Dr Sawraj Singh

TIGER WOODS, probably the World’s best golf player joins the long list of super stars who have become victims of capitalism or racism or both. In the last category, he joins OJ Simpson and Michael Jackson. What is common between these three? All are blacks married to white women.

Tiger Woods never admitted that he is black instead he calls himself mixed. His father was black and his mother was from Thailand, therefore a person of Asian descent. Michael Jackson also tried to get rid of his blackness. He probably tried to bleach his skin or had procedures to change the color of his skin.

When Michael Jackson or Tiger Woods have some difficulty admitting their blackness or they end up marrying white women then one cannot help feeling that they might have consciously or subconsciously experienced racial prejudice.

OJ Simpson was a super star of football. He was in all high paying commercials. It may not be an exaggeration to say that he was the most famous and commercially successful football player of all times. Then he was accused of murdering his wife. Even though he was acquitted by the court but a vast majority of white people still believe that he murdered his wife. He received financial punishment and finally ended in jail. His career has been completely destroyed.

Michael Jackson became the most famous star of pop music in the whole World. He was accused of having sexual relations with children. He was acquitted by the court but in the process was financially destroyed. All the stress took its toll and he finally died of overdose of the medication he probably took to cope with the stress.

Tiger Woods became the World’s most well known golf player at the age of 22. Many big corporations showered him with millions of dollars advertisement contracts. He is probably the youngest sportsman to become a billionaire. He married a well known Swiss model, has two children and a lavish life style which millions can only dream of. Then suddenly hell breaks loose. A tabloid exposes that he has an extra marital relation. Next he is found in the early hours of morning (about 2:30am) to be involved in an automobile accident and ends up in the intensive care unit of a hospital with facial injuries. His wife is supposed to have rescued him from the car when it hit a fire hydrant, hedge and a tree.

Later on we find that the windows of his car were smashed with a golf stick and probably the same stick was used to smash his face also. About ten to twelve women have come forward to tell about their sexual relations with Tiger Woods. Finally, Tiger Woods has decided to stay away from golf for undetermined time. Many of the corporations are canceling their advertisement contracts with him. It is very unlikely that Tiger Woods will recover his lost glory. His career may end at the age of 34.

The capitalist system encourages these stars to become fabulously rich in the shortest time possible but at the same time sets in motion the forces for their decline. The media starts looking at them with a big microscope while they are encouraged to have multiple sexual relations because directly or indirectly that behavior is promoted as a representative of success. The media is always looking for scandals and sensational news to promote its circulation. For some media it has become an issue of survival that they expose scandals of the rich and famous. Similarly these stars face a contradiction between the public and private life as far as family values are concerned. The capitalist system sets in motion the process of family disintegration however; publicly it promotes the image of family togetherness and harmony. The capitalist system promotes one track mind, a linear approach of acquiring material wealth alone without worrying about its social consequences When people have to face the consequences of their actions then the system abandons them.

All people are facing these inherent contradictions of capitalism and are suffering but the minorities have to suffer more from the dual effects of racism as well as of capitalism.

[The writer is a practicing physician and president of the Human Rights Network in Washington State]

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Pakistan 2009: In retrospect

Ishtiaq Ahmed

ON March 3, 2009, the unthinkable happened in Lahore. Terrorists opened fire on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team. Although some players sustained injuries, none was killed or maimed. Some on-duty police officials were killed. Such an attack had no typical justification.

So, after one day another year will be gone. 2009 will be remembered as the bloodiest since 1947, if we exclude what happened in the former East Pakistan in 1971 and if in 2010 we curb terrorism successfully and build peace. On March 3, 2009, the unthinkable happened in Lahore. Terrorists opened fire on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team. Although some players sustained injuries, none was killed or maimed. Some on-duty police officials were killed. Such an attack had no typical justification — Sri Lanka had neither occupied Afghanistan nor Kashmir, and there was no record of Muslims being targeted by the Sri Lankan government.

