No new turn
AT the tail end of the Bush presidency and with a strong presidential candidate preparing to take a harder line on Pakistan it would be unrealistic to imagine that the prime minister’s US visit will cement the bonds of friendship. These are testing times for US-Pakistan relations, and verbal support is often belied by intimidating actions. As a case in point, President Bush’s assurance to Prime Minister Gilani on Monday that Washington was committed to Pakistan’s sovereignty was preceded by a US missile attack on a suspected militant target in Fata. Such attacks have been condemned by Pakistan. But it is clear that even as Washington urges the government to ‘do more’ to counter terrorism it has no qualms about taking unilateral action where it deems it necessary. Mr Gilani’s trip is not likely to reverse this propensity and the visit should be taken more as US acceptance of a post-Musharraf, civilian set-up than a new beginning. It is evident that cooperation is needed to win the war on terrorism, and in this context both Mr Bush and Mr Gilani expressed their commitment to maintaining security. Nevertheless, one hopes that the prime minister will not come away without making it amply clear that unilateral strikes inside Pakistan will not be tolerated — instead of taking refuge in mealy-mouthed references to Washington’s ‘impatience’.
Although good bilateral relations demand that territorial sovereignty be respected, the path to stronger ties also lies in areas not linked to military cooperation as the joint communiqué issued at the end of the Bush-Gilani meeting shows. Apart from military aid, there is relief for the common Pakistani in these times of inflation through American food assistance worth $115.5m. The US is as committed to helping Pakistan in the areas of education, health, energy, trade, and science and technology as it is to fostering an environment of regional peace. It also supports projects for democratic governance in Pakistan.
Of course, all this would be of tremendous help if US funds and expertise came with few strings attached and were employed judiciously and with honesty of purpose. But the reality of donor-driven aid is grimmer than it appears on paper. Pakistan is no stranger to financial irregularities in the disbursement of funds or flawed expertise on the part of foreign consultants. There must be greater accountability of how such funds and expertise are used if trust is to be maintained. Pakistan must also ask itself for how long it intends to receive such aid and thus remain indebted to a country whose dictates it is forced to accept. In the long run this not only harms its interests, it also impacts negatively on its self-esteem and on bilateral ties.
The latest from Kabul
WHILE there is no doubt the ISI never had any qualms about being exactly there where it was not supposed to be, some of its denigrators seem to give the agency more clout than it would love to have. For years, the Karzai regime has been accusing the ISI of a wide range of crimes, ranging from helping the Taliban cross the Durand Line to organising assassination attempts on the Afghan president. The latest allegations, however, are a little bizarre and accuse the ISI of planning to attack Indian-aided construction projects in the country. In a statement the Afghan National Directorate of Security said the ISI was giving “sabotage training” to 3,000 agents, “some of them foreigners”, to destroy Indian construction projects in Afghanistan. Apart from the ambiguity surrounding “some … foreigners”, it is not clear what advantage Pakistan will draw from destroying projects such as roads. Afghanistan’s reconstruction is in Pakistan’s interest, and Islamabad has made its own contribution by giving Kabul $100m. However, the fact is that the Karzai regime has been unable to make use of the aid given by the international community. At the January 2002 Tokyo conference donors pledged over $6bn to help Afghanistan rebuild itself, but because of the pervasive corruption the donors held much of the aid back. As Eurasia Insight, a think tank, said in a report some seven years after the fall of the Taliban regime “no clear institutional framework for Afghanistan’s … reconstruction has emerged.”
At the Paris conference last month Karzai asked for a fantastic $50bn for his country’s reconstruction, but received pledges for less than half that amount and the donors asked him bluntly to control corruption. Under Karzai Afghanistan has re-emerged as the world’s biggest opium producer. As a UN spokesman said on Monday 93 per cent of the world’s opium is produced by Afghanistan and last year 60 per cent of it was turned into heroin within the country. The only sop for Kabul was that the UN spokesman said that Afghanistan should alone not be blamed for heroin production, for the chemicals for processing this drug come from China, South Korea, Russia and some European countries. The drugs trade is a major source of funding and arms for the Taliban, and regrettably both the Karzai regime and the 40-nation US-led force have failed to understand the link between the drugs trade and the war on terror.
Killer bites
IT will always take several alarm bells to trigger precaution. Despite the fact that every monsoon Aedes aegypti — the deadly dengue mosquito — makes a dreaded comeback, the authorities have yet again failed to take timely preventive measures. Earlier this month, hospitals in Islamabad and Rawalpindi were put on red alert after patients tested positive for the virus. Reportedly the health ministry was “taken by surprise” by the “early” incidence. Now Karachi health officials have confirmed two dengue deaths in just one month. Authorities also fear that the virus may acquire a year-round presence if apt preventive measures are not taken. However, our health department can hardly defend itself given the absence of awareness campaigns and media drives in mid-monsoon, especially when there is no real cure for dengue. Last year there were an estimated 25 dengue deaths across the country and close to 3000 reported cases of people infected — not such a distant memory. But the past is another country for our incompetent health officials. Take the recent reports of an expensive cell separator purchased a year ago for Rs3m by the Sindh government to aid the dengue drive. Hailed as “the ultra modern imported facility”, it is wasting away at a local hospital as authorities are unable to provide funds to run it.
