OFFENSIVE INTERFERENCE

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/09/28/offensive-interference/

Many nations- some more than others- now agree, at least in principle, that it is wrong to cause offence to groups of people, and that their actions and language should reflect this resolve. Although the idea seems to have bypassed the current inmate of the White House who has said, among many other things, that “if you need Viagra you’re with the wrong girl.” It is now no longer politically correct to, for example, call mentally disabled persons ‘retarded’, instead of a person with ‘special needs.’ One does not use the word ‘negroes’ because that term carries too much baggage from a past where persons of colour where abused and allowed to be so. The correct term is now ‘black’.

However, political correctness itself can become a tool in manipulative hands. Justin Trudeau’s black-face for example, a youthful gaffe, has been used strategically at election time by a media greedy for a scoop.

Although one may express an opinion, it is not one’s job to interfere in the values of others, certainly not to be offensive about them. If this point were understood in this country, it would be transformed into an infinitely better place.

Universities in Pakistan seem to be particularly prone to such interference, which, other than being offensive can be acutely embarrassing. Earlier this year Bahria University issued a directive that male and female students ‘must maintain a six-inch distance from each other at all times.’ You wonder if 5 and ¾ inches would incur a penalty, and who is lumbered with the task of walking around with a ruler to perform those measurements. Respecting personal space is right, and it must be observed as a norm, but it cannot be enforced by directives.

The most incredible and recent is a notification (since rescinded), issued by an official of Bacha Khan University which has claimed that ‘un-Islamic, un-cultural relationships’ are on the rise in the University. It has therefore banned the ‘coupling’ of male and female students, and any ‘correspondence’ between the two. Let’s not even go into the incorrect use of words here.

Certain Eastern cultures are both too conservative where gender issues are concerned and too liberal in matters of personal privacy. There is also a lack of awareness regarding when public statements verge on slander, or sheer nonsense

In their obsession with sex, persons fail to understand that each gender has wisdom to offer to the other and it would be a shame, not to mention impossible, to prevent this exchange. This applies in day-to-day matters as well as in academic. Besides, how do you prevent ‘correspondence’ between the sexes in a university that enrols both? Is a group assignment subject to disapproval? What about a thesis jointly produced by a student of either gender? Or a plain get-together between friends over a cup of tea?

If the credibility of governments rests on the persons they appoint to office then since 18 April 2019, this present government in Pakistan is sunk because that it is when the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Information and Broadcasting came into office under the PTI flag, after holding office successively as a member of the PML-Q and the PPP. Each of those other tenures were equally replete with her gem-like utterances, such as when the good (medical) doctor was federal minister for national regulations and services in a previous government and failed to appreciate that Adalat-30 was a time release capsule. This very basic lack of knowledge had dire consequences for certain personnel, and only the Minister herself appeared to have moved on to greener pastures, such as becoming the advisor to the PM in the present government.

She has now ‘blasted’ and ‘flayed’ (not her terms, they’re simply favourites with our media so it is incumbent to use them) Malala Yousafzai and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy for doing nothing about the crisis in Kashmir. Before this the SAPM had cracked a joke or two about the recent earthquake that rocked the northern parts of the country in which many lives were lost.

What prompts people to step so outrageously out of their remit, and just what allows them to be so offensive?

It is expected that some mutual rules of interaction should be adhered to. Pakistanis today appear to be not well-versed in these rules. Certain Eastern cultures are both too conservative where gender issues are concerned and too liberal in matters of personal privacy. Men and women in Pakistan for example are awkward interacting with each other, whereas in public they will persist in stepping over the mark with regards to physical personal space among strangers, such as in queues. There is also a lack of awareness regarding when public statements verge on slander, or sheer nonsense.

Such things must be taught in schools and of course in homes. But you do expect people in public office to be aware of them, which they are not.

A REVEALING DIRECTIVE

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/09/21/a-revealing-directive/

• Though rescinded, it revealed a mentality

Somewhere in this country recently, a house was burgled. Diamonds worth a fortune were stolen. The police made no attempt to locate the thief or thieves. Instead they arrested the woman who lived in the house because she was the owner of these diamonds.

