ELECTRIC TOOTHBRUSH vs MISWAK

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/09/18/electric-toothbrush-vs-miswak/

A letter addressed to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was recently leaked to the public. Iftikhar Khan has given the details of the matter and of the resulting furore in a National Daily.

It is known by now that NADRA wished to hire the ECP to develop an online voting system and electronic voting machines, for which it offered to pay a very large sum. The details are contained in a letter in which an outstanding factor is the language. You’d expect the commission that runs the national election system to express themselves significantly better than it does in that letter, but more importantly, you wonder why NADRA is paying the ECP to set up a voting system. Shouldn’t the ECP be worrying about that matter (as tf points out in the letter), since elections and all things related are their job? But perhaps the ECP has not managed to get its act together after all these years.

A slight digression at this point, to speak of a matter that should concern the ECP and which has to do with their ‘getting their act together’:

Local Government Elections in the Cantonment Boards were recently held in the country. In these elections the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf (PTI) was defeated in several major cities. The Prime Minister was not pleased, and he has asked the PTI’s chief organizer and its Secretary General to find out why this happened.

There could be several reasons for this defeat, several come to mind, but one that comes to the forefront, personally, is a canvassing letter received from a PTI candidate prior to these elections, in which voting slips containing voters’ relevant information – ID card numbers, address, name etc., were clipped to the outside of the envelope, displaying all that information for anyone to read.

1. If a voter must elect someone to represent their interests, would a person capable of allowing the above be the right person? He would no doubt excuse himself by saying that he cannot be expected to keep an eye on every small detail and worker, in which case will he be able to do so when in office? After all, the Right to Privacy of Data and Information is a major concern, and even the Constitution of Pakistan grants that right to the citizens of the country. Pakistan is also signatory to several International Covenants, on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which both uphold the right to privacy, and to the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights which also upholds the right to privacy. A representative who is unable to prevent his department from committing such flagrant breaches of civil rights has a problem; maybe such ‘small’ things explain the PTI’s losses.
2. When an attempt was made to contact the ECP regarding this infringement of the right to privacy of data, it turned out that the ECP’s inbox was full. So much for that.

An online voting system and electronic machines are good ideas. But before we invest in expensive electric toothbrushes, it would be a good idea to get our heads around the concept of oral hygiene itself, to understand why it is important and how it works, and its impact on a person’s overall well-being. It might be a better idea to make the humble miswak work until an electric toothbrush is feasible.

For a society that has little idea about the importance of elections, and almost no idea about the rights of the electorate and the duties of the elected, an expensive voting system seems to be overkill.

In a democracy it is possible for any person who gains the majority vote to act as representative of the people, but perhaps there should be some scheme to educate these elected representatives before they take office, a scheme that teaches them about things that count and are more important than the salary, the prestige, flagged car, guards and such gimmicks and publicity. They need to know how to get the job done, for heaven’s sake, to have some idea of the basic laws of the country. The PTI has been outstanding in this matter, with the Chief Minister of a major province, personally appointed by the Prime Minister himself, being as clueless a person as any, with his patron often not far behind.  There are many other people’s representatives in the same league, persons who have abused, cursed and slapped their way through their tenure, and have lived to tell the tale without being removed from office.

It seems that politicians across the board ignore important things, and matters directly related to their job; they cross the floor when it suits them, pay attention to gimmicks alone, and spend valuable time bad-mouthing the opposition and little else.

The Minister of Railways for example, recently recommended that such institutions as the ECP should be “set ablaze,” a recommendation to arson, made at a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, no less.

In such an atmosphere, do we really need a voting system that costs Rs 2.4 billion, and voting machines that will most likely be kicked out of service, literally, when the predominantly uneducated populace of the country cannot get them to work? Or perhaps they will be set on fire, as recommended by the Minister for Railways himself?

It has been the ultimate tragedy for this country that there are so many obstacles in the way of accountability and justice. Some might say accountability and justice do not exist. That makes it hard to achieve any progress, or to justify spending money in ways such as the above. These roadblocks need to be addressed before anything else.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/09/12/enough-is-enough/

The Wazir Khan mosque case is disturbing

We believe religion to be a powerful thing, and it is; we believe it is meant for all time, and is looked after by the Divine Being Himself. The religion of Islam was handed down to man thanks to the extreme dedication and incalculable efforts of some extremely courageous individuals; in our hands it is meant to be a manual for life, for all humankind. Why then is the attempt to distort it, and make it accessible only with great difficulty, one of the greatest ambitions for so many humans? Should it not be accessible, so that everyone, Muslim, non-Muslim, men, women and children, they can all access it, easily, without first scrubbing between each toe, and heaven help you if you miss a corner?

