Irrational thoughts: Malala wants us to draw the line!

Hasan Mansoor

   Sometime one cannot think rational - rather wishes to be irrational. Sometime a person with dry brain prefer to allow his sleepy heart to converse, to agitate and go beyond the limit of sanity. It is hard to stay rational - even hard to vent one's emotions to speak.
   It is this time when we are seriously thinking of a war against those whom many of us never took seriously in the past, whom everyone branded to be touts of one or another security establishments operating at home and away.
   But, now when a rare resolute child has been attacked in Swat the apologists should not take it as a blast from the past but take this child as the whole country put on the ventilator.
   It is time for the apologists to express their heart at least as openly as their beloved Taliban do when they spew venom on the remnants of our liberal posturing and take responsibility when they kill innocent people.
   It is time to clearly draw the line, fill the grey areas and go for a final battle. When one tells the apologists they would not be spared either when the extremists would shun every saner voice, one certainly tells the truth.
   The attackers who shot Malala in her forehead had to ask her classmates to recognise her before pointing the gun on her, but Malala, despite her tender age, knew her enemies long before  - a sin she committed and was condemned to be eliminated by the dark forces.
   Malala joined a rare group of individuals who stood for a small cause that ultimately became the mother of all causes, the greatest of all struggles. She just wanted to see her school open and succeeded. She contributed to revive Swat's liberal culture and got everyone reminded that most Pashtuns are still as liberal and human-loving as they had been since time immemorial.
   She might have not known about Bacha Khan but she proved herself as his stout follower. In Malala even Awami National Party, Ghulam Mohammad Bilour and his clones in particular, should dig up to find its core identity.
   Everyone should decide whether they are with Malala or with theTaliban. They should not enjoy poetic licence in drone attacks and religious connotations. Malala is one of thousands who have been killed and wounded in attacks planned by the dark forces based in shiny, scenic valleys and mountains. The apologists should also consider them Pakistanis.
   Imran Khan says he would shoot down a U.S. drone if his party wins elections. He has no fear of United States, but at the same time he is afraid of Taliban when he told Talat Hussain in a TV show, his negative assertions against Taliban could risk the lives of his party cadres in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and tribal agencies.
   Shahbaz Sharif once requested Taliban not to attack Punjab while some of his party's leaders have cordial relations with the banned extremist outfits. When Shah Mehmood Qureshi tows his party's line, Ayaz Amir is the rare free spirit.
   "Why don't you denounce those who attack Malala. Condemn them openly, they have killed thousands of Pakistanis," Amir advised Qureshi in a TV talk show.
   We should give the devil his due. You are free to hate Rehman Malik, Altaf Hussain and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, but they are at par with Ayaz Amir in their stance.
   "I ask to religious scholars to condemn Taliban in their Friday prayers, condemn them openly. Why don't they condemn Taliban? Are they afraid of them....everyone should condemn these terrorists openly."
   Everyone buys the above statement as positive and daring if it is not attributed to a speaker whom most detract and despise. So, let it be, we should move forward with positives.

