. The police must be vigilant in tracking down cases of bonded labour and act without fear of retaliation by influential quarters. Frequent inspection of work sites where there is a high prevalence of bonded labour is essential as is penalising those involved in the practice. This is not all. Rehabilitation for those rescued is equally important. They must be protected from future servitude. Employment and shelter must be provided to them. A collaborated effort with non-governmental organisations will help the rescued labourers provide for their families and avail of basic facilities such as housing, education and healthcare.
A new cop for global finance
The Christian Science Monitor
If an ounce of optimism exists in the market meltdown, it is this: Europe and the US have agreed to make the world safe again for capitalism by rethinking global rules for the financial system. One thing is for sure: the old rules, largely set in 1944, are as good as a rusted-out speed-limit sign. Too much of the new world of international finance, such as hedge funds, derivatives, and mortgage securities, now operates in the shadows. US credit-rating agencies badly underestimated the real risks of sub-prime mortgages. Big banks have become too big to fail. And most of all, when Wall Street crumbles, the rocks ricochet from Shanghai to Stockholm.
Reining in the excesses of this complex, 24/7 business won’t be easy — even within each country. But hope for reform is strong after recent joint action by Europe and the US to prop up banks and grease money flows.
Round one in designing a new “architecture” for global finance starts Saturday when the current head of the European Union, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, meets with President Bush in Washington. He will bring with him a raft of reform ideas from the EU…. Europe’s finger, as might be expected, is already pointed at the US for this crisis, with the same finger wagging for more “discipline” in Wall Street. The EU’s initial proposal is to set up a supervisor for the world’s 30 largest financial institutions. Most of those, of course, are American.
Despite that one-sidedness, the lead thinker for reform, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, offers a few better ideas. He would revamp the governing bodies and the voluntary rules set up near the end of World War II in an agreement known as Bretton Woods (named for a New Hampshire resort). The International Monetary Fund, for instance, would be allowed to act as an early warning system for excessive risks in the world economy. Mr Brown wants more transparency in accounting and more rewards for long-term investing. Banks must keep more capital to back up loans….
A summit to design a “Bretton Woods II” may take place in November. Plenty of differences need to be resolved for it to succeed…. In any agreement, the US needs to be careful not to diminish the role of the dollar, which is used for 60 per cent of global currency transactions. But it may be time for the Federal Reserve, with its immense power to flood markets with credit, to act in tighter coordination with other central banks.
America remains the anchor country for trade and finance. But as in 1944, it needs again to bend its ways in order to create a global system that other nations will join. Therein lies mutual prosperity. — (Oct 17)
Miller’s play is an acerbic account of the American Dream gone wrong. Here was a mercurial salesman who worked hard all his life on the road and was finally fired by a boss old enough to be his own son. All he was left with were delusions of grandeur, a whole host of missed opportunities and two sons who he wanted to make good all his mistakes and, of course, a supportive wife whose needs he had always neglected.
Ultimately, Willy realised that “after all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive” and he killed himself to give his son the benefit of his life insurance policy so that he could buy the land he wanted.
Of course, Miller himself lived the American Dream for a while when he was with Marilyn Monroe whom he married in 1956 but divorced five years later in 1961. However, what Death of a Salesman brought to American audiences was the realisation of how hollow the American Dream had become and who its greatest victims were.The most memorable visual images of the Great Depression are stock brokers throwing themselves off Wall Street buildings in desperation and the realisation that they had failed. But the real victims of the current financial crisis will not be the bankers or the lawyers of this world; they will be the Willy Lomans of this world. Willy Lomans of this world who cannot get small business loans to keep themselves afloat, Willy Lomans of this world who cannot refinance their home mortgages and face the risk of repossession.
Therefore, it is fair to ask if the current crisis in the financial services industry is a requiem for the American Dream?
Well, it depends. Which American Dream are we talking about?
There is the corrupt version of the American Dream which leads everyone to believe that they can achieve anything that they want, just or unjust. The other version of the American Dream, in its purest incarnation, is attributed to James Truslow Adams. In his 1931 book Epic of America, Adams wrote of the American Dream as “not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognised by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.”
Such a dream is no bad thing. Such a dream is what we all want. This version of the American Dream was a reaction to the attitudes of the European aristocracy and upper classes of the early twentieth century which most migrants to America, at the time, were fleeing from. Today, this is not just the American Dream but a Universal Dream. It is incumbent upon each of us to make sure that this dream never dies. This is what we are striving for. All of us.