“Diamonds,” the woman was told, “must be kept in a locker in the bank. If you keep them out of the bank you are responsible for the theft.”

As punishment the woman was made to sit in the sun until she collapsed with heat stroke.

That event above did not take place. It is an analogy for what is discussed below.

The dress code for young female students has come under scrutiny lately. It seems that a uniform which covers the entire body, a shalwar kameez and dupatta, were not enough for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, which issued instructions for girls to wear, in addition to this uniform, an abbaya or a chador.

“A good number of girl students have developed a habit of wearing dupatta or ‘half chador’, which is not sufficient to cover their bodies,” the official issuing the directive said. It seems there were incidents of harassment, or ‘eve-teasing’ as it is called, and hiding every inch of the body with as many further layers of fabric as possible would help in preventing those incidents. The directive is supposed to also be “in line with the tribal values and the traditions of Islam”.

There it is, the mandatory reference to Islam that manages to make everything legitimate. You wonder whether such careless, ill-judged references to religion themselves ought to be as penalised as not adhering to the actual thing seems to be?

Abrupt changes in policy make you wonder what the intention is. Are the interests of the people being considered, or is the policy a morale boost and a one-up for re-election for those promulgating it?

As for tribal values, there are many examples of those which are nothing if not questionable. To quote a comparatively benign case, a couple of years ago, MNA Ayesha Gulalai was denied a place on the stage with tribal men by the organisers of a protest against the proposed merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). She was told it was against tribal customs and traditions for a woman to sit on stage.

Murtaza Haider reports that according to a survey conducted by the USAID, almost 59 per cent of rural women in KPK reported being subjected to physical abuse since they turned 15, and one in 10 rural women in KPK and Balochistan each routinely experienced domestic physical violence.

Is the government of Pakistan there to go along with these customs or to help change those that require changing?

The order for an extra abaya or chador has since been rescinded in another one of those U-turns which is becoming increasingly common in officialdom these days. It was, nevertheless a revealing directive.

This directive now rescinded displayed a complete absence of reason. Why, if two layers of fabric are insufficient to protect a woman from harassment, will three layers do the trick? In addition, how are the parents of girls in government schools to afford this extra item of their daughter’s uniform, given that running a household is now at least twice as expensive as it was about a year ago?

This was a policy that was not put through proper channels. It is what democracy is about that such matters should be considered by persons involved in the implementation and those it is aimed at before they are issued, in this case students, parents and schools. This directive came as a surprise, in most cases not a pleasant one, to all of these.

Government schools do not come with air-conditioned classrooms. In many if not most cases classes are conducted in the open. For girls to wear chadors in the heat under such conditions is cruel. To add a further layer on top of this in the school and while walking to and from home is cruel in the extreme.

But over and above all this, the question remains: why are the thieves of women’s freedom, the male members of this society, not targeted? Why are they not taught to respect women, and to lower their gaze, and this is directed by Islam.

A modest dress, or a chador or a hijab, none of these are any protection for a woman when faced with a man who is bent on assaulting or harassing her. What needs to change are men and their attitudes. Not the dress.

Abrupt changes in policy make you wonder what the intention is. Are the interests of the people being considered, or is the policy a morale boost and a one-up for re-election for those promulgating it? If it were genuinely in the public’s interests, it would be able to stand on its own merits, regardless of social media.

It is time that women are stopped being used as tools towards someone else’s personal gain and viewed for what they are: citizens as much as any other, and above all else as human beings.

KEEP IT DOWN

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/09/14/keep-it-down/

• Pakistan must tackle climate change

The world climate is becoming steadily warmer, because its growing population contributes to climate change and global warming. The population of the world is at present 7.5 billion, due to touch almost 10.9 billion by 2100 according to a UN forecast. If the population continues to grow, as it seems set to, the results will be even higher temperatures, increased drought, more and stronger hurricanes, and a melting of one of the biggest reservoirs of water for this earth, the polar ice.

