EXTRAVAGANT GESTURES

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/01/26/extravagant-gestures/

• The PM’s travel raised questions of influence

Attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, have in many cases not used commercial airlines or travelled by train to the event. Several billionaires and many world leaders arrived at Davos in private jets, which did no favours to the environment. Considering the key theme at the summit is to do with saving the environment this was not very smart. But when have world leaders given much thought to such issues?

Prince Charles attended the summit and pushed for ‘green taxes.’ He met Greta Thunberg, and asked the delegates and business leaders to support green measures. Yet he flew in to Davos on a private jet, which will apparently ‘produce six tonnes of carbon per passenger compared to 0.19 tonnes for a commercial flight.  In Davos the prince transferred to an electric car rather than a helicopter, but it does not take away from the fact that his plane burnt a great deal of fuel and left carbon emission all the way from the UK to Switzerland.

He was not alone. Last year, according to the Business Insider, ‘The World Economic Forum recorded more than 600 plane journeys that can be attributed to Davos— a figure that does not “take into account public figures such as presidents and prime ministers.’”

Aircraft are likely to be responsible for almost a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions by 2050. That is just 30 years down the track, not a date in the distant future.

The Prime Minister of Pakistan also attended the World Economic Forum summit at Devos this year. The key theme for the world economic summit at Davos was the concept of a sustainable world. That includes reducing the carbon footprint to lessen pollution.

The prime minister of Pakistan said that his trip to Davos was the cheapest by any Pakistani premier in the history, and thanked Mr Ikram Sehgal for being a partial sponsor of his trip as he, the PM, did not want to burden the national exchequer with the expense.

It is not clear whether Mr Sehgal footed the bill for a private aircraft or for a commercial airline ticket for the PM to Davos. It could well be a commercial airliner, which is how the PM travelled earlier to the USA for example. Such trips must certainly cost much less than private jets. Prince Charles’ London to Davos journey for example is considered to have cost around £15,000. A commercial airliner would also do less harm to the environment than a separate private jet.

Imran Khan’s initiative in this respect is laudable, but as always there is another side to the matter.

There are people in this country– property tycoons and others– who have gone from rags to riches and enjoy a huge clout in the corridors of power by doing favours to those in authority. This is not to imply that Mr Sehgal’s action was in any way for such reasons, but it is advisable for people to avoid such extravagant gestures in case they are misconstrued, particularly since more often than not such an interpretation would be quite accurate.

In the case of Mr Khan’s visit to Davos, it was government work, a meeting of heads of state and other concerned individuals to consult and agree upon measures to protect the global environment. It was not a private cricket match, or a privately organised literary festival. Private individuals therefore have no business to offer to offset the costs in such cases. Nor should government officials accept such offers, which should be declined with thanks.

One elects persons to public office expecting them to have some understanding of such matters. It is unfortunate that they almost never do, or perhaps they do but are unwilling to put in the effort, time and personal sacrifice involved. What is certain is that nothing is being done to offset the effects of pollution in Pakistan, not really. The pollution levels in the atmosphere in Lahore alone this year in winter has been at hazardous levels. There was an initiative in Lahore to minimize the use of plastic shopping bags but as with all other initiatives this turns out to be a gesture only and has been fizzling out where applied and ignored in most sectors.

What else has been done? Nothing at all. But our PM did attend the Davos summit of course.

OF RAMPAGING GOVERNMENT MINISTERS

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/01/19/of-rampaging-government-ministers/

• Faisal Vawda’s boot and Fawad Chaudhry’s slap

What exactly was PEMRA trying to achieve or say by banning Kashif Abbasi and his television show rather than PTI Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda, after the latter’s ‘vulgar/brash performance’ on Mr Abbasi’s television talk show? Whatever was behind PEMRA’s reaction, it was almost certainly to do with the same boot, and with doing what the authorities are best at doing with boots.

On the subject of rampaging government officials, there was also the incident just a few days earlier involving Fawad Chaudhry, also a member of the PTI and currently the Federal Minister for Science and Technology when, at a wedding, he slapped Mubashir Luqman, a television news anchor, accusing Luqman of defaming him in a video uploaded to YouTube.

This is not the first time the Federal Minister for Science and Technology has lost it. Some months earlier he slapped a journalist for making some other allegations against him. Whether or not his claims of being defamed are true, is beside the point. The point is that he, a senior member of government, assaulted a person, and has not as yet been pulled up for his actions.

To excuse his behavior, Mr. Chaudhry said that he had no choice but to defend himself, that anyone would lose his cool in such circumstances. He said that being a politician was no reason for people to defame them as they wished, and that they (the politicians) had no other recourse to justice.

Well, admitted it is a sad state of affairs, but it still does not allow anyone, in particular government officials who are expected to display more responsible behavior, to take the law into their own hands.