For those who dispute the claim that it is inaccessible, check out almost any mosque in Pakistan to see how many women are allowed in. By contrast there are many mosques in the USA, notable among them a mosque in Virginia– and there are others around that country and the rest of the world, where that place of worship is used as a community centre as well as a place for prayer, as it should be.

Men, women and children visit that mosque in Virginia to learn languages, computers, and other subjects. Young people use the main hall as a basketball court, and when it is time for congregational prayers, these young people tidy up and leave the room, perform ablutions before returning, many of them, to join the congregation and pray. It would not otherwise be easy to get as many young people to put in an appearance at a mosque.

It is also not just men who pray here; women do too, although so as not to offend the sensibilities of those prone to take offence, they pray separately, in a gallery upstairs. Tolerance is one of the very important aspects of religion. The Imam of the mosque is a pleasant man. Women can obtain an audience with him just as much as men can, and neither need to make changes to their attire when they do. This is a mosque that would attract followers, a mosque that can achieve much.

This rant was kicked in motion by the criticism leveled at, and even an arrest warrant (a bailable one) issued against a couple of actors and singers who filmed a video in the beautiful Wazir Khan Mosque in Lahore. They have been accused of  ‘desecrating this mosque.’

The Wazir Khan Mosque is a heritage building, a beautiful one, built nearly 500 years ago. It was recently restored by the Aga Khan Foundation and the Norwegian Embassy. What is wrong with using this as a background for a video, the theme of which is nothing offensive, if making it does not disrupt congregational prayers? It is likely, in fact, that seeing this beautiful mosque in the background people will ask “where is this beautiful place?” and make a point to visit it when they are in Lahore.

\Religion needs to be taken out of the hands of those who exist with their heads in the sand. We live in a difficult world, one that was never very easy. To make it possible to exist in this world it is important to realise that women, humour, technology, laughter, literature – as well as crime, men, vulgarity and tragedy, they all stem from the same source, the same Divinity, the source of all pleasure and hardship. The hardship exists as a test for us, not a battle zone.

There were a couple of lines doing the rounds of social media recently which said: ‘Religion is what we do after the prayer is over.’ Doesn’t that make a great deal of sense?

Prayer reminds us of Him, the Being we pray to, and of what He wishes us to do, and He certainly does not wish us to kill, exclude, destroy and mock. His wishes, as stated in the Holy book are to welcome, help, include, love and be just with everyone, not just with one segment of society, or with the segment that can pay for it. Having prayed to Him, that is what we must seek to accomplish.

Instead of disapproving of a mosque being used as a background for a video, lets be happy that this beautiful place of worship was considered worth it. If that video contains dance and music, so be it. Laughter, eloquent movement, and beauty, these were all created by the same One Being. There is no inherent crime within any of these things.

Are we so weak and spineless that a video can make us change our convictions?

If one must condemn beauty and music, then let us examine the Wazir Khan Mosque itself. It is hardly an austere building. It is a beautiful mosque, a hymn to the Creator who is worshipped within its walls. If beauty is a crime, why was this mosque allowed? Why do maulvis perform nikahs at weddings where women wear beautiful clothing? At weddings where in fact, very often, too much is spent on that clothing and on those events to the point of vulgarity and waste, making such weddings almost a crime in a world where so many people lack the basics of life? That is the real desecration, is it not?

A mosque does not stand apart from the life around it. They are each part of each other. The must lend each other a hand. Similarly, religion is meant to be incorporated into one’s life, to help us deal with it, to be adapted around changing times keeping the main principals in view. That is the only way it can hold any meaning. We desperately need to take ours back from the hands into which it has fallen at present, where it is being strangled to death. We must stand up and say: Enough.

A LIVER TRANSPLANT FOR AN ALCOHOLIC

 https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/09/04/a-liver-transplant-for-an-alcoholic/

Does the Single National Curriculum solve anything?

Last month, on the 16 August, the Prime Minister launched the first phase of the Single National Curriculum (SNC), which is supposed to ‘guide the youth of the nation in one direction to achieve success.’ It is said to be an important step towards providing the growing generation of Pakistanis an equal opportunity for a good quality education across the board.

This curriculum has apparently now been implemented from classes 1 to 5 across the country, except as yet in Sindh. It is planned to implement the SNC among the higher classes by stages. The directives that go with the SNC apparently include teaching certain subjects, including science, in Urdu.