October 10, 2012

Prices take shine off Pakistan weddings

by Hasan Mansoor
   Pakistan’s traditionally lavish weddings have lost their sparkle this matrimonial season thanks to rising prices of gold and festive essentials in a limping economy overshadowed by Taliban attacks.
   The colourful celebrations normally span three to five days and attract 500 to 1,000 guests, pushing the cost for the hard-hit lower middle class to between 300,000 and one million rupees (3,400-11,000 dollars).
   “It has become too expensive. Everything is expensive. Even a simple wedding could break the back of poor people like me,” said Mohammad Aslam, 62, a retired government employee.
    Aslam spent most of his pension on marrying off his elder daughter, forcing him to borrow 200,000 rupees to help fund his second daughter’s wedding.
   A large part of the spending goes on gold jewellery, as in other South Asian countries, but sales are down partly because of rising global gold prices, businessmen say.
   Gold surged to a new record high of 1,780 dollars an ounce during international trading in October 2012.
   “Four years ago there was a demand for 7,700 ounces of gold daily, only for making jewellery in Pakistan. But now it has substantially decreased,” said Haroon Chand, a leading member of the country’s jewellers’ association.
   Imports of gold through Dubai, which was Pakistan’s main source of the metal, have fallen significantly, he said.
   “Affluent and middle class people have halved their spending on jewellery.”
   Poor families usually have their old jewellery redesigned for the weddings of their children, he noted.
   “I tried to skip some of our customs to reduce the cost of my son’s marriage, but I couldn’t because of family pressure,” Ahmed Ali, a car mechanic, said at his son’s wedding in Karachi’s Ranchore Lane.
   “My wife wanted all that because he’s her only son. My son is also a mechanic and we have decided to repay the loans jointly as soon as possible.”
   Pakistani families spend lavishly on gifts for the happy couple, food for guests at wedding events that drag on for days, or on a sumptuous dinner offered by the groom’s family at a wedding hall.
   “What disturbs me most is that my daughters have also reached adulthood and their marriages will only be possible by taking more loans,” said Ali.
   “Like me, the bride’s family has also taken loans for the marriage. We are all prisoners of our customs,” he added.
   Chand blamed deteriorating law and order, increased taxes on gold imports, the weakening purchasing power of ordinary people and higher global gold prices for dealing the business “a big blow”.
   Falling gold sales have seen people like Mohammad Akram, 33, laid off.
   Until recently he worked as an artisan at a leading jewellery shop in an upscale neighbourhood of the teeming financial capital Karachi, a city of 18 million people that sprawls by the Arabian Sea.
   “I am a skilled worker but am forced to ply a rickshaw to support my children,” Akram said.
   But Nauman Ahmed says business has boomed at his costume jewellery shop during this year’s wedding season, between the Muslim feasts of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, because its fashionable designs are “cheap and affordable”.
   Instead of gold, people are increasingly opting to buy silver and costume jewellery, mostly imported from China and India, Chand and shopkeepers said.
   Escalating food prices have multiplied the cost of wedding banquets, with economists blaming Pakistan’s general economic downturn and militant attacks.
   Independent economist A.B. Shahid said such hurdles, including ineffective government policies, may prevent Pakistan from meeting the official 4 percent growth target this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
   Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked extremists have carried out a five-year campaign of attacks that have killed more than 5,000 people in Pakistan, a country of around 170 million people.
   “Terrorism in our country has highly affected our economy. Our people cannot spend much and this situation could persist until we succeed in curbing militancy,” Shahid said.
   Pakistan’s economy grew by two percent last fiscal year, the lowest rate in a decade, but even that level may not be attainable this year, Shahid said.

Pakistan dancers take traditional form alive

by Hasan Mansoor
   In a posh Karachi home, a dozen girls struggle to maintain their balance as they are put through their paces by Sadia Khan, a skilled performer of Pakistan’s traditional Kathak dance.
   Khan is one of a handful of instructors who are trying to keep the classical dance form alive in this conservative Muslim country, where some clerics have branded its fast, twirling footwork and expressive storytelling “un-Islamic”.
   “In Pakistan, depictions of women dancing has never been stopped in movies or on stage,” Khan, 38, said in an interview at her home studio, emphasising the difference between the popular and traditional forms.
   “I have never heard a cleric speak out against those vulgar dances which have run rampant in our society on film, but they oppose our dance, which is pure art with no vulgarity whatsoever.”
   Dancing was a regular part of life in Pakistan until the rise in 1977 of military ruler Zia ul-Haq, who used religion to suppress cultural traditions and only permitted women to appear on state television wearing veils.
   He banned classical dance performances from the airwaves and cracked down on popular Kathak performers.
   Today, Kathak has gone virtually underground, with only a few qualified instructors and few public performances. Radical clerics have also led a campaign to ban public dancing all together.

   In the restive northwestern Swat valley, a female dancer was murdered by suspected Taliban militants who said she did not heed warnings to abandon her profession, local officials said.

   “I believe that in our religion there is nothing written against dance, but the Islamists claim that dance is forbidden,” said Sheema Kirmani, 59, a celebrated Kathak performer who still teaches in Karachi.
   “I argue that some of our greatest Sufi saints were dancers themselves,” she said.
   “Those who do not like this art form do not have to come to see it. We are not imposing ourselves on anyone and we do not want anyone to force their ideas on us.”
   Sakina, 14, is a student in Khan’s evening class and says learning the complicated manoeuvres is her favourite part of the day.
   “My father has encouraged me to learn about this art form, as it has the potential to teach people to be tolerant and sensitive to the miseries and joys of others, while still entertaining them,” Sakina said.
   “It’s true that most people don’t like dance and think it’s strange, but to me, it’s my whole life.”
   Eight-year-old Bisma agreed. “I’m really happy when I’m dancing,” she said.
   Both Kirmani and Khan said they believe that while Kathak dance may never regain its former popularity in Pakistan, it could serve another purpose — to help bring peace with India.
   The dance form has its roots in northern India and is still widely performed across that country.
   With ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours strained in the wake of the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, the dance teachers said art could help bridge the gap.
   “Pakistan and India have inherited the same culture, which could not be changed in just 50 or 60 years. Culture does not change with the redrawing of boundaries,” said Khan, who studied with Kirmani and later spent four years studying in New Delhi.
   Kirmani added: “If we celebrate what we share then we bring ourselves closer and nearer and develop a better understanding.”
   While peace through dance is their lofty dream, the two instructors said that for now they hope the art form will live on in their students, and perhaps someday once again become part of everyday life in Pakistan.
   “I have never seen a single common Pakistani who hates dance. We are prisoners of our norms, which should change to enjoy something which is true beauty and not an evil. It has been misinterpreted,” Khan said.
   “We should follow the precedent set by Iran, where culture is still alive and kicking alongside religion. We should not mix the two things.”