It should also make these officials sympathise with the rank and file of citizenry which has no one looking to lick their boots and is therefore infinitely more open to such persecution. If Mr. Chaudhry feels there is no recourse to justice for him, a Federal Minister, what about the rest of us? What does he or his government plan to do about that?

As far as one is aware, no action has been taken in the case of Mr Vawda as a result of any of his antics– since Mr. Vawda makes it a habit to flaunt boots as well as guns in public. On the last such occasion, the one with Mr Abbasi, sense appears to have prevailed and PEMRA’s ban on Mr Abbasi and his programme has been withdrawn, but Mr Vawda has been allowed to walk off without reprimand. Oh no, sorry, apparently the Prime Minister has banned him, the Federal Minister of Water Resources, from appearing on talk shows for all of two weeks. Stiff punishment.

As for Mr Chaudhry, the Federal Minister for Science and Technology, he has got clean off after attacking two persons, each time at a wedding. Shouldn’t he at the very least be banned from attending any more weddings? Not much of a punishment, that, but it could at least be a pretense of some kind of action taken against an act of arrogant hooliganism, instead of no action at all.

Laws do exist in this country, to punish slander, theft, murder, corruption– all the usual list of criminal offences. But these offences do not just exist, they thrive.

The worst thing to be in Pakistan is a poor man, or a person without ‘contacts’, and since the two generally go together, and since this is a Third World country and most of its population is poor, it makes Pakistan not a very pleasant country to be a citizen of in general. And yet this government claims to be founding a state resembling Medina in its prime. Give us a break. It doesn’t take the Chaudhrys and the Vawdas of this world to prove that this is a laugh; the state of the minorities and the manipulation of justice at every step is more than enough to prove it. In a state with any claim to justice, no one is above the law. Is this how it is in Pakistan?

WHILE YOU WERE LOOKING THE OTHER WAY...

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/01/12/while-you-were-looking-the-other-way/

• Politics is a dirty game

…Suddenly, all news about Donald Trump’s impeachment is almost gone, even though this impeachment, a charge of misconduct against the President of the United States is only the third such charge in American history, and it occurred less than a month ago. The reason is the sudden, unexpected attack upon Irani Maj Gen Qassim Soleimani by the USA, which led to Soleimani’s death. The attack, if you notice, comes hard on the heels of impeachment and just before the President faces a trial in the Senate that will decide whether or not he remains in office.

This is called a diversionary tactic.

Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic Senator and Presidential hopeful, was interviewed by the CNN recently where she questioned the timing of the attack, and its validity. She said that the current Administration was all over the place with its responses regarding a reason for the attack, some saying it was to prevent an imminent attack, others saying no, no, it was to prevent some future attack, and Vice President Mike Pence chiming in by saying that Soleimani “assisted in the clandestine travel to Afghanistan of 10 of the 12 terrorists who carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.”

The New York Times refuted Pence’s statement, saying that there was no proof that Soleimani had any contact with any of the terrorists. The 9/11 Commission even states that it found no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning that led to the 9/11 attacks. Soleimani’s name in fact appears nowhere in the report.

Diversionary tactics are popular in politics. The reason is that most people fail to question what they hear. And when they hear something, the information stays with them as valid, never mind that later on the information is proven wrong. That is what the President and those on his team are counting upon.

…Kashmir is a source of diversionary politics for both Pakistan and India. It comes in useful to either side when one commits yet another transgression upon that hapless state, because the other can then cry foul and make a lot of noise while pushing through questionable measures under cover of the noise

The French Revolutionary Wars were said to have been started by the newly formed National Assembly which replaced King Louis XVI, because the National Assembly wished to bring the country together under the new political system and new flag. For this France declared war on Austria in 1792.

Years later, in 1870, Napoleon III was told by his advisors that one way of bolstering his waning popularity amongst the people would be for him to declare war on Prussia, which they said they could win. France, accordingly, declared war on Prussia. It turned out to be a war that France lost.

When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the USA brought in its troops, in ‘Operation Desert Storm.’ In what was most important for the then President George HW Bush, his ratings went up, although (luckily) he was not re-elected as a result. That luck for the rest of the world did not hold out as far as his son was concerned. Following the 9/11 attacks, the morale of the US public was down and with it the economy went down as well. George W Bush was responsible for wrongfully accusing Iraq of possessing ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and for subsequently invading that country, something like Henry VIII killing someone for marrying more than once. George W Bush’s move was initially popular with the public and he was re-elected. But when the war dragged on and the US economy lost out, the President’s approval ratings went down as well.