But it is the corrupt version of the American Dream that has mainly been propagated by the media and the advertising industry. All advertising is really advertising for success. Even in the Great Depression, Erwin, Wasey & Company, seeking to turn the wave of public sentiment, took out full-page advertisements in American newspapers in November 1929 that read, “All right, Mister! Now that the headache is over, Let’s Go To Work!” Although such advertisements took on a beleaguered look as the depression set in, they were championed by the titans of the advertising industry. Thus lived on the great American Dream, albeit in its corrupt form.
Towards the end of Death of a Salesman, there is a great line from Happy Loman that epitomises the American Dream. Although he was his father’s favourite, Biff Loman had realised that he wanted to pursue his own goals rather than live his father’s dream. He realised “what a ridiculous lie [his] whole life [had] been”.
It was Happy Loman who, after his father’s death, proclaimed that “I’m gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It’s the only dream you can have — to come out number-one man.” The irony is that Willy Loman’s life had been lived in vain. He died an unhappy man, with wasted hopes and dreams, betrayed by the very system that he believed in and gave his whole life to.
So is the current financial crisis the end of the American Dream? Definitely not. To be number one is indeed a quintessential part of the American Dream. And rest assured that for every Willy Loman who falls, there will be a Happy Loman waiting to take over his father’s dream. For such is the power of dreams, American or not.
The writer is an international commercial lawyer.
You couldn’t help feeling, either, that Rwanda’s trade and industry minister, Vincent Karega, was deliberately rubbing salt in the wound when he explained why French was being scrapped. “French is spoken only in France, some parts of west Africa, and parts of Canada and Switzerland,” he said. (In parts of Belgium, too, actually, not to mention Haiti, but you get the point.) “English has emerged as a backbone for growth and development not only in the region but around the globe.”
No country cares more passionately for its language than France, and it has waged a long and expensive campaign to guarantee the survival of a French-speaking zone in central and west Africa. It even provided the bulk of the foreign aid for the former Belgian colonies that spoke French: Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. But the present government of Rwanda has special reasons not to be fond of France.
Getting very close to the regimes in African countries that have French as an official language, even sending troops to protect them from their domestic enemies, has always been part of Paris’s strategy for preserving the status of French as a world language. In Rwanda’s case, that put France in bed with the extremist Hutu-dominated regime that ruled the densely populated country before the genocide, to such an extent that Paris largely paid for the tripling in size of the Rwandan army in 1990-91.
When the Hutu regime began murdering the minority Tutsis in industrial quantities in 1994, France did not abandon it. The French president at the time, Francois Mitterrand, is alleged to have remarked that “in such countries, genocide is not too important...” And a principal reason that France overlooked its Rwandan ally’s ghastly behaviour was that the Tutsi-led opposition in exile mostly spoke English, because its members had found refuge in English-speaking Uganda.
Fourteen years later, more than 95 per cent of Rwanda’s secondary schools still teach mainly in French, although an alternative English instructional programme or intensive English language courses are usually available. Knowledge of both English and French is required for university entrance (and for most government jobs), but the government’s own statistics say that only 3 percent of the population are fluent in English. Nevertheless, the new decision ends the teaching of French in Rwandan schools.
The government defends it as a purely business decision, driven by Rwanda’s membership in the largely English-speaking East African Community (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi), but there is no question that resentment of France also plays a role. This is a country that has already expelled the French ambassador and closed down the French cultural centre, international school and radio station.
But can an African country just switch from one European language to another like that? It can if, like Rwanda, it only uses one language domestically. Almost all Rwandans, whether Hutu or Tutsi, speak Kinyarwanda.
This is far from typical of African countries, most of which have many different ethnic groups, each with its own language. Such countries use the language of the former colonial power as a neutral “national” language, and have such a large investment in teaching it by now that switching is out of the question. The Congo will always use French; Nigeria will always use English; Mozambique will always use Portuguese.
English-speakers often assume that this world role for their language owes something to its huge vocabulary and wonderful literature, or at least to the fact that Hollywood speaks English. Nothing of the sort. The sole reason is that the world’s dominant power for the past two centuries has been English-speaking: Britain in the 19th century, and the United States in the 20th. Timing is everything, and English just happened to be the leading candidate when globalisation created the need for an agreed global second language.
— Copyright Gwynne Dyer