News sources: Revealing the undisclosed

Hasan Mansoor
   It is always enthralling for a cub reporter to hunt the first sources of one's career and be able to cultivate them. The problem starts from the outset: In most cases, the 'sources' cultivate such reporters instead. A naive soul could only save himself from such situation if he finds an able senior who accepts him as his protege. He should be someone whom a youngster could find invariably on his back whenever he turns to him to get solace and guidance.

   Unfortunately, the bond between senior and young journalists is fading spectacularly, especially after the advent of TV journalism. TV journalism in Pakistan heavily relies on breaking news; authenticity and correctness always takes the backseat. A young reporter's surging adrenaline always gets him to jump on the top of a top story; which suits to his owners and hierarchy in beating the competition.
  What most of times happens on Pakistani TV could have been a real reason for a newspaper to lose its authenticity and become a subject for the media teachers in telling their students what they should not do.
  I repeat, Pakistani news channels heavily rely on 'breaking news', which often break within! It could be the horror for a BBC viewer to watch a breaking news about a donkey that falls from a bridge and dies, but for the viewers of local Urdu channels it is as important as a U.S. drone hits a Taliban hideout in North Waziristan.
  TV reporters have been given the poetic licence to send a ticker about an explosion in a town with same zeal and audacity as they normally do in case of a bomb blast. Pakistani TV stations will broadcast an explosion's story without confirming that it is caused by a bomb or a pole-mounted power transformer that exploded due to some technical fault. They instill enormous fear factor with the blatant use of Google Earth visuals and traumatic sound effects to confound millions of viewers.
  A director news of one of many of our TV channels known for their desultory functioning, does not shy to brag about such practice; calling it a tool of the present corporate culture.
  "Look," he enlightens me, "It is all about competition. If an explosion is later proved to be a bomb blast, it gives us a reason to beat the competition, which is what pushes our ratings uphill. Sometimes, our information gets a bit wrong, so we conveniently play the news down."
  A TV showman says TV business is all about how adamant one is. "If we start apologising to our viewers on every wrong information we have passed to them, then most of our bulletins would be full of corrigenda," he quips.
  Most of our TV reporters who cover violence, terrorism and hostage situations are young, thus with little courage to resist the harrowing orders from the top. The hierarchy in a private TV station largely consists of the professionals who have little to do with journalism. Very few of TV professionals have difficult journalistic years on their back, which leave fewer of them realising the perils and difficulties of a reporter that one counters while working in violent situations.
  "My job is to inform the desk about what has happened during my duty hours in quickest possible time; else my job is at stake," a young reporter says.
  One will encounter a common story our young colleagues narrate. TV is admittedly far powerful than a newspaper. So, reporting in TV helps them establishing their sources quite conveniently, but TV prowess seldom assist them how to cultivate the sources. Someone truly says 'experience has no shortcut!'
  Pakistan is one of the worst countries plagued with terrorist incidents. Every now and then, TV stations flash breaking news about political violence, targeted killings and bomb explosions. This has left our reporters more fragile flailing around in the hunt of information when a situation develops and supply anything they deem it worthy of people's interest to their channels.
  During the course of their dig, they often use a single source. In journalism, using a single source is always considered a curse, which could end one's profession in the bud or worse, can put innocent lives in immense danger. There are incidents in which innocent girls or their parents have attempted to commit suicide because of one-sided single-sourced reporting accusing them to have violated social mores.
  The hate-mongering by anchors and televangelists is non-educational for public viewing and corrupting minds. Salmaan Taaseer is one of many casualties caused by the preaching of hate by the TV hosts, majority of whom have nothing to do with journalism.
  The visible hazard of using a single source in your story is that it goes in a single direction; it takes one side -- the side which suits your single source. No source in journalism can be reckoned as neutral, because you are dealing with a human being who, like every human, has inner prejudices, biases and vested interests within. A single-sourced story is bound to go in the interest of an individual or a group. By doing this you are taking sides with your single source. Taking sides is a human nature as even spectators take sides when gladiators fight in the arena. A reporter could opt for it in one's news analysis; while reporting one has to go for angelic demeanour. You have to report the version of the accused as well no matter how you deem it despicable on your standards.
