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The cultural link
His is a familiar face to Karachi’s journalists and its social set. But beyond these limited fraternities, Charlie Walker is quite anonymous and can pass off as any random gora. But a random westerner he is not as the man has been responsible for livening up the city’s social and cultural calendar for the past four years in his capacity as director of the British Council, Karachi.
Having completed his assignment in Pakistan, Walker is now headed to Amman, Jordan, to oversee the council’s work in that country. Karachi will lose a great patron of the performing arts.
Walker took up his post in the city almost immediately following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre. This was not going to be a subcontinental garden party for the man because Pakistan was at the centre of the storm in the post-Sept 11 fallout and the subsequent start of hostilities in Afghanistan. Though the bulk of the British Council’s work has to do with promoting and creating awareness about education, the organization has played a substantial role in promoting local theatre, music and film-making by both setting up exchanges with groups and individuals in the UK, as well as fostering local performances.
Charlie Walker’s has been an eventful four years in Karachi. He has helped co-ordinate quite a few memorable events such as inviting British guitarist Aziz Ibrahim to Pakistan to hold a workshop with local musicians, as well as inviting British film-makers train budding local amateurs as part of the ‘I Belong’ project. And of course the Council’s contribution to the KaraFilm festival is quite evident, bringing in Michael Winterbottom’s sleeper classic In This World, among other films, over the years.
“I was due to be posted in the third week of September, 2001. Then events took over and no one was quite sure what was happening and our offices eventually closed. I came here on October 16, 2001 and at that time the council’s office was located in my house in Defence. The offices were on the ground floor and I moved in upstairs. We worked like that up to Christmas and after that, it was considered safe enough to reopen,” starts off Charlie. Things continued on that pattern for a couple of months until May 2002, when the council wrapped up its operation at their old office near the Cantonment Station and shifted to the British deputy high commission in Clifton. Considering the changed global situation, what is the British Council’s objective in Pakistan?
“I think it’s to build strong ties between the United Kingdom and Pakistan through culture and education and through the work we do. We want to create relationships that will last. I think post-9/11 the whole concept of mutuality becomes particularly important. We’re not just showcasing Britain. We’re creating relationships that give Pakistanis a deeper understanding of what Britain and the British people are about. But at the same time we want to give Britons a clearer idea of what Pakistan and Pakistanis are about.”
‘Post-9/11 the whole concept of mutuality becomes particularly important. We’re not just showcasing Britain. We’re creating relationships that give Pakistanis a deeper understanding of what Britain is about. But at the same time we want to give Britons a clearer idea of what Pakistan is about’
Apparently security tops the list of concerns the council faces in Pakistan, but according to Charlie, that is not the only challenge.“Security is one issue, but there are many more issues, such as how we can reach more people then we are reaching now. People have a pretty fixed idea of what the British Council is, what it does and what it means. When you start changing that you have to take your customers and your contacts with you, which is not all that easy.”
Considering the new geo-political reality following Sept 11, how did the British Council adapt its programmes? Were any specific programmes launched by the organization to encourage global dialogue?
“Post-9/11 we set up a programme called ‘Connecting Futures.’ This is an umbrella for a lot of projects and I think the key shift of this project was to focus more on young people. It wasn’t sufficient to take programmes overseas and tell people, ‘look, here’s the Royal Shakespeare Company. Aren’t they marvellous?’ It had to be something that brought Britain and Pakistan, or whatever country we’re working with, together in a dialogue. We also wanted to reach bigger numbers of people, not just the elite, who are very important, but we wanted to perhaps extend some of our programmes.”
The projects of the British Council, or indeed any foreign cultural organization, more often than not only target the upper and upper-middle class segments of local society. That is like preaching to the converted as these individuals already are quite predisposed towards the West and its culture. It is the middle class which views the West with skepticism, mainly due to frenzied TV grabs showing western forces in aggressive postures in eastern lands.
Can the council move beyond catering to the elite and initiate dialogue with the middle class?
“When we set up projects we don’t profile the audience. What we have made an effort to do is to bring in the government. We involve government schools and colleges as much as we can. We’ve had an exhibition called ‘Women at Work,’ which was developed in 2001 and launched in 2002. It features images of Pakistani women with text write-ups from all areas of work, from airline pilots to newspaper vendors. This showed that women were key contributors to the Pakistani workforce. We thought it was a real success. When you take a programme out to a wider audience, there are going to be constraints, for instance language is a constraint. If a programme is going to be heavily English language focused, it’ll require a certain level of English language skills.”
As conventional wisdom goes, Karachi in particular has a very lacklustre track record when it comes to hosting cultural events. Foreign cultural organizations have played a major role in adding zest the city’s social life, and the British Council is one of the leaders in this regard. Is there a single event or programme he feels most proud of?
“That’s really hard to answer, to pick out something that stands out. I’m sorry if I sound abstract. What I would take greatest satisfaction from would be those programmes where we got deep collaboration between Britain and Pakistan, especially involving young people. Things like Blackfish were great, as was the Vasl arts project. It’s with these types of projects where you feel you’re creating the kind of relationships that’ll survive something like what happened in London last week (July 7 bombings).”As far as programmes such as arts exchanges and cultural performances go, how does he gauge the situation from when he arrived in 2001 till now, when he is set to depart? Is there more acceptance and tolerance of each others’ cultures?
“The answer is that possibly, there has been no change. Throughout, whenever I thought people would be more cautious about engaging with Britain, for instance at the start of the Iraq campaign, we never really experienced anyone shying away. All the interactions we’ve set up, especially with young people, have been really positive. People in Pakistan (want to make it clear that) it is not just a problematic country where there are extremists and acts of terrorism taking place. The misrepresentation of Pakistan in the West is a great concern for people here. It is quite interesting that last week (following the London bombings) the boot fell on the other foot as a lot of messages were coming through telling us ‘please tell your contacts Britain is open for business, there’s no reason not to come.’ That brought the whole thing home to me, what it must be like.”
Following September 11, 2001, the US became a largely unwelcome place for Muslims and Pakistanis wishing to live or study in that country. Did Charlie Walker think a similar situation was on the cards concerning Britain and Pakistan?
“Pakistan and Britain have such a long history and there are so many Britons of Pakistani origin who are a core part of our society that building a wall between the two countries ... I don’t see that happening. It is a difficult situation in Britain right now but what is encouraging is how community leaders and the prime minister have immediately come forward to try and keep things on track.”
After he moves on to his next assignment, will he continue to promote British culture in Pakistan and vice versa?
“I’ve worked in many countries and I don’t want to do them down by comparison, but I’ve never left anywhere with so many positive contacts that I’m sure I’ll maintain. I have great affection for the place and the people, so yes I will. How, I don’t know, but Jordan’s not that far away.”
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