As with so many other initiatives in this country, this is a ‘virtuous’ idea, but a sadly impractical one, not one likely to survive the initial zeal of its initiators; it is an initiative that provides great press at first glance, but is certain to share the fate of sundry other initiatives stemming from the same source, rather like the gymnast who decided to swing impressively from vine to vine in the jungle, in the same way as he swung on ropes in the gym, only to find that vines growing in the wild were less hospitable than the ropes in his gym, so he immediately lost interest and looked around for other interests to push.

The fact is that ‘equal opportunity’ is an unknown commodity in this country, where it seems to be the aim of most citizens to make sure that no such aberration gets off the ground. It is also a fact that simply plonking down a syllabus is not going to cut any ice. What we need, very badly, is an overhaul of the national brain, which seems to bank on inequality. Equality is not something our feudal systems and elitist society appreciate, nor something our begums look kindly upon. There is also the sad fact that equality, in Pakistan, where women are fighting for existence, invariably applies to men only.

It is unlikely that the private school system, which under the SNC is permitted to teach students extra material/books of their choice– but must also teach the SNC books, will take much notice of either that rule, or those books, always presuming that the SNC books are worth taking notice of. We cannot seriously imagine, that the parents of children who expect their progeny to gain admission in expensive universities will take the SNC seriously, or allow it to be used for very long, and we know who calls the shots. What is far more likely to happen is that since all schools are to be examined to ensure they are using the SNC, expensive private schools will teach it so as to ‘get it over with’, and then move on with their own system. The schools that do take the SNC seriously will become the ones to be mocked, and they would be the ones already suffering from that attitude. It will end up as the same gap with a few additions to contend with.

What with the disruptions due to the pandemic, the last thing children need is sudden changes, and further disruptions.

The good thing is that the SNC is to be implemented in all streams of education (Pubic, Private and Deeni Madaris); that latter is the best aspect of the whole venture.

The number of deeni madaris (religious seminaries/schools) in Pakistan rose sharply in the 1980s. These schools are particularly popular among the poorer segment of society, because in addition to providing literacy they also provide lodging, which includes food. These schools are the only option many parents have of providing a good meal and an education for their boys, a question of ‘one down, three more to go’, if they have four children to feed.

These religious seminaries teach little beyond their version of religious studies, which judging by what is seen when you pass the open door for some of them involves much rocking backwards and forwards sitting cross-legged at a low table. Apparently, a few also teach logic, philosophy and mathematics, with the aim of furthering the understanding of said religious subjects. It also appears that most militant extremists once attended these schools, as indicated by the profile of suicide bombers. The SNC can therefore only be an improvement as far as the curriculum there goes.

Is the SNC really likely to close or narrow the gap between the various systems of education in this country? Wouldn’t it be a better option not to mess with the ‘better’ education wherever found, and improve what is taught elsewhere?

The English language is a factor at the crux of this issue. It is indisputable that so long as one segment of society is taught in English, and the other poorly taught and in Urdu, ne’er the twain shall meet. But is for example teaching science in Urdu a rational alternative? Tell me, what do you call a telephone in Urdu? Or is there a word for Sodium Nitrate? Or pertussis, or syncope? According to maulana google, syncope in urdu means ‘hum ahangi’, which is translated into English as ‘harmony’. But that is not at all what syncope means in English, it means fainting or losing consciousness. So how do we propose to teach this subject in Urdu?

I know we are proud of the fact that the first doctors, chemists and astronomers were Muslim, but there is no such thing as a ‘Muslim language’; in Pakistan Urdu is the national language, yet only a small percentage of Pakistanis actually speak it; and what is equally of note is that Urdu has not kept up with the developments in science.  Is there any point in teaching a subject in one language (that few people understand), loaded with words belonging to another?

What, moreover, do we do about those children who may have a single curriculum if they go to school, but who are unable to go to school, because they work? What do we do about people who employ children in their homes, factories and other businesses? What do we do about families that are unable to manage without the earnings of every single one of their members, and so their children work too instead of attending school, about parents who consider education to be overrated and a waste of time, about children who do not attend school because there is no school where they live?

Those are the issues to take care of before a thing such as the SNC can be implemented. It may have been set in place with the best will in the world, but that will tend not to last very long here. What do we do about this?

Just as sufferers of cirrhosis of the liver are never given a liver transplant if they continue to be alcoholic, the people of Pakistan are desperately in need of education, and a better one, but there is little point in going through the expense of putting a new one in place if it is almost certain to be rejected before long.

- A