  It is not just a story, which determines your objectivity. Your professional demeanour makes it all. I have just seen a picture posted by a TV reporter who is thought to be one of the leading crime reporters in Karachi. The picture was taken during a failed weeklong police operation in Lyari, which is considered to be Pakistan's Columbia for it is infested with powerful drug mafias. The operation was led by police officer Aslam Khan, popularly called as the Chaudhry whom the 'other side' calls 'the butcher'.
  Our reporter was there to cover the tiresome operation along with several other colleagues. The picture shows him posing as driving an auto-rickshaw while the Chaudhry and another reporter are sitting cosily on the passenger's seat smiling.
  For someone there is nothing wrong in the picture. It depicts a moment of leisure for both the reporters, who have taken time to relax from their tiring job and one of them thought it appropriate to post it on his wall to bring smiles on his friends' weary faces. But, the picture loudly tells others about the reporter's bias. It could be the case that drives humans to the levels of naivety, but such excuses are unacceptable from vastly experienced journalists. The picture derives he takes sides with the Chaudhry, which he should have not while performing his professional duty. One can wonder why should we not side with a cop and despise a criminal? The answer is simple, we are journalists and our job is not to pass judgments. Though, now our judges as well satiate their desire to become poets in their judgments!
  A journalist is always at the risk of being exploited by his/her sources. Publishing press releases ditto is biased, showing ambulances painted with the logo of a particular charity or political group is promotional corruption; inviting a set of analysts in a talk show is intellectually prejudiced etc.
  A few years ago, a newspaper had formed its teams of reporters tasked to raid private properties in its boasted quest of eradicating corruption from the society. The newspaper owner gave a licence to the reporters to invade any factory, lab or restaurant and report about their wrongdoings in the paper. The precedent was followed by the competition as well. The raiding parties blatantly trespassed the legal guarantees given to the private proprietors and made people's lives a hell. Gradually they saw their reports were not being published in newspapers, but the owners remained demanding incessantly. They had been made tool for their owners to get people blackmailed. Some reporters were audacious enough to resist the owners and lost their jobs.
  The newspaper raids continued up to the hilt, until TV channels took over. Anyone could see at least one programme on every news channel, which raids anywhere in town in the name of the greater interest of the public. For me, it is vigilante journalism and is as bad as the infamous morning show in which a host with the coterie of her female colleagues catches couples in Karachi's parks. Public interest is the cliched jargon, which is as vague as the national interest. Coated with religious insinuations and patriotic jingles, reporters raid any private property; something which cost nothing in Pakistan but in the West even Rupert Murdoch could find him in the jail.
  Hitting a scoop is every reporter's dream, it takes reporters to the zenith elsewhere who independently investigate great deceptions and not just write articles but books littered with evidences. In Pakistan reporters are highly inclined to make a scoop on the investigations of their sources or interested quarters instead. Some high-profile reporters are even alleged of filing so-called investigative stories without writing them down personally!
  This is the worst incidence of being exploited at the hands of your sources. But, wait! Not every reporter is unaware about his exploitation. Unfortunately, we have many of those who do it with great consent for equal reciprocation from their sources in terms of all kinds of favours. Covering a typical field creates opportunities for opportunists, which can be seen at times when reporters resist when their beats are changed. I don't call all those as opportunists and corrupt. There are reporters who feel them cosseted in a particular beat for the reason a switchover would force them to traverse new skies and go for new hunt -- a labour most don't like.
  But, some reporters resist to dissociate from their sources, with whom they have developed a bond of affection and fortune. In the past, our seniors would frequently change the reporters' beats for the reasons that could save the youngsters from being corrupt and getting stale.
  It is quite hard for us to save us from being used by our sources. But, there is a simple remedy to mostly avoid it. Don't rely on a single source -- Never! Even one is offering you a story of your life! Always go for a variety of sources before writing a story. Magnetism is always bipolar, though, both poles repel each other! A hunt for the sources who push each other away is always good for a reporter. The reporter may not develop friendship with his sources, but his stories will always attract admirers and even keep the accused happy!
  A young reporter could be justified in his compulsion that drives him to rely on a single source to save his job, but we lack an authority that provides mandatory training of professional ethics to journalists. A check on the hate and biased content on TV and newspapers is lacking as well, though it is quite a fragile issue and be dealt with responsibility so that it does not hurt freedom of the Press.
(Written for Media-Agenda conference May 2012 in Karachi)