Local surveys also present a grim picture: only 20 per cent of the population enjoys access to malarial treatment; the same for dengue. The latter vector-borne disease has a higher death rate as its severe form, dengue hemorrhagic fever, is almost always fatal. Indeed this was the cause of death of one of Karachi’s recent victims. Initiatives must be immediate and involve revamping of other departments that make the environment conducive to infections, such as prolonged power outages. People are forced to sleep in the open while electric fans, which blow away the dangers of a mosquito bite, remain still. Granted the city government has embarked on large scale fumigation programmes. However, the success of these programmes depends on the removal of mosquito-friendly garbage heaps, solid waste and stagnant water and the cleaning of clogged drains, particularly in low-income localities. Individual protective efforts — ample use of mosquito repellents, outdoor netting and draining of still water in the home — are also vital to ward off the deadly bite.
OTHER VOICES - Bangladesh Press
Fog of election
Sangbad
THE Election Commission (EC) will hold elections to the Upazila Parishad, a tier of local government, on Oct 23 in a plan that is encountering opposition from the two major political parties, the Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The Awami League went a step further and said it would resist any plan to hold the Upazila polls ahead of the promised year-end national elections.
Some fear the Upazila elections will hurt the national polls planned for December, which is a huge task for the caretaker government.
Political parties argue that the caretaker government must focus on the national elections, not local government polls, asserting that anything beyond that is unconstitutional and risky. [Even] EC officials say it will be difficult to organise the Upazila elections on Oct 23 as there won’t be enough time for the campaigns to gather momentum because the first three days of the month are Eid holidays. The EC has to allow at least 21 days for electioneering.
The EC has questioned the rationale of the outcry … over elections that are non-party and supposedly apolitical. But the fact is that even though the Upazila elections are technically apolitical, people who take part in them support one of the political parties. We think the EC should not brush aside the demands of the political parties as they still enjoy huge support … There is no denying that the Upazila elections are not completely free from political influence. We urge the EC and the government to pay attention to the growing calls to boycott or resist the Upazila polls.
Incessant bickering over the Upazila elections will leave the country hanging in the balance. The government may argue that the polls are something for the EC to determine.
… [T]he EC has planned elections for 300 Upazilas out of 482 as the voters list is not complete yet. But the commission had been saying a complete voters list was in place. We expect the commission to clarify its position. We emphasise that elections in all Upazilas must take place simultaneously. We question the rationale of rushing the Upazila polls despite opposition from major political parties …
We hope the EC understands that national polls are more important than local government elections because a functioning parliament is Bangladesh’s immediate need. It is crucial to running the country effectively. — (July 24)
— Selected and translated by Arun Devnath.
New breed of shocking ads
IMAGINE discovering a body lying on the floor with a bloodied knife protruding from a wound. And then, as you approach, perhaps already dialling the emergency services on your mobile in panic, the body rises and hands you a leaflet advertising a product. This is the latest in “shockvertising”: the advertising industry’s attempt to get the public to sit up and take notice.
The campaign was devised by Portuguese guerilla marketing agency Torke, to publicise the latest series of US TV show Dexter — about a serial killer who works for the Miami Metro police department as a blood spatter analyst. In the series, Dexter satisfies his blood thirst by killing people who “deserve it” and wrapping his victims in Cellophane to cover his tracks.
Torke creative Hugo Tornelo explains: “We wanted to shock the public, horrify them even, and I have to say it worked a treat. With so much advertising around, people are getting harder to reach. After the stunts in Lisbon, the viewer ratings were the highest seen on any Fox TV show and the campaign has popped up in many online blogs.”
The campaign involved actors with fake knife wounds in their backs, some posed as if they had fallen up stairs or been knifed when about to board a bus.
“Stab victim”, actor Hugo Castro, describes having to “lie down on the floor in the middle of a busy station in Lisbon and pretend to be dead with a fake knife in my back. There was a mixed reaction. Some people were truly horrified, backing away scared. Others came over to ask if I was OK.
Somebody actually phoned the police, which took a lot of explaining when they arrived. A few people were angry that we were using death as a promotional tool, but mostly people found it entertaining or funny.”
Will it be coming to the UK? With knife crime so often in the news, one wonders whether the British public would be so quick to get the joke.
— The Guardian, London