On the contrary, the Tamil Tigers had a bad record of driving Muslims away from north and east Sri Lanka while the Sri Lankan government gave the Muslim refugees protection in Colombo and elsewhere on the island. Moreover, while the rest of the cricketing world turned its back on Pakistan, Sri Lanka and its brave cricketers stood by it. So, the usual “high moral ground” by which the terrorists justified their outrages did not apply to the Sri Lankan team or their country. The attack on March 3 was pure and unadulterated terrorism perpetrated by men who had been brainwashed to go and kill without let or hindrance. Or, perhaps there was after all a theological basis for such attacks: since nobody played cricket in 7th century Arabia, playing it constituted an unacceptable biddat (innovation)!

In any case, a few weeks later started the infamous brutalisation of the people of Swat Valley. As hundreds of thousands fled beastly Taliban rule creating another major wave of internal displacement, the authorities finally heard the wakeup call. Public opinion also began to turn against Taliban-al Qaeda terrorism. I attended a conference in Islamabad in May on radicalisation and anti-radicalisation. I realised that the variegated audience was agreed that something has to be done urgently to save Pakistan and its citizens. Mercifully, no nutty intellectual made the most unoriginal and bogus point that the terrorists of one man are the freedom fighters of another.

The Pakistan military realised that its policy of appeasing the Taliban through so-called peace accords (2007, 2008), which allowed them to apply Shariah in territories under their control in Swat, Malakand agency and so on in return for them accepting the writ of the Pakistani state that required them to disarm was leading nowhere; rather the Taliban were expanding their control in a direction that every day brought them closer to Islamabad.

An unsuccessful assassination attack took place on September 2 on Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Hamid Saeed Kazmi. The immediate reason for the attack was that Mr Kazmi (not a Shia but a Barelvi Sunni) had arranged a meeting of such ulema and mashaikh who condemned terrorism and issued a fatwa against it. I met the minister during the May conference in Islamabad and found him to be a gentle and soft-spoken individual. He told me that Barelvi mosques were being taken over in not only the NWFP but also in Punjab, including Islamabad, by pro-Taliban maulvis, but the government felt helpless.

In any event, military operations, Rah-e-Haq (Righteous Path) followed by Rah-e-Nijat (Path to Deliverance), did prove to be highly successful and created panic among the Taliban-al Qaeda forces. They retaliated with killings of women and children, old and infirm, while especially targeting military personnel, premises and installations. The month of October proved to be singularly destructive of innocent lives. The military operations continue, and it is premature to claim that the tide has turned decisively against the terrorists.

Recent history shows that when governments patronise extremism and militancy they end up paying a very heavy price for such ventures. Indira Gandhi paid with her life for taking under her wings Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale; the Americans nurtured Osama bin Laden as a great jihadist and out of it came 9/11. Pakistan has paid the heaviest price by promoting different types of extremists — Afghanistan-specific, Kashmir-specific and what not. Means and ends cannot be divorced with impunity. That is the iron law of human behaviour.

The year 2009 has been disastrous for Pakistan in economic terms as well. The financial situation worsened dangerously, unemployment rates rose sharply and international financial institutions had to be approached with pleas for help to prevent economic collapse. Right-wing parties and media channels and populist intellectuals instead turned their guns upon the Kerry-Lugar Bill because of its supposed intrusion on Pakistani sovereignty.

However, 2009 was not an unmitigated disaster. Pakistan’s fledgling democracy survived another year of challenges and threats. Another point of encouragement was that the judiciary did not forgo its duty to uphold the rule of law. By declaring the so-called National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) ultra vires it proved that it is an institution one can again start taking pride in. It is most important that charges of abuse of office and corruption are properly investigated. How far back in time should the long hand of the law extend is something on which our superior judiciary has to take a decision.