In an example closer to home, Kashmir is a source of diversionary politics for both Pakistan and India. It comes in useful to either side when one commits yet another transgression upon that hapless state, because the other can then cry foul and make a lot of noise while pushing through questionable measures under cover of the noise.

And in Saudi Arabia Jamal Khashoggi– a most visible critic of the Saudi government and in particular of its then crown prince– was brutally murdered by Saudi government agents at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey. Shortly afterwards Saudi women were given the freedom to travel without the permission of their guardian and to drive, too much international rah-rah. That helped drown the storm of condemnation against the topmost persons who were said to be involved.

Politics is a dirty game.

DIRILIS (RESURRECTION): ERTUGRUL

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/01/05/dirilis-resurrection-ertugrul/

“Stay true to justice and the righteous. Do not accept anything but freedom. May your path be open.”

– Ertuğrul

The PM has been asking for the television serial Diriliş: Ertuğrul to be dubbed into Urdu and aired on television in Pakistan, so an Urdu speaking public can watch it too. It seems PTV has obtained the rights to do this, and the serial is to be screened in Pakistan.

Is this a good idea?

Diriliş: Ertuğrul is a Turkish television serial that has become popular all over the world. It is set in 12th century Anatolia, the region now known as Turkey, and spans hundreds of episodes across five seasons.

Unlike a book that contains violence or explicit scenes which can be read by one person alone, a television show can hardly be restricted to a select audience. A television is like having a very loud, tactless, blabbermouthed, but interesting, relative in one’s midst. With its open screen, now often a very large one, anyone who walks into the room where the television might be, can see whatever is being aired. So, even more than with a book or a phone, one must be careful with this medium. The responsibility lies mostly with the parents but also with the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), which should focus less on protecting the interests of the government and ruling political party, and more on protecting the interests of the people who in the case of Pakistan are mostly uneducated and to a great extent influenced by irrational religious zeal. It only needs a well calculated push for them to go over the edge, and this serial might well be it.

Ertuğrul is an extremely well written, well directed production. The story keeps you riveted, the cast is captivating, the scenes and costumes are beautifully choreographed and re-created. And, Turkey being a friendly country, this series with a very Islamic thrust is something the public here will relate to very easily and intimately.

But Ertuğrul while it is truly a brilliant production, is also dangerously open to misunderstanding. As a story it is straightforward and similar to many other stories: a hero and his companions pitted against the odds. It is when you get into the dialogue that the problem arises, for example when one of the major characters is raring to go ‘kill the unbelievers,’ or when someone says they can’t wait until all the non-believers are dead. And so on.

Like other stories, this one needs to be understood in the context of the history of the time, and of those particular surroundings. Diriliş is based on the life and conquests of the Turkish hero Ertuğrul, and the conflict between his people, the Muslim Oghuz Turks– and the Mongols, the Byzantine Christians, and the Crusaders who called themselves Knights Templar. It was the aim of Ertuğrul and his people to carve out a homeland for themselves in this area. For this they needed to defeat their enemies who were none of them Muslim. At least the large groups were not. There were traitors, but that is another story.

There is no shortage of people looking to use religion for their own nefarious ends (useful phrase) in Pakistan, and Ertuğrul will come in very handy there. It will be used much as the Quran (an extreme example) is used, out of context to justify violence and persecution, because this is an extremely violent show. No episode is without sword fights, very gory ones. Children walking into the room will see people being beheaded, and blood flying across the screen as a matter of course.

Do we want our children to see such things? Particularly when the violence is accompanied by shouts of “Allah u Akbar”. Is it possible to explain to a child what the situation is, and what the conflict, revenge, and violence is all about?

Ertuğrul also has some great messages:

“I will protect the oppressed even if he is my enemy. But I will not forgive the traitor even if he is my brother.” Ertuğrul

“We must show mercy to those in need, and come to their aid, regardless of their faith or nation.” Hayme Ana (Ertuğrul’s’ mother)

“We will earn coins, but we will not be slaves to what we earn.” Al Arabi.

And Asilahan when asked why someone was becoming the leader of the tribe when he was not related by blood to the previous chief says: “It is not about blood. It is about merit.”

And many other things. Such as the way the men treat their women, with respect and honour, but without undue protectiveness. The women in this series are strong, many of them are leaders and quite fearless. They work, they ride, they give opinions. There is no prudish nonsense in here. Men confer with women alone in a tent. No chaperon necessary, not a sleazebag in sight.

But there is no getting around the violence. This is definitely a series for adults only. There is documented evidence that watching violence on television leads to an increase in violent behaviour among children– and these violent children will be the adults of tomorrow.

Ertuğrul is a series that is best watched by those who have the capacity to realise that the past cannot and should not be picked up and placed as is into the present.

Is the common man in Pakistan capable of understanding this, particularly if he is led to think otherwise?