An increase in population may be the primary reason behind global warming but it is not the only one. Other factors that go hand in hand with larger populations are more gases which, trapped on earth, produce the greenhouse effect. These gases are methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide. There are others, but these are the worst offenders.

Methane is about thirty times as potent as carbon dioxide. Landfill waste, agriculture and the digestive processes of cattle are a major source. By inoculating cattle with certain probiotics these emissions can be brought down

According to the World Resources Institute, although agriculture contributes a quarter of all emissions, rice is the major offender, responsible for almost 1.5 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions. There are ways of reducing this.

Nitrous Oxide yet another powerful greenhouse gas is produced when soil is cultivated and fertilizers used, when fossil fuel is burnt, and because of cattle urine. The greater the population the more soil needs to be cultivated, the more fuel is burnt, the more cattle we rear.

Carbon Dioxide has increased more than threefold in the earth’s atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, and as a result of deforestation, burning fossil fuel etc. For the increased population in Pakistan more trees are cut down for firewood and living space. We have seen severe deforestation in Pakistan within a single generation.

Every country aspires to produce more, and when it can, to consume more. It is no coincidence that China and the USA, the first and the third most populous countries of the world respectively, with highly consumer, industrialised societies, also have the greatest carbon footprints.

Education helps in almost every case, but the quality of education is what really counts. In Pakistan the concept of climate change and global warming is generally unknown, and not believed in if known

The UK has managed to bring down its carbon emissions. Although its population has increased, just 20 per cent of the country’s CO2 emissions in 2017 came from burning coal, oil and gas to produce electricity. This is down from 34 per cent in 1990 from the same source. This is because the UK is now burning just five per cent coal, down from 67 per cent in 1990, and just one per cent oil, down from 11 per cent in 1990. These fuels have been replaced to a great extent by gas, wind and bioenergy which are now producing electricity in the UK.

The China Pakistan Energy Corridor is heavily invested in coal to overcome the acute energy shortage in Pakistan. You wonder why, when Pakistan has such a plentiful supply of potential solar energy? Has the Pakistan government considered this?

The equipment to produce solar energy should be more affordable so that people can afford to use power privately as well as industrially to cope with their growing needs.

A major reason for the tremendous population growth in Pakistan and other similar societies is that the right-wing segment of society does not believe in population control, and has been allowed the power prevent it. It uses that power from the pulpit, supported by social norms. The government does not possess the courage to face down this opposition, and to educate this segment of society. If this is done Pakistan will be immensely better off in many ways. It will certainly possess a more sustainable population that might have the time to pay attention to its environment.

Women need easier access to birth control and control over their bodies. In an actual case, a contraceptive device placed in a woman by a doctor was removed by her mother-in-law. That is among the less horrific examples of the lack of control that women in this part of the world possess over their own bodies.

Our resources cannot keep up with the current population, let alone a drastically increasing one.

Education helps in almost every case, but the quality of education is what really counts. For clarification refer to the movie 3 Idiots. In Pakistan the concept of climate change and global warming is generally unknown, and not believed in if known. Given that most of the population of the country is illiterate anyway, it is easy to explain the drains choked with trash, mainly plastic that will never ever break down. We need to improve the quality of education and include practical demonstration, so that issues such as this can actually be witnessed to prove a problem exists, and people understand its magnitude.

Another aspect that needs attention is the quality and availability of waste management. In certain areas of the north of Pakistan, where the Indus flows through the valleys, the most common method of disposing waste is to throw it into this majestic river. When asked the people will tell you that they do this because there is no alternative. In Karachi, that richest and most populous of Pakistan’s cities, waste management has been given no attention by the government of the province. The result is as pointed out by Shaniera Akram, medical waste washing up on the beaches, and the havoc following this year’s monsoons.

We need a government that makes honest, competent and forceful, definitive decisions about this and the myriad other problems facing the country.