It is absolutely important that all those who hold public office voluntarily agree to go through the judicial process to have their names cleared of the charges levelled against them. However, each individual should be treated as innocent till proven guilty. Therefore, the revocation of the NRO does not mean that the accused were guilty. That needs to be proved in a court of law. The most difficult question is whether the presidential immunity prescribed by the Constitution is absolute or it is conditional. There are both legal as well as moral questions involved when it refers to the post of president.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has been given a clean chit, so there are politicians in the PPP who do not carry the stigma of alleged corruption. Such individuals can continue in office and provide continuity and stability while others are properly investigated. Last but not least: in spite of the rumour mills churning out conspiracy theories of an imminent military coup in the offing, Chief of Army Staff General Kayani has acted with responsibility and foresight. Pakistan is better off as a civilian polity with an efficient and upright military ready to defend it against external aggression.

Ishtiaq Ahmed is a Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) and the South Asian Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore. He is also a Professor of Political Science at Stockholm University. He has published extensively on South Asian politics. At ISAS, he is currently working on a book, Is Pakistan a Garrison State? He can be reached at isasia@nus.edu.sg [Courtesy News Pakistan]

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Sri Lanka: Five years after Tsunami, many still without shelter

Amantha Perera

"WE have been here for almost five years. So many promises have been made, but very few have been kept," complains Mohideen Nafia, 22, one of the survivors of the 2004 Asian tsunami still living in a temporary facility in the coastal town of Kalmunai, located 300 kilometres east of the capital, Colombo.

Newly married Nafia would have preferred a house of her own with her husband. But at the moment she has to make do with what amounts to a shelter, a one-room unit in a government-provided disaster camp, which the couple shares with Nafia’s family of five and is located about a one kilometre from the beach.

Nafia hails from the Sainathimaruthu village in Kalmunai, a major domestic fishing hub that bore the brunt of what has been touted as one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Three of its villages facing the sea – Maradamunai, Sainathimaruthu and Karathivu – suffered the heaviest damage at the time of the tsunami.

When the Asian tsunami, triggered by a 9.3-magnitude earthquake, hit the coasts of countries bordering the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, 2004, hundreds of thousands of people across Asia were washed away at sea.

According to the International Federation of Red Cross some 226,000 people in 13 countries were killed in the aftermath of the tsunami. One of the hardest hit was Sri Lanka, along with India, Indonesia, and Thailand.

In the South Asian island state more than 35,000 people died, over one million were displaced, and some 100,000 houses were either damaged or destroyed by the tsunami.

At least one-third of the deaths, or some 10,000, were reported from the Ampara district that comprises Kalmunai, according to official government data. In the same district, approximately 27,000 houses were destroyed by the tsunami, the bulk of which was in Kalmunai. Villagers estimate that some 8,500 lives were lost in the densely packed beach at the height of the disaster.

Overall, the unprecedented disaster left a reconstruction bill of 330 billion rupees (3.2 billion U.S. dollars). The reconstruction effort was spearheaded by a government agency set up soon after the tsunami and which received the support of dozens of United Nations and other international agencies.

Sri Lanka’s Reconstruction and Development Agency has since wound down as has the massive reconstruction effort. Still many are without homes they could call their own.

"Getting land for the new houses has been a big problem; we have to first locate the land. If it is privately owned, (we) buy it," says Ismail Thawfiek, the additional government agent for Sainathimaruthu village in Kalmunai, where Nafia hails from.

Most of the available lands are paddy or rice fields, which he says puts more pressure on otherwise limited public funds, as they need to be filled. "The biggest delay (in rebuilding the affected houses) has been in finding land and preparing it so that we can build the houses," Thawfiek says.

The lack of land has been exacerbated by the government’s imposition of the no-build buffer zone along the Kalmunai coast. The then Sri Lankan government initially imposed a limit of 200 metres from the sea soon after the tragedy. Owing to pressure from the homeless survivors, it was later reduced to 65 m at Kalmunai and 100 m elsewhere in the tsunami-affected parts of the country, according to government officials.

With just three days away from the fifth anniversary of the 2004 Asian tsunami, some 1,300 families, including Nafia’s, are still waiting for their houses to be built, since the government imposed a no-construction buffer zone along the beach soon after the tsunami.

"Even after five years since the tsunami, there are still problems, there are still issues," admits Thawfiek.

Nafia’s grief is understandable. The sense of despair gripping her is matched only by her deplorable living conditions. Tin roofs are rusting, dirty water stagnates near the front door step and large pools of rainwater and garbage rot behind the tents. Chickens raised by families roam the compound, where small children play marbles.

"Look at this," Nafia says, as she points to her squalid surroundings. It is "like living in hell. When it rains, it is all water, if it does not, it is all flies," she says while waving her hands to chase away the flies.

She adds that none of the international relief agencies that poured aid into the tsunami-hit areas like Kalmunai helped her build her house while others are still waiting for government promises to be fulfilled, notably the reconstruction of their tsunami-destroyed homes. "The life we knew before the tsunami is like a dream. I don’t know why this happened to us."

"We will give them houses very soon next year," Thawfiek assures, arguing that the construction of new houses is moving according to plan once land has been located. At least 5,000 houses damaged by the tsunami in Kalmunai have either been reconstructed or repaired.

To date, there are at least 13 disaster camps – with at least 1,000 shelters out of an original 18,000 in the Ampara district – still spread through the coastal town while hundreds more that were displaced by the tsunami are still living with relatives.

Quite apart from Nafia’s complaint, the Kalmunai beach appears to have returned to what it was before the deadly tsunami waves left a path of destruction. It is now is a hive of activity – fishermen tend to their nets on the beach while others attend to the large multi-day trawlers anchored just offshore.

"We have returned to what (our lives were) before the waves struck, maybe even better," says Mohideen Ajimal, one of the first fish wholesalers to return to the beach after the tsunami. Ajimal lost an infant son and a daughter to the disaster.

Pointing to the large boat repair yard that has been erected near his business premises, he says that it would never have been built if there was reconstruction effort after the tsunami. "We lost so much, but life has to go on, and it is better if life goes on better than before," he tells IPS.

Next to the new fishermen’s society building is a tall red tower with loud-hailers pointing in all directions to warn the residents of any tsunami threat. "That helps too," says Ajimal as his eyes darted toward the tower.

Among the houses that have been rebuilt since the 2004 tsunami disaster are swanky new structures, painted in bright colours that stand out amid the dull sun-baked cement facades of others. They have been rebuilt by owners who could afford to finance them. New schools have also been constructed, replacing the damaged ones.

Yet, there are still remnants of the huge Asian tsunami waves’ deadly foray inland in this predominantly Muslim town. In place of wall-to-wall houses that used to stand next to the beach before the tsunami struck are large, empty sandy patches. Wooden poles sticking out of mounds mark off the spots where thousands were buried.

On the side of the road that runs alongside the beach are the occasional houses or fishing huts that have been deserted by owners after the tsunami. They are bereft of roofs and window frames, having been washed away, decayed or carted away by thieves. Here goats seek shelter when the sun is too hot.

"We had a good house near the sea, but I lost two children and I don’t want to go back," says Abdul Mannas, who has since moved to a new housing site about two km from the sea.

But at least the 35-year-old father of three is happy. He now lives in a new housing complex just outside Kalmunai town. "This house is smaller (than I had expected), but we are happier," he says. "We can build two-story houses or extensions if we want to." The houses at the French Friendship Village, where he lives, were built with the support of the French government.

Mannas says, “ I and others gladly vacated the protective zone. It is death zone on the coast. I don’t want to live there."

But for those living in small tin-roofed sheds like Nafia, where three or so families share the dimly lit units in the camp near the Jumma Mosque, the nightmare never ends, not since the tsunami struck the Indian Ocean. "We have waited long enough; five years is a long time," she rues. [Courtesy IPS]

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